Title:SCENES OF DEVASTATION IN GERMANY IN 1946 AND SCENES OF RELAXATION IN THE BRITISH ZONE OF OCCUPATION OF AUSTRIA IN 1947-1948 [Allocated Title]
Film Number:MGH 6771
Other titles:AMATEUR FILM BY MAJOR FREDERICK COOKE-HURLE [Alternative Title]
Summary: Amateur film shot by Major Frederick Joseph Cooke-Hurle of the Somerset Light Infantry while serving in the British Occupation Zone of Germany, and later in the British Occupation Zone of Austria, conveys the extent of devastation still visible in Germany in the summer of 1946, the overgrown remnants of Belsen Concentration Camp in 1946, a visit to Denmark, off-duty scenes in Carinthia, a parade by the Somerset Light Infantry, and a village in Kenya during the Mau Mau Uprising in 1954.
Description: Reel 1: (Can marked Rhine, Germany, Submarines) Victory Bridge constructed by Royal Engineers (Transportation) and Pioneer Corps, over River Rhine. Tracking shot from train passing wrecked Horsa gliders and crashed Dakotas in overgrown and unharvested fields (since Allied Airborne crossing of Rhine - Operation Varsity, 24 March 1945), Wesel signal box, US goods wagon beside railway. 504/720 (L/R) DET Allied Military Government sign in Hanover (Hannover), and extensive damage to factory and railway infrastructure. Large crowd of well dressed German civilians queuing. Large industrial complex with smoke issuing from chimney (sole indication in film of industrial activity in summer 1946). Railway station of Hamm (West). British soldier throws sweets (?) to begging German children running along beside track, although they scatter when train meets points. Small vessel Clara at sea; sunken vessels in Elbe Estuary; north shore of Elbe outside Hamburg. DEMAG crane [shot reversed]. U-boat sections abandoned before construction. Spire of St Michaelis Church, Hamburg. Damaged shipyards of Hamburg include collapsed U-boat pen; close-up of U-boats, surrounded by scaffolding. Museum (?) overlooking one of the Alster lakes in Hamburg. German anti-aircraft Flak Tower, with one entrance marked Hotel Post. Sign Wilstedt, Kreis Bremervörde in Lower Saxony; church, with British Army officers posing in group, then with Army padré. Barracks building with German workers outside and messy room with hunter trophy antlers and German uniforms inside (possible connection with the SS Barracks near Belsen?). Sign "This is the site of the Infamous Belsen Concentration Camp liberated by the British on 15 April 1945"; Belsen crematorium, with British soldier demonstrating how corpses were fed into oven. Sign "Grave No 2. 5,000 23 April 1945". Camera pans across site, revealing brick buildings, barbed wire and water tank satill standing, though German lorry loaded with bricks indicates start of dismantling of the site. Outlying barracks block. Elderly RN commander on bridge of German vessel; large swordfish hoisted onto deck and carved up.(19 minutes 23 seconds)
Reel 2: Shell-pocked sign "Ringsted" (Denmark) and view of Saint Bendt's Church. Lady beside British Army jeep hands out sweets to Dansih children; many Danish girls with bicycles outside Saint Bendt's. British Army officer (with moustache) approaches camera. Pan over large church and sign of company Th Rasmussen. British officer with Danish lady. Goods train embarks onto car ferry; interior of train, with lady eating. (2 minutes 36 seconds)
Reel 3: (Can marked Austria) "Dixie Films" "Klagenfurt Races 1947": British Army riders, and one French officer wearing képi, on the racecourse, prior to steeple chase race. Major Cooke-Hurle's wife Moira also rides. "Exercise in the Snow - St Paul [im Lavanthal]" British Army soldier leads horse from Austrian stables in town. Mrs Cooke-Hurle with Dixie (Alsatian dog); also Stardust, Victoria and Cavalcade (horses) being broken or exercised in snow. "Exercise in the Sun - St Paul" Major and Mrs Cooke-Hurle enjoy riding, with other Army officers, who have assistance of grooms. "Natashya - Moira up", "Stardust - Ellis up": Colour film of Moira and man jumping over steeple chases fences then riding in Alpine valley in summer and climbing on foot up steep valley. Moira in blue dress. Major Cooke-Hurle playing with his Alsatian Dixie outside his Austrian billet. (9 minutes 50 seconds)
Reel 4: "St Paul Austria 1947-1948" Views of the town of St Paul im Lavanthal. "St Paul from 'Dracula's Castle'". "Afternoon Siesta and Tea", Moira playing with Dixie. "British Zone Austria Frontier Control Post at Lavamünd" on the frontier between Austria and Yugoslavia. "Power dam Lavamünd". Tourist scenes of Venice and Vienna, including Gloriette at Schönbrunn Palace and St Stephen's Cathedral both with scaffolding presumably for repair of bomb damage. (14 minutes)
Reel 5: (Kodak stock date 1949) Parade in bad weather by Somerset Light Infantry on parade ground, then marching with rifles carried at the trail, through English town (probably Taunton, Somerset). (1 minute 23 seconds)
Reel 6: (Can marked Mau Mau, Kodak stock date 1954) Scenes in African village in Kenya, with two white officers talking to African men and youths (no women visible), apparently on amicable terms. (Possibly Kenya Home Guard? Major Cooke-Hurle was posted to Kenya to serve in the King's African Rifles, before returning to the UK in 1957.) (1 minute 53 seconds)
Alternative Title:AMATEUR FILM BY MAJOR FREDERICK COOKE-HURLE [Alternative Title]
