Title:I. CONSTRUCTING ROADS II. TROOPS EATING RATIONS III. A.T. AND FIELD GUN (SIC) DEMONSTRATION [Allocated Title]
Film Number:BBY 10
Other titles:
Summary: Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes showing British troops engaged in road construction and manning a pill box near the Franco-Belgian border.
Description: I. High contrast scenes filmed on a bright winter's day during the construction of a road in the sector held by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Soldiers (Royal Engineers or Pioneer Corps?) shovel asphalt off the back of a three ton lorry. They are wearing the new British Army battledress. A Thorneycroft (?) 6x4 lorry carrying men wearing steel helmets and greatcoats in the back is driven slowly past the men at work. Heavy tools similar in appearance to sink plungers are used to flatten a newly laid section of asphalt. A horse-drawn farmer's wagon loaded with hay makes its way past the road construction site. The road menders line up with their mess tins and are served by a Sergeant in charge of a dixie filled with hot tea. They sit down to eat sandwiches and drink their tea.
II. At Mouchin on the Franco-Belgian border, four British soldiers wheel a French Hotchkiss 25mm anti-tank cannon across a muddy field and manoeuvre it into a French-built pill box by the entrance at the back. The men (either 1st Loyals or 1st Royal Berkshires) are wearing 1924-pattern British Army service dress with SMLE Mk III rifles strapped to their backs. At the entrance to the pill box, the British have constructed a protective screen of sandbags held in place by wattle. Once inside, the soldiers spread the trails of the anti-tank gun. From behind the men crouched around the cannon, a view of the barrel of the Hotchkiss poking out of the pill box through the firing embrasure. An exterior view showing the muzzle with its prominent flash cover projecting beyond the embrasure at the front of the pill box as it is traversed through a restricted arc of fire. Additional shots showing the Hotchkiss cannon being wheeled into the pill box at the back and the crew closed up around the gun in the gloom inside the fortification.
III. A high contrast, back-lit view of British soldiers on the road construction detail at the edge of a wood. A soldier in serge overalls uses a knife to cut a slice of bread. Another man opens up a tin of butter and spreads the butter on a slice of bread with a knife.
Production Details: British Pathe (Production company)
Martin, C R (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Expeditionary Force (1939-1940) (regiment/service)
Keywords: Mouchin, Nord, France (geography)
Phoney War 1939-1940, Second World War (event)
British Army 1939-1945 (theme)
France and the Low Countries 1939-1940 (theme)
