(I) KIT INSPECTION (II) BREN CARRIERS (III) BAYONET FIGHTING PRACTICE AT SACKS (IV) DEMONSTRATION OF BREN GUN FOR A.A. WORK (V) 3-INCH T.M. DEMONSTRATION [Allocated Title]
Title:(I) KIT INSPECTION (II) BREN CARRIERS (III) BAYONET FIGHTING PRACTICE AT SACKS (IV) DEMONSTRATION OF BREN GUN FOR A.A. WORK (V) 3-INCH T.M. DEMONSTRATION [Allocated Title]
Film Number:BDY 2
Other titles:
Summary: An unidentified infantry unit serving with the British Expeditionary Force in northern France trains for modern warfare.
Description: I. About sixteen men serving with an infantry battalion (possibly the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusilliers) line up in front of their billets in a village (possibly Gavrelle between Arras and Douai) for a kit inspection under the watchful eye of their non-commissioned officers. Each man has his kit - waterproof cape, blanket, towel, spare clothing, mess tins, knife and fork, soap, shaving kit, polish for boots and webbing etc - laid out on sections of tarpaulin for inspection by his platoon or company commander. Infantrymen on parade with their rifles in the village.
II. A row of scout carriers is seen parked along the edge of a field and covered up with camouflage netting. Members of an infantry battalion's carrier platoon (1st Royal Irish Fusiliers ?) rush to remove the camouflage netting and jump into their vehicles. A total of six scout carriers heads off on manoeuvres. A French farming family watches the carrier platoon motor past their home. The column makes its way along a farm track and onto a main road through a farm gate; bringing up the rear is a Morris-Commercial CS8 15-cwt truck.
III. Four teams of soldiers, each consisting of a gunner and loader, are taught by instructors how to use a Bren gun to shoot down low-flying enemy aircraft; each weapon is attached to a pintle mounted on tripod legs.
IV. Infantrymen armed with SMLE Mk III rifles with fixed bayonets and wearing gas masks take part in bayonet practice on five large sacks of straw left on the ground by their instructor. The camera films each time a bayonet is used to stab a sack of straw. The soldiers repeat the exercise without gas masks.
V. An infantry detachment manning a weapons pit in the middle of a field rush to man their Bren gun which is attached to an anti-aircraft gun mounting. They pretend to open fire on a low-flying enemy aircraft. All the soldiers seen here are wearing the new British Army battledress and 1937-pattern webbing and gas mask satchels on their chests.
VI. Members of a six-man mortar detachment unpack the component parts of a 3-inch mortar from the back of their Morris-Commercial CS8 truck concealed under camouflage netting. Wearing steel helmets covered with leaves, the men make their way through a sugar beet field and set up the 3-inch mortar. They go through the motions of operating the weapon but no mortar rounds are in fact fired.
Production Details: British Movietone News (Production company)
Cotter, J (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army (regiment/service)
British Expeditionary Force (regiment/service)
Keywords: France (geography)
Phoney War 1939-1940, Second World War (event)
Camouflage (theme)
Chemical Warfare (theme)
British Army 1939-1945 (theme)
France and the Low Countries 1939-1940 (theme)
