"Fighting Hitler's Jets: The Extraordinary Story of the American Airmen Who Beat the Luftwaffe and Defeated Nazi Germany", by Robert F. Dorr

[Paul Thompson]

Originally Posted by Richard T. Eger

Paul, you win for being the first to identify the movie as "Command Decision". I remembered it from a long time ago and recently purchased a copy. It was taken from a stage play and definitely had that feel to it in the movie. The movie came out in 1948. Early television drama was shown live from a studio stage and generally had that drawroom feel to it, as did this movie. William Wister Haines, who wrote the book in 1947, juxtapositioned Me 262 production into 1943 when much aircraft production was still centralized. To this, he added the real issue of daylight bombing lacking long range fighter escort and the fact that actual missions in this time frame without protection ended in unacceptable bomber losses. The Me 262, alias the Focke-Schmidt 1, was viewed as a major threat and thus a series of 3 missions to wipe out its production was laid on. Both the first mission to Posenleben and the second mission to Schweinhafen, done back to back, resulted in tremendous losses. To make matters worse, the bombers hit the wrong target and missed Schweinhafen, requiring a repeat run the next day. Enter the big brass fearful of how badly the huge losses would be received back home, with a nosey reporter added in to rub salt into the wound. The third mission, to Fendelhorst, needed to completely wipe out jet production, lay in jeopardy.

Thank you, Richard.

I thought that the stage play approach was more succesful than many of the more expansive Holywood productions. Even "Run Silent, Run Deep", a similar film with Gable also playing the main character, suffers from some very dubious imitation of military equipment. It was interesting to see the main character fly off at the end of "Command Decision" to direct the bombing of Japan, a clear reference to LeMay, although the history is modified again.

While I was writing this, I realised I actually have a serious question about the Me 262, although I am not sure I should spoil the thread's frivolity I've sent you a PM about it.

Regards,

Paul Thompson