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Historical Military Aviation Footage

Black and white archival footage highlighting military aviation operations and significant events from World War II and other historical moments.

CANADA - 1942 - Patrol planes of the Royal Canadian Air Force's Coastal Command keep on the lookout for Nazi invaders.
245 assets in this story
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DF-SN-85-11896. Country: Unknown
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The Second Indochina War, known in America as the Vietnam War, was a Cold War era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the U.S. and other anti-communist nations. The U.S. government viewed involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and part of their wider strategy of containment. The North Vietnamese government viewed the war as a colonial war, fought initially against France, backed by the U.S., and later against South Vietnam, which it regarded as a U.S. puppet state. U.S. military advisors arrived beginning in 1950. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with U.S. troop levels tripling in 1961 and tripling again in 1962. U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Operations spanned
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A Consolidated B-24 Of The 8Th Air Force Coming In For A Landing.
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Detachment 101, an enigmatic Allied intelligence and special operations unit during World War II, played a pivotal role in the Burmese theater. Operating deep in the jungles of Burma, their mission was multi-faceted, encompassing guerrilla warfare, espionage, and sabotage against Japanese forces. Comprising a diverse group of individuals, from OSS agents to indigenous fighters, they effectively disrupted Japanese supply lines, gathered critical intelligence, and supported resistance movements.
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9 Smoke Screens (See Also Hendon Air Pageants 24 B). July 12, 1937. (Photo by Keystone).
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An 8th AF fighter pulls up on the tail of a Luftwaffe ME-109-F, he cocks his eye through the sight, squeezes his trigger and as his bullets stream out toward the plane ahead, hits begin to show up on the under side of the fuselage. France.
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Live Pigs Are Parachuted To The Camp: Almost all provisioning is done by plane, and World War II methods of parachuting supplies are used out in the little explored forests and jungles of far-away Ecuador. When camps are likely to stay in one place for some time (often the full exploration of an area takes half a year), a miniature farm is started with livestock. It is for this purpose that supplies such as these are sent down from the air. April 26, 1949.
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French Train as NATO Paratroopers at Pau. Photographs of Marshall Plan Programs, Exhibits, and Personnel
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The 885Th Bomb Squadron (H) Special Of The 15Th Air Force Has Been Engaged In Supplying Arms, Ammunition And Food To The Partisan Forces Of Italy, Yugoslavia And Pre-Invasion France. At The Present Time These Activities Are Being Exerted Mainly In Northe
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Vintage Photograph. The vertical launcher falls away from a Boeing IM-99 Bomarc as the new interceptor missile's booster rocket sends it hurtling into the air on a test flight from the Air Force Missile Test Center.
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A Huge Armada Of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses Of The 452Nd Bomb Group Enroute To Bomb Nazi Installations At Brunswick, Germany. 8Th Af Bombers Continually Blasted Vitally Important War Objectives To Hasten The End Of The War In The Eto, 16 March 1944.
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12/31/1912. From the Eastern War. A Serbian sentinel congested by the cold.
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Hq., 8th AAF Developed new bombing technique: Development of a new day bombardment technique enabling bombing thru solid cloud cover was announced by the 8th AF Bomber Command Hq. recently. The value of the new technique was tested in actual
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A C-2 Greyhound aircraft carrying the body of LT. Mark Adam Lange takes off from the aircraft carrier USS JOHN F. KENNEDY (CV-67). LT. Lange was killed when his A-6 aircraft was shot down during a bombing raid over Lebanon. Country: Mediterranean Sea (MED)
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''Ceux de l'air et ceux de la route; Un Aviatik, abattu par Garros 1er avril 1915, desend en tournoyant enflamme, pareil a un meteore', 1915. From "L'Album de la Guerre 1914-1919, Volume 2" L'Illustration, Paris, 1924.
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Smokejumpers: Training - Montana. Photographs Relating to National Forests, Resource Management Practices, Personnel, and Cultural and Economic History
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A Chinook flies low over a site in the direction of a truck.
