Title:(I) LIGHT TANKS ON THE MOVE - AT REST; (II) BREN CARRIERS [Allocated Title]
Film Number:BAY 2
Other titles:
Summary: Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes showing an exercise with light reconnaissance tanks and infantry carriers armed with machine guns and anti-tank rifles near Vimy in northern France by the 13th/18th Royal Hussars, a motorised cavalry regiment attached to the British Expeditionary Force's 1st Division, 11 October 1939.
Description: Troop commanders and their non-commissioned officers hold order groups and join their Vickers Mk VI light tanks and scout carriers. An officer kneels next to a Boyes anti-tank gunner at the edge of a field of sugar beet. Troopers camouflage their scout carriers with tree branches on top of camouflage netting. Camouflage is removed from one scout carrier. A .5-inch Boyes anti-tank gun protrudes from the firing port of a scout carrier. Two scout carriers motor past a line of war correspondents' cars. A Vickers Mk VI light tank has difficulty negotiating a ditch. Scout carriers motor across an arable field. The driver of a Vickers Mk VI tank is seen at the driving controls. A column of light tanks and scout carriers races along a bend in a country road (the camera is probably under-cranked to make its subjects look as if they are travelling more quickly). Among the carriers deploying in a field is an early example of a universal carrier armed with a Boyes anti-tank rifle and a Bren gun on an anti-aircraft pintle mounting. Two troopers who have dismounted from their carrier simulate opening fire on a low-flying enemy aircraft with their Bren gun fitted to an anti-aircraft pintle mounting on tripod legs. Camouflaged scout carriers at the edge of a field. A Bren gunner lying in a prone firing position among sugar beet. Two Boyes anti-tank teams dismount from their scout carriers and take up an ambush position at the edge of a sugar beet field. Universal and scout carriers and a Vickers Mk VI light tank on the move. In a nearby village, the crew of a scout carrier parked by the edge of a river or canal scrub the mud off the vehicle. A farmyard is seen in use as a temporary tank park by the 13th/18th Royal Hussars.
Production Details: British Paramount News (Production company)
Bayliss, Frederick W "Fred"Paramount News (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, 13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary's Own) (regiment/service)
British Army, 1st Division (regiment/service)
British Expeditionary Force (regiment/service)
Keywords: France (geography)
Phoney War 1939-1940, Second World War (event)
Armoured Warfare 1939-1945 (theme)
British Army 1939-1945 (theme)
Camouflage (theme)
France and the Low Countries 1939-1940 (theme)
Tanks and Armoured Fighting Vehicles 1939-1945 (theme)
