A Wing and a Prayer Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Flying Tigers

Jim Gordon (Wayne) leads the mercenary unit, when an old friend, Woody Jason (John Carroll) joins up. Woody's self-centered behavior, motivated by the bounty for shooting down Japanese planes, leads to the loss of aircraft, his wingman and Gordon's deputy. Gordon finally fires him in a scene with a calendar showing Dec 7, 1941. Jason redeems himself by sneaking on what was considered a suicide mission and, after being wounded by flak, dives into an enemy train.

The Flying Tigers operated in Burma and western China defending China's main supply line, the Burma Road. Contrary to the movie, however, they did not fly combat missions until a couple weeks AFTER the Pearl Harbor attack.

Answer: Midway

The movie centered around the tensions between commanders and airmen who were growing frustrated with their orders to be noticed but not engage Japanese forces around the Solomon Islands. The orders, it turned out, were to mislead the Japanese on US force deployment and lure them into a trap at Midway.

The loss of four Japanese first line aircraft carriers following the losses in the Battle of the Coral Sea a month earlier spelled the end of Japanese offensive naval operations.

Answer: 12 O'Clock High

Recognition of a familiar jug in an antique shop in postwar England triggers memories of tense days in 1942 with the 918 Bomb Group where the main action occurs. Col Davenport, the commander of a low morale unit after high casualties in daylight bombing, protests orders to fly at lower altitudes which would increase casualties even further. Gen Savage (Peck), decides that his old friend has gotten too close to his men and is close to cracking under the strain of command. Savage takes command to whip the group back into shape. His initial hard line slowly softens as his men discover that he is fighting the headquarters behind the scenes on their behalf. In the end, Savage also agonizes over continued crew losses until he actually does crack prior to a particularly dangerous mission.

The high casualty rates did not turn around significantly until the introduction of fighters like the P-38 and P-51 that could fly as far as the bombers to fend off the German interceptors.

Answer: Catch-22

The movie centers on John Yossarian, a B-25 bombardier stationed in the Mediterranean, who is trying to find a way out of more combat missions. He considers insanity but catch-22 of the title was explained by the unit medical officer that a crewman "would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he'd have to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't, he was sane and had to." While Yossarian feigns insanity to get grounded, his squadron mates display increasingly insane behavior of their own from murder to maniacal black marketeering and a penchant for crash landing. Capt. Orr's crash landings in the end turn out to be his practice for an escape to Sweden which inspires Yossarian to start rowing to Sweden in a life raft.

Answer: 30 Seconds Over Tokyo

The plot centers on Col. Doolittle's (Tracy) unprecedented plan to launch medium bombers from an aircraft carrier to hit Japan and land in China. The volunteer pilots must first learn to take off from the short deck of the carriers. Then as the carrier is en route it is spotted by fishing boats which leads to the decision to launch earlier than planned with little likelihood of the pilots reaching friendly forces in China. Many are captured or killed but the movie focuses on Lt. Lawson (Van Johnson) who crash lands in the surf on the Chinese coast. Despite many hardships, including an amputated leg, Lawson and his crew manage to make it home with the help of friendly Chinese.

There are still a substantial number of flyable B-25s in the hands of collectors and museums. More B-25s flew into the Air Force Museum for the 70th anniversary than actually flew on the raid.

Answer: Flying Leathernecks

Major Kirby (Wayne) is assigned to command a marine squadron on Guadalcanal where the crews expected Captain Griffin (Robert Ryan) to assume command. Kirby is strict with his men as he fights short supplies as well as Griffin, who identifies more with the pilots, including his brother-in-law. While placing the mission over the welfare of his men, Kirby privately agonizes over the tough choices. The dire straits of the marines led HQ to finally allow Kirby the employ low level support tactics to good effect. Kirby is promoted and returns to the States to further develop the close air support tactics but returns to the same unit for the battle of Okinawa. During one encounter Griffin holds his formation rather than fly to the rescue of his brother-in-law, who is killed. Kirby is also wounded in the encounter and names Griffin as the new commander since he finally showed that he could place the mission first.

