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- Matinee Features Change Every Month
- Now playing in July
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- John Ford's The Battle of Midway NEW
- The 362nd Fighter Group On the Prowl over Germany
- Mastering the Bazooka Rocket Launcher NEW
- B-58 Low Altitude Bombing Capability NEW
- Clark Gable's Combat America
- Matinee Features Change Every Month
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- We have digitally restored many of our World War II programs.
- You can see the difference-
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- John Ford's
- The Battle of Midway New - Premier!
- Academy Award Winner Best Documentary Film 1942
- (Color, 1942, 18:10)
- John Ford's
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- Digitally restored. Directed by four time Oscar Winner John Ford (The Quiet Man, The Grapes of Wrath, Stage Coach, The Informer) New Color Corrected Edition from archival sources. This stirring documentary was shot by Director John Ford during the intense June 4th Japanese carrier plane attacks on Midway Island and by Navy Combat Cameramen aboard the USS Yorktown during the epic carrier battle, along with color gun camera film of air to air and air to sea combat. Highlights include memorable scenes from the Marine Base on Midway, airfield B-17s leaving to attack the Japanese fleet, patrolling PBYs, action packed Japanese attacks on the Yorktown and Midway, and up close shots of the Yorktown's squadron VF3 and their F4F Wild Cats, including aces John S. "Jimmy' Thach ("The Thach Weave") and Lt. E. Scott McCuskey. And it wouldn't be a John Ford movie without some of the most vivid combat cinematography you have ever seen, a touching and dramatic score by nine time Oscar winner Alfred Newman, and some folksy narration by Henry Fonda. Like many World War II period pictures, the facts presented in "The Battle of Midway" are not always historically accurate, but there is no denying that these are some of the most powerful images we have of this epic battle, a turning point in World War II. The America people needed a shot in the arm after Pearl Harbor and '"The Battle of Midway" supplied it in spades!
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- Exclusive Sound & Video Restoration
- Own your own digitally restored, full screen copy of this film on our
- US Aircraft Carriers Go to War
- World War II Flat Tops in Action DVD
- along with four more action packed World War 2 carrier films
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- * The Fleet that Came to Stay
- * The Second Battle of the Philippines: The Battle of Leyte Gulf
- * The Life and Death of the USS Hornet
- * The Saga of the USS Franklin
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- The 362nd Fighter Group
- On the prowl over Germany
- (Color 30:00, 1945)
- On the prowl over Germany
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This video contains some of the most exciting color air action sequences to come out of World War II. Select 362nd Fighter Group P-47 Thunderbolt fighter/bombers were especially equipped with extra color movie cameras to capture thrilling ground and air attacks as they happened. These squadrons were tasked with striking targets inside Nazi Germany as the war against the Third Reich entered it's final act in Spring, 1945. The result is unique from the cockpit views putting you in the middle of attacks on tanks, airfields, trucks, rail yards, bridges, trains, fighters, and more. You'll even see antiaircraft fire arcing up from the ground, bursting around the big Thunderbolts as they make their low level strikes. You'll see 362nd CO Col. Joe Laughlin and the pilots and crews of the 377th, 378th and 379th Fighter Squadrons and their aircraft in living color. As an added bonus, there's rare color footage of Operation Varsity, the airborne assault across the Rhine.
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- Own your own full screen, high resolution digital copy of
- "The 362nd Fighter Group: On the prowl over Germany"
- and much more on our new
- P-47 Thunderbolts Attack DVD
- World War II Classics Theater
- Mastering the Bazooka Rocket Launcher NEW
- (Color, 1942, 18:00)
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- Mastering the Bazooka Rocket Launcher NEW
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- The Bazooka was a revolutionary weapon that combined a man portable "stove pipe" rocket launcher, pioneered by Dr. Robert Godard, with a shaped charge (HEAT) warhead, originally developed by Swiss immigrant Henry Mohaupt for the US War Department in the 1930s. As you'll see, shaped charges focused a superheated penetrating jet of gas whose effect on armored targets was far out of proportion to it's relatively small size. The Bazooka put this awesome destructive power in the hands of a single soldier with a range of hundreds of yards.
