General Category > General Discussion

Very Cool American Spitfire WWII Story/Vid

<< < (3/4) > >>

Zoom Zoom:
Thanks Bill. Amazing stuff.

John Henry

Muzz:
What a great story. Thanks for that Bill.

gwb_mg:
How neat, it's amazing what these guys did, God bless them all.

LowRyter:
Here's the story of a child movie star that became a cameraman.  In his early 20s he's made a couple of parachute jumps into occupied France to take movie recon.

Then he was sent on a mission that dropped him on the beach and told him to wait.  You'll figure it out.


A Hollywood actor before the war, Hjorth became a combat photographer with the Office of Strategic Services--the forerunner of the CIA--when he enlisted after Pearl Harbor. He was part of a secret unit of filmmakers headed by director John Ford that only in recent years has become public.

Hjorth had parachuted into France three nights before D-day. The night before the invasion he was led to his hiding place on the beach by members of the French Resistance. Hjorth hunkered down with his cameras, about 50 yards from shore, and waited for dawn.

"I could hear the waves, but couldn't see anything. Then it started getting light, and I saw large dots out in the water. I told myself, 'Those aren't islands. Those are ships!' I realized that I was right in the middle of the invasion of Europe," he said in a recent interview in his Cypress home.

Hjorth could hear the fire above him from the Germans defending the beach from the American assault. He could feel the concussions as U.S. naval shells exploded around the German bunkers and trench lines. He estimates that he saw as many as 400 Americans die on the beach that day--"a horrible nightmare," he remembers.

Film 'Top Secret'

Hjorth, 77 and a retired McDonnell Douglas executive, never saw the film he shot on D-day. A few days after photographing the invasion, he was thrown out of a screening room by an Army lieutenant who declared the film top secret and threatened to court-martial him if he viewed it, he said.

http://articles.latimes.com/1998/oct/22/local/me-35058

johnr:

--- Quote from: tris on January 20, 2015, 04:25:52 PM ---That was excellent

I knew that the PR Spitfires were unarmed and flown by very brave men, but I too didn't know the USAF flew them

Still, slight off topic  I hope I'm dead and gone by the time the sound of a Rolls Merlin powered aircraft doing a low pass doesn't send shivers up my spine

I spent the summer of 2014 chasing about watching and listening to the two Lancaster's when the Canadian Lanc Vera came of on tour.

I hope my next big fix will be when this takes to the air again https://peoplesmosquito.wordpress.com/

--- End quote ---

Well this one is in the air, and in the US now I think.
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/wwii-mosquito-takes-skies-5108112

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page