Title:IRISH TROOPS ON THE MARCH - TRANSPORT BREN CARRIERS [Allocated Title]
Film Number:BCY 1
Other titles:
Summary: Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes showing an Irish battalion taking its place in the line in northern France with the British Expeditionary Force, 17 October 1939.
Description: Vehicles belonging to 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers motor through the outskirts of the village of Gavrelle between Arras and Douai on a wet day - they comprise a single Humber (?) shooting brake staff car, a procession of Morris-Commercial trucks carrying stores and a detachment manning a Bren light machine gun on aircraft lookout duty and scout carriers. Soldiers from the Royal Irish Fusiliers are seen wearing waterproof capes and steel helmets as they march along in close order. They wave when they notice the camera. When the rain stops, they are seen marching along in the new British Army Battle Dress in single file on both sides of a country road. They are all wearing gas mask satchels on their chests. The cameraman does his best to make the story interesting by altering the composition of his shots to include, at one point, a French soldier and his son (?) watching the foreign soldiers marching by. A brief poorly-lit interior shot showing somebody standing at a window pushing net curtains aside.
Production Details: Universal News (Production company)
Noble, R (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's), 1st Battalion (regiment/service)
Keywords: Gavrelle, 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)
