Victory Through Air Power (1943)

By 1941 Walt Disney was already a cherished American icon. His Mickey Mouse cartoons had earned him international fame and the acclaimed Snow White demonstrated to both critics and popular audiences just how powerful a medium animation could really be. Disney himself was lauded as a genius and his cartoons were celebrated as a crucial part of American culture. So it comes as no surprise to learn that after the US entered World War II Disney’s pervasive influence was conscripted into the armed forces by the government in order to push forward the war effort. The army literally moved into Disney studios in Burbank, regular film production came to a halt, and Walt Disney suddenly found himself in the unprofitable business of producing propaganda films. Soon soldiers in training everywhere would be watching Donald Duck mocking the Nazis and theatre patrons would be reminded by the three little pigs about the importance of being thrifty.

During this same time period there was one very strange propaganda film made by Disney that did not come in the form of a government contract but rather straight out of Walt’s own personal finances and initiative. The film is called Victory Through Air Power and it is essentially both an entertaining comedy and deadly serious infomercial pressing for the production/utilization of large, long range aircraft capable of dropping large payloads of bombs directly on top of Germany and Japan from very remote distances. A description that essentially fits the role of the not-yet-extant B-52 bomber.

Victory Through Air Power is based on what was then a recently released book of the same name by a famed Russian aviator and engineer, a naturalized US citizen, named Alexander de Seversky. Seversky himself is something of a badass. Born into a Russian noble family in 1894 he entered the Russian Naval Academy at age 14 where he earned a degree in engineering. In World War I he became a combat pilot. In 1916 Seversky was shot down and lost his leg. After successfully making it back into friendly territory he went on, with a wooden leg, to successfully fly 57 combat missions and by many accounts was Russia’s leading ace pilot. After the 1917 revolution Seversky snuck over to the US where he worked for the War Department as a test pilot and consulting engineer. It was here that he became convinced of the airplane’s tactical superiority over conventional naval and ground warfare, specifically on the grounds that planes had developed the capacity to sink ships.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Seversky quickly compiled his arguments in favor of airpower into a book with the intention of persuading the military that unless they changed their strategy they could not win the war. In the book he called for a number of changes that are now a reality: massive long range bombers, the expansion of aircraft instead of more naval ships, and the creation of an independent “air-force”. Severskys theories, however, were not well received initially. The Navy, as you can imagine, was made livid by his emphasis on an Airforce over a traditional Navy and those who were at the top of the chain of command wanted Seversky to stay out of their affairs and mind his own business. The public on the other hand, including Disney, embraced the book and it made #1 on the New York Times best seller list.

Persuaded by Seversky’s views Disney sprung into action and invited Seversky to give a presentation of his ideas in the form of a “documentary”, knowing that the larger public might be better reached through a film rather than a cumbersome book. Disney usually a stickler for quality and detail had the film rushed out the door, utilizing a stripped down, almost textbook diagram style of presentation. The result is surprisingly engaging, organized, and persuasive. I went out and bought myself six long range bombers right after watching it!

The film begins with a humorous depiction of the history of the airplane, then it moves into a sober account of how outdated military strategies employed in Europe had been easily crushed by the Nazi’s superior tactics and massive air-power. In the meantime we meet Seversky himself who, in the form of a relaxed meeting, gives the Allies the low down on what needs to be done to win the war.

While the film is obviously not intended to be entertainment for entertainments sake it is quite engaging and the cartoons offer Disney humor and creativity at its best. Indeed, if anything, this movie has actually improved with age given how interesting and yet non-threatening the content is. We all know that the Allies win in the end and the dead serious threat of a Nazi victory or the fear of making the wrong move by actually listening to this brilliant crackpot doesn’t loom in the background. I thoroughly enjoyed watching....indeed, famously, so did FDR and Winston Churchill. When they saw Disney’s movie, which was given high praise by the press, their interest was picked enough that they actually gave it a shot, watched, and then a commitment to long range bombing actually became a major strategy for winning the war.

While it’s a stretch to conclude that Disney and Seversky won the war or that Seversky’s strategy was employed solely because of this movie, it undoubtably played a major role in all of the above. Just for it’s role in history alone then this film is remarkable, but it’s actually a good film in its own right. I’d watch it even if it turned out that Seversky was full of crap. Most everything else is, isn’t it?

I give it 3.8 flaming swastikas