WEBVTT 1 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:35.439 Author's Playhouse presenting Anfon de sanzu perries deeply stirring account 2 00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:55.119 of France at war flight to Arts. Those days in 3 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:58.719 June nineteen forty were faithful days for France. They were 4 00:00:58.759 --> 00:01:02.920 faithful days for the whole world. Knowing their doom, Frenchmen 5 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:06.000 went to war to make a gesture. And yet something 6 00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:08.239 may come of a gesture, and what it meant for 7 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:10.799 one man is told by the brilliant author and airman 8 00:01:10.920 --> 00:01:15.079 Anfon de sanzu Peri. As Author's Playhouse presents this tale 9 00:01:15.079 --> 00:01:18.680 of the spiritual significance of a flight to Ark. 10 00:01:49.480 --> 00:01:51.959 We ran into a patrol of them in twenty eight thousand, 11 00:01:52.120 --> 00:01:53.079 controls frozen. 12 00:01:53.239 --> 00:01:54.680 What could you do well? 13 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:56.159 I've always said it's funny. 14 00:01:56.439 --> 00:01:58.640 They must have had at least eighty search lights funny 15 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:01.400 before us, full of pillars. 16 00:02:01.799 --> 00:02:04.719 And then he tried to land. There's undercarriage half shot away, 17 00:02:05.079 --> 00:02:06.840 guns jammed, not a chance. 18 00:02:14.199 --> 00:02:17.759 What do you say, Jean, Oh, hello, Renee, Come sit down. 19 00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:19.560 I'll do some card tricks for you. 20 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:21.479 All right. 21 00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:26.479 Here, take a card, anyone, yes, anyone, look at it 22 00:02:27.759 --> 00:02:30.439 there now, remember what it was and put it back 23 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:35.400 in the deck, all right. Jack of Heart's reneeh, that's it. 24 00:02:35.759 --> 00:02:38.360 Do it once more, very well, here. 25 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:41.599 Three of clubs. 26 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:45.120 You're a marvel captain. How did you do it? Well? 27 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:47.599 First you shuffle the deck, and then when you spread 28 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:48.199 them out. 29 00:02:48.159 --> 00:02:52.240 You Captain Jean and Lieutenant Renee reported the major. 30 00:02:53.319 --> 00:02:56.199 Well, did you know it was our turn? 31 00:02:56.280 --> 00:02:58.400 Captain pocketed flew this morning? 32 00:02:59.240 --> 00:03:03.800 Oh yes, I remember. I remember. 33 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:11.639 The fact that we had been sent for meant only 34 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:15.879 one thing. We were ordered out on assortie. We had 35 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:18.840 reached the last days of May nineteen forty, a time 36 00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:23.400 of full retreat, of full disaster. Crewe after crew was 37 00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:26.599 being offered up as a sacrifice. It was as if 38 00:03:26.599 --> 00:03:29.319 you dashed glassfuls of water into a forest fire in 39 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:33.319 the hope of putting it out. Fifty reconnaissance crews were 40 00:03:33.319 --> 00:03:36.560 all we had for the whole French Army, fifty crews 41 00:03:36.599 --> 00:03:40.439 of three men each, and out of that fifty, twenty 42 00:03:40.439 --> 00:03:44.840 three made up our particular unit. Now, after three weeks 43 00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:48.719 of fighting, seventeen of those twenty three had vanished. Our 44 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:53.560 group had melted like a lump of wax. Statistics, Yes, 45 00:03:53.639 --> 00:03:57.360 these are statistics. They are the measure of our defeat 46 00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:00.840 and the defeat of our country. But they are also 47 00:04:00.919 --> 00:04:04.400 the measure of another thing. They show how France. 48 00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:27.800 Fought afternoon John, Hello, Renee, sit down, clerk, catch me 49 00:04:27.839 --> 00:04:29.279 the weather reports. 50 00:04:29.959 --> 00:04:30.680 Hm. 51 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:33.600 I suppose you know why I sent for you, Sawtye. 52 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:34.480 I suppose, yes. 53 00:04:35.319 --> 00:04:37.879 Well, it's very awkward, I know, but the staff people 54 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:41.600 wanted done. They very much wanted done. I argued with them, Yes, 55 00:04:41.639 --> 00:04:42.439 but they wanted done. 56 00:04:42.519 --> 00:04:43.000 And that's that. 57 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:47.480 Yes, of course, things being as they are, well, there's 58 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:52.079 no use worrying about it. No, you'll probably not find 59 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:56.720 it so difficult. Here here's your course. They want a 60 00:04:56.759 --> 00:05:00.480 photography sortie at thirty three hundred feet, and then here 61 00:05:00.519 --> 00:05:04.439 at Aris a bit of reconnaissance at two thousands tank parks. 62 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:07.240 You know, Arris is really the important thing. 63 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:09.600 Yes, I see. 64 00:05:10.040 --> 00:05:12.560 If this sorty bothers you, Jarn, If you don't feel 65 00:05:12.600 --> 00:05:15.319 up to it today, why, I don't know, Major, You've 66 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:18.560 been having it quite steady these days, you know, all. 67 00:05:18.439 --> 00:05:22.000 Of us have, Yes, I suppose. So I just thought 68 00:05:22.040 --> 00:05:24.879 that if you know Major, well then there's nothing more. 69 00:05:25.720 --> 00:05:28.120 But then it, Renee, you lay out your course and 70 00:05:28.759 --> 00:05:30.480 well perhaps you'd better get along and dress. 71 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:30.759 Now. 72 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:32.759 I want you off the ground at five point thirty. 73 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:36.879 Very good, Major, see you this evening then, yes, of course, 74 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:40.680 good luck to you, Thank you sir. 75 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:49.519 This sortie has got on his nerves too. What do 76 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:52.120 they take us for sending us off on these low 77 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:53.199 altitude sorties? 78 00:05:53.879 --> 00:05:54.839 What's the use of it. 79 00:05:55.319 --> 00:05:57.839 By the time we get the information back there, troop 80 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:01.680 couns will be somewhere else, the tank, everything, the whole 81 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:03.079 face of the land will have changed. 82 00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:05.079 What good is the information? 83 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:06.519 What? 84 00:06:06.519 --> 00:06:08.199 What is the use of sending us out? 85 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:12.120 I don't know. I wish I did if. 86 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:23.199 It weren't so useless, so completely useless. 87 00:06:23.720 --> 00:06:27.839 An awkward sortie, the major said, In one which is 88 00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:31.920 not awkward, one plane out of free manages to return naturally. 89 00:06:31.959 --> 00:06:34.920 The ratio is not the same when a sortie is nasty. 90 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:38.439 I go to my room and prepare to dress item 91 00:06:38.480 --> 00:06:42.040 by item, I piece together my flags. Is my mind 92 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:44.319 filled with spiritual thoughts of the war of the Nazis 93 00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:49.319 against civilization? Not at all. I think in terms of 94 00:06:49.319 --> 00:06:53.879 immediate details. I think of possible wounds, of going down 95 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:57.120 in flames. I think of the absurdity of flying over 96 00:06:57.199 --> 00:07:00.519 German held arras of two thousand feet, of the utility 97 00:07:00.519 --> 00:07:03.560 of the intelligence we are asked to bring back of 98 00:07:03.639 --> 00:07:05.920 the interminable time it takes to dress in these clothes 99 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:08.000 that remind me of men made ready for the executioner, 100 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:11.680 And I think of my gloves were the devil? Are 101 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:12.199 my gloves? 