Royal Air Force Film Production Unit

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The film director and WAAF continuity girl discuss the set-up of a shot in a scene at a railway station from "Journey Together" at No. 1 RAFFPU at RAF Stanmore Park, Middlesex
Hamburg in ruins, eyewitness photograph by a Royal Air Force official photographer

Royal Air Force Film Production Unit (typically abbreviated to the acronym RAFFPU) was a unit of the British

Second World War
from 1941 to 1945.

History

The RAFFPU was formed in 1941 after it was recognised that captured film footage was being processed by civilian companies before it could be securely classified. Additionally, many civilian cameramen were not able to be taken on bombing raids, so service personnel were trained to be able to perform these tasks.

propaganda films involving the Royal Air Force.[2]

One of its early successful propaganda films was

Wellington crew (F for Freddie) bombing railway infrastructure over Germany. The film was a big success with the British public and its investment of £6,000 was regained 12 times over as it took £73,000 at the cinemas. The film's director, Harry Watt, later regretted that most of the allied aircrew who starred in the film, did not survive the war.[3]

The RAFFPU mainly worked at Pinewood studios which is where Richard Attenborough was seconded. He starred in one of their films, Journey Together, which was directed by Flight lieutenant

Brighton Rock because of his connection with the RAFFPU.[4] Personnel from the film unit were present on many notable raids, such as Operation Jericho, the Amiens prison raid, which was flown to free members of the French Resistance under threat of execution.[5] The director, Lewis Gilbert, also served in the unit during the Second World War.[6]

The unit had access to Beaufort, Anson, Hudson, Havoc and Auster aircraft based at RAF Benson and RAF Langley. Whilst production stopped in 1945, the unit was officially stood down at RAF Stanmore Park in March 1947 when it became the Film Production Unit Library.[7]

Personnel

FPU personnel included early commander Flight Lieutenant John Boulting as well as later director Richard Attenborough who flew camera missions over Europe. Noted dramatist Terence Rattigan, then a Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant, was posted in 1943 to the RAF Film Production Unit to work on The Way to the Stars and Journey Together.[8]

Films

These were some of the films produced by the RAFFPU.[9]

See also

References

  1. ISSN 1465-3451
    .
  2. ISBN 978-0-7190-9139-1
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1-86064-591-4
    .
  4. ^ "The Richard Attenborough Stage opens for business at Pinewood Studios". www.pinewoodgroup.com. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  5. ISBN 978-0-7153-2782-1
    .
  6. ISSN 0140-0460
    .
  7. ISBN 978-1-84037-086-7
    .
  8. ^ "Looking for Flying Officer Rattigan, Group Captain Clive Montellier RAF, 2013" (PDF). The Terence Rattigan Society. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  9. ^ "Royal Air Force Film Production Unit". BFI. Archived from the original on 22 September 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2017.

Further reading

External links

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