430th Fighter Squadron "Back Door Gang" P-38 Lightnings Over Germany Color 1945

[DougGuy]

This is a great video!

Published on Jan 30, 2013
Newly discovered color film of the 430th FS, 474th FG, 9th Air Force. I created this original documentary from undocumented, unedited, silent archival footage. Where possible, I identified the P-38 pilots shown. Color film of P-38s in action is very rare.
From the get go, the 474th was configured as a ground attack unit, but they also provided bomber escort and level bombing, led by Norden bomb sight equipped "Droop Snoots," which are shown here. One of three P-38 squadrons in the 474th, the 430th's call sign was "Back Door," and its planes and pilots are featured in the film in the Spring of 1945 at their base in Florennes, Belgium, a former Luftwaffe night fighter base.

You'll see intense (and rare) color gun camera film showing strafing attacks inside Germany with slow motion replays, as well as color footage of B-26s and a P-61 Black Widow. Perhaps most memorable are the all too brief, silent portraits of the men who flew those dangerous missions. It's amazing how color film brings 60+ year old images to life.
Zeno, Zeno's Warbird Video Drive-In http://zenoswarbirdvideos.com See this video and more on our P-38 DVD, including a P-38 pilot's manual.http://bit.ly/J0owLJ Visit our aviation DVD store at http://www.zenosflightshop.com for the World's largest selection of World War 2 & vintage jet aircraft aviation videos

• Music
  
  
  • "Sweet Lorraine" by King Cole Trio

[Artful]

GOOD STUFF - thanks for posting

[Hogtamer]

Awesome airplanes!

[xs11jack]

Hero's everyone.
Ole Jack

[corbinace]

Thank you for sharing.

[Thumbcocker]

Can you imagine being 21 and having one of those with your name on it.

[10-x]

Doug, Thanks for posting this. Krauts called P-38s " Forked Tailed Devils", LOL. Charles Lindberg helped the P-38 pilots get the most out of their A/C to shoot down Yamamoto. The late Jeff Ethel wrote a few books on P-38s, sadly he was killed landing a restored P-38 years ago.IIRC P-38s shot down more jap A/C in the Pacific than any other US A/C.

[Nueces]

Dad was a WWII B-24 pilot. He used to tell of being in Randolph base ops when a P-38 landed. In walked the young pilot, a lieutenant. Dad asks him what it was like to fly and the kid said "Sir, it's like putting an Allison under each arm and a feather up your a$$."

[10-x]

My Dad built and maintaijed aitfields for the MAAF and 15 AF in Italy. Have lots of pic he took( Son has them now) , a few are of a huge pile of wrecked A/C, mostly fighters. He told many stories of how the fighter pilots would buzz the field on returning from a mission, a few tried to loop the fields, some didnt make it, some were carried away some walked away. Most were P-38 pilots and their wrecked A/C were pushed into the pile. Said toward the end of the war one or more fields in southern Italy were moved north. He had to go back to one of theses fields for something, he said the locals had cleaned up the entire pile of wrecked A/C in a week. Piles were 50' high!!!!!!

[popper]

When I was in H.S. the pilots referred to them as widow makers as you couldn't bail out sucessfully. Cool vid., thanks.

[Mohawk Daddy]

To my knowledge, I have only known one P-38 pilot personally in my life. "Bud" attended the same small church I went to several years back. He was well past 80 and severely hearing impaired, but he somehow managed to make friends with one of the more delightful young 20 something single girls in the place. You gotta admire a man like that.

[10-x]

Popper, the " widow maker" was what the B-26 was usually called. Having been hired by the Navy and Air Force to display WWII AAF uniforms and equipment for many years, have met countless WWII pilots. I can not post what most called themselves, they were all women chasers. Knew one Gentleman back in Norfolk in the 80's that flew Hellcats, his onepiece flight suit he wore to airshows had a name tag that read," hi, my name is Ben Dover", not kidding. Sure he has gone to fly higher now but was a fine man. In 88 got invited to Dover Air Force Base to display for the " roll out " of Shoo, Shoo, Shoo Baby, the famous B-17. Met and got the autographs of the crew on the Readers Digest with artcile on the A/C and met lots of WWII Veterans. I displayed my Dads Captains uniform with pics of Foggia Air Field in Italy. 3 Gentlemen came by the display, stopped and looked at everything. One of them finally said, " what gives? We know where this is but you could not have been there". Explained it was my Dads. They were looking for a armorer that loaded their A/C. Got one phone number and called around trying to find him for them, no luck. So many of those guys came home and put it totally behind them. Our Greatest Generation.

[johnson1942]

when the first mustangs flew over berlin, that fat creep who was ahead of the german airforce turned to a aide and said, we have just lost the war. i like a lot of the planes from those days. they all had a thing of beauty in them.

[flyer1]

When I was learning to fly, my instructor was a p40 and p38 pilot. He was very demanding. He was later inducted into the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame. Seems like I remember he had somewhere around 30,000 hours of flying logged. I sure miss him.

[woodbutcher]

Knew a few WW2 pilots.4 of them were a real hoot to listen to.Two of then flew P51`s.The other two flew BF109`s.Listening to them you would think that WW3 was about to break out.Then,it would get real quiet,and they would bust out laughing.They agreed that with equally trained and experienced pilots,it was a real contest as to who would come out on top in a P51 vs BF109 scrap.
God bless the"Greatest Generation"we`ll never see the like of them again.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo