#Dauntless movie movie#

Navy in the 1930s, and in 1942 it was the most accurate form of air attack. Dive bombing had been developed by the U.S. The broad flight decks of the carriers were perfect targets for the American pilots whose aircraft, training, and combat tactics had prepared them for precisely this type of attack. Somehow, against all odds, the Americans had achieved precisely the situation that Navy commanders had dreamed of: dozens of dive bombers screaming down on Japanese flight decks jammed with gassed up and armed aircraft, fueling hoses snaked about, bombs and torpedoes scattered hastily across the hangar bays. The heroic sacrifice of Navy torpedo plane crews who had pressed home their slow-motion attacks in the face of deadly Japanese opposition looked to be in vain.īut now, at the last possible moment, three squadrons of SBD Dauntless dive bombers from the American aircraft carriers USS Yorktownand USS Enterprise had arrived unobserved and unopposed in the skies above the Japanese fleet. had gained through years of backbreaking effort by Navy codebreakers was about to be squandered. The priceless intelligence advantage the U.S. So far, two days of American air and submarine attacks had failed to damage a single ship of the peerless Japanese Aircraft Carrier Striking Force. Far below, four Japanese aircraft carriers were launching the first planes of a massive strike that could decide the Battle of Midway. Navy dive bombers had found what they were looking for. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons) “Today a computer would instantly process the flood of incoming information and fly the correct profile, but in 1942 the pilot was the computer.” The famous Douglas dive bombers proved decisive in the epic carrier battle. Dauntless SBDs in action at the Battle of Midway. Now, if someone would be interested in the rest of the story, there are those absolutely hair-raising adventures my father had at Guadalcanal. Still, it will be a tribute to my dad and I'll get a copy or, I hope, see it on screen asap. It is too bad that he never got the major studio backing that the project needed to make it work as well as it should. Mike Phillips has wanted to make a film about this ever since he heard the story some 15 years ago and finally got the money to put it on screen.

(He missed with his bomb, a fact that my mother said vexed him for the rest of his short life.) He was then shot down and spent 8 days in the open water with his gunner until being rescued by a PBY piloted by a school classmate from his home town.

He (Thomas Ramsay they used his real name) led his squadron (VB-6) from USS Enterprise in the attack that so severely damaged HIJMS Kaga that she was scuttled by the Japanese the next day.

#Dauntless movie movie#

This movie is special to me and my brother: it's the story of my father's adventures at the Battle of Midway. it is alike watching kirk douglas with his dollar grin bombing japs in a good ol 1942 war movie, its just so primitive and dumb and nevertheless, so the grumpy old man goes for dumbless the dazzle on fraudway, and its not a recommend unless you enjoy some flightsimulator video game stuff i know the pacific war history and know very well what happened in midway, but does the director and producers? the acting are terrible at all levels and what saves the glory and a two star from me were some of the flight cgi's that at moments nearly sucked the air out of me, but it all crashes down to negative -g as soon as the actors opens their mouth, and here the green or blue or whatever screen in the studio are nearly visible. my question is, why midway, and where are midway, is it in the mid-del or in between. i shall admit that i fell asleep each time the film focuses on the two pilots drifting the ocean due to lifejackets, trying to keep up moral, and waiting to get help, and getting abrupt awake by airplane rumbling in the next sequence. Making a good warmovie shouldnt be that hard to make, but the managment of this film really felt the hardships of making one.