Summary: Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes featuring Lord Gort, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, an army postal sorting office and a British armoured reconnaissance unit.
Description: I. General Lord Gort, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, arrives at the farm in the village of Templeuve near the Franco-Belgian frontier where the headquarters of the 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders is billeted and proceeds to inspect the barns where the soldiers are quartered.
II. Lord Gort carries a map case as he strides through the front gate of his billet, the Chateau le Couroy, in the village Avesnes-le-Comte, followed by other members of his staff. Charles Martin of British Pathé News can be seen filming the scenes with his Newman-Sinclair camera in the background. Inside, the Conmmander-in-Chief is seen in conversation with Lieutenant-General Sir John Dill, commander of I Corps, and Lieutenant-General Alan Brooke, commander of II Corps. Scottish troops (Gordon Highlanders) wearing kilts and old style military tunics fill sandbags with soil and dig trenches at Templeuve.
III. Scenes inside an Army Post Office in a village near Arras in northern France where sacks of mail from the United Kingdom are emptied and sorted out for onward delivery by members of the postal unit.
IV. Low angle static views and travelling shots of Morris CS9 armoured car detachments and motorcyclists belonging to 'C' Squadron in the 12th Royal Lancers motoring along a road outside the village of Villers-Sir-Simon. Morris armoured cars are seen parked in a farmyard and setting off on patrol through the village.
Production Details: British Paramount News (Production company)
Bayliss, Frederick W "Fred"Paramount News (Production individual)
Martin, C R (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Vereker, John Standish Surtees Prendergast (6th Viscount Gort) (person)
Dill, John Greer (person)
Brooke, Alan Francis (person)
British Army (regiment/service)
British Army, 12th (Prince of Wales's Royal) Lancers (regiment/service)
British Expeditionary Force (regiment/service)
British Army, Gordon Highlanders, 1st Battalion (regiment/service)
Keywords: Avesnes-le-Comte, Pas-de-Calais, France (geography)
Templeuve, Nord, France (geography)
Villers-Sir-Simon, Pas-de-Calais, France (geography)
Phoney War 1939-1940, Second World War (event)
Armoured Warfare 1939-1945 (theme)
British Army 1939-1945 (theme)
France and the Low Countries 1939-1940 (theme)
