The Ship Model Forum

TRIVIA---June 4, 2025 is the 83rd anniversary of the Battle of Midway in World War II where the tide of the war in the Pacific turned against Japan. At Midway, US Navy SBD Dauntless dive bombers sank all four Japanese aircraft carriers. MIDWAY was the 1976 movie about the Battle of Midway that starred Charlton Heston and was directed by Jack Smight. Both Heston and Smight were USAAF bomber crewmen flying missions in the Pacific Theater. Heston was a radioman/gunner on a B-25 Mitchell bomber stationed in the Aleutians. Smight was the navigator on the B-24 Liberator "Old Ironsides" that flew bombing missions against the Japanese in the Southwest Pacific.

In the Battle of Midway, the turning point of the war in the Pacific, the painting depicts US Navy SBD Dauntless dive bombers sinking all four Japanese aircraft carriers, including the flagship Akagi.




The movie MIDWAY starred Charlton Heston as SBD Dauntless pilot Captain Matt Garth. During World War II, Heston was a radioman/gunner on a B-25 Mitchell bomber in the Aleutians in the Pacific Theater.




MIDWAY was directed by Jack Smight, who was the navigator on the B-24 Liberator "Old Ironsides" that flew combat missions in the Southwest Pacific.