Today’s film dates from August 1943, capturing an inspection visit to a US Army airfield, probably in Kunming, China. Two American generals toured the airfield: Lt. General Joseph Stillwell, President Roosevelt’s envoy to the Republic of China (“ROC”), and Major General Claire Chennault, commander of the 14th Army Air Force in China. The two generals didn’t see eye-to-eye with regard to the war effort in China. Stillwell was increasingly concerned by rampant corruption within the Republic of China’s army and air forces. He wanted to pursue the land war to re-establish a ground supply route from India through Burma. Chennault wanted to emphasize the air war and was an advocate for “pursuit” (fighter) aircraft.
Chennault was an admirer of Chinese Premier Chiang Kai-shek, and married a Chinese woman after the war. He became a member of what became known as the “China Lobby”: a group of politicians, businessmen and protestant missionaries that advocated for support of Chiang’s government in Washington, DC. The two men’s disagreements boiled over and led to Stillwell’s recall and replacement. The ROC famously lost the Chinese Civil War in 1948, resulting in the ROC government fleeing to Taiwan.
Films like this are available at the National Archives, crucially without copyright restrictions. Unfortunately, most of these films aren’t digitized, and descriptions in the Archives’ on-line catalog are sometimes misleading, missing, or wrong! Add impact to your production by using material not otherwise accessible on the web. A professional media researcher adds value!
62 years ago, in an article appearing in The American Legion magazine, film director John Ford recalled D-Day on the 20th anniversary of Operation Neptune, the naval assault on Normandy. Ford was in charge of Navy and Coast Guard photographic assets for the invasion. Confessing that his recollections were fuzzy and disconnected, Ford recalled the creation of hundreds of reels of black and white and color (Kodachrome) film and a 72-hour rush to edit their take. The final product, subject to wartime censorship, was released to the newsreels of the day. The newsreel “take” is what most Americans saw and remember to this day.
Ford’s “missing” D-Day film quickly became encrusted with mythology. Author Stephen Ambrose and others repeated a claim that a film report in color of about 100 minutes was produced by Ford’s team. The reality is that hundreds of hours of D-Day film coverage, including some shot in color on 16mm Kodachrome film exist at the National Archives. The subject matter is mostly of the Naval side of the invasion. The film was shot by OSS photographers, as well as regular Navy and Coast Guard photographers under the command of Commander John Ford.
A film report was made by OSS Field Photographic, John Ford’s command, at the request of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF). The request was made on D+4, or June 10th, so little or no extra time was available for different edits.
This is the film I discovered, hiding in plain sight, at the National Archives in 2014. It used color film as a partial source, but the production was black and white. It was four reels, comprising about 33 minutes. No evidence of a color film version or a 100 minute edition has been found. Given what we know about the effort to produce the film, it’s unreasonable to expect multiple versions. This film was the product of the 72-hour edit session that Ford recalls.
Another “mystery” of D-Day combat photography is the question of the alleged film of the invasion shot by George Hjorth. He claimed that he shot multiple rolls of 16mm color film from a position behind German lines on the beach. In 2025, I discovered what is essentially the Field Photographic “production file” for the whole Navy/Coast Guard combat camera effort for Operation Neptune. In it is a letter written by Hjorth describing his combat stations during the invasion.
Hjorth was stationed on board the Destroyer Hobson (DD-464). He recounts witnessing the landing craft going in, naval rocket support firing, the sinking of the destroyer Cory and the recovery of survivors. Furthermore, he is described as being issued a Speed Graphic still camera and a bomb-spotter Eyemo camera (35mm motion picture camera), but not the 16mm film camera he claimed. Hjorth served in combat on D-Day with distinction, but his later claims of filming on the beaches of Normandy are not supported by any evidence.
Finally, there is the question of the possible loss of D-Day footage overboard, as an officer scrambled up a cargo net of a transport, returning from the beach with a duffel full of exposed film. I have heard the same story from many people that were in a position to know over many years. In my 2014 blog post for NARA, I found documents identifying Major William Ulman as having been tasked with retrieving exposed film at 0900 hours on Utah Beach on D-Day and returning without them. The documents state that he was unable to make contact with any photographers or caches of exposed film in time for his departure. Perhaps unfairly, many have identified Ulman as the officer noted. I will say that I have been unable to pin down an original source of the “duffel bag” story, so this may be one encrusted myth that survives, barely.
Mysteries still exist with regard to D-Day combat camera operations. When did John Ford first go ashore after D-Day? Where are the original film and production file for the SHAEF/OSS film? For that matter, where are the original photographers’ “dope sheets” describing the D-Day film that was shot? Ultimately, John Ford himself has the last word, from “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Perhaps whatever truths we find in the records, the legend abides.
Today’s film highlights activities at an Airborne Glider Base in England in 1944 just before the D-Day invasion. The roll opens with airmen painting the invasion stripes on a glider and then a C-47. The base band rates a whole minute of film. The meat of the roll is four minutes (four camera rolls) of glider loading, takeoffs, over the shoulder shots in the cockpit, vertigo-inducing shots of the ground, and a landing that disgorges a jeep and a squad of men that immediately go on patrol! The film is actually probably a good reflection of the Army’s glider assault doctrine as it was understood at the time.
A screener for this reel doesn’t exist elsewhere! I shot it from the flatbed film viewer at the National Archives (NARA). The description in NARA’s on-line Catalog dates everything from August 11th, 1944, while the evidence of my eyes says otherwise. The painting was only ordered on June 3rd, 1944. The stripes were ordered removed a month later, when they made Allied aircraft on the ground an easier target.
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As part of an extended look back at D-Day for the 82nd anniversary of the assault on Hitler’s Europe, today’s film examines PT boat operations in Plymouth harbor and the English Channel.
Regular readers of this blog know that written descriptions found at NARA are sometimes misleading, incomplete, incorrect, or missing all together. In this case the shot card for the film, shot by the US Navy and the Office of Strategic Services (“OSS”), identifies this as having been shot on August 11, 1944. That description may apply to the first part of the compiled reel, but the second half of the film includes the following slate:
We know from related research that Lt. Marcus Armistead was filming aboard PT boats in the channel on June 5th and 6th. Specifically, he was tagging along on missions by PT Boat Squadron 2(2). Commanded by Cmdr. John Bulkely, this small squadron of 3-4 “Higgins” PT boats was tasked with supporting special operations in the Channel, and running messages as needed.
Armistead was a veteran of “John Ford’s Navy”, a member of the veteran Hollywood director’s navy reserve unit which evolved into the “Field Photographic Branch” of the OSS. He was responsible for the testing and mounting of the fixed cameras installed on dozens of D-Day landing craft. He later moved onto several other projects for the OSS and the US Navy through the Korean War.
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Today’s film concerns the US Army Air Forces first jet fighter prototype, the XP-59 Bell Airacomet. The film shows four prototypes under active evaluation at Muroc Army Airfield in California, now Edwards Air Force Base. The prototype’s first flight was in October 1942. The XP-59 was frequently disguised on the tarmac by the ruse of attaching a fake propeller! The plane was under powered, floundering in head-to-head testing with contemporary Allied fighters, so no combat match ups with Axis fighters ever occurred. The prototype was never accepted for active service or full-production. It remained as a test bed and trainer for several years after the war. In total, 66 planes in 7 variants were produced. Six air frames survive today.
This reel, a film work print, has not been digitized by the National Archives, so this look at the Airacomet prototype is not widely available. I digitized from the work print using a camera pointed to the flatbed film viewer in the National Archives Research Room. The only detailed description of this film is also only available in the Research Room.
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