Lt Whelan Gun Camera Footage - from MSNBC

I have been trying to get the higher resolution from the Library of Congress but have not been successful yet. By the way the WWII photographer was:


 S/Sgt Albert E. Newton, U.S. Army Combat Photographer.

Lt Rody Gun Camera Footage - from MSNBC

I have been trying to get the higher resolution from the Library of Congress but have not been successful yet. By the way the WWII photographer was:


 S/Sgt Albert E. Newton, U.S. Army Combat Photographer.

Powers Gun Camera Footage - from MSNBC

I have been trying to get the higher resolution from the Library of Congress but have not been successful yet. By the way the WWII photographer was:


 S/Sgt Albert E. Newton, U.S. Army Combat Photographer.

Lt Brueland Gun Camera Footage - from MSNBC

I have been trying to get the higher resolution from the Library of Congress but have not been successful yet. By the way the WWII photographer was:


 S/Sgt Albert E. Newton, U.S. Army Combat Photographer.

Capt. Bradley Gun Camera Footage - from MSNBC

Bickel Gun Camera Footage - from MSNBC

I have been trying to get the higher resolution from the Library of Congress but have not been successful yet. By the way the WWII photographer was:


 S/Sgt Albert E. Newton, U.S. Army Combat Photographer.

Lt. Perkins Gun Camera Footage - from MSNBC

I have been trying to get the higher resolution from the Library of Congress but have not been successful yet. By the way the WWII photographer was:


 S/Sgt Albert E. Newton, U.S. Army Combat Photographer.

CHUCK HAWLEY GUN CAMERA FOOTAGE

This short clip is of Chuck Hawley's Gun Camera footage that was showcased on MSNBC this week.







I have been trying to get the higher resolution from the Library of Congress but have not been successful yet. By the way the WWII photographer was:


 S/Sgt Albert E. Newton, U.S. Army Combat Photographer.

GUN CAMERA FOOTAGE ON MSNBC.COM

Alton Harvey told me that MSNBC has some gun camera footage posted online.


I see that there is gun camera footage from Chuck Hawley and Lowell Brueland (two of the men we interviewed) at the end of the video! And there is even footage from Bill Perkins's gun camera and one of his diary entries explains in detail what is happening on the film!!!




http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27651379#27651379

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27651379#27648023



I have been trying to get the higher resolution from the Library of Congress but have not been successful yet. By the way the WWII photographer was:


 S/Sgt Albert E. Newton, U.S. Army Combat Photographer.

Heroes of the 354th: Raymond P. Bain Remembers...P-51 Fighter Pilot in WWII

News Clipping and Press Release - Ray Bain

I decided to post these two scans from Ray Bain's collection. They are a press release and a newspaper article from 1945.






I am close to finishing two video segments about Ray Bain. The first one is about Ray, his plane and his wife.

The other one is about the mission Ray was on and got shot down and then captured by the Germans in 1945.

Enjoy the articles!!!!

August 3, 1944 - Charles Simonson Protects a Damaged B - 26

I interviewed Charles Simsonson at his home and he told us of a mid air collision of two B-26s from the 397th Bomb Group.

After the collision, one plane had its tail ripped off and the other has its nose damaged. The plane with out the tail went down. The other plane was still able to fly and Charles Simonson flew wing to that plane and helped it get back to the round safely in Caen.

I have been editing this segment today and spent some time researching the event on the web. I was able to find a great website where there are three mentions of the accident. The main page is at www.b-26marauderarchive.org


Here are some still screen captures from the website. (I have an email to them asking permission to use the diary pages in the documentary.)

1) From the diary of Allen Wright Stephens - He dated the event as having occurred on August 2 (not the 3rd)






2) From the diary of B 26 pilot Marvin Schulze









3) From the diary kept by Albert Neil McGinnis

Update and New Art Owen Photos

Well, the new house I had put an offer on did not work out. The home inspection went terrible! So I am staying put for while here in Porter Ranch.

The last few months have been spent looking for a house, working lots of overtime and evacuating fire zones. Things seem to have calmed down quite a bit. I was able to get all my computers up and running tonight (they had been in my garage since we were able to return from being evacuated.)