102 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:13.279 You there? 103 00:07:13.800 --> 00:07:14.839 Have you seen my gloves? 104 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:16.120 No? 105 00:07:16.199 --> 00:07:16.680 Not those? 106 00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:22.000 Have a look in my bag, sorry, sir, can't find it? 107 00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:23.040 Oh, you fool? 108 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:25.000 Why don't you keep check of those things? 109 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:25.759 Sorry? 110 00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:28.680 Of course you're sorry, but that doesn't bring back my gloves? 111 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:30.279 And orderly? 112 00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:31.839 Have you got that pencil? 113 00:07:32.759 --> 00:07:33.240 Pencil? 114 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:33.560 Sir? 115 00:07:33.879 --> 00:07:37.199 Yes, pencil. I asked you to get me a pencil. 116 00:07:37.240 --> 00:07:38.920 I have been asking you for ten minutes to get 117 00:07:38.959 --> 00:07:41.000 me a pencil. Haven't you got one? Here it is, 118 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:45.519 sir hmm yeah, tie a string around it and then 119 00:07:45.560 --> 00:07:46.560 knotted around this button. 120 00:07:48.279 --> 00:07:50.560 Yes? What do you want gun her today? Sir? Gun 121 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:51.240 her already? 122 00:07:51.480 --> 00:07:54.720 Well be out in a moment. Catch you tie that knot? 123 00:07:54.839 --> 00:07:56.480 Is it impossible for you to do a little thing 124 00:07:56.560 --> 00:07:56.839 like that? 125 00:07:57.040 --> 00:07:57.879 There you are, sir? 126 00:07:58.120 --> 00:08:03.399 H well? 127 00:08:03.800 --> 00:08:05.519 Warming her up? Captain? All right? 128 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:16.240 Nothing keeping us that's gone, everything ship shaped renee worked 129 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:19.480 out your course, yes, captain, and you gonna You seem 130 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:22.639 to be looking rather cheerful I'm all ready, sir. I 131 00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:26.160 wish once, just once, the general staff would fly its 132 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:36.000 own sortie sitting behind them. Oh they're sad, Hello, Jean, Sorry, 133 00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:40.200 you might know it looks bad, very bad, very bad. Indeed, 134 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:43.879 how are you going out? By the time of Albert, 135 00:08:44.279 --> 00:08:47.080 I thought so, I knew it that had business. I'll 136 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:48.240 stop talking like a fool. 137 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:48.840 What's up? 138 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:49.720 You'll never make it. 139 00:08:49.960 --> 00:08:51.960 You'll have to give up this sortie give it up. 140 00:08:52.279 --> 00:08:54.240 Oh that's fine, we'll give it up just like that. 141 00:08:54.759 --> 00:08:56.720 You'll never get through, I tell you, And why shall 142 00:08:56.720 --> 00:08:57.399 I never get through? 143 00:08:58.600 --> 00:08:59.679 I'll tell you why. 144 00:09:00.200 --> 00:09:03.320 There's three groups of German fighter plane circling permanently over Albert, 145 00:09:03.879 --> 00:09:06.440 one at eighteen thousand feet, another at twenty five thousand 146 00:09:06.440 --> 00:09:08.600 and a third of thirty three thousand. They fly in 147 00:09:08.679 --> 00:09:11.759 relays and hang on until they're relieved. You fly straight 148 00:09:11.799 --> 00:09:13.879 into a German net. In short, Captain, what you're trying 149 00:09:13.919 --> 00:09:15.399 to tell me is that the Germans have an air 150 00:09:15.440 --> 00:09:17.639 force and that this sort he is not altogether advisably. 