VICTORY IN THE AIR

e [Music] we members of the Army Air Force have a report to make to you the American people you and we are part of one fighting team just as we are part of one great nation you produced weapons for us you gave us power and wings we want to show you what we did with them at one element in the mighty combination of the Allied strength on the sea the land and in the air this is the record the record begins here in the people a man made a crucible of steel made a tire made a ball bearing the steel became an engine the tire went into uniform the ball bearing was fitted into a gun and the steel engine took to the air the tire moved down toward a new base the ball bearing swung around to face the enemy and an American Boy began to write history he fought always as part of a team SE power was his partner ground power was his partner the Democratic peoples of the world were on his team the British and the Soviets and this child too was his partner in [Music] history it's the evening before June 6th 1944 these men are infantry they are loaded with guns ammunition Dynamite the stripes on these airplanes mean Invasion the evening before June 6 over the English Channel more than 1,600 transport planes are invading Europe they have no guns they fly at less than 200 mph they are easy targets for the German air force below them are thousands of invasion craft each one a slow moving Target for a German bomb the bombs never came the German air force never [Music] attacked the Skies over enemy Europe had already been one most of the losses to this Airborne Army coming down by Parachute and glider were suffering on the ground where was the L Waffa Why didn't it fight the answer is here on a combat airfield like this it's January 1944 fog and storm Clos down over our bomber bases in England we have a plan but we don't have the weather and dday Invasion day is rushing toward us an appointment with history that cannot be postponed but at last on Sunday February 20th the weather breaks nearly a thousand bombers flew this Sunday Mission they were headed for four different German cities the weather was fair 40° below zero we bombed through the clouds by special instruments the first part of the Allied plan had begun it was aimed at the destruction of the main German aircraft assembly plants the assault continued on Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and Friday the target was the breeding ground of the German air force we had a new weapon longrange Fighters that could protect the bombers all the way out and all the way back Pathfinder bombs pointed toward the sheds and factories 20,000 ft below it was as if this great mass of explosive metal were falling in one week on Boeing in Seattle Douglas in Chicago Bell in Buffalo Martin in Baltimore Grumman in Long Island northri and North American in Los Angeles these were German factories these were the nests of the German air force now we were ready to hit the LT waffer that was still alive we set out to sweep the airfields of Europe clean with a broom of bullets [Music] [Music] the Germans tried Flack towers and they tried camouflage this church is a German airport control tower these houses a hanger [Music] but these smashed planes are smashed planes now we went looking for trouble we photographed German planes from cameras mounted beside the guns that struck them out of the Skies [Music] plane by plane week after week they add up to the death of an Air Force we were free now to attack even more fundamental targets once again as we did in 1943 we concentrated our force on vital ball bearing plants the Germans sent up heavy AIC they sent up what was left of their Fighters we lost planes the Germans lost factories but this was only the beginning by now the German air force was too weak to protect its life blood its sources of oil both natural and synthetic before we were through German Europe was smoking from end to end the RAF our partner in this Air Assault flew by night and struck hour after hour with obliteration [Music] raids invasion day was near our war in the air was racing to a climax everything we had took off to smash at Europe the first invasion of Europe took place from the air it was repeated every day and night that was fit to [Music] fly we invaded Europe at 20,000 ft at 2,000 ft at 20 [Music] ft Europe was cracked open now ready for [Music] Invasion now we were able to bring our fire power onto the ground of Europe itself to come to grips with the mass of the Nazi armies we paid but we paid less because these soldiers of the Air Force had invaded Germany first but their work was not done in Italy they were engaged in an operation unique in any War it involved twisting and breaking railroads and smashing open Bridge after Bridge with bombs and tracers as if cutting threads with a scissor they were cutting off and isolating a battlefield selected by us official title operation [Music] strangle in France there was the same kind of job the same kind of results [Music] these were bridges over the [Music] same these were bridges over the lir no German train retreated across here and because the bridges were down German supplies piled up along Railways on highways in marshling yards and along the banks of rivers then the fighter bomber took over each man with his finger on the Bomb release on the trigger of 8 10 12 guns at once searching a railroad yard through a tangle of small arms fire scouring highways for armor Oil Trucks and ammunition trucks ripping barges and small boats on rivers and [Music] canals and hunting locomotives the road of Supply was on fire the road of retreat came to a sudden end as ground power cut through France air power moved its bases forward from ground conquered yesterday and leveled this morning from strips still being cleared of Nazi explosives air power Rose to a special assignment air power alone was to Shield the entire right flank of Patton's thirdd Army Fighters and bombers were massed against three divisions of Germans to the South these are American planes through the eye