Title:MEN EMBARKING ON CHRISTMAS LEAVE [Allocated Title]
Film Number:BCY 18
Other titles:
Summary: Unedited newsreel rushes showing personnel serving with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) who have been selected to spend Christmas leave in the United Kingdom as they board a cross-Channel steamer in Boulogne.
Description: Filmed from a crane overlooking the ferry quay at Boulogne, Army and Royal Air Force personnel serving with the British Expeditionary Force are seen using two gangways to board the Cross-Channel steamer SS Biarritz. Soldiers make their way below decks; they are wearing old and new-style ammunition pouches and webbing over their greatcoats and are in full service marching order (FSMO) and shouldering their SMLE Mk III rifles. Three soldiers on a lower deck don their life jackets. A group of soldiers standing on the quay smile and wave at the camera; they all have their gas mask satchels on. Several Frenchwomen wave goodbye to the men on board the ferry and throw packets of chocolate (?) to them. Two Guardsmen - the one on the left from the Coldstream Guards and the other one from the Grenadier Guards - try to catch the objects being thrown at them by the women. The Coldstream Guardsman unwraps his prize, a bar of chocolate (?). Soldiers wearing life jackets over their greatcoats line the railings the whole length of the port side of SS Biarritz. A late-comer carrying a kitbag and his steel helmet rushes along the quay to catch the ferry (the camera is undercranked - deliberately ? - at this point). A brief glimpse of soldiers crowding the ferry's upper decks. A Royal Air Force Coastal Command Avro Anson flies overhead. Filmed from one of the dock cranes, two French dock workers retrieve a wire as the gap between the quay and SS Biarritz's bow begins to widen. Views of the bow and the stern of the ferry as she picks up speed [the censor has cut the film at this point] for the short voyage to Folkestone. An interior view of curtains drawn over two of the ship's windows (?). Camera waste.
Production Details: Universal (Production company)
Noble, R (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Expeditionary Force (1939-1940) (regiment/service)
Keywords: Boulogne-sur-Mer, 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)
Royal Air Force 1939-1945 (theme)
Royal Air Force 1939-1945, Coastal Command (theme)
Merchant Navy 1939-1945 (theme)
