One in a series of Army Navy Screen Magazines produced during WWII for the troops and war workers, #48 features the short British film “V-1” about Hitler’s robot bombs, and “Command Performance”, a wonderful war bond film featuring Bob Hope, June Allyson, Jerry Colonna and Ethel Smith.

This is a British documentary short released by The British Ministry of Information in 1944. It was made to describe the attacks made on England by Hitler’s V-1 bombs and the successful destruction of many of these bombs before they could fall on their targets. The V-1 flying bomb, also known as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, was an early pulse-jet-powered predecessor of the cruise missile. The V-1 was developed at Peenemünde Airfield by the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War. During initial development it was known by the codename “Cherry Stone”. The first of the so-called Vergeltungswaffen series designed for terror bombing of London, the V-1 was fired from “ski” launch sites along the French (Pas-de-Calais) and Dutch coasts. The first V-1 was launched at London on June 13, 1944, one week after (and prompted by) the successful Allied landing in Europe. At its peak, more than one hundred V-1s a day were fired at southeast England, 9,521 in total.

“Command Performance” features Bob Hope with June Allyson and Gloria DeHaven. They sing “A Love Like Ours” from the movie Two Girls and a Sailor (1944). Then Jerry Colonna shows up and he and Bob Hope perform more comedy. Next, Ethel Smith plays her hit “Tico Tico” on the organ, and to finish things off, Frances Langford sings Gershwin’s “Embraceable You.”

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