Thunderbolt (1947)
Thunderbolt (1947) The primary focus of “Thunderbolt” is the three squadrons of the 57th Fighter Group using the P-47D fighter-bomber to execute the campaign known as “Operation Strangle” operating from its air base on Corsica. The 57th was responsible for attacking bridges, roads, rail lines south of a line from Pisa to the mountains and coastal targets south to Montalto di Castro. The 57th FG was only one of a dozen or more air units engaged in Strangle, covering all of Italy north of Rome to the Po valley.
Unlike Wyler’s film about the B-17s of the 8th Air Force, camera men could not go along on each raid to film – the P-47D was strictly a one-man airplane. So automatic cameras were fitted all over the airplane: behind the pilot looking both forward and to the rear; under and in the wings; in the wheel wells (we get one shot a P-47 wheel retracting as the runway races back below), and a camera in the instrument panel focused on the pilot.
The film shows the problem of the war: both the US 5th Army and the British 8th Army were stalled along the Gustav line south of Rome; the forces on the beachhead at Anzio were unable to break out; and the bombing destruction of the monastery of Cassino was ineffective. And we see scenes of total destruction, with children walking among bodies decaying by the roads. As the film shows a map of Italy, the strategy was to cut all supply lines simultaneously, starving the German forces of the means to fight.
Then we meet the pilots who will fly the P-47s to attack those supply lines – and as with the men of the “Memphis Belle”, we learn that war is a young man’s job: Major Francis Manda from Mentamore, New Mexico, squadron operations officer – he is 22; Capt Howard Hickok of Ames, Iowa, flight leader – he is 23 and just got back from a 30-days leave where he got married; Lt. Col. Gil Wyman of Louisville, Kentucky, squadron commander – he is the “old man” at 24; the 57th group commander is Lt. Col. Archie Knight, a West Point graduate – he is older than the others at 27. We see and meet these young men and others getting out of bed on a Sunday morning (“which is the same as Monday which is like every other day”), washing up and brushing their teeth – a very human touch bringing us in close contact with the “actors” of the film.
After a briefing, 65 Squadron takes off, two at a time in pairs; the narrator recites the names of each pair as they roar down the runway. There will be tight formations of 3 flights of four P-47s, twelve planes in all. We see them cross the sea to Italy, fly over the mountains, find their first target – a bridge, and go down with each plane as it sights in on the bridge and drops two 250-lb bombs.
After the bombing run – the bridge was destroyed – the planes roam over the countryside looking for targets of opportunity: a train, trucks on a highway, farm buildings, etc. When they’ve used up their ammunition they head back to base. They land two at a time as they had taken off; and we see a column of smoke of one P-47 that crashed and burned, reminding us that this is still a war and men get killed.
The rest of the film is what the men do until they have go another mission: swim at the beach, play ball, in a crap game, doing laundry, taking showers, building shacks to get out of the tents. They face danger a couple of hours a day on a mission, and then they face the dull boredom that is also the face of war. 66 Squadron takes off for the same kind of mission and we go along for another look at the action. As evening falls, we see the men still fighting off the boredom, getting a beer at the club and singing “L’il Brown Jug” as the film ends.
Floyd D. Barrows Michigan State University barrows@msu.edu
