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10 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
A great document of World War II., 5 June 2001
Author: (CharlieMauk@msn.com) from Williamston, MI

I have seen "Target for Tonight" many times, as I am one of the lucky few to have an excellent 16mm original print of the film. I inherited it from a former director of Civilian Defense. It came mounted on the original WWII-issue wire reel. My print even has spare "replacement" footage of the head title, spliced in after the end of the film. One thing that always comes to mind when I view "Target for Tonight" is: These guys had guts! Whereas American raids were high altitude daylight missions, RAF missions were low altitude night attacks, which made bombing particularly difficult and the planes vulnerable to ground fire. Indeed, special lead bombers were sent ahead with incendiary bombs to set the area around the target on fire so the lead bombers could actually see their target at night. The subject of "Target for Tonight", the Wellington bomber "F for Freddie", shows considerable wear and tear. I suspect Warner Bros. may have produced this film: although their logo shield does not appear in the credits, the viewer may recognize the familiar musical intro theme common to most Warner films. The musical score is performed by the Royal Air Force Central Band and all actors in the film are real RAF personnel. If you have a chance to see this film, do so by all means. It is a great document of World War II. "Target for Tonight" won a special Academy Award: Best short documentary film of 1941.

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9 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
One of the better war time documentary dramas, 19 April 1999
8/10
Author: Troy Whigham (troyair@aol.com) from Florida

About 45 minutes short but good, this film takes the viewer through the phases of a bombing mission, starting with the recon photos being dropped by a light bomber in the morning, retrieved by an officer at the base, developed and examined and then the mission being planned by the squadron operations officers.

From there the strategy is laid out: F for Freddy will go in first and hit the target (an oil refinery) with incendiary bombs, the others will follow in a stream about 15 minutes apart and target the fire at the refinery and hopefully destroy the surrounding structures.

The focus of the movie now turns to F for Freddy. The Wellington bomber launches, follows its designed path, hits the target and is itself hit by anti-aircraft fire. The other bombers encounter bad weather and have to turn back, while F for Freddy struggles to get home on a bad engine and with a wounded radio operator. Reaching the base, the crippled bomber finds the airstrip socked in with thick fog, so they land blind, with only oil-burning lamps to mark the runway.

The real heroes of the film are the RAF aircrew who do a pretty good job of acting (though you can tell the boys are real cut-ups and hamming it up a bit for the camera). Aviation enthusiasts and fans of WW2 will enjoy seeing the old Wellingtons flying around. Military historians will appreciate the details that go in to planning the bombing strike, right down to the fake attacks by aircraft over the Channel, designed to keep the Luftwaffe from intercepting the real strike over Germany.

Worth a look if you can find a copy of the film. I found mine in an Experimental Aircraft Association museum gift shop.

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8 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Memories of young childhood., 11 March 2002
10/10
Author: Chappers-1 from Northampton, England

I saw this film at a cinema in Chertsey, Surrey, England as a 6 year old and it has remained with me for 60 years. Only recently did I find out its title, although the exploits of F for Freddy are vivid in my memory. As a child I was unaware of the fact that it was made by the RAF themselves but I would suggest that it was a more realistic view of WWII than any of its successors. I would love to see it again and would recommend it to anybody who can get hold of a copy.

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6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Excellent documentary, showing the reality of the planning and execution of wartime bombing missions., 22 September 1998
9/10
Author: angua from UK

This film was made using actual service men and women of the Royal Air Force, as a wartime morale-booster. When viewed over fifty years later, it is still utterly fascinating to watch the planning and execution of the raid over Germany, and in particular follow the progress of F for Freddie and her crew. For once we can be sure that this is how it was done, it has the sense of realism that most dramas lack. I have a personal interest in Target for Tonight, as my grandfather worked on the crew as a carpenter; he in fact worked for the Crown Film Unit throughout the war.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
F For Freddie Crew and Film Style, 10 December 2007
8/10
Author: peter-2689 from United Kingdom

