Warbird Information Exchange

I know this is an aviation based forum, but I am in complete agreement. The Cruel Sea is amazing and is one of the best novels I have ever read. It is also very close to Nicholas Monsarrat's true war experiences which he writes about in the book Three Corvettes. For realism I don't think you can fault Band of Brothers, it was the best researched and acted war series that I have ever seen (closely followed by Das Boot.) For an aviation based film, The Battle Of Britain still does it for me along with Angels One Five. The original Memphis Belle by William Wyler stands alone as a piece of documented aviation history and is a treasure to us all. I consider the motion picture to be an insult (to the crew and history,)and only like to watch it , as a warbird fan , for the flying scenes.I suppose I worry that people take it to be fact, which a lot of the TV generation probably do.
Don't even get me started on Pearl Harbor!!!

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If the first casualty of war is innocence, the second is sobriety - Hawkeye.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws - Plato.
Lies get halfway round the world before the truth has a chance to get it's pants on - Churchill
If you are going through he11 - keep going - Churchill

isn't there a docu-film on the Bloody 100th that William Wyler did around the same time he did the Memphis Belle?

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

The Big Lift Based on the Berlin Airlift. With actual in-flight cockpit footage in a C-54. Good story too.

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It's what you learn after you think you know it all, that counts.

The Longest Day
Tora
A Bridge Too Far

All Riiiiiight! Some great stuff here! About two dozen here that are my favorite movie. Depends on what I'm watching at the moment.
One I have to include...'What Did You Do In The War, Daddy?' since so many of my dad's stories remind me of that movie.

Jack, tell me more about "High Barbary"

Doug.

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"I love the smell of 100LL in the morning."

i could have made this post a mile long......... alot of great movies mentioned i forgot about!!!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

A Bridge too Far - 1977 great cast super low level Spit shot too
Tora
30 seconds over tokyo
Great Escape
Bridge on the River Kwai - 1957
Longest Day

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

I mentioned "Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy" a few posts back. Got me thinking about some good flying films that aren't available at all, not on VHS or DVD. Some of them:

"Sole Survivor" - a sort of sci-fi film loosely based on "Lady Be Good."

"Fate is the Hunter"

"I Wanted Wings"

"Tail Spin," a film about women pilots of the 1930's, featuring - I hear - great footage of a P-35, among others.

"Now We're In The Air" - a silent film with Wallace Beery and Louise Brooks. Not available anywhere because there are no surviving prints. A real shame. I hear it's a very funny movie with good flying scenes. And Louise Brooks was so darn sexy.

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The main winding was of the normal lotus-o deltoid type placed in panendermic semi-bolloid slots of the stator. Every seventh conductor being connected by a non-reversible tremmy pipe to the differential girdle spring on the up-end of the grammeters. Moreover, whenever fluorescent square motion is required, it may also be employed in conjunction with the drawn reciprocation dingle arm, to reduce sinusoidal depleneration.

I really like "I Wanted Wings" and I actually have a copy I taped from TCM some years ago. There are a lot of good shots of B-18s, AT-6s, and early model B-17s. And some great footage of real life 1941 Texas passing under the wings. All three male lead actors became pilots or were pilots (Ray Milland, Wayne Morris, William Holden). Some of the secondary plot subject matter was a little racy for the times: pre-marital sex, out of wedlock pregnancy, sexual blackmail. Not as corny as some 1940s productions. A lot of great flying footage and a great sequence of AT-6 hedge-hopping in rural Texas. I have been waiting for a DVD of this one for some time. Maybe some day.

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"Welcome back Mr. Lasky."

Has anybody here ever seen "Abbot and Costello Join the Air Corps? I saw it once many years ago and laughed so hard it hurt. Good biplane footage.

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"I love the smell of 100LL in the morning."

A few of them are actually. Here are two on DVD:

Sole Survivor:
http://www.amazon.com/Sole-Survivor-Ani ... 493&sr=1-1

I Wanted Wings:
http://stores.films-classic.com/-strse- ... Detail.bok (I don't know if this is an "official release", so be careful if you decide to buy it)

Also, the following movies have not made it onto DVD yet:

Fighter Squadron

Strategic Air Command

The McConnell Story

A Gathering of Eagles


And lots of others that I'm probably forgetting!

You can get Strategic Air Command on Dvd but they are not official.
http://store.animefirst.com/strategic-a ... d-dvd.html

Personally I am just going to wait till the real one comes out and hope for some B36 special features! Hopefully it wont be too long.

Yea, I'm going to wait as well. There is a HUGE movement afoot right now to convert a lot of the older Technicolor movies to Blu-Ray. I don't have any direct knowledge, but I would bet we'll see Strategic Air Command on Blu-ray before DVD!

The title is actually Keep 'em Flying. Filmed at Chino!



That's a different movie from the WWII story.

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)