Battle of the V-1

The first time I saw this and after watching the first 15 minutes, I thought this was going to be one of those 3rd rate 1950's war films..... so I kept the film running but ended up being easily distracted because I had already decided.

So I saw it on TP recently for a second time and this time I promised to give the film my attention.... and I am glad I did..... this film for me was not Low Budget .... but rather a small Hollywood budget..... and compared to many British A films I am sure the budget here was significantly more....!

It surprised me to see how the women were portrayed in this film.... especially the women captured and their torture plus the way these Polish women were the biggest factor in helping the British to identify Assess and ultimately steal a V1 ...... we saw the German women enjoying their brutality and cruelty as much as their male counterparts in the SS and camp guards.... I even got the sense that there was some very heavy hinting at the sexual lust & gratification that some of these Nazis had in their treatment of forced labour and the occupied populations.

Even Esmond Knight... popped in to reprise a similar role he had in The Silver Fleet..... and he led the torture of one of our heroines....

The accuracy is also very good for this film, I cannot recall another similar film of the 50's that was focused on the Nazis Top Secret operations and portrayed just how It was the Poles that gave and sacrificed everything for the people of Britain and in particular London...... indeed without the Poles sacrifice the Nazis would have had the V1 ready and targeting Britain prior to the D Day landings .....!

I never understood why there were not more films portraying the efforts and sacrifices of the Polish people and for that matter other Eastern Europe countries in general, I guess it's because of the way We, the allies and in particular the British and Americans who allowed these countries especially Poland to be assimilated by the Russians and forced into communism.... I was taught, that the Poles were the only nation not to surrender to Nazi Germany and it was their pilots that helped us to win the Battle of Britain and indeed it was the Poles that broke the German codes using the enigma machine and shared all this with Britain prior to September 1939.....

At the time I could never understand why if Britain was prepared to declare war on Germany after they and Russia invaded Poland in 1939 (because of a treaty we had signed with Poland prior) why after the war against Nazi Germany we didn't make the same demands to Stalin and his communist stooges who were occupying Poland as the Germans surrendered and these same Russians were the ones who invaded Poland with Nazi Germany in 1939, the British turned its back on Poland and it's people after the war, these great brave Polish people deserved so much more ....!

Well worth watching for that reason alone imho....

This one of those rare films, that managed to get made without Hollywoods gross miss-interpretation. The truth has not been distorted for sensationalism, the facts are correct. It is a pity that stories like these are not remade today but with extra information about the story and maintaining the integrity, the truth makes a better story than those made up in Hollywood. Details about always having clean suits and the hair always in place, well what can you expect this was the style of movie making in those days. But the story line has not been altered to distort the truth, obviously certain details are missing, as these were still listed under the Official Secrets Act of the UK. Most the of the soldiers walking around seem to be SS in their black uniforms, but it is certainly better in its facts than later movies made about the war, ie. Enigma and U-571 which are an insult to those who took part in the original actions, and lousy education to those who are not aware of the original stories.

This is an old-style war film without glamorous actors and spectacular special effects; all the characters look quite ordinary, even the often-suave Michael Rennie, and there's no great romance. Thank goodness; this film is all the better for it. Other comments suggest there's a lot of fact in the film, and I'm not sure how much was liberty was taken with the actual heroic efforts of the Polish Resistance. A quick Google suggests that the Poles did find a V2 (not V1) rocket that had been fired, but that it was a Danish naval officer who discovered an early test version of the V1 that had crash-landed on a small island between Germany and Sweden. The officer sent a photograph and sketch of the bomb to Britain. In the film an actual rocket is loaded on to a Dakota aircraft in a sequence that I found unconvincing.

A previous commentator reckons that Rod Steiger made a brief uncredited appearance as a German officer. By the time the film was released, Steiger had starred in several films, not least "Run of the Arrow"; established actors sometimes make uncredited cameo appearances for fun or as a favour, but I was surprised by the claim that Steiger did appear in this film; if it was he, his acting against type was extremely good! Christopher Lee gets a high billing, but makes only a brief appearance.

Thuis film is one of many that use an historical background for what is in fact a fictional story. Now there is nothing wrong in that except that scholars may in future take the films information as fact. You see the V1 (FZG-76 as it was known to the Germans) was never a rocket nor was it rocket powered! The film makers even use a rocket type sound effect when the engine is supposedly running. Yes there was a flying bomb and yes it was designed (but not built) in the Baltic, but that is where the facts stop. The V1 was in fact powered by a pulse jet, a sort of repeating explosion. Once heard never forgotten. The part at the end where a rocket is tested is inspired by the later V2, but never by the V1. If you are researching the German V weapons please do not take this film as factual. If you intend teaching the subject then please look elsewhere!

I saw this film on British TV for the first time and didn't even notice Christopher Lee. The other Germans are however, laughable. They are all caricatures and we even see a sadistic blonde female camp commandant who may have been modelled on Irma Grese. The best scenes in the film are those showing the technical side of things, particularly the one in which the explosive in the rocket is defused, which is quite good for the tension.