SFR Productions and History Adventures

20/05/2025

A few photos of Military Aviation on Peleliu from my collection of National Archives photos. More photos posted soon.

19/05/2025

A few photos of the Marines and Soldiers on Peleliu from my collection of National Archives photos. More photos posted soon.

13/05/2025

A few aerial photos of Peleliu and Ngesebus from my collection of National Archives photos. More photos posted soon.

12/05/2025

Peleliu landing beaches September 15, 1944. A few photos from my Peleliu Photo Collection. More photos of Peleliu to follow.

14/03/2025

The Avro Vulcan is a jet-powered, tailless, delta-wing, high-altitude, strategic bomber, which was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1956 until 1984. This Avro Vulcan XM605 is on display at the Castle Air Museum in Atwater California.

13/03/2025

The Battle of Xa Cam My was fought over two days from April 11–12, 1966. Operation Abilene was a U.S. search and destroy mission with the US Army 1st Infantry Division, subsequently planned to lure out the VC by using Charlie Company, 2/16th Infantry as a bait. Charlie Company would be surrounded by Viet Cong troops and begin to take casualties. On April 11, 1966, the Joint Rescue Center dispatched two Huskies from Detachment 6 to extract a half-dozen or more Army casualties of Charlie Company. Onboard one of the Huskie helicopters was Pararescue William Hart Pitsenbarger. Upon reaching the site of the ambush, Pitsenbarger was lowered through the trees to the ground where he attended to the wounded before having them lifted to the helicopter that was hovering above the jungle canopy. After six wounded men had been flown to an aid station, the two U.S. Air Force helicopters returned for their second load.

As one of the helicopters lowered its litter basket to Pitsenbarger, who was administering aid to the wounded, it was hit by a burst of enemy fire. The pilot realized he had to get the helicopter away from the area as soon as possible or risked crashing. Pitsenbarger elected to remain with the Army troops under enemy attack and he gave a "wave-off" to the helicopter which flew away to safety. With heavy mortar and small-arms fire, the helicopters could not return to rescue Pitsenbarger.

Pitsenbarger tended to the wounded soldiers, hacking splints out of snarled vines and building improvised stretchers out of saplings. When the others began running low on ammunition, he gathered ammunition from the dead and distributed it to those still alive. Then, he joined the others with a rifle to hold off the Viet Cong. Pitsenbarger was killed by Viet Cong snipers later that night. Although Pitsenbarger did not escape alive, the other 60 men did.

Pitsenbarger was awarded the Air Force Cross for his actions in 1966. After a review of his actions nearly 35 years later his original award was upgraded to the Medal of Honor. On December 8, 2000, at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, the airman's father, William F. Pitsenbarger, and his mother, Alice, accepted the Medal of Honor. The 2019 film The Last Full Measure depicting Pitsenbarger's actions and life. (Photos from display at The National Museum of the United States Air Force)

12/03/2025

The Japanese holdouts of Peleliu. After the battle of Peleliu had ended in 1944 a group of 33 Japanese soldiers held out by hiding in caves on the island of Peleliu. In 1947 only about 150 Marines remained on the island and the Japanese attacked a Marine patrol. Reinforcements were called in to track down the Japanese holdouts. Japanese Prisoner of War Rear Admiral Michio Sumikawa was brought in from Guam to make contact with the holdouts. Finally after many attempts the group of 33 Japanese soldiers surrendered in April 1947.

11/03/2025

Andersonville National Historic Site, Georgia. Andersonville was built as a stockade by the Confederates to hold captured Union Army prisoners. Built to house roughly 10,000 men, the prison quickly was over crowded with over 32,000 captured soldiers. Lack of food, contaminated water, disease and shelter for the prisoners added to the misery. In the 14 months it was active as a prison just under 13,000 prisoners died and they were buried just outside the prison walls. Andersonville National Historic Site has three locations, the site of the former prison Camp Sumter, Andersonville National Cemetery and the National Prisoner of War Museum to honor all US prisoners of war from all wars. I encourage everyone to visit and tour the site.

08/03/2025

YouTube has been my primary social media for videos and I know that most of us have a preference on what platform we use each day. I am trying to grow the SFR Productions footprint on social media so we are going to start posting more in the future. My videos will primarily be found on YouTube and large photo collections will be found on my page. The remainder of the social media site will be a mixture of videos and photos. Like, Subscribe or Follow to get all of the great content I will be posting.

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28/02/2025

The History Adventures video series is going strong. We have tours of Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, Little Bighorn Battlefield, Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Site, Pearl Harbor and the Solomon Islands. Like and Subscribe to our YouTube Channel - SFR Productions so you don't miss new videos when they are posted.

We are currently working to bring you a new history travel series, History Adventures. History Adventures will focus on taking you to the very place that his...

19/02/2025

80 years ago today February 19, 1945 the landings on Iwo Jima by the United States Marines.

16/02/2025

Iwo Jima 80th Anniversary February 19, 2025. Most people believe that the first and second landing waves were under intense fire while landing but in fact were only under limited small arms fire. USMC Norm Hatch Combat Cameraman Iwo Jima landed in the first wave and stated that the men were walking towards the airfield like they were on a Sunday morning walk. Naval History and Heritage Command documents that the Japanese did not begin their attack for almost an hour after the first Marines landed on Iwo Jima. The Japanese began their attack once the beach was filled with men and equipment to maximize casualties. A few photos of the Marines on the move in the opening moments of the attack on Iwo Jima.