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Although the picture was inspired by the work of U.S. volunteer flyers in the R.A.F.'s Eagle Squadron, most of them would be puzzled by the way Hero Robert Stack mopes around (his buddy has been shot down) because the British take death so dispassionately. When he eventually recovers, wins the girl (Diana Barrymore) and niches a new-type fighter plane from a German airfield, time is up.
Apparently unable to decide whether his picture should be straight documentary or straight Hollywood, Producer Walter Wanger made it both. Somehow he manages to give a fairly coherent idea of what it is like to be an R.A.F. pursuit pilot, though hampered by a ragged plot and the fact that, whenever a convenient shell crater or ditch appears, someone is sure to pop into it for a long, dull, heart-to-heart talk.
Fourteen sure-enough Eagle Squadron flyers (three now dead, one captured) are introduced in a quiet prologue spoken by Correspondent Quentin Reynolds. They are modest young Americans, and they look as if they knew their business. One of them, says Reynolds, is the squadron's acknowledged ace and "one of the greatest pilots in the R..A.F." He is a curly-haired ex-Hollywood makeup man named Gus Daymond, just turned 20 and holder of Britain's Distinguished Flying Cross.