What kind of U-Boat is this?

[IonicRipper]

That's strange considering they called it a u-boat and started shooting at it after it surfaced. Was it a movie mistake?

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by IonicRipper

That's strange considering they called it a u-boat and started shooting at it after it surfaced. Was it a movie mistake?

The movie people probably didn't have access to a real u-boat. I saw a WW2 fighter movie a long time ago with P-47s playing themselves and P-51s playing Messerschmitts. And then there was The Hunters, about the Korean War, with F-84Fs playing MiG-15. And don't forget Top Gun, in which Northrop F-5s played modern "MiGs".

Movie folks go with what's handy.

[Cybermat47]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

The movie people probably didn't have access to a real u-boat. I saw a WW2 fighter movie a long time ago with P-47s playing themselves and P-51s playing Messerschmitts. And then there was The Hunters, about the Korean War, with F-84Fs playing MiG-15. And don't forget Top Gun, in which Northrop F-5s played modern "MiGs".

Movie folks go with what's handy.

That reminds me: in the 60's war movie epic The Battle of Britain, they used Rolls-Royce engined Bf109Gs and adjusted them to look like Bf109Es, and in one scene used them to stand in for Hawker Hurricanes! They also used Rolls-Royce engined He111's. All of them were donated by the Spanish. And they made the Stukas from modern civilian planes, I believe. And in Tora! Tora! Tora!, they used American training planes from WWII as Aichi D3A1s. And the film Midway used scenes from both movies!

[Sailor Steve]

Close, but not quite. The 'Messerschmitts' were indeed Rolls-Royce powered, but they were Spanish-built Ha-1112s, built under license duing the 1950s.

No, they didn't stand in for Hurricanes. Though the Hurricane bore the brunt of the battle, in 1966 there were only three flyable airframes in the world. They used all three in the movie.

The bombers were also built in Spain under license, CASA 2.111s.

The sturzkampflugeugs ("Stukas") were radio-controlled models.

You might as well also complain about the Spitfires, which were mostly late-war models that weren't around in 1940.

As for Tora! Tora! Tora!, again not quite. All the planes were made from American trainers, and all were seriously modified to look very much like the originals. The Mitsubishi A6M2 'Zeroes' were built from AT-6 Texans (what the Brits call the 'Harvard'). Except for the join lines where the outer wing pieces meet the center section they are almost indistinguishable from the original.

The Aichi D3Y 'Vals' and Nakajima B5N 'Kates' were reconstucted from Vultee BT-13 trainers, so extensively that former Lt. Cmdr. Zenji Abe, who flew a Kate at Pearl Harbor, said "... it was an exact copy of the real Val in every detail."
http://www.toratoratora.com/historyrebuilt.html

So you're laughing at the most exact replicas possible at the time. As for Midway, the less said about that piece of garbage the better. Yes, they did use a scene from Battle Of Britain in the movie. They also used one in Das Boot. And the attacking British planes in that movie were indeed surplus Harvards, not modified at all.

[Cybermat47]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

No, they didn't stand in for Hurricanes. Though the Hurricane bore the brunt of the battle, in 1966 there were only three flyable airframes in the world. They used all three in the movie.

Have you got a copy of the movie? Put it in, and watch the first scene with the Polish squadron. Pause it at the scene which clearly shows all five of the Hurricanes, and you'll notice that the two at the back have struts on the tail, a feature sported by only one fighter in that theater at the time... the Bf109E.

Like the 4-bladed Bf109 propeller, it's pretty difficult to notice, I only saw it on my fifth viewing.

And I wasn't laughing at the awesome replicas, I'm quite impressed. I'm just laughing at the fact that a movie used clips from both movies.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Cybermat47

Have you got a copy of the movie? Put it in, and watch the first scene with the Polish squadron. Pause it at the scene which clearly shows all five of the Hurricanes, and you'll notice that the two at the back have struts on the tail, a feature sported by only one fighter in that theater at the time... the Bf109E.

I have watched it every September 15 for the last 20 years or so, with a couple of exceptions. If you'll notice, several of the "all five" Hurricanes are bombed and blown up. They built a bunch of full-size models just for that purpose, and they had to use struts to support the fiberglass stabilizers. Do you really believe they would completely rebuild a Bf-109 to look like a Hurricane?

Like the 4-bladed Bf109 propeller, it's pretty difficult to notice, I only saw it on my fifth viewing.

Then you probably haven't noticed the biggest glaring error of the movie. On several occasions fighters explode. The Spitfires invariably have the wings come off, whereas the real Spitfire's wing was a single piece. The 109s, on the other hand, have the fuselage disintigrate while the 'wing' tumbles down. The real Bf-109 had separate bolt-on wings.

And I wasn't laughing at the awesome replicas, I'm quite impressed. I'm just laughing at the fact that a movie used clips from both movies.

Fair enough. Midway has to be the worst movie of the type ever made.

[Cybermat47]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Do you really believe they would completely rebuild a Bf-109 to look like a Hurricane?

No, but I would believe that they would repaint a Ha-1112 in a RAF fighter colour scheme from 1940, send it up with 3 Hurricanes, and make sure the only time it's obvious is when they bank to attack, when it's almost square wing tips are obvious. Watch that bit, and you'll see it.
Also, the 4-bladed Bf109 propeller is seen in the background when Föhn is walking to his 109 on Adler-Tag.