An award-winning actor finds healing from his trauma as a World War II bomber by portraying an everyman in the greatest Christmas movie of all time. It’s like Top Gun meets White Christmas.
Now That Should Be A Christmas Season Movie Release
[Note: There is currently a biopic in pre-production from Burns & Co. I have purposely avoided reading anything related to said project as this post is neither meant to add or subtract from Burns’ thunder, but simply a write-up of a subject near and dear to my heart.]
I have long believed that the story behind the making of It’s A Wonderful Life and its relation to the wartime experiences of actor James Stewart and director Frank Capra would make a great movie. Books I read for my research are Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe by Robert Matzen, from GoodKnight Books, Jimmy Stewart Bomber Pilot by Starr Smith, and James Stewart at War: His Career in the USAAF by Pavel Turk, from Pen & Sword Air World. I also consulted Jimmy Stewart: A Biography by Marc Elliot, from Rebel Road, Inc., James Stewart: A Biography byDonald Dewey, from Turner Publishing, and Nine Yanks and a Jerk: The incredible saga of one of the most legendary planes in the U.S. 8th Air Force flown by Major James M. Stewart and the aircrews under his command in World War II by Scott E Culver.
Act I
Beginnings
Ringing bells announced Charles Lindbergh’s landing in Paris, completing the first non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic. In Indiana, Pennsylvania, James Stewart kept track of his flight using a map while listening to the radio. His father’s hardware store window displayed a diagram with the Woolworth Tower on one end and the Eiffel Tower on the other. Jim traced Lindbergh’s path between them with a model airplane.
Stewart had a passion for flying from age 10. When word arrived that a barnstorming pilot would be in town, he saved up all his money to buy a ride. His father, Alexander, drove him to the field. On the way, Alex stopped and picked up the family doctor. While James was enjoying his flight, his father kept the car engine idling the entire time in case he had to rush his son to the hospital.
By 1938, Stewart had his private pilot’s license. He made model airplanes with his friend Henry Fonda. His agent, Leland Hayward, flew as well. In 1941, he obtained his commercial pilot license. He used his own plane, a Stinson HW75, to visit his family in Pennsylvania for Christmas. He found freedom in flying and escapism from the artificiality of Hollywood.
By the early 1940s, with the help of director Frank Capra, he had become a major movie star, earning a nomination for Best Actor for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He won the award a year later for The Philadelphia Story.
Inciting Incident
Plotline 1
His ancestors served in the American Revolution. He had grown up listening to his grandfather’s Civil War tales. His father, Alex, had served in the Spanish-American War and had been a company commander during the Great War. Stewart starred in a film warning about European fascism, The Mortal Storm. He was a strong advocate for preparing for war and building air superiority. When Stewart’s Selective Service was drawn in October 1940, he immediately registered with an application for the US Army Air Corps, despite being exempt on grounds of age.
The draft board rejected him for being 10 pounds underweight for his height-weight ratio. People in the film industry thought he would be glad. Instead, he rushed to call his father. Too late. Alex had already seen the headlines: “James Stewart is deferred,” and “Movie Hero Heavy Enough to Knock Out Villain – But Too Light For Uncle Sam.” Alex called James up and got his assurance that he was not trying to avoid service.
Stewart volunteered to appeal the board’s decision. He had to wait six months. He subjected himself to a rigorous exercise program, training with dumbbells. He consumed a diet of milkshakes, whole milk, potatoes, bananas, meat, and anything else that could give him protein. Legend says he denied himself bowel movements for thirty-six hours before the next meeting with the board. He passed the examination and enlisted in the Army Air Corps Reserve as a private. He was pulling guard duty at an airfield when news arrived of Pearl Harbor.
Plotline 2
Stewart returned to the United States in September 1945. His hair has a sheen of gray. A devout Presbyterian, he stops going to church. Both MGM and his agent Hayward dropped him. He is now an independent actor, wondering about his career as he sleeps in a playhouse in Henry Fonda’s backyard.
