| Title | Flying Fortress |
| Studio | Warner Bros. |
| Date Released | June 13, 1942 (UK) December 5, 1942 (US) |
| Director | Walter Forde |
| Actors | Richard Greene, Donald Stewart, Carla Lehman |
| Aerial Photography | Gus Drisse |
| Technical Advisor | (Nobody brave enough to claim this) |
| Filming Locations | United Kingdom |
B-17s Identified
Fortress I AN518 WP-B (B-17C 40-2043)
Fortress I AN530 WP-F?(B-17C 40-2066)
Fortress I AN536 WP-M(B-17C 40-2076)
Also, about a dozen RAF Fortress Is in formation shots
The Movie...
Well, not one of your better B-17 movies, nonetheless Flying Fortress is notable for the inclusion of a fair number of RAF Fortress Is (B-17Cs) in RAF service while operating out of RAF fields in the UK. Accoriding to Jim Farmer's excellent Celluloid Wings, the operational scenes were shot around Septebmer 1941 with 90 Squadron at Polebrook. At that point, the RAF had largely pulled the Fortress Is from service due to their shortcomings. (To be fair, the Air Corps, well aware of the inadequacies of the B-17C, never intended the B-17Cs for a combat role with the RAF...they were provided as trainers for the forthcoming B-17Es, but were pressed into service by the RAF anyways.) As noted above, two Fortress Is are clearly identifiable (RAF serials of AN530 and AN536, and AN518 in a takeoff scene) in scenes shot around the aft fuselage. Some interior shots, presumably actually shot inside a B-17C, are also included.
All that being said, though, it should be noted that the plot, what there is of it, is a bit on the thin side, there is a fair amount of miniatures and model work (pretty bad even for 1941), but the movie runs mercifully short at about 1 hour and nine minutes, at least the copy I watched. IMDB indicates it was heavily edited for the U.S. release, inexplicably as far as I can tell. This was an early wartime effort produced in England and it is permeated with the early wartime propaganda feel of those early war movies. It does feature the Atlantic Ferry Service and that the U.S. was providing bombers and other warplanes from an early date. Much is made of the Fortress Is operating at 35,000 feet which was true enough, and a bit of the frost and high altitude issues are shown (everyone wears oxygen masks, for example). It turns out the Ju-87 Stukas also fly pretty well at 35,000 feet which is something I didn't know.
Plot synopsis: Arrogant Rich Guy who is also an arrogant pilot involves Marginally Sympathetic Corporate Pilot Guy with a pretty sister (Blonde #1) in an accident near New York and he loses his U.S. pilot certificate. Arrogant Rich Pilot Guy later gets betrayed by a nameless but pretty girlfriend (Blonde #2) and goes off to Canada to join the Canadian ferry service to bring warplanes to Britain. There he finds out Marginally Sympathetic Corporate Pilot Guy is now an instructor and he must submit his high class snobbery to a lower class type, etc. etc. They both end up ferrying a B-17C to England, have so much fun being bombed in London where they meet the pretty girl sister of Marginally Sympathetic Corporate Pilot Guy (Blonde #1) and yet another pretty girl (Blonde #3) that they join the RCAF so they can come back to Britain and fly for the RAF. So they do, they come back to England as Fortress I bomber pilots, rejoin Blonde #1 and Blonde #3, have a pretty good time, and then the last part of the movie is the two guys joining a flight crew for a daylight mission to Berlin with a large gaggle of Fortress Is. By now Arrogant Rich Pilot Guy and Marginally Sympathetic Corporate Pilot Guy are getting along pretty well, and Arrogant Rich Pilot Guy proves his worth by climbing out of the observation bubble on the top of the cockpit to plug a combat damage hole in the #2 engine nacelle with what appears to be a pillow, thus saving the day. It's pretty realistic except for most of the movie, but it is notable, as noted, for the actual B-17C footage. Worth seeing just for that but, of course, it isn't available anywhere except really late late night TV and when somebody mails one to you already on a DVD.
This one comes in as a one out of four on the B-17-O-Meter.
Anecdotal
- as per IMDB, "the heroic engine repair shown in the movie was based on an actual event. A Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot, Sergeant James Allen Ward, earned the Victoria Cross after he climbed onto the wing of his airplane on 7 July 1941 to smother the burning engine."
- More from Steve Birdsall, as noted at http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/bbwardja.htm:
On the night of 7th July 1941, Sergeant Ward was second pilot of a Wellington returning from an attack on Munster. When flying over the Zuider Zee at 13,000 feet, the aircraft was attacked from beneath by a Messerschmitt which secured hits with cannon shell and incendiary bullets. The rear gunner was wounded in the foot but delivered a burst of fire which sent the enemy fighter down, apparently out of control. Fire then broke out near the starboard engine and, fed by petrol from a split pipe, quickly gained an alarming hold and threatened to spread to the entire wing. The crew forced a hole in the fuselage and made strenuous efforts to reduce the fire with extinguishers and even the coffee in their vacuum flasks, but without success. They were then warned to be ready to abandon the aircraft.
As a last resort, Sergeant Ward volunteered to make an attempt to smother the fire with an engine cover which happended to be in use as a cushion. At first he proposed to discard his parachute to reduce wind resistance, but was finally persuaded to take it. A rope from the dinghy was tied to him, though this was of little help and might have become a danger had he been blown off the aircraft. With the help of the navigator, he then climbed through the narrow astro-hatch and put on his parachute.
The bomber was flying at a reduced speed but the wind pressure must have been sufficient to render the operation one of extreme difficulty. Breaking the fabric to make hand and foot holds where necessary, and also taking advantage of existing holes in the fabric, Sergeant Ward succeeded in descending three feet to the wing and proceeding another three feet to a position behind the engine, despite the slipstream from the airscrew, which nearly blew him off the wing. Lying in this precarious position, he smothered the fire in the wing fabric and tried to push the cover into the hole in the wing and on to the leaking pipe from which the fire came. As soon as he removed his hand, however, the terrific wind blew the cover out and when he tried again it was lost. Tired as he was, he was able with the navigator's assistance, to make successfully the perilous journey back into the aircraft. There was now no danger of the fire spreading from the petrol pipe as there was no fabric left nearby, and in due course burnt itself out.
When the aircraft was nearly home some petrol which had collected in the wing blazed up furiously but died down quite suddenly. A safe landing was then made despite the damage sustained by the aircraft. The flight home had been made possisble by the gallant action of Sergeant Ward in extinguishing the fire on the wing, in circumstances of the greatest difficulty and at the risk of his life.
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Links
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Dennis "Dan" Katz for getting me a copy on DVD
Jim Farmer's Celluloid Wings, Tab Books (1984)
Operational scene from the film, supposedly at a Canadian ferry base but probably shot in the U.K.
Arrogant Rich Pilot Guy with Blonde #1: the romance was never resolved, at least in the U.S. release, but I don't think anyone really cared.
A number of nice detail shots made it into the film, including this one of the right waist gun position of the Fortress I.
Operational shot of an engine start.
Operational shot of a takeoff, aircraft unknown.
A bit surprising that the wartime censors let two identified airplanes slip through, but here is a clear shot of AN530.
Formation shot showing nine Fortress Is.
Dramatic scene showing Arrogant Rich Pilot Guy climbing onto the wing to plug a hole in the nacelle with a cushion. Might have been faked for the film, but reportedly based on a real incident. Hmmm.