The need to supply Great Britain with aircraft in order to resist the Nazi blitz during the Battle of Britain in 1940-41 (before the U.S. entered World War II) was the catalyst for an important but little-known operation covered in this PBS-aired documentary. Initially, the Roosevelt administration chose to ship disassembled planes across the Atlantic, but many were lost due to German submarine attacks, so an alternate plan was developed: using the Montreal-based RAF Ferry Command, which secretly recruited civilian pilots to fly aircraft solo from North America to England and return by ship for the next mission. Filmmaker William VanDerKloot's Flying the Secret Sky tells the story of these WWII daredevil pilots, combining overlaid narration, archival footage and stills, and contemporary interviews with the flyers, whose recollections are full of vivid anecdotes. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the operation became part of the Allied military effort, with a particularly colorful adventure involving an American pilot flying Winston Churchill on a dangerous journey—first to Egypt and then to the Soviet Union—when Stalin needed personal reassurance from the prime minister. Shedding light on a fascinating WWII episode, this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (F. Swietek)
Flying the Secret Sky
(2008) 74 min. DVD: $24.95. WGBH Boston Video. PPR. Closed captioned. ISBN: 978-1-59375-844-8. Volume 23, Issue 6
Flying the Secret Sky
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