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mrGuy

A Bridge Too Far has the most....

By mrGuy, in The Bonfire

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mrGuy    0

mrGuy
Coolest, most insane amount of jumpers in the air at once.

I've seen the movie a bunch of times over the years, but since it's been played over and over agian the past few days because of Vet's Day, I've watched the jump scene about four times now.

I find it impossible to imagine what it would be like to be one of thousands of jumpers all crowded together under round canopies. How they did it, not just in the movie, but in reality is almost too incredible to fathom.

I suspect that many of the chutes were carrying dummys, but even so...simply amazing. Today that would be done with computers.

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tbrown    26

tbrown
I find it impossible to imagine what it would be like to be one of thousands of jumpers all crowded together under round canopies. How they did it, not just in the movie, but in reality is almost too incredible to fathom.

I suspect that many of the chutes were carrying dummys, but even so...simply amazing. Today that would be done with computers.



Nope, no dummies. Unlike modern day films like Pearl Harbor, or even Band of Brothers, computerized animation hadn't been invented yet. I remember when the film came out in '77, the word was that they used real live British paratroopers for the jump scenes. If you look closely at the canopies, you'll see anti inversion mesh below the canopy skirts. There was definitely none of that back in WWII. The movie rigs had steerable canopies and they were probably jumping from around 1200 ft, which is standard for military static line.

The guys who jumped in the real thing were using 28 ft silk canopies, that were supposedly steerable by "slipping" air with the risers. In real combat conditions they were getting out at 400 - 500 ft. Some of them got out so low they never opened.

I once knew a Normandy veteran of the 101st, Carl Beck, who I believe is still living. Carl told me he stepped out the door, had the slammer opening of his life and about a second later the slammer landing of his life. Normandy was a night jump and Carl was seriously wounded within hours of his jump and that was pretty much the end of the war for him. Carl was one of the veterans who jumped a square canopy into the 50th anniversary observances in 1994. In 2004 he served on the ground crew, as his health no longer permitted him to jump.

According to the accounts of the Market Garden veterans, their jump was a daytime jump and to their surprise nobody was waiting on the ground to shoot at them. Their jump was about the only thing that went right with that operation.

By the way, did you spot the malfunction in the movie ? There is one guy coming down under a reserve, next to a line over malfunction on his main.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

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mrGuy    0

mrGuy
Quote



By the way, did you spot the malfunction in the movie ? There is one guy coming down under a reserve, next to a line over malfunction on his main.



good eyes! Nope, I'll have to watch it again.

It looked to me that some of the drop footage shot from the planes made it look like they were a lot higher than that, and that a few of the "bodies" leaving the planes were a bit stiffer than they should have looked, hence I thought they may have been dummies.

What a movie!

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