MR OLIVER STANLEY, SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR, WITH BEF IN FRANCE [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: MR OLIVER STANLEY, SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR, WITH BEF IN FRANCE [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: BDY 36
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes showing troops serving with the British Expeditionary Force's 2nd Division wearing improvised winter camouflage uniforms and a tour of inspection of defences being built in 1st Division's sector near the Franco-Belgian border by the new Secretary of State for War, Oliver Stanley MC.
  • Description: Part I. Scenes showing an Ordnance QF 2-pounder anti-tank gun detachment belonging to 44th Battery, 13th Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery, in the middle of a field covered with several inches of snow at Beuvry-la-Forêt. The gun is covered with camouflage netting, strips of white cotton and white cotton sheets have been draped over the gun shield and around the gun barrel. Its crew has camouflaged itself in identical fashion. An anti-tank gunner armed with a Bren gun is lying on the ground in a prone firing position close by. He and his gun are also camouflaged with white cotton sheets. All twelve members of the 2-pounder anti-tank gun detachment stand to attention in their improvised winter camouflage overalls and helmet covers. Another crew in winter camouflage is seen closed up around their 2-pounder anti-tank gun. A two-man Bren gun team is seen nearby; the gunner inserts a new magazine passed to him by his Number 2. Part II. Wearing a dark coat and homburg hat, Oliver Stanley, the new Secretary of State for War, tours a sector of the BEF's zone of operations close to the Franco-Belgian border in terrain covered in snow. Accompanying him is General Alexander, commander of the 1st Division, General Lord Gort VC, Commander-in-Chief of the BEF (wearing his usual gabardine coat), and several senior staff officers. Alexander, in dress uniform, uses his swagger stick to point out on his map the layout of his division's defences. Stanley's party files along a path formed by barbed wire 'knife' barriers at Bercu. With them is Field Marshal Milne, Chief of Imperial General Staff from 1926 to 1933, seen here wearing a 'British warm'. Stanley surveys the countryside as snow falls. Scene outside a farmhouse used as a headquarters by a 1st Division unit; a Guard of Honour comes to attention as Stanley, Gort and their entourage emerge to continue their tour of inspection in the staff cars parked in the road. The minister is introduced to the officers of a Scottish infantry regiment in the courtyard of their farmhouse billet by their commanding officer. Part III. Camouflaged with white sheets, an Ordnance QF 2-pounder anti-tank gun detachment (possibly the same one seen earlier by the road) is seen in position on a grass verge with a good field of fire over the road nearby. Part IV. Stanley's party heads across the snow-covered countryside and inspects a forest of steel reinforcing rods rising out of the foundations of a pill box being built by Royal Engineers in 1st Division's sector at Bachy (?) while Alexander provides a running commentary. He is seen pointing out local tactical features to the VIP party, which at this point includes Lieutenant-General Sir John Dill, commander of I Corps. In the village of Bachy, Alexander looks on as Stanley and Gort inspect a Guard of Honour belonging to an infantry unit under his command, the 2nd Battalion Sherwood Foresters, as snow falls. Both men engage members of the Guard of Honour in conversation. Views through the loopholes of a pillbox in the course of being built of Gort leading Stanley across country. The VIP party continues its cross-country walk. Stanley chats to an artillery officer at Ouvrignies. Gort leads the procession through a farm gate, followed by Alexander who engages his Commander-in-Chief in conversation, and the war minister. At Rue Blonde outside the village of Genech, Stanley's party makes its way across churned up soil to a large anti-tank ditch which is being dug with a civilian mechanical excavator on caterpillar tracks; the completed sections of the ditch have been revetted with timber props. Filmed from the ditch itself, Stanley is seen taking a close interest as the excavator does its work while Gort, Alexander and the rest of the VIP party stand a safe distance away. A bulldozer is seen moving earth in the background.
  • Alternative Title:
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: BDY 36
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1940-02-15
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: British Paramount News (Production company) Bayliss, Frederick W "Fred"Paramount News (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Stanley, Oliver Frederick George (person) Vereker, John Standish Surtees Prendergast (6th Viscount Gort) (person) Alexander, Harold (1st Earl Alexander of Tunis) (person) Milne, George Francis (person) Dill, John Greer (person) British Expeditionary Force (1939-1940) (regiment/service) British Army, Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment), 2nd Battalion (regiment/service) British Army, Royal Artillery, 13th Anti-Tank Regiment (regiment/service) British Army, Royal Engineers, 135th Excavator Company (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Beuvry, Pas-de-Calais, France (geography) Bachy, Nord, France (geography) Bercu, Nord, France (geography) Ouvignies, Nord, France (geography) Genech, Nord, France (geography) Rue Blonde, Genech, Nord, France (geography) Phoney War 1939-1940, Second World War (event) France and the Low Countries 1939-1940 (theme) Camouflage (theme) British Army 1939-1945 (theme)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 398 ft; Running time: 4 mins 25 secs
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  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    BDY 36

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