A couple of questions about “Pearl Harbor” Doolittle Raid (the 2001 movie):
1#. Colonel Doolittle tells the men, *“I’m going to teach you to take off in a B-25 in 467 feet. Because in 468 feet, you’re dead.” *I take this to mean that in 467 feet, the B-25 would take off, sink a bit, but pull up just above the waves, but in 468 feet, the B-25 would take off, sink, and impact the ocean surface?
2# The USS Hornet carrier group doesn’t detect Japanese patrol boats until they’re 400 yards away. What…??
How could a Japanese patrol boat get that close without being seen? Even some of the carrier escorts are further than 400 yards away.
Furthermore, in the movie, the Japanese patrol boat didn’t broadcast the Hornet’s position until they were 400 yards away. Why did the Japanese wait so long? Shouldn’t they have broadcast when they were still miles away from the carrier, long ago?
Remember that Hornet had a top speed of about 32 kt (37 mph), there’s ‘free speed’ the planes didn’t have to accelerate to. Also, guns and equipment were removed from the aircraft to make them lighter.
Just to mention, I recall reading at the time the film came out that none of the personnel on Oahu at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack participated in the Doolitle raid.
Yes, but it was largely filled with B-25s. The first planes in particular had a very short space in which to acquire the airspeed needed to stay out of the drink.
IIRC, they were fishing boats, and the weather in the North Pacific was not good. They would have been low on the horizon and difficult to spot.
They probably didn’t radio a warning sooner because they weren’t expecting enemy vessels that close to Japan in April 1942. They must have been surprised when the Americans opened fire on them.
No one flier would have been in the Battle of Britain in fighter aircraft, then at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7 in another different fighter aircraft, and then a few months later be in a bomber flying off an aircraft carrier.
For dramatic purposes, I guess I wouldn’t mind one entirely fictional pilot being at Pearl Harbor and on the Raid, but the movie certainly didn’t need two, with a love triangle thrown in for extra padding.
A friend of mine was a B-25 instructor pilot at Hurlbert Field when “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” was filmed. He and 2 other instructor pilots were tagged to do all the flying for the film. He’s actually visible in the film for about 13 seconds. He said Spencer Tracey never was at Hurlbert, but Van Johnson kept folks awake all night talking on the phone to his wife who was back in LA. I guess they all stayed in barracks during that part of the filming.
Of course not. Why would you take a fighter pilot and make him into a bomber pilot for such an important mission? There were already plenty of experienced bomber pilots. Affleck’s character was particularly unbelievable. Most of the Eagle Squadron members had no prior military experience. No one was allowed out of the US Army and then let back in before Pearl Harbor. The 3 Eagle Squadrons were transferred to the Army Air Corps in September 1942.
According to wiki (with cite to a reference I’m not familiar with) it was a Japaneses picket ship which did radio a warning.
Also recommend you see ***Destination: Tokyo ***with Cary Grant and The Purple Heart with Dana Andrews as a sort of prequel/sequel experience. Wartime propaganda, yes, but both are still great movies!
I know the Doolittle Raid has been discussed in a few different threads, but this seems as good a place as any to mention this. Richard Cole, the last survivor of the Raid, died today at 103. He was copilot of the lead plane, sitting alongside Doolittle. He lived long enough to see the discovery of the wreck of the USS Hornet. She was sunk in 1942 and discovered just a couple months ago.