William Holden: "Reconnaissance Pilot" 1943 US Army Air Forces Training Film

more at http://quickfound.net/

'This military training film stars William Holden as a pilot in the Pacific Theater of the Second World War who flies reconnaissance missions over enemy-held islands. Produced by the First Motion Picture Unit during World War II.'

USAAF Training Film SFP-125

Originally a public domain film from the National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_reconnaissance

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance for a military or strategic purpose that is conducted using reconnaissance aircraft. The role of reconnaissance can fulfill a variety of requirements including artillery spotting, the collection of imagery intelligence, and the observation of enemy maneuvers...

The American F-4, a factory modification of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, replaced the nose-mounted four machine guns and cannon with four high-quality K-17 cameras. Approximately 120 F-4 and F-4As were hurriedly made available by March 1942, reaching the 8th Photographic Squadron in Australia by April (the first P-38s to see action). The F-4 had an early advantage of long range and high speed combined with ability to fly at high altitude; a potent combination for reconnaissance. In the last half of 1942 Lockheed would produce 96 F-5As, based on the P-38G with all later P-38 photo-reconnaissance variants designated F-5. In its reconnaissance role the Lightning was so effective that over 1,200 F-4 and F-5 variants were delivered by Lockheed, and it was the USAAF's primary photo-reconnaissance type used throughout the war in all combat theatres. The Mustang F-6 arrived later in the war and by spring 1945 became the dominant reconnaissance type flown by the USAAF in Europe. American photo-reconnaissance operations in Europe were based at RAF Mount Farm, with the resulting photographs transferred to Medmenham for interpretation. Approximately 15,000 Fairchild K-20 aerial cameras were manufactured for use in Allied reconnaissance aircraft between 1941 and 1945...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Holden

William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor who was one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s and 1960s. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film Stalag 17 (1953), and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for the television film The Blue Knight (1973). Holden starred in some of Hollywood's most popular and critically acclaimed films, including Sunset Boulevard, Sabrina, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Wild Bunch, Picnic and Network. He was named one of the "Top 10 Stars of the Year" six times (1954–1958, 1961), and appeared as 25th on the American Film Institute's list of 25 greatest male stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema...

Holden served as a second and then a first lieutenant in the United States Army Air Force during World War II, where he acted in training films for the First Motion Picture Unit, including Reconnaissance Pilot (1943)...