Capra has also returned from the war to find himself out of a job. He is plagued by a “loneliness that was laced with the fear of failure.” Many of his old collaborators are unavailable to help him with his next movie. He believed he had found the story he had been searching for his whole life, printed on a Christmas card called The Greatest Gift by George Stern in 1939. He had found his own production company, Liberty Films, and secured the rights to Stern’s story. So far, the screenplay has gone through three drafts.
Stewart wanted to make his first movie with Capra. And he wanted to make a comedy. He refused offers from studios wanting him to star in war films. He wants to put all that behind him and help the country get over the war as well. Capra approached him with a story. A hero grown despondent, like someone returning from war. Their meeting went as well as you might expect. “I have a movie for you, “said Capera. “It’s about a guy who wants to commit suicide. On Christmas Eve. And this angel shows up. And he grants his wish that he had never been born.” The meeting broke up with Capra thinking Stewart wasn’t interested.
Second Thoughts
Plotline 1
Even in the military, Stewart can’t escape Hollywood. Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, made sure he was assigned to a film unit at Wright Field, Ohio. The assignment was much to Stewart’s dislike, who requested a personal meeting with the base commander. He was told that to be promoted to second lieutenant and become an army pilot, he would need a certain number of flying hours. Stewart flew those hours on his weekends, paying his own way until he had flown 100 hours. In November, he applied to appear before an examination commission that would decide if he qualified to be an army pilot. After a thirty-five-minute flight on November 14, the examiner rated his skill as excellent and recommended that his popularity be used in the recruitment. He made the short recruiting film Winning Your Wings, which is credited with recruiting 150,000 young men. Stewart was promoted to second lieutenant in December, received his wings, and had a pay increase of $245 a month, $1255 less than he received for a week of acting. Still, there was opposition even in the Air Corps to Stewart flying in combat. A captured movie star would be of great propaganda value.
Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, tried to persuade Stewart not to leave, offering choice film roles with contract revisions. “Mr. Mayer,” Stewart said, this country’s conscience is bigger than all the studios put together, and the time will come when we’ll have to fight.” Clark Gable told Stewart he would be throwing away his career. Stewart knew.
Plotline 2
But Jimmy was interested in the movie, even though he couldn’t make head or tail of the story. In November 1945, he signed up with Liberty Films.
Plotline 1
He flew as an instructor at Mather Field, California. Then he served as an instructor at the bombardier school in Kirtland Field, New Mexico, from August to November. All this time watching men younger than himself, some almost boys, head overseas to fight fascism. He got close to serving overseas when he began training to fly B-17s. His hopes were dampened when he was assigned as a flight instructor to the stateside operational unit 29th Group in Boise, Idaho, where he spent more time watching more of his young students fly off to war. In July, he was promoted to captain.
In Idaho, Stewart sees for the first time what a plane accident can do to the human body when inspecting the aftermath of a crash in the mountains. On his way down the mountain, he fell and hurt his back. The 29th Group commander, Lt. Col. Walter “Pop” Arnold, despite being smaller than Stewart, carried him down.
Arnold knew that Captain Stewart wanted to fly, but there was a “static personnel” note in his file. He ignored the note and called Colonel Bob Terrill of the B-24 flying 445th Bombardment Group (BG). Before the call was over, Stewart was transferred to the 703rd Bombardment Squadron of the 445th, which was training for overseas service. In less than three weeks, Stewart became commander of the 703rd Bombardment Squadron. During training, the 445th BG lost three planes and 27th crew members to accidents. When Stewart meets a new crew in Sioux City, he tells them they are replacing a crew that hit a water tower. This gives the group a jinxed feeling. In September, the group receives orders to move overseas. By November, James Stewart was on his way to war.
He received a letter from Alex Stewart that read
My dear Jim boy, soon after you read this letter, you will be on your way to the worst sort of danger. I have had this in mind for a long time, and I am very much concerned…but Jim, I am banking on the enclosed copy of the 91st Psalm. The thing that takes the place of fear and worry is the promise in these words. I am staking my faith in these words. I feel sure that God will lead you through this mad experience…I can say no more. I continue only to pray. Goodbye, my dear. God bless you and keep you. I love you more than I can tell you. Dad.
