Category — Links

Greetings.

Dan Kanemoto, an award-winning filmmaker and animator posted news of his new release on the armyairforces forums this week. Articles of War is a 12 minute animated short about one pilots experiences flying a B-24 liberator during the Second world war. It looks gorgeous and this cartoon crew photo from the film is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long while. It’s great to see the Liberator and her crews in a film of their own.

You can buy the DVD from him here. At $10 it’s a steal and contains plenty of extras to pour over. In addition Dan has made the film available online here. Smart move.

More sad news last week at the passing of 448th veteran Leroy Engdahl on 8th Feb. He was 90 years old.

I interviewed Leroy on camera at a group reunion in Orlando, Florida in May 2007. He was frail but in good spirits and was able to regale us with his stories. At one point Leroy was visibly upset during the interview as he described seeing the Statue of Liberty on his return to the States by ship into New York harbour. I think this is one of the enduring images I took from those interviews and definitely something I want to put up on screen.

The amazing thing about Leroy’s story (apart from his military service) is his efforts post-war to help get the old airfield control tower at Seething up and running as a memorial and a museum. I suppose if it weren’t for him I might never have become interested in the subject or started this project because the museum was the starting point for me.

Read an obituary here (with a few typos unfortunately)

And a little more info on Leroy here from The Liberator Legend: the plane and the people By Turner Publishing, Philip A. St. John

This is one of my favourite photos of Leroy, talking to local children from Seething Primary School (I think), taken in 1984.

Courtesy of Patricia Everson.

Great news from the States this past week as research by John Beckwith leads to DNA identification of a lost 448th pilot’s remains.

He will now be reburied in his hometown of Akron, Ohio.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/08/world_war_ii_pilots_remains_fi.html

Here’s an interesting flickr set about a PB4Y crash during the Second World War in China.

Great shot from the top turrett of the Collings Foundations B-24 Liberator

This liberator has teeth.

And another great flickr set this time about Belle of the East.