Sunday, May 24, 2020

Thunderbolt (Memorial Day 2020)

... this is a heck of a good World War II documentary - 'Thunderbolt' (1947) - directed by William Wyler and John Sturges, and photographed by members of the Army Air Forces... it's currently been playing on Netflix - is where we first viewed it a few months back...

(You Tube video)

... excellent accompanying narrative voiced by actor Lloyd ("Sea Hunt") Bridges:

- "This is how ya' live when you're an airplane driver fighting an air war..."
- "Major Francis "Spanky" Manda - squadron operations officer... he's 22..."
- "Captain Howard Hickok - flight leader... he's 23..."
- "Gil Wymond - commander... he's 24 - the old man..."
- "Group commander Lt. Colonel Archie J. Knight... he's 27..."
- "57th Fighter Group... three squadrons... 1000 men..."
- "Alto Air Base, Corsica... good steel mat runway - 150ft x 6000ft..."
- "The brass upstairs plans the war... they want something... you do it... don't always know why... 
   don't always care... but you know there's a reason - a good one..."
- "The P47 Thunderbolt... one man - one engine - extra fuel tanks for range - rockets - 500lb bombs - 
   cameras - you've got eight guns - cyclic rate of 800 round per minute - 106 bullets a second..."
- "You're in the air... game of follow the leader - the squadron leader - he doesn't tell you what to do - 
   does it - you follow - wing tip to wing tip..."
- "No bombsight on the P47 - the pilot does his own aiming... last man goes in - drop your bombs - 
   pull out - black out for a second - the blood drains from your head - but you're young - it comes 
  back fast..."
- "A hit - no more bombs... you've got plenty of gas... plenty of ammo... go on the prowl - see what 
   you can find..."
- "Railroad tracks... not a bad way to find a train... you find one... give it a few squirts - might kill
   somebody..."
- "A light house out there... wonder if I got any ammo left - yep..."
- "Radio station... blow out a few tubes..."
- "Somebody in that field - no friends of mine..."
- "Gerry vehicles parked in that farmyard - must be a headquarters..."
- "Houses around here look kind of suspicious... uh oh... whaddya know!..."
- "Heading home... one plane light... nobody saw it happen... maybe he spun in... maybe he bailed
   out... you'll think about it later..."
- "Alto... home..."
- "All you know is, for some the war is expensive... you wish the people back home could at least
    see it..."
---------------

"... the object of war is not to die for your country 
but to make the other bastard die for his..."
                                           - Gen. George S. Patton

No comments:

Post a Comment