Summary: Unedited and uncensored newsreel footage showing the President of the French Republic, M. Albert Lebrun, inspecting British troops in Arras at the beginning of his official visit to the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in northern France.
Description: Part I. The Commander-in-Chief of the BEF, General Lord Gort, President Lebrun, and the French Army Commander-in-Chief, General Maurice Gamelin are seen standing to attention (as an anthem is played ?) in the square outside the main railway station at Arras. Gort leans forward to say something to the French president. Accompanied by Gort, Gamelin, the commander of the Guards battalion, the senior French liaison officer at BEF General Headquarters, General Vaduz, and General Gamelin and his aide-de-camp, President Lebrun inspects a Guard of Honour consisting of men from the Welsh Guards.
Part II. A large Guard of Honour composed of tall British soldiers from the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards is seen standing to attention in the square outside Arras mainline station. The men are wearing steel helmets and have their gas mask satchels slung over their left shoulder at the back. It is a dull winter's day and the road surface is damp. A French policeman and several armed French soldiers are seen on crowd control duty, stamping their feet to keep warm. A small number of local townspeople has gathered to witness the occasion.
Production Details: British Paramount News (Production company)
Bayliss, Frederick W "Fred"Paramount News (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Vereker, John Standish Surtees Prendergast (6th Viscount Gort) (person)
Gamelin, Maurice G (person)
Lebrun, Albert (person)
British Expeditionary Force (1939-1940) (regiment/service)
British Army, Welsh Guards, 1st Battalion (regiment/service)
Keywords: Arras, Pas-de-Calais, France (geography)
Phoney War 1939-1940, Second World War (event)
British Army 1939-1945 (theme)
France and the Low Countries 1939-1940 (theme)
