One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942) on Netflix
A Wellington bomber is damaged on a night raid over Stuttgart, and the crew bails out above the Netherlands. Five of the six airmen find one another; the sixth is gone.
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Plot summary
A Royal Air Force Wellington, B for Bertie, is hit during a night raid on Stuttgart, and the crew bails out above the Netherlands close to the Zuider Zee. Five of the six airmen find one another; the sixth is missing. The abandoned bomber comes down in England. The first Dutch people the airmen meet, among them Els Meertens, an English-speaking school teacher, are suspicious, since no crash has been reported. After debate and questioning, the Dutch decide to help, though they fear German reprisals. Disguised, the men bicycle through the countryside.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
The Admiralty told the filmmakers about "lobster pots", floating steel platforms secretly anchored in the North Sea to rescue downed airmen, and Michael Powell promptly rewrote the screenplay so the stranded bomber crew escape by one, with Ministry of Information permission to film them.- The opening Stuttgart bombing raid was faked with a giant Wellington bomber replica built at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith that covered the entire studio floor and was rigged with lights and effects for explosions, while real RAF bombers on operations were also filmed.
- British audiences saw a version 20 minutes longer than Americans: the film was cut by 20 minutes for its original American release.
- The film has no musical score at all. Michael Powell deliberately aimed for naturalism, using only sounds the characters would hear, and the Dutch anthem Wilhelmus instead appears as part of the population's passive resistance.
- Most of the bomber interiors, including the sequence in which Hugh Burden, Eric Portman, Hugh Williams, Emrys Jones, Bernard Miles and Godfrey Tearle introduce themselves as the crew of "B for Bertie", were filmed inside a Vickers Wellington shell supplied by the RAF, with working lighting and electrically powered turrets.
