| www.romanoarchives.tk This footage used to lay forgotten for decades. We received it directly from the B-29 pilot's son, Mr. Mike McCaskill. We choosed to leave the entire 12 min raw footage uncutted. Following our request, Mr. McCaskill was so kind to write the story behind this "never seen before" footage, giving us all the particoulars about this forgotten episode of WW2. Here Mr. McCaskill's notes "(cut) ...During the ditching my father's back was broken and he was evacuated back to the US for convalescence. During his long stay in a military hospital he met the cameraman who had filmed the rescue. It was a chance meeting. The cameraman gave him two unedited copies of the 16mm film, each in a metal can. We never had a 16mm projector, so these film canisters lay undisturbed in my father's closet for over 50 years." THE HISTORY BEHIND THE VIDEO... On March 9, 1945 over 300 B-29 bombers took off from airfields on the islands of Tinian, Saipan, and Guam and headed for Japan. Their mission was to bomb the port and urban areas of Tokyo. To complete the mission, the crews had to fly 1500 miles to get to Japan, make their bombing runs, and then fly the 1500 miles back to their home base--fifteen stressful hours of flying over water. In order to increase bomb capacity, fuel loads were kept to a minimum. Consequently, planes damaged in combat, suffering from mechanical malfunctions, or thrown off course often could not make it back to base. Many were lost without leaving a ... |
