Helicopters in WWII films

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Anyone remember the movie Fighter Squadron with Robert Stack and Edmond O'Brian? Mustangs in Luftwaffe colors versus Thunderbolts from the Eighth. The ANG units that helped film must have had fun!
 
What were the CAS aircraft used in "A Bridge Too Far"? It's always bugged me to see them go in to bomb that tree line in front of the British 30 Corps, and not know what the heck they were! Harvards, maybe?
 
Aside from the M47 tanks posing as Tigers in the movie Patton (even the Shermans were wrong) - I know Tora! Tora! Tora! catches alot of heat, but they actually did a fantastic job recreating more Japanese aircraft for the movie than actually existed in the entire world at the time.
 

Just kidding..
 

I have not read "Where Eagles Dare" in several years (I do have it around here, will have to dig it out) but I don't remember a helicopter in the book. I suspect the addition of the helicopter is part of the adaptation for screen, and this particular slip in technology probably can't be attributed to Alistair McLean.

T!
 

As much as I love that movie (Patton) overall, I always had a bit of difficulty swallowing the equipment inaccuracies. I take into account that there just are not a whole lot of panzer III's lying around to use in a movie. However, in the scene depicting the Battle of El Guettar, which is supposed to be part of the initial part of that battle (that in reality stretched over some time) the heavy use of tanks and self propelled guns by the Allies was shown when in reality that battle consisted of mostly artillery, 37mm anti tank guns and a bunch of half track tank destroyers (M3 I think). I believe there were a few M10 tank destroyers (looks like a tank but not really) But the tanks have a much greater dramatic effect for the moviegoer.

ETA... did some edits as my memory is really faulty today.
 
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You know, I actually meant the movie "Battle of the Bulge", but there were errors in the movie Patton, though not as many.

With as many different units involved (on both sides) during the Battle of the Bulge, I found it interesting that they only showed basically two types: "Tigers" and Shermans. I know it's hard to portray such a massive battle in any sort of detail (especially on a budget), but they could have done much better. Even though there were hardly any real Tigers operational at the time of the movie, there were other Panzer types available like the Hetzer (Czech ST-1 and Swiss G-13) and Stug (Syrian Stug III Ausf D) variants still in service. For example the surplus PzKfw IV units that France sold to Syria were all but a few destroyed in 1967 during the six day war - 2 years after Battle of the Bulge was released in theaters

That would have given a little better variety and authenticity to the production.
 
As as a kid we couldn't wait for the next time The Battle of Bulge would be on TV. An almost silly movie historically, but fun to watch if you take it for what it is. I admit I have it on DVD , a good beer and pretzels movie,
 
Graeme said:
Apparently Mr Gary Hyland was so impressed with that scene he wrote a book...
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Interesting - any idea how accurate it is?

Mi

EDIT - just bought a copy - at USD 6.20 delivered it should either be a good reference or a good laugh though I freely admit German technology of the period is not a strong point for me
 
My pet film peeve has to be the film where the pilot of a single seater pulls a large post war industrial fire extinguisher out of nowhere to fight a cockpit fire - Midway?
 
MiTasol said:
My pet film peeve has to be the film where the pilot of a single seater pulls a large post war industrial fire extinguisher out of nowhere to fight a cockpit fire - Midway?
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That is pretty bad, but I can think of one even worse, and I think it's from the same movie.
What is supposed to be a Wildcat, but is a Hellcat, crashes and burns on landing, turns into mid 50's Cutlass jet during the firey end.
 
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The movie Midway used stock wartime footage and also some cuts from a couple of previous movies. One of the movies I can recall, but the title escapes me...it was something like "All Boats Away" or something to that effect.

Great, now I'm going to have to look through the cabinet to find that movie to get the title right...
 
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