Title:BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN AND CONVALESCENCE IN TUNISIA, CAIRO AND PALESTINE [Allocated Title]
Film Number:MGH 3649
Other titles:AMATEUR FILM BY SERGEANT LESLIE BROWER [Alternative Title]
Summary: Amateur film without titles shot by Sergeant Leslie Brower, a signaller in the 2nd Battalion Royal Horse Artillery, records military action in the Western Desert during the Eighth Army offensive of 1942, then off-duty scenes in Tunisia, Egypt and Palestine after his hospitalisation with infectious hepatitis.
Description: The film begins with scenes of Brower and other soldiers shaving, checking equipment, operating signalling equipment (Brower’s commentary indicates that these scenes might even have been taken during lulls in battle). The ‘H’ flag of Brower’s battery is shown fluttering in the breeze. Shot of a battle column (tanks, armoured cars, etc.) on tarmac road. A sandstorm (in the Qattara Depression?). Sequences of battle: vehicles alight on horizon; billowing columns of smoke; low passes by fighter planes (Allied and enemy? Second low pass shot is identifiable from decals as Allied); images of heavy artillery firing. The sequences include shot of an man identified by Brower as a Sergeant Major Smith crouching behind a vehicle with binoculars during a bombardment, and holding up an unexploded shell for the camera (Brower’s commentary indicates the shell may still have been live). (Smith also seen walking through sandstorm with loudhailer?) Shots of vehicles mired in the sand of the Qattara Depression; Brower’s description of events indicate these shots probably taken earlier than the action shots that precede them. Remainder of film shot while Brower was convalescing from a sever bout of infectious hepatitis, and includes scenes in Egypt (Cairo, the pyramids, local people, camels trains etc.), Tunisia (shots unidentified), and scenes shot on leave visit to Palestine (inc. various shots in Jerusalem). A long train journey may be between Egypt and Palestine? There are various shots of a zoo, sequences of social life, including a game of pin-the-tail-on-the donkey, and a long sequence of swimming and diving in a swimming pool. The film ends with further shots of the pyramids, and images of hieroglyphs.
Alternative Title:AMATEUR FILM BY SERGEANT LESLIE BROWER [Alternative Title]
Colour:B&W
Digitised:No
Object_Number:MGH 3649
Sound:Silent
Access Conditions:NON-IWM
Featured Period:
Production Date:1942
Production Country:
Production Details: Brower, Leslie (Production individual)
