Air Combat Movies by Troy Whigham
	Last week I presented a list of some of my favorite movies that are out on video (except for "Flying Leathernecks" with John Wayne, but I'm still hoping to find it soon). Since then I've been reminded about several movies that didn't make it around the first time. My thanks to those who took the time to write and point out these great flicks. Here then, is a follow-up. 1) "Bridges of Toko-Ri" with William Holden, Mickey Rooney, Earl Holliman, and Grace Kelly. Bill Holden is a WW2 Navy pilot that leaves the service after the surrender of Japan, goes home to his beautiful wife and starts a family, and then is recalled into the service after hostilities break out in Korea. He's not too thrilled about it (I wouldn't either if I was married to Grace Kelly) but he follows his duty and re-ups, and is assigned to fly fighter/bomber missions in F9Fs aboard a carrier in the South China Sea. Mickey Rooney is a helicopter pilot tasked with retrieving downed airmen and Earl Holliman is his crew. Together, they pull Holden out of the drink after he's forced to ditch in the ocean due to battle damage. After their adventure, the trio bump into each other again on leave in Japan where Mickey and Earl begin a series of typical sailor misadventures. Holden is reunited with his family and encounter "local customs". But all good things come to an end and they're sent back aboard ship, though not necessarily in better shape than when they left. One interesting thing about this movie is that Holden was a combat veteran who had returned to the States shortly before the movie went into production. There's a scene where he's on his bunk listening to the catapult launches echoing through the cabin, contemplating the short career span of a combat pilot. He speaks no words but the audience knows what he's thinking. I wonder how much of that was acting and how much was reality. Its a gripping scene. The climax of the movie revolves around a mission to hit a critical bridge held by the North Koreans, hence the title of the film. The movie was based on a real target and a real mission. Holden is sent to hit that bridge. That's about all I can tell you without giving away the ending. The F6F Hellcat began as a redesign of the F4F Wildcat, but it ended as a completely new fighter (although it resembled the F4F outwardly). It was designed utilizing the experience American pilots had gained in Europe and the Pacific. During its development, a damaged Zero was rebuilt and studied, and its strengths and weaknesses were considered in the design of the F6F. When it began to fly against the Zero, it was apparent that the Hellcat was more than a match for it. The Japanese admitted that it was twice as powerful as the Zero. The Hellcat's stats tell the story: five thousand Japanese aircraft downed -- four-fifths of the total carrier-based aircraft total! Strike Fighter Squadron One Nine Two, the "World Famous Golden Dragons," are members of Carrier Air Wing Five embarked in USS INDEPENDENCE (CV 62) and homeported in Yokosuka, Japan. The squadron's strength is 24 officers, 15 chief petty officers, and 180 enlisted men. The "World Famous Golden Dragons" look back on an illustrious history spanning more than fifty years. The squadron was established on 26 March 1945, standing up with the F6F Hellcat. Since then, the Dragons have flown an impressive lineup: the F8F Bearcat, F4U Corsair, F9F-5 Panther, F9F-6 Cougar, FJ-4B Fury, A-4D Skyhawk, and the A-7E Corsair II. Today, the Dragons patrol the skies with the Navy's newest and most capable aircraft ever, the F/A-18 Hornet. While flying the F9F-5 Panther from the USS ORISKANY (CVA 34) in 1953, the Golden Dragons participated in the filming of the 1953 classic, "The Bridges of Toko Ri," as well as the film "Men of the Fighting Lady." The squadron added "World Famous" to its moniker as a result of its appearance in these films. 2) "The McConnell Story". Alan Ladd plays a WW2 B-17 navigator who wants to become a pilot, but the war ends before he gets his chance. A buddy of his convinces him that he still has a shot and so he enters flight training, graduates, and realizes his dream of becoming a fighter pilot. His buddy arranges for him to get checked out in jets for the first time, and after an initial bout of "I left my brain back on the runway even though the jet is at 10,000 feet", our hero gets the hang of high-speed flying and is sent to Korea. He's so good at high-speed flying that he manages to bag 16 MiGs before getting rotated back stateside, where he returns to a hero's welcome. Click to continue . . .		