ETO WWII Footage Found in Basement in Colorado

[gunbarrel]

Check this out. The grandchildren of a recently deceased Englewood, Colorado man found in a basement footages shot by their grandfather of dog fights over the French and German countryside before and after the D-Day invasion. The veteran, US Army photographer Albert Fagler, filmed them in 1944. Enjoy!

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#27651379

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#27650485

[sgtdorango]

Awesome footage!!.......mike

[The Meatcan]

wow! fascinating stuff...thanks for sharing

[Mr-X]

Thanks for the links gunbarrel

[1st AAA Group]

Outstanding footage and glad to see that it was saved. From the film remarks it looks like the family gave it to the Library of Congress and that's a very good thing as they have perhaps the worlds best film preservation system so it will be there for future generations.

 

The content is just fantastic and full of stuff to look at. Aircraft serial numbers, Invasion marked helmets worn by medics at an airfield, ships just off beach ect...just great!

[JonG]

I've watched it twice (so far). What a treasure to find!

[posse]

Great footage!

What a find!

[SteveR]

A lot of history still out there. Great footage.

[Bugme]

Absolutely incredible footage! I was astounded while watching wounded being loaded into a C-47, that the men loading them were all wearing D-day marked Engineers(ESB) helmets. Sorry, that's the helmet collector in me popping up it's head!

[General Apathy]

Absolutely incredible footage! I was astounded while watching wounded being loaded into a C-47, that the men loading them were all wearing D-day marked Engineers(ESB) helmets. Sorry, that's the helmet collector in me popping up it's head!

 

Hi Scott ( bugme ), being a helmet collector I am surprised you never mentioned the padre Kettenkrad driver with the cross on his helmet.

 

 

Hi gunbarrel, thanks immensely for posting those links, not living in America and having no television ( my choice ), I would never have got to see this marvelous cine footage of Normandy and the area I live in.

 

Cheers all ( Lewis )

[FightenIrish35]

That was amazing Thanks for posting this!!!

[Jeeper704]

Spent part of the day looking at it over and over again.

Very interesting footage and it's good to hear it found a home now (seems like I'm almost talking about a dog here, hehe).

 

Erwin

[limestone]

Fantastic footages. Just love the scenes near Saint Lô. with a very quick scene (3.29) showing a US dodge with 111th FABn (29th division) unit tactical sign. I unfortunately don't recognize the church where a camp has been etablished. I also guess some street scenes has been taken at Carentan or Cherbourg.

 

The part (9.30) with the captain (with 30th division patch) and medic are probably taken at Saint Jean de Daye (liberated by the 30th division) according to the road sign directing Tribehou and le Homet d'Artenay... Saint jean de Daye is situated on the west bank of the Vire river on the main road betwen carentan and Saint Lô.

 

USAAF combat scenes are just amazing too...

 

Yannick

[Bugme]

Hi Scott ( bugme ), being a helmet collector I am surprised you never mentioned the padre Kettenkrad driver with the cross on his helmet.

Cheers all ( Lewis )

Your right Lewis, that was an amazing helmet on the Chaplain along with him driving the Kettenkrad. Did you also notice that someone had already marked the Kettenkrad with U.S. markings? Now, that is a preacher I can relate to!

[Croix de Guerre]

Great footage!!!,,goes to show you that there is still tons of stuff still out there! (too bad it was on MSNBC )

[Bob Hudson]

Outstanding footage and glad to see that it was saved. From the film remarks it looks like the family gave it to the Library of Congress and that's a very good thing as they have perhaps the worlds best film preservation system so it will be there for future generations.

 

It is amazing how well the old black and white film holds up. I recently projected several reels of military 16mm film that, until I opened them, had been stored away dating back as far as WWII (the newer stuff was early 1950's) and it all looked great.