Guadalcanal highlighted both the importance of air support and the limitations of the tactics and equipment at the time. Through Guadalcanal and the following battles, marine aviators made great strides in honing their capability to provide close air support to the mud marines.

Answer: The Dam Busters

This is the story of Barnes Wallis who labors feverishly to develop a method of destroying dams that are protected by torpedo nets. He develops an unconventional bomb that bounces across the water, above the nets, and then sinks against the dam. He must fight a skeptical bureaucracy. Initially rejected by both the Ministry of Aircraft Production and RAF Bomber Command, he finally convinces "Bomber" Harris who gets the approval from the Prime Minister. A squadron of Lancaster bombers is assigned to the mission which will require precise low level bombing. Last minute development issues force the bombers to drop the bombs from a lower altitude than planned, only 60 ft and at night. The mission finally goes off and succeeds in destroying the dams but at the cost of several aircraft and crews.

A notable quote from Wallis was "You know, there's such a very thin dividing line between inspiration and obsession, that sometimes it's very hard to decide which side we're really on!"

Answer: The Battle of Britain

The movie centers around the battle for air supremacy over England shortly after the British and French armies were soundly defeated and evacuated from Dunkirk. The German plan was to destroy the RAF aircraft, airfields and radar sites in preparation for Operation Sealion, the seaborne invasion of England. The war of attrition is going badly for the RAF with all options for replacing aircraft and pilots stretched to the limit. By chance, a squadron of German bombers flying off course in bad weather at night accidentally bomb London. The British response was to bomb Berlin, which outraged Hitler, who ordered London to be razed. The RAF now had a respite to repair their aircraft and bases and were now capable of engaging the German bombers with large fighter formations around London, as they were near the limit of their fighter escort.

The film did not get high grades for cinematic excellence but did show just how uncertain the result was. If the Germans had not shifted their focus from attacking airfields to attacking cities, the RAF may well have been broken, leading to a very different outcome for the war.

Answer: Memphis Belle

The film focuses on the 25th and final mission of the Memphis Belle, a B-17 stationed in England. An army publicist (John Lithgow) is sent to cover the final mission since it will be the first aircraft to complete a 25 mission tour of duty. The crew is on edge since the target is announced as Bremen, Germany, where a quarter of the squadron had been lost on a prior mission. The mission proceeds after a weather delay and faces multiple attacks by German fighters. Their escort fighters eventually run low on fuel and the bombers proceed alone. The focus of the German fighters has been on the lead bomber. After two are shot down, the Belle takes the lead. They lead the squadron on the bomb run through heavy flak but must make a second pass because the target is obscured. The second pass is successful but, as they head for home, the fighters renew their attacks, now focused on the Belle as the lead aircraft. They take heavy damage and casualties as a hole is ripped in the fuselage, part of the tail is blown off and they lose an engine. The pilots must perform a dangerous dive to extinguish the engine fire, but they manage to limp back well behind the rest of the squadron. The arrival of the remaining bombers without the Belle send a wave of disappointment over the airfield as they had prepared to celebrate the Belle's final mission. The plane finally reaches the airfield but still has big problems as the landing gear would not go down. After frantic hand cranking of the gear, they get it down just before touchdown.

The attrition among American bombers flying daytime raids over continental Europe was staggering. After 25 missions the crews were allowed to rotate back home. The fact that one crew actually managed to survive the 25 missions was notable enough to garner much publicity.

Answer: Above and Beyond

Col. Tibbets (Taylor) is assigned to test fly the new B-29 Superfortress. This was a source of friction with his wife, who was concerned for his safety and the frequent separations. He was later selected as commander of the 509th Composite Group, a unit of B-29s which would employ a secret weapon, the newly developed atomic bomb. Tibbets trains his unit in the tactics that will be required but with tight security that continued to strain his relationship with his wife. The unit finally deploys to the island of Tinian, where he pilots the Enola Gay on the first mission to Hiroshima, Japan. The mission is a success but he is struck by the scale of destruction as he looks back to see the blast.

The direct descendant, the 509th Bomb Wing, is now the only B-2 stealth bomber wing.