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