Title:59TH (STAFFORDSHIRE) DIVISION'S OPERATIONS ON THE BRETTEVILLETTE-NOYERS SECTOR OF 30TH CORPS' FRONT (PART 1) [Allocated Title]
Film Number:A70 83-4
Other titles:
Summary: Coverage of the first few hours of Operation Pomegranate, a spoiling attack put in by 30th Corps primarily intended to force the Germans to commit their Panzer reserves.
Description: 5.5-inch guns belonging to the 121st (West Riding) Medium Regiment Royal Artillery's 276 Battery lay down a pre-dawn barrage on German positions opposite 59th (Staffordshire) Division's sector of the front. Men serving with the 2/5th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers march through the battered village of Fontenay-Le-Pesnel on their way to join 197th Brigade north west of Brettevillette. German prisoners from the 276th Infantry Division are escorted to the rear past the fusiliers who make their way to their start-line. A regiment from the 33rd Armoured Brigade lends weight to 59th Division's assault on Brettevillette; several Shermans (most probably belonging to 144th Royal Armoured Corps) have run onto British land mines laid across 197th Brigade's sector and are no longer 'runners'. A Crusader AA tank from 144th RAC's HQ Squadron's AA Troop is seen advancing through ripening wheat with the rest of the regiment.
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Carpenter, L (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, Div 59 (regiment/service)
British Army, Bde, Armoured, 33 (regiment/service)
British Army, Bde 197 (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Armoured Corps, Regiment 144 (regiment/service)
British Army, East Lancashire Regiment, 8th Battalion (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Artillery, Medium Regiment 121, Bty 276 (regiment/service)
British Army, Lancashire Fusiliers, 2/5th Battalion (regiment/service)
German Army, Div, Infantry, 276 (regiment/service)
Keywords: weapons, British - gun: 5.5-inch gun (object name)
combat, British - artillery bombardment (object name)
operations, British military - movement: march (object name)
armour, United States - tank: M4 Sherman & [British] & [damaged] (object name)
armour, British - tank: Crusader AA (object name)
prisoners of war, German - movement (object name)
Operation Pomegranate 1944, North West Europe, Second World War (event)
Fontenay-le-Pesnel, Calvados, France (geography)
Bretteville, Manche, France (geography)