And so now I have some free time to work on the documentaries again.

I just scanned some photos that Art Owen's family gave me at the last reunion.

Here are 2 of the scans.

NEW CLIP FROM THE DOCUMENTARY!!!

We are off to this year's 354th Fighter Group Reunion in a few hours. Here is one more clip. It features many members of the 354th.



I wanted to post this before the reunion got under way.

I have reposted this video with chyrons with the men's name and squad number.

ED RYAN - A NEW VIDEO CLIP

Here is a new video clip from our documentary. It features interviews with Roberta Roddy, William Davis, Clayton Kelly Gross, and Charles Hawley talking about Lt Ed Ryan who was killed in 1944.

NEW CLIP FROM THE DOCUMENTARY!!!

I just posted a new clip featuring Bruno Peters, Ralph Delgado, Jr. and Chuck Tighe.

On March 2, 1945 member of the 354th Fighter Group encounter German ME 262 fighter jets.

Take a look and find out what happened!

The Next 354th FG Reunion in SF

In less than 2 weeks, the 354th Fighter Group will have another reunion in San Francisco, CA.

If you will be attending and would like to be interviewed for our project, please let me know by sending an email to flashframe1966@gmail.com.

I would love to interview anyone who is interested!!!

See you on July 29th in SF!!!

NEW CLIP FROM THE DOCUMENTARY!!!

I just posted a new clip from the documentary.

Joseph Kronek was the crew chief on "Uncle" George Bickell's P-51 named "Peg O' My Heart". Robert Ramer and Charles Simonson also talk about crew chiefs.

Watch below OR CLICK HERE.








Take a look.

More Amazing 354th FG movie footage

I found this new piece of footage of the 354th on youtube. It has movies of Live Bait (before it was named Live Bait) and I think it has movies of Bob Stephens in it.


Check it out and then look at the other great posts BOMBERGUY has on his youtube page!


Watch below OR CLICK HERE.

Heroes of the 354th Fighter Group - Fighter Pilot Kong Wah Kau - KIA

Kong Wah Kau was a fighter pilot in the 354th Fighter Group in WWII. He was Chinese-American and flew with the 353rd Fighter Squadron. He was killed in action.

A LINK TO TIME MAGAZINE

I just found an article from Time Magazine's April 28, 1944 issue. It is about 2nd Lt. Kong of the 353rd Fighter Squadron.

Take a look by clicking on this link.

new clip

General F. Michael Rogers and Capt. Bruno Peters talk about friendly fire and one of the first missions into Germany of the 354th Fighter Group. Crew Chief Fred Stagnaro talks about a special kind of gas tank.

Heroes of the 354th - Pilots' Steeds

A new sequence featuring the work of William W. Louie.



Watch below OR CLICK HERE.

Angel From Hell

Check out Bill Perkins and his plane.

DO YOU KNOW WHO THESE MEN ARE?

I just found another photo in my files.

This was in Bill Perkins' photo album.

Do you recognize these men?

Most likely they are from the 356th Fighter Squad.

Two Jets Detroyed by the 354th Fighter Group

I have been editing a section of the film involved two of "The Heroes of the 354th" and their destruction of two enemy jets.

We had the pleasure of interviewing Bruno Peters and Ralph Delgado about a mission on March 2, 1945. Peters was leading the flight and both Peters and Delgado shot down an ME 262 German Jet near Kassel.

Take a look at the official document about the event.

Special Photographic Effect

Original Photo loaned by William W. Louie.










Using a computer program from Apple called MOTION, I will be adding some 3-D movement to the original 2-D photographs that the men and the families of the 354th have let us use for the documentary.





Thanks to everyone who has been kind enough to let us use their personal photos for our important documentary!!!

Especially to Daniel Carrizales and William W. Louie who were the first to loan us photos and get the ball rolling on this documentary project!

This photo from Will is of a man named Jack Wimer. Will has also let us use hundreds of scans from his collection of Jack's personal documents from the war. Among these documents are scans of the original typed historical record of the 356th Fighter Squad and Jack's typed note cards that documented important events from the 354th Fighter Group. Some of these scans will be used to accent dates in our film. You can see an example of these in the "Hitler's Secret Weapon" clip I added to this blog a few days ago.

