Zeno's Warbird Video Drive-In Big December 2010 Newsletter

Hello World War 2 & jet aircraft fans --

You are invited to drop by Zeno's Warbird Video Drive-In http://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com/ This month we're showing six of my personal favorites for the Holiday season. [B]As always, all of the videos showing on our web site are for your free viewing pleasure.[/B]

Now showing At the Matinee at Zeno's Drive-In

"The 354th Fighter Group Mustang Pioneers" Color Scrapbook." Exclusive Documentary from Military Arts Pictures. Rare color film of the legendary 354 Fighter Group, with over 700 Kills, the highest scoring American unit in Europe. You'll see great aces like G.T.Eagleston and B. W. Carr at work and at play in their newly captured base in Germany in Spring, 1945, only a few months before war's end. Nice scenes with the group's well known P-51Ds too, including "Margie Maru" and "Angel's Playmate." This was the first group to fly P-51Bs in the ETO, so they were known as the "Mustang Pioneers." Amazing color gun camera film!

"The Fighting Lady"  A new color corrected color print from the National Archives really brings this film to life! "The Fighting Lady" follows the fictional career of an Essex Class aircraft carrier from the Marcus Islands campaign, through Tinian, Truk, the "Mariana's Turkey Shoot" and much more. But don't let the term "fictionalized" miss lead you. All of the footage shown in this fascinating composite documentary is real -- shot by combat cameramen on board ship and in the air, showing actual Navy and Marine pilots and crewmen up close and personal. ("The Fighting Lady was actually the nickname given to the Yorktowns, CV-5 & CV-10.) You'll see dramatic action showing Hellcats, Hell Divers, Corsairs on deck and in the air, including exciting dive bombing, anti-aircraft, and gun camera footage and some amazing walkaway crash landings. And there's a fascinating tour below decks too.

"Operation Titanic: Shuttle Bombing Missions to Russia" The problem: Axis strategic assets were located so deep in Eastern Europe that they either could not be reached by Allied bombers or involved a lengthy round trip that exposed aircraft to heavy German attacks. The solution was Operation Titanic, aka "Operation Frantic Joe," one of the most audacious and least known strategic operations of the war. U.S. 15 Air Force bombers and fighters based in Italy bombed targets in the East, landed in Russia, refueled & rearmed, and then hit another target on the way back. 8th Air Force bombers based in the UK did the same. The Soviets provided three bases in the Ukraine; heavy bombers at Poltava and Mirgorod and the fighters at Piryatin. The US provided material to substantially upgrade them. This film tells that story.

"Uncrating and Field Assembly of the P-47 Thunderbolt" This truly remarkable step-by-step training film shows how a ground support crew of fifty men could assemble a P-47 in a field using nothing more than muscle, unpowered hand tools, and pieces of the shipping crate it came in. We're talking nothing more than hammers, wrenches and bicycle pumps! You'll also get a unique look at the inner workings of the big Jug as it is literally bolted together by field personnel. A must see for P-47 fans and shade tree mechanics alike!

"Mastering the Bazooka Rocket Launcher" The Bazooka was a revolutionary weapon that combined a man portable "stove pipe" rocket launcher, pioneered by Dr. Robert Godard, with a shaped charge (HEAT) warhead. As you'll see, shaped charges focused a superheated penetrating jet of gas whose effect on armored targets was far out of proportion to it's relatively small size. The Bazooka put this awesome destructive power in the hands of a single soldier with a range of hundreds of yards. When fired from the battery powered M1 launcher, the original M6 Rocket, introduced in 1940, could penetrate 4'' of steel armor, making it useful not only against tanks and armored vehicles, but also against pill boxes, walls, bunkers etc. You'll learn how to calculate range, fire from different positions, arm the rocket and ready the launcher for firing, set up remotely detonated launches using buried tubes, skip firing, leading the target, and more.

"The Twenty Five Hour Day: A Story of Air Force F-105s" (Color) New revised edition with restored print This film offers a unique look inside F-105 "Thunderchief" ("The Thud!") fighter-bomber operations when the air campaign against North Vietnamese supply lines was ramping up into to high gear. Secretary of State Robert McNamara gives the broad outline of the Thud's primary mission in a series of strategic briefings: to strangle the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the strategic supply line from North to South Vietnam, through Cambodia and Laos. You'll see exciting color footage of F-105s, F-4s, F-100s and other aircraft hitting bridges, supply depots convoys and other key targets along the Trail, and carrying out tactical operations in the South in conjunction with air mobile units. You'll see F -105 mission briefings, base operations, midair refueling, maintenance, and up close scenes of everyday pilot life on an extremely active forward base, working "Twenty-Five Hour Days." A true window on the past.

If you haven't stopped by Zeno's Drive-In before, we also feature 1940-45 vintage WWII Army & Navy films and pilot's manuals on how to fly the F4U, F6F, P-38, P-39, P-40, P-47, P-51, P-61, TBF/TBM, AT-6/SNJ, B-17, B-24, B-25, A-20, A-26, B-26, B-29, and Stearman N2S. Alert! - don't miss the F-86 & B-58!

Keep Em Flying!

Zeno

Zeno's Warbird Video Drive-In
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http://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com/

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