"Reconnaissance Pilot" (1943) - Pacific War Pilot William Holden - REEL History

e [Music] [Music] [Applause] no you can't sleep you envy that kid next to you Swabbies can sleep anywhere but you can't sleep because you're keyed up you're going home home to Culver Springs you've been out there 14 months and you're tired dog tired you're tired from flying 52 long tough combat missions in a P38 but you feel good about one you're going home and when you land she'll be waiting for you at the airport Catherine she'll be there and when you feel her in your arms those 14 months will melt away like a ground Haze in the morning sun Packer a Cummings first lieutenant Army Air Forces dog tag number 0451 859 you're headed for home and Catherine will be waiting [Music] well here you are Lieutenant Cummings home from the wars and you're scared stiff as you look for that one beautiful [Music] face and then you see her brother she looks so good it makes you catch your breath [Music] P oh how wonderful to see you hello Aunt me Hello darling how you look [Music] homey 14 months you've waited for this moment and it's just as good as you dreamed it would be than Packy my boy hello Mr Newton I didn't want to miss interviewing the Town Hero how's it feel to get back it feels good you never were a kid to talk much how many planes you knocked down many's your old man last war well I got one zero Mr Newton oh but you said you oh you talk too much what about the jab Pilots huh George you can get your story in the morning he's tired we're all going up to the house I have some nice coffee and sandwiches ready it's funny first thing I get to eat when I get home is a spam sandwich Packy you told Mr Newton you only got one zero well even in the citation had said that you were responsible for 200 jet planes records 26 Joe Foss but if was 200 even a general said so py what was it like out there oh it wasn't too bad no you don't feel like talking about it not now but as you sit there with Catherine it all flashes through your brain fast and [Music] clear citizen of the United States citizen of the United States do hereby acknowledge do hereby acknowledge to have voluntarily enlisted to have voluntarily enlisted this date December 8th 1941 this date September 8th 1941 in the army of the United States in the army of the United States for the duration of the war plus 6 months for the duration of the war plus 6 months [Music] he [Music] [Music] there's no special thrill when they solo you at primary you've got nothing to worry about flyings in your blood and when you're in an airplane you're home is that your kid up there soloing yeah but there's nothing to worry about he can fly better than I can that's Wild Bill Cummings kid you breathe through Primary in basic and by the time you reach the heavier stuff in advance you feel it won't be long now until you get into the kind of airplane you know you are made for the fighters well from then on things move quickly [Music] then you get your assignment Fighters that's your baby a custommade job $75,000 fob Burbank cash twintail all the latest features Kingpin of the fighters hello paky glad to have you with us well thank you Colonel Henry you were bound to wind up in Fighters what do you hear from your father he's in Australia sir just got his star he's commanding the 138 Fighter Wing I hope you're get in his command he's a good man to fly with oh the things why Bill Cummings could do with a spat 22 Germans he got in the last show well it gives me something shoot at sir yes I guess he's as good a fight a pilot has ever lived well I'll drive in and see me yes sir you learn to fly that airplane you're doing good work and you feel good until that night liutenant Lieutenant yes there's a longdistance call for you sir I think it's your mother thank [Music] you oh hello ma all right let's have it how'd it happen on a mission huh keep your chin up Ma I'll get a pass and how to get the first plane out in the morning I should be there by tomorrow afternoon keep your chin [Music] up my father was killed in action chaps [Music] full of hate now you practice Gunnery until you can aim that airplane like a shotgun then the co called you and you know this is it sit down py they tell me you're good you're number one in your class ready to ship what theater sir well you're not going to a theater you're being assigned to a reconnaissance training unit you're going in an F5 outfit F5 oh but Colonel well as you know it's a stripped down P38 it's an awfully good airplane do close to 450 straight and level I know that sir but no guns that's right no guns it's an airplane to do one job to fly a camera sir you said I was number one in my class I've worked my head off here to become a fighter pilot I want to kill Japs that's what Dad would want me to do why pick me to fly a camera because you're the best fighter pilot here and it takes the best to fly reconnaissance look here py I'm all for good Fighters myself but reconnaissance is important and I know one thing if Wild Bill Cummings was sitting right here at this desk he'd tell you to do the job they give you to do now be a good soldier good luck liutenant thanks [Music] sir going to fly a brownie [Music] [Applause] introducing you to the k17 and K18 aerial cameras this K18 can take pictures from 30,000 ft that'll pick out the eggs in a robin's nest and they're the only excuse for ever taking an F5 into the air yeah I think how many Japs you can kill with them they pour it on at reconnaissance training navigation tests in the high altitude chamber the link trainer radio the Allison engine photography and one high altitude mission after another you have to fly high because you have no guns and altitude and speed are your only protection you're not happy it's a chauffer's job you don't want to photograph Japs you want to pour lead into them but you do your job and beef as little as possible even though you're sick at not being in Fighters and then one day 3 months later you look down and you're flying over the Owen Stanley range in New Guinea on the other side of the world it's your first mission and you're going a long way from your base you're headed for kawia your job is to photograph a big air drone the Japs are building there according to the intelligence officer who briefed you this is a very important hall now we're keeping an eye on the Kaa air Drome because one of these days when it's finish the nips are going to start piling airplanes up there for a big push South we have to be ready for it or we're going to be in trouble now take off at 1100 and when you get within 150 Mi of the target be sure you're up at least 25,000 ft you're not too impressed you're playing Indian Scout the only difference is the Indian Scout had guns and all you've got is at 45 automatic that's for snakes in case you're forced down over the jungle you're all alone behind the Enemy Lines you're your own pilot Navigator radio man and photographer and that sky is about the loneliest place in the world then you're near the target the Squints are putting up the aak intense and accurate it's your first time Under Fire and suddenly you realize something it's a surprise those guys are trying to kill you but you're too high and going too fast you reach your spot and you reach up and push the button when you press that button you start a camera going and the Kaia air Drome is beneath you you don't see an airplane and it beats you why they should want pictures of tractors and men with pics some job for a guy that wanted to kill Jabs it's so you start for [Applause] home you make it back to Port morby your base without incident as they say in the communic cas well photo Joe what did you see what did you do got four zeros use spit balls very insanitary they unload your camera Rush the negative to the portable lab develop it and make prints you're doing this because you understand the conscientious Recon pilot always follows his pictures through to see how they turn out very pretty I'll take two dull and two glosses you're now a full-fledged photo Joe and the name gripes [Music] you you fed up to the ears but there's nothing you you can do about it you do your job as well as you can and keep your beefs to yourself and you fly that F5 on mission after mission you fly the milk Run To kawia You photograph jungles and beaches but a tree is a tree in a strip of sand is a beach and from 5 miles up they all look alike the war seems far away you realize that men are fighting and dying in those pictures you get but it seems as remote to you as if you read about it in the newspaper more months pass today you're headed back for the kawia air drone you've photographed it so many times you know it like the palm of your hand but you've never seen an airplane there as far as you're concerned the kawia run is still a waste of time you're knocking it off at 350 mph at 28,000 ft and you're getting close to Kaia and you see trouble a nip Patrol of 5 zeros you drop your belly tanks they don't want want you to photograph that air drone [Music] why your Oxygen's [Music] gone down you go without oxygen you can only stay conscious for 30 seconds at that altitude your heart Hammers and you fight to keep from blacking out you're out of range you still got a job to do photograph that air drone below you you get set for your camera running head in they're putting up everything they've gotten your cameras are running and you look down and there's nothing there you can't figure it [Music] out get in those clouds uh-oh Mr [Music] squinty that must be laughing at you look at him waving his tail in your face he knows you haven't any guns but he better pull out if he lets you get any closer you'll climb all over him he's pretty cocky if he'll only stay cocky another 5 Seconds keep on his tail ride him ride him into that [Music] ocean and you're the first reconnaissance pilot in history to down an enemy fighter without guns as you head for home you feel swell your old man would be proud of you [Music] there someone that's Packy all right [Music] [Music] better set for the meat wagon he's been hit never mind it doesn't matter much nice going boy good work Lieutenant un ly spoted report you got a zero it's been confirmed congratulations boy did we have fun Lieutenant you must have flew the ears off that job let me shake your hand thanks ma all right now let's get that hand taken care of okay I'm willing you're pretty proud