Another Clip from the Documentary - "MY ENGLISH BRIDE"

NEW CLIP FROM THE DOCUMENTARY!!! - "HITLER's SECRET WEAPON"

I have posted a new 2 minute clip I recently finished on youtube.


Take a look!

Stills from NEWLY DISCOVERED MOVIES of the 354th Fighter Group

These are some stills from a never seen short home movie shot by Ralph Van Cleave (of the 355th Fighter Squad).

Do you know any of these men? Can you help identify anyone of these men?

In a future post I will explain how I came across this fantastic piece of history!

These photos are also posted on the following facebook link.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=862453&l=8da31&id=672187593

INFO ON LT. O'CONNELL

I received an email from Filip Vojtasek of Prague, Czech Republic.

Filip is looking for information about former Lt. O'Connell of the 353rd Squadron. He says O'Connell was shot down in a dogfight over Czechoslovakia on April 20, 1945.

Does anyone know if Lt. O'Connell is still around? He would really like to find out! Did he ever attend any of the 354th reunions?

His website is http://hloubkari.bloguje.cz/tema-21-english-version.php

Please email him at  filip.vojtasek@aip.cz    

Thanks.

www.boxted-airfield.com

Take a look at a website about the Boxted Airfield in England.

The 354th Fighter Group flew out of there during WW2.

NEW CLIP FROM THE DOCUMENTARY!!!

I just finished a 3 minute clip featuring Ed Regis and Fred Fehsenfeld.




This clip tells about Moosburg's POW camp in April 1945....and a special mission of the 354th Fighter Group!

I want to thank the people of www.stalag.moosburg.org for letting us use the photos of the POW camp. Take a look at their website.

Two Interesting Photos from Ray Bain's Collection

Last year when we met with Ray Bain, he let us scan some of his great collection of World War II items. Here are two.

The first is a photo of the plaque dedicated to the 354th Fighter Group.






And this second one is a newspaper clipping published right before Ray went to war.





Thanks, Ray, for letting us see these wonderful things! We hope to see you at this year's 354th Fighter Group Reunion.

Americans who flew in the RAF before joining the 354th FG

Here is another great photo from Pete Wilson's collection.






I recently received an email from the author of "Immigrants of War," a WW2 book about the men who flew with the RCAF/RAF before flying for the United States. His name is Wally Fydenchuk.

He was able to send me some very useful information about William R. Perkins, my relative who served in the 354th Fighter Group.

Re: William Perkins : RCAF Service Number: R 137297

Received his RCAF pilot wings at No. 8 Service Flying Training School, Moncton, New Brunswick on November 6, 1942. Upon graduation received Pilot Officer commission J.20640. Retired from the RCAF September 27, 1943 to transfer to the USAAF.

This will help with my timeline for the "Angel From Hell" documentary.

Take a look at his website - www.immigrantsofwar.com.

pete wilson's collection

I was recently going through some of the photos we took while at Pete Wilson's house in New Jersey last year.





He has a huge collection of memorabilia from World War II. I only wished we had more time to see everything.



This is a photo of Pete Wilson during the war. I believe it was taken during his time training in Miami Beach.



Here are a few newspaper clippings from his collection.

AIR PICTORIAL MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 1962

I got an email from Philip O. Richart a few weeks ago. He had mentioned a magazine and a book that had information about the 354th Fighter Group.

Within 25 minutes I was able to find both the book and the magazine online (ebay and amazon) and order them!

Here is the article about the 354th that appears in the AIR PICTORIAL MAGAZINE from September 1962.






The book called TARGET LUFTWAFFE has much information about Ken Martin!

"High Flight"

During the 2007 reunion in Columbus, Ohio, Fred Fehsenfeld read the poem "High Flight."







This is the poem from the 354th Archives.

New Photos From James Flinchum Arrive!

Last week a huge envelope of many photos arrived from James Flinchum. James was a part of the Crash and Rescue Unit for the 354th Fighter Group.






James at the 1999 reunion:



Besides sending many from photos from his time in the war, James also sent some great photos from past 354th reunions. Here are two:









It is great to see the folks who have become our friends in these photos!

Thanks, James, for sending the great photos.