Desperate Journey

Desperate Journey is a 1942 American World War II action and aviation film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan. The supporting cast includes Raymond Massey, Alan Hale Sr., and Arthur Kennedy. The melodramatic film featured a group of downed Allied airmen making their way out of the Third Reich, often with their fists.

Director Raoul Walsh called it "a war comedy spiced with enough tragedy to give it reality... beyond doubt the forerunner for Hogan's Heroes."

Assigned to bomb a critical German railway junction at Schneidemühl, Flight Lt. Terrence Forbes presses home an attack at low altitude, and his bomber is shot down near the former Polish border. The five survivors—Forbes, American Flying Officer Johnny Hammond, Flight Sgt. Kirk Edwards, Flying Officer Jed Forrest, and the injured Flight Sgt. Lloyd Hollis—are quickly captured by the Germans.

Interviewed by Major Otto Baumeister, Hammond creates a distraction by pretending to explain their bomber's technology in technobabble double-talk; then he suddenly knocks the major unconscious. Forbes then subdues the other soldiers and the group searches the major's office. They find papers showing a hidden Messerschmitt aircraft factory, and determine to get them to England. Setting out on their dangerous trip across enemy territory, they attack a patrol to obtain German uniforms, then sneak onto a hospital train heading for Berlin. Conveniently, Reichsmarschall Göring's private car is in the train, being transported for maintenance; they hide in the empty car, helping themselves to luxuries. Just before reaching Berlin, they are found in the car and thrown off the train; but this enables them to avoid Baumeister, who has traveled by air to overtake it.

They hide in an abandoned Berlin building, but while scouting for food, they see an important chemical plant and decide to sabotage it so they will do some damage to the enemy even if they cannot get the documents to England. As they are getting away, there is a gun battle and Hollis is wounded again. They happen on a member of the underground, Kaethe Brahms, who takes them to a doctor, but Hollis dies. Brahms advises the crew to cross the country to Münster, where her parents are also resistance members and can help them escape Germany.

With Baumeister on their trail, the men reach the Brahms house, but it is a trap: Kaethe's parents have been captured and Gestapo members are impersonating them. When Kaethe arrives, the ruse is exposed. The crew members manage to escape over the roofs, but Edwards is shot and falls to his death. Kaethe rejects an offer to accompany the men to England; the underground has more work to do. The others steal Baumeister's car and cross into the German-occupied Netherlands as he pursues in another car.

Finally they run out of petrol, but when they see a petrol tanker stop nearby, they find a captured British Hudson bomber, concealed there, that is being prepared for an attack on England. They overpower the flight crew and steal it, but Forrest is shot. They use the airplane's guns to blast their way past the soldiers on the ground, killing many of them, including Baumeister. After takeoff, on their way to the English Channel, Hammond releases the bomb aboard, destroying a German base. As they reach safety, Forbes and Hammond learn that Forrest will recover from his wounds.

The film was originally known as Forced Landing. It was written by Arthur Horman, who had done some uncredited work on the script for 49th Parallel (1941), notably scenes with Raymond Massey and Laurence Olivier. While there he came up with the idea for a film about six English pilots escaping through occupied Europe, the reverse situation of 49th Parallel.