From Wikopedia:
What Micheal Bay got right in Pearl Harbor
Director Michael Bay has said that Roger Ebert's criticism of Pearl Harbor has to be the most offensive of his entire career. According to Michael Bay: "He commented on TV that bombs don't fall like that. Does he actually think we didn't research every nook and cranny of how armor-piercing bombs fell? He's watched too many movies. He thinks they all fall flat — armor-piercing bombs fall straight down, that's the way it was designed! But HE's on the air pontificating and giving the wrong information. That's insulting!"
A few things he got wrong......
Early childhood sequences:
Stearman biplane (the crop-duster aircraft) was not produced until 1935. The opening scene of the film is set
Stearman biplane (the crop-duster aircraft) was not produced until 1935. The opening scene of the film is set
in 1923. Many Hollywood movies in the 1960's and 1970's used a Stearman as their stock 'old biplane'. A more appropriate aircraft would be a Curtiss JN 4 'Jenny', but very few are available for this sort of work.
Eagle Squadron sequences:
A Supermarine Spitfire fitted with a four-blade propeller is shown during the airfield and flying shots in the film. It is a Spitfire variant that was not available until later in the war. Also, although the Eagles did use Spitfires, they were originally eight-gun MkIIs, later superseded by the MkV and IX (used by 133 Squadron). However, since there is only one MkII in flying condition (flown by the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, and as such not used for film work), the MkV was used, as well as the later MkVIII. The original plan was to use a highly-inappropriate Spitfire XIV in dogfight sequences with a genuine Messerschmitt Bf 109E(!!).
Ben Affleck's character is portrayed as joining the Royal Air Force (RAF) as part of the Eagle squadron; U.S. servicemen were prohibited from doing so, though American civilians were allowed[8]. His eyesight would have been checked for RAF service.
Ben Affleck was based at RAF Oakley. This base was actually a training base in the war, not a fighter base. Historians point out that during the hot August summer of 1940, such expedients invariably did take place from time to time, and even for squadron training exercises.
Affleck's character flies with a Royal Air Force squadron (which used Supermarine Spitfires), but the planes actually featured in the movie bear the RF code letters of the No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron.
During the Battle of Britain flight sequences, the British Spitfires are shown flying in the standard American four-ship formation. The British actually flew in the three-ship Vee or "VIC" formation. Again this is open to dispute, because by the time of the late Battle, the RAF had adopted the German Luftwaffe 'Rotte' and 'Schwarm' system, known in RAF parlance as the 'Finger Four', which the USAF itself adopted as 'Four Ship' formation.
Pearl Harbor sequences:
The USS Arizona Memorial, which straddles the sunken USS Arizona, can be briefly seen in a pan shot. The memorial was dedicated in the 1960's.
President Roosevelt did not receive the news of the Pearl Harbor attack by an aide or adviser running into the room. He was having lunch with Harry Hopkins, a trusted friend, and he received a phone call from Secretary of War Henry Stimson. Hopkins refused to believe the report. The President believed it. [9]
Admiral Kimmel had received warnings about an attack but, thinking them vague, did not put his forces on full-scale alert. This contradicts the film's portrayal of Kimmel as a leader railing against Washington's apathy about the Japanese threat.[8]
Even though he specifically asked for, by dispatch and in person, all information, Admiral Kimmel never received the secret Magic dispatches that showed vital information. He also never received the famous 14-part message that the Japanese were delivering in response to the U.S. "ultimatum" of November 26. Especially not the 14th part which indicated the 1:00 p.m. (EST) delivery of the message and ordering the destruction of the "coding" equipment, even though this had been decoded some 9 hours before the attack.[10]
The reports that were given to Admiral Kimmel led him and his staff (as well as General Short, the Commander of the Hawaiian Army units) to believe that if Japan did attack, it would be somewhere in the southwest Pacific and not Pearl Harbor. In fact, they concurred when he deployed his task forces away from Hawaii. Before Pearl Harbor was attacked, he had deployed them around Wake and Midway Islands.[10]
The so-called "War Warning" dispatch that Admiral Kimmel received on November 27, 1941, did not warn the Pacific Fleet of an attack in the Hawaiian area. It did not state expressly or by implication that an attack in the Hawaiian area was imminent or probable. It did not repeal or modify the advice previously given me by the Navy Department that no move against Pearl Harbor was imminent or planned by Japan. The dispatch warned of war in the Far East. The number and equipment of Japanese troops and the organization of Naval task forces indicates an amphibious expedition against either the Philippines, Thailand, or Kra Peninsula, or possibly Borneo.[10]
Admiral Kimmel was not on a golf course on the morning of the attack, nor was he notified of the Japanese embassy leaving Washington, D.C., prior to the attack. The first official notification of the attack was received by General Short several hours after the attack had ended. Also, the report of attacking an enemy midget-submarine, in real life, did not report sinking the sub.
At the time of the attack, the battleships in Battleship Row were tied directly together, not spaced apart as they were in the movie.
Japanese aircraft of that period were painted light gray, not green.
Navy Nurse Betty dies during the Pearl Harbor attack, but no Navy Nurses died as a result of enemy action during the entirety of World War II, including the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The ward dresses of the nurses have a different style than the ones Navy Nurses actually wore during WWII, and no nurse would have worked with long hair falling freely about her shoulders.
Some of the bombed ships are actually mothballed Knox-class frigates, Ticonderoga Cruisers and Spruance-class destroyers, with the box launchers for anti-submarine rockets, known as ASROCs, visible. That technology was not available until the 1960s.
The FF-1062 USS Whipple can be seen clearly in a background shot of the boxing scene on the USS Arizona.
One of the intelligence photographs taken by the Japanese spies shows a North Carolina class battleship none of which were in Pearl Harbor at that time.
A retired Iowa class battleship was used to represent the USS West Virginia for Dorie Miller's boxing match. However, the main gun barrels are corked, which is unusual during wartime or training exercises. Furthermore, Iowa battleships have a 3x3 main gun configuration versus the 4x2 layout of the West Virginia. Also, the West Virginia did not have the WWII-era bridge and masts found on newer U.S. battleships until reconstruction was finished in 1943.
In the film, the P-40N model of the P-40 Warhawk U.S. fighter aircraft is shown. However, the 'N' model of the P-40 was not available to the United States until 1943.
In reality, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, although he planned the attack, was not present on any of the carriers that bombed Pearl Harbor. He was aboard the battleship Nagato in Tokyo Bay, where he heard reports of the attack and supposedly made his famous "sleeping giant" statement.
Yamamoto's "Sleeping Giant" quote is not only mis-quoted (In the film, he says "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant" when the full version is "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.") but almost certainly an invention by the screenwriter of Tora! Tora! Tora! Larry Forrester. Neither he, the director nor producer of that movie could produce the documents to support the claim. Pearl Harbor screenwriter Randall Wallace readily admits he took the line from the earlier film.
P-40 and Zero fighters are shown doing tight maneuvers and incredibly dangerous stunts, almost like X-Wing fighters from Star Wars. Neither plane was that nimble, although the Zero was the most feared fighter of the Pacific War until the F6F Hellcat debuted in 1943.
Dorie Miller's actions during the battle are altered. In the film, Miller comforts Captain Mervyn S. Bennion and is with him when he dies. Miller then delivers the captain's last orders to the ship's executive officer and then mans a machine gun. In reality, Miller helped move Bennion to a safer location. Bennion continued to direct the battle until he died of his wounds just before the ship was abandoned. Miller is credited with shooting down two enemy planes.
The USS Texas doubles for the USS West Virginia during the sequences featuring Dorie Miller. The Texas is considerably different in design than the ship she portrays, most notably lacking the 'cage' masts that distinguished West Virginia and California-class battleships. During these sequences, the West Virginia appears moored by herself, but in reality the battleship Tennessee was moored inboard (between the West Virginia and Ford Island) at the time of the attack.
In the attack, a sailor is shown jumping clear of a falling Battleship "tripod" main mast. No Battleship lost a tripod mast in such a manner. Not even with the sinking of the USS Oklahoma, which capsized, did a mast fall in such a way as shown in the film.
