Title:SELF-PROPELLED ARTILLERY IN ACTION WITH THE 50TH (NORTHUMBRIAN) DIVISION (PART 2) [Allocated Title]
Film Number:A70 45-8
Other titles:AN AERIAL PANORAMA OF 'GOLD' BEACH (PART 1) [Allocated Title]
Summary: Two sequences showing Allied activities in Normandy, 12 June 1944.
Description: I. A troop of Sexton 25-pounder self-propelled guns belonging to 90th Field Regiment RA's 465 Battery bombards German positions delaying 69th Brigade's advance in the St-Pierre Le Haut d'Audrieu sector from their gun-lines near Martragny. During a pause in the firing, a gunner pulls-through the gun barrel of an 'F' troop Sexton. A Sexton rumbles across country in a cloud of dust to a new firing position; butterflies flit over the ripening wheat in the foreground.
II. Filming from a Taylorcraft Auster spotter plane belonging to 658 AOP Squadron's 'B' Flight, the cameraman flies over a British encampment in 'bocage' country near Bayeux, part of the city of Bayeux itself, then over the site of an apparently intact German sea-warning radar station at Buhot ringed with craters, along a stretch of land behind behind 'Gold' Beach between Arromanches and Le Hamel dotted with vehicles and stores dumps, with a backwater of scuttled ships (a Gooseberry) belonging to 'Mulberry B' visible off shore in the background, and an improvised landing strip at Asnelles where RAF Spitfires raise dust while taxiing.
Alternative Title:AN AERIAL PANORAMA OF 'GOLD' BEACH (PART 1) [Allocated Title]
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Parkinson (Sergeant) (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, Bde 69 (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Artillery, Field Regiment 90, Bty 465 (regiment/service)
Royal Air Force (regiment/service)
Royal Air Force, AOP Sqdn 658 & Flight B (regiment/service)
Keywords: aircraft, British - combat: Supermarine Spitfire (object name)
aircraft, British - light military: Taylorcraft Auster spotter plane (object name)
animals, insects: butterfly (object name)
armour, British - SPG: Sexton 25-pounder (object name)
combat, British - bombardment (object name)
defences, German - emplacement: sea-warning radar station (object name)
engineering, military, British - Mulberry: blockship breakwater (object name)
Arromanches-les-Bains, Calvados, France (geography)
Asnelles, Calvados, France (geography)
Bayeux, Calvados, France (geography)
Le Buhot, Calvados, France (geography)
Le Hamel, Calvados, France (geography)
Martragny, Calvados, France (geography)
Saint Pierre, Le Haut d'Audrieu, France (geography)