 

On these films I found more than half an hour of gun camera footage (pretty much identical to what is in the film shown in MSNBC) , a WWII Signal Corps documentary on the air war in Europe and what may be very rare footage showing a radio controlled B-17 drone being blown up during 1950's missile tests. These all came from a retired fighter pilot's estate. I've got clips from some at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=BobHud...amp;view=videos -

 

I suspect there's still some very interesting 16mm WWII films stashed away in storage boxes and trunks. From my what I can determine, the the very short gun camera footage from individual dog fights was compiled into longer films for a particular fighter group with each segment ID'ed by a title card that had dates, pilot names, mission objective, targets damaged, etc. I have determined that there often were multiple copies made from the original negatives. It may be that each squadron got a copy so their pilots could study tactics, good and bad. So you can find "original" WWII gun camera films, but as with the one I worked with recently and the one on MSNBC, they are not one of a kind. However, the kind of footage that comes before dog fights on the MSNBC presentation may well be one of a kind and and really does add something new to the visual history of WWII, plus we seldom have the chance to see raw footage - generally we just see snipets from various footage edited together into a documentary: watching the raw footage roll with no sound is a much different experience.

 

So keep your eyes open for those little yellow boxes that say "Kodak" or the big metal film cans: you never know what might be inside.

[101combatvet]

I hate to think about all the good WW2 stuff that makes it's way to the dumpster everyday.

[Bob Hudson]

I hate to think about all the good WW2 stuff that makes it's way to the dumpster everyday.

 

The 16mm films I had (they are part of a grouping whose sale I brokered) were in the trash when an estate liquidator rescued them and another 130 pounds of items from the fighter pilot's career:

 

Here's what came from that trash can:

 

- WWII 8th Air Force documentary "FLIGHT FOR THE SKY" narrated by Ronald Reagan

- WWII 8th Air Force gun camera footage including this officer and his 357th Fighter Squadron (he was CO) - there is also a reel of this film's negative

- Rare film of a B-17 drone (QB-17) being blown out of the sky during air-to-air missile test

- 1950's strafing and low level bombing tests

- President Eisenhower greeting this officer and others as he changes planes at Clark Air Force Base

 

Here's what to look for - the yellow Kodak boxes and the metal film cans. Military film will always be 16mm or 35mm although one in a while you find some 8mm film shot by an individual, although such film from WWII would be very, very, rare.

 

 

Here is a a closeup of the large film cans (one large film reel was actually just wrapped in paper):

 

 

[1st AAA Group]

It is amazing how well the old black and white film holds up. I recently projected several reels of military 16mm film that, until I opened them, had been stored away dating back as far as WWII (the newer stuff was early 1950's) and it all looked great.

 

On these films I found more than half an hour of gun camera footage (pretty much identical to what is in the film shown in MSNBC) , a WWII Signal Corps documentary on the air war in Europe and what may be very rare footage showing a radio controlled B-17 drone being blown up during 1950's missile tests. These all came from a retired fighter pilot's estate. I've got clips from some at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=BobHud...amp;view=videos -

 

I suspect there's still some very interesting 16mm WWII films stashed away in storage boxes and trunks. From my what I can determine, the the very short gun camera footage from individual dog fights was compiled into longer films for a particular fighter group with each segment ID'ed by a title card that had dates, pilot names, mission objective, targets damaged, etc. I have determined that there often were multiple copies made from the original negatives. It may be that each squadron got a copy so their pilots could study tactics, good and bad. So you can find "original" WWII gun camera films, but as with the one I worked with recently and the one on MSNBC, they are not one of a kind. However, the kind of footage that comes before dog fights on the MSNBC presentation may well be one of a kind and and really does add something new to the visual history of WWII, plus we seldom have the chance to see raw footage - generally we just see snipets from various footage edited together into a documentary: watching the raw footage roll with no sound is a much different experience.

 

So keep your eyes open for those little yellow boxes that say "Kodak" or the big metal film cans: you never know what might be inside.

 

Agree that much is found in remarkable condition Forum Support. If this is the case with the latest D-Day film shown on MSNBC then that is a big plus. I will check with the LOC re the condition of this film. There is also alot of film currently archived though that is deteriorating and has already been lost. It's basicaly a race against time to save.

[ROCKET]

WOW!!!

 

That gun camera film is some of the best I've seen. The Heinkel 115 flying boat getting straffed is extremely rare!

 

John

[nicolas75]

Seems to me the Kettenkrad rider is Chaplain Sampson of the 101st ...

 

he was given this captured vehicle to tour the units

[thebidkahuna]

Excellent!!!! Thanks for the links!!!!