In the film, Dorie Miller is shown firing a twin Browning M2 Air Cooled 50 caliber machine gun. In reality, the .50 caliber machine guns found on the USS West Virginia were water-cooled with a large water cylinder around the barrel for cooling in a similar manner to the .303 Vickers Heavy machine gun.
Doolittle Raid sequences:
In preparation for the attack, Doolittle (Baldwin) is show training the pilots on land in a flat, sparsely wooded valley near mountains somewhere in the American Southwest. The actual training was done at the airfield known today as Columbia Metropolitian Airport in West Columbia, South Carolina. It is a far more verdant and mountainless area in the state's "Piedmont" topography. In fact, it continued to be training site for B-25 crews during the war which would use islands in the nearby Lake Murray for target practice. A crashed B-25 was recovered from the lake in the 1990's, restored and is now on display in the state museum.
Several shots of the USS Hornet aircraft carrier depicted it as having an angled flight deck, a technology that was not implemented until after the war. However, in every other respect the ship, portrayed by the USS Lexington, is acurate, and even of the same Lineiage, the Essex class. The Japanese carriers are portrayed more correctly by comparison—a few of them did have their bridge/conning tower superstructure on port side rather than the more common starboard configuration.
Affleck and Hartnett's characters are shown taking part in the Doolittle bombing raid over Tokyo in which, as fighter pilots, they would not have been allowed to participate.
The B-25 Mitchells shown participating in the Raid are "J"-models, when the models used in the actual Raid were "B"-models.
Several crewmen on Affleck and Harnett's B-25's are killed in the firefight with the Japanese, including Harnett's character. In fact, no members of the raid were killed in this manner. Three airmen died in the crash landings in China, three were later executed as POWs by their Japanese captors, and one died of starvation in captivity. (Four other POWs were recovered alive near the end of the war).
Other inaccuracies:
Mitchel Field is incorrectly spelled "Mitchell Field."
Despite Long Island's flat, level surface, mountains are visible in the flying shots over Long Island.
Navy Nurse Betty claims to be 17 years old and that she has cheated with her age to be accepted, but Navy Nurses were required to be registered nurses to join the Navy Nurse Corps, which meant three years of prior training and passing a state board examination, very unlikely qualifications for any seventeen year old. The minimum age to join the Navy Nurse Corps was 22.
President Roosevelt is seen rising from his wheelchair to inspire his staff after the attack. There is no record of him having done - or even being capable of - this in real life.
The observation car seen in the train station was made for the California Zephyr, which did not appear until after WWII.
The sequence where Josh Hartnett's and Ben Affleck's characters 'play chicken' with their P-40's at the U.S. airbase is cited in the film as taking place in late 1941. This is prior to Affleck's departure to the UK to join Eagle Squadron in time for the Battle of Britain. There is no error here. Although the "Battle of Britain" (proper) took place from July through October, 1940, a lesser air battle continued thereafter. The first Eagle Squadron was formed in September 1940. Eventually, there were three Eagle Squadrons, right up until the U.S. entered the war (virtually the same timing as the Flying Tigers in China).
The Queen Mary is seen in New York Harbor in full Cunard colours. It is more likely that she would have been painted gray and would have served in war duties as either a troopship or hospital vessel. By late 1940, the Queen Mary was on her way to Sydney to be fitted out as a troopship.
The radar monitors shown in Pearl Harbor are of the more modern type which show the rotation of a dish. This type of radar was not in use at the time.
In a wide-angle shot, the distinct outline of a U.S. Kitty Hawk class aircraft carrier can be made out, the first of which was not commissioned until 1961. In the same shot, the sail of a modern submarine can be easily made out.
There is no reason that U.S. Navy nurses would be assessing whether pilot candidates in the U.S. Army Air Corps are fit to fly. It is reasonable to assume that the Army would use its own medical staff.
Doris Miller is shown receiving his Navy Cross on the deck of a battleship. He actually received his medal in a ceremony aboard an aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, shortly before the Battle of Midway.
