One of our Aircraft is Missing (1942)

A British bomber crew parachute to safety when their plane is shot down over occupied Holland during WW2. The brave local people help them hide and arrange for them to escape to safety. Becasue they have to cycle to another town, they organise a female disguise for one of the airmen to avoid suspicion.

Although it is played in a rather stiff-upper-lip way, the film is remarkably well-drawn considering that it was made at the height of hostilities in 1942, for an audience who were themselves suffering the horrors of a war that brought high explosive to a civilian population.

It's easy to find some of the details unconvincing, for example the escape in a rowing boat under the nose of the German sentry; but you have to remember that this is exactly the kind of thing that happened in real life. The Rambo-style blast-'em methods of recent years are more cinematic and exciting, but much less truthful. Notice also the cool courage of the Dutch civilians, like Jo de Vries, played by Googie Withers, daily risking horrible reprisals.

HF December 2001

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