AIR/SEA Battle Scenes from 1942 Movie, "Air Force"

K

kmcclish

New member
My Dad was a Special Effects Man with various movie studios for over 50 years. About the only movie that I have photos of is the Warner Brothers movie "Air Force" made shortly after Pearl Harbor (early 1942) and depicting the first victorious battle over the Japanese Navy. The movie was filmed mostly in Florida and Texas, but the aerial battle scenes using miniatures were filmed in Santa Barbara Harbor. The model ships were made of steel and powered by Ford V8-60 engines. Each ship had one man running it, except for the aircraft carrier that had a two man crew.

I made a presentation for our relatives in honor of my Dad and included these pictures. https://picasaweb.google.com/kmcclish

Hope you enjoy - click on the album and view slideshow

Kent McClish
MARCIA JANE
 
Those pictures were really great and must bring back many fond memories.

In the mid 50s we used to go down to Santa Barbara to race motorcycles next to the harbor, which apparently hadn't changed much from '42. However when we started sailing there in the 80s and 90s, it certainly was developed to the maximum (whatever that is.)

Boris
 
I had heard that all the models in these photos were burned up in a fire at one of the studios. They were used in several war movies. I would love to have bought one for use up at Lake Almanor where we used to spend summers! The U.S. Defense Department helped finance the building of them.

Kent
MARCIA JANE
 
Very nice. Never saw these before. They must have been very forward thinking to call it the "Air Force" as during WWII, it was the Army Air Corps - until the Air Force came into being in 1947!

Charlie
 
Captains Cat":2027qp8r said:
, it was the Army Air Corps - until the Air Force came into being in 1947!

Charlie
Click to expand...
To continue Charlie's history lesson, the Department of Defense was established that same year, 1947, by combining what had been the War Department and the Navy Department.
 
Charlie, the reason that you've never seen these scenes before is - I'm the only one with these prints. These photos were taken by the crew during the several weeks of filming. This is one of the few locations that we accompanied my Dad on, since it was so close to Burbank, where we lived. My brother, sister and I are donating them to the USC Film Library where the Warner Brothers collection is, as well as the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum. Overall, I have about 60 prints.

Yes, the film is called Air Force even though they had cooperation from the Army Air Corp in its filming (prophetic I guess), and Turner Classic Movies shows it every once in awhile. It is actually availiable on DVD now. It's really a story about a B-17 bomber, the Mary Ann and the air/sea battle it was involved in. The Americans sunk the Japanese aircraft carrier in the movie. When the filming took place, we actually had not won any major sea battles in the Pacific, nor sunk any carriers.

Marty, Actually, my reference books and documents show cooperation by the War Department and the Navy Department. You're right, no Defense Department. I'm still not sure when the miniatures were made and who actually made them. This filming took place in April through June of 1942 and the models were of Japanese Navy ships even though it was just a few months after Pearl Harbor.

One of my problems with most of the sources describing the filming locations were the accuracy of where these pictures of the battles were filmed. I knew it was Santa Barbara, even though I was only 4 at the time, yet most of the sources listed Santa Monica Bay as the location of the air/sea battles in the film. I was finally able to prove to the military film historian, Lawrence Suid that these pictures were taken in Santa Barbara Harbor and slowly the sources are changing the location.

Kent
MARCIA JANE
 
To be even more persnickety, it was actually the United States Army Air Forces from June 20, 1941 – September 17, 1947. The Air Corps was 1926 - 1941. Calling the movie "Air Force" was both correct and appropriate.

My father enlisted in October 1940 in the US Army and retired thirty years later from the US Air Force, serving in all three organizations. And he left a career in Hollywood to do so...

So Kent, I think your photos are fabulous! Very cool, and thanks so much for sharing!

John
 
Back
Top