Air Force is a 1943 American World War II aviation film directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Garfield, John Ridgely, Gig Young, Arthur Kennedy, and Harry Carey. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and produced by Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner. It contains incidents of supposed fifth-column activities by Japanese Americans that never happened. (See Historical inaccuracies below.) Conceived by then-Lieutenant General “Hap” Arnold (Commanding General of US Army Air Forces) in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack, it was originally scheduled for release on December 7, 1942, on the first anniversary. It became impossible to meet that deadline, and it premiered in New York City on February 3, 1943, and was released on March 20. The film's storyline revolves around an actual event that occurred on December 7, 1941. An aircrew ferries an unarmed 1940 series Boeing B-17D Flying Fortress heavy bomber, named the Mary-Ann, across the Pacific to the United States Army Air Forces base at Hickam Field. They fly right into the middle of the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor and the beginning of America's major involvement in the Second World War. An uncredited William Faulkner wrote the emotional deathbed scene for Ridgely, who played the commander and pilot of the Mary-Ann.
Plot On December 6, 1941, the crew of Mary-Ann, a U.S. Army Air Corps B-17D, is ordered to fly from San Francisco to Hawaii with eight other Flying Fortress bombers.
Master Sergeant Robbie White, the crew chief, is a long-time veteran whose son Danny is an officer and fighter pilot. The navigator, Lieutenant Monk Hauser Jr., is the son of World War I Lafayette Escadrille hero. The pilot is Michael "Irish" Quincannon Sr., the co-pilot is Bill Williams, and the bombardier is Tom McMartin. Sergeant Joe Winocki is a disgruntled gunner who, as an aviation cadet in 1938, washed out of flight school after he caused a mid-air collision in which another cadet was killed. Quincannon was the flight instructor who requested a board of inquiry into the accident.
Mary-Ann and the other B-17s fly fully equipped except for ammunition to Hickam Field arriving during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In its aftermath, the tired crew is ordered to fly to Clark Field in the Philippines via Wake Island, both also under Japanese attack. En route, the crew hears President Franklin D. Roosevelt ask Congress to declare war. Mary-Ann takes two passengers, fighter pilot Lieutenant Thomas "Tex" Rader and a small dog, "Tripoli", the Marines' mascot on Wake Island.
At Clark Field, White learns his son was killed in aerial combat. Mary-Ann attacks a Japanese invasion fleet, but is swarmed by enemy fighters and forced to abort after losing two engines. The fatally wounded Quincannon orders his men to bail out before blacking out. Winocki remains aboard and pilots Mary-Ann to a successful belly landing. The crew works feverishly through the night to repair Mary-Ann using parts from damaged B-17s as the Japanese Army closes in. Chester, the assistant radio operator, volunteers to fly as gunner in a two-seat observation plane. They are caught in an enemy air raid. Chester bails out after the pilot is killed, but is machine-gunned while descending in his parachute, then fatally strafed on the ground. Winocki and White shoot down the Zero fighter and then kill the pilot when he escapes the burning wreckage. The crew finishes repairs and refueling just as the Japanese overrun the airfield.
En route to Australia, with Rader as the reluctant pilot and the wounded Williams as co-pilot, they spot a Japanese invasion force below. The crew radios the enemy's position and circles until reinforcements arrive; Mary-Ann then leads the attack that devastates the Japanese fleet (this dramatic sequence mirrors the real events of the Battle of the Coral Sea).
Later in the war, a bombing attack on Tokyo is finally announced to a roomful of bomber crews, among them several familiar faces from Mary-Ann, including Rader, now a B-17 pilot. As the bombers take off, President Roosevelt speaks in a voice-over, as the air armada heads towards the rising sun.
Cast Actor On-screen credit NotesJohn Ridgely Pilot Captain Michael Aloysius "Irish" Quincannon Sr.Gig Young Co-Pilot Lieutenant William WilliamsArthur Kennedy Bombardier Lieutenant Thomas C. McMartinCharles Drake Navigator Lt. Monk Hauser Jr.Harry Carey Crew Chief Master Sergeant Robert "Robbie" White, also 2nd flight engineer George Tobias Asst. Crew Chief Corporal WeinbergWard Wood Radio Operator Corporal "Minnesota" PetersonRay Montgomery Asst. Radio Operator Private ChesterJohn Garfield Aerial Gunner Sergeant Joe WinockiJames Brown Pursuit Pilot (Passenger) Lieutenant Thomas "Tex" RaderStanley Ridges Major Mallory, Clark FieldWillard Robertson Colonel at Hickam FieldMoroni Olsen Colonel Blake, Commanding Officer at ManilaEdward Brophy (as Edward S. Brody) Sergeant J.J. Callahan, USMC Richard Lane Major W.G. RobertsBill Crago Pilot P.T. Moran at ManilaFaye Emerson Susan McMartin, Tommy's sisterAddison Richards Major DanielsJames Flavin Major A. M. BagleyDorothy Peterson Mrs. Chester (uncredited)Leah Baird Nurse #2 (uncredited)Henry Blair Quincannon's son (uncredited)Michael, Paul; Parish, John Robert (1969). The American Movies : The History, Films, Awards : A Pictorial Encyclopedia. New York: Galahad Books. p. 46. .Ann Doran Mrs. Mary Quincannon (uncredited)Ruth Ford Nurse (uncredited)
Production
Director Howard Hawks credited the concept of the film to Lieutenant General Henry H. Arnold, Commanding General of the Army Air Forces, loosely based on the experiences of an actual flight of twelve B-17s that left Hamilton Field, California, on the night of December 6, 1941, and literally flew into the war the next morning at Pearl Harbor. (The Japanese aircraft were detected by the Opana radar site on northern Oahu and reported to the Fort Shafter Intercept Center but was dismissed by the Watch Officer as being this flight of B-17s scheduled to arrive at Hickam Field around the same time as Japan's attack.) Executive producer Jack Warner was adamant that the film be ready for release by 7 December 1942, the first anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. To that end, miniatures for battle sequences were filmed in May and June 1942, before completion of the script and storyline.
