Bertram's account of his crash-landing, with mechanic Adolph Klausmann, in the Kimberley region in 1932, and their privations before rescue.
Flight Into Hell
( dir. Gordon Flemyng
)
Australia
Paris
:
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Revcom Television
,
1985
Z1827618
1985
series - publisher
film/TV
Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, summarises the plot of Flight into Hell as follows:
A German pilot, Hans Bertram, and his mechanic, Adolph Klausmann, left the Dutch East Indies in May that year [1932] to fly to Darwin but a violent storm forced them off course and they landed in the Kimberley Ranges. It was six days before they were discovered to be missing. A search commenced, but unfortunately in the wrong area. After almost a month, the Australian authorities realised that the flyers were not where they were looking and began a new search. The two were eventually found but only after suffering tremendous hardships and deprivations.
The mini-series was based not only on the real story of Hans Bertram and Adolph Klausmann but also on Bertram's subsequent published account of their tribulations. The book sold well and the mini-series had the input of some of the ABC's most experienced professionals but, according to Moran, 'the series as presented on the screen fell fairly flat, perhaps because of the prolonged scenes of privation.'
Wings over Westralia
London
:
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
,
1936
20035204
1936
single work
radio play
'In May, 1932, two young German airmen, Bertram and Klausmann, set off from Cologne to fly to Australia. They got lost over the Timor Sea and eventually landed in an uncharted part of the Australian bush. The story of the physical and mental sufferings they endured for nearly seven weeks before they were rescued was told by Bertram in his book, ' Flight into Hell ', and is to be recapitulated in radio-dramatic form tonight.'
Source: [Radio guide], Radio Times, 7 August 1936, p.36.
'It's the unlikely tale of survival you'd expect to see on the silver screen, not in the history books.'
'It's the unlikely tale of survival you'd expect to see on the silver screen, not in the history books.'
