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Corky Scott wrote:
I always wondered why in the world a tent would be located direcly beside the runway of a bomber base, now I know: it was put there for the bomber to plow through it for the film. Dramatic effect don'tcha know. In that locale and era, weren't airfields literally fields (i.e. no designated runways) so that every takeoff and landing was directly into the wind? If so, then all of the structures could potentially be under the flight path (depending on the wind direction at the time). But I don't doubt that the tent was placed there with the full intention of plowing through it for the camera. Russell Kent |
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On Tue, 09 Mar 2004 12:06:27 -0600, Russell Kent
wrote: Corky Scott wrote: I always wondered why in the world a tent would be located direcly beside the runway of a bomber base, now I know: it was put there for the bomber to plow through it for the film. Dramatic effect don'tcha know. In that locale and era, weren't airfields literally fields (i.e. no designated runways) so that every takeoff and landing was directly into the wind? If so, then all of the structures could potentially be under the flight path (depending on the wind direction at the time). But I don't doubt that the tent was placed there with the full intention of plowing through it for the camera. Russell Kent To the best of my knowledge all bomber bases in England used by the 8th Air Force used concrete or asphalt runways. My father, who flew for the Navy during WWII, took his primary training initially with a contracted civilian trainer. I think this program was called the CPT for Civilian Pilot Training. He then moved on to primary training down in Florida. In Florida the airbase was in fact a gigantic turf field in which everyone was supposed to note the wind direction by looking at the windsock, and take off or land accordingly. He told me that landing in high winds wasn't a problem because you always landed into the wind. However, taxiing in after the landing WAS a problem and that's why the military versions of the Stearman had the hand holds at the lower wingtips: They were for the ground crew to grab onto to keep the airplane from tipping up when the pilot turned sideways to the wind. Gettng back to the opening sequence for "12 O'Clock High", the scene was supposed to be at a British bomber base but was actually filmed at an abandoned airbase in Florida. Someone mentioned that you can actually see a palm tree at some point in the movie but I've never seen it. What I did notice one time when I was cutting scenes from the combat footage to flesh out an interview I did with a B-17 top turret gunner, was a Messerschmitt flashing by the camera. This was uncalled during the movie and I'm not sure anyone who cut the original movie noticed that the 109 was even there. It was during one of the scenes of the target area, probably filmed from the nose and looking nearly straight down. I was running the film at slow motion to creep up on a spot where I was going to "cut" the shot out and saw something zip by right past the camera. I backed the film up and slowed it down to the point where it was blipping along frame by frame and sure enough, a BF109 passes right under the bomber about 200 to 300 feet below the belly. That's one of the few shots pulled together by the film crew that showed an actual enemy airplane, and no one knows it's there because at normal speed you virtually cannot see it. Nearly all the other shots of fighters attacking, like the shot of a lone fighter diving from above and passing down behind the tail are Allied fighters. The lone diver is a Spitfire, which is obvious when you slow the film way down. The three radial engined airplanes that all roll together after approaching from behind the bomber and dive away are actually P-47's, complete with the white painted nose of the cowling. And the close up of the "Focke Wulf" firing it's machine guns at the bomber is not just a P-47, it's an unpainted P-47 in gleaming aluminum, and bubble canopy. These shots initially aroused my suspicion because compared to the obvious combat footage, they were very clear. Combat footage of incoming fighters is almost always blurry and jerky because either the cameraman is ducking or the area near where he is standing is shaking from the recoil of the machine guns firing. Corky Scott |
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