Sailors with Wings

Series

Series Name

The March of Time 7th Year

Issue

Issue No.

7

Date Released

Dec 1941

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Sailors with Wings

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 1

Summary

The March of Time synopsis: Tracing briefly the development of U.S. naval aviation since the earliest days of flying, the March of Time shows that as early as 1910 the U.S. Navy was experimenting with the use of the aeroplane as an auxiliary of the surface ship for scouting and observation. Later experiments, aboard a collier converted into the world’s first aircraft carrier, brought forth new operational techniques that revolutionised the strategy of battle at sea, and gave the navies of the world a new type of warship. Another great development by the U.S. Navy was the torpedo bomber - one of the deadliest of all naval weapons - whose surprise attacks against heavily armed units have made them invaluable in offensive action. In the early 1920’s U.S. Navy fliers experimented with and perfected, a new kind of aerial attack - dive bombing. Copied by every army and navy in the world, it has been used with especially devastating results by the Nazis in the present war.

Recognising the importance of air operations in conjunction with the Fleet, the U.S. Navy, as long ago as 1921, established its Bureau of Aeronautics to build up an adequate and efficient naval aviation service. The film shows that from lessons learned by American observers in the Battle of Britain and in the Mediterranean, U.S. Navy experts have already been able to make radical improvements in the armour and the armaments of fighting planes, and although the Navy’s air force is already twice its pre-war size the present emergency training programme will soon bring it to a total of 50,000 naval pilots and airmen.
Now ranging over the oceans are the U.S. Navy’s huge patrol bombers, seeking out Axis raiders and submarines, and helping to protect the flow of arms and food from America to the fighting democracies. Most effective aerial weapon, in the U.S. Navy’s task of assisting to sweep the enemy from the seas, is the PB patrol bomber, capable of searching 50,000 square miles of ocean in a single day. Newest of these battleships of the sky is the four-motored Coronado, known as the PB2Y. Mobile operating bases for the fleet air arm at sea, are the aircraft carriers, the largest navy ships afloat. Each is a sea-going aerodrome, with a complement of eighty fighting plans and a ship’s company of 2,000 including pilots and technicians. Carrier-based aircraft are divided into four special duty squadrons, including fighters, scout-bombers (for long distance reconnaissance and dive-bombing), and torpedo-bombers. Today every battle-ship and cruiser in the U.S. Navy also carries its own planes, for navy men well know that control of the sea is impossible without control of the air, and the interdependence of sea-power and air-power is vividly demonstrated in this latest March of Time film.

Researcher Comments

This story was included in Vol.8 No.3 of the US edition.

Keywords

Ships and boats; Aircraft; Air force; Navy

Written sources

Documentary News Letter   Vol.2 No.12 December 1941, p229.
The March of Time Promotional Material   Lobby Card, Used for synopsis

Credits:

Production Co.

Time Inc.