HMS ILLUSTRIOUS DURING AIR OPERATIONS AGAINST SAKISHIMA GUNTO, OPERATION ICEBERG ONE [Allocated Title]

I. Reel One. HMS Illustrious. Corsairs take off in a dawn raid. Corsair 130 lands on. Landing Signals Officer uses illuminated bats. Corsair 123 lands on. MLS fine on the port bow of HMS Swiftsure, Flag of CS4 - HMS Urania (D.27) crosses right to left in foreground. CU as armourers fit tail assembly to a 500-pound - one taps the tail with the wooden handle of a hammer to align it correctly. Two men each push along a two-wheeled dolly carrying suspended a 250-pound depth charge - they walk away from the camera towards parked Avengers. Man pushes a trolley carrying a fused 500-pound bomb - CUs below aircraft as bomb is winched up to suspension point below port wing. Corsair 116 and 129 run up at the head of a range. LA.CU of the airscrew of 116. CUs of 8-barrel 2-pounder on island as the gun trains round, firing at high elevation - 6 of the 8 barrels are firing - one of the gun numbers holds a wooden mallet to clear any jams - Corsairs and Avengers are parked aft, wings folded. LA.MS of single 40mm Bofors on pedestal mount before bridge - it fires a few rounds. A trolley carrying a 22-inch torpedo comes up on lift and is wheeled along deck by three men. MS to HMS Urania as it pulls away from Illustrious - two of the carrier's watch the destroyer depart. Group MS of ship's air crews assembled on deck before Corsairs, parked with canvas coverings over the engine cowlings - airmen don flying helmets and disperse. CU of Avenger's mission score - pilot gives thumbs up to deck crew and puts on flying helmet. Bombardier boards aircraft carrying maps. MS over well of deck elevator - on the far side a tractor stands waiting - Corsair 126 comes up. Scene on hangar deck as a Corsair in manhandled onto the lowered elevator, and LA shot as the aircraft rises out of sight. Other ships of the fleet, framed in scuttles on hangar deck - HMS King George V with a destroyer close alongside, HMS Swiftsure, HMS Victorious (?) - the sequence is shot at a replenishment point, with tankers and escort carriers in company. CU as Avenger 374 (serial FN 845) runs up engine and straightens wings - aircraft's mission score stands at nine - 374 is launched by catapult. Eight Avengers fly overhead. MLS along port side to LSO directing a landing - as a Corsair runs past the camera, hookmen scramble out to free the arrester gear. Avenger lands on. Marshalling director sends Avenger 377 forward. MS of destroyer HMS Quality - frame right cuts the hull just aft of prominent SW.RDF tower between the torpedo tubes. Reel Two. HA.MS aft from the island as a TBD Avenger straightens wings prior to take off. After a flight has left the carrier, the deck crew head for the island. Two Avengers from HMS Indomitable make practice strikes - aircraft 375 goes low over the flight deck, bomb bay doors open. Formations of Avengers fly past. HA.MS from island to running range of Corsairs - 131 and 112 take off. Corsairs land on - the third aircraft aborts. Another range of Corsairs, and aircraft taking off. Disjointed sequence showing crash-landed Corsair 141 - the aircraft rests on its nose, smoke billowing from the open cockpit - crash crew spray the aircraft with foam as it is righted and then picked up by the crane and dumped over the side. Avengers land on - 383 bounces high after taking the wire. Bosuns chair brings two men onboard from a W Class (?) destroyer running close alongside - possibly rescued aircrew. HA.MS aft as Corsair 122 is towed forward by a tractor - Avengers are parked aft. Mixed range of Corsairs and Avengers prepare to take off.

II. Cameraman on escort carrier. MS from island across flight deck to HMS Speaker as she overhauls the cameraship - a cruiser is refuelling in background at the beginning of the sequence - Firefly and Avenger on cameraship's flight deck. HMS Wager (D.30) closes and a rocket line is fired across her focsle from carrier - the destroyer heaves in the long Pacific swell. Carrier crew haul on jackstay. In the surrounding area are HMS King George V and HMS Howe, and carriers, cruisers and destroyers of TF 57. Transfer of two men to another escort carrier. The cameraship falls off onto the carrier's starboard quarter, and the effects of the swell can be seen - as the carrier's stern lifts, her single propeller breaks the surface, churning up the water. Sequence showing a man transferred from HMS Wager - crewmen haul on jackstay - in the background, stores are piled on deck in front of a parked Firefly Mk 1. Stores are transferred to the to the destroyer. Further transfer of personnel. MLS of tanker - partially obscured by the heavy swell. LS to HMS Euryalus refuelling - on deck are Avengers, Seafires, and a Firefly. HA to HMS Wager - the destroyer is very close on the starboard quarter - so close that the party on her forecastle run to the starboard side as a wave carries the destroyer under cameraship's lee - rolling heavily Wager makes stern way to haul off. MS over twin Oerlikon AA to destroyer as it flashes a signal.

III. HMS Illustrious. Corsair 123 lands on. Deck crew walk clear of an aircraft range. Chocks are removed from Corsair 113. Lookout keeps watch from multiple 2-pounder mounting on island. Flight Deck Officer waves Corsair 119 away. Corsairs overhead. LSO at work. Corsair 146 takes the wire, bouncing very high and landing heavily. Returned aircrew walk to the island. CUs of Bofors crew holding up a Japanese liferaft recovered after kamikaze attack of 6 April. Corsair 117 lands on. HA.MS aft from island as aircraft come up on elevator to join a range. Corsair lands on - well over to port side, it is nevertheless successfully arrested. LS as tracers are fired off at a distant aircraft, high over the fleet. Avenger lands on.

35mm