Act II
Plotline 1
After taking off from Puerto Rico, Stewart received notice that one plane was missing from his group, The Sunflower Sue, flown by a farm boy from New Hampshire. They searched the ocean’s surface but saw nothing. Stewart hears that a German submarine has been spotted in the area. Not wanting to risk losing any more planes to the craft’s cannon, Stewart chose to continue flying to England.
He tried his best to fit in with the airmen as just “another one of the boys.” While on leave with his men, Stewart came across a poster for one of his movies that was showing at a local cinema. It was an awkward moment.
Plotline 2
Lionel Barrymore (Mr. Potter), wheelchair bound due to a hip injury, sees that Jimmy is nervous about his first film role in five years. “Just have fun on set,” says Lionel. Jimmy became buoyant.
Plotline 1
The group billeted at Tibenham Base in England. The crew was impressed with how much Stewart knew about the planes. The airmen attended a meeting where they were told the exchange rate of US dollars to the British pound. The airmen could not check this out because the finance officer told them he did not have time for their records. As the airmen walked away grumbling, they ran into Stewart. He asked them how they were doing, and when he heard about the pay problem, he marched to the finance officer’s office and asked him if he wanted to be in the infantry. Soon, all the crews had been paid. One crew named their airplane Pissed Off because the pilot was angry over having to fly a Liberator instead of a fighter. Stewart suggested they name it something else. They named it after a local pub, The Gremlins Roost.
At first, Stewart banned reporters from the base because he did not want a gaggle of paparazzi and ladies rushing to the place to shower him with attention. The official word of the Air Corps was that he was not even in England. But then he learned that the families of his crew were not hearing reports about their boys in hometown newspapers because of the ban. Only then did he allow reporters on the base. He was just unavailable for interviews. Soon, there was a headline: Captain Stewart Just Wants To Do His Job.
Stewart’s job was to fly as a group leader, like a point man in an infantry squad. The most dangerous position. He rode shotgun on an unassigned bombing raid. “I just can’t sit here and send these fellows to death without knowing myself what I am sending them into,” he told officers. On December 13th, 1943, Stewart led his first mission, flying as squadron commander in the right seat with Leo Cook of the Gremlins Roost. During the pre-briefing, a British officer talked to the crews about the Germans’ 39,000 anti-aircraft guns on the Western Front and what flak would sound like: small pieces of steel hitting their plane. Stewart completed the first two missions without losses. Stewart remained at the base during the third raid. Even though all planes returned safely, Stewart learned that it is easier to go on a mission than to wait for his crew to return. Just 25 missions, and he and his men would be rotated home.
Then, on December 20th, Stewart lost his first plane. All sorts of German aircraft attacked the 445th BG. The crew of the Good Nuff perished in the North Sea after flak damaged their craft.
Plotline 2
It took Jimmy a week or two to realize that he had not lost his acting talent.
Plotline 1
On Christmas, Stewart oversaw a voluntary raid to knock out rockets the Germans planned to fire at London and other cities. He heard that a friend of his had died while flying his plane long enough to give his crew time to bail out before it exploded. Fuel leaks made the airplanes flying bombs even after dropping their cargoes of death. Stewart accompanies the mission but is forced to turn back when No. 3 engine begins leaking oil. The main source for hydraulics, No. 3 was a favorite target of German fighters. Stewart waited anxiously at the base for his men to return. All but one make it back, stitching in the North Sea. One crew member drowned after mistaking the top gun turret for the top escape hatch.
Stewart takes part in another raid on December 30, but again his craft is forced to turn back due to a mechanical failure. Two aircraft from the 703rd Bomb Squadron do not return. The Liberty Bell, attacked by several German Fw 190s, was the first of Stewart’s original 15 crews to be lost. Then on January 5th, 1944, the Gremlins Roost was lost during a raid, crashing into the North Sea. Only four members of the 10-man crew were able to bail out.
