Britain’s R.A.F.

Series

Series Name

The March of Time 6th Year

Issue

Issue No.

6

Date Released

Dec 1940

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Britain’s R.A.F.

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 1

Summary

Documentary News Letter synopsis: It opens with an air battle over Dover, including some sensational shots of barrage balloons being shot down and the A.A. shells brusting round the machines and then goes on to a review of the Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands, passing en route a meeting of the Air Council and the Canadian training scheme. The idea is to give a clear picture of the construction and working of the R.A.F. as well as a bit of excitement and a propaganda boost, but unfortunately the March of Time technique is unequal to the strain. As the hypnotising voice of the commentator booms on, we suddenly find that we have passed from one Command to the next without noticing it, a shot of each Command’s badge hardly being suficient transition. And it is high time they learned that you can’t establish facts and figures over shots of youths filing through doorways and such like fill-ups; March of Time ought to be above such laziness and sloppy scripting. But where they get down to showing an actual job being done, as in the work of the Coastal Command, the film comes alive, though the emphasis on the Lockheed Hudsons being American seems overstrained. Perhaps American war jitters and their feeling of helpless frustration preclude them from balanced comment on the war. Otherwise they could never have committed the dreadful bloomer of finishing the film with trainees singing, in no very enthusiastic fashion, that mournful dirge "There’ll always be an England".

Researcher Comments

This story was included in Vol.7 No.2 of the US edition.

Keywords

Aircraft; Air force; Youth

Written sources

Documentary News Letter   Vol.1 No.12 December 1940, p7. Used for synopsis

Credits:

Production Co.

Time Inc.