The LA Coliseum, where the US Army and Navy put on a “Bond Drive War Show” including a simulated storming of a Japanese Atoll, Jan 8-9, 1944 [2355×1349]
>Craftsmen had converted the football field into a lifelike Pacific atoll, complete with palm trees and enemy fortifications. One hundred and fifty soldiers from the 140th Infantry Regiment stormed the field with machine guns, grenades, and field pieces in an attack that, Life magazine said, “rocked the stadium with thunders of combat and mottled the vast arena with flakes of fire.” As the troops pressed their attack, Life said, “geysers of earth rose into the air and smoke curled across the field in green, floodlit scarves.” A wind machine, donated by a nearby movie studio, enhanced the special effects. As spectators watched the attack, bright searchlights pierced the nighttime sky as wave after wave of U.S. Army Air Forces planes zoomed over the stadium. The victorious troops advanced, and an army chaplain delivered last rites to the fallen.
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>With ears ringing and heads spinning, the audience stood, reciting en masse a solemn pledge to “devote myself wholeheartedly to the war effort” and “to do all in my power to stay on the job and finish the job.” The show ended with a rousing version of “God Bless America.”
buddboy
wow so Battle: Los Angeles was a real story
fiendzone
Olympics, Super Bowl, World Series, amphibious assault – there is no more storied stadium than the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
barbie_museum
Looks a little too triump of the will for my taste
AspireAgain
More about the event.
>Craftsmen had converted the football field into a lifelike Pacific atoll, complete with palm trees and enemy fortifications. One hundred and fifty soldiers from the 140th Infantry Regiment stormed the field with machine guns, grenades, and field pieces in an attack that, Life magazine said, “rocked the stadium with thunders of combat and mottled the vast arena with flakes of fire.” As the troops pressed their attack, Life said, “geysers of earth rose into the air and smoke curled across the field in green, floodlit scarves.” A wind machine, donated by a nearby movie studio, enhanced the special effects. As spectators watched the attack, bright searchlights pierced the nighttime sky as wave after wave of U.S. Army Air Forces planes zoomed over the stadium. The victorious troops advanced, and an army chaplain delivered last rites to the fallen.
>
>With ears ringing and heads spinning, the audience stood, reciting en masse a solemn pledge to “devote myself wholeheartedly to the war effort” and “to do all in my power to stay on the job and finish the job.” The show ended with a rousing version of “God Bless America.”
buddboy
wow so Battle: Los Angeles was a real story
fiendzone
Olympics, Super Bowl, World Series, amphibious assault – there is no more storied stadium than the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
barbie_museum
Looks a little too triump of the will for my taste
captdicksicle
Whose house!?!