''Neptune Mission'' (also known as ''Neptune's Mission'') is a 1958 30-minute Canadian
short
Short may refer to:
Places
* Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon
* Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community
* Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place
People
* Short (surname)
* List of people known as ...
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
produced by the
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...
(NFB) for the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
(CBC) television series, ''Perspective''. The film documents the submarine-hunting mission of the RCAF
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...
aircraft on Canada's
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
coastline during the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
. ''Neptune Mission'' is produced by David Bairstow, and directed by Walford Hewitson.
[Ohayon, Albert]
"Between fact and fiction: the NFB’s 1950s Perspective TV series."
''NFB'', December 11, 2014. Retrieved: February 21, 2016.
Synopsis
During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, from its
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...
headquarters, the Royal Canadian Air Force
PBY Canso
The Consolidated PBY Catalina is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was produced in the 1930s and 1940s. In Canadian service it was known as the Canso. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II. Catalinas served wit ...
aircraft, along with the
Royal Canadian Navy
The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack s ...
(RCN), were heavily involved in
anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are t ...
(ASW) directed against
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
U-boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...
attacks on convoy and coastal shipping. In postwar operations, building on the success of its wartime missions, the RCAF continued to maintain anti-submarine capability from their
Greenwood, Nova Scotia base.
In 1958, during the Cold War, the threat of
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
nuclear-powered submarines led the RCAF to acquire
Lockheed P2V7 Neptune aircraft. The advent of airborne
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
,
sonar
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...
and
magnetic anomaly detection
A magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) is an instrument used to detect minute variations in the Earth's magnetic field. The term refers specifically to magnetometers used by military forces to detect submarines (a mass of ferromagnetic material cr ...
(MAD)-equipped aircraft such as the Neptune, made for a potent counter. The armament on the P2V7 included two torpedoes, mines, depth charges, bombs carried internally plus unguided rockets mounted externally underwing.
On annual
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) exercises, the RCAF Neptune crews worked closely with naval forces from both Canada and the United States, and through joint operations, continued to train for operational readiness. On a typical training mission, an RCAF crew will receive instructions from its Halifax headquarters, and fly in a combined aerial and naval mission using airborne MAD/
sonobuoy
A sonobuoy (a portmanteau of sonar and buoy) is a relatively small buoy – typically diameter and long – expendable sonar system that is dropped/ejected from aircraft or ships conducting anti-submarine warfare or underwater acoustic resea ...
equipment to detect a submarine attempting to penetrate the naval forces protecting a high value target such as a convoy or
aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...
task force.
In the 1958 Delta 54 training exercise, an RCAF Neptune (''VN-123'') flies a precise pattern over the Atlantic Ocean when a radar contact of a "
spook" is made. Two destroyers take up the chase, leaving the task force and joining Neptune ''VN-123''. Using sonobuoys, the Neptune relays an exact location of the contact to the destroyers that take up station over the suspected submerged enemy submarine, now forced to either escape or curtail its threat to the task force. The exercise concludes with another RCAF Neptune relieving ''VN-123'' to return to its base in Nova Scotia.
Production
''Neptune Mission'' was part of the NFB's series of documentary short films for the CBC TV series ''Perspective'' that ran from 1956–58. Each half-hour program, produced by the National Film Board included both documentaries and dramatic productions. Most episodes concerned contemporary issues in Canada, although several involved international incidents or topics such as life in
Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
. A small number of the ''Perspective'' series were historical reconstructions. Generals
Wolfe and
Montcalm at the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham was one example.
A close working relationship with the RCAF and the RCN allowed the NFB to chronicle the operational use of the Neptune. The aircrew of ''VN-123'' played their parts as themselves, while the aircraft went through its operational mission from headquarters planning, crew walkabout, surveillance training to successful completion of the NATO exercise. The aerial sequences by NFB cinematographers Peter Kelly and Reginald Morris, along with sound engineer Don Wellington. included footage shot from accompanying aircraft and naval vessels, as well as from inside the Neptune as it went through its training mission.
[Proc, Jerry]
"The Canadian Neptune P2V7."
''jproc.ca'', November 8, 2009. Retrieved: February 21, 2016.
Reception
''Neptune Mission'' was primarily
made-for-television
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...
, but after broadcast on March 2, 1958, with a re-broadcast on May 25, 1958, as ''Neptune's Mission'' on the CBC, the film was made available on 16 mm to schools, libraries and other interested parties.
The film was also made available to film libraries operated by university and provincial authorities. Excerpts from ''Neptune Mission'' appeared in other NFB productions, including ''The Golden Age'' (1959).
"The Golden Age."
''NFB.ca''. Retrieved: February 21, 2016.
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
* Aitken, Ian. ''The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film''. London: Routledge, 2013. .
* Ellis, Jack C. and Betsy A. McLane. ''New History of Documentary Film''. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. .
External links
''Neptune Mission'' at NFB Collections website
* {{IMDb title, 0227118, Neptune Mission
1958 films
Canadian aviation films
Canadian short documentary films
Canadian black-and-white films
Documentary films about military aviation
English-language Canadian films
National Film Board of Canada documentaries
1958 documentary films
Royal Canadian Air Force
Documentary films about the Cold War
Cold War history of Canada
Anti-submarine warfare
1950s English-language films
1950s Canadian films