George Lucas planning to make a WWII film "Red Tails"

[FLYBOYJ]

Matt - Could not possibly have a better choice of an epic and important illustration of perhaps the greates life and death drama of USAAF heavy bombers on one of the most important missions of the war -

Leon Johnson taking the 44th in with delayed action fuses going off from the 93rd just minutes earlier, gunners dueling with flak batteries and a flak train running parallel, coming home with wheat and corn stalk chaff in the bomb bays and only one more guy from the lead squadron .. 5 MoH..

Who could possibly capture that on film?

somebody tell me again about the 332nd?

I heard a rumor back in the 70s that some producers were looking to do a movie about Ploesti in the same scale as Tora, Tora, Tora and Midway, but the USAF didn't want to cooperate because it was going to make them look bad - plus the lack of B-24s didn't help.

 

[Matt308]

thanks Comiso and here is another rather lengthy thesis in more detail, still trying to find out the Ju 88 KG that did the damage, one report says only 20 Ju 88A-4's did the carnage ........

Curt Maynard's Blog: Bari Revisited

Erich, I have no doubt that most all countries entertained the use of weapons whose use would result in horrific repercussions.
And when we are talking about the survival of not only of nations, but of good versus evil, I can imagine some truly unbelievable plans were put forth to the leadership of all sides. Survival is one of those primeival/reptile cortex responses that on one hand is humanly terrifying and on the other is utterly beautiful in its Darwinistic simplicity.

 

[drgondog]

I heard a rumor back in the 70s that some producers were looking to do a movie about Ploesti in the same scale as Tora, Tora, Tora and Midway, but the USAF didn't want to cooperate because it was going to make them look bad - plus the lack of B-24s didn't help.

Yeah - hard to replicate one flyable B-24D x 153 times

 

[kool kitty89]

They could do it now though.

 

[Flyboy2]

Oh yeah, with computer graphics and stuff. Look at Star Wars, none of those space ships were really flying That would be a great movie

 

[Jerry W. Loper]

Back in the mid-1970's I read a paperback book by Martin Caidin titled The Last Dogfight; the book had the infamous blurb on the cover that said "Soon to be a major motion picture." Which of course, eventually it wasn't. Too bad, it would've been an interesting movie, although not historically accurate. (Major fighter types used in the book were Curtiss P-40, Lockheed P-38, and Mitsubishi Zero.)

 

[Erich]

Matt my response with link posted was just to give another overview, funny how everyone gets a bunched up panties once in awhile during the war, what if and if you do we will retaliate with something even more evil. In a movie form if there would be any truth and not a fantasy the attack on Bari would be something, doubt it will ever happen as it was a total govt, cover-up during the war and still is. the 1-3 books on the subject are sadly lacking

 

[Hollywood]

They would have to say "they never lost a truck"..........

 

[comiso90]

thanks Comiso and here is another rather lengthy thesis in more detail, still trying to find out the Ju 88 KG that did the damage, one report says only 20 Ju 88A-4's did the carnage ........

Curt Maynard's Blog: Bari Revisited

Nice find...
Man.. what a mess! A nightmare.

.

 

[Matt308]

Matt my response with link posted was just to give another overview, funny how everyone gets a bunched up panties once in awhile during the war, what if and if you do we will retaliate with something even more evil. In a movie form if there would be any truth and not a fantasy the attack on Bari would be something, doubt it will ever happen as it was a total govt, cover-up during the war and still is. the 1-3 books on the subject are sadly lacking

I hear ya Erich. My only point is that it is amazing how civil societies can sink in depravity so quickly during the hell of war.

 

[Njaco]

Erich, I have the Germans losing two Ju 88s on Bari -

Uffz. Karl-Heinz Hellwig's Ju 88A-4 of 3./KG 30
Fw. Walter Klein's Ju 88A-4 of 1./KG 54

I've lost the refrences, will try to find where I got them.

 

[Erich]

yes Matt so true.............how could we stoop that low, but we did as well as everyone else.

Njaco thanks and yes please see what you can find, as there is about nothing on the units and most likely as you pointed out with the 2 losses from two different units. One was based in Italy somewhere the other having a longer flight over the Adriatic based out of Yugoslavia.

E

 

[Matt308]

The thesis noted two losses too. But there was no unit designations.

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

not to sound racist or anything, but I was hoping if they made a P-51 movie it would be about the Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney.

That squadron had a lot of good adventures, even if they weren't as famous as the Red Tails.

 

[Erich]

Roger that Matt, and yes would like to see a flick on the Blue Nosers..........

for Bari it was 6 gruppen at varied strength all with the Ju 88A-4. I./II. gruppen of KG 30, I./II. gruppen of KG 54, I./II. Gruppen of KG 76

 

[Njaco]

Found the source....

Pages 289-299

 

[Flyboy2]

Good call Soundbreaker. That would be a pretty intense movie.

 

[Erich]

Njaco:

yes that is it. Nick B. replied to me and sent me over to his ghostbombers web-site. now to find the bombers in fotos but maybe we can start another thread on Bari instead of clogging up this one on the red-tails

 

[Njaco]

sounds good. He has a fantastic site!

 

[blkstne]

Silly walkin Bastard, I like the siggy Cosimo.....

There are soooo many other topics worth making a movie about concerning the air-war during WW2.... Why a bunch of over-hyped black guys flying Mustangs is more interesting than say the Cactus Air force or the Black sheep or the disasters at Schweinfurt (sp) or Cassel is lost on me....

There already has been a movie about the Tuskeegee Project, and in it they propagated the myth even more so about not losing a single bomber while escorting....


Pure horseshit...

Just joined your forum today and I'm already disapointed by disrespectful comment I see. I joined forum because of my love of warbirds and love to research and talk about all things aircraft. I build and fly 1/6 scale warplanes as a hobby. My grandfather started my love of aircraft with his stories about working on p-47, p-51, p-39 and p-40's. He was a aircraftmechanic with the Tuskegee airmen. My grandfathers stories inspired my father to serve in the Airforce and me to serve in the Navy. Because of my grandfather I have researched everything about the airmen. LET me explain the so called never losing a bomber myth. A newspaper article(Chicago Tribune I believe) was written state side during the war about the Black flyers who had flew about 200 missions without losing a bomber due to hostile aircraft. AT the time the article was written the information was true. After the article was published 25 bombers were lost by the end of the war.
It is sad to see 60+ years later I am still seeing some of the hostility/bigotry my grandfather talked about.

The first Tuskegee airmen movie (good movie)was a low budget HBO movie made in 1995. It was made long before that military historian researched and found out about the lost 25 bombers.

I myself would love to see a real movie with real facts done about The Tuskegee airmen. I grew up all my life watching the hundreds of ww2 movies rarely seeing any black units from that time frame.