SUPPLIES TO RUSSIA; TWO OLD SWEATS [Allocated Title]
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- Title: SUPPLIES TO RUSSIA; TWO OLD SWEATS [Allocated Title]
- Film Number: AYY 234/5
- Other titles: BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
- Summary: Supplies to Russia in transit on the Trans-Iranian Railway with the 190th Railway Operating Company, Royal Engineers. Also, Staff Sergeant L Chambers, the man believed to be the oldest soldier serving in the Middle East, drinking with a friend in the Western Desert.
- Description: 23 May. A man wearing a fez walking alongside the railway line. Shots from the front of a moving train of a river at the bottom of a mountain gorge. Panning shot to the entrance of a tunnel. View from the front of the train as it goes through the tunnel. The distant exit approaching, view of the track as the train leaves the tunnel. View of the gorge and surrounding mountains. View from the front of the train as it advances through a cutting and rounds a curve. View as the train approaches the small mountain station of Shabazan. Close up of a Persian points man holding a green flag. Close up of the Royal Engineers engine driver at the controls, his hand on the regulator. Another close up of the engine driver as he moves his hand from the whistle to the regulator. 24 May. A locomotive destined for Russia is raised from a barge at Ahwaz, Iran. In the foreground is a pipeline of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, whose wharf and crane lift the engine. The locomotive swinging over from the barge to the jetty. The locomotive is lowered onto the railway track. Close up of men coaxing the wheels onto the railway track. A locomotive coming up out of the barge. The locomotive in mid-air. The locomotive swinging over the wharf, the cable drum revolves in the foreground. View of the underside of the locomotive to another locomotive. The locomotive coming to rest on the rails. The men are from the 155th Railway Workshop Company, Royal Engineers. 21 June. 50 year-old Gunner J H Bench of the 149th Anti-Aircraft Battery runs into a tent and brings out a bottle. He joins 63 year-old Staff Sergeant L Chambers of the South African Army Signals at a table. Gunner Bench stands and reads the bottle label. Close up of Gunner Bench. The two men drink from tin mugs at the table. Close up of Sergeant Chambers eating. The men going into the tent.
- Alternative Title: BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
- Colour: B&W
- Digitised:
- Object_Number: AYY 234/5
- Sound: Silent
- Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
- Featured Period: 1939-1945
- Production Date: 1942-05-23 1942-05-24 1942-06-21
- Production Country: GB
- Production Details: War Office Film Unit (Production company) Hopkinson, Peter Richard Gunton1920-06-272007-06-28Hopkinson started him career in the film industry at the age of 16 as a clapper boy at Ealing Studios, then working at Denham Studios. He volunteered for overseas service in 1941and was an AFPU photographer and informant in the "Wartime Filming" interview project. He was sent to Persia initially to make a film about getting supplies through to Russia and made many other films in the Western Desert. He joined the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). His career after the war was mainly filming documentaries and his last documentary was Whickers War, made in 2004. (Production individual) Morris R H (Sgt) (Production individual)
- Personalities, Units and Organisations: Chambers, L (Staff Sergeant) (person) Bench, J H (regiment/service) British Army, Royal Engineers, 190th Railway Operating Company (regiment/service) British Army, Royal Engineers, 155th Railway Workshop Company (regiment/service) British Army, Royal Artillery, 149th Anti-Aircraft Battery (regiment/service) South African Army, South African Signal Corps (regiment/service)
- Keywords: Ahwaz, Iran (geography)
- Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent
- Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 440 ft; Running time: 5 mins
- HD Media:
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2012-10-27 ()