The Despatch Rider and The Wren is part of the British War Stories series, this episode focusses on husband and wife John and Margaret Gordon. During the Second World War John started out serving in the anti-aircraft artillery before becoming a despatch rider. Motorcycle despatch riders had one of the most dangerous jobs during both WWI and WWII,…
The Spitfire Pen is a creation of the Hordern Richmond Aircraft Company, they’ve been in business since 1937 when the company was founded by Frederick Gordon-Lennox (the 9th Duke of Richmond) and Edmund Hordern. During WWII they built many of the propellers for British fighters and bombers, as well as the Hordern Richmond Autoplane. In…
If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to fly a chopper, this 1952 US Navy Training Film will do an excellent job of getting you started – it’s surprisingly detailed, and it starts out all the way back in the time of Leonardo da Vinci, then follows major iterations in design until 1952. This film…
MWC is a Swiss company founded in the 1970s that designs and builds watches for military units around the world, as well as police forces, anti-terrorist units, mining companies, specialist marine security units, shipping and salvage organizations, and a wide variety of government agencies and departments. Each MWC watch is made with three criteria in…
This is a 1961 U.S. Air Force Training Film titled “Helicopter Rescue Operations”, it covers the use of the Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw in rescue procedures, and goes into quite a bit of interesting detail about how these operations were (and still are) conducted. The film runs at just under 33 minutes in length, and by…
The Enigma was invented shortly after the end of the First World War, and it would go on to be one of the most important machines of the Second. The device itself is relatively small, about the size of a mobile typewriter, but it was capable of encrypting messages in any of 159 million million…
This is the original United States Army Air Forces training film for trainee pilots of the North American B-25 Mitchell – a tough-as-nails bomber that served in every theater of World War II and stayed in active service for over 40 years. Over 10,000 B-25 Mitchells were built and there are many airworthy examples still…
Autobiography of a Jeep is a relatively short film at just under 10 minutes in length, it was created in 1943 during the Second World War by United Films to show young GIs how the Jeep had come about, and also to instill a certain amount of affection in their hearts for the little 4×4. It’s…
Designated “SdKfz 2” by the German military but more commonly known as the “Kettenkrad”, the tracked motorcycle was used extensively on both the Eastern Front and the North African desert, and it retains the historical distinction of being the fastest tracked vehicle of the Second World War. The Story of the SdKfz 2 Kettenkrad The top speed…
Taking an original 1958 Daimler Ferret Scout Car and fitting it with a paintball gun is the kind of thing many of us like would do, given the appropriate financial resources and free time. Fortunately, an eccentric Brit found the time and money, and this is the result. History of the Daimler Ferret Scout Car The Daimler Ferret…
The Harley-Davidson MT500 is a bit of an unusual motorcycle. It’s thought that just 500 were ever made, and it’s not known how many have survived in original condition. The MT500 is powered by a 500cc Rotax single-cylinder, air-cooled engine with 4 valves, 5 gears, and kickstart only. It’s a mechanically simple motorcycle designed explicitly…
Shotgun Rider is a 1967 training film created by The Army Pictorial Center for new recruits in training for deployment to Vietnam as helicopter door gunners – nicknamed “shotgun riders”. Despite the name, door gunners actually used M60 machine guns, which they trained to use both on a mount and freehand. The film features a…
