Trivia

When Lawson's plane arrives in Tokyo and sees the fire and smoke from the previous bomber, Davy Jones, we are not looking at a special effect. During the making of the film, there was a fuel-oil fire in Oakland, near the filming location. The quick-thinking filmmakers scrambled to fly their camera plane and B-25 through the area, capturing some very real footage for the movie.

The Japanese fishermen fired on by the U.S. Navy escort ships did in fact have time to alert Tokyo, but their transmission was ignored. An urgent report of two American aircraft carriers so close to Japan by understandably hysterical "ignorant" fisherman was scorned as ridiculous by Japanese authorities.

The names of the crew of the Ruptured Duck and most of the military men in the film are the actual names of the men who were in this raid.

Twice while the Ruptured Duck is flying over Japan the crew spots Japanese fighter planes and tenses for an attack, but both times the fighters ignore them. This is factual. In an unbelievable coincidence, the Japanese had planned a major air raid drill for the same time in Tokyo, and the fighters thought the American B-25s were part of the drill until the bombs started exploding. Also, according to the book upon which the movie is based the planes' crews were told prior to the mission that there was a slight chance that the Japanese would not recognize them and react because the Japanese air force had a bomber very similar to the B-25.

The weight of one fifty caliber machine gun is roughly equal to that of seven gallons of gasoline. In order to reduce weight and increase range, the machine guns were removed and replaced with broomsticks that had been painted black. The faux guns were intended to discourage enemy fighters from getting too close, which would hopefully reduce the losses of B25s. As this movie was released while the war was still on, the broomstick trick was omitted from the movie in order to protect the information about the load capacity and range of the B25.