Title:GUN CAMOUFLAGE WITH BRANCHES [Allocated Title]
Film Number:BBY 3
Other titles:
Summary: Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes showing a heavy artillery regiment in service with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and off-duty moments for British soldiers in France, October 1939.
Description: I. Gunners serving with 1st Heavy Regiment Royal Artillery's 5th Battery cover their Vickers BL 8-inch Mk VIII howitzer in position at the edge of a wood with branches. Gunners billeted in a farm near Auchy-en-Bois (?) camouflage their 8-inch howitzer with straw.
II. British soldiers billetted in a village near Arras in northern France dash from their billets by the front door and run to an officer who has arrived with mail from home. British soldiers stroll around the town and purchase sweets and cigarettes from an army shop whose shop counter consists of a window opening out onto the street. British soldiers share their ration of sweets and apples with local French children. A Lance Corporal blows on his bugle to announce the arrival of mail from home. Soldiers dash out of their billets and form ranks. The lucky ones disperse with letters etc from home. One man sits down in a doorway to read his mail.
Production Details: British Pathe (Production company)
Martin, C R (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Expeditionary Force (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Artillery, 1st Heavy Regiment (regiment/service)
Keywords: France (geography)
Phoney War 1939-1940, Second World War (event)
British Army 1939-1945 (theme)
Camouflage (theme)
France and the Low Countries 1939-1940 (theme)