This film I believe the was one of the first in a series made during the Second World war using only serving forces personnel and not actors . The crew of F for Freddie were skippered by Squadron Leader Pickard . I think one of the subtle messages that comes across is the informal method of command within the crew for they all knew that their lives depended upon the skills and performance of each other . The crew captain's role was to ensure they worked as a team and this film demonstrates aspect this well . It indeed would be interesting to know if any of the crew survived the war . Regrettably I do know that Group Captain Pickard , as he became , was killed in action about four years after the film was made . His last operation was the bombing of the Amiens Jail to release imprisoned French Resistance Fighters . The raid involved precision bombing by Mosquitoe Bombers to create breaches in the perimeter walls and demolish German Guard buildings . The raid was a success and over 100 Resistance Fighters escaped . Group Captain Pickard was killed during the return journey to England .

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7 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Gasp! A Documentary with a Point of View, 27 February 2006
7/10
Author: brocksilvey from United States

This is one of those fascinating documentaries that came out during WWII that made no attempt to be anything other than war propaganda.

It's so funny now to see people get all hot and bothered by films like "Fahrenheit 9/11" and crucify Michael Moore for pushing such a blatant agenda. They act like before Moore came on to the scene, no documentarian ever had a point of view or tried to manipulate audiences to think a certain way about an issue. Obviously, these people have never seen any of the propaganda films that came out around this time in world history, or for that matter any films by Frederick Wiseman, Leni Riefenstahl, Robert Flaherty or a hundred other documentary film makers who have been making movies for the last 80 years.

"Target for Tonight" is actually kind of laughable now, because it's SO heavy handed. But don't lost sight of its historical context and forget that this movie and others like it were deadly serious in their intentions.

Grade: A

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Filming and Location background information., 16 March 2009
9/10
Author: imdb-1109 from United Kingdom

'F for Freddie', OJ-F (P2517) was used as the 'star' aircraft in the Ministry of Information film 'Target for Tonight', piloted by then Squadron Leader 'Percy' Pickard. It served with No. 149 Squadron from November 1940 to September 1941, but never saw actual combat operations (transferred to No. 3 Group Training Flight) (Caption to Photograph p30)

For one month covering the last two weeks in March and the first two weeks in April (1941), No. 149 Squadron's aircraft and crews were used as background for the Ministry of Information film "Target for Tonight" with P C (Charles) Pickard seconded from No. 311 (Czech) Squadron to play the part of the pilot (the only member of the crew not from No. 149) of No. 149 Squadon's Wellington P2517, 'OJ-F' for Freddie' around which the story was written, the film being made at Blackheath Studios in London with Harry Watt as director. The man in the flare-path caravan shown in the film was No. 149 Squadron's Commanding Officer, Wing Commander 'Speedy' Powell. Pickard later rose to Group Captain, but was killed while leading a Mosquito attack on the Amiens prison on 18th February 1944. (p36)

At the time of filming, No. 149 Squadron was based at Mildenhall, Suffolk (12th Apil 1937 - 6th April 1942).

Strong By Night. History and Memories of No. 149 (East India) Squadron Royal Air Force 1018/19 - 1937/56. John Johnston and Nick Carter. An AIR-Britain Publication. www.air-Britain.com

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Dose Of Reality Watch The World At War Episode That Used This Footage, 4 September 2007
6/10
Author: Ralph from World Traveler

