WAR PICTORIAL NEWS NO 203 [Main Title]

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  • Title: WAR PICTORIAL NEWS NO 203 [Main Title]
  • Film Number: WPN 203
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: Allied Thrust into Rhineland.
  • Description: I. 'ALLIED THRUST INTO RHINELAND.' Panoramic views show bombed railway yards and damaged rolling stock in the Normandy area. Footage shows destroyed railway bridges and viaducts across the Seine River. French volunteer railway workers help the Allied forces to replace whole sections of railway points. British sappers reconstruct railway lines. A small goods train passes over a reconstructed bridge. Steam locomotive 2-8-0 (No 21030) is off-loaded from an Allied train ferry. United States (US) Army Transportation Corps rolling stock is rolled from a large landing craft. US Ninth Army infantry use a smoke-laying machine during the fighting for the approaches to the Roer River (February 1945). A US Ninth Army caterpillar tractor prepares defensive positions on the banks of the Roer. US infantry armed with M1 Garand .30-inch self-loading rifles man the riverside defences. German soldiers, having just surrendered, move cautiously to the US positions. Extended battle footage shows US infantry providing covering fire from mortars and small arms as collapsible boats are offloaded near the river. Having crossed the Roer River US corpsmen attend to wounded in the rubble of the German town of Düren. German soldiers in reversible parkas carry a wounded comrade on a stretcher. US infantry move through the rubble-strewn streets of Düren. Royal Air Force (RAF) Avro Lancaster bombers take off at dusk (PO squadron code). Extended operational footage shows the RAF Bomber Command raid on the German industrial town of Pforzheim on the night of February 23 1945. British XXX Corps anti-aircraft crews use their 40mm Bofors guns in the support of ground operations in the environs of Goch (good loading and sustained fire sequences). British 51st Highland Division infantry (XXX Corps) move past a knocked-out Sherman Firefly tank on the outskirts of Goch. British Churchill (Mk VII ?) tank "Glossop" drives past the camera position. Low-level aerial footage shows the extent of flooding in the area between Nijmegen and Cleve. A British Kangaroo armoured personnel carrier "Merlin" carries smiling British infantry past the camera position, its extrovert commander wearing a top hat and waving an umbrella. A column of German Army and Luftwaffe Field Unit prisoners march down an unidentified road. British Archer tank destroyers fire their 17-pounder guns at high elevation. Operational footage shows the Allied bombing raid on Lüneburg. Stock shots show an RAF Hawker Typhoon fighter aircraft of 174 Squadron in flight. Allied camera gun footage shows interdiction attacks on German positions using rocket projectiles, and the destruction of German Focke-Wulf Fw 190A, Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-9 and Messerschmitt Bf 11O fighter aircraft on the ground.
  • Alternative Title:
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised: Yes
  • Object_Number: WPN 203
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1945-03-26
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Ministry of Information, Middle East (Production sponsor) War Pictorial News (Production company) Martin, Charles (Production individual) Keating, Rex1910-02-142005-01British newsreel commentator, WW2 period (Production cast)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Montgomery, Bernard Law (person) United States Army (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: reconstruction, French (object name) destruction, French military - aimed: bomb (object name) combat, United States (object name) operations, United States military - sortie (object name) prisoners of war, German - movement (object name) combat, British - air strike (object name) destruction, German military - area (object name) Germany & Ruhr, River (geography) Germany & Goch (geography) Germany & Duren, North Rhine-Westphalia (geography) Germany & Pforzheim (geography) Germany & Lüneburg (geography)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English Title language: English Subtitle language: Arabic
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 917 ft; Running time: 10 mins
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    WPN 203

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