During World War II, the U.S. Army Air Corps inducted millions of young men to fly and service the tens of thousands of aircraft needed to fight the war. The Department of War enlisted Hollywood to create a number of training films, including this one, dubbed "Position Firing," voiced by legendary talent Mel Blanc, the original voice of Bugs Bunny.
"Position Firing," is a gem among training films. The cartoon format is casual, and a number of sight gags make it humors and enjoyable. Most importantly however, it uses real-life examples of physics to explain the intricacies of aerial gunnery.
The film was made for waist gunners on U.S. heavy bombers. Equipped with M2 .50 caliber machine guns, waist gunners were charged with warding off attacks by waves of Axis fighter planes. The gunners typically fired perpendicular to the bomber's hull. That sounds simple enough, but the problem is that forward motion of the bomber will throw off a gunner's aim, causing the path of the bullets to lean towards the direction of flight. In order to compensate gunners had to fire early, walking their rounds into the target.
But how to explain this is in a way that was easy for draftee airmen to quickly pick up? Compare it to the plight of the newspaper paperboy on his paper route, the iconic part-time job of 20th century teenage boys. Riding on their bicycles, paperboys learned if they threw the newspaper at a house the moment they passed by it, the paper would end up missing and land farther up the street.
Eventually, every paperboy learned to throw the newspaper early—before they passed the target house—in order to hit it dead on. It was the exact same principle, and solution, necessary for waist gunners to engage enemy fighters.
The film was made to teach gunners exactly what they needed to know, and nothing else. The film actually discourages learning the mathematics behind the aiming system, essentially labeling it gobbledygook whose understanding was unnecessary for gunners to do their jobs.
The voice of Gunner Joe was provided by Mel Blanc, the voice behind cartoon characters including Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, Porky Pig, and others, and even includes a Looney Tunes-style ending where the Gunner Joe breaks the fourth wall and talks to the narrator.