God Is My Co-Pilot
Movie (1945)
French title : Bombes sur Hong-Kong
Starring:
Dennis Morgan (Robert Lee Scott Jr.)
Dane Clark (Johnny Petach)
Raymond Massey (Major General Claire L. Chennault)
Alan Hale, Sr. ("Big Mike" Harrigan, the Missionary Priest)
July 1942 : on the threshold of the China Air Task Force (CATF) briefing room, colonel Robert L. Scott is remembering the way to come here. He has dreamed his whole life of being a fighter pilot, but when war comes he finds himself flying transport planes over The Hump into China. In China, he persuades General Chennault to let him fly with the famed Flying Tigers, the heroic band of airmen who'd been fighting the Japanese long before Pearl Harbor. Scott gets his chance to fight, ultimately engaging in combat with the deadly Japanese pilot known as Tokyo Joe.
Curtiss P-40 Warhawk
North American B-25 Mitchell
For historical authenticity, it should be North American B-25C Mitchell.
Flying Model
Robert is obsessed with flying from his teens and following a failed attempt, he deceives his unfulfilled desire by building flying models.
Fokker D.VII
Unidentified Aircraft
SPAD S.XIII
Fokker Dr.I
(background) just over Robert's hair, a Fokker Dr.I. Another German aircraft at the bottom left and others unidentified model.
Unidentified Aircraft
Despite Robert is speaking about his first flight at the controls of a Jenny (Curtiss JN), images are showing another type of aircraft as these scrop sprayers have a radial engine.
Consolidated PT-1 Trusty
(bottom center) Code 522 : Consolidated PT-1 Trusty fitted with a radial engine so TA-3 or TA-5 for the USAAF (depending exact engine type). The first primary trainer ordered by USAAS (United States Army Air Service) in 1921 and on duty til 1930 (the type was then used by the National Guard just a couple of years).
A single PT-1 among lot of PT-17 as in 1945, there were very few of the 223 airframes built left ... but this one is welcome to reflect Robert's pilot learning cursus in the early 1930s.
PT-17 (Boeing-Stearman Model 75)
Douglas O-38E
USAAF aircraft used for air mail duties.
Boeing P-12
Unidentified Aircraft
Unidentified aircraft (note the unusual forward position of the wing).
On the chimney, a fantasy clock in place of the engine of an 'egg plane'.
Boeing B-17C (or D?) Flying Fortress
Douglas C-47
Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando
Just under the Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando, a blurred Consolidated B-24 Liberator.
North American AT-6 (acting as Japanese fighters)
Unidentified Aircraft
The crash action is performed with an unidentified aircraft : the canopy seems of bubble style and the chin scoop of the radiator not so deep the common one. Is it one of the three XP-40Q ?
if it's XP-40Q-1 : its fate was a crash landed in 1944, once modified with a bubble canopy (was built from a P-40K, so without a full vision canopy). Was recommended for examination of wreckage and analysis of salvageability but final fate unknown. The addition of a sheet to simulate the chin radiator is required.
if XP-40Q-2 : unlikely because one was a race plane at the Thomson Trophy in 1947;
if XP-40Q-3 : the addition of a sheet to simulate the carburator's scoop (over the engine cowling) is required; otherwise, the shape was close. Final fate unknown ... so perhaps the best candidate to be the aircraft seen in this still :
Republic P-43 Lancer
Martin B-26 Marauder
Screenplay is about the use of North American B-25 Mitchell by the provisional China Air Task Force (CATF) in July 1942 (at a time the AVG Flying Tigers were no longer acting like this but were incorporated into the USAAF Tenth Air Force).
No Martin B-26 Marauder was used in China.
Consolidated B-24 Liberator
Another error. The Liberator was used from India. But this footage is used to show the gunner station inside a B-25 during the first raid over Honk-Kong (the real targed was Hankou -now : Wuhan-; Honk-Kong was the target months later).
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