Had the Germans invaded Britain , Coward was scheduled to be arrested and killed , as he was in The Black Book along with other figures such as Virginia Woolf , Paul Robeson , Bertrand Russell , C. P. Snow and H. G. Wells . When this came to light after the war , Coward wrote : " If anyone had told me at that time I was high up on the Nazi blacklist , I should have laughed ... I remember Rebecca West , who was one of the many who shared the honour with me , sent me a telegram which read : ' My dear – the people we should have been seen dead with ' . " Churchill 's view was that Coward would do more for the war effort by entertaining the troops and the home front than by intelligence work : " Go and sing to them when the guns are firing – that 's your job ! " Coward , though disappointed , followed this advice . He toured , acted and sang indefatigably in Europe , Africa , Asia and America . He wrote and recorded war-themed popular songs , including " London Pride " and " Do n't Let 's Be Beastly to the Germans " . His London home was wrecked by German bombs in 1941 , and he took up temporary residence at the Savoy Hotel . During one air raid on the area around the Savoy he joined Carroll Gibbons and Judy Campbell in impromptu cabaret to distract the captive guests from their fears . Another of Coward 's wartime projects , as writer , star , composer and co-director ( alongside David Lean ) , was the naval film drama '' In Which We Serve '' . The film was popular on both sides of the Atlantic , and he was awarded an honorary certificate of merit at the 1943 Academy Awards ceremony . Coward played a naval captain , basing the character on his friend Lord Louis Mountbatten . Lean went on to direct and adapt film versions of several Coward plays
1943 Academy Awards
15th Academy Awards
Noël Coward