Command Decision Page #7
- PASSED
- Year:
- 1948
- 112 min
- 199 Views
- From what?
- From Lantze-Wolf 1. Tomorrow's air power.
They're just our acknowledged enemies.
They fight us in the open.
Do you remember the fight we had
to get the first experimental Fortress?
Do you realize how much the Navy
wants our planes for sub patrol...
...and to protect the repairing of those
battleships that air power couldn't hurt?
Do you know how much the Army wants
our pilots for company commanders?
Don't you know the British want us
to switch to night area bombardment?
And do you know there's a plan to fly
infantry supplies into China with bombers?
Don't you realize the fight it's taken for Cliff
and the others to get us any planes at all?
- He's right, Ted.
- And every one...
...every one of those factions
is at that meeting right now...
...with its own pet plan for winning
this war. By naval blockade...
...or attrition by defensive,
or a good, sound saber charge.
And you want me to send
the chief back with nothing...
...but three days of prohibitive losses?
- We demolished Posenleben.
And with time and planes and support,
we'll do the same to every factory in Europe.
But the basic decision is at stake now.
You can worry about Germany,
and you should.
But I'm fighting the ground forces,
and the Navy...
...and the Congress, and White House,
and the people in the press, and our allies.
Where did I ever get the idea
that this war was against the Axis?
You think I don't know
the names the boys call me?
Do you think I've enjoyed
spreading this mug of mine...
...around the press
like an eloping heiress?
Do you think I don't know what they can
do to me for the statistics I've juggled...
...the strike photos I've doctored,
the reports I've gilded and suppressed?
I know, and I'd do it all again.
Oh, sit down.
Jack Forbes, Pete Baker...
...burned up in those DH coffins
they made us fly.
Gene Devlin, trying to prove
we could fly bombs into Alaska.
Judby, Glenson, Torrieli,
in that air-mail mess.
Remember how they
got rid of Hugh Enley...
...because he had the guts to stand up
before Congress and tell the truth?
I've spent 20 years, 20 years
watching my friends killed and broken...
...and disgraced and discarded
for one single idea.
To get our country air power.
General Dennis.
Hello, Davis.
Never mind the genealogy.
Day after tomorrow, huh?
Okay, call me as you get it.
There goes our season's weather, sir.
We make it these two days
or bite our nails off to the elbows.
Casey, I appreciate toughness and
independence in my subordinates. I like it.
But I'm not thinking about the weather.
I'm thinking about
And I can't have you
fighting me along with the others.
Woody, if I have to fight you
in order to fight the Germans...
...you don't leave me any choice.
- That's preposterous.
Is it? Doesn't Washington understand
what's going on here?
You think the Germans would fight
if they weren't scared of our bombardment?
The RAF at night,
and we in the daytime...
...are the only force able to hit
the Germans in Germany.
We're doing what no one in this war
has done so far, Cliff.
We're making the German air force
fight on our initiative...
...and we're tearing it up over Germany.
Make a note of that.
German air force has been
the balance of power since Munich.
It took the German army
everywhere it's been.
It beat the Polish air force in three days,
and the Norwegian in three hours.
It forced the Maginot Line,
beat the French in three weeks.
Homer, get this.
The RAF did win a brilliant battle
from it over England.
But it was a defensive battle, the kind
we're making the Germans fight now.
After that, the Germans
were good enough...
...to knock off Yugoslavia
and Greece for practice.
To capture Crete
and dominate the Mediterranean.
To chase the Russians
back to Moscow and Stalingrad.
To blockade the North Cape and very nearly
cut the Atlantic lifeline to England.
They would have done it too...
...if their high command
backed them up with more planes.
We've made them switch from bomber
production to manufacturing fighters.
We've made them pull whole groups
off the Russians and away from Rommel.
And put them across the channel,
facing us.
Our people in the Mediterranean
are advancing under aerial supremacy.
Get every word of this.
Well, get this too, Homer.
The Germans know this better than we do.
But they're retreating
from their costliest conquests...
...and they've broken the balance
of their whole air force for just one thing:
They're developing jets to make Europe as
impregnable as the Spitfire's made England.
They're going to do it too...
...just as sure as we sit here
with our fingers in our mouths and let them.
- Do you want that in too, sir?
- No, not exactly.
Casey, I agree with you entirely,
but we've got to wait.
Sir, wars are lost by waiting.
The Allies waited at Munich.
The French and British
waited behind the Maginot Line.
The Germans waited
to invade England.
The Russians waited until they
had to fight without an Allied army.
We waited for a little more strength
to face Japan.
Now we're forcing the fighting.
But if we wait for the cycle
to swing again...
...we'll wait for the Germans
to put a roof on the continent...
...to neutralize the Russians...
...then to face our armies
on D-Day at the Channel...
...with an air force
that's already whipped us.
I'm not saying Operation Stitch
will win the war...
...but no battle anywhere in this war
has been won without aerial supremacy.
You say you're thinking of our future?
Operation Stitch is the price of that.
Will you gentlemen
wait in the dining room, please?
You mean me too, sir?
Yes, I want to talk
to General Dennis alone.
General, I wish I'd known about this
the day before yesterday.
I'd like to have helped you all I could.
That's all right, Mr. Brockhurst.
Casey, you must think me
incapable of decision.
Sir, I know that you have many things...
...on your level to cope with
that I don't have here.
But if Washington screams for blood,
I'll have to throw you to the wolves.
I understand, sir.
And if I have to jettison you,
we lose our best brigadier.
Thank you, sir,
but we're all expendable.
And if they have to jettison me,
we'll probably lose daylight bombardment.
When they sent us here to command,
they expected us to command.
I hope so, Casey...
...because I'm releasing the division
to your discretion with immediate effect.
Thank you, sir.
You're fully aware
of what may happen?
Perfectly, sir.
Well, I hope it doesn't.
Good luck, my boy.
- Green light?
- Yeah.
- George, get me Major Rockton.
- How did it happen?
There's been some slip-up.
The sergeant of the guard just called.
They'll be here.
Find out who disobeyed my orders. This is
one slip-up that's not going to get by.
Just a minute, George.
This really upsets the applecart.
You heard me order that committee
be kept away until day after tomorrow?
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"Command Decision" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 22 Jan. 2025. <https://www.scripts.com/script/command_decision_5812>.
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