The Machine Gunners
by Robert Westallliterary work· published 1975
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The Machine-Gunners is a children's historical novel by Robert Westall, published by Macmillan in 1975. Set in northeastern England shortly after the Battle of Britain (February 1941), it features children who find a crashed German aircraft with a machine gun and ammunition; they build a fortress and capture and imprison a German gunner. The author also wrote a play based on the book, and others have adapted it for television and radio. A sequel, Fathom Five, set two years later, was published in 1979.
Adaptations (1)
The Machine Gunners was adapted into a 1983 television series.
The Machine Gunners1983 · television series · 25 min · IMDb ↗IMDb8.6During the Second World War, a group of youth in the Northeast England town of Garmouth regularly suffer from bomb attacks by the German forces. One of the children raids a crashed German aircraft and takes a fully operational machine gun, intending to set up their own fortress. Playing with it causes a German plane to crash-land; the kids befriend the pilot, who is unaware that they had caused him to crash.