- When fired from the battery powered M1 launcher, the original M6 Rocket, introduced in 1940, could penetrate 4'' of steel armor, making it useful not only against tanks and armored vehicles, but also against pill boxes, walls, bunkers etc. with a range that far exceeded the capability of contemporary weapons like grenade launchers. The range of targets of an individual soldier was expanded geometrically with the introduction of the Bazooka.
- You'll learn how to calculate range, fire from different positions, arm the rocket and ready the launcher for firing, set up remotely detonated launches using buried tubes, skip firing, leading the target, and more
- As you'll also see in this detailed training film, throughout the War the Bazooka went through a running series of combat inspired changes that improved reliability, accuracy, handiness, and hitting power. As the War progressed, increases in armor thickness on German tanks rendered frontal assault by even the improved M9 launcher with M6A3 rocket often ineffective, promoting a change in tactics, targeting tank tracks and the less well protected top, sides, and rear of enemy vehicles
- When fired from the battery powered M1 launcher, the original M6 Rocket, introduced in 1940, could penetrate 4'' of steel armor, making it useful not only against tanks and armored vehicles, but also against pill boxes, walls, bunkers etc. with a range that far exceeded the capability of contemporary weapons like grenade launchers. The range of targets of an individual soldier was expanded geometrically with the introduction of the Bazooka.
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- Own your own full screen digital copy of
- Mastering the Bazooka Rocket Launcher
- on our new
- "Battle of St. Vith DVD"
- Includes a Bazooka Operators Handbook
- Own your own full screen digital copy of
- B-58: Low Altitude Bombing Capability NEW
- (Color, 10:00, 1962)
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- This is a simulated low level, long range B-58 Hustler attack launched from Carswell AFB in Texas against Edwards AFB in California that demonstrates the Hustler's outstanding ability to slip in under enemy radar at phenomenal speeds. . Much of the mission is flown at 700 mph and above at on-the-deck altitudes below 500 feet. The B-58 exhibited exceptional handling characteristics. You'll see sensational from-the-cockpit views of the Hustler booming along over mountains and prairie. This film is all the more amazing because the supersonic B-58 is pre "fly by wire" and is operating without the benefit of ground hugging radar that made its appearance in the next generation of fast bombers.
- Get you own full screen digital copy of this film on
- Record Breaker: The B-58 Hustler Story DVD
- Four B-58 color films plus
- three B-58 technical manuals!
- Clark Gable's
- Combat America
- (1943 Color 65:00)
- Combat America
- This warm hearted documentary was produced, written, directed, and narrated by movie star Clark Gable while he was on assignment with the 8th Air Force, developing a gunnery training film. Though it contains plenty of combat footage and doesn't flinch in showing the high cost of war in the air, in many ways, it's more of a warm home movie than a hard bitten, wartime "information" film.
- Gable chronicles the experiences of the men of the 351 Bombardment Group from the cool early morning mists of Colorado to the frigid skies over Germany. His affection and admiration for these men comes through loud and clear. This film is like a Kodachrome album out of the past, giving us snapshots of life on a front line air base in 1943.
- Though he doesn't mention it in the film (and generally keeps himself in the background) Gable flew combat missions with the Group until he was ordered to stop by "the brass" He was 42 at the time and of course, a Hollywood Star. But, he felt he couldn't accurately portray the air war unless he shared the experiences of the men who fought it . He did. It shows.
- Gable chronicles the experiences of the men of the 351 Bombardment Group from the cool early morning mists of Colorado to the frigid skies over Germany. His affection and admiration for these men comes through loud and clear. This film is like a Kodachrome album out of the past, giving us snapshots of life on a front line air base in 1943.
- Get your own copy of
- "Combat America"
- on full screen low cost home DVD
- It's available now at Zeno's Flight Shop
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- And if you enjoyed
- Combat America, don't miss the epic Eighth Air Force documentary
- Target for Today
- See all aspects of a massive US heavy bomber raid deep into Germany from complex planning through final crew debriefing
- "Combat America"
