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    • Museum Audio Tour 9: Air Power Gallery: Taking the Offensive – Mediterranean

      Audio by NMUSAF PA   |   National Museum of the U.S. Air Force   |   12.31.1969

      During World War Two, operations were conducted throughout several different theaters -- or places of action. In the Mediterranean, the U.S. Army Air Forces began using aircraft such as the British Bristol Beaufighter, an effective night fighter, in the summer of 1943. Beaufighters flew night cover for Allied forces in Italy and France until the closing days of World War II. The British......

    • Museum Audio Tour 8a: Air Power Gallery: WASP

      Audio by NMUSAF PA   |   National Museum of the U.S. Air Force   |   12.31.1969

      As early as 1930, the War Department considered using women pilots, but the Chief of the U.S. Army Air Corps called the idea "utterly unfeasible," stating that women were too "high strung." Nothing was done until after the American entry into World War Two. Facing the need for male combat pilots, the situation by mid-1942 favored the use of experienced women pilots to fly U.S. Army Air Forces......

    • Museum Audio Tour 8: Air Power Gallery: Training During the War

      Audio by NMUSAF PA   |   National Museum of the U.S. Air Force   |   12.31.1969

      It was imperative that the United States have qualified pilots, navigators, bombardiers and gunners in the air and qualified maintenance people on the ground during World War Two. As you look throughout the Air Power Gallery, especially at the planes suspended from the ceiling, you will see many of the training aircraft that prepared airmen for combat. One small, unusual-looking contraption......

    • Museum Audio Tour 07b: Air Power Gallery: Doolittle Raid

      Audio by NMUSAF PA   |   National Museum of the U.S. Air Force   |   12.31.1969

      In the early months of the war, following the Japanese successes at Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines, American morale was very low. The United States needed a military victory, so a plan was devised for a daring air raid on the Japanese homeland. The top secret plan called for B-25s to take off about 450 miles from Japan on a Navy aircraft carrier, bomb selected targets then fly another......

    • Museum Audio Tour 07a: Air Power Gallery: Bataan Death March

      Audio by NMUSAF PA   |   National Museum of the U.S. Air Force   |   12.31.1969

      Pearl Harbor was psychologically and militarily devastating, and the Bataan Death March was also a disturbing blow. The march began on April 10, 1942, after the American commander ordered troops to surrender due to a hopeless situation. The Japanese assembled about 78,000 prisoners-of-war – both American and Filipino. They began marching up the east coast of Bataan. Although they didn't......

    • Museum Audio Tour 07: Air Power Gallery: On the Defensive

      Audio by NMUSAF PA   |   National Museum of the U.S. Air Force   |   12.31.1969

      At 7:55 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, a Japanese force of 183 planes - without warning - attacked U.S. military facilities at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands. For 30 minutes, dive bombers, level bombers and torpedo planes struck airfields and naval vessels. A second wave of 170 planes launched another attack at 8:40 a.m. that lasted an hour. The Japanese had dealt the United States a......

    • Museum Audio Tour 06: Air Power Gallery: Introduction

      Audio by NMUSAF PA   |   National Museum of the U.S. Air Force   |   12.31.1969

      As you leave the Early Years Gallery, you’ll soon be fully immersed in the history of the U.S. in World War Two. The hallway leading to the Air Power Gallery displays the story of the Holocaust. The exhibit shows first-hand accounts of people – including U.S. airmen – who experienced some aspect of this dark moment in history. The museum’s gallery dedicated to the Second World War......

    • Museum Audio Tour 05: Early Years Gallery: World War II Begins

      Audio by NMUSAF PA   |   National Museum of the U.S. Air Force   |   12.31.1969

      In 1939 Europe again plunged into war, and the U.S. was soon training new pilots for combat. The experience of many a raw recruit learning how to fly is depicted in the BT-14 training diorama. It shows the common BT-14 trainer of the day, nose down, prop bent, mechanics puzzled and the instructor delivering a lecture … all in recognition of the Air Corps' ability to train 250,000 pilots......