Hour has come for new release for award-winning war movie

Published on Friday 19 December 2008 08:54

A VETERAN independent filmmaker is set to re-release an award winning short film about a German raid on the Forth to mark the 70th anniversary of the attack.

Ian Rintoul, a retired Jenners buyer and amateur filmmaker, first released The Hour of the Eagle – his 20-minute account of the first air raid of the war – back in 1974, to critical acclaim.

The film won two awards at a UK film festival the following year, and another at a festival in the unlikely location of Malburg, in what was then West Germany.

The film recreates the raid in October 1939 when the German Luftwaffe's Eagle Squadron was dispatched to attack ships moored at Rosyth, using footage filmed at airshows throughout the country and models he created in his garage in Trinity.

One of the highlights of the re-release – which is being issued on DVD in time for the anniversary of the attack – is five minutes of additional bonus footage filmed on a ferry travelling past Rosyth on the day of the battle, showing the actual destroyers Mr Rintoul recreated for the film.

He said: "The footage I was given clearly shows the HMS Hood moored at Rosyth. Ironically, the Navy had moved the ships there to keep them safe from a potential invasion.

"It's a common misconception that the Forth Bridge was the actual target of the raid, but it would have been almost impossible to hit. From the air it looks little bigger than the width of a pencil.

"Hitler was actually targeting the destroyers in the Forth.

"As there had been no military action before that day, he was still keen on securing a settlement from Britain so he ordered that there be no civilian casualties.

"As a result, they were forbidden from attacking the ships in the harbour, only the ones in the water, so the attack was virtual flop from the Luftwaffe point of view."

To counter the German fighters, the RAF dispatched its Spitfires, based at Turnhouse, to lead the interception, a chase that saw one of the raiders, a Junker 88 bomber, shot down over Port Seton.

Mr Rintoul continued: "The Junker's pilot, Hauptmann Helmut Pohle, went down over Port Seaton and was rescued by a fisherman, and he ended up in a British military hospital."

Mr Rintoul went on to improve his techniques for a second short he created five years later about the battle of Pearl Harbour, 29 Seconds to Zero, which won ten awards at an American festival.

He was ably assisted at the time by a teenage model maker called Stephen Begg, whose work in the Trinity garage was instrumental in securing him a job with Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson in his early 80s puppet show Terrahawks.

Mr Begg then got his first movie break as an uncredited model maker in the sci-fi hit Aliens.

Last year, and scores of Hollywood blockbusters later, he was nominated for a Bafta for his visual effects work on Casino Royal.

As part of the re-release Mr Rintoul is also hoping to secure a screenings of his film at the Dominion.