Plotline 2
The famous pool under the dance floor scene was filmed after Capra found it during location shooting. During the scene in which Stewart and leading lady Donna Reed throw rocks at the windows of the Old Granville House, Donna hits the glass on the first try because she had played baseball in high school. Lionel Barrymore cannot believe she is a farm girl from Iowa and bets her $10 she can’t milk a cow. A cow is brought to set the next day, and he loses his 10 dollars.
Rising Tensions
Plotline 1
The raids were an assault on all five of the crews’ senses. Airplanes flew at altitudes where guns froze. Pieces of metal from the flak sounded like rain against the plane’s body. Shells exploded like it was the Fourth of July. Black smoke rose through the white fluffy clouds from the target sights. Turbulence from smoke rising from bombing sites rocked airplanes. Metal screeched on runways. One airman remembers returning from a mission and making it to the door of his hut before realizing that he had been repeating, “God, please help me. God, please help me.”
Stewart flew his first “milk run” with good cover from fighter planes and medium flak. Unfortunately, the raid hit a church at Bonnières-sur-Seine. On another raid, he had to search for targets, which meant more time in enemy airspace, which meant friendly fighters leaving early due to low fuel. Five more fighters from the 445th BG were lost. On 2 January, one of Stewart’s original crews, The Bille Babe, goes missing. It might have blown up. He would have to write letters to ten grieving families of men he knew well.
Plotline 2
Donna senses heaviness on set as both Frank and Jimmy deal with the insecurities of working in an industry that has moved on without them during the war.
Plotline 1
Stewart hears that some airmen are stealing coal. He walks into their hut, sits down next to their potbelly stove, takes his shoes and socks off, and begins warming his feet. After going on and on about what a red-hot stove they had and how amazing it was that they managed to keep the place so warm, he got up, put his socks and shoes back on, and said, “Goodnight, fellows.” The airmen got the clue. On another occasion, he found contraband beer in the hut and began drinking it. “Someone stole a keg of beer from the officer’s club a few days ago,” he said between sips. “Ah-you guys hear anything about that?” The airmen were speechless. Stewart put the beer back where he found it, only more carefully hidden, and left. Again, the airmen got the clue.
On 7th January, Stewart took part in a mission over Ludwigshafen. During the raid, the leading 389th Bomb Group headed in the wrong direction toward Paris. Stewart alerted the lead bomber to this error, but was told to keep radio silence. Stewart thought about taking his group in the right direction, but that would expose both groups to Luftwaffe fighters. His officers’ discipline led him to follow the lead group, even as he saw the Eiffel Tower off to the starboard. As the planes neared Paris, they were attacked by German Fw 190s. Four planes were shot down, including the group leader. Stewart took over and did not lose any planes. Some suffered mechanical failures and had to crash land in England. Stewart received a letter of thanks for remaining to cover the other planes. He probably saved the 389th from annihilation. His men noticed a newfound confidence in him.
During a January 29th raid, over 860 planes formed in the sky. Some collided with each other. Stewart rode aboard Nine Yanks and A Jerk, named after its crew of nine Yankees and one Southerner. American fighters turned back, and German ones arrived, dropping parachute bombs. Black detonators filled the sky, and soon flak rockets turned the sky a hot, burning orange.
Stewart wanted to go with all the missions, except those expected to be milk runs. Rumor was the leaders were trying to put reins on him as missions were going deeper and deeper into enemy territory, closer and closer to the heavily fortified Big B, Berlin. If he were shot down, it might be a great propaganda tool for Hitler, who would have him paraded through the streets. Stewart’s presence on base gives his men something to write home about instead of the horrors of war. He often entertained the men by playing piano. In a moment of comic relief, his tall, lanky figure bumps his head against door entrances and top bunk beds.
On February 4th, he led the group to Bonn, 600 miles from Berlin, riding in Nine Yanks and a Jerk. Cloud cover over the target was 10/10 – heavy -so he had to choose another target. As they were about to unload, another bombardment group appeared under them. Stewart diverted his planes just in time and decided to drop the bombs on the meadows around the town.
