Sunday, 3 February 2013

Target for Today, a WWII bombing movie

Watched Target For Today, the 1944 propaganda movie on the 8th Army Air Force, although it does well as a documentary. It runs one and a half hours. The great thing is: it's on Youtube.



Amazingly, the movie spends most of the time on the ground. The first half of the movie describes the planning of the raid, from the Air force level down to the groups and planes. Very instructive to know at what level certain decisions were made, eg choice of targets, bomb type and load, setting of fuses etc.

It also shows what a professional and administrative machine this force was.

And when the planes get airborne, there's pretty extensive discussion on formations. The movie explains how wing formations are broken up on approach to the target and reformed afterwards. It ends with lots of stuff also on Air Sea Rescue and debrief of bombing effect and enemy tactics.

As far as I'm concerned a must see for anyone interested in WWII bombing.

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