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Title:THE GUARDS IN ACTION ON THE CHÊNEDOLLÉ - BAS-PERRIER RIDGE [Allocated Title]
Film Number:A70 123-5
Other titles:
Summary: Incidents on the 1st Battalion Welsh Guard's sector of the front.
Description: Welsh Guardsmen relax in a farmyard at Chênedollé; one of their number looks up at an 'aerial' dog-fight taking place overhead. The crew of a 3rd Scots Guards Churchill tank have a 'brew-up' and, nearby, plans for a patrol into the Germans' lines are made at a forward observations post belonging to the Welsh Guards' No. 2 company. A four-man team makes its hazardous journey into enemy lines through a wheatfield. The patrol reports back at the company's command post bringing with it two German prisoners - of whom one is a Sturmgeschütz crewman - who are searched and then questioned. Churchill Mark VI gun-tanks and a Churchill ARV, all from the 3rd Scots Guards, make their way from Le Bas-Perrier to Chênedollé along a narrow 'bocage' lane. A kitten, adopted as a mascot by Irish Guardsmen, inspects its new home, a Sherman tank. Officers attend a conference held at the Welsh Guard's No. 2 company Headquarters. Six Guardsmen sit down to lunch using a captured Swastika flag as a tablecloth. Three-ton lorries bring up supplies for the 2nd Irish Guards through an orchard.
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: British Army, Welsh Guards, 1st Battalion (regiment/service)
British Army, Irish Guards, Armoured 2nd Battalion (regiment/service)
British Army, Guards Armoured Division (regiment/service)
British Army, Scots Guards, Tank 3rd Battalion (regiment/service)
British Army, Corps 8 (regiment/service)
British Army, Guards Tank Bde 6 (regiment/service)
British Army, Guards Bde 32 (regiment/service)
Keywords: armour, British - tank: Churchill (object name)
armour, British - funnies: Churchill ARV (object name)
armour, United States - tank: M4 Sherman & [British] (object name)
transport, British military - truck: Bedford 3-ton 4x4 QL (object name)
transport, British military - truck: Bedford 3-ton 4x2 (object name)
prisoners of war (object name)
animals, mammals: kitten (object name)
intelligence, military, British - reconnaissance (object name)
Normandy, France (geography)
Notes: Note: See with A70 123-6, 7 and 8 and 119-3 and 4 for footage showing the 6th Guards Tank Brigade and the 2nd Armoured Battalion Irish Guards in action in the 'bocage'. The 3rd Tank Battalion Scots Guards included a Major William Whitelaw in its ranks. His first day in action, coinciding with the beginning of "Bluecoat", saw nearly his entire Churchill squadron wiped out by 3 Jagdpanthers.
Remarks: Good action footage. Best seen with items of footage listed above.
Documentation/associated material: for a bibliography, refer to the first two items listed in A70 107-4 and L F Ellis' 'The Welsh Guards at War' and D Erskine's 'The Scots Guards 1919-1955'.
