Secret Operation Crossbow
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Secret Operation Crossbow |
| Original title | Operation Crossbow |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1965 |
| length | 111 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Michael Anderson |
| script |
Richard Imrie Ray Rigby Derry Quinn |
| production | Carlo Ponti |
| music | Ron Goodwin |
| camera | Erwin Hillier |
| cut | Ernest Walter |
| occupation | |
| |
Secret Operation Crossbow is a spy thriller directed by Michael Anderson . Set during World War II , it was filmed in 1965 with George Peppard , Trevor Howard and Sophia Loren in the lead roles. Alternative title is Secret Files Crossbow .
action
London 1943 - British intelligence officials and high-ranking officials debate the veracity of various intelligence reports that the Germans are supposed to be working on a missile project. Winston Churchill's Armaments Minister Duncan Sandys takes the reports seriously, while the Ministry's scientific advisor, the physicist Professor Frederick Lindemann , cannot believe them.
Meanwhile, the Germans are undertaking the first training flights on the island of Usedom with the manned predecessors of the V1 cruise missiles . The first machines crash due to a technical error; After four pilots have lost their lives, Hanna Reitsch manages to find the cause of the defect. While the team was still celebrating their success, the Peenemünde development site was bombed by the British. The analysis of the aerial map material by the British secret service had suggested that the weapon of retaliation was actually being built there.
Some time later, air strikes with unmanned V1 cruise missiles claimed significant casualties among the London civilian population. From this it became clear - again based on intelligence reports - that the production site of the weapon was not destroyed with the destruction of Peenemünde, but merely relocated.
The British secret service then came up with the idea of recruiting spies from within their own ranks in order to smuggle them into the previously unknown rocket factory. In an extensive application process, in which physicists , mathematicians or engineers with knowledge of German and in good physical condition are sought, three candidates are selected: John Curtis, Robert Henshaw and Phil Bradley. You will receive the stolen passports from three recently deceased Dutch development engineers who look like you: Erik van Ostangen, Jacob Bijus and Dr. Angel.
After a crash course in skydiving , Curtis and Henshaw are instructed to jump over Holland and find themselves up the Rhine at a German hotel where several Dutch engineers are gathered for onward transport to the underground rocket production facility. Meanwhile, Bradley should only be available in Brussels to report the research results of his agent colleagues to the London headquarters.
Shortly after the two agents arrive at the hotel, there are some complications. Too late, the London headquarters of the intelligence service has noted to have made a mistake with the handing over of the papers of Jacob Bijus to Robert Henshaw: Jacob Bijus is by the German police, who knows nothing of his death, for the murder of a hotel owner in Heilbronn sought . Bradley aka Dr. Engel is immediately sent on the way with replacement papers, but comes too late: the police have already arrested Henshaw, and he confesses to the murder he did not commit in his false identity as Jacob Bijus. Murder is the death penalty ; nevertheless, Henshaw could have been released if he had agreed to work as an informant for the Gestapo . Suddenly he is recognized by a Gestapo officer (this is a fellow competitor from the London round of applicants who was rejected), but Henshaw still insists on being Jacob Bijus in order not to endanger the mission. Eventually he was executed by the Gestapo without trial .
Meanwhile, John Curtis faces a different problem at the hotel. Nora van Ostangen, the wife of the actual Erik van Ostangen, appears unexpectedly in search of her ex-husband, as she does not yet know anything about his death. She needs his signature in order to be able to travel to her children in her Italian homeland. After initial caution, Curtis reveals the truth about her ex-husband's fate and the reason why he assumed his identity. The real Erik van Ostangen was a collaborator with the Germans whom Nora left because of this. Curtis wants to help Nora and puts Erik van Ostangen's signature, which he had practiced often enough in his new identity, under the necessary papers. The next morning, Curtis and Bradley, who arrived too late with the replacement papers, are picked up by a truck in place of the liquidated Henshaw for transport to the secret rocket production facility. Curtis no longer realizes that Nora is being shot with a silenced pistol by the hotel manager Frieda, who is privy to the secret service's plans, for fear of betraying the entire operation .
In the production facility at the secret location, Bradley only gets a temporary job in the cleaning crew, as he works as Dr. Angel isn't on the list for engineers. Curtis alias van Ostangen, on the other hand, was given a responsible position as assistant to a Dutch professor who was working on the development of an even larger rocket than the V2 . This ICBM , called the A9 / 10, should finally be able to reach New York .
