"TARGET FOR TONIGHT" 1941 WWII ROYAL AIR FORCE WELLINGTON BOMBER RAID ON GERMANY FILM 21184
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- Опубліковано 25 тра 2022
- Released in 1941, "Target for Tonight" is a Crown Film Unit documentary directed by Harry Watt. The movie -- which uses obvious re-enactments, some model and process shots and some degree of acting -- shows the crew of a Wellington bomber nicknamed "F For Freddie" preparing for, and taking part in, a nighttime raid over Occupied Europe and Germany. Despite the fact that the movie isn't entirely non-fiction, the film was awarded an honorary Oscar for Best Documentary in 1942.
The Royal Air Force engaged almost exclusively in night time bombing raids during WWII, after daylight raids proved extremely costly. The American Army Air Force preferred daylight attacks, although in 1943 as losses mounted they were called off for a time. Notably, an American documentary counterpart from WWII is entitled, "Target for Today".
The Vickers Wellington bomber shown in the film was a long-range medium bomber designed during the mid-1930s. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its geodetic airframe fuselage structure, which was principally designed by Barnes Wallis. The Wellington was used as a night bomber in the early years of WWII, but was eventually superceded by larger four-engined "heavies" such as the Avro Lancaster. The Wellington then continued to serve in other capactities, particularly as an anti-submarine platform.
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Very calm and measured . One of my fathers friends was a rear gunner in a Lanc. He lost his leg in a duel with a nightfighter. Mind you the nightfighter came off worst.He was one to know in a stressful situation. Respect
My Grandfather was the Navigator in the film he was in Path Finders Flight leftenaunt Alexander More DFC
Thanks for this video. No dramatics, just down to earth day to day operations, during the WW11.
Upper classes in their roles as leaders, some with the fashionable pipe. …but that how it was.
Politeness under pressure. …”and your job tonight me lads” 13.20.
Taking into consideration, the availability of film equipment of 1941, this is an excellent film.
Thanks for presenting it .
Eric Fry
The pilot of F for Freddy was Percy Charles Pickard, he later lead the Whitley Squadron that dropped the Paras that captured the radar station at Bruneval during Operation Biting in early 1942 and lead the Mosquito attack on Amiens Prison (Operation Jericho), where he was shot down by an Fw-190 and killed in early 1944.
The AOC in C Bomber Command and his Senior Air Staff Officer are Richard Peirse and Robert Saundby, the later became Harris's number two when Perise was sacked in early 1942.
HQ 33 Group was actually HQ 3 Group in Suffolk, the AOC was John "Jack" Baldwin. He became the temporary AOC in C of Bomber Command between Perise and Harris.
The WAAF photo interpreter at the start of the film is Constance Babington Smith. She later was the first person to spot the V-1 Flying Bomb during its early testing.
The officer reporting the broken radio message at 36:40 is John Cobb, the Famous Racing Driver and Land Speed Record Holder at that time. Later killed on Loch Ness in 1952 while trying to break the Water Speed Record in his jet powered hydroplane, Crusader K-6.
Wellington Footage was filmed at RAF Mildenhall. F for Freddy was a Wellington of No 149 Squadron RAF.
What a line up! Amazing how so many from this film went on to do such amazing things. Constance Babington-Smith did a fair few documentaries right up to the 80's I think.
And you can find out about John Cobb's speed records on a channel called "Scarf & Goggles" here on UA-cam.
Thanks Richard
Thank you for those biographies. In summary, extraordinary and brave people to whom we owe so much.
We Will Remember Them🇬🇧🌹
An iconic film about early RAF bomber operations in early WW2.
I say old chap ......spot on .. it wasn`t like that on the Phantoms ......1970 to 73 ..54 sqd,,
Interesting flight folks Thank you very much Cheers
What a very proper and polite war.
Thank you for sharing this. I have been trying to find WW2 movies from Britain or Canada.
Bomber Command aircrews suffered a high casualty rate: of a total of 125,000 aircrew, 57,205 were killed (a 46 percent death rate). Bailing out of a Lancaster was particularly dangerous.
Brave young men.
A remarkable generation.
We'll never see their like again !
Lest We Forget.
Better than all Hollywood films. Brave men which doing their job.
All of the people in this film were shown doing their real jobs!!!
Incredible how they took all of that in their stride. Night after night. Hard to believe that those upper class accents were for real.
i can remember this sort of film being shown at RAF ST ATHANS in the early 70`s , the following month i was working on Phantoms !!!!!!!!!!!
In 1980 the film everyone was talking about was The Adventures of Barry Humphries or was it Barry Mcenzie ? and I ended up working on Houchin ground power units...
