10 Insane War Movie Facts You Won't Believe Are Real
7. Battle Of Britain Reunited Two Opposing Pilots
A 1969 production from Guy Hamilton, Battle of Britain chronicles the battle for aerial supremacy between the RAF and the Luftwaffe against the backdrop of WWII. Boasting an international ensemble cast including Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier, the film is renowned for its sheer epic scale. Requisitioning more than a hundred period aircraft during filming, Battle of Britain unofficially owned the thirty-fifth largest air force in the world at the time of its production.
The film also drew on the experiences of real-life combatants from the Battle of Britain, employing them as consultants during production. Among others, these veterans included Polish flying ace Bolesław Drobiński and Luftwaffe general Adolf Galland. While the two former foes found themselves working on the same movie, they had actually already met during the war.
This was decidedly not a friendly encounter - the two pilots met in the skies during a vicious aerial dogfight in 1941. Drobiński came out on top in their encounter, heavily damaging Galland's plane and forcing the German fighter into a crash landing. Fast forward twenty-eight years, and the two men remarkably found themselves face to face once again.