151 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:18.679 Isn't that it? 152 00:09:19.240 --> 00:09:20.840 Well, we know it here. Why don't you go and 153 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:23.080 tell it to general start. I'm just trying to warn you. 154 00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:25.879 That's all. You should know what you're getting into. We 155 00:09:25.960 --> 00:09:32.519 do well, good luck than anywhere. Yes, come on you two, 156 00:09:32.600 --> 00:09:38.080 let's push off. Funny about percent. It wouldn't have cost 157 00:09:38.159 --> 00:09:40.879 him anything to be a little more cheerful. Why couldn't 158 00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:42.879 you have merely said, oh, by the way, the Germans 159 00:09:42.919 --> 00:09:44.919 have a few fighters over all there. It would have 160 00:09:44.919 --> 00:09:47.559 amounted to the same thing. That's his way, I suppose, 161 00:09:49.480 --> 00:09:50.200 is she all said? 162 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:51.480 Ready to go? 163 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:52.440 So all right? 164 00:09:53.159 --> 00:09:56.080 File in you tube here, hand me another helmet. I 165 00:09:56.120 --> 00:09:57.919 told you twenty times that my own won't do it's 166 00:09:57.960 --> 00:10:00.759 too tight. But this is another helmet, sir, I sent 167 00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:04.080 back your old Sorry, give me a boot. 168 00:10:04.120 --> 00:10:06.039 Will you help me. 169 00:10:11.080 --> 00:10:13.720 Check your intercom? Can you hear me, Renee? 170 00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:14.720 I hear your captain? 171 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:20.279 You gunner hear me? I yes, sir, Renee? Can you 172 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:24.399 hear the gunner clearly? Captain gunner? Can you hear Lieutenant Renee? 173 00:10:25.240 --> 00:10:25.679 Yes? Sir? 174 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:29.159 What makes you snutter back there? What are you hesitating about? 175 00:10:29.559 --> 00:10:30.120 Fie? Sir? 176 00:10:30.519 --> 00:10:34.159 I was talking for my pampson, Gunner. Have a look 177 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:38.919 at your oxygen bottles. Air pressure normal, yes, sir, norma 178 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:42.320 in all three bottles? All all said Renee? 179 00:10:42.519 --> 00:10:44.200 Off, said Captain gunner. 180 00:10:44.519 --> 00:11:04.200 All fusser, let's go altitude twelve thousand, air speed two 181 00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:08.600 hundred ninety six, compass three hundred and thirteen degrees. Check 182 00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:16.200 check check. It is strange, this union between plane and man. 183 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:20.159 I sit here among a clutter of accessories, oxygen tubes, 184 00:11:20.440 --> 00:11:24.240 heating connections, the speaking tubes that form the intercommunications between 185 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:27.519 the crew. I have a hundred and three instruments to watch, 186 00:11:27.519 --> 00:11:29.879 and I sit here, depending upon them for my life. 187 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:32.519 I am wedded to them for the present, as a 188 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:37.480 man is wedded to a woman. I watch them anxiously, lovingly, 189 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:42.159 eager to obey their least signal. And the mask through 190 00:11:42.159 --> 00:11:46.279 which I breathe, that too is strange. It attaches me 191 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:48.639 to the plane by a rubber tube as indispensable as 192 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:51.399 an umbilical cord. The plane is plugged to the circulation 193 00:11:51.480 --> 00:11:55.480 of my blood. It is part of my body, and 194 00:11:55.559 --> 00:12:00.440 the bullets which penetrate it seem to tear my own flesh. 195 00:12:00.559 --> 00:12:03.240 I checked the oxygen flow. We've been rising fast and 196 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:09.480 alty two thousand feet already. Oxygen all right, mane, how 197 00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:10.000 do you feel? 198 00:12:10.159 --> 00:12:10.679 First drink? 199 00:12:10.759 --> 00:12:13.279 Captain you gunner? How's your oxygen? 