Title:HIS MAJESTY THE KING IN FRANCE [Allocated Title]
Film Number:BCY 15
Other titles:
Summary: Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes showing HM King George VI inspecting French and British troops in the Saar sector of the Allied frontline during his first visit to France following the outbreak of war in September 1939.
Description: I. Filmed on a dull winter's day at the edge of a wood in the Saar sector of the Allied front, King George VI walks along a road at the head of a procession of senior British and French Army officers after an inspection of one of the Maginot Line forts and makes his way onto a review stand cut into an embankment. With General Maurice Gamelin, French Army Commander-in-Chief, General Lord Gort, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), the Duke of Gloucester and everybody else in their places, the King takes the salute as French Army bandsmen wearing long sleeved white gloves marches past followed by the colour party of the French Army's 80th Infantry Regiment and men of the 2nd Battalion Sherwood Foresters. The Sherwood Foresters are all wearing steel helmets and the new British Army battledress. French troops complete the procession as the daylight worsens.
II. In the village of Kédange-sur-Canner (?), the King, in company with British and French officers, inspects British troops on parade outside the house used as their headquarters. Also present are the Duke of Gloucester and General Lord Gort, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). French Army bandsmen march past British troops (probably 2nd Sherwood Foresters) whilst playing their instruments. British soldiers on sentry duty stand to attention as the King emerges from the headquarters building, gets into the back of a big black French limousine and is driven away. The French Army bandsmen file past the camera. A shot filmed for cutaway purposes showing British soldiers sloping and presenting arms with their SMLE Mk III rifles. British soldiers standing around after the parade has ended stamp their feet on the ground to stay warm.
Production Details: Universal (Production company)
Noble, R (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: George VI, King (person)
Vereker, John Standish Surtees Prendergast (6th Viscount Gort) (person)
Gamelin, Maurice G (person)
British Expeditionary Force (1939-1940) (regiment/service)
British Army, Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment), 2nd Battalion (regiment/service)
French Army (regiment/service)
Keywords: Kédange-sur-Canner, Moselle, France (geography)
Phoney War 1939-1940, Second World War (event)
British Army 1939-1945 (theme)
France and the Low Countries 1939-1940 (theme)
