Target for Tonight

Target for Tonight is a 1941 British documentary film billed as filmed and acted by the Royal Air Force, all while under fire. It was directed by Harry Watt. The film is about the crew of a Wellington aircraft. The film went on to win an honorary Academy Award in 1942 and Best Documentary by the National Board of Review in 1941.

The film was shot at RAF Mildenhall and at actual RAF Bomber Command headquarters in High Wycombe, with the head of Bomber Command Sir Richard Peirse and Senior Air Staff Officer Sir Robert Saundby appearing in the film. In order to not give away information to the enemy, RAF Mildenhall took the fictitious name of Millerton Aerodrome and several other aspects were altered involving the daytoday operations. Squadron Leader Dickson, the captain of F for Freddie, was played by Percy Pickard, who went on to lead Operation Biting and Operation Jericho, a raid on Amiens Prison, during which he lost his life along with his Navigator, Flt. Lt. J A Bill Broadley. The second pilot was played by Gordon Woollatt. Also appearing and uncredited is Constance Babington Smith, who as a serving WAAF officer at the time was responsible for photographic interpretation of aerial reconnaissance pictures. Appearing in the control room scene is world record holder John Cobb, then a serving RAF officer. Although the film was about a bomber squadron flying Wellingtons, the aircraft shown on the film poster are Boulton Paul Defiant fighters.Herman Wouk, in his novel The Winds of War, included a Wellington bomber christened F for Freddie in an episode of the story. The lead character, American naval captain Victor Henry, flies onboard F for Freddie as an observer during a bombing mission over Berlin. Wouks fictional narrative evokes portions of the real F for Freddies mission log one of their bombs hits their target squarely and flak damages the plane and injures one of their crewmembers in the leg in the novel, the rear gunner rather than the radio operator. They have trouble holding altitude but make it back after a long, tense flight over hostile territory. ........

Source: Wikipedia