Title:LIVELINESS ON THE BRITISH FRONT [Main Title]
Film Number:IWM 208
Other titles:OFFICIAL PICTURES OF THE BRITISH ARMY IN FRANCE - THIRD SERIES [Series Title]
Summary: The Guards Division in the line in front of Aubers Ridge, Western Front, early 1916.
Description: A New Army battalion of Royal Welch Fusiliers, 38th (Welsh) Division (attached to the Guards Division for training) arrives by bus and gets out in the Guards area. Grenadier Guards in the rubble of Epinette Château filling sandbags and clearing debris. A wooden tramway on the La Bassée road is used to move corrugated iron for strongpoints. At Rouge Croix crossroads, about three kilometres from the front, soldiers race across to avoid German shells. A first aid post in the front lines with canvas screens and a water pump. 2nd Battalion, Irish Guards, at "Southerland Avenue" (sic) trench with the flag they carried in the Battle of Loos. Men of the battalion work on the drainage system in the trenches: showing interest in the camera is Captain the Honourable H R L Alexander (the future Field Marshal Earl Alexander). Wooden crosses mark graves just by the second line trenches. A Grenadier sniper in a front line trench. Men of a tunnelling company enter and leave a trench minehead. II. A final sequence, almost certainly a training exercise, of New Army troops throwing smoke grenades forward from their trenches and then rushing forward into the smoke (note the caps rather than helmets and lack of equipment).
Alternative Title:OFFICIAL PICTURES OF THE BRITISH ARMY IN FRANCE - THIRD SERIES [Series Title]
Production Details: War Office (Production sponsor)
British Topical Committee for War Films (Production company)
Tong, Edward G (Production individual)
Malins, Geoffrey H (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Alexander, Harold (1st Earl Alexander of Tunis) (person)
British Army, Div 38 (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Welch Fusiliers (regiment/service)
British Army, Div, Guards (regiment/service)
British Army, Irish Guards, 2nd Battalion (regiment/service)
British Army, Grenadier Guards (regiment/service)
Keywords: transport, British military - bus (object name)
training, British military - combat (object name)
buildings, French - historic: château & [wrecked] (object name)
casualties, British graves - battlefield (object name)
01/3(4-15).5 (event)
L'Epinette, France (geography)
Rouge Croix Crossroads, Béthune, Pas-de-Calais, France (geography)
Southerland Avenue, Aubers Ridge, Nord, France (geography)
mud (concept)
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W
Sound format: Silent
Soundtrack language: None
Title language: English
Subtitle language: English
Technical Details: Format: 35mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 471 ft; Running time: 8 mins
