CAEN [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: CAEN [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: A70 76-1
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: Scenes inside Caen as British and French troops consolidate their hold on the devastated city.
  • Description: Vichy poster deriding Allies' snail-like progress up the Italian peninsula; British troops in rubble-blocked street near Abbaye aux Hommes; Vichy anti-Churchill poster ("His last hope - Hunger"); Palais de Justice (with British and Canadian troops in Place Fontenette); Lycée Malherbe and Abbaye aux Hommes (St Etienne) in use as refugee centres; infantrymen (2nd Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles) in position near River Orne and Caen racecourse; a 'blitzed' street; posters urging Frenchmen to join the Waffen-SS ("Shoulder to shoulder against the common enemy", "Your comrades wait for you in the Waffen-SS"); infantry (2nd RUR) moving through 'blitzed' city centre; Frenchwomen talking to SHAEF civil affairs major; RUR infantrymen occupying a German slit-trench near racecourse; smouldering rubble; Churchill AVREs (5th Assault Regiment RE) advancing towards Orne past racecourse, watched by infantrymen, and returning under fire; RUR infantrymen patrolling ruins and mansion, during which they meet French Red Cross workers; acres of 'blitzed' ground; Red Cross workers passing British troops around Cook's Tourist Office; refugees, Red Cross workers in city centre.
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1944-07-10
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor) Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company) Boulting, Roy1913-11-212001-11-05British film producer-director (Production individual) Harris, L W J (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:
  • Keywords: Caen, Calvados, France (geography)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 609 ft; Running time: 6 mins
  • Notes: Summary: see with A70 71-3 to 5, 9, 72-3, 4, 8, 9, 73-1 to 4, 74-2, 3, 75-2 to 5, 76-3, 77-2 to 4, 6, 8 for footage showing 3rd Division in action during 'Charnwood'. This footage was shot under the direction of Captain Roy Boulting who appears to have had a roving commission within No 5 AFPS to film specific episodes - liberation of Paris, truce at Dunkirk etc - for production purposes. Remarks: good footage in which the desolate character of Caen immediately after its liberation is well conveyed; good close-up shots of the Waffen-SS and Vichy recruiting and propaganda posters. Best seen with the items of ciné material listed above, and with footage showing refugees sheltering in the Abbaye aux Hommes and the Lycée Malherbe - A70 84-5 and 124-9. Documentation/associated material: for a bibliography, refer to the publications listed in A70 71-3, 72-3.
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    A70 76-1

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