STARRING: GREGORY PECK

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Colonel Keith Davenport (Gary Merrill) is more of a friend than a Commander to his Men, a US Bomber Crew stationed in Wartime Britain. After a series of dangerous missions, the Pilots are living on their nerves and when Davenport is replaced by the callous General Savage (Gregory Peck), the latter's attempts to whip the Crew into shape result in a deluge of requests for transfers. However, young Lieutenant Bishop (Robert Patten) rallies his fellow Pilots, and soon they and Savage begin to develop a mutual respect

WHAT THE CUSTOMERS SAID

The strategic bombing campaign over Europe between 1940 and 1945 has often been given short shrift, but remains one of the most important campaigns of WWII. This movie is almost certainly the best telling of "The Mighty Eighth" and it's contribution in that Theatre, focusing on strategic precision bombing of military targets in daylight.

Written by Bierne Lay, who served with the 306th bomb Group, it recounts the story of the fictitious 918th (306 x3) group and it's trials and tribulations over several years, culminating in the historic raid on Schweinfurt's ball bearing factories. It also draws in elements of other bomb groups, notably the "bloody" 100th, perceived as a "hard luck" group (though the statistics don't bear that out.)

It is perhaps one of the most historically accurate War films of its Era and Gregory Peck delivers an excellent performance as Col Frank Savage, and the perennially underrated Dean Jagger is his perfect foil. The direction is possibly a little dated by modern standards, and the film is clearly limited by budget constraints - but even then manages to make the remake of Memphis Belle look amateurish in comparison despite the latter having a bigger production budget. Seven Boeing B17s were used in this film and while it does not focus on the alternating mix of boredom and terror of a raid over enemy territory, but more on the life of the crews on station, it delivers the story of the US 8th AAF with suitable empathy and feeling.