The Birth of the B-29 - WWII B-29 Superfortress DVD showcases the manufacturing might of WWII America in the production of the huge B-29 bomber in vast factories. See overhead cranes transporting massive 140 foot wings between workstations and armies of workers working on the many B-29 sub-assemblies.

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing. It was flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Flying Fortress, the Superfortress was designed for high-altitude strategic bombing but also excelled in low-altitude night incendiary bombing and in dropping naval mines to blockade Japan. B-29s also dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and became the only aircraft that has ever used nuclear weapons in combat.

This US Government film of the B-29 Superfortress is inappropriate in today’s context but it is a historical film and should be viewed understanding the time and audience it was directed at. It is a 1945 film commissioned by the U.S. War Department and released as War Film 30, one of a series of newsreels made during the war.

As the name implies, the film concerns the production of the B-29 Superfortress bomber and its use in the aerial bombing of Japan in World War II. Opening amid scenes of volcanic eruptions, the narrator gives a brief description of the Japanese and their warlike nature, mentioning such concepts as bushido, Hakko ichiu, and Shinto, and states the belief that everything comes from the sky. The Americans are building a devastating new weapon that will be able to travel vast distances and drop giant payloads of bombs on the Japanese mainland: the B-29.

The manufacturing of B-29 Superfortresses in huge factories is then chronicled, as Americans from every walk of life, black, white, male and female, work together to assemble the giant airplanes, each one larger than the Mayflower. The creation of the bomber is the product of all of their work, as well as the work of the miners and lumberjacks who supplied the raw material, the people who bought war bonds, and the servicemen who died so that the workers could have the time to build it. Soon the Twentieth Air Force is created and the planes are flown to China, where the Americans’ allies are happy to build airfields to help defeat the common enemy. The film ends with a B-29 taking off and the narrator saying, “Next stop – Japan!”

In NTSC DVD format and region-free with a total run time length of 22 minutes in B&W. Please note that because of the age and rarity of these films, quality can vary. Packaged in a clear plastic C-Shell case without paper graphics.