Red Tails trailer

I’m really looking forward to seeing this film, in the theatre, even though I don’t get excited about films any more.  This is a George Lucas-produced project that he’s had on the agenda as far back as 1988.  As I pointed out in the Star Wars Begins post, the campaigns by the bomber fleets looked a lot like science fiction.   This should be exciting, with all those planes flying around, including some early jet fighters. 

This film is based on a true, remarkable story.  The Tuskegee Airmen, also known as the Red Tails, were an African-American air unit during WWII that had a very good record for defending the bombers they were escorting.  They eventually flew the Mustang P51, the fighter plane with the range to finally protect bombers deep into Germany. 

American blacks were kept out of films of WWII, both the documentary footage and the fictional films, such as Saving Private Ryan.  Meanwhile there were blacks doing transport work in Alaska, black nurses taking care of German wounded, a none-too-successfull black unit in Italy that struggled with racist leadership in a challenging battlefield, blacks who landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day, and the famous Tuskegee Airmen. Veterans of WWII later became a key part of the civil rights movement. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Further viewing: If you really want to know about the details of the struggle between German defenders and the Allied bomber fleets, revolving around the new radar invention, you could watch this fellow’s presentation from 5:00 – 30:30.    

Navigation was a huge problem for the bombers – don’t forget that the Brits and Canadians flew at night – but they eventually came up with some solutions for that.