Scene where the Ruptured Duck flies under the bridge

Don't know how high the span of the Sydney Harbour Bridge is, but it is mighty attractive to pilots & has been flown under (usually illegally). During WW2, a flight of 24 Squadron RAAF Wirraways detoured unexpectedly under the bridge, as did 3 Mosquitoes & the largest to go under was a Lancaster Bomber (Flying Fortress) in 1943. The occasional pilot has been unable to resist over the years, including more recently a police chopper. So it could be done, but whether one would do it for a fillm I can't answer.

I'm not sure where you got your info, but I have studied the raid in depth for many years (since 1970). Jimmy Doolittle did not lead all the planes under the Goldengate or any other bridge. The crews flew there planes from Florida where they had trained, to California and each plane flew individualy not in groups, flights or any other formations. I'm only aware that the real Ruptured Duck on the way to Alemeida NAS flew under the Bay bridge. this was so that McClure who was a home movie nut could shoot pictures of the bridge from underneath. In reality it was Davenport, the co-pilot at the controls when they flew under the bridge, not Lawson the pilot. As they came in for a landing, some of the other planes were already on the Hornet. I also met Jimmy Doolittle twice, once in Albany Oregon when he was the grand marshal of the Vet day parade in the 70's as well as at his home in Montery, CA shortly before he passed away.

I have the book. The entire squadron did NOT fly under the Golden Gate Bridge. Another plane, but not Ted Lawson's, flew under the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. They got away with it because, well, things were just a bit looser then. The movie is remarkably true to the actual course of events but some things were fudged for dramatic effect, such attributing the fly-under to Lawson or the humongous explosions resulting from the Ruptured Duck's rather puny (by today's standards) bomb load.