Wasp Wings

Wasp Wings

Company type	Documentary film
Industry	Film
Founded	1945
Founder	Royal Canadian Air Force Overseas Film Unit and National Film Board of Canada
Products	Documentary film
Parent	National Film Board of Canada

Wasp Wings is a Canadian documentary from 1945, lasting 42 minutes, produced collaboratively by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Overseas Film Unit and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). Its title refers to the distinctive black-and-white invasion stripes painted on Supermarine Spitfire fighters during the Normandy Landings, which gave the planes a resemblance to "angry wasps".

Synopsis

File:Screen shot Wasp Wings.png

The 2TAF swiftly established three airfields along the Normandy coastline.

Beginning in England in 1943, Spitfire fighter wings of the Royal Canadian Air Force within the RAF Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF) prepared for deployment overseas. Operating various marks of the nimble Spitfire, these aircraft carried out both close air support missions and engaged in aerial battles against the Luftwaffe. The Spitfire wings were described as "an indispensable component of a fast-moving, lethal air force." The effectiveness of these RCAF units stemmed from both their pilots and ground personnel, who not only constructed tactical airfields but also maintained the aircraft. The initial group was stationed in Italy, followed by additional wings assigned to units involved in the Normandy campaign, with provisional bases set up across France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany between 1944 and 1945. As the Second World War drew to a close, operations by 2TAF began to wind down.

Production

In keeping with the NFB’s wartime documentary shorts style, Wasp Wings depended heavily on military collaboration to capture footage at active bases. The film focuses on the 2nd Tactical Air Force’s 126, 127, and 144 Wings and compiles material recorded from 1943 through 1945. Featured among the "men with flying in their blood" are Canadian Spitfire aces such as "Buzz" Beurling, Dal Russel, Keith Hodson, Robert Wendell "Buck" McNair, and Lloyd Chadburn. Combat sequences include authentic gun camera recordings.

Reception

Produced for theatrical release as part of NFB’s newsreel series, Wasp Wings was screened over a six-month period in approximately 800 Canadian theatres as shorts or newsreel features. The NFB partnered with Famous Players theatres to ensure nationwide accessibility, with additional distribution managed by Columbia Pictures.

Following its theatrical run, the film was distributed on 16 mm format to educational institutions, libraries, churches, and industrial sites, extending its circulation by one or two years. It was also accessible through film libraries operated by universities and provincial agencies. Although available online or on DVD via the National Film Board, Wasp Wings has largely faded from public memory.

Historian Malek Khouri examined NFB wartime documentaries and described Wasp Wings as addressing subjects beyond straightforward event documentation without fitting neatly into conventional propaganda categories. He noted that during its early years, the NFB’s creative output was shaped by global political and social upheavals including World War II, Communism, unemployment, labor unions’ roles, and working conditions—all themes explored between 1939 and 1946. In his work Filming Politics, Khouri argues that these films offered a counter-hegemonic perspective portraying working-class individuals as agents of societal transformation.

Khouri further highlighted that in Wasp Wings, designers, pilots, and ground crews associated with the Spitfire exemplify technological triumphs and reflect a "new-found fascination" with technological progress as a factor in wartime victory.

Bibliography

• Ellis, Jack C. and Betsy A. McLane. A New History of Documentary Film. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. ISBN 0-8264-1750-7.
• Khouri, Malek. Filming Politics: Communism and the Representation of the Working Class at the National Film Board of Canada, 1939-46. Calgary, Alberta, Canada: University of Calgary Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-55238-199-1.

External links

• View Wasp Wings on NFB.ca.