RESISTING ENEMY INTERROGATION [Main Title]

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  • Title: RESISTING ENEMY INTERROGATION [Main Title]
  • Film Number: MGH 153
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: An incomplete copy of a US Army Air Force training film instructing American airmen, in the event of their falling into enemy hands, how to defeat the sophisticated interrogation techniques used at the Luftwaffe interrogation centre at Oberursel, using a fictitious story of how shot-down American fliers are tricked into divulging top secret information.
  • Description: START 00:00:00 Opening US War Department title credits. The film begins with a panorama of a lush, green countryside around a lake before assuming a much darker note with a view of a German countryhouse taken over as the 'Dulag Luft' ['Durchgangslager der Luftwaffe']. A truck arrives at the entrance to the heavily-guarded camp; inside are two German soldiers and five captured American airmen, Captain James N Spencer, Lieutenant Frank L Williams, Cooper, Technical Sergeant Alfred Mason and Ralph Cole, who has been seriously injured. As Luftwaffe Sergeant Renser and a squad of sentries escort them into the prisoner-of-war interrogation centre. Spencer warns his comrades, "Your name, your rank and your serial number - and that's all!". Inside the building, the German head of the interrogation centre, Major von Behn, discusses the new arrivals with his new second-in-command Hauptmann Granach and one of his intelligence officers, Hauptmann Reining; the five fliers were shot down in northern Italy in a (fictitious) B-99 bomber, but unfortunately for the Germans, they managed to destroy their aircraft and any remaining documents before they were captured. The three German officers consider ways of making their new captives talk about any low-flying missions which they were due to go on; they possess an American newspaper clipping about Frank William's anti-Nazi father that German intelligence acquired as a matter of course and Sergeant Renser briefs them about the current psychological state of the five airmen. They decide to put pressure on Cole and Williams. 00:06:42 The five fliers are split up by their German guards. Spencer is taken away to be interrogated and Cole is taken away to the camp hospital. The psychologically vulnerable Cooper is led away to a cell where the guard switches on the heating to add to his discomfort. The easy-going and relaxed Williams is taken to a comfortable room, complete with an ice cool water dispenser. 00:09:10 Captain Spencer faces Major von Behn for his first interrogation session but refuses to provide him with anything other than his name, rank and serial number. Herr Mahler, a German Red Cross official, presents Cooper with a bogus Red Cross questionnaire in which he is supposed to add details about the location of his airfield and identity of his squadron but he does not co-operate. Von Behn can see that he is getting nowhere with Spencer and quickly ends the interrogation. However, he reassures Hauptmann Granach that their time will not be wasted - "Just as there is no such thing as an innocent question, there is no such thing as a valueless statement". 00:14:02 In his comfortable new quarters, Williams receives a visitor, Hauptmann Reining, who speaks English fluently. Reining has come to escort Williams to Major von Behn's office. He offers the American flier an American cigarette and informs him that he spent many years in America before the war and that he is really an anti-Nazi. In their conversation, Williams casually lets slip the fact that Ralph Cole, currently in the camp hospital, comes from Atlanta, Georgia. Reining makes sure that this detail is passed on to Dr Mutz in the camp hospital. 00:17:05 Ralph Cole is being treated for his injuries by a friendly German nurse who gives him an American cigarette and lights it for him. She talks to him about his home town, Atlanta, and tells him confidentially that she really likes reading American novels, especially 'Gone with The Wind'. As part of a ruse to soften up Cole, Dr Muntz bursts into the hospital room, angrily orders the nurse to get rid of the cigarettes and reprimands her for being over-friendly with an enemy prisoner. END 00:19:31
  • Alternative Title:
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: MGH 153
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1944
  • Production Country: United States of America
  • Production Details: United States Army Air Forces (Production sponsor) United States Army Air Forces First Motion Picture Unit (Production company) Vorhaus, Bernard (Production individual) Medford, Harold (Production individual) Dur, Poldy (Handl, Lisl) (Production cast) Esmond, Carl (Production cast) Van Eyck, Peter (Production cast) Geray, Steven (Production cast) Kennedy, Arthur (Production cast) Porter, Don (Production cast) Rowland, Henry (Production cast) Seay, James (Production cast) Smith, Kent (Production cast) Stevens, Craig (Production cast) Torme, Mel (Production cast) Von Twardowski, Hans Heinrich (Production cast)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: United States Army Air Forces (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Oberursel, Hesse, Germany (geography) Second World War 1939-1945 (event) Prisoners of War, Europe 1939-1945 (theme) German Air Force 1939-1945 (theme) German Army 1939-1945 (theme) United States Air Forces 1939-1945 (theme)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English Title language: English Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 16mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 780 ft; Running time: 19 mins 31 secs (incomplete)
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    MGH 153

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