Wings on Her Shoulder

Wings on Her Shoulder (1943)

As WWII continues, more and more men are called upon to take to the skies in Allied bombers for missions over Germany. As such, many ground crew in Allied air units are being filled by women. One such unit is the 9,000 strong Women's Division of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Getting recruits on average of several hundred per month, the Division is comprised of women from all backgrounds. The recruits ask for no special favors and know that the work they will be doing is hard and important all for the war effort. The women endure much the same as their male counterparts. And much as the men do, their work ranges from the technical engineering functions in support of the bombers themselves, but also in all aspects of the military. Many prepare for their post-war life where their work will act in the support of the civilian air services

Date of release
1943-07-09
Runtime
11m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Jane Marsh

Casting

Interesting facts

Wings on Her Shoulder is a 10-minute 1943 Canadian documentary film, made by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as part of the NFB's The World in Action series. The film, directed by Jane Marsh, depicts the role of the Woman's Division in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) during the Second World War, who freed up men for flying duties.

Production

Typical of the NFB's wartime series of documentary short films, Wings on Her Shoulder relied heavily on military assistance in obtaining footage. The film incorporated stock footage shot over a period of time from 1941 to 1943. While the aerial sequences were limited to available footage, some of the aerial scenes were shot in Canada and carefully edited with other footage obtained from the British Ministry of Information.

The RCAF aircraft in Wings on her Shoulder encompassed many of the types used in Bomber and Fighter Commands, by the RCAF in 1943, including:

Douglas Digby medium bomber/coastal patrol

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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