REINFORCEMENTS MOVE UP TO 8TH CORPS' FRONT SOUTH OF CAUMONT [Allocated Title]


  • Title: REINFORCEMENTS MOVE UP TO 8TH CORPS' FRONT SOUTH OF CAUMONT [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: A70 113-12
  • Other titles:
  • Summary:
  • Description: On the 31st July 1944, an M10 self-propelled gun rumbles through the cross-roads village of St Martin des Besaces past a derelict boutique whose balcony sports the naked top halfs of two female dummies. On the next day, August 1st, the rifle companies of the 3rd Battalion Irish Guards march in single file along the road from St Martin des Besaces overlooking the road towards Le Tourneur. Among the vehicles seen from a first floor window are a Morris Quad tractor towing a 17-pounder anti-tank gun and a Bedford 15cwt truck, all from the 21st Anti-Tank Regiment RA, and an Inns of Court Regiment "sawn-off" Daimler armoured car; heading in the opposite direction is a Humber III recce car from 8th Corps' HQ defence company. Tanks and armoured cars, trucks and despatch riders, and a lone civilian lorry with two men riding shot-gun race up and down a tree-lined section of the St Martin-Catheolles road near Les Houdant (?)
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1944-08-01
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor) Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company) Palmer, F A W (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:
  • Keywords: transport, British military - truck: Bedford 15cwt 4x2 (object name) armour, British - armoured car: Staghound (object name) armour, British - armoured car: Daimler (object name) transport, British military - truck, special: Morris Quad 4x4 tractor (object name) weapons, British - gun [AA]: 17-pounder gun (object name) armour, British - armoured car: Humber III light reconnaissance car (object name) Normandy, France (geography)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Footage: 195 ft; Running time: 2 mins
  • Notes: Note: See with A70 113-3 and 119-3 and 4 for material showing the Guards Armoured Division in action in the 'bocage' and refer generally to footage showing 8th Corps formations taking part in "Bluecoat". The sight of the female dummies seen here on the balcony of a derelict boutique was alleged to have disturbed the mental equilibrium of those Presbyterians in the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry. Remarks: Best seen with items of footage listed above. Documentation/associated material: for a bibliography, refer to the first two items listed in A70 102-4 and 'The History of the Irish Guards in the 2nd World War' by Fitzgerald. The incident involving the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry and the female dummies is quoted in 'The Story of the 23rd Hussars 1940-1946' - a jibe at the Scottish perhaps?
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    A70 113-12

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