(Some Spoilers) The war between Britain and France with Nazi Germany finally spilled over into neutral Denmark an Norway in the early spring of 1940. It was then when Hitler's troops conquered both those free and neutral country's he and his thugs also awakened the fighting and free spirit of the ancient Vikings represented in the freedom loving Norwegian people.
Widower Erik Toresen, Paul Muni,was anything but a fighting man when the war first began. A nature lover and follower of the fishery, salmon and herring, movements in the North Sea Eric expected to sit out the war and let the others, British USSR and Americans, do the fighting for him. Like most of the people in now Nazi-occupied Norway. It was when the Nazis started to round up and shoot his fellow citizens for such terrible crimes as wanting to be free and staying out after hours, thus breaking the Nazi imposed curfew, that Eric turned over another leaf. It was also when Eric's fellow Norwegian and good friend Gunner Korstad, Richared Darr, was shot by the Nazis for talking and asking, for his freedom, too much that had Eric not only join the resistance movement but killed the German officer who ordered Gunner shot!
Better then your average run-of-the-mill WWII propaganda movie due to the fact that Academy Award winning actor Paul Muni as well as top British actor Cedric Hardwicke, as Admiral Bowen, being in it. The fact that Muni, or Eric Trsesen, was given a British girlfriend Judith Bowen, Lillian Lee, who also happened to be Admiral Bowen's daughter was just a bit too much to take. Eric after some five years of being available after his wife died in giving birth to their daughter Solveig, Ann Carter, couldn't find himself a nice sweet and beautiful Nordic-looking Norwegian girl to get hitched up with!
On the run from the Nazi, for killing a German officer, Eric accidentally comes across a secret German airfield being built on the Norwegian coast. This airfield will provide the Nazis a base, out of the reach of the RAF, to bomb not only Northern Britain but attack and sink British and American convoys loaded with arms and supplies for hard hit and battered, by being invaded by Hitlers armies, Soviet Union. If successful the airfield will end up winning the war for the Nazis and thus enslave, including Norway, the entire free world!
Making his way back to England by boat via the treacherous waters of the choppy and dangerous North Sea, the Norwegians are excellent seamen, Eric and and a number of fellow freedom fighters persuade the British, through his good friend Admiral Bowen, to launch a sneak attack on the German airfield with him, knowing the area as well as the back of his hand, leading the way.
Despite the heavy and heroic action and explosive fireworks on shore with Eric and the British Commandos striking at dawn against the Germans the movie just didn't live up to it's title "Commandos Strike at Dawn". The British Commandos were in fact members of the standing British, and Canadian, army and not wearing the camouflage uniforms and berets of the elite British Commandos. The assault on the Germans, who were caught with their pants down, was staged as a full scale military & navel operation with 150 to 200 capacity landing crafts hitting the beaches. Not with your usual commando rubber dinghies, with a capacity of 8 to 10 men, sneaking up on the what should have been the very alert German troops!
As for the striking in the pre-dawn darkness to catch the heavily armed Germans by surprise the "commando" attack actually took place in what looked like at high noon! The absolute worse time for a sneak and surprise operation like that giving the defending German troops, who for some strange reason were for the most part asleep in their barracks, all the advantage that they needed!
***SPOILER ALERT***Added to the excellent battle scenes we were also given the fact that the attack on the Germans was very personal for Eric. The dirty Nazi swines had his daughter, Solveig, held hostage in the village and it was only up to Eric, and not his fellow commandos, to save her before all the dust cleared. Eric as well as his fellow commandos risking their life, which they didn't really have to with their mission already accomplished, went out in a blaze of glory saving Solveig suffering the most casualties during the entire operation. In Eric's case he ended up giving his people hope for the future in finally ridding their country of the occupying and ruthless Nazis. That is in following the course of action, as a fearless and courageous Norwegian freedom fighter, that Eric despite of his peace-loving nature eventually took.
Widower Erik Toresen, Paul Muni,was anything but a fighting man when the war first began. A nature lover and follower of the fishery, salmon and herring, movements in the North Sea Eric expected to sit out the war and let the others, British USSR and Americans, do the fighting for him. Like most of the people in now Nazi-occupied Norway. It was when the Nazis started to round up and shoot his fellow citizens for such terrible crimes as wanting to be free and staying out after hours, thus breaking the Nazi imposed curfew, that Eric turned over another leaf. It was also when Eric's fellow Norwegian and good friend Gunner Korstad, Richared Darr, was shot by the Nazis for talking and asking, for his freedom, too much that had Eric not only join the resistance movement but killed the German officer who ordered Gunner shot!
Better then your average run-of-the-mill WWII propaganda movie due to the fact that Academy Award winning actor Paul Muni as well as top British actor Cedric Hardwicke, as Admiral Bowen, being in it. The fact that Muni, or Eric Trsesen, was given a British girlfriend Judith Bowen, Lillian Lee, who also happened to be Admiral Bowen's daughter was just a bit too much to take. Eric after some five years of being available after his wife died in giving birth to their daughter Solveig, Ann Carter, couldn't find himself a nice sweet and beautiful Nordic-looking Norwegian girl to get hitched up with!
On the run from the Nazi, for killing a German officer, Eric accidentally comes across a secret German airfield being built on the Norwegian coast. This airfield will provide the Nazis a base, out of the reach of the RAF, to bomb not only Northern Britain but attack and sink British and American convoys loaded with arms and supplies for hard hit and battered, by being invaded by Hitlers armies, Soviet Union. If successful the airfield will end up winning the war for the Nazis and thus enslave, including Norway, the entire free world!
Making his way back to England by boat via the treacherous waters of the choppy and dangerous North Sea, the Norwegians are excellent seamen, Eric and and a number of fellow freedom fighters persuade the British, through his good friend Admiral Bowen, to launch a sneak attack on the German airfield with him, knowing the area as well as the back of his hand, leading the way.
Despite the heavy and heroic action and explosive fireworks on shore with Eric and the British Commandos striking at dawn against the Germans the movie just didn't live up to it's title "Commandos Strike at Dawn". The British Commandos were in fact members of the standing British, and Canadian, army and not wearing the camouflage uniforms and berets of the elite British Commandos. The assault on the Germans, who were caught with their pants down, was staged as a full scale military & navel operation with 150 to 200 capacity landing crafts hitting the beaches. Not with your usual commando rubber dinghies, with a capacity of 8 to 10 men, sneaking up on the what should have been the very alert German troops!
As for the striking in the pre-dawn darkness to catch the heavily armed Germans by surprise the "commando" attack actually took place in what looked like at high noon! The absolute worse time for a sneak and surprise operation like that giving the defending German troops, who for some strange reason were for the most part asleep in their barracks, all the advantage that they needed!
***SPOILER ALERT***Added to the excellent battle scenes we were also given the fact that the attack on the Germans was very personal for Eric. The dirty Nazi swines had his daughter, Solveig, held hostage in the village and it was only up to Eric, and not his fellow commandos, to save her before all the dust cleared. Eric as well as his fellow commandos risking their life, which they didn't really have to with their mission already accomplished, went out in a blaze of glory saving Solveig suffering the most casualties during the entire operation. In Eric's case he ended up giving his people hope for the future in finally ridding their country of the occupying and ruthless Nazis. That is in following the course of action, as a fearless and courageous Norwegian freedom fighter, that Eric despite of his peace-loving nature eventually took.