no matter how you look at it you were really flying that airplane well you got to do better than that wait a minute wait a minute that calls for a toast he's to the F5 the rabbit of the blue New Guinea Skies except when it's flown by Packy Cummings when it becomes a killer could have done with any you guys just come from the bomber command every bomber on the Island's pulling out must be a terrific mission where are they going Kaia bless you let's go come they sending out the whole bloody Air Force are you Kaia what about it I didn't see anything L of Japs are going to fight with bulldozers y any way you look at it this has been a big day for you and it's going to get a lot bigger sit down lieutenant thank you sir how about cumming's Mission very good pictures of the Kaa AER Drome sir the conditions under which Lieutenant Cummings got them were extremely hazardous he was attacked by 10 enemy airplanes but flew to the Target and got his pictures anyway good very commendable Cummings you acted in the best tradition of reconnaissance it's good stuff I'm going to recommend very strongly that you be sided well thank you sir how about the zero the lieutenant got was it confirmed yes it was attacked by this enemy plane Lieutenant Cummings through Superior combat flying forced him into the sea well for that Lieutenant you'll be grounded and confined to quarters you think you've gone nuts you can't be hearing right what did you say sir that's right grounded and confined to quarters but why I'll show you P up your chair here are the pictures you took at Kaia air drone you couldn't see anything but your camera did this is the picture before and after see these camouflaged airplanes there and there very clever dispersement there are 200 airplanes at Kia or were and all our bombers and Fighters have gone after them you used your head when you figured there was something up and that job Patrol came after you and you risk your life going over the target at a dangerously low altitude to get your pictures and then you had to spoil it com how could you dare risk not getting those pictures back by going into that wild circus act with that fighter do you realize those 200 planes in a surprise attack could have wiped out our air insulation in this area that might have changed the whole course of the war you wanted to be a fighter pilot didn't you because of your father probably you never stopped to think that a reconnaissance pilot is the greatest mass killer of the moral did you why in the battle of the bismar sea a Recon plane killed 15,000 chaps just by spotting that Fleet concentration a radio message from that single airplane sent a whole Air Force into action that's responsibility my boy and that kind of responsibility can't be handled by men who want to fight zeros without guns let me tell you a few facts about reconnaissance IT Supplies 90% of our air intelligence today in the Battle of Tunisia it saved thousands of lives Montgomery and Eisenhower both stopped the war for two days because they wouldn't move without pictures the fate of every solder in this war is determined every day by the pictures you men bring in think about that the next time you want a horse around playing the big Ace will you that's all [Music] [Music] there she is Kaia [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] first lieutenant Joseph Kilgore air metal well it came out all right the destruction of that air fleet taught you your lesson because now you know that more and better aerial pictures will end this war just that much sooner first lieutenant Packard day Cummings distinguished service cross congratulations Lieutenant Cummings thank you sir you can say and rightly so that you were responsible for the destruction of 200 enemy aircraft your father would have been very proud of you yes sir you know now that a photo Joe is a big man in this scrap you've been on 52 missions now they're going to send you home to instruct think of the Yarns you can spill to your kids because brother you've been to war she wants to know what it was like you'll tell her someday but right now you don't feel like talking wasn't so bad wasn't bad at all of course we had to do without [Music] this the film you've just seen is fiction of course that is the part about my being a general son and all that but the adventures I went through are real and these are the two men who actually did the things on which the film was based this is Major Alex Gary the most decorated Recon pilot in our Air Forces he's the one who's blamed for forcing the jab zero into the war and this is Major Arthur El post who among other things spent a 100 days in the jungles of New Britain before finally returning to his base that's the DSC they're home on leave and when that's over they'll return to the South Pacific is there anything you'd like to say gentlemen I'm not good at this I get nervous major post we'd rather be in the South Pacific not as many automobiles or reckless drivers thanks for watching if you'd like to help us produce more compelling historical content like this please like comment below and share this video with fellow history Buffs and of course be sure to subscribe to help keep history happening [Music]