Although pre-production work had already been done, the official start of the production on 18 May 1942 was tied to the War Department's approving the script. Development of the film was concurrent with scriptwriting by Dudley Nichols, with some characters based on Air Corps personnel Hawks met while traveling to Washington, D.C., to confer with Arnold and the War Department Motion Picture Board of Review.Orriss 1984, p. 67. Nichols's script, submitted 15 June, was 207 pages long (twice that of a normal feature-length film), had its initial 55 pages devoted to "character development," and was not finished.McCarthy 2000, pp. 336–337.
Principal photography, consisting of aerial shots and exteriors, took place at Hendricks Army Airfield, Florida. For water scenes and shooting miniatures shots, MacDill Field, Florida; Randolph Field, Texas; and Santa Monica Bay, California, were used.Orriss 1984, p. 68. Shooting began 18 June 1942, using a rented mock-up of a B-17 interior, in which the 10 principal characters performed for a month. The company then moved by train to Drew Army Airfield, Florida, at the end of July to spend the next month shooting aerial sequences coordinated by Paul Mantz, chief pilot and aerial technical coordinator for the production.Orriss 1984, p. 64. Drew was selected because of fears that use of aircraft marked as Japanese might cause panic on the West Coast.McCarthy 2000, pp. 337–339.
At the end of August, Hawks returned to Hollywood and engaged William Faulkner to rewrite two scenes, including the death of the Mary-Anns pilot. By then, the film, scheduled to be completed by 17 September, was three weeks behind schedule and only half completed. Production featured a celebrated clash between producer Hal Wallis and Hawks over the latter's constant changing of dialogue as scenes were shot. Hawks was briefly replaced on 4 October by Vincent Sherman, but returned from "illness" on October 10 to take back primary direction. Sherman remained as second-unit director to assist with completion of the film, which wrapped on 26 October 1942, failing to shoot 43 pages of script and 33 days over schedule, too late to meet its 7 December release date.McCarthy 2000, pp. 341–342.
Wallis wrote that AAF Captains Sam P. Triffy and Hewett T. Wheless were technical advisors to the film, and that Triffy in particular made significant contributions to the storyline, dialogue, and sets. "Shorty" Wheless had previously been a B-17 aircraft commander in the Philippines with the 19th Bomb Group and had been one of the survivors evacuated to Australia in December 1941. He was at Randolph Field, Texas, in the process of appearing as himself in the Academy Award-winning short film Beyond the Line of Duty when he assisted on Air Force.
Aircraft The U.S. Army Air Forces provided the various aircraft that appear in the film: Ten Boeing B-17B/C/D Flying Fortresses were from Hendricks Army Airfield at Sebring, Florida. The majority were actually RB-17Bs upgraded to B-17C/D standards, as was the B-17 that portrayed Mary-Ann. The bomber's on-screen, "wartime security" serial number 05564 (actually "40-5564") is listed in the film credits. The bomber's actual serial number was 8584 ("38-584"), being so marked on the left side of the vertical tail. In the film's beginning stock footage flight ĺine sequence, an early model YB-17 can be seen in the background of the bomber lineup. North American AT-6 Texans and Republic P-43 Lancers were painted as Japanese fighters. Bell P-39 Airacobras and Curtiss P-40C Warhawks from Drew Army Airfield portrayed the AAF fighters. Six Martin B-26C Marauders from MacDill Field were painted as Japanese bombers.Orriss 1984, p. 69.
The "real" Mary-Ann was reported lost in the Pacific shortly after production wrapped, according to information attributed to the production's technical advisor; actually, no early Flying Fortresses served for long in Pacific combat after Pearl Harbor. Two early RB-17B aircraft, upgraded to the later series "D" standards, played the Mary-Ann; AAF serial numbers 38-584 and 39-10 (briefly seen in background projection as John Garfield boards the aircraft) were reclassified in late 1943 as instructional air frames; following the war, both were scrapped in January 1946."Warner Bros. Start Filming of 'Air Force' at Drew Field" tampapix.com.. Retrieved: November 3, 2024. Another claim, attributed to a newspaper article, was that the real Mary-Ann went on tour to promote the film, then was assigned to Hobbs Army Air Field, New Mexico, then later to Amarillo Army Air Field, where it was assigned to a ground school.
Historical inaccuracies The basic premise of Air Force, that a flight of B-17s flying to reinforce the defense of the Philippines flies into the attack on Pearl Harbor, reflects actual events. From that point on, however, all of the incidents are fictitious. The actual number of B-17s arriving at Hickam Field (Oahu) was 12, and their actual emergency landing sites were all on Oahu. No B-17 reinforcements reached the Philippines; the survivors of those already based there were withdrawn to Australia less than two weeks after the war began. The major bombing mission depicted at the film's climax most closely resembles the Battle of the Coral Sea five months later. Miniature shooting for its battle scenes was filmed in May and June 1942, concurrent but probably coincidental with Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway.