WW 2 Footage With a Helicopter?

[Cicero]

I was watching an episode of "Last Days of WW2 " tonight on the History Channel. It was the episode that dealt with the death of Ernie Pyle.

Anyway, it was dealing with the capture of a small close by island and the heavy casualties. As the program wound up, the footage showed a helicopter flying over the scene. It was in the distance but unmistakeably a helicopter. I replayed it a few times and their was the rotor on the top- it looked to me like a Whirlwind (I am no helicopter expert).

So, these things weren’t around until the time of the Korean War I understand.

Was it just splicing of old film?

(I have retained my recording but I am not sure how I could display it for anyone).

[CWN]

No, they did use helicopters in WW2
American WW2 aircraft
scroll down the page for links to photos

[JRDelirious]

There were some operational helicopters from 1944 on, though not in widespread use - German Kolibri and Drache in European Theatre, American R-4 in SE Asia/Pacific (R-5 did not make it to frontlines ops before war’s end IIRC).

[Cicero]

Thanks. I never knew any were operational.

[Johnny_L.A]

Here’s a clip of an R4 in WWII.

Article.

From June 15 to July 29, 1945, Carle and five other pilots evacuated 75 to 80 wounded soldiers, one or two at a time, from the highlands northeast of Manila. Although they were not the first helicopter pilots to fly in combat—that distinction belongs to Lieutenant Carter Harman of the First Air Commando Group, who flew the first medical evacuations, in Burma on April 23, 1944—they were the first to be targeted by enemy fire: Japanese soldiers tried to shoot them down with machine guns. Their six-week effort constitutes the largest combat helicopter operation before the Korean War, yet their contributions remain largely unknown.

[Ale]

You know that German operation to rescue Mussolini from a prison in the mountains? That was in '43 and a helicopter was supposed to pick him up, but broke down on the way.
Now I picture the helicopter showing up, hovering over the place and while all the guards look up astounded to that thing Mussolini sneaks out the back door.