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An HH-43 Pedro (Huskie) helicopter is used to rescue a downed airman from an enemy infested jungle in Southeast Asia. Country: Unknown
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Project 18 - Operation Crossroads (Bikini) Test Activities. Able Target Array in Bikini Lagoon. Photographs of Atmospheric Nuclear Testing at Pacific Island and Nevada Test Sites.
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88 "Flying Stovepipe" - Jet Engines And Ram Jets. July 3, 1946. (Photo by Associated Press Photo).
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The Two Long, White, Cloudlike Burst Are Created By Chemical Smoke Bombs Dropped At The Rendezvous Point To Enable Approaching Boeing B-29 "Superfortresses"' To Fly Directly To The Point Of Assembly, Kuala Lumpur, Malaya, 19 February 1945.
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Detachment 101, an enigmatic Allied intelligence and special operations unit during World War II, played a pivotal role in the Burmese theater. Operating deep in the jungles of Burma, their mission was multi-faceted, encompassing guerrilla warfare, espionage, and sabotage against Japanese forces. Comprising a diverse group of individuals, from OSS agents to indigenous fighters, they effectively disrupted Japanese supply lines, gathered critical intelligence, and supported resistance movements.
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Down To Earth For parachute Jumping Degree -- One of the Students who graduated from the Parachute jumping school at the Naval Air Station here, Aug. 16th, is shown passing his final test, a ***** foot leap to earth from a naval blimp. Part of the parachute is open as the other part begins to unfurl as the earth rushes ***** to him. The Students were three officers of the Navy Air Force, an officer of the Marine Corps and three enlisted, Men. August 16, 1939. (Photo by Acme).
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Operation Arc Light was the 1965 deployment of B-52D Stratofortresses as conventional bombers from bases in the US to Guam to support ground combat operations in Vietnam. By extension, Arc Light, and sometimes Arclight, is the code name and general term for the use of B-52 Stratofortress as a close air support (CAS) platform to support ground tactical operations assisted by ground-control-radar detachments of the 1st Combat Evaluation Group (1CEVG) in Operation Combat SkySpot during the Vietnam War. At the same time, investigations of secret CIA activities in Laos revealed that B-52s were used to systematically bomb Laos and Cambodia. In fact, the United States dropped more bombs on Laos than it did during World War II on Germany and Japan combined. To this day, vast areas of Laos and Cambodia are uninhabitable because of unexploded ordnance. In 1964, the U.S. Air Force began to train strategic bomber crews in the delivery of conventional munitions. Under Project Big Belly, all B-52Ds
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Planes in formation above the Jerusalem 'Y' tower. 1933, Israel
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BREACHHEAD LANDINGS. Men...
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Japaneseanese balloons with bombs are shot down, as shown in gun camera photos, by 11th AF near Attu, Aleutian Islands, 11 April 1945 at 30,000 to 37,000 feet. (Note P-38 at lower right). Nine were shot down in two hours. It is relatively easy to bring
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U.S. Dirigibles On Maneuver -- Non-rigid dirigibles of the U.S. Navy sail in a "V" formation during maneuvers over a U.S. naval air station in the Western U.S., as they head away from their hangars on a practice mission. Blimps, because of their ability to remain in the air for lengthy periods and to search at low speed for enemy underseas raiders, have played an important role in reducing the menace of German submarines to Allied shipping. April 16, 1944.
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Photo collection Service for army contacts Indonesia. DLC Landing exercises I Infantry Brigade 7-December Division in Tjilinting. Material is dropped per parachute. May 1947. Indonesia, Dutch East Indies
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Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses Of The 452Nd Bomb Group, 8Th Af, Form A Pleasing Pattern Against This Background Of Clouds While Enroute To Berlin, Germany, 6 March 1944 (Altitude 20,000 Feet). Taken By S/Sgt. E.A. Pearson.
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Aerial view of the south coast of Midden-Java between Oedjoeng Madasari (Penandjoeng bay) and tjilatjap. Photo is part of the so-called 'third exploration / propaganda flight' of soldiers from the 18th squadron ML-KNIL with a Mitchell B-25 (Registration N5-185) from Broome, along a part of the south coast of Central Java and back to Broome.
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