200 00:12:13.399 --> 00:12:14.080 All right? Sir? 201 00:12:14.440 --> 00:12:17.000 Oh? Gunner, no good sized town behind you in your 202 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:17.559 cone of fire. 203 00:12:18.039 --> 00:12:19.480 Notsr arclar. 204 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:27.600 Check your guns. Go ahead, let fly work all right, 205 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:41.279 arch find sir, all of them? Yes, sir, good air 206 00:12:41.320 --> 00:12:47.480 speed three five, compass three thirteen. Check your dials, levers, guns, 207 00:12:47.559 --> 00:12:52.480 firing button, regulate your oxygen flow, check one in against another, 208 00:12:53.639 --> 00:12:55.919 right rudder, now try left. 209 00:12:57.080 --> 00:12:57.440 Good. 210 00:12:58.200 --> 00:13:03.080 The controls are not sluggish. I am beginning to feel 211 00:13:03.080 --> 00:13:06.039 a quiet glow of comfort. And it all comes to this. 212 00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:10.519 I am working at my trade now. At this moment, 213 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:13.120 the war between the Nazis and civilization is reduced to 214 00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:17.120 the scale of my job. Checking these instruments. Manipulating them 215 00:13:17.399 --> 00:13:20.000 will bring victory or defeat. I think of nothing more 216 00:13:20.039 --> 00:13:23.120 than this now, and it is right to feel this way. 217 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:26.559 For the Sexton's love of God becomes a love of 218 00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:32.799 lighting candles. Each candlestick blooming one after another, testifies to 219 00:13:32.840 --> 00:13:33.320 his love. 220 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:38.799 And so the war for me, Captain is too much. 221 00:13:38.879 --> 00:13:40.639 Rept aport a little king to the right. 222 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:44.519 Right, Oh, captain Renee, we're crossing our lines now, I've 223 00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:45.399 started my camera. 224 00:13:45.840 --> 00:13:48.639 What you're up at you thirty three hundred? Hold it. 225 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:02.000 Off, my course. There he was right, I was drifting 226 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:05.960 too much to Port. But I didn't want to. That's 227 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:09.720 the strange thing. Consciously, I have wished to stay on 228 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:14.399 my course, but my body registered its disapproval of the idea. 229 00:14:14.759 --> 00:14:16.639 With the eye of my body, I could see the 230 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:19.480 town of Albert far ahead, and I remember there are 231 00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:22.919 three levels of fighter planes over it. My body begins 232 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:26.279 to remember every sudden crash of the past, every laceration 233 00:14:26.360 --> 00:14:29.519 and fracture it has suffered. It remembers flames and the 234 00:14:29.559 --> 00:14:34.039 long cutting whips of tracer bullets. My body is afraid 235 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:37.679 of blows, and it automatically shuns Albert. The moment I 236 00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:42.399 leave it to itself, it drifts to Port. Every laceration 237 00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:45.639 and fracture it has suffered. It remembers flames and the 238 00:14:45.679 --> 00:14:50.159 long cutting whips of tracer bullets. My body is afraid 239 00:14:50.200 --> 00:14:53.799 of blows, and it automatically shuns Albert. The moment I 240 00:14:53.879 --> 00:14:54.240 leave it. 241 00:14:54.200 --> 00:14:56.399 To itself, it drifts to Port. 242 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:00.159 Strange thing, this body. 243 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:03.679 I am one who believes that the spirit of man 244 00:15:03.720 --> 00:15:06.840 alone is important. Yet here is a body that dominates 245 00:15:06.879 --> 00:15:08.120 the spirit and makes it afraid. 246 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:10.679 It is difficult to understand. 247 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:15.759 I am beginning to wonder why I am here. What 248 00:15:15.799 --> 00:15:18.039 do I accomplish by risking my body in a thing 249 00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:18.399 like this? 250 00:15:19.559 --> 00:15:21.960 What use is there, captain? 