Piece of Cake

First class account of Battle of Britain
Ignore the cover of the DVD. The love interest is really a minor part of this wonderful British miniseries which follows an RAF squadron through the "Phoney War" (September 1939 - May 1940), the battle for France (May-June 1940), and the Battle of Britain through its climax in the fall of 1940.

This is not your usual squadron of movie heroes. For starters, the squadron commander seems to spend more time working on the wine list than thinking about strategy. As for flying, he wants them to fly into battle in straight, wingtip-to-wingtip formations like a marching band. The pilots are for the most part upper class elites happy with the leader's 'fox and hounds' demeanor. Some of the pilots are not especially likeable, particularly "Moggy" , a boarding-school bully who, it turns out, is an ace killer. The one "Yank", a Canadian socialist and veteran of the Spanish Civil War, gets to smirk at the upper crust poseurs.

It's a good mix, and for the...

A Piece of Cake and a Piece of History
A Piece of Cake, follows the exploits of Hornet Squadron as they go off to fight in the battle for France and later the Battle of Britain, as any aviation buff will know we English never sent any Spitfires to France but as there are only 15 air worthy Hurricanes in the world the makers used Spits.

This in no way detracts from the film and surprisingly they actually get most of W.W.2 aviation history right, including the battle of barking Creek where in reality the victim of friendly fire was a Hurricane and not a Blenheim, still at least they put it in.

My Uncle who flew Spits and Hurries in the battle of France and the Battle of Britain has seen the film and says that its one of the most realistic films that he has seen of squadron life and certainly surpasses the 1969 film the Battle of Britain for historical realism.

They did use real Spitfires, Heinkels. M.E. 109's and even a Rapide in the film but clever use is also made of some outstanding models( Only pointed out to me...

An Organizational View of War
Piece of Cake is an excellent organizational view of the first year of the Second World War (1 September 1939 - 7 September 1940) from the perspective of a notional RAF fighter unit, dubbed "Hornet Squadron." Most war movies follow one of two standard conceits: the individual perspective (e.g. Patton, Lawrence of Arabia, the Patriot) or the small-group perspective (e.g. Platoon, All Quiet on the Western Front, Stalingrad). Of course, wars are fought by organizations, not individuals or small groups, and Piece of Cake is a rare example of an organizational look at war. Hornet Squadron, is the hero of the film, not the pilots who come and go. By the end of the film virtually all the main characters are gone, but unlike All Quiet On The Western Front where the war ends soon after the death of the narrator, the war goes on and the squadron continues to fight. There is a message herein about the nature of modern industrialized war that might be lost on some viewers,...

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