Hi Martin,
the link you provided was indeed interesting. Thank you for that. I guess I should have known the word “Hall” in Marks Hall indicated it was a mansion. This must have been the building in which my father’s unit set up their basement shop. As an aside, it was interesting to read about Flight Officer Rosemary Britton who stowed away on a glider and became the only female participant of the ‘crossing of the Rhine’. Good for her. It would be interesting to know more about her. She probably paid a big price for this distinction.
I’ve learned a little bit more about Combat Camera Units. In Feb 1942, the Adjutant General of the Army issued a directive proposing a motion picture unit using the best talent Hollywood had to offer. An idea apparently suggested by Henry “Hap” Arnold, the first and only General of the USAAF. This unit was to exclusively support the USAAF. Jack Warner and Owen Crump (a film writer) flew to Washington, DC, at the request of Hap Arnold. Warner returned a Lt. Colonel and Crump a Captain. The unit was to make recruitment, training, public relations, documentary, propaganda, and combat films. Crump’s first assignment was to make the recruitment movie Winning Your Wings. It was completed in just 18 days and was apparently a huge success. Warner then gave Crump the job of bringing the First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU) up to strength. Men were recruited from all the major motion picture studios. My father worked at Warner Bros.
The FMPU, also known as the 18th Air Force Base Unit of the USAAF, was first housed in the old Vitagraph Studio in East Hollywood, California. It rapidly became over crowded and was moved into the larger, but still overcrowded, Hal Roach Studio in Culver City. The Hal Roach Studio, later known as Fort Roach, was were films were made and men trained. Eventually, some of the men were broken up into Combat Camera Units. In my father’s case, he was assigned to Combat Camera Unit “F”. This was later to become the 8th Combat Camera Unit. This unit was detached from the FMPU and sent to England were they arrived on 31 May 1943. It appears that Combat Camera Units were dispatched to various theaters of operation.
I’m now researching their exploits in England.