![]() ![]() Of these two, 'Memphis Belle' is closer in style and in spirit to the traditional war film. Genuine war films, however, were few and far between, although there were a number of exceptions, and TCM recently broadcast two of these as part of the D-Day sixtieth anniversary celebrations, 'The Big Red One' from 1980 and 'Memphis Belle' from ten years later. There were a few disguised war films, such as 'Top Gun', which had modern American fighter pilots battling an unidentified enemy in a fictitious war, or the 'Star Wars' trilogy which, even if George Lucas disliked the analogy, was widely seen as either World War Two or the Cold War translated into outer space. In America, the decline of the war film probably had more to do with post-Vietnam syndrome which led to patriotic sentiment and the military being viewed for a time with some suspicion. (The best British war film of the period was 'Hope and Glory', which concentrated on the Home Front rather than on actual combat). In Britain, this was connected to a decline in the British cinema itself, which only occasionally had the financial resources and self-confidence to make pictures on a large scale. In the late seventies, eighties and early nineties, however, it went into something of a decline in both countries. The traditional, patriotic World War 2 film was popular in both America and Britain throughout the fifties and sixties, long after the war itself was over. The mission would count toward tour completion, as the crews would have been in combat, and were over enemy territory. Failing that, the mission would be aborted and the crews would dump their ordnance in either the North Sea or the English Channel. ![]() If the secondary were unable to be hit, it became the IP for the tertiary, and if that were unable to be hit, the force commander (NOT the pilot of the lead aircraft) would issue an order to go after targets of opportunity. If the primary target was unable to be hit, the primary became the IP to set up on the secondary. In actuality, bomber crews were briefed on a primary, a secondary, a tertiary and targets of opportunity. Third, such a maneuver would keep the force under fighter attack longer than need be. Second, such a maneuver would alert all flak batteries as to the actual target. First, it is VERY hard to have a formation of 300-plus Forts make a 180 degree turn. In reality, this would NOT have happened. In Memphis Belle the bomber force is ordered to circle back to the Initial Point when the Primary Target is obscured by smoke or cloud cover. ![]()
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