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Title:ROAD CLEARANCE, CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR IN NORMANDY (PART 4) [Allocated Title]
Film Number:A70 57-7
Other titles:
Summary: As elsewhere in Calvados, a village ("Jerusalem") torn apart by the fighting between the British and German armies in Normandy is demolished in order to provide material for road construction and to allow military traffic unimpeded access to the front line.
Description: Traffic bound for and returning from 50th (Northumbrian) Division's front south of Tilly-sur-Seulles and La Belle-Epine dashes to and fro along the Bayeux-Tilly road through Jerusalem where men serving with 73rd Field Company Royal Engineers are engaged in knocking down wrecked buildings and cleaning up the crossroads. Mechanical excavators are seen clearing away rubble from the wreckage and dumping it into Dodge and Dennis 3-ton tipper lorries. Two bulldozers (one an armoured variant from 14th Assault Park Squadron RE) assist the excavators in the clearance operations. A sapper examines a gaily coloured photograph album found in the ruins.
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Ginger (Sergeant) (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, Div 50 (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Engineers, Field Coy 73 (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Engineers, Assault Park Squadron 14 (regiment/service)
Keywords: operations, British military - movement: road (object name)
engineering, military, British: road building (object name)
demolition, British - safety (object name)
transport, British military - engineering: excavator (object name)
transport, British military - engineering: bulldozer (object name)
transport, British military - truck: Dennis 3-ton tipper truck (object name)
transport, United States military - truck: Dodge 3-ton tipper truck & [British] (object name)
armour, British - funnies: armoured bulldozer (object name)
Second World War, North West Europe & Operation Overlord & 24/6/1944 (event)
Bayeux-Tilly-sur-Seulles Road, Jerusalem, Calvados, France (geography)
Notes: Summary: for footage similar to this showing road construction, demolition work, clearance operations and quarrying, refer to A70 46-1, A70 54-2 and -3, A70 55-3, A70 56-1, A70 63-7, -8 and -9, A70 79-1, A70 80-3, A70 94-4 and -5, A70 108-1 and -2, A70 117-1 and -2 and A70 149-1 (airfield repairs). Refer also to A70 41-4 and A70 43-4 for ciné material showing the passage of 5th Division troops through Jerusalem.
Remarks: good footage in which the fate of dozens of towns and villages caught up in the Normandy campaign is typified in the physical extinction of the crossroads hamlet seen here. Best seen with the items of ciné material listed above. For a bibliography, refer to the publications listed in A70 54-2.
