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Summary: Short film illustrating the benefit to the war effort of recovering and reusing scrap metal from crashed bomber aircraft.
Description: Crashed Wellington bomber on airfield. Aircraft has been badly damaged by fire following crash landing, to the extent that the geometric metal fuselage frame as designed by Barnes Wallis is clearly visible. Scenes filmed at the No1 Civilian Repair Unit at Cowley, Oxfordshire. Yard full of broken and damaged metal aircraft parts. Sections of damaged Wellington bomber being moved by crane. Huge piles of aircraft parts including Wellington tail fins, wings and wheels. Lancaster cockpit sections, and centre fuselage sections with wing sections still attached. Pile of aircraft rear fuselage and tail sections, including those from two Royal Navy [Fleet Air Arm] aircraft (possibly Fairey Barracudas). Fuselage sections are moved by crane. Workers dismanting aircraft sections by hand, and using metal cutters on tail fins and wing sections. Piles of damaged propeller blades leaning against wall. Worker picks up propeller blade. Truck full of scrap aircraft metal arrives at yard (evidently from sign on passenger door, H.F. Kay and Co. Haulage Constructors, of 147 Magdalen Road, Oxford). Scenes inside workshop at Cowley. Damaged blades are lowered into furnace for smelting. Molten metal is ladled into rectangular moulds. Stacks of metal bars outside building. Film ends with another shot of the crashed Wellington seen at the start of the film, followed by footage of a Mk IX Spitfire (serial number MJ911) being towed out of hangar, which then takes to the skies.
Technical Details: Format: 16mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 158 ft; Running time: 4 mins
HD Media:
Notes: Summary: The reappearance of the crashed Wellington bomber at the end of the film followed by the airworthy Spitfire, is presumably intended to illustrate the value of recovering scrap metal, by highlighting how metal from a damaged aircraft can be used in the construction of a new aircraft, thus continuing the war effort.
Summary: The Film Unit of the Ministry of Aircraft Production was set up in 1943 by Sir Richard Stafford-Cripps, then Minister for Aircraft Production. A number of training films including this title were produced and shown to USAF ground crew both in Britain and the United States, in an effort to enhance their repair and maintenance skills.
