CORPS ADVANCES THROUGH 'BOCAGE' COUNTRY [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: CORPS ADVANCES THROUGH 'BOCAGE' COUNTRY [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: A70 107-6
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: Units serving with the 43rd (Wessex) Division advance southwards from Caumont towards the Bois du Hommes and Cahagnes.
  • Description: Infantrymen serving with the 5th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment march in single file in the direction of the Bois du Homme past a sign warning of mines buried in the roadside verges. A few yards away, two sappers from 260th Field Company RE (?) probe with a metal prodder and a mine detector for hidden Teller and S-mines near the corpse of a Wehrmacht soldier from the 326th Infantry Division. Stretcher bearers and a PIAT team from the 7th Battalion Hampshire Regiment make their way through a gap in a hedgerow and join the rest of a rifle company advancing across a field towards Cahagnes. An officer picks up one of the many leaflets dropped by the RAF urging the Germans to surrender. A bren-gunner, a rifleman and a sten-gunner spray trees, bushes and hedgerows with bullets more possibly for the benefit of the cameraman than for any discouraging effect they will have on hidden German snipers. Captured after a fierce struggle by the 1st Worcester Regiment, the cross-roads village of Cahagnes is in flames.
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1944-07-31
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor) Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company) Ginger (Sergeant) (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, Royal Engineers (regiment/service) British Army, Wiltshire Regiment, 5th Battalion (regiment/service) British Army, Bde 129 (regiment/service) British Army, Hampshire Regiment, 7th Battalion (regiment/service) British Army, Bde 130 (regiment/service) British Army, Div 43 (regiment/service) British Army, Corps 30 (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: propaganda (object name) weapons, British - smallarm: Bren (object name) casualties, German dead - battlefield (object name) weapons, British - smallarm: Sten (object name) equipment, British military - damage control: mine detector (object name) operations, British military - mines: clearance (object name) Operation Bluecoat, Mont Pinçon 1944, North West Europe, Second World War (event) Normandy, France (geography)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Footage: 297 ft; Running time: 3 mins
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Notes: Note: See A70 107-7 for similar footage and refer to A70 105-3, 4 and 5, 107-8 and 9, 109-3, 4 and 6, 112-3, 113-17, 22 and 25, 115-1, 2 and 3 and 116-9 for footage showing the 43rd (Wessex) Division in action during "Bluecoat" culminating in the capture of Mont Pincon. Refer also to material showing the 'Desert Rats' in action, notably A70 108-4. Remarks: Good footage. Best seen with items listed above, notably A70 107-7. Documentation/associated material: for a bibliography refer to the publications listed in A70 105-3 and 4 and 107-7 and 'The Worcester Regiment 1922-1950 by Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Birdwood.
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    A70 107-6

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