Summary: Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes showing armoured cars and heavy artillery in service with the British Expeditionary Force in northern France, circa 25 October 1939.
Description: I. Morris CS9 armoured cars and motorcyclists belonging to 'C' Squadron of the 12th Royal Lancers motor through the village of Villers-Sir-Simon, a farming village 18 miles west of Arras. A study of the open turret on one Morris CS9 armoured car where the armament consists of one .5-inch Boyes anti-tank rifle, a smoke projector and a .303-inch Bren light machine gun. A trooper from the 12th Royal Lancers on duty with a Bren gun on an anti-aircraft mounting in the village whilst local civilian horse-drawn traffic and British Army vehicles pass by. Two Morris CS9 armoured cars and their crews in a farm courtyard. Filmed from a first floor window overlooking a road junction, two troops of armoured cars and motorcyclists are seen heading through the village from opposite directions. A travelling shot as the cameraman overtakes a troop of three Morris CS9 armoured cars on a country road.
II. A Morris-Commercial truck arrives at a camp established by a heavy artillery unit (possibly 1st Heavy Regiment RA) in a wood somewhere in the British Expeditionary Force sector in northern France and its occupants serve up a hot meal for the gunners. Men sit down to eat their food around open fires among the trees. A First World War vintage Ordnance BL 6-inch 26cwt howitzer and its ammunition limber are towed into the wood by a Scammel Pioneer artillery tractor. Gunners manhandle the large artillery piece into position. A 6x4 workshop (?) lorry and two 6-inch howitzers are seen in position among the trees. The road running through the wood is used by the artillery unit as its main supply route. A detachment of gunners marches past the sentry standing guard at the entrance to the wood. Gunners dig a channel for a small stream in the wood in order to ensure that their gun site does not become flooded. Gunners are given a lift in a Morris-Commercial truck and two Scammell Pioneers pull 6-inch howitzers and ammunition limbers head out of the wood. The camera keeps running briefly although it is pointed at the ground.
Production Details: Universal News (Production company)
Noble, R (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, 12th (Prince of Wales's Royal) Lancers (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Artillery (regiment/service)
British Expeditionary Force (regiment/service)
Keywords: Villers-Sir-Simon, Pas-de-Calais, France (geography)
Phoney War 1939-1940, Second World War (event)
Armoured Warfare 1939-1945 (theme)
British Army 1939-1945 (theme)
France and the Low Countries 1939-1940 (theme)