His February 10th raid also took place in heavy cloud cover. One airplane exploded during assembly. 27 out of 81 aircraft bombed the target. Planes crashed when the equipment iced over. Stewart saw one pilot mentally lock up after a crash landing in England. What if that happened to him?
Plotline 2
The New Bedford Falls set is one of the most elaborate sets built at the time. Capra is working as producer, director, and writer as he films in an early summer heat wave. As a nod to an FBI memo later calling the film “Communist propaganda,” agents could come sniffing around the set to see what the director and actor who had made Mr. Smith, a movie that dared to suggest there was corruption in Congress, were up to now.
Plotline 1
Stewart took part in Operation Argument, known as Big Week, which lasted from February 20to 25, 1944. Aviation centers all over Germany were targeted. Stewart led the 2nd Combat Bombardment Group Wing on two missions. He encountered heavy flak around Braunschweig. He saw the red parachute flares, which meant ceasefire for the flak gunners. The skies were soon filled with German fighters. American P-38s and P-47s failed to keep the fighters from inflicting losses on the bomber formations. The bullet serenaded against the planes’ bodies. Stewart watched a plane belonging to his friend burn before exploding.
The operation was successful but costly. The darkest day was February 24th. The 445th Bombardment Group sent 25 planes. 13 did not return. Nine Yanks and A Jerk returned with a large hole in the flight deck area. The 703 Bombardment Squadron lost three B-24s. David P. Skjeie, one of Stewart’s original pilots, was killed. Planes crashed into each other, sliding through the formation as they missed other planes by inches. Men’s parachutes caught on the falling debris, taking them with it.
Stewart sat in his office reading the reports. He thought of what Alex had always told him. “Every man is afraid, son, but just remember you can’t handle fear all by yourself. Give it to God. He’ll carry it for you.”
While flying over Dieppe, a loud bang rocked the airplane so hard that the harnesses were all that kept Stewart and his comrades from flying out of their seats. An explosion followed, and Stewart felt a blast of frozen air beneath him. As the smoke cleared, he looked down to see a two-foot-wide hole to his left, a reminder of how just a few inches were all between the crewmen and death during every mission. He watched as Liberators came apart in the air and thought the craft had no business being in the air. Just eleven weeks in, and he was close to having a nervous breakdown.
Plotline 2
Production reached the part where George finally embraces Mary. It is Jimmy’s first love scene in years, and Capra tells him and Donna to improvise lines on the spot. The air is so charged with built-up sexual tension that censors threaten to cut the scene.
Plotline 1
On March 8, 1944, Stewart took part in his first raid on The Big B, Berlin, a long red ribbon on the map marking the over 700-mile round trip they would have to fly. Enemy fighters inflicted heavy casualties. On March 15, Stewart served as the Division Lead for a mission. Of 157 B-24s, 145 arrived over the target. The H2X radar of the leading bomber failed. With no time to change the position of the leading bomber and target cover 10/10, Stewart had to make a quick decision. He repeated the bombing run, leading the group in a 360-degree turn and blindly dropping 550 pounds of bombs. Two Liberators were lost along with eight American fighters.
On March 22, he flew with 200 crews of 10 men each behind him to targets north of Berlin. Some were replacement crews that Stewart hardly knew or trusted. There was heavy flak over the target. The Germans had a one-flak mind, Stewart would later say. The cloud cover was heavy, too. Should he waste the bombs or risk dropping them on civilians? He decided on a secondary target: Berlin. As he flew over the heart of Nazi Germany, he thought about the headline: Actor James Stewart Blown Up Over Berlin. He thought about his friend Clark Gable, who had joined the Air Corps after the death of his wife. Hitler had put a price on the head of “The King of Hollywood.”
In March, there was good news. The Luftwaffe was increasingly less effective in combating raids. The Bad News: missions were increased from 25 to 30 before crews could rotate home. Stewart’s commanders could see that the strain of command was taking its toll on him.
