WAR PICTORIAL NEWS NO 196 [Main Title]
Log in to create clips, download free screeners and save clips/films in Collections.
Click here to find out more.
- Title: WAR PICTORIAL NEWS NO 196 [Main Title]
- Film Number: WPN 196
- Other titles:
- Summary: Western Front - the Battle of the Ardennes.
- Description: I. 'WESTERN FRONT-THE BATTLE OF THE ARDENNES.' British M4 Sherman Crab (and Lobster ?) flail tanks and an M4 Tankdozer move along a Belgian country road (possibly elements of the British XXX Corps). A detachment of British infantry armed with Lee-Enfield .303-inch No.IV rifles cross a narrow watercourse in a collapsible boat. A British infantryman fires a Bren .303-inch light machine gun at an unseen aerial target. Canadian Universal carriers drive along railway tracks during operations in the environs of the Scheldt Estuary. Elements of the Canadian First Army enter Breda (Belgium). The commentary outlines Allied military dispositions prior to the German offensive in the Ardennes in December 1944 (Operation Wacht am Rhein). A map shows the extent of the German offensive thrust towards Bastogne. United States (US) infantry help Belgian civilian refugees from the back of a soft-skinned vehicle. Civilian refugees walk past a bullet-pocket road sign that reads "Bastogne." US military police check the identity cards of civilian Luxembourgeois at a checkpoint on the Bastogne-Martelange road (due to the heightened security alert following the infiltration of Skorzeny's 150 Pz Brigade "Greif" commandos dressed in US uniforms). US M7 105mm self-propelled gun stands parked by the side of the road at the checkpoint as US soft-skins drive past in convoy. Aerial footage shows Royal Air Force (RAF) Hawker Typhoon Mk IB fighters of 175 Squadron peeling off to attack ground targets with rocket projectiles. Camera gun footage shows Typhoon rocket attacks on German soft-skins, the pilot using a burst of 20mm cannon fire for sighting purposes prior to the release of his rockets. Captured German footage shows Waffen SS troopers armed with Kar 98k 7.92mm rifles and StG 44 7.92mm assault rifles advancing past a burning US White half-track. Waffen SS troopers gather near a knocked-out US M8 armoured car to enjoy a "Camel" cigarette from captured US supplies. A late-production German Jagdpanzer IV (with 7.5cm STuK 42 L/70 gun) of SS-Panzerjäger-abteilung 1 drives past the camera position. Two Waffen SS troopers walk past the knocked-out M8 armoured car carrying a 9mm MP40 sub-machine gun and a captured US M1 .30-inch carbine. A Steyr 1500A/02 soft-skinned vehicle of Kampfgruppe Hansen drives on a road in the direction of Recht. United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Douglas C-47 transport aircraft drop supplies by parachute over snow covered terrain in support of the beleaguered US 101st Airborne Division and 10th Armoured Division at Bastogne. Late-production German Jagdpanzer IV tank destroyer carries tank descent infantry on its hull. A pair of German 15cm Schweres Infanteriegeschütz 33/1 auf Gw 38 self-propelled guns fire a barrage at high elevation. German PzKpfw VI Königstiger (King Tiger) tank 222 of I SS Pz Div drives through the Kaiserbaracke crossroads on the (N23) road between Saint-Vith and Malmédy (tank carries Fallschirmjäger airborne troops on its hull). German personnel from SS-Pz Auf.Kl.Abt.I sit in their Kfz 1/20 Schwimmwagen amphibious vehicle smoking cigars. Close up footage of one of the Schwimmwagen's passengers shows an SS-Unterscharführer evidently enjoying his cigar (SS-Unterscharführer Ochsner ?). A North American B-25 Mitchell bomber aircraft of 180 Squadron RAF, drops a stick of bombs on an unseen target. Stock shots show RAF Avro Lancaster bomber aircraft overflying a smoke-obscured target. British troops use a battery of captured German 8.8cm Flak guns (Flak 36 ?) in the ground role against their former owners. A British Churchill Crocodile flame-throwing tank fires its flame gun at unseen targets. British General Bernard Law Montgomery (Commander 21st Army Group) speaks to US General Matthew B Ridgway (Commander XVIII Airborne Corps) outside a building in wooded landscape (location probably XVIII Airborne Corps HQ in Harzé). British M4 Sherman tanks, Universal carriers and supporting infantry move along a snow-covered forest road (XXX Corps area ?). British XXX Corps M4 Sherman Fireflies (29th Armoured Brigade ?) drive through a snow covered hamlet. British Royal Tank Regiment M4 Sherman tank crews dressed in one-piece canvas tank coveralls warm themselves next to a brazier. A British M4 tank crewman brushes snow from the turret of his Sherman tank.
- Alternative Title:
- Colour: B&W
- Digitised: Yes
- Object_Number: WPN 196
- Sound: Sound
- Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
- Featured Period: 1939-1945
- Production Date: 1945-02-05
- Production Country: GB
- Production Details: Ministry of Information, Middle East (Production sponsor) War Pictorial News (Production company) Martin, Charles (Production individual) Keating, Rex1910-02-142005-01British newsreel commentator, WW2 period (Production cast)
- Personalities, Units and Organisations: Montgomery, Bernard Law (person) United States Army & Military Police (regiment/service) German Army (regiment/service)
- Keywords: combat, British (object name) operations, United States military - search (object name) combat, British - air strike (object name) operations, British military - movement: road (object name) operations, United States military - movement: road (object name) refugees, Belgian - flight (object name) operations, German military - sortie (object name) Second World War, North West Europe & Bulge, Battle of the & 16/12/1944 =4/2/1945 (event) Battle of the Bulge 1944-1945, German Ardennes Offensive, North West Europe, Second World War (event) Malmédy, Liège, Belgium (geography) Winter (concept)
- Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English Title language: English Subtitle language: Arabic
- Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 907 ft; Running time: 10 mins
- HD Media:Yes
- Link to IWM Collections page:
- Related IWM Collections Objects: