Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15569 in VHS
• Released on: 1998-05-11
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, PAL
• Original language: Dutch, English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Synopsis
After being shot down over Nazi-occupied Holland, an RAF bomber crew attempt to make their way to England.

Customer Reviews

A well-made, timeless British propaganda film
One of Our Aircraft Is Missing is a British propaganda film from 1941; leaving aside the propaganda aspects, it is a well-made motion picture that was nominated for best original screenplay as well as best special effects at the 1942 American Academy Awards (Casablanca took best picture). It also did quite well at the box office. The British bomber Bertie takes a hit during a nighttime bombing raid over Stuttgart, Germany, and her six-man RAF crew is forced to parachute to safety over German-occupied Dutch territory. Five of the men are discovered by some friendly children and are taken to town where an English-speaking schoolteacher helps facilitate their escape. The men are furtively passed along the sixty or so miles to the North Sea through a veritable underground railroad of Dutch resistance, eventually linking up with the pilot they feared had been lost. Interestingly, the most heroic assistance comes from women like the schoolteacher Els Mertens and the truly remarkable Jo de Vries. De Vries supposedly hates the British for having killed her husband in an air raid and works closely with the local German forces whom she secretly despises; this makes her the perfect final contact for the English airmen seeking to return home by sea. The final stages of the great escape do prove somewhat harrowing, but the RAF men do honor to the ancient creed of "being British" throughout the most dangerous moments. De Vries delivers a stirring ovation for the resistance and war efforts, and any Englishman or American who didn't already hate the Germans would have been more than willing to take up arms immediately and rush off to The Netherlands to free this remarkable woman and her friends in the Dutch resistance from Hitler's nefarious grip. One of the more interesting aspects of the film has to do with the Dutch resistance in general; the Dutch have a way of obeying German orders in a way that never fails to get under the occupying soldiers' skins. One of Our Aircraft Is Missing proves that propaganda can sometimes have a completely positive connotation, and the story itself is well-presented and quite timeless in its appeal.

This is the storie of B for Bertie a British Bomber.
A British Bomber that was struck by artillery fire over Stuttgart, Germany. The six-man-crew was able to turn the plane toward Holland before they were forced to bail out. They came down in the Netherlands within miles of the Zuider Zee. With the determined assistance of the Rutch, resistance the entire crew is passed from hand to hand thru the German lines until they reached the North Sea.