Warbird Information Exchange

General Taylor with Great Grandpa Talmage - Tora Tora Filming Hawaii

In this undated photo provided by John Martin Meek, Col. Kenneth Taylor, right, is shown with film director Richard Fleischer on the set of "Tora! Tora! Tora!" Taylor, one of the first two American pilots to get their planes airborne as Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, served as a consultant on the movie. Taylor died Saturday, Nov. 25, 2006, after more than a year of declining health in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Courtesy of John Martin Meek)

From the Yorktown Cruisebook

The Yorktown played host to a crew from 20th Century Fox for the filming of the movie Tora Tora Tora. Action took place off the coast of San Diego in early December.

At 0600 the aircraft carrier swung smartly into the northeasternly wind. Across the flight deck the engines of the bomb and torpedo laden "Zekes", "Kates" and "Vals" roared to life in anticipation of the dawn launch. At 0610 the first "Zeke" rumbled down the flight deck, became airborne and then briefly settled for an agonizing moment over the dark waters of the Pacific, steadied and gained altitude. The year was not 1941, but 1968. The aircraft carrier was not Admiral Yamamoto's flagship but Captain John G. Fifield's Yorktown. The 1968 converted aircraft were flown and maintained by off duty personnel on contract with 20th Century Fox, with Department of Defense approval given to the ship's participation.

The film, essentially a documentary, has been in preparation since 1966, and is not expected to be released until 1969. The film is being produced both in Japan and the United States, with tedious attention given to detail. A budget of 25 million dollars has been allocated for the picture.

Thirty Japanese fighters and bombers were hoisted on the Yorktown December 2. The planes are United States BT-13 and AT-6 training planes altered by 20th Century Fox to resemble the Japanese planes that launched the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Most of the flight deck crew, garbed in conventional World War Two Japanese flight gear, participated in maneuvering the Rising Sun bearers in position for the filmed take offs. Lines from the angle deck were painted over to make the "Fighting Lady" appear like the straight-decked Akagi.

After filming off San Diego, the planes remain onboard for the trip to Pearl Harbor to assist competing the movie in Hawaii.

The 20th Century Fox "Air Operations" production was located at Barbers Point Naval Air Station, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy. Operating from a plywood hut, the nearly fifty pilots of the "Tora" flying group were on "war routine." Test flown first in California, the aircraft operated almost continuously from mid-December, 1968, to late April, 1969, burning about 3000 gallons of fuel daily, and were put through combat conditions identical to those of World War II.

Being in a military family at the time, I had a access to all local island military bases because I had a military sticker on my car (a 1965 Volkswagen Beetle- the really COOL Car of it's day) with the rank of Colonel.

The gold "Full Bird" sticker always got me into all the Oahu bases and also very snappy salutes from the Marine sentries who guarded U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine bases. Barbers Point was no exception. It was a SPRAWLING and HUGE base that was a spring-board for many South Pacific Navy and Marine operations in WW-II, as well as for the Korean War- and at this time the rapidly expanding Vietnam War. It also served for lots of "Spook"

Operations involving Spy Satellites as well as for the U.S. Navy Anti-Submarine P-3 Orions. So, in fact the base was "stuffed" with hundreds of Navy and Marine prop and jet aircraft of all types when I was out there taking pictures. The once beautiful and busy base is just a "Ghost Town" today!

I was not invited by Fox to go out and take these pictures of the planes- I had to find out where they were located and make the request for permission to come out and see the planes. But the guy running the "Tora" Flight Ops was very friendly and could probably tell I was some kind of WW-II airplane history nut and said "Sure, come on out and take some pictures". Something like this "these days" would be nearly impossible (as was the case with "Pearl Harbor") as everything is now always tightly controlled by lawyers, publicity regulators and intense security.

In fact, while I had read in the papers that a movie company was coming out to the Islands to do a film about the attack on Pearl Harbor, the very FIRST time I knew something really interesting was happening was the day I was out at Bellows AFB Beach. Once a P-40 fighter base, by the late 1960's it had become mostly a "Rest and

Recreation" Center for military personnel and their families. Bellows was a beautiful beach and while there I had already gotten used to things like seeing Marine amphibious landings on the beach only a few hundred yards away

(The Marines were training EVERYWHERE at that time, and they still use Bellows today) and even seeing Marine Commandos (maybe SEALS?) paddling by off-shore with Boonie Hats, M-16's and blacked faces, etc.

But, on that particular afternoon, slowly climbing over the sound of my little SONY Transistor beach radio playing something like the Rolling Stone's "Hey, You, Get Off Of My Cloud" or the Door's "Come On Baby Light My Fire" was the increasing rumble of RADIAL ENGINES… What? I hadn't heard that kind of deep, multi-engine sound since I was a little kid living on Travis AFB in the 50's, when the Air Force was still then flying B-29 bombers! ...But coming across the beautiful Hawaii skies over the Lanikai "bird islands" was a squadron of… WHAT?...Japanese planes?!...They came closer and then roared past, maybe about 300 feet over Lanikai bay…


This was followed by ANOTHER squadron of Japanese planes roaring past! And then further out at sea I could see even another squadron of Japanese Zeros! To say, like "WOW MAN!, What The F*** is happening?" was a major understatement!

It GOT my attention!. And it didn't stop there. These guys started making nearly DAILY flights over Kaneohe Bay and Kailua… Each day, sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, there would be fly-overs of plane after plane! And then we began seeing the P-40's and B-17's- that beautiful, rumbling of mult-radial engines, 4 per B-17 bomber, as they made passes overhead. It was like...well...WORLD WAR II!"


The "Tora" pilots were from both military and civilian backgrounds. More than half were off-duty or on-leave pilots from the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Some were pilots on commercial airlines and others were in the charter business. Ages ranged from late twenties to mid-fifties. Many were combat veterans, and one pilot had been shot down in three wars -- World War II, Korea and Vietnam. For the pilots, it was more fun than work. They could legally "flat-hat" over deserted Ford Island; they were flying formation again, sweeping over the length of Oahu. It was seat of the pants flying where they could taste it and feel it.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3901/is_/ai_n15740922


After the tech school was finished with the Mitchell, it became a gate guard at Hickam AFB where it remained until being recently moved to Ford Island for the new museum.

Hmmmmmm, do ya think I missed anything to film an accurate movie?

(When you said AT-11, did you mean the POF AT-12? None of those in Hawaii - save it for the Clark Field movie...)