Unknown Battle

Thundering in close formation over the industrial heartlands of Germany, the US Army Air force’s fleet of Flying Fortresses rain destruction on the factories making parts for the Heinkels and Focke Wulf bombers of the Luftwaffe. This dramatic film about Operation Argument (or Big Week) recreates the events of February 20- 25 1944 which helped secure Allied air power over Europe and also vindicated the USAAF’s strategy of high-altitude precision daytime bombing.

This film begins with a long intertitle asking the film’s British audience to forgive its focus on the role of the USAAF, and to ‘regard this account of an unknown battle waged by American airmen as one episode of history, not as the whole story’. Released in April 1945 - over a year after the events it describes had taken place - the film presents a dramatic account of the bombing raids using a mixture of recreations and genuine footage, on the ground and in the air, showing the airmen of the 8th US Air force as wise-cracking combatants, going about their heroic business in a no-nonsense way.