of a German camera a very frightening point of view a new weapon firebombs were hung under the wings of our versatile [Music] Fighters Germans began to come out of their reinforced holes their commanding officer surrendered who Mar Tyler here was the threat to Patton's right flank 19,90 prisoners and here is the end of that [Music] threat but when we came to the edge of Germany and penetrated the teeth of the Sig freed line the Nazis struck back and here began the story of another flank Von Ranstead flank for the first time since June 6th the Allies found themselves preparing defense positions it was winter again the weight of defense and Counterattack was borne by men on the ground but when the weather cleared our planes were sent against the flanks of Van [Music] runstad already cracking underground assault the German columns fell back crowded into a corridor jammed with thousands of vehicles and this mass of Steel gasoline dynamite and Men was set a fire these were crushed by the double Sledgehammer of air power and ground power these were the flanks of Van runstein [Music] it was Year's End in Germany meanwhile during these same decisive months nearly a billion pounds of metal were shaped by American workmen a billion pounds of air power altered and serviced and manned by the four Continental Air Forces based in the United States a billion pounds of airplane together with unbelievable tons of bullets bombs food gasoline and spare parts transported across the empty spaces of the world we were attacking along the edges of an immense Circle slowly closing in on Japan to hold that Circle there had to be men on the ground working month after month in The Winds of Alaska in the Heat and Sun of lonely Pacific Islands in the mud of Burma and India from bases along that Circle we could take off to strike in the South Pacific and the same day in the North Pacific 6,000 Mi away the Jabs came up to stop us with their twisting tricky fighter planes or with phosphorus bombs fired up from the ground and dropped down from the sky among our formations but we kept both bombers and fighters in the air we never stopped coming we navigated by the volcanoes of Japanese held Islands we aimed through the clouds of the stormy Pacific we cleaned out the jungle and our bombs walked down the runways of the Japanese empire we never had enough Air Force in the Pacific to satisfy ourselves but we had enough for the Japanese on the 3rd of January far to the east we were already at work in Burma and during the first weeks of our invasion in Europe we were steadily sewing dynamite in [Music] China we cut the thin Japanese supply lines at their airfields at their harbors and their shipping lanes at their railroads and railroad Bridges if we missed once we bombed them again and at last we struck oil we were bombing close now to the sources of Japanese power but to strike closer still we needed bases nearer to Japan so in 1944 dday came many times in the Pacific and air power took over its job as onethird of a three-way Tri phibious assault sea land and air the kind of overwhelming assault which one by one tears islands and bases out of the sides of the Japanese [Music] empire but in China we had to retreat we made these craters in our runways with our own bombs we set fire to our own airfields with our own gasoline Chinese and Americans had to destroy what they had built together lest it fall into the hands of their common enemy this is what defeat looks [Music] like but along the rest of the Pacific Circle aaf Engineers were moving to New bases the closest yet to the industrial heart of Japan bases won by the teamwork of the Army and Navy Engineers came ashore on the footsteps of tough ground TR who had cleared these strips with bayonets and flamethrowers the Air Force Engineers had a few different kinds of weapons and when they had none of these they used the oldest labor in the world they used men they used animals but the job was [Music] done and for these new bases there were new weapons of air power the b29 super [Music] Fortress here at Last Air power was using a weapon big enough to leap over the distances of the Pacific and powerful enough to lift ponderous loads of explosive and metal against the truly strategic targets of Japan under these clouds and under the open Bombay of our super forts 35,000 ft straight down is Tokyo for Japan it was only the [Music] beginning today everywhere in the world the team that is Air Force is preparing the attack that will be called operation Victory this is a man who must climb over B this afternoon and these men have told him whether to expect storm or sun here is a grandmother they're putting an airplane together and here is a hunter here is a sergeant at work on the ground here is a sergeant at work in the stratosphere this is a lieutenant this is a full Colonel this is a private this is a five-star general you've seen the record it is a record of grim Victory but no words and no film can truly describe what was done in flame in labor and in blood we must be sure that none of these victories is wasted and thrown away in the years to come there will no longer be any spot on earth and certainly not in America that is safe from Attack by air for our protection we must have an Air Force second to n for for this we need a great aviation industry a great Air transport system and a great body of trained Personnel but we'll need more than planes and pilots and mechanics we'll need scientists and mathematicians and we'll need the full inventive Genius of the American people with these we can protect the future ourselves and our allies with the weapons of the Future Weapons of the [Music] future there will be planes with propellers at the top and planes with propellers at the back there will be planes without any propellers at all [Music] now there will be planes without Pilots fantastic weapons will dominate the skies above our [Music] enemies weapons of the future future to keep the peace of the future to give America once more victory in the air [Music] [Applause]