The V1 required fixed launch ramps , but by February 1944 these had largely been destroyed by the British. The V2, on the other hand, was started from mobile launch ramps, so they could not be located and also not destroyed by bombing. After the agents can report these results, the British realize that destruction is only possible at the place of production. However, the Gestapo for its part received indications of espionage at the production site and therefore decided to carefully check the papers of all workers and to move the first start of an A9 / A10 forward.
The final phase of the film is a dramatic race against time to kill or destroy the rocket factory. On the night of the planned start of the A9 / A10, the Royal Air Force is ready to bomb the air, but they need a light signal to the exact location of the production facility. In order to give this, the agents must penetrate into the technical control room and open the cover of the launch shaft; to do this, they have to press a specific switch. Curtis succeeds in breaking into the control room, while at the same time a discrepancy in the papers of the supposed Erik van Ostangen (false photo) is discovered during the identity check. His presence in the control room is immediately discovered and his trail is followed. Bradley aka Dr. Engel is held hostage by the Germans in front of the control room to force Curtis to surrender. Bradley manages to call Curtis the correct counter before the deadline has expired before he is shot. Curtis is seriously injured in the shooting in the storming of the control room, but is able to turn the switch in time.
The British attack followed, in which the entire production facility went up in flames. The Germans try to launch the rocket at the last second, but they no longer succeed.
In the last scene, which takes place again in the London Ministry, Duncan Sandys is honored by the Prime Minister for his extraordinary services in the destruction of the V2 factory. Sandys makes it clear that this achievement would not have been possible without the participation of the secret agents who gave their lives for this cause.
Reviews
"Elaborate American film that tells its interesting story with sufficient tension right up to the all-too colossal ending."
“Despite the large cast and exciting parts, it is quite cheap and sometimes embarrassing colportage. From 16 without any recommendation. "
Historical background and mistakes in the film
The film is based on a template by the Italian authors Duilio Coletti and Vittoriano Petrilli . It is a free processing of the historical material. The Operation Crossbow , a British secret project for the destruction of the so-called German Vergeltungswaffen has indeed actually existed; however, the chronology is not kept in the film.
The film begins in 1943. However, the first indications of a possible rocket development program by the Germans came as early as August 1942 when a Danish naval officer discovered a crashed missile on the island of Bornholm . In May 1943, Churchill ordered Operation Crossbow. Arthur Harris , Commander of the Royal Air Forces, needed until February 1944 to destroy 73 of the 96 fixed launch pads of the V1 in addition to the production facilities in Peenemünde on August 17, 1943.
So the chronology of the test of the manned forerunners in Peenemünde, the test flight of the Hanna Reitsch and the bombing of Peenemünde in compressed time-lapse cannot be correct.
Manned forerunners of the V1 cruise missiles, more precisely the Reichenberg device (V4), actually existed. Apparently, Hanna Reitsch was also involved in the development of this flying bomb as a test pilot. However, they were not launched from a launch catapult, as shown in the film, but from an aircraft that brought the V1 or V4 under the wings to take-off altitude. The acceleration ( g-force ) when taking off from the catapult would have been too great for the pilots.
The end of the film also suggests that V2 was finally destroyed by the operation. In reality, it is just the exemplary destruction of a single production facility. V2 rockets were used in large numbers towards the end of the war - from September 1944 - and claimed over 8,000 civilian lives.
There are also anachronisms in the production design:
- The film shows a radio tower and the cooling towers of a nuclear power station during a scene of a V1 rocket over London . Both were of course only built after the Second World War.
- In the film, when Curtis and his colleague crossed the German border crossing from Holland, next to a flag of the Third Reich (with a swastika) the current flag of Germany in the colors “black, red and gold with federal eagle ” can be seen. However, this did not exist in this form (with a federal eagle) until after the Second World War - from June 7, 1950.
Genre and reception
The film combines the genres of the period film , anti-war film , action films and thrillers . There are also comical elements, for example in the parachute training, as well as an implied love plot with features of melodrama in the hotel scene between Curtis and Nora van Ostangen, which is not realized due to the circumstances.
The success of the film is u. a. Thanks to the cast of first-rate actors of its time, even if they only have supporting roles.
Soundtrack
- Ron Goodwin : Operation Crossbow. Original motion picture soundtrack . In: Ron Goodwin: Where Eagles Dare · Operation Crossbow . (2-CD set.) FSM Silver Age Classics. Turner, Rhino, Film Score Monthly, Burbank, Culver City, etc. a. 2003, audio carrier no. FSM Vol. 6 No. 21 - Stereophonic original recording of the film music under the direction of the composer
Web links
- Operation Crossbow in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Crossbow secret operation. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Ev. Munich Press Association, Review No. 349/1965