Originally posted by Nemesis
I can understand bombing airfields, hangars and the like, but I cannot understand why they decided to bomb a clearing in front of a hospita. Of course, in the movie it was there because it looked more cool as opposed if the woman (what was her name) simply walked to the hospital, instead of running there with bombs blowing up in the background.
If to speak about bombing of hospital...
1. As I remember there were only 1-2 bombs and machine-gun fire in this scene.
2. Japanese and German pilots often bombed non-military targets during WWII (including hospitals, columns of refugees, civil ships and cars) so I do not understand what was strange in this case.
Sure there were American pilots who managed to get airborne and cause some damage to the Japanese. But I _REALLY_ doubt it happened anywhere near as it happened in the movie. In the movie, the Japanese pilots were downright crappy.
To shoot down 7 planes with best experienced Japanese crews is not "some damage to the Japanese" for pair of young pilots. It was great success. As I know Welch and Tailor were awarded.
Yes, P-40 was not so good plane for fighting against "Zero" like it was shown in movie. "Zero" was best fighter in that time in Pacific Ocean, best Japanese pilots-aces took part in PH attack and movie showed wrong image of air combat.
But I suppose that US pilot-ace with large experience of air combats over Britain (like it was shown in PH, REAL Welch and Tailor were not experienced pilots but could shoot down 7 planes for pair of hours) could fight well against Japanese fighters with some luck.