THE C-IN-C ATTENDS ARMISTICE DAY CELEBRATIONS AT A FRENCH WAR MEMORIAL [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: THE C-IN-C ATTENDS ARMISTICE DAY CELEBRATIONS AT A FRENCH WAR MEMORIAL [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: BBY 6
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes showing a shot down Luftwaffe bomber in French hands, General Lord Gort, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), British troops attending Armistice Day commemorations, British troops engaged on building work at an engineering stores depot and Dominion ministers visiting BEF General Headquarters (GHQ).
  • Description: I. Filmed on a bright winter's day, a flat bed trailer carrying the fuselage of a shot down Heinkel He 111 with a conspicuous unit emblem, a heraldic shield depicting an eagle with outstretched wings (possibly belonging to Kampfgeschwader 4), is towed by a Citroen Kegresse P14 (?) half-track prime mover through the centre of Roye, a town 40 kilometres south east of Amiens, watched by curious French soldiers and civilians. French Armée de l'Air personnel in dark uniforms are seen riding in the aircraft and on the trailer, which, in addition to the fuselage, is also carrying the tail section and the port wing and engine nacelle. A large Laffly (?) lorry fitted with a van body and carrying a French Air Force emblem tows a second trailer carrying the Heinkel's port outer wing section and most of the starboard wing, with the starboard engine nacelle stowed at the back. II. Filmed in poor light on 11 November 1939 outside the village of Souchez at the memorial at Notre Dame de Florette to First World War French soldiers, a procession of senior British and French military officers and diplomats including General Lord Gort, the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), passes the camera on their way to their places for the Armistice Day ceremony. Scenes from a considerable distance of Lord Gort and the rest of the officers at attention standing at attention and saluting as the Guard of Honour composed of British troops (possibly the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards) presents arms; the BEF C-in-C and his ADC, who is holding a large wreath, steps forward but one of the low stone corner markers at the base of the memorial obscures the next stage of the ceremony. The French Catholic priest conducting the service steps forward to enter the doorway at the foot of the memorial tower. Gort and all the other British and French officers salute the memorial while the Guard of Honour once more presents arms. Filmed from the other side of the saluting base, the senior commanders review a march past by a detachment of buglers and the Guard of Honour (in the new British Army battledress) from the Welsh Guards (?); in the background is a newsreel cameraman filming the ceremony from the roof of his car with a cine camera fitted with a 400-foot film magazine. III. Scenes filmed in alternately dull and good light at the site of a base depot being built for the Royal Engineers outside Rennes, Brittany. Men from a Scottish battalion assigned to labouring duties, seen here wearing tam o'shanters, waterproof capes and greatcoats against the rain, unload wooden planks from the back of a Bedford lorry and pushing the vehicle out of a patch of muddy ground when it gets stuck. A long shed built from prefabricated sections is seen under construction in the background. Scottish soldiers in pairs carry steel girders with L-shaped cross sections and lay them flat on the ground next to each other. A view of the site showing a double tracked railway line being laid in the foreground. Men are seen hammering in steel pins fixing the rails to the sleepers on the railway. Scottish soldiers make light work of unloading sheets of corrugated iron by swinging them onto the ground. Men wearing the new British Army battledress shovel soil off a low railway wagon onto the ground. Some Scottish soldiers wearing the old 1924-pattern service dress mill about whilst others carry sections of the steel girders with the L-shaped cross section over the muddy ground. Pioneer Corps labourers are seen wearing gas masks as they dig a step into the soil and shovel the soil onto the railway wagons behind them; at one point, another newsreel cameraman holding a Bell and Howell Eyemo camera (?) (probably Ronnie Noble of Universal News) steps into the shot. The labourers shovel loose soil onto the railway line and pack the earth under the sleepers and the low embankment supporting the railway line. Scottish soldiers who have taken off their greatcoats now the rain has stopped falling roll steel girders off a railway wagon and stack them neatly in a big pile; others are seen carrying big heavy railway sleepers from open railway wagons and stacking them on the ground. Pioneers shovel soil from the step they are cutting and cast it into the railway wagons behind them. IV. A glimpse of a man standing at the doorway at the base of the memorial tower at Notre Dame de Florette. Establishing shots filmed in dull light showing the memorial tower, similar in shape to an old lighthouse, and a chapel nearby built in honour of the French soldiers who died in action there in the First World War. V. Scenes at the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the British Expeditionary Force at the Chateau de Cauroy, Avesnes-le-Comte, during a visit by government ministers from the Dominions; Anthony Eden, Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs in Neville Chamberlain's wartime cabinet, introduces General Lord Gort to Crerar, Canadian Minister for Mines, and Sir Muhammed Zafrullah Khan, lawyer, diplomat and a member of the Viceroy of India's Executive Council, with Colonel Denys Reitz, South African Minister for Native Affairs (a big stocky man) on the steps leading to the chateau's front door. Gort and his guests make their way into the building past the Duke of Gloucester who shakes them by the hand. The Duke, Gort's most senior liaison officer, is seen standing around and chatting to officers on Gort's staff. VI. An establishing shot filmed on a dull, misty day from a first floor window overlooking the main square in Bersée, a village situated between Carvin and Orchies near the Franco-Belgian border. The French Tricolour and the Union Jack fly from a first floor window; in the foreground, local schoolchildren line the pavement. A nun from a teaching order leads a process of infants dressed for the cold out of a church; the children at the head of the crocodile pause to pose for the camera. The children are led to their places in front of the adults lining the square by the nun and one of the mothers with the help of a local gendarme and French soldiers as British troops march into the square. Views from the first floor overlooking the mist-covered square as school children are led to their places; in the background, British troops drawn up on parade in front of a First World War memorial topped by the statue of a 'Poilu' present arms. British and French officers in the square give a salute, watched by the children at the edge of the square. The Briton lays a wreath at the base of the memorial, steps back and salutes as the camera tilts up to the Tricolour flying at the top of the flag pole half-hidden in mist. British and French troops are seen on parade in the square whilst a young girl presents the British officer with a floral bouquet. VII. Pioneers are seen digging a deep and wide trench at the Royal Engineers base depot at Rennes. They don their gas masks and carry on using their spades and pick axes.
  • Alternative Title:
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised: No
  • Object_Number: BBY 6
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1939-11-11
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: British Pathe (Production company) Martin, C R (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Vereker, John Standish Surtees Prendergast (6th Viscount Gort) (person) Henry, Prince (Duke of Gloucester) (person) Crerar, Thomas Alexander (person) Khan, Muhammed Zafrulla (person) Reitz, Denys (person) Eden, (Robert) Anthony (person) British Expeditionary Force (1939-1940) (regiment/service) German Air Force (Third Reich) (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Avesnes-le-Comte, Pas-de-Calais, France (geography) Rennes, Ille-et-Vilaine, France (geography) Souchez, Pas-de-Calais, France (geography) Bersée, Nord, France (geography) Roye, Somme, France (geography) Notre Dame de Florette, Souchez (geography) Phoney War 1939-1940, Second World War (event) British Army 1939-1945 (theme) France and the Low Countries 1939-1940 (theme) German Air Force 1939-1945 (theme)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 833 feet; Running time: 9 mins 15 secs
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    BBY 6

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:

    BCY 6 (TROOPS DISEMBARKING [Allocated Title])
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