Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows, by means of a dramatised scene, archival footage, stills and a voice-over narration, the espionage activities of Australian aviator Sidney Cotton in Germany prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. In the re-enactment Cotton flies over the Rhine with senior Luftwaffe officer Albert Kesselring while a hidden camera secretly films German war installations. Included is archival footage of leading Nazi Hermann Goering, and stills of Carinhall, his country house, of British prime minister Neville Chamberlain and of British war secretary Lord Halifax.

Educational value points

• The clip depicts the espionage activities of Australian inventor and aviator Sidney Cotton (1894-1969) just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. Recruited in 1939 by the Royal Air Force, Cotton experimented with using cameras in high-speed aircraft. He equipped his Lockheed Electra 12A with four cameras that were secretly operated and hidden by sliding panels. Cabin air was diverted to prevent the lenses from fogging or freezing over.

• Cotton’s access to the influential Nazis Albert Kesselring (1885-1960) and Luftwaffe head Hermann Goering (1893-1946) gave him opportunities for photographic reconnaissance in Germany, as depicted in the clip. Cotton used his status as a wealthy private aviator, and the guise of promoting his film business, to court the Nazi leaders and to secretly film German military installations and the air raid shelters at Goering’s country house, Carinhall.

• The long sleek lines of the distinctive twin-engined Lockheed Electra Junior 12A aircraft that Cotton specially modified for use as a clandestine aerial reconnaissance plane are shown. First built in 1936, it was designed as a six-seater civilian aeroplane but its high performance capability led to its being taken up by the British military. The footage of less sophisticated planes that the Lockheed Electra had superseded may indicate Kesselring’s eagerness to fly Cotton’s more modern plane.

• Reference is made to Cotton’s efforts to prevent the outbreak of war when he offered to act as a go-between between British prime minister Neville Chamberlain and Hermann Goering. In September 1939 Cotton flew his plane to Berlin as part of a plan, agreed to by Goering, to fly him to England for peace talks. Instead Cotton had to leave Berlin, claiming that his was the last civilian plane to fly out of Berlin before the outbreak of war.

• Photographic reconnaissance became a crucial part of intelligence gathering in the allied war effort and Sidney Cotton’s pioneering experiments prior to the War led to his being recruited to head the fledgling Royal Air Force 1 Photographic Development Unit (PDU) in 1939. New cameras that could take clear pictures at 30,000 feet were installed in specially designed Spitfires. The PDU employed more than 5,000 pilots, photographers and photographic interpreters by the end of the War.

• Dramatic re-creation, a subdued music score and film techniques convey the audacity of Cotton’s act in conducting espionage under the nose of aviator and senior Luftwaffe officer Kesselring. In one scene Kesselring flies the aeroplane while Cotton sits uneasily alongside. The music communicates tension. The two men inside the cockpit are filmed from the outside, showing their close proximity, while Cotton secretly activates the cameras.