North American B-25 Mitchell

Video from the channel DN9 Documentary about North American B-25 Mitchell, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 47:37. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

A documentary about the North American B-25 Mitchell that covers its development, mass production, the evolution of its armament and its use in the Second World War and the postwar period. It draws on abundant period footage from the factory, testing and combat.

It begins with General Billy Mitchell, after whom the aircraft is named, and his defence of air power against the opposition of the Army and the Navy, which cost him his career. It reviews the interwar period, Italy's use of bombers in Ethiopia, and North American Aviation's commitment to aircraft manufacturing, with a new plant in Los Angeles in 1936. After the failure of the XB-21 bomber, of which only one example was built, the company developed the NA-40 with its own funds, with tricycle landing gear and a twin tail. With a lowered wing and widened fuselage, the design received an order for 178 units and became the B-25.

The documentary shows static tests with lead ingots on the fuselage and 1/12-scale models dropped into water. It recounts the Doolittle raid on Tokyo from the carrier Hornet: it was launched early after the fleet was spotted, and all the aircraft were lost, but it boosted American morale. It describes production in Inglewood and Kansas City, the use of the Hollywood Park racetrack as a warehouse, and the mass entry of women onto the production lines. Field modifications in Australia led to the solid-nose versions, with up to 14 .50-calibre machine guns and, on some, a 75 mm cannon whose 14 rounds were reloaded by the radio operator. Parafrag bombing and skip bombing in the Pacific are also shown. Inglewood ended its production in 1944 with a batch of 1,000 B-25Hs; the last one, "Old Bones", carried the workers' signatures. The documentary concludes that it was the most-produced Allied twin-engine aircraft and that, after the war, it continued to serve as a trainer and transport.