BOMBER: A DEFENSE REPORT ON FILM
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Year Published: 1941
Format: 16mm
Description: Consider becoming a channel member • Help us preserve more films -- become... Written and narrated by famed poet and author Carl Sandburg and released by the United States Office for Emergency Management in 1941, "Bomber" is a short version of a 19-minute film called "Building a Bomber". The poetic morale-building film examines the capacity of America's defense industry and the dedication of its workers to produce war material. The film shows the assembly of Martin B-26 Marauders at the Glenn L. Martin Company plant in Baltimore, Maryland. The aircraft was also built in Omaha, Nebraska during the war. A total of 5,288 were produced between February 1941 and March 1945; 522 of these were flown by the Royal Air Force and the South African Air Force. While original versions were viewed as dangerous to pilots due to their lack of stability, modifications made the airplane much easier to handle, and the aircraft ended WWII with the lowest loss rate of any USAAF bomber. BOMBER (:06-:22). Aircraft factory in Baltimore, Maryland. B-26 Bomber ready to leave a hangar. B-26 Bombers almost built to completion. Test pilots get onto the planes and inspect them. Pilots in the planes. Propeller starts up. B-26 Bomber takes. B-26 fly-by (:23-2:07). B-26 Bomber lands on an airstrip. Mechanics work on the bombers. Wings of the planes hang on the assembly line. A worker moves a part through a furnace using a shovel. Parts of the plane are being manufactured. Screws are inserted. Mechanics drill (2:08-4:02). Men at work on the assembly line. Parts are stacked up waiting to be assembled. Parts are carried by two men. The men wheel a cart over. The plane is being assembled on the line. A fuselage section is moved and then the section is pieced onto another larger section. A wing is slid into place to be added (4:03-6:06). Landing gear strut is brought out to be added onto the plane. A wing is riveted. The plane's engine is hoisted. Wires are encased for protection. Planes inside the hangar being finalized. The cockpit section of the plane is added. Parts of a wing are brought over by a crane (6:07-7:48). Dawn. Pilots walk over towards the B-26 Bomber. Two of the men look over plans. Propeller turns on. B-26 Bomber goes down a runway and takes off into the morning sky (7:49-9:47). End credit is a "V" for Victory (9:48-9:51). Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln.
Complete Record:
Transcription
One American airplane factory. One of many, one bomber, thousands on the way. An angel of death. Death to those who mock free people. Death to those who tell the world they are out to wreck the American democratic system. Hundreds here, thousands, tens of thousands on the way. Test flight. Every part tested, every piece of metal tested, every bolt riveted and welded seam tested under the pressure of combat conditions. Off the ground now for the first time is a complete fighting unit. Power. Power to travel far, dump her bombs, and return. power to say, "I can outfly and outfight any pursuit ship now fighting over Europe. I am the strength of the people of the free world. Heat. Heat. Here you get our insides. Aluminum alloy, light and strong. Steel, copper, brass, a dozen other metals put together like a fine watch. Wings made strong to hold her high in the air while she delivers. Each wing built to take all the pounding a superpowered motor can give it. And here is the fireb where the bomber begins to grow. Born in fire. You fight fire with fire. She's going to have the guts, wind, stamina to fight and deliver death. A belly full of it to those who are asking for it. Made of metals tempered and strong. Woven together. Strong. American mass production. American knowhow. Hands with knowhow. Minds with American knowhow. These workers, these riveters, welders, drillers, all these craftsmen have pride, a genuine pride in their share, their participation in the Titanic job we call national defense production. Parts more than 25,000 for each ship. parts stacked up, waiting to be assembled and woven into a living destroyer traveling the sky. We are taking these parts, weaving them into a thing that breathes and lives. Breathes with a spirit of America. The spirit that says, "Don't tread on me. made to stand heavy toil and struggle. Made to stand shock and storm and heavy travel. Ready to flank and outflank the enemy. Packing enough power to climb over the highest anti-aircraft barrage. Everything under control from hundreds of subasssemblies from scores of major assemblies. These precisionbuilt sections roll into final assembly. Day and night, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Body, bones, and wings roll and join into the form of a finished breathing bomber. Bombers. Thousands in the air now. Tens of thousands on the way. The motor. Raw naked power. A Niagara of horsepower. John Henry on one wing, Paul Bunan on the other. wires. Miles of wires link the nerve centers of the ship. The giant wing spar protects the cables from enemy gunfire. And she packs guns. So many guns the army won't let us tell about. A flying arsenal. She's the toughest fight in the ship of her size in the air. Here is America. Stronghearted, keen, aware, alive, massive, honest. This wing seems to say, "You can count on me. Dawn, daylight over Europe, over Asia. Night, black man. America flies into the dawn. Bombers for a new day. Heat. Heat. Humanity with all its fear, with all its hopes of future years, is hanging breaths on thy fate. Heat. Heat.
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