Kevin Dobson's character Ensign George Gay, was the sole survivor of Torpedo Squadron 8. Gay wrote a book about his experiences (Sole Survivor) and was an advisor on this film.
Henry Fonda, Charlton Heston, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Cliff Robertson, Robert Webber, screenwriter Donald S. Sanford and director Jack Smight were all war veterans.
Most dogfight sequences come from 1942 newsreels, with considerable cropping to adapt the image to the Panavision framing.
Almost all the on-board scenes were filmed on the U.S.S. Lexington, an Essex-class "fast carrier" commissioned in February, 1943. Even some of the Japanese carriers shown in birds-eye views were actually the Lexington, with the film reversed to put the island superstructure on the port side (all U.S. carriers had it on the starboard side). Decommissioned in 1991, the Lexington was the longest serving carrier in history. It is now a museum ship in Corpus Christi, Texas.