Title:13.5 INCH RAILWAY-MOUNTED GUN AND CAPTURED GERMAN PILOT AT ST MARGARET'S BAY, KENT DURING BATTLE OF BRITAIN, 1940-1941 [Allocated Title]
Film Number:MGH 3992
Other titles:
Summary: Amateur film shot by Major Charles Montagu Andreae probably during the Battle of Britain records German shelling of Channel shipping, a downed Messerschmitt Bf 109 and captured German pilot near the site of the Royal Marines Siege Regiment's coastal defence 13.5-inch railway gun at St Margaret's Bay on the Kent coast.
Description: Lieutenant-Colonel (later Major-General) Halford David Fellowes, commanding Royal Marines Siege Regiment, lies on ground smoking cigarette next to Bren gun on anti-aircraft mount near site of 13.5-inch railway-mounted gun located at St Margaret's Bay, Kent. Shells (from German batteries at Cap Gris Nez?) drop in sea off shore beside Channel shipping. Vapour trails overhead. Boulton Paul Defiant fighter/trainer (of 141 or 264 Squadron) makes repeated low passes overhead in sunset. Wreckage of a single engine German aircraft, ie Messerschmitt Bf 109, burns in harvested (September) field; captured German pilot, still in lifejacket, faces camera, smiling. The 13.5-inch railway gun moves along rails and is elevated, fired and reloaded. (NB the gun was previously incorrectly identified as "Pooh" which was first fired in February 1941. However, the gun is railway-mounted and is probably either Gladiator, Piece Maker or Scene Shifter.)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Fellowes, Halford David (person)
Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Royal Marines Siege Regiment (regiment/service)
Keywords: aircraft, British - combat: Boulton Paul Defiant (object name)
aircraft, German - combat: Messerschmitt Bf 109 [destroyed] (object name)
prisoners of war, German - custody: fighter pilot during Battle of Britain (object name)
Saint Margarets Bay, Kent, England, UK (geography)
