“Tell the crew they can sleep in the next world.” -The Pilot

Air force 1943

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Air Force was based on the events of Pearl Harbor but because the movie was made in 1943, the war not being over, there is some level of propaganda to keep the U.S. remembering the reasons we were fighting.

This movie features the B-17 bomber, Mary Ann, flying to Hawaii on December 7th when the radio is jumbled with the sounds of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Unable to land at first, the plane and its crew find the immediate aftermath of the island, reconfigure the plane, quickly refuel and bravely continue missions on several other islands.  The crew needs complete accuracy for a bombing run. Tension is high when the bombardier has got to be exact and a mix of weather and plane complications have the crew wondering if they will be able to hit the target.

According to IMDB the plane in this movie was a B-17B.  There were supposedly 19 of these aircraft that had the gunners’ bubbles replaced by the gun positions of the B-17C and B-17D respectively.