same action, just prior to Gilmore's death. The sequence where the Thunderfish discovers the Japanese fleet of aircraft carriers, battleships, and cruisers steaming through Surigao Strait was inspired by the actions of and in the opening phase of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. During Operation Pacifics action sequences, for the film's music score, composer Max Steiner incorporates dramatic music stances from his classic score for RKO's King Kong. Warner Brothers also recycled Steiner's main theme music from the 1948 movie Fighter Squadron as the main theme for Operation Pacific. This march was first used as the main title for the 1941 movie Dive Bomber. It would be heard again in the 1963 submarine movie Up Periscope. Two previous Warner Brothers features are cited within this film: George Washington Slept Here (1942) is traded to another submarine in exchange for Destination Tokyo (1943), of which a few seconds of footage is seen as the crewmen watch it. Although Ward Bond's character is presented as an elder to John Wayne's, in actuality Bond was only four years older than Wayne. Longtime friends, this was the 12th film they had done together. The submarine Corveena was an actual submarine, albeit spelled slightly differently. was commissioned on August 6, 1943, and was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine on her first war patrol south of Truk Atoll on November 16, 1943. I-176 outlived her victim by exactly six months, being depth-charged and sunk off Buka Island in the Solomon Islands on May 16, 1944. Box office performance According to Warner Bros' accounts the film earned $2,563,000 domestically and $1,300,000 in foreign countries. See also John Wayne filmography References External links 1951 films 1950s war films American black-and-white films American war films Films scored by Max Steiner Films directed by George Waggner Films about the United States Navy in World War II Warner Bros. films World War II films based on actual events World War II submarine films Films set in the Philippines 1950s English-language films 1950s American films