Prior to the attack, Admiral Yamamoto turns a Japanese calendar to Sunday December 7 to make note of the date of the operation. In reality, when the attack started at 6:37 am Hawaii time, it was 1:37 am on Monday December 8 in Japan. The date December 7 was used because it is noted by Americans as the date of the attack. The Japanese version shows Yamamoto making note of the December 8 as the operation date.
The dollar bill with the overprint of Hawaii, did not come out until the summer of 1942.
During the panning shot of the fleet just before the Doolittle raid, a Burke Class Destroyer is visible in the back. These ships did not come into service until 1991.
Yamamoto in real life is missing 2 fingers. In the movie he has all fingers.
Eagle Squadron sequences:
A Supermarine Spitfire fitted with a four-blade propeller is shown during the airfield and flying shots in the film. It is a Spitfire variant that was not available until later in the war. Also, although the Eagles did use Spitfires, they were originally eight-gun MkIIs, later superseded by the MkV and IX (used by 133 Squadron). However, since there is only one MkII in flying condition (flown by the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, and as such not used for film work), the MkV was used, as well as the later MkVIII. The original plan was to use a highly-inappropriate Spitfire XIV in dogfight sequences with a genuine Messerschmitt Bf 109E(!!).
Ben Affleck's character is portrayed as joining the Royal Air Force (RAF) as part of the Eagle squadron; U.S. servicemen were prohibited from doing so, though American civilians were allowed[8]. His eyesight would have been checked for RAF service.
Ben Affleck was based at RAF Oakley. This base was actually a training base in the war, not a fighter base. Historians point out that during the hot August summer of 1940, such expedients invariably did take place from time to time, and even for squadron training exercises.
Affleck's character flies with a Royal Air Force squadron (which used Supermarine Spitfires), but the planes actually featured in the movie bear the RF code letters of the No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron.
During the Battle of Britain flight sequences, the British Spitfires are shown flying in the standard American four-ship formation. The British actually flew in the three-ship Vee or "VIC" formation. Again this is open to dispute, because by the time of the late Battle, the RAF had adopted the German Luftwaffe 'Rotte' and 'Schwarm' system, known in RAF parlance as the 'Finger Four', which the USAF itself adopted as 'Four Ship' formation.
Pearl Harbor sequences:
The USS Arizona Memorial, which straddles the sunken USS Arizona, can be briefly seen in a pan shot. The memorial was dedicated in the 1960's.
President Roosevelt did not receive the news of the Pearl Harbor attack by an aide or adviser running into the room. He was having lunch with Harry Hopkins, a trusted friend, and he received a phone call from Secretary of War Henry Stimson. Hopkins refused to believe the report. The President believed it. [9]
Admiral Kimmel had received warnings about an attack but, thinking them vague, did not put his forces on full-scale alert. This contradicts the film's portrayal of Kimmel as a leader railing against Washington's apathy about the Japanese threat.[8]
Even though he specifically asked for, by dispatch and in person, all information, Admiral Kimmel never received the secret Magic dispatches that showed vital information. He also never received the famous 14-part message that the Japanese were delivering in response to the U.S. "ultimatum" of November 26. Especially not the 14th part which indicated the 1:00 p.m. (EST) delivery of the message and ordering the destruction of the "coding" equipment, even though this had been decoded some 9 hours before the attack.[10]
The reports that were given to Admiral Kimmel led him and his staff (as well as General Short, the Commander of the Hawaiian Army units) to believe that if Japan did attack, it would be somewhere in the southwest Pacific and not Pearl Harbor. In fact, they concurred when he deployed his task forces away from Hawaii. Before Pearl Harbor was attacked, he had deployed them around Wake and Midway Islands.[10]
The so-called "War Warning" dispatch that Admiral Kimmel received on November 27, 1941, did not warn the Pacific Fleet of an attack in the Hawaiian area. It did not state expressly or by implication that an attack in the Hawaiian area was imminent or probable. It did not repeal or modify the advice previously given me by the Navy Department that no move against Pearl Harbor was imminent or planned by Japan. The dispatch warned of war in the Far East. The number and equipment of Japanese troops and the organization of Naval task forces indicates an amphibious expedition against either the Philippines, Thailand, or Kra Peninsula, or possibly Borneo.[10]
Admiral Kimmel was not on a golf course on the morning of the attack, nor was he notified of the Japanese embassy leaving Washington, D.C., prior to the attack. The first official notification of the attack was received by General Short several hours after the attack had ended. Also, the report of attacking an enemy midget-submarine, in real life, did not report sinking the sub.
