Operation Crossbow

In the annals of Allied history is one of the most secret and certainly most desperate covert attempts to destroy the Nazi’s ultimate weapons. These weapons were called the Vengeance Rockets which nearly destroyed England and it willingness to survive. This story written by Duilio Coleitto and directed by Michael Anderson is comparatively close to the actual facts. The conclusion in England was that the V-1 and V-2 were wreaking havoc on London and the prime Minister (Patrick Wymark) called on his war ministry to design a plan to destroy them. Ironically, the secret operation was called ‘Operation Bodyline’ but changed for the movie under ” Operation Crossbow.” The idea was to select allied officers, trained and educated as engineers, fly them to Germany, have them infiltrate the German War Machine and sabotage the entire V-rocket plant. What they did not harp on was that is was also considered a suicide mission. George Peppard, Tom Courtenay and Jeremy Kemp play the incredibly courageous allied agents who must carry out the task. Anthony Quayle is superb as the traitorous English/German counter agent who’s job it is to stop them. Richard Todd, Paul Henreid, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Richard Johnson and Sophia Loren round out the cast. The movie is incredible with actual WWII footage and surprisingly great dramatic acting. The introduction of Sophia Loren within the actual story is puzzling, but interesting. A very good WWII action movie considered a Classic by many movie fans.