Midpoint
In March, Major Stewart received an oak leaf cluster on his Air Medal for ten complete missions. Rumors spread that the brass didn’t like him flying too many missions while skipping all the milk runs. He picked the worst ones. In April, he is promoted to group operations officer and transferred to the 453rd Bomb Group at Old Buckenham to replace its MIA commander and shore up the group’s crumbling morale. Rumor was that he was being transferred for his own protection.
The 453rd at “Old Buck” was not trained in tight formations and shot up badly despite flying six weeks less than the 445th. Stewart taught them the tighter formations he had memorized like Hollywood monologues. To bond with his new crewmen, he buzzed the base at Tibenham. “My former commander is taking a nap,” he said. “Let’s wake him up.” He made a “candle” to the left above the base. “He’s definitely awake now, so let’s get him up!” he said, taking another angle to the right. His “training flight” ended with a low pass on the control tower, and the flight controller escaping from the tower. Jimmy had to write a memorandum on the importance of crew recruitment and a strict ban on flying below a safe altitude. He would later say that the “Buzzing twins” incident was his favorite training flight.
On April 8th, he trained the group for a brutal raid on Brunswick. On April 14th, he led the group the furthest into Germany he had been, bombing sites around Berlin and Munich. Stewart kept track of his friends in the 445th, reading the names of the lost. Several planes from his old unit did not return from a bombing mission. Among the lost were Nine Yanks and a Jerk with his friend Earl Matcalf. The next day, he led his wing on a raid. The group lost one plane. Stewart was learning to rely on new friends, grieving that not even his prayers could stand between them and their fate.
Plotline 2
Stewart is still struggling with doubts about whether acting is a worthy pursuit or even decent, given the amount of suffering in the world. Lionel understands that Stewart is agonizing and asks him, “Is it more decent to drop bombs on people than to bring rays of sunshine into their lives with your acting talent?” This gives Stewart a new purpose in acting.
Plotline 1
On May 8th, the 453rd was jumped by 200 German fighters and lost eight planes. Two of them were Liberators that collided. On the 15th of May, he raided the rocket facilities in northern France. Bombing runs improved as Stewart maintained a tight formation despite intensive flak and intrusive fighters.
On May 25, Stewart led another raid on the city of Troyes, flying with Lieutenant Donald Frederick Kolb in The Becky. When Stewart saw the French City of Troye out his window, he said they were 10 degrees off their target. The navigator and bombardier said otherwise. Stewart was talking on the intercom when his deputy wing leader called on the radio to say they were off target. By then, 25 tons of bombs had been dropped on the smaller town of Tonnerre. Stewart took responsibility for the mistake, earning the respect of his men and even more wartime trauma. Less than a month after the mission, Kolb was forced to land his plane in Sweden and interned in a camp.
In a rare interview, Stewart talked about fear. He could not let his fear spread to his men, the fear that he might mess up and lose his men. Years of acting gave him rapport and a calm demeanor under which he hid his stress.
Plotline 2
Production films the bank run scene. Jimmy imagines himself speaking to the shaken crewmen at Old Buck as he speaks to the townspeople, telling them, “It’s not as black as it seems.” Capra sets off an unexpected fire alarm that sends the extras rushing to the windows. The actress who asks for “17.50” improvised the line and gets a real reaction from Jimmy.
Plotline 1
In early June, Stewart was appointed to the rank of lieutenant colonel. bombing raids on France increased. On June 6, planes had to form up in the darkness so they could drop bombs before landing craft reached the beaches of Normandy. Due to low visibility and fear of dropping bombs on the invasion armada, many planes overshot their targets.
On June 30th, he ended his service with the 453rd Bombardment Group. On 1 July, he became the chief of staff of HQ 2nd Combat Bombardment Wing based in Ketteringham Hall. One reason was to shore up the unit’s morale. He flew in the morning assemblies to see that the formations were aligned. On the 19th, he led a bombing run that encountered moderate Luftwaffe opposition but heavy flak. He is close to cracking. Command ensures his duties keep him behind a desk.
Plotline 2
The heatwave in the San Fernando Valley continues even as Jimmy must dress for scenes set in winter. Capra goes through three cinematographers. Donna Reed notices the tension and the definite change in Jimmy. There are discussions about playing someone who is depressed and considering suicide, when that was happening across America at the time.