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Maybe it should be a 10 or 10 for its period piece, but this was a blatant propaganda movie when the UK needed it more than ever. Taken in contemporary terms this movie is on the order of the American movie "Air Force", utter propaganda, not realistic, no matter how you want to slice it. It was used in an episode of "The World at War" a WWII documentary produced by the BBC to show how utterly silly the concept of night bombing was before they started carpet bombing, and had the technology to do precision aerial bombing. In that episode(W@W), while this movie was playing with narration from the real "Bomber" Harris in an interview, he states that 3 bombs out of 100 landed WITHIN 5 miles of the target. Total fluff, the kind of fluff I would have liked to have seen about myself serving in Iraq in 2004, but still fluff. It's better than "Air Force" though, as the gunners don't shoot down 5 fighters a piece.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Nifty Little Semi-Documentary., 2 March 2011
6/10
Author: Robert J. Maxwell (rmax304823@yahoo.com) from Deming, New Mexico, USA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

We see the planning and execution of a Wellington night raid on Germany, focusing on the crew of F for Freddie. F for Freddie drops its bombs on the target but is hit by flak and must be nursed back to England and landed in fog.

The actors are all members of the RAF and so there are no bravura performances. Neither does anyone on screen seem particularly awkward on front of the camera. No emotional displays are called for. The wireless operator of F for Freddie "cops it in the leg" but there is no drama connected with the incident. He's dispassionately cared for by other crew members and is required to do no more than wince occasionally.

I spent some time trying to get a handle on British accents. They've always eluded me. MacPherson, the navigator, is Scottish. That's easy. But except for a few standout North Americans, the others were a confused mess to my American ears. To the extent that I could notice a difference in speech it wasn't connected with region but with rank. The officers sounded different from the men. I think it's known as received pronunciation or RP. I concluded that if the word "map" was pronounced "mep," it was an index of breeding. Sorry for the tangent but I used to teach Language and Culture and I've remained curious about it.

The scenes are well enough done for the period. Only one or two miniatures are used. There is some newsreel footage of German AAA gunners. They're firing what looks like Bofors 40 mm. guns and the scenes are satisfying. In most war films from the period we see only the muzzle flashes. But here the editor and director have left in the tracers that sail gracefully upward and linger as spots in the distance. In real life they resemble glowing red tomatoes.

It's curious to watch the British plan a night mission when you're used to seeing movies about the daytime precision bombing of the US Eighth Air Force. The US bombers always fly in box formation to maximize the effectiveness of their defensive armament. Here, the briefing officer seems extremely casual about such details, leaving the altitude and approaches up to the individual captains of each ship.

It's a tense movie, of course, without being at all gripping. There's little doubt that F for Freddie will reach home. The boys all gently joke around about their girl friends and the money they owe each other. No one is frightened or doubtful. Overall, it's a reasonably neat documentary and deserved its special Oscar, for whatever such awards are worth.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Looks amateurish, but that's the idea... *Spoilers*, 21 February 2010
9/10
Author: naseby (naseby@lycos.co.uk) from London, England

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

...just like a local drama production in fact, but worthwhile as it's a propaganda feature from The Crown Film Unit, showing the putting together of an RAF Bomber Wellington raid over Germany. As Peter 2689 says, Squadron Leader 'Dixon' is played by the then-later-to-become Group Captain Pickard, famous for the daring Amiens prison, low-level raid, flying in a Mosquito group, sadly losing his life about three years later in this raid, when departing from the area, he was jumped by a Focke-Wulf 190 from behind and downed. The film was featured in the excellent 'World at War' 'Whirlwind' episode (taking part of the famous 'Bomber' Harris speech for the title).

Real RAF aircrew were shown. Of course, the 'acting' was wooden, but they weren't really acting to a point, it was meant to show the realities of the bomber raids, from planning, weather, attitude (Should that be altitude? Lol!) etc. A fine little film. My copy was a cheap DVD copy I must admit, jumping around a bit, but remember these people who died for us, many of them, through this. It may also show a laughable, bygone age in accents etc but it was before the days when 'the what they fought for' brigade seem too long forgotten, sadly showed we had no respect for them, or rather our politicians didn't. (Look at the UK MPs' expenses scandal and the crime, immigration problems since the seventies) You get the feeling, looking at this film, they weren't done proud, after doing us proud.

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