Thunderbolt (1947)

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Thunderbolt is a 1947 film directed by William Wyler and John Sturges which documented the American aerial operations of Operation Strangle in World War II, when flyers of the Twelfth Air Force based on Corsica successfully impeded Axis supply lines to the Gustav Line and Anzio beachhead. The film was originally shot in 16mm color by members of the Army Air Forces. The 12th Combat Camera Unit recorded the combat footage using cameras mounted on some of the P-47s and a B-25 medium bomber equipped as a camera ship to accompany the fighters.

Production

Following the success of his documentary, Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress, filmed in the first half of 1943, Wyler returned to Europe with a team consisting of Sturges and screenwriter Lester Koenig. He arrived in Rome shortly after its liberation in June 1944, followed by the rest of the team a few days later, focusing on Operation Strangle at the suggestion of General Henry H. Arnold.

Wyler often followed front line ground units in Italy during the project period, filming from the ground battle damage inflicted by the aircraft, but Sturges and the remainder of the team stayed with the 57th FG, filming its combat missions, until September 1944.

Wyler and Sturges flew to London in October to edit the film and have it processed into 35mm by Technicolor at the Eastman Kodak labs. They found that only 1% of the footage from the cameras mounted in the P-47s was usable. The further delay in editing meant Sturges and Koenig returned to Hollywood to continue editing raw footage and write the narration script.

Returning to Grosseto Air Field in Tuscany after the flight, Wyler found he could not hear and had difficulty in maintaining his balance. He had suffered total deafness as a result of nerve damage in the noisy unpressurized aircraft, and was returned to the United States on April 10, 1945 for hospitalization. The 57th FG had moved here from the Italian mainland on March 28, 1944, specifically for Operation Strangle.

Before Thunderbolt could be edited, when the war in Europe ended, the project was shelved and Wyler found little interest, even in the AAF, for completing the film. Nevertheless, he felt that the film should be seen by "the people that paid for it."

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