Addictive Obstacles
Plotline 1
To a civilian, a desk job out of combat might not seem stressful, but to a commander who cared about his men, it was another kind of trauma for Stewart. His nights were spent at a desk planning missions for his men. His days were spent in the flight tower, waiting for planes to return whose safety depended upon his foresight and organizational skills. He watched as returning planes fired off flares, signaling wounded aboard. He tried to clear his mind of fear as he thought about the worst that could happen. What if flak hit the bomb tray? A fire in a wing tank? A feathered propeller on a damaged engine that would bring the enemy fighters swarming in? He decided that if his plane were going down, he would be the last to bail out. When a pilot who had a record of being late to briefings tried to sneak into an empty chair, Stewart gave him a rare tongue-lashing, pulling no punches. He aimed his pointer at the pilot, “You owe it to your crew and yourself to be on time.”
Plotline 2
Alex visited Jimmy at his home in Brentwood, California, and asked about his church attendance. James said he did not think there was a Presbyterian church around there. His father went for a walk. He came back three-quarters of an hour later with four men, elders of a Presbyterian church just three blocks from his house. Stewart began attending church again and even helped finance the construction of one.
Rising Tensions
Plotline 1
He hears in September that his pals in the 445th bomb group, after bombing the wrong city due to a mistake by the group leader, lost twenty-five B-24s. Of their crews, 108 out of 236 members are KIA. The 445th basically ceased to exist. He just sat at his desk, stunned. Then began planning missions to bomb anything of benefit to the Luftwaffe.
He would not fly for three weeks. When he did, the aim was oil plants, and it took him right through “Flak Valley.” Stewart flew his last mission of 1944 on 30th November in a Pathfinder at the head of the formation. Friends noticed that he was having trouble eating and keeping it down. On December 5th, Stewart was appointed Operations Officer of HQ 2nd Combat Wing.
Plotline 2
The production has a technical breakthrough with a new kind of fake snow for filmmaking. It was a mixture of Foamite (found in fire extinguishers), soap, sugar, and water that could be shot from high-pressure canisters and gently wafted over the set with a silent fan. For the first time, snow could fall gently on the set without having a rough effect on the actor’s health.
The fake snow used in the Christmas scenes reminds Stewart of temperatures falling to 40 below in the planes, fear of suffocating when breathing equipment iced over, and sweating in 40 below while the leader led them off course during the Ludwigshafen raid.
Plotline 1
On February 27, 1945, Stewart led a bombing mission from the cockpit of a Mosquito to gain a better overview of the entire formation. It made him a prime target for fighters. When the pilot dove from 30,000 feet to 12,000, it caused Stewart severe ear damage. Two bombers from the 445th were lost. On March 29, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel and soon afterwards replaced Colonel Milton J. Arnold as commander of 2nd Combat Bombardment.
Bombing raids were facing a new challenge: Me 262s. The jets could slice and dice through the formations. They zipped circles around the American fighters. Signs of sleep deprivation begin to appear in Stewart, with heavy bags under his eyes. Rumor is he’s flak happy.
On March 21, Colonel Stewart led his last raid against heavily defended Berlin. A cadre of Luftwaffe fighters and jets put up a fierce battle. Two bombers are lost. When Stewart returns to the base, he gets out and collapses to the ground from a nervous breakdown. He spends weeks recovering from the emotional trauma until doctors say he is well enough to be released. Arnold decides he should not fly any more missions.
Plotline 2
Crisis
The stress of having responsibility for men in combat is still causing Stewart to have nightmares and sweats. Production comes to the part where George Bailey has a meltdown over the missing $8,000. The scene must be carried out well; otherwise, it might come off as comical. The cameras roll.
