WOMEN AT WAR [Main Title]

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Media files

  • Title: WOMEN AT WAR [Main Title]
  • Film Number: BTF 405
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: Survey of women working on the Great Western Railway.
  • Description: Reel 1 (960 ft): Sequence portraying early days of war with general scenes of railway workers (men). Recruitment of women. Women as porters, driving electric trucks, cleaning carriages, ticket collector, tending draft horse, driving and maintaining road truck. More recruitment, training women guards, engineers etc. Reel 2 (1015 ft): Women as goods train guards, shunters, signal box operators. Women in engine sheds, at docks, cleaning locomotives. Women maintaining track, making concrete sleepers, fitting sleeper chairs. Operating dockside crane, changing signal oil lamps on gantries, maintaining telephone equipment. Reel 3 (1075 ft): More men depart to war. Women stacking timber, assisting riveters, painting vehicles, heavy engineering work. Station announcer, ticket office, "caller-up" (calling up railwaymen at home at short notice). Painting side of bridge. Stores, policewomen, whitewashing platform edge. Dismantling bogeys of railway carriage. Cloakroom attendants, catering supplies, refreshment rooms (Paddington and Exeter). Women workers' welfare - canteens, rest rooms, caring administration. Telephone enquiry office - women take cover under desks and continue to answer calls during an air raid.
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM (BTF 405)
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1945
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Topical Press Agency Commercial and Educational Films Department (Production company) Phillips, Frank19011980 (Production cast)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Great Western Railway (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: economics, British national - employment: railway workers (object name) transport, British civilian - rail (object name) (concept)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound
  • Technical Details: Number of items/reels/tapes: 3 Footage: 3050 ft; Running time: 34 mins
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Notes: Related material: BTF 405A - Silent version with intertitles; BTF 405B - Short version (single reel 1410 ft); BTF 405X - Cuts. The film was also issued on a FAME videocassette "Women at War" (coupled with "Ladies Only", BTF 106) - a copy is held in the video room at All Saints. Remarks: covers much the same ground as the Southern Railway film BUNDLES FOR BERLIN (BTF 107), at greater length but with a patronising tone. Additional summary data: JF, JS.
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    BTF 405

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:
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