Title:BRITISH TROOPS CAPTURE THE PORT OF LE HAVRE [Allocated Title]
Film Number:A70 158-1
Other titles:
Summary: Operation "Astonia" comes to a successful and brief conclusion.
Description: Armed members of the local FFI movement welcome the 7th RTR's 'B' squadron. British infantrymen from the 49th (West Riding) Division march into the battered city of Le Havre. Seen marching into captivity in the custody of British troops and the FFI are some of 11,000 German troops found in the city when the siege ended. The Resistance appears to join in the action in what seems to be a staged action sequence and organises a motorised patrol through the streets. Kriegsmarine personnel are marched off to temporary POW cages. Evidence of the ferocity of the pounding, which both Le Havre's German defenders and its remaining inhabitants had to endure, is found in the acres of gutted and flattened buildings and rubble-choked streets. A ceremony in honour of the civilian casualties of the bombing is held by French city officials and the FFI in company with Lieutenant-General Sir John Crocker, 1st Corps commander, and his HQ staff in the Place Monument aux Mortes. The camera reveals the extent of the devastation in the docks. Kriegsmarine and Wehrmacht personnel leave their barracks for the last time.
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Connolly, J R (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Crocker, John Tredinnick (person)
Forces Francaises de l'Interieur (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Tank Regiment, 7th Battalion (regiment/service)
British Army, Bde, Tank, 34 (regiment/service)
British Army, Div 49 (regiment/service)
Canadian Army, Army 1 (regiment/service)
British Army, Corps 1 (regiment/service)
Keywords: signs, military and civilian (object name)
combat, French military - irregular: streetfighting (object name)
ceremonies, French - event-related: commemoration of civilian casualities (object name)
destruction, French military - area: bomb (object name)
prisoners of war, German - custody (object name)
weapons, British - smallarm: Hotchkiss machine gun (object name)
Operation Astonia, Le Havre 1944, North West Europe, Second World War (event)
Place Monument aux Mortes, Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, France (geography)
