Michael Rennie - The Second World War

The Second World War

Shortly after the outbreak of war on September 3, 1939, Rennie began to receive offers for larger film roles, starting with his first (small) billed performance in the wartime morale booster The Big Blockade, seen in March 1940. Michael Redgrave, by then a fully-fledged star, had one of the leading roles in the film. Six films later, however, Michael Rennie also had his first film lead. The suspense drama Tower of Terror, released in late December 1941 was styled in the manner of a horror film, and it starred Wilfrid Lawson as a crazed Dutch lighthouse keeper in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, while the second-billed Rennie and third-billed Movita had the romantic leads.

Michael Rennie enlisted in the RAF Volunteer Reserve on May 27, 1941 (Serial No 1391153). He was officially discharged on August 4, 1942, and then on the following day, he was commissioned "for the emergency" as pilot officer number 127347 on probation in the General Duties Branch of the RAFVR. On February 5, 1943, he was promoted to flying officer on probation. He resigned his commission on May 1, 1944 (not discharged on disability, as the studio publicity stated).

Rennie had carried out his basic training near Torquay in Devon, after which he was sent to the United States for fighter pilot training under the Arnold Plan. In this program, pilots for the RAF were trained by United States Army Air Forces instructors. One of his fellow students was RAF Sgt Jack Morton, who told a humorous anecdote while he and Rennie were in the same class:

At the end of our primary course we were posted to a Basic Flying School at Cochran Field, Macon, Georgia. The class which completed the course at Cochran Field was now split up, half were posted to Napier Field, Dothan, Alabama, to train on single engine planes, and the remainder were posted to twin-engine schools. Like Cochran, Napier Field was a large permanent Air Corps Base and most of us were quite content to stay on the camp when we had time off. One of the cadets on our course had told us that he was a film actor, but no one took him seriously. We had to admit that he was right however when a film came to the camp cinema called "Ships with Wings" starring Michael Rennie.