251 00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:25.559 Captain is six German fighters on the port bow Gunner, 252 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:28.120 you hear the lieutenant six ahead port bow. 253 00:15:28.440 --> 00:15:28.679 Yes? 254 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:29.919 Have they seen us? 255 00:15:29.960 --> 00:15:33.039 Renee Yes, Maggie Torners fifteen hundred feet below? 256 00:15:33.159 --> 00:15:33.799 Hear that, gunner? 257 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:34.240 Yes? 258 00:15:34.440 --> 00:15:35.159 How near are they? 259 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:36.720 About six seconds Captain on. 260 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:43.360 Our tail and a few seconds gunner, Gunner. They're crossing 261 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:44.320 broadside there. 262 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:47.679 Don't see them yet, sir, Yes, I do. 263 00:15:47.799 --> 00:15:50.799 Now I've lost them myself. Are they after us? Yes, 264 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:54.159 rising fast, polly fast, We're heading into the sun. They 265 00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:59.360 lose them that way, hang on still after us, Gunner. 266 00:15:59.240 --> 00:15:59.919 They're still coming. 267 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:01.080 We gaining it all? 268 00:16:01.519 --> 00:16:05.360 Well, no, perhaps. 269 00:16:07.039 --> 00:16:10.519 Are we losing them, Gunner, I believe so. Yes, we 270 00:16:10.679 --> 00:16:16.159 are soome Rene, Captain. I nothing anything that mattered, nothing 271 00:16:16.279 --> 00:16:19.960 I thought, no, nothing happen. He's gunner. 272 00:16:20.559 --> 00:16:21.679 I think we've lost them. 273 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:27.840 Sure, very sure. They're breaking down, thank god, thank god. 274 00:16:29.159 --> 00:16:32.279 Nothing just talking. Well, we're alive anyway, Captain. 275 00:16:32.799 --> 00:16:47.440 Yes, for the time being, we are alive. 276 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:49.799 Even for the time being. 277 00:16:50.159 --> 00:16:50.720 It is good. 278 00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:54.679 There is only a profound sense of gratitude inside me, 279 00:16:55.399 --> 00:17:00.279 something that to be expressed. A scene is suddenly brought 280 00:17:00.279 --> 00:17:03.480 back to me from boyhood. The present falls away from 281 00:17:03.480 --> 00:17:06.319 me like dirt from a washed body. I am a 282 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:10.079 boy once again, alive with the blind wonder of being alive. 283 00:17:10.279 --> 00:17:12.599 And this memory rises up before me, fresh as the 284 00:17:12.599 --> 00:17:17.039 afternoon had happened. I stood in my father's fields, watching 285 00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:20.200 two hawks circling over a pigeon. The pigeon, all unaware 286 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:22.400 of them, was flying toward its coat in our barn. 287 00:17:23.319 --> 00:17:25.559 And then the hawks dropped downward, and the pigeon sensed 288 00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:28.119 that death was upon him. He beat his wings in 289 00:17:28.119 --> 00:17:29.880 a desperate effort to reach the barn. 290 00:17:30.519 --> 00:17:31.359 And just made it. 291 00:17:32.680 --> 00:17:35.160 The hawks swooped low and then climbed upward into the 292 00:17:35.160 --> 00:17:40.160 sky again. I can remember that now, and it takes 293 00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:44.000 significance in my brain. Death is all about one, and 294 00:17:44.039 --> 00:17:48.599 there is no escape, And then suddenly away is opened 295 00:17:48.599 --> 00:17:51.839 and life stretches out again like fields in the morning sun. 296 00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:55.119 It is something definitely to think about. 297 00:17:56.599 --> 00:17:58.960 Captain, the camera work is nearly finished. Give me a 298 00:17:58.960 --> 00:18:00.519 few minutes more and we can make furs. 299 00:18:00.759 --> 00:18:15.359 Say when ARUs the second half of our mission low 300 00:18:15.400 --> 00:18:19.920 altitude reconnaissance. The pigeon escapes the hawk only to meet 301 00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:24.000 the charge from the shotgun. Well, since there is no escape, 302 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:27.319 we may as well do our job as workmanlike as possible. Still, 303 00:18:28.200 --> 00:18:29.799 why should it be this way? 304 00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:32.480 You may drop down now, captain. 