Eruption of Mount Vesuvius! Italy 1944 HD 16mm Castle Films Sound News Reel Volcano High Definition

This HD transfer is from a sound 16mm Castle Film print. Castle Films distributed a number of these news reels in both sound and silent formats. I don’t have the numbers; from my observations the silent versions are much more common than the sound versions.
This film shows the 1944 eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy. Wikipedia states: “Mount Vesuvius is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes forming the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera, resulting from the collapse of an earlier, much higher structure.”

[@richardhumphreys8662]

My father was in the Eighth Army during the war and I well remember him telling me about this eruption.

[@Nighthawke70]

Harmless, my foot. The USAAF's 340th bombardment group lost 78 to 88 B-25 Mitchell bombers from the pyroclastic ashfall. Hot embers landed on the plastics and fabric covered control surfaces, and infiltrating the engines, damaging them beyond repair.
The majority of this footage was taken by Air Force and US Army cinematographers.

[@4urluvjones155]

I watch a lot WW2 documentaries and I haven't seen this event mentioned. It must not have effected the fighting in any major way.

[@tedsmith6137]

Interesting that you can still see the path of the lava flow today, using Google Earth.