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Title:BREN GUN CARRIER COURSE; ROYAL ENGINEERS DAY AT THE BATTLE SCHOOL [Allocated Title]
Film Number:AYY 341/3
Other titles:BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
Summary: Men in training at the 54th Division Battle Training School at Aldeburgh, Suffolk.
Description: 19 February. Men of the 1st Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in training. They form a semi-circle around their instructor, Captain Medes of the 2nd Hertfordshire Regiment. He gives them their instructions. Men return to the Bren carriers and jump in. Close-up of 23 year-old Private J Neal (before the war a farm labourer in Somerset), driver of one of the carriers. A Bren carrier going at full speed over the moors outside Aldeburgh. Caterpillar tracks of one of the carriers. Men standing beside a line of carriers, waiting for instructions. The men mount their machines and start them up. A cluster of tanks waiting to move back to base.
20 February. One of the carriers coming down the road after leaving the garage and getting into position. It is followed by an American jeep. Bren carriers of the three sections lined up ready to move with two despatch riders. A carrier drives up to a gorse bush and mows it down. Another bush is mown down. View looking up from a bank of a Bren carrier coming over the top. Another carrier gets stuck and has to be helped out. Carriers are driven onto the moors and concealed under long fir tree branches. The men camouflage their tin hats with heather and bracken. Their faces are already darkened with cocoa powder and water. The section commander is given orders by his commanding officer and then gives instructions to the men. A Bren group firing on an enemy position. One of the men firing a 2-inch mortar. Three carriers coming over the top of a crescent.
22 February. Men running past the camera after rolling down an embankment in an exercise to attack a pillbox. The men lay on their stomachs and fire their weapons. The section leader carries a Tommy gun while the other men carry rifles and Bren guns. View of the pillbox. The pillbox (constructed of sandbags) is blown up by the Royal Engineers. Some sandbags are blown up into the trees. Soldiers charge past with bayonets. Demonstration of how a fougasse and demigasse is used. A charge is set and a large explosion occurs.
Alternative Title:BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
Production Details: War Office Film Unit (Production company)
Hawkins, T J (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, 54th Division (regiment/service)
British Army, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 1st Battalion (regiment/service)
British Army, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Engineers (regiment/service)
Keywords: Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England, UK (geography)