Battle of the V-1

Battle of the V-1
Battle of the V-1
Directed by	Vernon Sewell
Written by	Jack Hanley; Eryk Wlodek; Bernard Newman
Produced by	George Maynard; John Bash
Starring	Michael Rennie; Patricia Medina; Milly Vitale; David Knight; Esmond Knight; Christopher Lee
Cinematography	Basil Emmott
Edited by	Lito Carruthers
Music by	Robert Sharples
Production; company	Eros Films & John Bash Films Corporation
Distributed by	Eros Films
Release date	25 August 1958 (UK);
Running time	104 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Battle of the V-1 (also known as Battle of the V.1, Battle of the V1, Missiles from Hell and Unseen Heroes^[1]) is a British war film from 1958, starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Medina, Milly Vitale, David Knight and Christopher Lee. It is based on the novel They Saved London (1955), by Bernard Newman.^[2]

Plot

The film tells the story of a Polish Resistance group, which discovers details of the manufacture of the German V-1 'Flying Bomb' at Peenemünde in 1943. Liaising with service chiefs in London, the group manage to pass on enough information to convince them to launch a bombing raid and, in the climax to the film, are able to steal a V-1 which lands in a field during testing and arrange for its transport back to the United Kingdom.

Messages are got out from the camp via the dentist (at the loss of one tooth). The Poles are warned that a British bombing raid on Peenemünde is imminent and that they should prepare to escape during the raid.

Following their escape, the second part of the film looks at the attempts to find an entire V-1 to send back to Britain. They are eventually rewarded by an unexploded V-1 landing in a field which they quickly conceal from the German search team. Through convoluted means, they send the dismantled weapon back to Britain just before the critical first use of this terrible weapon.