MAXIMUM EFFORT

Rights Information
Year
1944
Reference
F5134
Media type
Moving image
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Rights Information
Year
1944
Reference
F5134
Media type
Moving image
Place of production
United Kingdom
Duration
0:20:00
Production company
Merlin for ministry of information
Credits
Story: Arnot Robertson
Cameraman: Ahluff
Sound: Alfred Harry Reynolds
Editing: Ralph Kemplen
Music Arrangement: Ken Hughes
Director: Michael Hankinson

“An attempt to show the human background to the RAF by concentrating on the mixed Commonwealth (4 New Zealand, 2 English, 1 Canadian) crew of a Lancaster during a raid over Germany. The Navigator narrates the story, aimed at relatives at home who complain letters are uninformative. Ground crew make plane ready, load bombs; aircrew arrive (film introduces them: one is a Maori) chat, waiting for final 'go ahead' from Wing Commander; take off. Film guesses at thoughts of crew members during uneventful part of flight (eg. they think of fishing; of girls; of children; of ambitions in journalism or politics; of Maori people; of a wife killed in industrial accident); a fighter attack is beaten off, but damages oxygen supply: they continue at low altitude; approach to target ("This is the time you mean a lot to us, even if we haven't a thought to spare for you from now on"); bombing run, and turn for home, "Is it any clearer now...what we mean by the letters that tell you so little?" " - catalogue notes from the Imperial War Museum