EYE SHOOTING [Main Title]

A Royal Navy training film shot in Technicolor demonstrating how to shoot down enemy aircraft with short-range shipborne anti-aircraft guns.

START 10:00:00 Opening credits informing the viewer that this film was made by Technicolor Ltd in collaboration with HMS Excellent, the Royal Navy's gunnery school at Portsmouth. 'Eye Shooting: Part 1 First Principles'. With the help of live action shots and sequences employing animation, graphics and models, the film describes the main difficulties confronting anti-aircraft gunners on board Royal Navy warships in defending themselves from air attack and sets out in detail the principles of 'eye-shooting', specifically 'aiming-off' or deflection shooting. The live action shots feature a QF 3-inch 20-cwt naval anti-aircraft gun in action, the type of high-angle gun director carried on RN warships at the beginning of the Second World War, gunnery ratings inside a computing room deep in the bowels of a warship, an Army 3.7 inch anti-aircraft gun crew in action with a range-finder and a predictor to illustrate how long-range anti-aircraft (AA) gunnery benefits from sophisticated range-finding equipment to enhance accuracy that short-range AA weapons lack. Scenes filmed on board a 'V and W'-class destroyer show its anti-aircraft gunners successfully fighting off a low-level 'enemy' air attack (delivered by a Blackburn Skua Mk II dive-bomber) with a single Vickers QF 2-pounder Mk II pom-pom and several .303 inch Lewis guns. Cartoons showing a mischievous school boy throwing snowballs and a medieval archer hunting with a strongbow are used to illustrate the principles of 'aiming-off' or deflection shooting. Two other anti-aircraft weapons used widely by the Royal Navy - the quadruple .5 inch machine-gun and the QF 2-pounder Mk V eight-barrelled pom-pom - are featured (10:05:13 - 10:05:23). The enemy aircraft featured here in animated and in model form are the Junkers Ju 88 bomber, the Messerschmitt Me 110 long-range fighter and the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bomber. This section ends by making two points: in order to hit an enemy aircraft, it is necessary to aim-off somewhere along its line of flight and the amount of aim-off depends on the speed and its direction of approach. Intertitle 'End of Part 1. Photographed in Technicolor'

10:09:19

10:10:00 Reel 2. 'Eye Shooting: Part 2 Approach Angle'. An explanation with aircraft models, graphics, animation and live action sequences of what is meant by the term 'approach angle' and how an aircraft's approach angle can be estimated with the naked eye. The live action shots feature two gunnery Petty Officers demonstrating the idea of an approach angle with 1/48 scale models of a Stuka dive-bomber, a Heinkel He 111 bomber, a Bristol Beaufort torpedo-bomber, a Junkers Ju 88 and a Messerschmitt Me 110 and an instrument that measures line of sight. Illustrated by animation sequences featuring Ju 88s and Me 110s, this section concludes with the following points. An aircraft's approach angle has nothing to do with its position in the sky, it comprises the angle between an individual's line of sight and the direction in which the aircraft is flying. An aircraft's approach angle is always increasing, especially as it gets closer. The only exception to this rule is when it's heading straight towards you, a point illustrated here with animation showing a Messerschmitt Bf 109 flying straight at the camera and a live action shot of a Royal Navy rating firing back at it with twin .303 inch Lewis guns. Intertitle 'End of Part 2 Photographed in Technicolor'.

10:23:52

10:24:00 Reel 3. 'Eye Shooting: Part 3 Direction and Amount of Aim Off'. An explanation with graphics and animation of what is meant by 'aim-off' and how the amount of aim-off is affected both by the speed at which different types of aircraft normally fly and their approach angle.

10:28:23 The film sums up this section by stating that the aim-off of a target is determined by an aircraft's speed and its approach angle and that the 'aim-off' speed is always less than the aircraft's actual flying speed when the approach angle is less than 90 degrees. Naval gunners are therefore urged to memorise speeds of different aircraft types, illustrated here with models of an Me 110 and a Stuka.

10:30:06 A section beginning with live action shots of tracer fire from a Vickers QF 2-pounder single pom pom and a Lewis gunner profiled against the dawn sky explaining the importance of quick reactions and how these can be improved, illustrated here with live action shots showing British heavyweight champion boxer Billy 'The Bombardier' Wells (1889-1967) sparring with another boxer.

10:30:53 The film notes other common mistakes in calculating the aim-off speeds and approach angles of fast-moving aircraft by naval anti-aircraft gunners and demonstrates with live action footage of a naval rating aiming and firing twin Lewis guns and with graphics and animation how 'cartwheel' anti-aircraft gun sights enable gunners to 'aim-off' correctly. However, as seen here with a quadruple .5 inch machine-gun, it is important to keep the back sight perfectly aligned with the cross-hairs on the cartwheel sight.