305 00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:48.599 Very well, going down gunner. Flying to ARUs is like this. 306 00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:52.400 You have lost altitude over your own zone. Now you 307 00:18:52.480 --> 00:18:54.640 head north again, and the earth spills out below you. 308 00:18:55.640 --> 00:18:59.480 The highways are swarming with refugees. Yesterday they were people 309 00:18:59.519 --> 00:19:02.640 of France, gathering their grain from the fields, breaking their 310 00:19:02.680 --> 00:19:06.279 dead in homes of peace. To day they are refugees, 311 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:11.440 people without a nation. Somewhere in the north of France, 312 00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:13.279 a boot has scattered an ant hill, and the ants 313 00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:17.440 are fleeing. These are your people, And sitting here in 314 00:19:17.480 --> 00:19:19.799 the cockpit of your plane, you feel their pain rise 315 00:19:19.880 --> 00:19:23.079 up to you through the intervening space. It is a 316 00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:26.480 pain old as the heart of man. It does not 317 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:30.000 stir you to anger, as it should. It merely impresses 318 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:33.440 you more than ever with the mark of defeat. Your 319 00:19:33.559 --> 00:19:37.119 nation is in flight below you. Your nation is defeated. 320 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:41.880 Can personal victory help one bit? Can the success of 321 00:19:41.880 --> 00:19:46.799 your mission count for anything in all this defeat? Once 322 00:19:47.160 --> 00:19:50.400 all this earth below you was yours, now it is 323 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:56.400 divided into your lines and theirs. Twilight has come at last, 324 00:19:56.680 --> 00:19:59.720 and all the plaine is blue. It streams out below 325 00:19:59.720 --> 00:20:01.680 you with all the warm intimacy it had for you 326 00:20:01.720 --> 00:20:06.240 in other days. There are trees looking hedges and green fields. 327 00:20:06.920 --> 00:20:08.880 There are the barns with stored up grain, and the 328 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:13.519 little houses with red tiled roofs. Is it possible that 329 00:20:13.559 --> 00:20:18.079 there is a war? Everything is so peaceful, almost within reach. 330 00:20:18.119 --> 00:20:20.240 I can handle all the good things of the earth. 331 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:22.880 There are the plum trees with their blossoms. There is 332 00:20:22.920 --> 00:20:26.000 the wet smelling earth. There is the wet alfalfa moving 333 00:20:26.039 --> 00:20:27.039 under my wings. 334 00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:36.920 One seventy four, Captain, one seventy four. You need to 335 00:20:36.960 --> 00:20:38.359 get a metnasty captain. 336 00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:40.920 Yes, and I start sick zagging right. 337 00:20:51.480 --> 00:20:56.119 Upper head lies ars. It is burning, and at first 338 00:20:56.160 --> 00:20:58.559 it is merely a red plume against the background at night. 339 00:20:59.519 --> 00:21:03.400 Then if a constant flame. Then it grows slowly, little 340 00:21:03.400 --> 00:21:05.680 by little, into a great block of flame, licking at 341 00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:10.960 the sky, faded rene. How much more of this? 342 00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:13.759 Stick it out? Free minute, Captain, Not bad though, I 343 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:16.799 think we'll get through. No stick it out? 344 00:21:22.680 --> 00:21:32.240 Uh, This is urus a thousand guns below cutting Busett. 345 00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:35.799 Hundreds of thousands of phosphorescent bullets threading the air to 346 00:21:35.880 --> 00:21:39.240 me like stalks of wheat, like rapidly flashing knitting needles, 347 00:21:39.519 --> 00:21:41.680 Like seeds of wheat blown from the mouth of a threshold. 