regsiesta I first saw the movie in 1950 I was overwhelmed with the magic of the aeroplanes, the action and the theme tune. It concerned USAAF pilots flying P47 Thunderbolts over Germany and had everything. Action, humour, discipline and the cares of command and glorious Technicolour, with the happy go lucky fighter pilots, the raw new boy, the slick comedy of the conniving ground crew chasing the English girls and wangling leave, and old dogs for a hard road being taken off Operations in disgust and moving up the chain of command as the war and tactics progressed. A summary of salient points.Thunderbolt limping home with battle damage. Nice shot of the B17 (prop feathered) & oil on Thunderbolt windscreen - "cylinder shot off!") and the P47 protecting each other from the ME109s with their fields of fire.Great real time action film of emergency landings, with landing gear problems. After belly landing his plane, "Ed Hardin crosses himself in thanks, undoes his straps, gets out & jumps into his Jeep, stands up & declares his plane a 'Write Off' then calls out 'Notify the Taxpayers to get me a new one". He wouldn't have to wait long, as Republic & others built some 13,000 P47s during those war years.Nice overview shot of the aeroplanes weaving their way along the taxi ways, as the huge engine in front of a tail wheel aeroplane completely blocks any view of the narrow pathway ahead.After the Crap Game Air Raid warning Stu calls out "Sic 'em RAF", a reference to the night fighters of the Royal Air Force developing their Airborne Interception Radar against the invading German bombers.Ref. the enemy airfield pick up of 'downed' Ed by Stu and the two man take off - this manoeuver was used in various films such as 'Flight Commander' and 'Dawn Patrol' in the 1930s. An actual occurrence of this dangerous practise took place in 1944 in WWII, during the Middle East war when a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Squadron Leader, Bobby Gibbes, flying a Hawker Hurricane landed his aircraft a mile from an enemy Base & picked up one of his downed pilots.As in the above films the theme is of the maverick 'Hot Shot' Fighter pilots being thrust in to Leadership roles & more responsibility,.A nice little aside - when Ed Hardin is required to take over the Squadron from his predecessor. Bemoaning their fate, over the proposed conflicted policy of 'dropping tanks, reflective Ed opines that it will only happen "When we're flying Rocking chairs"- any true pilot's dread!Ed Hardin wearing his flying jacket bearing the emblem of the Flying Tigers who volunteered to fight for the Chinese in their late 1930s war against the Japanese. The emblem was a notice to the Chinese that they were friends & not enemies, who usually were quickly dispatched. It also gave directions on how to return the pilot to his base. Later, before America entered WWII a lot of Americans went to England & joined the Royal Air Force which gathered them up into one group designated "Eagle Squadron".When America joined the war those pilots all transferred back to the USAAF to continue the fight.A little cameo between the smart Alec Sergeant Dolan (who runs his rackets & Corporal Wilbur who does all Dolan's dirty work) plays out when Dolan gets his come uppence & and the long suffering Wilbur gets his Sergeant's stripes.An energetic pilot going to the usual early morning briefing is pictured vigorously shaking a small tree & declaring "If I gotta get this early this morning there ain't no birds gunna be sleeping". The RAF Bomber crews were just getting into bed after their all-night Bombing raids.Ed Hardin as CO giving his pilots a Briefing about dropping tanks, going in low level & catching the enemy aircraft on the ground before they could get to the Bombers, " We lost 59 Bombers today". Each B.17 had a crew of ten, so 590 young men never came back to base that day. The role of the tough Major General Mike McReady who respects his Pilots, calling them up for duty at Headquarters, or protecting them from the grounded 'know it all officer' was played by Henry Hull who used the same mannerisms & gruff speech delivery as a business man in "Babes In Arms" in 1939, some nine years earlier.The stirring musical theme was recycled from the Errol Flynn/Fred MacMurray film "Dive Bomber", from1941 The famous actual camera gun footage shows the low levels involved when shooting at the Flak tower dead ahead. Ed Hardin is heard to comment "This flak is getting dangerous", before he is shot down.Towards the end of the film when Duke Chappel (another carefree hot shot) has taken over as CO after Ed Hardin was shot down), gives his pre flight briefing for the new low level missions, cautioning his pilots to "Sack it off Blue eyes, we're cutting grass tomorrow." - a reference to getting some sleep to be fresh for the dangerous low level flying expected, with the propeller levels just off the ground. This was true, as after D Day in 1944, low level attacks were required to neutralise the German resistance. In fact, one RAF Squadron lost its entire complement of pilots three time during the period August to September. I still get a kick out of it as a great aviation film - and my viewing total would now be 20! Yes, having just finished compiling this commentary, I'm going to get it out & play it again. "Chocks Away"!

