Pearl Harbor and the USN SBD's

[Greg Myers]

Why do "they" keep showing us USN SBD dive bombers bombing Pearl Harbor. Every year on the news they use a short clip showing American planes dropping bombs on Pearl Harbor. That would be the first planes in this clip and again at 2:56 ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt13c3olXkU

USN Douglas Dauntless SBD dive bomber

Edited December 8, 2013 by Greg Myers

[Matt LeBlanc]

Most of them have no clue about WW2 planes.Sad.

[Agent G]

Not to mention the SBD was so new to the US Navy, none were at Pearl Harbor, parked or dropping bombs.....................................................

G

[Rob Hall]

Guess 'they' must not have much footage of Japanese planes dropping bombs at Pearl Harbor so they use random stock footage. I was at Pearl Harbor and visited the Arizona Memorial on the 65th anniversary a few years ago, quite an interesting place.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Ummm...Pearl Harbor...ummm...wasn't that, like, the place Vietnam attacked in, like, 1975?

Edited December 8, 2013 by Ace-Garageguy

[azers]

I believe it was because of tora tora tora or here to eternity. They didn't have any japanese aircraft to make the movies so they used what they had. But correct me if I'm wrong.

[southpier]

Japanese planes too fast for film?

[Ace-Garageguy]

Japanese planes too fast for film?

No, just that after the war ended, there were very few surviving Japanese aircraft. American types that were visually similar to their Japanese counterparts were routinely used to represent the latter. North American Aircraft AT-6 Texan / SNJ trainers for instance, used to represent Japanese Zeros. The old American airplanes were, for some time, cheap and plentiful on the surplus market.

Back in 2007, there were fewer than 5 original Zeros airworthy (some using vintage American radial engines), though some full-scale flying replicas have been built at considerable cost.

But you already knew this, right?

Edited December 8, 2013 by Ace-Garageguy

[Rob Hall]

Not to mention the SBD was so new to the US Navy, none were at Pearl Harbor, parked or dropping bombs.....................................................

G

Apparently, they were...according to Wikipedia--

U.S. Navy and Marine Corps SBDs saw their first action at Pearl Harbor. A total of 18 SBDs from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise arrived over Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack, and Scouting Squadron Six (VS-6) lost six aircraft, while Bombing Squadron Six (VB-6) lost one. Most of the Marine Corps SBDs of Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 232 (VMSB-232) were destroyed on the ground at Ewa Mooring Mast Field. On 10 December 1941, SBDs from the Enterprise sank the Japanese submarine I-70.

[ScaleDale]

Speaking of irony, didn't either Mitsubishi or Hitachi develop the shallow water torpedoes used for this? Standard torpedoes hit the bottom and detonated too early.

Dale

[Ace-Garageguy]

Speaking of irony, didn't either Mitsubishi or Hitachi develop the shallow water torpedoes used for this? Standard torpedoes hit the bottom and detonated too early.

Dale

I don't know about the torpedoes, but the Japanese Zero fighter aircraft WAS a Mitsubishi product.

I remember seeing Mitsubishi pickups being used by the U.S Navy back in the '80s at a base I was visiting. Gave me a chuckle moment.

Edited December 8, 2013 by Ace-Garageguy

[Greg Myers]

Using surplus American WWII aircraft in Hollywood films is not what I'm talking about here. It's the blatant use of government archival film footage to make a point on the local and national news showing the wrong aircraft. In this day and age this glaring error should be corrected as it has gone on for too long.

[Rob Hall]

Using surplus American WWII aircraft in Hollywood films is not what I'm talking about here. It's the blatant use of government archival film footage to make a point on the local and national news showing the wrong aircraft. In this day and age this glaring error should be corrected as it has gone on for too long.

I doubt if very many people even notice, though.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I doubt if very many people even notice, though.

Or care, unfortunately.

I care, as do some of us who either are old enough to remember the last real war, or are students of history and who think it's important to get it right.

But "getting it right" is becoming less and less of a priority every day. Incorrect information is constantly presented in the news and elsewhere, and is endlessly re-posted on the internet and accepted as fact by lazy minds. Glaring technical and historical errors abound in movies and most of popular culture. Critical thinking isn't taught as a valuable real-world skill, and questioning wrong information just takes too much effort for far too many people.

The media presenters of wrong information get their salaries anyway, so where's the incentive to "get it right" about which airplanes should be shown to illustrate an event that happened 72 years ago? The majority of people you'd ask in the mall probably couldn't tell you which COUNTRIES fought on which sides in WWII, much less what kinds of airplanes they used.

I agree entirely with Greg's thought that "the blatant use of government archival film footage to make a point on the local and national news showing the wrong aircraft (is a) glaring error (and) should be corrected as it has gone on for too long."

Sadly, accuracy just isn't much of a priority to most of the world we live in.

Edited December 8, 2013 by Ace-Garageguy

[Greg Myers]

At least they usually get this one right.