Any "Tora, Tora, Tora" film stories out there?

Also did you get to check out the USS Utah? I am surprised most people don't even know thats there.

Yes, my good friend who is a former Marine Colonel, now retired, works for the Armed Forces YMCA, he was able to get us to the other side of Ford Island.







As a contrast the USS Reagan was in port for a day or so before leaving for San Diego

Great resource here on the film, has images from the Air Classics magazine, Feb. 1969 issue

http://www.daveswarbirds.com/tora/frames.htm

[Simon Beck]

I have a few facts not commonly known about Tora3 filming from
the research I've done:

The airstrip the P-40s fly out of is in a gully right next
to Wheeler Field and is used as a storage area today.

Its commonly reported there were 9 Val conversions, there
were actually 10 as one crashed in Hawaii during filming.
9 is how many were sold at auction.

There were actually 5 Catalina wrecks sent to Hawaii, you can
count them in some stills. They were furnished by Steward-Davis
who did the Val conversions and built all the fibreglass bombs and
torpedos. The sixth one was of course the flying example.

[Old Shep]

A bit of Tora trivia....Diz Laird, only Navy ace to shoot down both German and Japanese airplanes during the war, also is the only American to "lead" an attack on Pearl Harbor...He was one of the lead pilots for the movie. He told me some parts of the flying were more "exciting" than combat. One instance, a 55 gallon barrel went flying up over his wing on one pass over Wheeler Field: pyro guys got a bit carried away with the charges..

Old Shep

Warplanes painted with a Japanese insignia are lifted onto the U.S.S. Yorktown at San Diego for transport to Hawaii for use in the Pearl Harbor drama, Tora Tora Tora, 1970.

[Mark Allen M]

Just a few photos ... some of these shots were taken in April of 1969.


Ken Taylor meets Carl Reindel, who played him in the movie, Tora! Tora! Tora


Curtiss P-40E Warhawk use in the film


USS Yorktown (CVS-10) during filming of Tora Tora Tora movie 1968


USS Yorktown CV-10 Entering Pearl Nov 1968


USS Yorktown CV-10 Entering Pearl Nov 1968 Tora Tora Tora aircraft on flight deck


Captain's Gig from DDG-22 passing USS Arizona mockup for Tora Tora Tora Pearl Harbor 14 Apr 1969


USS Benjamin Stoddert DDG-22 under attack during filiming of Tora Tora Tora Pearl Harbor 14 Apr 1969


Fifteen aircraft attack Tora Tora Tora Pearl Harbor 14 Apr 1969


Tora Tora Tora Pearl Harbor 14 Apr 1969


Tora Tora Tora Pearl Harbor


Tora Tora Tora Pearl Harbor


Tora Tora Tora Pearl Harbor


Arizona hit - Tora Tora Tora Pearl Harbor 14 Apr 1969


Tora Tora Tora Carnage


P-40 c 1968


Historic mockup P-40 from the film Tora Tora Tora returns to 'action' near Kawamura Gate c 2008
http://www.army.mil/article/9898/Histor ... mura_Gate/

[GregP]

One of the "Vals" is owned by the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino. We did the conversion and one of our volunteers helped build it. We did the wheel pants and fiberglas dorsal fin, etc.

It still flies today. It will probably fly on the Dec 7 show this year again as our A6M5 Model 52 will not quite be finished with major overhaul yet.

[Warbird Kid]

Speaking of replica Vals, what happened to the remains of the example that crashed while filming Pearl Harbor?

[Jerry O'Neill]

Chris, It was recovered and eventually scrapped, but the wreck does show up in the film during the strafing and destruction of the first P-40's, not the Wheeler scenes later. There's a quick scene intercut between two shots. A P-40 pilot on the wing is seen first, then a quick cut of Zeros flying over, and then a shot of the P-40 blowing up. If you freeze the film at that cut, the wreckage in the foreground is that of the Val.
Jerry

[Chris Brame]

I think he's referring to the one that hit the tree during the filming of the 2001 movie.

[Jerry O'Neill]

Thanks Chris! I missed the PH reference in Chris' question. Not sure about that VAL, but it was deemed un restorable, but in today's world, that term doesn't mean much. Thank goodness Gene wasn't badly hurt. I have some news footage of it flipping when it hit the fake tree, but it's on VHS and from across the harbor. Really looked unsurvivable on the tape.
Jerry

[airnutz]

Speaking of replica Vals, what happened to the remains of the example that crashed while filming Pearl Harbor?

In about the mid-2000's I was visiting one of the private airparks south of Houston where I spotted some large chunks of that bird stacked behind one of the hangars. It's my understanding that they now hang from the walls and rafters of same.

[Mark Allen M]

Look to be a Val in the foreground in this photo ...

[Jerry O'Neill]

That's it Mark.