The Way to the Stars

The film opens on an abandoned airfield, the fictional RAF Station Halfpenny Field, and the opening scenes reference people and objects which will be shown later. A similar approach is used in the opening and closing scenes of an abandoned airfield in the later 1949 film Twelve O'Clock High, which is set on the fictional RAF Archbury. Pilot Officer Peter Penrose, fresh out of a training unit, joins the squadron, and quickly discovers about life during war time. He falls for Iris, a young girl who lives at the local hotel, but he becomes disillusioned about marriage, when the squadron commander, Squadron Leader Carter, dies in a raid, and leaves his wife, the hotel manageress, with a young son to bring up. As the war progresses, Penross comes to terms that he has survived, while others have been killed.