Kummituslaiva

In 1984, while giving a speech in New York, U.S. President Ronald Reagan told a story to a group of World War II veterans who had been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. In Reagan's version, a crippled B-17 bomber was returning to its base in England after being hit by anti-aircraft fire over Nazi-occupied Europe. As the crew parachuted out, the pilot realized that his young gunner was seriously wounded, and chose to stay with him as the plane went down, saying, "Hang on, kid. We'll ride her down together." Reagan concluded his story with, "That pilot is what heroes are made of." News reporters searched for confirmation of Reagan's story, but could find no record of it. They eventually discovered that Reagan had inadvertently taken the story from the movie, Kummituslaiva (1944), where a group of soldiers on an aircraft carrier overhear a similar conversation between a pilot and his gunner, broadcast over the ship's radio. The press concluded that President Reagan was mistakenly confusing a Hollywood movie with a real-life incident.

The film takes place in the months leading up to the Battle of Midway in June, 1942, and the pilots in it fly Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers. The TBF was not introduced until just prior to Midway and saw its first operational flights at the battle. During the period in which the film takes place, the pilots would actually be flying Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bombers instead.

Edited into All This and World War II (1976)