Flashback: He yells over the radio that the leader is taking the formation the wrong way. Present Day: he yells “Stop that” at one of the child actors. Flashback: A plane caught in the slipstreams of another. Present Day: He yells at the child actress playing Susie. Flashback: lead spraying through the air around his aircraft. Present Day: He walks toward the tables with models. Planes caught in the slipstream of other crafts. He kicks the table with the bridge model. Rockets flying through the air around him. He knocks off the top of the model building. “Do you see any chutes?” he calls through his intercom. He smashes more models. Pieces of bodies slam against a plane’s windshield. He throws papers around. He stands in a tower, scanning the skies for returning planes. He crumples up papers. Writing letters home to the families of airmen who haven’t returned. He throws more papers around. Lying awake in a barracks, looking at the empty beds of lost airmen. He kicks tables again. Incendiary bombs flying out of the planes and into the ones behind them. He turns around, sweating and breathing heavily, and apologizes to the cast and crew.
Act III
Cliamx and Resolution as Plotlines Intertwine
Capra and Stewart filmed the scene when George Bailey prays in the bar. Jimmy thought of the pain, loneliness, and despair people all over the world were facing. He thought about his own prayers that couldn’t save his own men. Real tears appeared in Jimmy’s eyes. Frank had shot the scene as a wide shot and wanted to film it again as a close-up. “Don’t ask me to do that again,” said Jimmy. “I can’t do it.” Capra accomplished the close-up with a laboratory blow-up.
The production moves on to film the bridge. While George contemplates suicide, Jimmy remembers his decisions to drop bombs. During the scene with Clarence, when George says he has a bad ear, Jimmy really does have a hard time hearing from his time around plane engines. As George sees what Bedford Falls would look like without him, Jimmy thinks about the men who might be alive or dead because of his decisions. As George rages at Burt the Cop and others, he lets loose his anger at commanders who put his men in danger and got them killed.
Jimmy Doolittle believed that if the war had gone on, Stewart would have been a group commander, like a ship’s captain in the Navy. For his service during the war, Jimmy received six bronze stars, European African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with 1 Silver Star, Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross with 1 Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster, Air Medal with 3 Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters, Army Commendation Medal, World War II Victory Medal, American Defense Service Medal with ETO ribbon and a Croix de Guerre.
None of that compared to when, upon arrival in America, Jimmy shook the hand of every person in his unit as they stepped off the ship. As George asks God to let me live again, he wishes to be free of the trauma of war. As he runs down the streets of the Bedford Falls set, under bells like ones that rang announcing Lindbergh’s landing, he rejoices that the performance that has medicated his soul might bring healing to theater audiences like his fellow servicemen. Fifty Years after World War II, when asked if his military experience was greater than being in the movies, he would reply, “Much Greater.”
My “Why”
It’s A Wonderful Life has been my favorite movie since I was a preteen. I remember the first time I saw it as a child. I used to watch it randomly throughout the year whenever I wanted to have an emotional high. To the point I could nearly quote it line by line. Now I reserve it for a special showing on or about Christmas. It has become more special since learning about Capera and Stewart’s roles in the military and how the ladder’s PTSD played in the making and emotional impact of the film. Like Jimmy, my own grandfather served in World War II even though he was exempt on grounds of age and being the provider for a family. As someone with PTSD (non-combat related), I have seen how the entertainment industry has damaged the public’s view of those suffering the stressful condition. With all due respect to Sylvester Stallone, the popular perspective of someone with the “disorder,” which really isn’t a disorder but the body’s natural reaction to traumatic situations, of a one-man-army Rambo, fixing to snap at any minute, caused me not to be met with kindness and understanding when I opened up about having the condition. Church leaders sided with those “frightened of” me. Even an Army veteran with PTSD said I should have been so open, explaining that he doesn’t tell people about it because they fear him due to his “special skills.” Perhaps if the public associated PTSD with a hopeful, timeless Christmas classic, they would not have such fear. Maybe if society thought of George Bailey instead of Rambo. Of a movie so sentimental that some have derided it as sappy and maudlin, it could help create a really wonderful world.
Because the story behind one of the most inspirational and moving movies of all time is just as inspirational and moving, James Stewart’s service in World War II Should Be A Christmas Season Movie Release.
