I like airplanes so while researching the Japanese Zero I came across this military training video starring Ronald Reagan. The link to the list of Allied propaganda films from WW2 is interesting too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recogni...e_Zero_Fighter
There are great photos of the B24 aircraft at this google link. Also you can find loads of videos of the B24 and B29 on YouTube.
http://www.google.com/search?q=b-24&...w=1440&bih=717
I especially liked the image of the B24's on the assembly line at Willow Run, where in full production they could produce one B24 per hour. That's an unbelievable, amazing rate to assemble 1,225,000 parts! Here is a YouTube video produced by the Ford Motor Company about Willow Run and the manufacture of the B24.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_CUPA0k0fw
Links like these make me think of the effort that everyone (including those at home and not on the fighting front-lines) put into the war effort. There are several airfields around my area that were used for training pilots during the war. Not just American pilots but also British and Chinese. I drive past one of these airfields everyday. Now it sits empty and there are carcasses of modern aircraft resting there that you can see from the road. The discussion in the book about Louie's training experiences made me think about how these airfields near me must have been used. I was shocked by the statistic that nearly 15,000 personnel died stateside during the war due to aircraft accidents most likely never seeing any combat (reference page 81 of the EPUB version). Because of the climate of the Southwest, they still do much training here today. In fact, Prince Harry just arrived in the US this week to train for several weeks on helicopters in the middle-of-nowhere Arizona.