Summary: A portrait of air-sea combat in the Pacific war, produced from American and Australian film.
Description: An introductory sequence explains in terms of distance etc the difference in character between the more conventional surface engagements continuing in the Atlantic and the new style of air-dominated battles in the Pacific (Pearl Harbor, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, Coral Sea, Midway). Two sequences then illustrate the 2 faces of air-sea combat: first from the surface, the well-known film of an American fleet of aircraft carriers and other ships under heavy Japanese air attack spectacularly filmed from the USS Enterprise (and other ships?) during the battle of Santa Cruz; showing bomb hits and near misses, flak, aircraft shot down etc; second, from the air, film of a wide variety of aircraft from the New Zealand, Australian and US Air Forces attacking a Japanese troop-carrying convoy in the Bismarck Sea, including good shots from aircraft bombing and strafing transports and small boats. A closing general sequence confidently predicts Allied victory.
Production Details: Ministry of Information (Production sponsor)
British Movietone News (Production company)
Sanger, Gerald (Production individual)
Perrin, Raymond (Production individual)
Mitchell, Leslie Scott Falconer1905-10-041985-11-23 (Production cast)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Royal Navy, Prince of Wales (regiment/service)
Royal Navy, Repulse (regiment/service)
United States Navy, USS Enterprise (regiment/service)
United States Army Air Forces (regiment/service)
Royal Australian Air Force (regiment/service)
Imperial Japanese Navy (regiment/service)
Royal New Zealand Air Force (regiment/service)
Keywords: combat, Allied - air strike anti-ship (object name)
combat, Japanese - air strike anti-ship [i] (object name)
ships, British naval - battleship: Prince of Wales (object name)
ships, British naval - battleship: Repulse (object name)
ships, United States naval - battleship: Enterprise (object name)
Pacific Ocean (geography)
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W
Sound format: Sound
Soundtrack language: English
Title language: English
Subtitle language: None
Technical Details: Format: 35mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 990 ft; Running time: 11 mins
