THE LANCASHIRE FUSILIERS [Main Title]

Metadata

  • Title: THE LANCASHIRE FUSILIERS [Main Title]
  • Film Number: IWM 415
  • Other titles: THE BRITISH REGIMENTS [Allocated Series Title]
  • Summary: I. Probably 1st Battalion, the Lancashire Fusiliers, Western Front, autumn 1917. II. A mass burial by soldiers of the British Army on the Western Front, 1916-1918.
  • Description: A company resting. A long queue of soldiers in the camp is served with rations. Physical training exercises in the open air include a 'duck walk' and tossing a man in the air up a line. Bayonet drill for two opposing lines. The battalion marches along a dirt road while its band plays beside it. The grave site is close to the battlefield and transport can be seen passing up a road in the background. The corpses are wrapped in shrouds and brought on stretchers to the mass grave, with an escort of soldiers. The battalion chaplain reads the burial service as the shrouded corpses are lowered, with some difficulty, into the grave. Some of the men handling the bodies are clearly distressed. The troops throw handfuls of earth down into the graves as the chaplain says a final prayer.
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1914-1918
  • Production Date: 1918-02
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: War Office Cinema Committee (Production sponsor) Topical Film Company (Production company)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, Lancashire Fusiliers, 1st Battalion (regiment/service) British Army (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: operations, British military - routine (object name) training, British military (object name) religion, Christianity - military, British (object name) ceremonies, British - event-related: funeral (object name) casualties, British graves - battlefield: [+] (object name) 01/3(4-15).7 (event) 01/3(4-15) (event) France (geography) Belgium (geography) France (geography) 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: 613 ft; Running time: 10 mins
  • Notes: Summary: it is likely that the opening sequence represents the incomplete film of the battalion, and the burial service is an accidental addition. See also IWM 388 and the rest of the series Remarks: the burial service sequence is a very moving piece of film, and an excellent example of its type
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    IWM 415

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