Air Action in North Africa in 1942-43

The Army Air Forces gained valuable experience in North Africa from Operation Torch in November 1942 through mid-1943. These historic film clips from the Air Force briefly tell that story. AAF P-40s are seen taking off from naval aircraft carriers in support of Torch in November 1942. The heavy rains of the winter of 1942 bogged down machines of all types. When the weather wasn't hampering the AAF, the Germans were; bombs fell on Allied airfields. A longtime tenet of military airlift gained traction in North Africa as C-47s, fresh from carrying troops or supplies to the fighting, immediately flew injured soldiers out on the backhaul to safety. Flight nurses tended the wounded men aboard the transports. Large P-38 drop tanks received rudimentary stabilizing fins in North Africa to enhance their improvised use as gasoline fire bombs. American Army engineers helped run the railroads in parts of North Africa, helping alleviate shortages in bombs and gasoline needed by the AAF. As the fate of the German Afrika Korps became clear, in 1943 numbers of Luftwaffe aircraft, including Ju-52 trimotor transports filled with retreating military members, made a run for safety across a stretch of the Mediterranean Sea. P-40s intercepted, downing many of the fighters and transports in low-level combat. AAF scenes of that battle seen in this production probably include actual gun camera footage from that event as well as some stock shots; at one point, a seemingly fleeing Me 110 may actually be a captured aircraft in the hands of the British. AAF B-17s of the 12th Air Force, their propeller blades partially sanded by the abrasive environment, joined aircraft including B-25s, A-20s, and P-40s in the assault to capture Tunis. Footage includes an extremely low-level strafing run by an RAF Hurricane as well as ground attacks by diving P-39 Airacobras. Then, as Allied tanks entered Tunis in May 1943, cameras also caught scenes of destroyed Axis aircraft and armaments. The attrition suffered by the German army and air force in North Africa was damaging to future efforts. Since this is old footage used in old Air Force films, it has come under question whether the P-38s dropping bombs on tanks at low level might actually be training footage.
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