Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Monday 3 February 1941, page 3


"MEN OF THE LIGHTSHIP."

The British Ministry of Information short, "Men of the Lightship," is one of the most graphic that has been released. It is tense and valuable propaganda based on an actual occurrence; a reconstruc-tion of the merciless bombing and machine-gunning of the East Dudgeon lightship. Such ships have always been protected by international law. For three hundred years, British lightships have been unharmed by Britain's enemies. In his frenzy Hitler decided to break the

sacred rule.

Produced by Cavalcantl, "Men of the Lightship" is being prepared by Alfred Hitchcock, famous English film director, for release in the United States. In vivid sequences it shows Nazi airmen savagely attacking the East Dudgeon and its horri-fied, helpless crew. An epithet never heard on the screen from one of the sailors is an expression of his outraged decency and attitude to this merciless, unprecedented attack.

Again and again the raiders swoop down deliberately to machine-gun the crew. Ripped decks show where the bullets coursed. Bombs follow. When the ship is doomed and the sailors are rowing away from It. the relentless attack still continues. All of the crew eventually perished of cold, hunger, and wounds. Dramatic are the scenes showing a num-ber of shins crawling along in the fog, their skippers nonplussed by the silence of the Eost. Dudgeon's fog signals, un-aware that the lightship has gone to the bottom "in a war of unparalleled horror." The picture is a tensely thrilling and moving document, and a splendid example of British understatement. (City and Newsreel Theatres.)