Errol Flynn was criticized for playing heroes in WWII movies. Tony Thomas in his book 'Errol Flynn: The Spy Who Never Was' states that Flynn had tried to enlist in every branch of any armed services he could but was rejected as unfit for service on the grounds of his health. Flynn had a heart condition, tuberculosis, malaria and a back problem. Flynn felt he could contribute to America's war effort by appearing in such films as this one, Edge of Darkness (1943), Northern Pursuit (1943), Objective, Burma! (1945), and Uncertain Glory (1944). Reportedly, Flynn was at his most professional and cooperative he ever was while working on WWII-themed movies. The studios apparently did not diffuse the criticism of Flynn's state of health as they wished to keep it quiet for fear of his box-office draw waning.
It was of interest that Lt. Douglas Lee's log book lists his first flying lesson as 12/7 (1941), an incredibly prophetic selection of a date. That of course was the same day as the "day of infamy" when Japanese planes descended with such ferocity on the U.S. fleet in Pearl Harbor. The movie had been released months prior to that, in August 1941.
One of the pilots who flew the planes in the film footage was Navy Lt. Edward "Butch" O'Hare. He served as a fighter pilot in the Pacific and shot down five Japanese planes in his first battle, earning ace status and the Medal of Honor. He would go on to down 12 planes total and become one of the top heroes of the war before he was killed in action off the Gilbert Islands in November, 1943. O'Hare International Airport in Chicago was later named for him.
This movie primarily shows the planes of the USS Enterprise's Air Group 6 and the USS Saratoga's Air Group 3. The Big E and her air group fought at Midway, as did the Sara's Bombing 3 and Torpedo 3 squadrons (on the USS Yorktown as the Sara was undergoing torpedo damage repair). Neither air group was still using the Vindicator dive bomber, but both air groups were still using the Devastator torpedo plane. Torpedo 6 and Torpedo 3 lost most of their Devastators (while the USS Hornet lost all of her Torpedo 8). Most of the Devastators you see in the film were going to be lost a year later, but the pilots of the Vindicators in the movie were to going to sink the Japanese carriers.
In Russia, Leningrad engineer Yevgeny Chertovsky designed the first full pressure suit in 1931. In 1933, American Mark Ridge and Scottish physiologist John Scott Haldane built a prototype suit with the assistance of Robert Henry Davis of Siebe Gorman, the inventor of the Davis Escape Set. The suit was tested in a low-pressure chamber to a simulated altitude of 50,000 feet. In 1934, aviator Wiley Post, assisted by Russell S. Colley of the B.F. Goodrich Company, manufactured a practical pressure suit. Post tested the suit at an altitude of 40,000 feet above Chicago and later he reached 50,000 feet. In 1936, Squadron Leader F.R.D. Swain of the Royal Air Force flew a Bristol Type 138 airplane at 49,967 feet wearing a similar suit. In 1937, Italian aviator Mario Pezzi flew in a high-altitude pressure suit. No effective fully mobile pressure suits were produced in World War Two. The research, however, provided the basis for post-World-War-Two development.