Bruno Gaido really did jump into an unoccupied bomber and take shots at Japanese planes with its gun

If there’s one scene that I’d totally have said was drummed up by Roland Emmerich to make his film more exciting, it’d be this one. In it, a damaged Japanese bomber is headed towards the USS Enterprise, so Gaido jumps into an empty plane and uses the machine gun to destroy it before it causes more damage. He’s then promoted on the spot. Sounds like fiction, right?

This actually happened, and his commanding officer saw this act of heroism, and promoted him up two ranks to Aviation Machinists Mate First Class.