AUSTRALIANS ON THE WESTERN FRONT [Main Title]

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  • Title: AUSTRALIANS ON THE WESTERN FRONT [Main Title]
  • Film Number: IWM 331
  • Other titles: AUSTRALIANS IN PERONNE (ledger title) [Alternative Title]
  • Summary: The Australian Corps in the Advance to Victory, showing Péronne after its capture and the rear areas, Western Front, September 1918.
  • Description: (Reel 1) Péronne was captured by Australian 5th Division on 3rd September, but this film concentrates on events behind the lines two weeks later. Wagons, including some field gun limbers and GS wagons carrying hay, move up over a stream. The Corps commander, General Monash, directs William Hughes, the Prime Minister of Australia, Lord Burnham, owner of the Daily Telegraph, and Sir Thomas Marlowe, editor of the Daily Mail, over a temporary bridge. Although Marlowe is in civilian clothes Burnham wears the uniform of a colonel. In the main square at Péronne they meet General Sir Henry Rawlinson, Fourth Army commander, and men of Australian 4th Division on 16th September. After posing for photographs the newsmen are shown over the battlefield. An Australian column in full marching kit and bush hats passes over a temporary bridge, many men cheering the camera as it pans over them. (Reel 2) Australian 5th Division sports, starting with a band leading a marchpast, then a tug of war and two heats of a hurdling race. At Mont Saint Quentin a memorial in the form of a Celtic cross is unveiled to the dead of Australian 53rd Battalion. The wreaths are laid and the escort party fires into the air in salute, after which the memorial is unveiled. Australian troops listen to an address (speaker not seen).
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM (IWM 331)
  • Featured Period: 1914-1918
  • Production Date: 1918
  • Production Country: Australia
  • Production Details: Australian War Records Section (Production sponsor) Wilkins, George Hubert18881958Australian explorer and photographer. (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Monash, John (person) Hughes, William T (person) Burnham (Baron) (person) Marlowe, Thomas (person) Rawlinson, Henry Seymour (person) Australian Army, Australian Imperial Force, 4th Division (regiment/service) Australian Army, Australian Imperial Force, 5th Division (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: journalism and record, British - press (object name) delegations, British Imperial - goodwill (object name) supplies, Australian, movement [RA] - misc (object name) recreation, Australian military - sport: athletics (object name) ceremonies, Australian - event-related: memorial service (object name) 01/3(4-15).9 (event) Péronne, Somme, France (geography) Mont Saint Quentin, Aisne, France (geography) camera (concept)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 2 Footage: 518 ft; Running time: 9 mins
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Notes: Title: this is taken from the shotsheet. The alternative title has been taken from the store ledger Production: Australian official film acquired by the WOCC in the exchange of 1918
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    IWM 331

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