WAR OFFICE OFFICIAL TOPICAL BUDGET 324-1 [Main Title]

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  • Title: WAR OFFICE OFFICIAL TOPICAL BUDGET 324-1 [Main Title]
  • Film Number: NTB 324-1
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: I. Carrier pigeons in military service. II. Italian artillery in the mountains. III. The Polish Legion is honoured by the French. IV. The French occupy a shattered blockhouse during the Battle of Passchendaele, and improve their own defences.
  • Description: I. 'THE PIGEON AS POSTMAN. Taken up on motor cycle to the trenches the birds except for casualties, never fail to reach "home" behind the lines where the telegraphist sends on the message.' Pigeons are put in baskets for transport by motorcycles. In a training trench a RE Captain writes down a message which is put in capsule. The pigeon is released. Pigeons return to their roost and the messages are relayed by morse sender. CU of the message form carried by a pigeon: the sender is Captain H Dickinson, 31/10/1917, and the message is 'PLEASE DO NOT SHOOT HOMING PIGEONS. THEY ARE PERFORMING VALUABLE NATIONAL WORK.' II. 'GREAT ITALIAN STAND. It is believed that when the Germans advance again Italy with her British and French Allies will put up one of the greatest battles in history. One of the big Italian guns which will keep the enemy at bay.' Italian crew serve a 30.5cm Vickers-Terni howitzer (M1916 ?) emplaced in mountainous terrain. The gun is fired. LS of an explosion on a mountain ridge beyond a dense belt of pine trees. The men run to reload the gun. III. 'POLISH LEGION IN FRANCE. General Archinard distributes honours to the gallant survivors of the Polish Legion which marched from Bayonne to fight beside the French in 1914.' The General inspects the ranks. He decorates officers and a soldier wearing a dramatic head bandage. MCU as an officer holds out the regimental banner - a Polish eagle. The banner's cravat bears an inscription testifying to Franco-Polish friendship. The troops march past - in the background are huts, each bearing an Allied flag - US, Japanese, Italian, etc. IV. 'PUSHING ON IN FLANDERS. Enemy bombarding territory wrested from them by the French. Striking specimen of a shell crater and abandoned German blockhouse.' LS over churned-up ground with shattered trees and dotted with a few crosses - shells explode in the distance - a lorry moves left to right along an invisible road - perhaps the target for the bombardment. HA.MS of a man standing in a deep shell hole - he begins to climb out. French troops shelter in a ruined German blockhouse - the concrete structure seems to have partially subsided into a flooded shell hole - several Frenchmen approach this pool, one unbuttoning his trousers determinedly. A French soldier sits up against the ruin reading, while a second sleeps in the sunlight. 'WATCHERS AND WORKERS. While the guns never cease observation is kept while pioneers and engineers reorganise the hard won ground as a jumping off place for the next push.' French soldiers, spades held over their shoulders, walk along duckboard. A length of trench is dug. Men observe the enemy from a ramshackle position made up of timber and corrugated iron. LS over the devastated ground of no-man's land as German shells burst over an already devastated wood. Troops rest in the shelter of a sandbagged breastwork. LS of another airburst. Troops prepare to take up a length of corrugated iron laid by the side of the road - a wagon carrying duckboards moves along the track past a stationary lorry.
  • Alternative Title:
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised: Yes
  • Object_Number: NTB 324-1
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM (NTB 324-1)
  • Featured Period: 1914-1918
  • Production Date: 1917-11-08
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: War Office (Production sponsor) Topical Film Company (Production company)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Dickinson, H (person) Archinard, Louis (person) British Army, Royal Engineers (regiment/service) Royal Italian Army & Artillery (regiment/service) French Army (regiment/service) Polish Army, Chasseurs, Bn 1 (regiment/service) French Army, Army 1 & Corps 1 (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: animals, birds: pigeon (object name) communications, British military - message: carrier pigeon (object name) communications, British military - wire: telegraph (object name) transport, British military - 2/3 wheel: motorcycle (object name) combat, Italian - artillery bombardment (object name) weapons, Italian - gun: 30.5cm howitzer (object name) ceremonies, Polish - event-related: investiture (object name) delegations, French international - military: General Archinard visits Polish troops (object name) society, Polish military - friendship (object name) combat, German - artillery bombardment [D] (object name) defences, German - emplacement: blockhouse & [captured] & [wrecked] (object name) engineering, military, French: trench building (object name) operations, French military - sortie (object name) Italy (geography) France (geography) Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium (geography)
  • 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: 351 ft; Running time: 4 mins
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    NTB 324-1

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