NORDLAND — The 120 mm mobile anti-aircraft gun at installed at Fort Flagler State Park in 2003 was built in the middle of World War II.
But the only action it might have seen would have been in a movie.
Mike Zimmerman, ranger at the state park, said some information about the gun indicates it might have been taken to the Army’s Yakima Firing Range and used in the 1955 Audie Murphy movie, “To Hell and Back.”
Murphy, the most decorated U.S. soldier in World War II, enjoyed a Hollywood acting career after the war.
In the autobiographical film, he plays himself re-creating his own actions and movements in battles from North Africa to Berlin.
Zimmerman said attempts to confirm the movie story have failed.
Murphy died in 1971. The gun, according to Zimmerman, might have been used to portray a Russian weapon.
Markings on the gun indicate it was the 36th of 155 similar models and was completed May 5, 1943.
Fisher Body, which made automobile bodies for General Motors, built the gun.
Friends of Fort Flagler are trying to raise the $10,000 needed to have the gun refurbished.
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The rest of the story is in Wednesday’s Peninsula Daily News.