Arriving at a housing development that's still under construction, Ladd points out to his wife where their new house is going to be, once it gets built. Just about then the real estate guy comes over and shows them another lot with a model house on it, so as to give them a better idea of what its going to look like. And then he gives them a surprise (you'll have to see the movie to enjoy it yourself). This is one of the few films that, in my opinion, give a pretty good idea of what it must be like to be a military wife. As Alan Ladd goes off to training, his wife (played by June Allyson, I believe) is left to raise the children in 1 bedroom apartments and small travel trailers wherever Ladd happens to be transferred. My hats off to those who've been there. You deserve a medal. 3) "Battle of Britain" with Michael Caine. A number of people wrote to say that this was one of the greatest air combat films ever made. They're right. Unfortunately, once it got back on the ground the film went into a nosedive. The producers never should have added that love story subplot. To me, its about as bad as the love story plot in "Midway", but without a great Charlton Heston line to make it worth the distraction. The beginning of the film is excellent - I love a good airfield strafing - and the ending is well done, too. It's got to be one of the more authentic WW2 dogfight furball scenes ever made. All of those Me-109s were actually Spanish-built Messerschmitt fuselages married up to Merlin engines, but the effect is still good (you can tell by looking at the exhaust stacks - if they're along the top of the cowling then they're Merlins or Allisons. The Daimler Benz engine exhaust stacks ran along the bottom). Most of the Spitfires used in the film were former gate guardians at RAF fields that were taken down off of their pedestals and restored to flying condition. An interesting note about that: Supermarine used magnesium rivets in the fuselages when the aircraft were originally built. Those rivets are very strong and very light, but they also corrode and weaken very quickly. Supermarine anticipated that the aircraft would get shot down and destroyed before those rivets would rot, which should give you a pretty good idea of how lucky we are to have the few early-Mark Spits that we do. I'm sure the restorers weren't too happy about having to re-do all that rivet work, though. 4) "The Blue Max" with George Peppard and Ursula Andress. This is a WW1 flick that seems to be pretty popular with the flight sim / air combat crowd, so its a bit of a surprise that I haven't seen it yet. Still, if the writing I've seen is any indication, this should be a movie worth watching. Thanks for the tips, guys. By the way, I believe that there's a brief scene of Ursula emerging from a bathtub nude (you expect her to bath in her clothes?), so those with minors may want to be a little careful. 5) "Battle Hymn" with Rock Hudson as a priest who answers his call to duty. This is another one I haven't seen yet but I am looking for it on video. Its a Korean War film and Rock is an F-51 pilot. That's about all I know about the plot. 6) "633 Squadron". In the forums, I incorrectly identified this one as "622 Squadron" and then compounded my error by a) blowing the terrain setting and b) goofing the target. Still, I had the gist of the movie right, which involves an RAF Mosquito squadron sent to attack a heavily defended German rocket site. To hit the site, they have to travel down a narrow Norwegian fjiord to avoid radar and enemy fighters. Think of the "Star Wars" scene where the rebel X-wings are going down the trench to drop their torpedoes down the ventilation shaft. No, its not coincidence - George Lucas "borrowed" that idea from this film. I saw this movie on television a long time ago (which explains how I bungled the movie facts) and I've just recently found it on video. And speaking of errors, in my previous listing I incorrectly identified Tom Berringer as the star in "Flight of The Intruder". Credit for playing the Jake Grafton character goes to Brad Johnson, who looks hauntingly Berringer- esque in that flight suit. I guess I'm still trying to get over my flashbacks from "Platoon". That's a good half-dozen movies to watch this Summer and there are more out there that I haven't covered. I guess its a good thing I have cable tv and a local video store with a "rent 10, get one free" value card. If you're on a budget, you should be able to find a lot of these movies available for free at your local library. While you're at the library, if you stumble across an air combat film I haven't covered, I'd like to hear about it. (Note: you can also some of these books, Military Combat Top Picks).
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