As far as the RAF was concerned it was still cutting age stuff :) probably still on the official secrets list .
" Bombs gone , right .. lets head for home Chaps " 🇬🇧
Skipper: "Great job lads! Cucumber sandwiches and Bovril all round.!"
Great trip back in time!
One of the least known facts about the Wellington is that it could acommodate much larger bombs than the US B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-24 Liberator, like the 4000 lb "cookie" Type HC 4000 LB, first carried by the Welliongton mark B.II version
At 47:50 "...the last one was a direct hit." At this point in the bombing campaign Bomber Command was missing the designated targets at distances from 6 to 34 miles.
Aye, The 1930s western European policy of "appeasement" meant that we hadn't invested prewar into the planning of offensive bombing operations & its associated technologies. Unlike the nazis who were already perfecting their Knickebein and X-gerat night bombing systems at the beginning of WW2.
Geez these men are most definitely the true definition of what a real man is that’s for sure & are the real true hero’s!! … not some professional athlete making $10 Million a year. I’ve seen a few video’s on here of when the soldiers stormed the beach & the look in those young soldiers eyes was something i’ll never forget & the fear of when that ramp went down & some soldiers barely made it off of the boat before being killed & some were just getting their footing on the beach after coming out of the water to just be killed😞 God Bless those mighty soldiers who gave their Life for us because it could have been a totally different world if not for taking out “Adolf Hitler’s” white supremacy soldiers!
Good old Vickers Wellington, I´ve seen them of course, only in photographs in Waddingtons Wonder Book of RAF. I was 12 yrs old then being briefed at school in Kolkata, (Calcutta).
Their geodetic structure made them very tough- another Barnes Wallis invention.
Superheroes in a time when absolute evil was winning.
Question:
Would there have been non-commonwealth crews, like Polish, French, etc?
The pilot of the bomber in this picture about a fictional mission to bomb a German target was played by Charles Pickard, a real R.
A.F. pilot who was killed later in the war (Feb.,1944)
Unique in that I believe he was the only RAF pilot to be awarded the DSO three times, he rose to the rank of Group Captain and died in the Amiens Prison raid to free resistance fighters at the age of only 29.
The stiffness and upper lip in this film is unbelievable!!
I’ll say , wot wot
Leo Genn and Gordon Jackson
Bomber Command!
Upper Lipped they were but these Brave intelligent men and women
saved the United Kingdom from being taught German in Schools for all time.....Rule Britannia....
Sad to spoil the film with the counter and address on the screen...... Why ?
Here's the issue: Tens of thousands of films similar to this one have been lost forever -- destroyed -- and many others are at risk. Our company preserves these precious bits of history one film at a time. How do we afford to do that? By selling them as stock footage to documentary filmmakers and broadcasters. If we did not have a counter, we could not afford to post films like these online, and no films would be preserved. It's that simple. So we ask you to bear with the watermark and timecodes.
In the past we tried many different systems including placing our timer at the bottom corner of our videos. What happened? Unscrupulous UA-cam users downloaded our vids, blew them up so the timer was not visible, and re-posted them as their own content! We had to use content control to have the videos removed and shut down these channels. It's hard enough work preserving these films and posting them, without having to spend precious time dealing with policing thievery -- and not what we devoted ourselves to do.
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A few Canadian Lads serving with the RAF?
Hey, PF, could you please remove those silly numbers from the bottom of the screen? And sound is rotten too! Thanks!
No. Here's the issue: Tens of thousands of films similar to this one have been lost forever -- destroyed -- and many others are at risk. Our company preserves these precious bits of history one film at a time. How do we afford to do that? By selling them as stock footage to documentary filmmakers and broadcasters. If we did not have a counter, we could not afford to post films like these online, and no films would be preserved. It's that simple. So we ask you to bear with the watermark and timecodes.
In the past we tried many different systems including placing our timer at the bottom corner of our videos. What happened? Unscrupulous UA-cam users downloaded our vids, blew them up so the timer was not visible, and re-posted them as their own content! We had to use content control to have the videos removed and shut down these channels. It's hard enough work preserving these films and posting them, without having to spend precious time dealing with policing thievery -- and not what we devoted ourselves to do.
Love our channel and want to support what we do? You can help us save and post more orphaned films! Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Even a really tiny contribution can make a difference.
@@PeriscopeFilm OK, I get it.
@@PeriscopeFilm: Thanks for what you do.
GETSOME
Wrong War , your 25 years to early .. get on that 60 Stevie , open up on that hooch 😁
How Lord Snootys won the war,my dad was a WO/gunner in Wellingtons and spoke with a Scouse accent then and till he died.Pathetic.