Warbird Information Exchange

The flip side of last weeks film. A crackerjack story presented by a third string cast of losers. George Segal as the lead (?), Robert Vaughn still playing the oily German Officer/cowboy from 'Magnificent Seven', E.G. Marshal as who knows, and Ben Gazarra doing his best Lee Strassberg ' Broadway method' performance. About the only two duds they seem to have missed casting with this turkey are John Phillip Law and Sondra Locke.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Still, I know Ken Heckler who wrote the book, interesting story on how it got turned into a movie..... Read the book...

He was interesting too since he was at Nuremberg for the Trials..... He knew Goering, I asked him about Goering and what stood out. He said that Herman talked a whole lot more before he finally figured out that no matter what happened we were going to kill him....

Ken is still around in his mid 90s. Was a Congressman and served in state govt in West Virginia for many many years.

Mark H

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Fly safe or you get to meet me .......

I picked up Ken's book about ten years ago and enjoyed it immensely, really having no idea about Remagen at the time. On my fourth visit to Germany two years ago I finally got to go to the museum. It was very interesting. Being a racing fan, (and there for the 2009 German F1 GP) along the way there, in Remagen saw a familar name Carraciola on a fence outside a home, the great German prewar race driver's home is still there and there is a statue dedicated to him. I had no idea about that either!

IIRC there is some brief warbird action in this film? Namely an attack on the bridge by a B-25 and P-51?

Yep and the B-25 had the red meatball star on it as well. Really, in 1945? Not to mention a B-25 being in the wrong neck of the woods....

Some of the 369th Fighter Group P-51's were diverted on March 10 to protect the bridge from the Germans attempt to bomb it. For their efforts they were fired upon by the American AA guns and they almost lost Capt. Ray Wetmore(21 kills) who managed to get his stricken Mustang, which had a canopy ejection malfunction, to an emergency field where he successfully bellied it in.

Arado Ar234's of KG76 were sent on the 9th on their first mission to get the Ludendorf Bridge as well as the pontoon bridges...they missed.

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He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

Took me a few minutes to ID the B-25: it's 44-29121/N86427 in the markings it wore for the 25th anniversary of the Doolittle raid:

http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/307931.html

Probably the studio shot a little second unit footage of it and edited it into the film. That's three movies it's been in now; this one, Hanover Street as Brenda's Boys and finally in overall yellow in Cuba. It's now at the Spanish Air Force Museum at Cuatro Vientos.

So what's up with the hatin' on E.G. Marshall? Good actor; he went straight from this picture to Tora! Tora! Tora!.

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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)

About the only bombing action in which Ar234s were involved that I know of. I think most of their (limited and brief) operations were recon missions.

I saw "Bridge At Remagen" several times as a kid..back then we just thought it was a cool WWII movie. I watched in a couple of years ago for the first time in decades (it was in our cable systems free "on demand" movie library.) I don't recall it being escpecially bad, or good..just a typical '60s war movie. Good to kill a couple of hours, but not particularly memorable.

SN

Actually Steve, I was in error, Remagen was nowhere near their first, KG76 had extensively more bombing sorties previously, tho Remagen was probably the last intense period before the surrender.

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

Wow..I just read the Wiki article on KG76's Ar234 operations..looks like the type saw a lot more action than I thought.

SN

I don't 'hate' E.G. Marshall at all, I just found his acting preformances to collectively be about as stimulating and exciting as a heaping bowl of dry oatmeal.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Hmmm..the Wiki wasn't particularly informative IMO. I spent the evening surfing and found the simmer's, modelers and a few German history sites more informative with footnotes. The Ardennes offensive, missions to Liege, Belgium...a hiatus due to the extreme winter of 1945, the ten day period of the Remagen defense and their declining operational abilities due to lack of quality fuel till the end of operations were a short but busy period for them.

I'm amazed how more informed I've become due to a pretty crappy movie...

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

Same here - it´s a pretty decent 60ies WW2 movie IMHO, if not the most realistic. At least there´s no love story tacked on!
There´s actually an earlier German version of the story that I saw once. Pretty bleak, as German war movies usually are.

Nice find on the photo!

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Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline......