Wing and a Prayer, The Story of Carrier X (also known as Queen of the Flat Tops and Torpedo Squadron Eight) is a black-and-white 1944 war film about the heroic crew of an American aircraft carrier in the desperate early days of World War II in the Pacific theater, directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Don Ameche, Dana Andrews and William Eythe.

In a bit of studio self-promotion, the carrier crew watches another 20th Century Fox picture, Tin Pan Alley (1940), during the film.

From the first landing, Harper notices a careless and inexperienced attitude by ex-Hollywood Academy Award–winning star, Ensign Hallam "Oscar" Scott.

The scenario is, however, intentionally changed to justify the initial defensive rather than offensive posture of a US Navy reeling from the early Japanese victories in 1942.

[5] [Note 1] Wing and a Prayer was based on Stanley Johnston’s Queen of the Flat Tops (1942), a book that 20th Century Fox tried to buy but the rights were not obtained.

After a legal tangle, the studio dropped its plans to buy rights but Johnson sued and won a settlement in 1946.

[7] Although some scenes were shot in studio back lots, and water tank, the carrier is the USS Yorktown, a typical Essex class, with filming by 20th Century Fox permitted by the US Navy during her shakedown cruise in 1943.

[11] Film critic Thomas M. Pryor reviewed Wing and a Prayer, The Story of Carrier X for The New York Times.

He commented: "at once a sobering reminder of the perilous conditions under which the American Navy sailed the vast Pacific in the months immediately following Pearl Harbor and a first-rate piece of movie-making to boot.