The Peenemünde Army Research Center was founded in 1937 as one of five military proving grounds under the German Army Weapons Office (Heereswaffenamt). Several German guided missiles and rockets of World War II were developed by the HVP, including the V-2 rocket. The works were attacked by the British in Operation Crossbow from August 1943, before falling to the Soviets in May 1945.
Michael Rennie was a British film, television and stage actor, who had leading roles in a number of Hollywood films, including his portrayal of the space visitor Klaatu in the science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). In a career spanning more than 30 years, Rennie appeared in more than 50 films and in several American television series.
Major-General Dr. Walter Robert Dornberger was a German Army artillery officer whose career spanned World War I and World War II. He was a leader of Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket programme and other projects at the Peenemünde Army Research Centre. After the war, the US Nazi scientist recruitment programme Operation Paperclip saw him move to the US, largely avoiding punishment for involvement in war crimes, to work for some decades in high positions in aerospace, including for Bell Aircraft and Boeing.
Walter Thiel was a German rocket scientist.
Duncan William Ferguson Lamont was a British actor. Born in Lisbon, Portugal, and brought up in Scotland, he had a long and successful career in film and television, appearing in a variety of high-profile productions.
Some Girls Do is a 1969 British comedy spy film directed by Ralph Thomas. It was the second of the revamped Bulldog Drummond films starring Richard Johnson as Drummond, made following the success of the James Bond films of the 1960s. Some Girls Do even featured a white Aston Martin DB5, the same marque used by Bond.
Crossbow was the code name in World War II for Anglo-American operations against the German long range reprisal weapons (V-weapons) programme. The primary V-weapons were the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket, which were launched against Britain from 1944 to 1945 and used against continental European targets as well.
V-weapons, known in original German as Vergeltungswaffen, were a particular set of long-range artillery weapons designed for strategic bombing during World War II, particularly strategic bombing and aerial bombing of cities. They were the V-1, a pulsejet-powered cruise missile; the V-2, a liquid-fueled ballistic missile; and the V-3 cannon. Germany intended to use all of these weapons in a military campaign against Britain, though only the V-1 and V-2 were so used in a campaign conducted 1944–45. After the invasion of western Europe by the Allies, these weapons were also employed against targets on the mainland of Europe, mainly in France and Belgium. Strategic bombing with V-weapons killed approximately 18,000 people, mostly civilians. The cities of London, Antwerp and Liège were the main targets.
Richard Cameron Wattis was an English actor, co-starring in many popular British comedies of the 1950s and 1960s.
Wilhelm Josef Ritter von Thoma was a German army officer who served in World War I, in the Spanish Civil War, and as a general in World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
Operation Hydra was an attack by RAF Bomber Command on a German scientific research centre at Peenemünde on the night of 17/18 August 1943. Group Captain John Searby, commanding officer of No. 83 Squadron RAF, commanded the operation, the first time that Bomber Command used a master bomber to direct the attack of the main force. Hydra was the first operation against the German V-weapon programme, a campaign later known as "Crossbow". The British lost 40 bombers and 215 aircrew, and several hundred enslaved workers in the nearby Trassenheide forced labour camp were killed. The Luftwaffe lost twelve night-fighters and about 170 German civilian personnel were killed, including two V-2 rocket scientists. Assessments of the raids effectiveness vary; the United States Strategic Bombing Survey (1945) called the raid "not effective", while in 2006 the historian Adam Tooze judged that it had been highly successful.
Patricia Paz Maria Medina was a British actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the films Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954) and Mr. Arkadin (1955).
British Intelligence is a 1940 spy film set in World War I. It was directed by Terry O. Morse and stars Boris Karloff and Margaret Lindsay. The film, also known as Enemy Agent, was released in the United States in January 1940. The Warner Bros. B picture was based on a 1918 play Three Faces East written by Anthony Paul Kelly and produced on the stage by George M. Cohan. Two film adaptations of Three Faces East in 1926 and 1930 preceded British Intelligence.
Patricia Molly Owens was a Canadian actress, working in Hollywood. She appeared in about 40 films and 10 television episodes in a career lasting from 1943 to 1968.
Bank Holiday is a 1938 British drama film directed by Carol Reed and starring John Lodge, Margaret Lockwood, Hugh Williams and Kathleen Harrison. The film was popular and helped establish Carol Reed's reputation.
Lucy Griffiths was an English actress whose work spanned from the early 1950s to the early 1980s.
Military intelligence on the V-1 and V-2 weapons developed by the Germans for attacks on the United Kingdom during the Second World War was important to countering them. Intelligence came from a number of sources and the Anglo-American intelligence agencies used it to assess the threat of the German V-weapons.
Drums of Tahiti is a 1954 American south seas adventure film directed by William Castle and starring Dennis O'Keefe, Patricia Medina and Francis L. Sullivan. Drums of Tahiti was released in 3-D, and was one of three 3-D movies made by director William Castle. The film's sets were designed by the art director Paul Palmentola.
Master Spy is a 1963 British spy film directed by Montgomery Tully and starring Stephen Murray, June Thorburn and Alan Wheatley. The screenplay was by Tully and Maurice J. Wilson based on the short story "They Also Serve" by Gerald Anstruther and Paul White.
Uneasy Terms is a 1948 British crime thriller film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Michael Rennie, Moira Lister and Faith Brook. It is based on the 1946 novel of the same name by Peter Cheyney.
