Summary: Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes showing an Irish infantry battalion serving with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in northern France.
Description: I. A travelling shot from a vehicle showing men serving with the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers marching along a section of the N421, the main road between Arras and Douai; many of the soldiers are wearing waterproof capes over their new British Army battledress, 1937-pattern webbing and the gas mask satchels they are wearing on their chests. Some are wheeling bicycles. They are accompanied by the battalion's pipes and drum band that plays as it marches along. The musicians take up position at a crossroads in the village of Gavrelle and keep playing as the rest of the battalion leaves the main road. Watching the foreign troops marching through Gavrelle are two French farmers who are leading their horse-drawn wagon laden with sugar beet and a small number of villagers.
II. A travelling shot past men from the 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers forming up along the edge of the N421 between Arras and Douai in pouring rain. A column of Morris-Commercial trucks and a motorcycle despatch rider motor along the road past the infantrymen, followed by scout carriers - eight in total - from the Royal Fusiliers' carrier platoon. The men form up in the road in ranks of three and, protected from the rain by their waterproof capes, start to march along the wet tarmac.
Production Details: British Movietone News (Production company)
Cotter, J (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's), 1st Battalion (regiment/service)
British Expeditionary Force (1939-1940) (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)