348 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:44.359 They rise towards you, billow out, surround you in a 349 00:21:44.400 --> 00:21:45.480 network of golden wire. 350 00:21:46.359 --> 00:21:47.359 This is ARUs. 351 00:21:48.279 --> 00:21:50.559 The fabric of your wings is shredding. Your gas tanks 352 00:21:50.559 --> 00:21:54.440 are pierced like sieves. The rubber coin alone saving the 353 00:21:54.480 --> 00:21:58.359 body of your plane staggers under each blow wrenches seems. 354 00:21:58.119 --> 00:21:58.839 About to burst. 355 00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:21.119 One more minute, Captain, got one more. 356 00:22:25.519 --> 00:22:26.920 This is ours. 357 00:22:32.599 --> 00:22:34.839 The clouds are long, Captain, you might drive for them. 358 00:22:35.079 --> 00:22:39.359 It's all over now, Yes, Renee you all right? Yes, Gunner, 359 00:22:39.799 --> 00:22:43.559 you're not heard. Oh ca ser We're in the cloud now, 360 00:22:44.480 --> 00:22:47.519 Rene check our course, Yes, sir, too formiable. 361 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:49.680 We sha't be able to come down out of it 362 00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:52.559 for more than about twenty minutes. I'll they got some 363 00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:53.799 landmark along the scene. 364 00:22:53.799 --> 00:22:56.960 Then good. How were things back there, Gunner? 365 00:22:57.400 --> 00:22:58.200 Not too bad, sir. 366 00:22:58.440 --> 00:23:03.319 Wasn't too hot for you, nor still two forty a name. Yes, 367 00:23:13.839 --> 00:23:17.680 we are alive, all of us. Somehow we have come 368 00:23:17.720 --> 00:23:21.279 through the shadow. When we had given up death had 369 00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:24.240 touched our bodies, and having escaped death, we knew that 370 00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:27.920 the body is merely a tool in man's service. Flames 371 00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:31.880 strip away flesh, bullets stripped away, but they strip away 372 00:23:31.880 --> 00:23:36.039 the worship of flesh too. Man, in that instance ceases 373 00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:39.359 to be concerned with himself. He recognizes of a sudden 374 00:23:39.359 --> 00:23:42.519 what he forms a part of. He does not lose himself. 375 00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:45.720 Then he finds himself at last. For man is a 376 00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:49.880 not a web, a mesh into which relationships are tied. 377 00:23:50.680 --> 00:23:54.559 Only those relationships matter. The body is an old crop 378 00:23:54.640 --> 00:23:56.160 that nobody will miss. 379 00:23:56.920 --> 00:23:58.720 This is true, and. 380 00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:01.240 I have learned it only because I have come back 381 00:24:01.279 --> 00:24:01.839 from Ras. 382 00:24:03.240 --> 00:24:03.599 Captain. 383 00:24:03.759 --> 00:24:07.519 Yes, that'll make it two forty six, forty six, I 384 00:24:07.640 --> 00:24:10.160 think we can come down now, Renee, ten minutes more. 385 00:24:10.599 --> 00:24:11.480 That'll wait the ten. 386 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:17.079 Minutes as you say, Renee. Yes, what will you do tonight. 387 00:24:17.119 --> 00:24:19.400 When we land? I don't know, have a good five. 388 00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:22.440 I suppose Prophets will challenge lac Hordere to a game 389 00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:23.079 of chest tonight. 390 00:24:23.480 --> 00:24:24.559 La Gordair is a good. 391 00:24:24.440 --> 00:24:27.079 Player, yes, but I shall beat him the night I know. 392 00:24:27.960 --> 00:24:30.319 How about you, Gunner, how will you celebrate? 393 00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:32.640 I think I shall eat three extra slices of ham. 394 00:24:33.160 --> 00:24:36.880 I'm pipefully hungry. Yes, and play the phonograph too, how 395 00:24:36.920 --> 00:24:37.759 about you, Captain. 396 00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:41.519 I shall have a pipe too, Yes, and I shall 397 00:24:41.559 --> 00:24:44.400 go for a walk. You have no idea how much 398 00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:46.599 I wanted to feel solid earth under my boots today. 399 00:24:47.200 --> 00:24:48.079 Yes, I know. 400 00:24:48.359 --> 00:24:50.279 I want to walk through the village to the outskirts 401 00:24:50.359 --> 00:24:53.279