​​​Perilous Moon​

WWII Occupied ​​​​​​​France, ​1944 -​ The ​​​​​​End Game​

 

 

 

​

 

 

 

​

 

 

 On Easter Monday 1944, ten days after the catastrophic Nuremberg Raid, RAF bomber pilot Neil Nimmo and his crew lift off from the bleak, rain swept Lincolnshire airfield of Ludford Magna.  ​Much patched-u​p "Q-Queenie", a ​101 Squadron ​Lancaster III, is setting out for Occupied Europe on what would prove to be her last flight.   ​ 

​​​

This raid ​on the Nazi controlled rail yards at Aulnoye-Aymeries, close by the Franco-Belgian frontier would, they said, be "a piece of cake" – in truth it would prove to be anything but. During his haunting, deadly 46-minute counterattack, Luftwaffe night fighter pilot Hauptman Helmut Bergmann would destroy seven Lancasters ending the lives of 38 Allied aircrew from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Ireland as well as from Britain. For the very few survivors ​​that night Bergmann would trigger a lifelong nightmare. ​

​

As blazing, stricken Q-Queenie rolled onto her back and plunged earthwards Flt/ Lt Neil Nimmo finally bailed out, only to find that his extraordinary adventure had really just begun.  This is a story of fearless French peasants, of WWII Occupied France, of Paris, of résistants, collaborators and black-marketers, of bravery, murder and of deep intrigue. Most unusually it is also the parallel story of 23-year-old Helmut Bergman, of how he became a Luftwaffe Ace and participated in the first desperate operational jet flight, but too late and only to watch the Luftwaffe crumble.

 

As the Allies finally break out from the Normandy beachheads, WWII Occupied France descends into further chaos. The RAF bomb the Canadians, allied aircraft crash into one another, and ​Bergmann and his Luftwaffe crew​ Gunter Hauthal and Willi Schopp, arrive at Mortain above​ the ruthless SS Leibstandarte Panzer Division, it's Operation Lüttich  and they are about to pay the price.

​

​In Perilous Moon the final tumultuous weeks of WWII Occupied France and the dire consequences of sweeping Vichy attitudes under the carpet are closely observed from within. Paris based documentary maker Stuart Nimmo unravels this true, darkly gripping and ​positively page-churning​ story. Perilous Moon is  WWII Occupied France observed from all angles and stunningly illustrated - a rare feast for both mind and eye.