Fighters in movie Valkerie

[Texas Star]

I bought the DVD to Tom Cruise's film, Valkerie. Not an exceptional movie, and one of the best sequences was when Allied fighters strafed his convoy in North Africa.

I couldn't get a definitive look at them, but think I saw the chin profile of a P-40. May have been a Spitfire with the Vokes chin air filter.

I'm guessing that it was a P-40, as more are still flying. I haven't seen a flyable Spit with that filter, although they may be out there. The MK IX and later Spits had no need for that tropical air filter, as the radiator system was improved to accomodate such requirements.

Does anyone know which planes were seen, or were they computer-generated? I couldn't be sure.

What did you think of the movie, overall?

T-Star

[rondo]

I agree with your assessment of the movie. Did a little digging and found this:

Aircraft used in Valkyrie Movie – were all real!

“The aircraft we use – the Messerschmitt, the Junkers, Stearman, & the P-40 Warhawk - Were all real!” Says Bryan Singer, Director Valkyrie (2008). One fighter plane was from the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa, the plane from Nampa that is depicted in “Valkyrie” is a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter plane. In the film, it is a British Royal Air Force plane.

“The reason Tom Cruise wanted that airplane was because of its authenticity,” said Sue Paul, the museum’s executive director. “He’s a real stickler for authenticity.” The plane was used during filming in the spring in Apple Valley, Calif., Paul said.

Valkyrie is named after a famous plot that took place in 1944 in which a German army officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Claus Schenk Graf Von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise), is the prime operative in a baroque, and ultimately failed, plan to stage a military coup and assassinate Hitler using the leader’s own contingency plan in the event of his death – a well-documented plan called “Operation Valkyrie.”

[jagen heie]

i liked the movie though im not gonna pick it up. showed a side of nazi germany that most people arent exposed to. tom cruise gave a standard good performance though a lot of the tension seemed strained and it felt like eerybody were actors playing the parts rather than the people they were trying to be

[Texas Star]

I think I spotted shark mouth insignia on the nose of one plane. No. 112 Squadron, RAF, operated P-40's painted that way, in N. Africa. I think this was the basis for the Flying Tigers painting their P-40's with shark mouths.

Thanks for the film info. Good catch!

P-40 in RAF colors:

http://www.photohome.com/pictures/ai...warhawk-1a.jpg

T-Star

[calmex]

I guess I thought it was a P-40 when I saw the movie, but I really remember being impressed at the Mark III or IV tanks in the armoured column there in the desert. The column that got strafed by the P-40, I mean.

As a boy, I used to go climb all over a German Sturmgeshutz III that they had at the Shilo Base as a War Trophy. It was just sitting there on a concrete pad, painted grey, with the hatches welded shut and the MG-34's long removed from their mounts. But it was the real McCoy.

Years later, having much more to do out at the base, I asked some friends whatever happened to it. One of them looked pained and told me he had heard it had been shipped off to one of the bigger bases and ended up as a tank training target.

I hope that isn't true, because if it is, it would simply boggle my mind at the stupidity. But I sure loved seeing those German tanks there in the movie -- real or generated. It sure beats seeing M48's with crosses painted on them trying to pass for German tanks, like in the old days.

[Texas Star]

Originally Posted by calmex

I guess I thought it was a P-40 when I saw the movie, but I really remember being impressed at the Mark III or IV tanks in the armoured column there in the desert. The column that got strafed by the P-40, I mean.

As a boy, I used to go climb all over a German Sturmgeshutz III that they had at the Shilo Base as a War Trophy. It was just sitting there on a concrete pad, painted grey, with the hatches welded shut and the MG-34's long removed from their mounts. But it was the real McCoy.

Years later, having much more to do out at the base, I asked some friends whatever happened to it. One of them looked pained and told me he had heard it had been shipped off to one of the bigger bases and ended up as a tank training target.

I hope that isn't true, because if it is, it would simply boggle my mind at the stupidity. But I sure loved seeing those German tanks there in the movie -- real or generated. It sure beats seeing M48's with crosses painted on them trying to pass for German tanks, like in the old days.

Yeah, I saw those M-48's in, "Patton" and similar movies. You can sure tell the difference!

T-Star

[11B Lifer]

Quite a bit of the story about this conspiracy is conjecture-98% of those involved were killed. After the war most who may have been part of the investigation or prosecution-vanished, were tried as war criminals, kept quiet.
If you were an old Nazi general, it would have been expedient to tell the allies that you were part of the effort to kill Hitler.
I don't think the real story will ever be known-we have better clarity about what happened to Custer. And even that has its mysteries.

[Lowpower]

Thought Custer died because of his ego...errrr.....the rolling block brass cartridges were so thin walled that once fired they came apart in the chamber which made it very very difficult to reload. I'm pretty sure and Indian shooting 15 arrows a minute can beat a soldier shooting one round per 3 minutes. Didn't the Indians have repeaters?

[GatorFarmer]

Technically, in some cases the M48s with German crosses painted on them that show up in some films *were* German tanks. We sold them a fair number of M48s after the war, the homegrown Leopard tanks coming along a bit later. They just weren't war time German tanks.

Anyway, when I was in high school I wrote Maj Gen (I think that was his final wartime rank?) OE Remer a couple of letters. He wrote me back, didn't have a grudge against the Russians any more. He still signed his letters with a swastika. He went to prison, or at least was threatened with it, late in life for denying the holocaust.

Remer was the officer who more or less thwarted the coup.

[Texas Star]

Originally Posted by Lowpower

Thought Custer died because of his ego...errrr.....the rolling block brass cartridges were so thin walled that once fired they came apart in the chamber which made it very very difficult to reload. I'm pretty sure and Indian shooting 15 arrows a minute can beat a soldier shooting one round per 3 minutes. Didn't the Indians have repeaters?

The soldiers had Springfields, not Remingtons. The Indians had a smattering of whatever they could buy, capture, or steal. Some Winchesters were used, but most Indian guns weren't them. Still, there were thousands of Indians, and it wouldn't take many of them with Spencers, Henrys and Winchesters to outnumber the troopers.

The issued sidearm was the Colt SAA with 7.5-inch bbl. But each man had limited pistol ammo, and they left their sabers and Gatlings behind. Custer grossly underestimated his foe.

I think the .45/70 ammo that failed had copper cases. This was early in the metallic cartridge era. It's a pity that the 7th Cavalry were guinea pigs for ammo development.

After the Custer debacle, the Sioux fled to Canada, where they gave the NWMP some trouble until the constables were issued Winchester M-1876 repeating rifles. That seemed to make an impression on the hostile tribes. They didn't respect the Snider single shot carbines, which were on par with the US Springfields. The Martini-Henry was actually a better rifle than the Springfield, but I don't think the Canadian cops had them. The British Army did, to the sorrow of the Zulu in 1879!

What Custer needed was a squadron or two of those P-40's that we were discussing! After a strafing run, a certain Indian chief would have been known as Shredded Bull!

T-Star