MartinHafer P-47 "Thunderbolt" pilots during WWII were a very brave bunch--and they suffered amazing combat-fatigue due to the style fighting they often did. While the P-47 was a great fighter plane, it was also an amazing ground attack aircraft and eventually that became its main role in Europe--destroying ANYTHING that moved on the ground. Trains, trucks, tanks and especially ground troops were its targets and apparently the pilots suffered because they could see their victims--up close and personal. Well, although "Fighter Squadron" is about the P-47, you'd think that the pilots loved this sort of duty and you never hear them talk about this aspect of their jobs. Instead, the film is pretty clichéd and mostly the men are upset that they can't kill more Germans. In fact, this is all fun, as you hear the hero (Edmond O'Brien) rattle off James Bond-like banter each time he blows up a train or building or mows down a company of men or shoot down a plane (filled, by the way, with pilots who yell 'schwein' all the time they're on camera).Now this isn't my only complaint about the film. Some of the complaints are about sloppy continuity such as the use of Japanese planes as fodder for the 47s--even though this took place in the European theater. Another sloppy bit is seeing O'Brien's plane bedecked with victory symbols for downed German planes--and yet when this plane makes a belly landing, it has entirely different paint--and no victory symbols. Just a bit of concern about continuity could have easily taken care of these problems. However, I could ignore that all the German fighters were actually American P-51 fighters, as flyable German planes just weren't available for the shoot. The other major complaint I allude to above--the movie has little depth--it's all good fun as well as arguing with the higher authorities to let them do more. And, the characters all seemed more like caricatures than people.This isn't to say the film is all bad. Most of the stock footage is pretty good and the battle sequences are pretty good. Also, the acting (when people aren't yelling) is decent. Not a great film by any standard but one of the few to talk about one of the most important planes and group of men from WWII.

maddutchy I first saw this movie on TV in the 60s. My brother and I being aviation nuts, criticized it a lot for little things. Over the years and many viewings on TV, I have come to appreciate it more. Although some of the dialog and characters are "corny", there is more than enough aviation footage to make up for it. When one critiques a movie of people and events, it is useful to consider the time period the movie was produced besides the time period it depicts. In 1948 there were no German aircraft left to fly in the movie and CGI was a long way off. I am much less forgiving of a movie like "Pearl Harbor" that could have used CGI to show correct models of aircraft than one made when "Fighter Squadron" was produced where there were no such resources.Besides being able to see P-47s flying, some of the scenes have a strong sense of history. When they get the orders to prepare for D-Day, I have little doubt those were accurate to history. Using real incidents and characters from the famous 4th Fighter Group of the ETO gives the 'ring of truth' to the movie. For those that think the characters were "formula", you should read "1000 Destroyed", a history of the 4th Fighter Group. The real group actually had its own 'press agent' who wrote the book. The 'Kid' character in the movie may have been a tribute to the real "Kid" Hofer who was KIA while flying with the 4th. Remember that the real pilots of WWII were VERY YOUNG men. Twenty-five was an 'old man' in that group.I think "Fighter Squadron" is a good movie with lots of great airplane scenes that is a fitting tribute to the people that fought WWII for us. It was a serious movie of its day made when the people who had 'fought the fight' were around to watch it. It took license with history as the producers apparently felt necessary to be 'entertaining' to the general audience. It was made at a time when we didn't criticize our veterans or question their actions. It was however more realistic than wartime movies. I too hope it comes out on DVD soon.

Gerald Asher With all the comments about Teutonic Mustangs, there should probably be some clarification. Obviously, in postwar America, we didn't have a plethora of captured MEs and FWs to operate - there were sufficient times when Mustangs were mistaken for ME-109s by gunners in the bomber formations that Hollywood's use of P-51s is forgivable. For the record: The "Luftwaffe" P-51s were from the CA ANG unit at Van Nuys; the P-47Ds were from an east coast ANG squadron. The film was shot primarily at Oscoda Army Air Field, Michigan (eventually re-named Wurtsmith AFB), with the grand finale airfield strafing sequence shot at Van Nuys. The belly tanks for one pivotal scene (jettisoned in defiance of orders to "stay with the bombers") had to be scrounged from a variety of surplus locations - hard to believe, considering just 3 short years earlier there had been in mass production. The aircraft carry 9th AF unit markings to match the only extensive color P-47 footage shot during WWII.For all this effort, the plot line is still reminiscent of most prewar or WWII-era "gung ho" propaganda films - right down to the recycling of the musical score from Errol Flynn's "Dive Bomber" (if I'm lying, I'm dying). All the hokey subplots are best enjoyed either with a case of your favorite adult beverage, or with the "mute" button activated - or both. Enjoy the airplanes, because you'll never see that many Thunderbolts in the air again.In the DVD-VHS department, I get the feeling the film is owned by Turner/TCM, as that's the only channel where I've ever seen it aired. You might try schmoozing Ted Turner to get him to release it...