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Other titles:AMATEUR FILM BY MAJOR ALBERT ERIC TITLEY [Alternative Title]
Summary: Amateur film with intertitles, filmed by Major Albert Eric Titley while serving with his local Home Guard unit in Wiltshire during the Second World War.
Description: FOUGASSE: A practical demonstration of how to make a flame fougasse, an improvised mine constructed by making a hollow in the ground and filling it with explosives and projectiles. Soldiers digging trench and laying pipe upright in hole. Explosives are then loaded into the pipe. A quantity of fuel is poured around the area and ignited, resulting in a substantial explosion.
HEDGE HOPPER: A variant of a flame fougasse known as the hedge hopper is demonstrated in the grounds of a large country property (possibly of 18th century origin).
DEMIGASSE: A simpler version of a flame fougasse, the demigasse is demonstrated.
HARVEY FLAMETHROWER: Intended for static defence, the Harvey flamethrower a contraption featuring a cylinder mounted on wheels with a length of hose attached to the cylinder, is demonstrated with spectacular results.
HOME GUARD FLAMETHROWER: A small semi-mobile flame trap, the Home Guard flamethrower is ably demonstrated.
MOBILE FLAMETHROWER: Using flamethrowers fitted to Bren carriers, the Home Guard unit demonstrates very effectively a number of mobile flamethrowers.
Technical Details: Format: 16mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 180ft; Running time: 7 mins
HD Media:Yes
Notes: Acquisition: Extracts from notes made by Eric Titley's daughter, Jessica Bolton:
"In 1916 on leaving school Eric joined up as an officer in the 2nd Battalion, The Devonshire Regiment and as a Captain, won the Military Cross for his action at Moreuil Wood in March 1918, and was also mentioned in dispatches. He was subsequently wounded in April 1918 at Villers Brettonneux and in May his poor mother received a letter of condolence from a friend who had heard of Eric's "death". Fortunately he survived to return to Cambridge and his studies, where he became Captain of Cricket and Rugby football. An illustrious career in the field of Education followed: He became a master at Marlborough College and a charismatic teacher whose many pupils such as Sir John Betjeman never forgot him and kept in touch until his death. After leaving Marlborough where he had taught for 28 years, he joined the Ministry of Education as a schools inspector and many were the schools who benefited from his expertise. At one convent he was very popular with the nuns and they used to knit him socks and scarves. In 1937, when Eric was housemaster at Littlefield, Marlborough College, he married Betty Giles. In 1939 their son Colin was born followed by Jessica in 1942. However, in 1940 after WW2 broke out, he left Betty in charge of a house of 60 schoolboys and took up a post as Lt Colonel in charge of the travelling training wing of the Home Guard, where his teaching skills were appreciated and he had a hand in making and blowing up bombs on Salisbury Plain."
