Another contributor stated that some scenes were filmed aboard USS Yorktown. In 1944 this would have been USS Yorktown (CV-10). Originally scheduled to be named Bon Homme Richard. After the sinking of CV-5 at the Battle of Midway, the name was changed to Yorktown to commemorate the ship and men who went down with her. USS Yorktown is now a museum at Charleston, SC. (The name Bon Homme Richard, aka Bonnie Dick, later went to CV-31.)
The aircraft carrier seen in this movie was the USS Yorktown II. This flat top also featured in another Twentieth Century-Fox production, the documentary The Fighting Lady (1944).
When Gus Chisholm is strafed in the water, the various Japanese aircraft shown are American F4F Grumman "Wildcats" and American Douglas SBD "Dauntless" Divebombers
During the Battle of Midway, all the flyboys of Torpedo Squadron 8 were killed except for Ensign George Gay. This film's original intention was to depict their lives, especially Gay's. The Twentieth Century-Fox studio bought the rights to a 'Life' magazine story by Sidney L. James on the Battle of Midway as well as obtaining permission from both Ensign Gay and the United States Navy to film the story. The 23 September 1942 edition of the 'Hollywood Reporter' stated that "The Navy has relented in its stand against the use of the names of war heroes in film dramatizing their deeds and will not stand in the way provided the permission of the hero is obtained and the story content is satisfactory." However, the studio decided to produce a fictionalized telling of the Battle of Midway. The 'New York Times' of 6 February 1944 reported that the film script about Ensign Gay and Torpedo Squadron 8 was "entirely discarded" after "the protest of a certain high Government official that the proposed picture would carry a defeatist implication."
According to the DVD sleeve notes, this film about the Battle of Midway utilized actual combat footage. Years later another film about this battle, Midway (1976), would also utilize real combat footage, but in color.