Desperate Journey is a 1942 American World War II action and aviation film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan.

[Note 1] Director Raoul Walsh called it "a war comedy spiced with enough tragedy to give it reality... beyond doubt the forerunner for Hogan's Heroes.

"[5] Assigned to bomb a critical German railway junction at Schneidemühl, Flight Lt. Terrence Forbes presses home an attack at low altitude, and his bomber is shot down near the former Polish border.

Setting out on their dangerous trip across enemy territory, they attack a patrol to obtain German uniforms, then sneak onto a hospital train heading for Berlin.

They hide in an abandoned Berlin building, but while scouting for food, they see an important chemical plant and decide to sabotage it so they will do some damage to the enemy even if they cannot get the documents to England.

With Baumeister on their trail, the men reach the Brahms house, but it is a trap: Kaethe's parents have been captured and Gestapo members are impersonating them.

[8] The movie was rushed into production in order to take advantage of America's recent entry into the war, which meant the problems in the script identified by Sherman were never really fixed.

[11] The other aircraft that is featured prominently in the film, mainly through a mock-up (shot on Warner's Sound Stage 16) and in model work, is the contemporary United States and RAF Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber.

[12] Ronald Reagan, an air force reservist before World War II, received his call for active service while the film was in production.

Flynn also lobbied intensely to get the scene but despite a closed-door shouting match with director Walsh, the producer insisted that no changes to the script would be accepted.

Studio bosses were aware the film was being screened during Flynn's rape trial, yet the negative publicity actually enhanced ticket sales.

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times characterized the plot as basically similar to other, much better recent films, Target for Tonight (1941) and Man Hunt (1941).

"And such hair-raising, side-splitting adventures as they have in a wild-goose trek across Germany — such slugging of guards and Raymond Massey, such chases and incidental sabotage you'll not see this side of the comics, or possibly an old-time Western film.