At the time of the attack, the battleships in Battleship Row were tied directly together, not spaced apart as they were in the movie.
Japanese aircraft of that period were painted light gray, not green.
Navy Nurse Betty dies during the Pearl Harbor attack, but no Navy Nurses died as a result of enemy action during the entirety of World War II, including the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The ward dresses of the nurses have a different style than the ones Navy Nurses actually wore during WWII, and no nurse would have worked with long hair falling freely about her shoulders.
Some of the bombed ships are actually mothballed Knox-class frigates, Ticonderoga Cruisers and Spruance-class destroyers, with the box launchers for anti-submarine rockets, known as ASROCs, visible. That technology was not available until the 1960s.
The FF-1062 USS Whipple can be seen clearly in a background shot of the boxing scene on the USS Arizona.
One of the intelligence photographs taken by the Japanese spies shows a North Carolina class battleship none of which were in Pearl Harbor at that time.
A retired Iowa class battleship was used to represent the USS West Virginia for Dorie Miller's boxing match. However, the main gun barrels are corked, which is unusual during wartime or training exercises. Furthermore, Iowa battleships have a 3x3 main gun configuration versus the 4x2 layout of the West Virginia. Also, the West Virginia did not have the WWII-era bridge and masts found on newer U.S. battleships until reconstruction was finished in 1943.
In the film, the P-40N model of the P-40 Warhawk U.S. fighter aircraft is shown. However, the 'N' model of the P-40 was not available to the United States until 1943.
In reality, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, although he planned the attack, was not present on any of the carriers that bombed Pearl Harbor. He was aboard the battleship Nagato in Tokyo Bay, where he heard reports of the attack and supposedly made his famous "sleeping giant" statement.
Yamamoto's "Sleeping Giant" quote is not only mis-quoted (In the film, he says "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant" when the full version is "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.") but almost certainly an invention by the screenwriter of Tora! Tora! Tora! Larry Forrester. Neither he, the director nor producer of that movie could produce the documents to support the claim. Pearl Harbor screenwriter Randall Wallace readily admits he took the line from the earlier film.
P-40 and Zero fighters are shown doing tight maneuvers and incredibly dangerous stunts, almost like X-Wing fighters from Star Wars. Neither plane was that nimble, although the Zero was the most feared fighter of the Pacific War until the F6F Hellcat debuted in 1943.
Dorie Miller's actions during the battle are altered. In the film, Miller comforts Captain Mervyn S. Bennion and is with him when he dies. Miller then delivers the captain's last orders to the ship's executive officer and then mans a machine gun. In reality, Miller helped move Bennion to a safer location. Bennion continued to direct the battle until he died of his wounds just before the ship was abandoned. Miller is credited with shooting down two enemy planes.
The USS Texas doubles for the USS West Virginia during the sequences featuring Dorie Miller. The Texas is considerably different in design than the ship she portrays, most notably lacking the 'cage' masts that distinguished West Virginia and California-class battleships. During these sequences, the West Virginia appears moored by herself, but in reality the battleship Tennessee was moored inboard (between the West Virginia and Ford Island) at the time of the attack.
In the attack, a sailor is shown jumping clear of a falling Battleship "tripod" main mast. No Battleship lost a tripod mast in such a manner. Not even with the sinking of the USS Oklahoma, which capsized, did a mast fall in such a way as shown in the film.
In the film, Dorie Miller is shown firing a twin Browning M2 Air Cooled 50 caliber machine gun. In reality, the .50 caliber machine guns found on the USS West Virginia were water-cooled with a large water cylinder around the barrel for cooling in a similar manner to the .303 Vickers Heavy machine gun.
Doolittle Raid sequences:
In preparation for the attack, Doolittle (Baldwin) is show training the pilots on land in a flat, sparsely wooded valley near mountains somewhere in the American Southwest. The actual training was done at the airfield known today as Columbia Metropolitian Airport in West Columbia, South Carolina. It is a far more verdant and mountainless area in the state's "Piedmont" topography. In fact, it continued to be training site for B-25 crews during the war which would use islands in the nearby Lake Murray for target practice. A crashed B-25 was recovered from the lake in the 1990's, restored and is now on display in the state museum.
Several shots of the USS Hornet aircraft carrier depicted it as having an angled flight deck, a technology that was not implemented until after the war. However, in every other respect the ship, portrayed by the USS Lexington, is acurate, and even of the same Lineiage, the Essex class. The Japanese carriers are portrayed more correctly by comparison—a few of them did have their bridge/conning tower superstructure on port side rather than the more common starboard configuration.
Affleck and Hartnett's characters are shown taking part in the Doolittle bombing raid over Tokyo in which, as fighter pilots, they would not have been allowed to participate.
The B-25 Mitchells shown participating in the Raid are "J"-models, when the models used in the actual Raid were "B"-models.
Several crewmen on Affleck and Harnett's B-25's are killed in the firefight with the Japanese, including Harnett's character. In fact, no members of the raid were killed in this manner. Three airmen died in the crash landings in China, three were later executed as POWs by their Japanese captors, and one died of starvation in captivity. (Four other POWs were recovered alive near the end of the war).
Other inaccuracies:
Mitchel Field is incorrectly spelled "Mitchell Field."
Despite Long Island's flat, level surface, mountains are visible in the flying shots over Long Island.
Navy Nurse Betty claims to be 17 years old and that she has cheated with her age to be accepted, but Navy Nurses were required to be registered nurses to join the Navy Nurse Corps, which meant three years of prior training and passing a state board examination, very unlikely qualifications for any seventeen year old. The minimum age to join the Navy Nurse Corps was 22.
President Roosevelt is seen rising from his wheelchair to inspire his staff after the attack. There is no record of him having done - or even being capable of - this in real life.
The observation car seen in the train station was made for the California Zephyr, which did not appear until after WWII.
The sequence where Josh Hartnett's and Ben Affleck's characters 'play chicken' with their P-40's at the U.S. airbase is cited in the film as taking place in late 1941. This is prior to Affleck's departure to the UK to join Eagle Squadron in time for the Battle of Britain. There is no error here. Although the "Battle of Britain" (proper) took place from July through October, 1940, a lesser air battle continued thereafter. The first Eagle Squadron was formed in September 1940. Eventually, there were three Eagle Squadrons, right up until the U.S. entered the war (virtually the same timing as the Flying Tigers in China).
The Queen Mary is seen in New York Harbor in full Cunard colours. It is more likely that she would have been painted gray and would have served in war duties as either a troopship or hospital vessel. By late 1940, the Queen Mary was on her way to Sydney to be fitted out as a troopship.
The radar monitors shown in Pearl Harbor are of the more modern type which show the rotation of a dish. This type of radar was not in use at the time.
In a wide-angle shot, the distinct outline of a U.S. Kitty Hawk class aircraft carrier can be made out, the first of which was not commissioned until 1961. In the same shot, the sail of a modern submarine can be easily made out.
There is no reason that U.S. Navy nurses would be assessing whether pilot candidates in the U.S. Army Air Corps are fit to fly. It is reasonable to assume that the Army would use its own medical staff.
Doris Miller is shown receiving his Navy Cross on the deck of a battleship. He actually received his medal in a ceremony aboard an aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, shortly before the Battle of Midway.
Prior to the attack, Admiral Yamamoto turns a Japanese calendar to Sunday December 7 to make note of the date of the operation. In reality, when the attack started at 6:37 am Hawaii time, it was 1:37 am on Monday December 8 in Japan. The date December 7 was used because it is noted by Americans as the date of the attack. The Japanese version shows Yamamoto making note of the December 8 as the operation date.
The dollar bill with the overprint of Hawaii, did not come out until the summer of 1942.
During the panning shot of the fleet just before the Doolittle raid, a Burke Class Destroyer is visible in the back. These ships did not come into service until 1991.
Yamamoto in real life is missing 2 fingers. In the movie he has all fingers.