10:35:52 The film explains with live action footage of a quadruple .5 inch machine-gun and a single 2-pounder pom pom in action and animation how firing a stream of projectiles on a fixed line ahead of an enemy aircraft will very rarely result in a hit. Rapidly shifting point-of-view shots of the sky and the noise of approaching aircraft engines are used to demonstrate how quickly aircraft move across a typical anti-aircraft gunner's line of vision intercut with live action shots of a Royal Navy Hispano 20mm cannon detachment in action against one target and shifting its aim to another. Intertitle 'End of Part 3 Photographed in Technicolor'.

10:40:23

10:41:00 Reel 4. 'Eye Shooting: Part 4 Aiming with Two-Man Crews'. With live action footage showing teams of naval gunners operating an Oerlikon 20mm cannon, an eight-barrelled QF 2-pounder Mk V pom pom, a single 2-pounder pom pom, a quadruple .5 inch machine-gun and a QF 3-inch 20-cwt anti-aircraft gun and split-screen graphics showing the point of view through the gun sights used by the gun trainer and gun layer, the film explains the importance of team work in keeping a gun pointing at the future position of the target. With the help of graphics and animation showing Messerschmitt Me 110, Junkers Ju 88 and Heinkel He 111 aircraft flying at different approach angles and speeds, the film demonstrates how the gun trainer and gunlayer of a 3-inch anti-aircraft gun and a quadruple .5 inch machine gun co-ordinate their actions to keep the correct amount of 'aim-off' in front of their targets. Intertitle 'End of Part 4. Photographed in Technicolor'.

10:48:28 'Eye Shooting: Part 5 Maximum Effective Range'. With actuality shots of trainee gunners at HMS Excellent near Portsmouth firing quadruple .5 inch machine gun, an Oerlikon 20mm gun crew training the gun barrel on an approaching Blackburn Skua Mk II and close-up shots of the barrels of a quadruple .5 machine gun and eight-barrelled 2-pounder pom pom, this section of the film considers what constitutes the effective range of an anti-aircraft cannon with a high rate of fire. With graphics and actuality shots showing dozens of brass cartridge cases being ejected from a quadruple .5 machine gun and a single 2-pounder pom pom blazing away, the film demonstrates the folly of directing a stream of projectiles at a target beyond effective range.

10:52:45 With actuality shots of a 2-pounder 40mm projectile and the much smaller rounds fired from a quadruple .5 inch machine gun and .303 Lewis gun and graphics, the film informs the viewer that the effectiveness of anti-aircraft fire ultimately depends on the damage it can inflict on the airframe, engines and aircrew of an attacking enemy aircraft, illustrated here with a representation of a Heinkel He 111 bomber. Naval anti-aircraft gunners are reminded that opening fire at targets as they approach effective range produces far better results than firing at distances where hits are hardly ever scored.

10:54:05 Live action footage showing all the different close-range anti-aircraft guns in Royal Navy service at this stage in the war (1941-42) - the big eight-barrelled QF 2-pounder Mk V pom pom and its own director control position mounted on aircraft carriers and battleships and the smaller four-barrelled QF 2-pounder MK VII carried on cruisers and destroyers, and the smaller weapons with which small warships were normally armed, such as the single QF 2-pounder Mk II, the new Oerlikon and Hispano 20 mm cannons, the quadruple .5 inch machine gun and twin Lewis and Vickers K machine-guns, each with a .303 inch calibre. The film gives their effective ranges, from 1700 yards down to 400. With graphics and actuality shots, the film illustrates the best moment for gunners to open fire as an attacking enemy aircraft but also points out that there are occasions when an AA barrage fired at an extreme range will make a faint-hearted enemy pilot abandon his attack.

10:56:11 A live action sequence filmed on board an armed Royal Navy trawler illustrating the perils of blazing away at an attacking enemy aircraft, represented here by an RAF Bristol Blenheim light bomber, beyond effective range. A naval rating opens fire at the aircraft while it is some distance from his vessel and is struggling to replace the empty drum magazine on his .303 Lewis Gun when he is struck down by enemy fire. Another sailor steps up to replace him and waits until the enemy is well within range before opening fire. His eye shooting skills are rewarded by the sight of the enemy aircraft losing height and disappearing into the sea. Intertitle 'End of Part 5. Photographed in Technicolor'.

END 10:57:48

35mm