Descriptions of WW2 P-38 videos and gun camera footage by Jim Graham, 71st Fighter Squadron

Carl Hagen (71st) was my good friend and tentmate at the Lake Lesina Aerodrome [in Italy] where the 1st was operating from February 1945 through the end of the war. His Dad had a photo studio in Spokane and Carl was interested in photography. He visited the Group photo lab occasionally & on one occasion he 'lifted' a cassette or roll of film that he saw was labelled as gunnery films for the 71st FS. He schemed up the idea to take some supporting films of squadron activity to synthesize a simulated 'mission'. We got a gunsight camera from the ground crew & a P-38 battery to run it. I was elected to lug the battery while Carl filmed the action clips. We dreamed up a sort of scenario & staged some simulated pre/post mission scenes.

The first scene with the two pilots lugging their chutes & saying goodbye to the dog included our dog, CRAGMORE, that we brought back from rest camp at Capri was pure fiction--We always rode to the flight line on jeeps from the briefing. Don't know who the two pilots were, but suspect one of them was me. The scene with the jeep arriving at the plane may also have been me or another buddy we recruited. The dog on the jeep was HORNY, the resident Squadron dog. The P-38 # 54 in the next scene was Carl's P-38L. I don't know the actors. We took several weeks to film the whole series in between missions. We stationed ourselves near the runway to film the takeoff & landings & form-up. I notice you don't have any landings -- they were humorous at times. The gun camera films are for various planes on the Mar. 12, 1945 mission. I'm attaching the 71st mission report .