REVIEW: ‘Return to Hardwick,’ now available digitally
Photo: Return to Hardwick details the missions of the 93rd Bomb Group during World War II. Photo courtesy of Gravitas Ventures / Provided by MPRM Communications with permission.
Return to Hardwick: Home of the 93rd Bomb Group is a powerful and touching documentary that details the trials and tribulations of the “most decorated, most traveled and most effective” B-24 bomb group during World War II. The film, directed by Michael Sellers, marries archival footage of the bomb group with present-day footage of veterans and their descendants heading to Hardwick, England, to tour the site of the old airbase, which is amazingly still intact.
Many of the stories and thoughts shared by these veterans are important for the audience to hear and understand. They offer narratives of heroism and uncommon daring, all in an effort to stop the deadly march of Nazi Germany.
While other groups and units attacked from the land, the 93rd took to the skies and deployed a strategic bombing campaign that, according to the film’s narrator, Michael Cudlitz, crippled Adolf Hitler’s troops and helped secure victory for the allied powers.
The veterans who are interviewed for the documentary are honest about the future. They realize that with each passing year the men of the 93rd are becoming fewer in number, and they are determined to not let their stories become lost forever. That’s why they are participating in this documentary. That’s why they bring their families to Hardwick. That’s why they still have such a bond and camaraderie with one another.
One of the people that they meet in Hardwick is an English man who was but a boy when the Americans came to town and set up the airbase. He was so enamored by their efforts that he would keep a journal of how many planes he saw in the sky and the goings-on of the airmen around the base. He shows the journal, still intact after all these years, to the visitors from the United States.
Return to Hardwick, which seems readymade for television (perhaps PBS or The History Channel), preserves the memories of valiant men who stopped an enemy force hellbent on destruction and domination. The 93rd took to the skies to save Europe and ultimately the world.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Return to Hardwick: Home of the 93rd Bomb Group (2019). Directed by Michael Sellers. Narrated by Michael Cudlitz. Running time: 73 minutes. Rating: 
