Title:BATTLE TRAINING; BREN CARRIER TRAINING; WOOD FIGHTING; NEUTRALIAZATION OF BREN CARRIERS; FUSE LIGHTING; TREE CLIMBING; ROYAL ENGINEERS' EXERCISE [Allocated Title]
Film Number:AYY 341/2
Other titles:BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
Summary: Men undergoing training at the 54th Divisional Battle School at Aldeburgh, Suffolk.
Description: 19 February. Close-up of the Battle School signboard. Students carry out an exercise in pursuing a retreating enemy. A mortar position for the defence of the Platoon HQ. The men advance in single file through the street. Bren gunners take up positions for covering fire. They advance through barbed wire to a wood. One man flat on his back goes under the wire. The men carry out a final assault through a smokescreen.
Men from the 1st Bucks Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry are instructed by Sergeant Pickering. Students mounting Bren carriers. A man dismounts. Students leaping into the driving seat of the carrier. Bren gunners leaping from the machine and establishing firing positions. An instructor gives orders, which are carried out.
20 February. Troops leaping into a wide ditch in a wood under Platoon Commander Second Lieutenant Marsh. The section advancing in single file along a road. Troops advancing into a smokescreen on the edge of the wood. The section leader in an adjacent wood giving final instructions. The section receiving orders. Beaters advancing into the wood. Troops advancing through the woods. The platoon commander fires the success signal as the enemy is cleared from the wood.
A jeep crossing a ditch. Number 1 Section of the 1st Carrier Platoon, 1st Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in carriers advancing over rough country. Gunners getting into position and firing. A gorse fire.
21 February. Sergeant Carter of Luton gives the order to light the fuse to destroy an enemy pillbox. The fuse is lit. A pole charge. The fuse burning. The fuse is set for the Bangalore Torpedo.
Captain Odehnal of the 1st Battalion, Czechoslovak Forces demonstrates new tree-climbing irons. An officer looks up at a tree and puts the climbing irons on. He starts climbing. Close-up of his boots. View from below as he climbs.
22 February. Men of the 249th Field Company, Royal Engineers demonstrate tree destruction using gun cotton. The charges explode. They also demonstrate fougasses fired by a remote control plunger detonator. A hedge hopper.
Alternative Title:BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
Production Details: War Office Film Unit (Production company)
Marshall, F H (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, 54th Division (regiment/service)
British Army, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 1st Battalion (regiment/service)
Free Czech Forces (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Engineers, 249th Field Company (regiment/service)
Keywords: Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England, UK (geography)
