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Title:LANDINGS ON 'SWORD' BEACH, 6 JUNE 1944 (PART 6) [Allocated Title]
Film Number:A70 36-1
Other titles:
Summary: Invasion craft are seen gathering in the Solent and en route to Normandy. Invasion forces are seen coming ashore at 'Queen Red' Beach.
Description: I. Signal flags fly from the mast of the cameraman's own tank landing craft which steams into the Solent past Gosport and one of the Spithead forts and joins other invasion craft from Force 'S' anchored off the Isle of Wight.
II. Dozens of LCTs plough through the Channel's choppy waters, with many craft flying barrage balloons.
III. While in the Solent, two men read the official invasion booklet on France. Engineers and anti- aircraft gunners attached to No 5 Beach Group have a meal under the shelter of the camouflage netting draped over the tank-deck.
IV. At 'Queen Red' Beach, where a 79th Assault Squadron Royal Engineers AVRE, an non-armoured bulldozer and a Scammell wrecker lorry can be seen, Royal Marines from No 45 Commando disembark from their LCI(S)s under fire; in the foreground a 22nd Dragoons flail tank burns itself out near a beach exit. Men from the 1st Norfolk Regiment wade ashore from an LCI(L). Men from the 2nd East Yorkshire Regiment watch Wehrmacht prisoners being led to a beach compound by a No 4 Commando escort and a commando cycle troop on its way to Ouistreham.
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Greenhalgh, W A (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Royal Navy (regiment/service)
Royal Navy, Royal Marines & 45 Commando (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Engineers, Assault Squadron (?) 79 (regiment/service)
British Army, Norfolk Regiment, 1st Battalion (regiment/service)
British Army, Yorkshire Regiment, East, 2nd Battalion (regiment/service)
British Army, 4 Commando (regiment/service)
Keywords: ships, British naval - amphibious: LCT (object name)
ships, British naval - amphibious: LCI (S) (object name)
ships, British naval - amphibious: LCI (L) (object name)
aircraft, British - balloon: barrage balloon (object name)
communications, British military - direct: flag (object name)
armour, British - funnies: Churchill AVRE (object name)
armour, British - funnies: flail tank & [wrecked] (object name)
transport, British military - engineering: bulldozer (object name)
operations, British military - movement: bicycle (object name)
transport, British military - truck, special: Scammell wrecker lorry (object name)
operations, British military - movement: ship (object name)
combat, British - artillery bombardment [I] (object name)
society, British military - sustenance (object name)
prisoners of war, German - movement (object name)
12/5(261.22).7 [ Operation Neptune] (event)
GB, England & Hants <Solent> (geography)
Queen Red Beach, La Breche, Calvados, France (geography)
Notes: Production: part I of the synopsis was filmed on 3/6/1944, part II on 5/6/1944, part III on 4/6/1944 and part IV on D-Day itself
Remarks: excellent clear footage of masses of invasion craft gathering for Overlord and of the landings on the Normandy beaches, although the beginning of the sequence denoted by part IV in the synopsis suffers slightly by having an unidentified blur at the bottom of each frame caused by an obstruction in the cameraman's lens (?)
