Dauntless SBD at Pearl Harbor

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YogiBear

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Aloha,

In another thread, it was mentioned that videos of the attack on Pearl Harbor usually showed
a flight of 3 Douglas SBD dive bombers dropping a bomb on the Arizona.

I know it bothered me that it was Wrongly edited.

I think I may have finally found where it may have originated.

I was watching my DVD set of "Victory at Sea"

It shows the 3 SBDs dropping the bomb on the Arizona.

It also shows a Meatball under the left wing of one of the SBDs.

Considering how old "Victory at Sea" is, it may be the source of the SBDs

at Pearl Harbor.
 
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Are you saying that the WWII Imperial Jap Navy had & used American dive bombers in the attack on Pearl Harbor? huh? Weren't they our best dive bomber & would we have sold them some in the few years before WWII?
 
All war movies had made up Zero's from what I have heard. The reason was because there was only one Zero that was in flying condition. The reason was, they were so hated that after Japan surrendered the Allies burnt every one.
 
A CoupleZeros are left
a few are flying
only 1 with the original engine

The main reason you see converted American Trainers as Japanese Planes
is that the Japanese Planes are so Very Rare and Expensive to use
 
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I always get tickled when people get flustered over the accuracy of movies from Hollywood from any era. It is make believe after all.
 
Faulkner said:
I always get tickled when people get flustered over the accuracy of movies from Hollywood from any era. It is make believe after all.
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The difference is that this is frequently used in "documentaries", where you DON'T get to make it up as you go along.

I can see this being done in 1943. There's NO excuse for it in 2016. If you don't want to, or can't afford to have a decent animation done, do a capture from "IL-2 Sturmovik" or some other aviation video game.

Is there REALLY no motion picture footage of Vals, if not bombing, at least in flight?
 
What little footage there is is very grainey and certainly would be hard to put into a film without a lot of computer massaging. Most Japanese film ended up being destroyed during the war or is resting at the bottom of the Pacific.

Much of the footage used by John Ford for the documentary was recreated since there was little actual footage available.

OTOH, the footage he used for the documentary about The Battle of Midway and "Torpedo 8" was real because Ford and his crew were there.

All of these films are available on Amazon and probably other places on line.





cmort666 said:
The difference is that this is frequently used in "documentaries", where you DON'T get to make it up as you go along.

I can see this being done in 1943. There's NO excuse for it in 2016. If you don't want to, or can't afford to have a decent animation done, do a capture from "IL-2 Sturmovik" or some other aviation video game.

Is there REALLY no motion picture footage of Vals, if not bombing, at least in flight?
Click to expand...
 
GaryS said:
What little footage there is is very grainey and certainly would be hard to put into a film without a lot of computer massaging. Most Japanese film ended up being destroyed during the war or is resting at the bottom of the Pacific.
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There should be at least some propaganda footage of Vals in flight, if not in combat. There seems to be more than enough footage of G3Ms and Ki-21s in flight.
 
The usual 'Zero' we as movie goers have ever seen were North American "T-6" trainers with a reworked canopy close to that of the Zero and the proper paint job. The only Zero that I have ever seen personally was being rebuilt/restored by a War Bird Museum in So. California. It was coming along nicely, but still didn't have an engine or a canopy. That was about 40 years ago. That museum was sold about 10 years later after the death of the owner and the aircraft dispersed. ....
 
Big Cholla said:
The usual 'Zero' we as movie goers have ever seen were North American "T-6" trainers with a reworked canopy close to that of the Zero and the proper paint job. The only Zero that I have ever seen personally was being rebuilt/restored by a War Bird Museum in So. California. It was coming along nicely, but still didn't have an engine or a canopy. That was about 40 years ago. That museum was sold about 10 years later after the death of the owner and the aircraft dispersed. ....
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If I'm not mistaken, there's at least one Zero in flying condition.

The Zero was unfortunate in, unlike the Me-109 and He-111, not having any post-war users.

There were plenty of Me-109 and He-111 variants in service with the Spanish Air Force after WWII. These turned up in movies like "The Battle of Britain" and "Patton".

The Zero was obsolete by the end of the war, and nobody else made or used them. A few were probably in use by the PLAAF in China and the Indonesians, but not that many and not for long. Contrast this with the Fokker DVII, which was actually a standard Army Air Service fighter for a brief time after the First World War.

Most wartime Japanese aircraft which survived the war were broken up, both for scrap, and to prevent their use in unauthorized tokko ("kamikaze") attacks. Even before they were destroyed, their propellers were removed immediately after the ceasefire to prevent unauthorized use.
 
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Not to mention all of the ones used for Kamikaze attacks during the last year of the war. Plus the ones that were shot up on the ground during the same time frame.

As for allied planes, but the end of the war all people really wanted to do was get back to a normal civilian life. So, a lot of what we'd consider great candidates for preservation went into the smelters to make cars, radios, refrigerators, and other appliances.

Tora! Tora! Tora! was pretty authentic despite not having any Zeros to use during production. As Muss Muggins mentioned, the AT-6 could be made to look like a Zero without too much effort.

The special effects were terrific, considering that it was done with models of various sizes and mock ups. The P-40s were relatively simple since the ones that were blown up never got off the ground.

Now there is a Zero in flying condition. The Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola has a "George" on static display. Along with a ME 262.

That's a great museum, if any of you folks ever get to Pensacola. I've been there 3 times and still plan to go back.

cmort666 said:
If I'm not mistaken, there's at least one Zero in flying condition.

The Zero was unfortunate in, unlike the Me-109 and He-111, not having any post-war users.

There were plenty of Me-109 and He-111 variants in service with the Spanish Air Force after WWII. These turned up in movies like "The Battle of Britain" and "Patton".

The Zero was obsolete by the end of the war, and nobody else made or used them. A few were probably in use by the PLAAF in China and the Indonesians, but not that many and not for long. Contrast this with the Fokker DVII, which was actually a standard Army Air Service fighter for a brief time after the First World War.

Most wartime Japanese aircraft which survived the war were broken up, both for scrap, and to prevent their use in unauthorized tokko ("kamikaze") attacks. Even before they were destroyed, their propellers were removed immediately after the ceasefire to prevent unauthorized use.
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