Wednesday, September 07, 2016

Peter O'Toole flying a Grumman Duck in a movie I've never heard of, Murphy's War (thanks Kim and Warren!!)



A lone survivor from a British naval ship is obsessed with getting revenge on a German U-boat crew that massacred his shipmates in the closing days of World War II. He lands on the shore somewhere on the river Orinoco delta

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067458/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_73

J2Fs of the utility squadron of US Patrol Wing 10 were destroyed at Mariveles Bay, Philippines, by a Japanese air raid on 5 January 1942.

The only Duck to survive the attack had a dead engine but had been concealed at Cabcaben airfield during the Battle of Bataan, to be repaired afterwards with a cylinder removed from a destroyed J2F-4 submerged in Manila Bay.

 Following repairs the J2F-4 departed after midnight on 9 April 1942, overloaded with five passengers and the pilot, becoming the last aircraft to depart Bataan before the surrender of the Philippines to the Japanese only hours later.

Among its passengers was Carlos P. Romulo (diplomat, politician, soldier, journalist and author) who recounted the flight in his 1942 best-selling book "I Saw the Fall of the Philippines" (Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York 1943, pp. 288–303) for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Correspondence

4 comments:

  1. One of my favourite movies.
    http://thegreatcanadianmodelbuilderswebpage.blogspot.ca/2014/08/grumman-j2f-duck-from-murphys-war.html

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  2. Song from the movie.
    Ray Noble & Al Bowlly - My Hat's On The Side Of My Head
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJkWHpRg55U

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  3. Thumbs up to you sir,nice posts coming daily,keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete