I'm talking about the real historical event of Pearl Harbor, not the scene in the movie. When this attack happened in real life in 1941, did the Americans simply run/evacuate, or did they open fire at the Japanese planes (with machine guns or turrets, for example)?
shareThey fought back, but had limited means. Despite receiving a Dec 3/4 cable stating,"Consider this a War warning" most of the base was not on war alert. This meant limited staffing, guns and ammunition were locked away, aircraft were not fueled and armed etc. I believe two P 40's were launched, but did not have the success depicted in the movie. Most of the ships did not have steam up and therefore had limited ability to manuver. eventually, lockers and magazines were opened or broken into and some sort of defense organized, but it too a while.
shareMost of your response is accurate. That is, ammo and weapons were locked away, limited staffing, and so on. But I seem to recall it was more than two American planes, about 6 that got up. They were not taking off in any coordinated manner except Taylor and Welch who took off together. These two are the ones most famous pilots that day.
shareThe two main characters are actually based off real life people who did manage to get to their planes to shoot down some Japanese aircraft. Why Affleck and Hartnett are not simply playing those two people, I have no idea.
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