Security being an important wartime measure, this aircraft carrier's name was classified as a result. However, most of the footage, above and below decks, about life aboard a carrier was filmed aboard the newly commissioned ESSEX class carrier, YORKTOWN. She was named and sponsored by Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt January 1943 after the "OLD YORKY" which was lost during the The Battle of Midway

The Navy Department reported that at least 75 percent of the documentary footage was shot aboard YORKTOWN, with the remaining footage shared between HORNET and TICONDEROGA. And one scene filmed aboard BUNKER HILL.

Before shaping a course for Panama and transit through the canal, and while still on her shakedown cruise in the Caribbean Sea Frontier Area, Commander Frank "Spig" Wead, the crippled naval aviator turned screenwriter was instrumental in getting YORKTOWN's captain, J.J. "Jocko" Clark to allow Twentieth Century Fox to film some background shots for the new war movie, "Wing and a Prayer", starring Dana Andrews, Don Ameche, and Charles Bickford.

The carrier transits and clears the Panama Canal and shapes a course out into the Pacific. So YORKTOWN along with her ESSEX class sisters would become, before Japan surrendered, the champions of the Pacific naval campaign. They were to carry the ball, the Sunday punch, all the way to Tokyo Bay.

Of all the combat photography recorded it was the aerial footage that was impressive for its time. With the strafing and bombing of ground targets on Marcus Island YORKTOWN's aviators receive their baptism of fire. They could now call themselves combat veterans. Then there is the strike against the large Japanese naval anchorage at Truk Lagoon in the Carolines.

Appearing on the film with members of his staff is Vice Admiral Marc A. "Pete" Mitscher. Also present with Mitscher but not named was Rear Admiral John S. "Slew" McCain. His grandson being Lt Commander John S. McCain III. The Viet Nam war veteran. Now serving as the Senator for Arizona.

There is a fine aerial shot of the carrier task force resting at anchor at Majuro Atoll in the Marshal Islands early in 1944. Three of YORKTOWN's sister ships are present along with the older battle-hardened veteran the venerable ENTERPRISE. Also at anchor the battleships INDIANA, and a NEW Mexico class battleship along with cruisers, destroyers and other support ships. Standing out and conspicuously painted white overall, BOUNTIFUL AH-9, a naval hospital ship.

During the assault on the Marianas Islands June 1944 the Japanese Mobile Fleet launched 373 aircraft to attack the U.S. Fleet. The combined squadrons of YORKTOWN and her sister carriers of Vice Admiral Mitscher's Task Force 58 intercepted the attack, with the loss to the enemy of more than 300 aircraft destroyed. So the Battle of the Phillipine Sea was to become just as famously known as, The Great Marianas Turkey shoot.

Plaudits then are well deserved for Edward Steichen but certainly no less to Dwight Long and other photographers who presided over the job of shooting thousands of feet of 16mm Kodachrome film stock. The film actor Robert Taylor was the narrator. His voice was crisp and clear and easy recognisable.

Twentieth Century Fox's Darryl F. Zanuck was not known to be very interested about releasing the documentary under the Fox logo. That's until he was persuaded to view it. He was impressed by what he saw. The story goes that he suggested giving it the title, "The Fighting Wench"! Who would not have cringed at such a brain dead title as that! An ungracious suggestion. Yorktown was indeed a great lady, as were her other sisters of the Essex class. So, recorded for posterity was a fine 60 minute documentary. The 1944 Oscar it received was well and truly deserved.

First saw this when I was 9 years old. All I remember is the color film in the gun cameras and all the action. Sad to see that the movie isn't even listed in most data bases (thanks IMDb)!

Does anyone know how to locate a copy of this film?

This was directed by William Wyler and narrated by Robert Taylor (LT, USNR). It's an effective color film of some of the battles in which the carrier Enterprise was involved up to and including much of 1944.

For those familiar with the historical setting, some of it may be rudimentary. Reserve officers are known as "ninety-day wonder" and gossip is called "scuttlebutt." And some of the gun camera footage will be familiar, but much of it is new, at least to me. The newer footage isn't as good as the rest, which, I suppose, is why it's less often borrowed for use in other documentaries and in feature films like "Flying Leathernecks." Some footage of crashes on the flight deck have been borrowed and used repeatedly in other films.

It's an hour long and it covers three main battles of increasing intensity: a raid on Makin Island, the pre-invasion preparation of Kwajalein, and the battle of the Phillipine Sea. The last is generally referred to as "the Marianas turkey shoot," in that we lost some twenty-two airplanes compared to the Japanese three hundred and some. No mention of the airplanes lost while returning in darkness, or of Mitscher exposing his fleet by having the ships turn on their searchlights to guide the lost aircraft home. And the Japanese flyers are described as believing that aerobatics can save them whereas our aviators believe in smooth flying and straight shooting. The fact is that by this time most of the seasoned Japanese pilots had been lost and their airplanes were now flown by novices with far less flight time and training than our own. Not to mention that the Zero had about half the horsepower of the American fighters and were forced to rely mainly on the maneuverability of their aircraft.

The narration is reasonably accurate. When Lt. Taylor tells us that a destroyer is being strafed, we don't see some lowly trawler getting the business. He explains what a gun camera is and introduces us to the various duties of the crew as well as the aviators.

Between and before engagements there are the usual formulaic scenes of men receiving mail, baking bread, playing acey ducey, being bored, attending religious services, chowing down, and so forth.

World War II was not a war of choice. We were at peace when we were attacked at Pearl Harbor. Three days later, Hitler declared war on the United States. And this is a flag waver designed to boost morale at home and in the Armed Forces. And yet, at a remove of some seventy years, there's still something disturbing about the way Robert Taylor's voice conveys his contempt for the enemy. It's not just that he, or rather the writer, calls them "monkeys" but it's in the other, more subtle ways, in which the "Japs" are dehumanized. "That's one Jap ship that won't be taking more rice and saki to the soldiers". And "when our planes left, Kwajalein was burning verrry satisfactorily." And, "There's something grand about boring down on the base the Japanese have so jealously guarded." "That Mavis is a tough old bird," as ten men die a flaming death.

No blame attaches to Taylor, the writer or director, and certainly not to the men, some of whom we get to know before they are lost in action. The movie did its job in its time and is still a fascinating picture of a ship at war. The sad thing is not the movie or the ship but war itself, so heroic and so foolish.