B.E.F. IN BELGIUM [Allocated Title]

Log in to create clips, download free screeners and save clips/films in Collections. Click here to find out more.

  • Title: B.E.F. IN BELGIUM [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: BDY 67
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes, partly filmed with sound, showing the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) advancing into Belgium to occupy the Dyle Line east of Brussels at the start of the German 'Blitzkrieg' offensive in western Europe and defending the city of Louvain as Belgian refugees flee the fighting.
  • Description: Part I. Scenes filmed with a sound camera on 14 May 1940, the fourth day of the German 'Blitzkrieg' offensive in western Europe: views down the utterly deserted Avenue des Alliés in the centre of Louvain and the Town Hall and St Peter's Cathedral overlooking the Place du Maréchal Foch. Belgian refugees including a girl carrying a doll in her arms in one hand and a small case in the other make they way on foot at a street junction on the main road leading to Tienen south east of the city past abandoned tramcars ready to be made into a road block (?). A view of a building on a street corner destroyed by German bombing, with rubble and roof timbers spilled out onto the street; nearby, a few Belgian and British soldiers patrol the empty streets.Travelling and static shots of the wrecked building and two Belgian soldiers in the same street. Six Britons - two infantrymen, the rest war correspondents and their driver - listen to a BBC news broadcast from a portable radio resting on the bonnet of their Humber (?) car (British Army registration number M6258); the only audible words coming from the radio are "...subject of the German invasion of Holland again". Scenes filmed from the roof of a camera car with wide angle and long lenses on Louvain's ring road showing the 3rd British Division's mechanised cavalry regiment, the 15th/19th Hussars, pulling back from the frontline on the city's south eastern outskirts along the Tiensesteenweg. The street is lined by two-storey terraced buildings that have either received direct hits from German bombing or have been badly damaged by bomb blast. At the end of the road can be seen a road block manned jointly by Belgian and British troops that forces the military traffic to follow an S bend in order to get past it. The noise made by motor engines and caterpillar tracks is picked up by the sound camera as the vehicles approach. Seen travelling in both directions are Belgian troops riding on a motorcycle combination and on a bicycle. The British vehicles seen here are Vickers Mk VIB light tanks, scout carriers (armed with Boys anti-tank rifles and Bren guns), motorcycle despatch riders and Morris 8- or 15-cwt trucks. The tracked vehicles have been camouflaged by their crews with tree branches. The vehicles are spaced widely apart and the tank turrets on the light tanks are all pointing in the direction of the advancing enemy. Among the column of tracked and wheeled vehicles heading back into Louvain, a scout carrier manned by the Hussars, a Dragon IID artillery tractor towing an Ordnance QF 2-pounder anti-tank gun belonging to the 20th Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery, and a Vickers Mk VIB light tank "Bear" belonging to the 15th/19th Hussars' 'B' Squadron pivot on their tracks to make a sharp left hand turn as they reach Louvain's ring road and end up facing in the opposite direction (i.e. facing the enemy). Following "Bear" is a motorcycle combination carrying four Belgian soldiers (including the driver). Filmed on a long lens, a man with a rolled-up umbrella in one hand and a bowler hat and a suit that make him look like Charlie Chaplin stares at the devastation as he makes his way along Tiensesteenweg past two wrecked civilian cars. More refugees - mainly women and girls with their belongings strapped to bicycles, on their backs and carried in their hands - head towards the camera away from the enemy. A travelling shot from a point in the street between the anti-tank barrier and the ring road junction past a big bomb crater in the middle of Tiensesteenweg; lying upside down at the bottom is a British Dragon artillery tractor. A static view of the two-storey terrace buildings next to the bomb crater in the road; their roof tiles, window frames and doorways have been blown in by the force of the bomb blast. A long lens view of the roadblock erected at the far end of the road; Belgian troops are seen on duty by the row of steel anti-tank barriers known as 'Belgian Gates' whilst British soldiers man the second barrier nearest the camera that consists of 'knife rests' and uncoiled barbed wire stretched across the road. Off screen, people can be heard chattering away in English. Camera waste 460-467 feet. Part II. Silent scenes filmed on 11 May, twenty four hours after the beginning of Hitler's offensive in the West as the BEF advances into Belgium to take up positions on the River Dyle east of Brussels. A shot of a roadsign for Route Nationale 41 somewhere between Lens and Lille in northern France. A top shot overlooking a road junction in the Belgian town of Vilvoorde north east of Brussels with only a few of its inhabitants in the street; a road sign in the foreground points the way to Brussels and Antwerp. Tracking and static shots on the main road through Vilvoorde (?) as two Vickers Mk VIB light tanks on 7.5-ton six-wheeled light recovery trailers are towed by Karrier (?) 6x4 lorries towards the BEF front line along the River Dyle; each vehicle carries a white triangular formation (?) sign. A few Belgian civilians in the street greet passing British Army vehicles. Another view, this time from ground level, of the road junction in Vilvoorde in use by units of the 3rd British Division heading for Louvain. Part III. Silent scenes filmed outside Louvain showing British soldiers, probably Royal Army Supply Corps (RASC) drivers, looking after Belgian refugees travelling on foot in family groups carryng as much of their belongings as they can carry or transport on bicycles; the drivers supply the refugees with mugs of water and soup or hot tea served from a bucket. The refugees may be pleased to be fed and watered by the foreign soldiers but they are reluctant to oblige the cameraman by putting on a smile for him, especially a young mother looking after her infant. However, one of the refugees is happy to accept the cigarettes offered him by one of the soldiers. As the refugees continue on their way, another group arrives and receives water and soup/hot tea from the RASC men. A view partly obscured by telephone wires of two distant German aircraft, possibly Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombers, in the sky. Views filmed from the roof of a camera car at a road junction in the middle of the country showing refugees on foot, wheeling bicycles and in a farm cart making their way along a road that leads through open fields. Part IV. Silent scenes filmed in Louvain, showing debris from a building on the city ring road destroyed by a direct hit from a Luftwaffe bomb. Nearby, British soldiers from an infantry battalion serving with the 3rd Division are seen manning a Hotchkiss 25mm anti-tank gun position ined with bomb rubble and sandbags and with a clear field of fire along the Tiensesteenweg. Two British soldiers and a War Office (?) stills photographer (wearing an officer's dress uniform) walk down a narrow street off the Tiensesteenweg partly wrecked by bombing and stand in the ruins of a house. Small groups of refugees, mainly women and teenage girls, make their way on foot along Tiensesteenweg carrying an infant and whatever belongings they can carry in their hands and on their backs. A scout carrier belonging to the 15th/19th Hussars has tucked itself into a side street; one of its crew picks up his Bren light machine gun and points it skyward for the benefit of the cameraman who wants an action shot. More small groups of refugees fleeing the fighting on Louvain's outskirts head along the Tiensesteenweg; behind them, the anti-tank barricade has been closed to all further traffic. A handful of Belgian soldiers are overtaken by more British anti-tank and scout carrier detachments withdrawing along the main road into the city past the road junction covered by the Hotchkiss 25mm anti-tank gun position. Travelling shots through the windscreen of the camera car as it follows a British Army staff car out of Louvain (?) past Belgian refugees and a British roadblock on the right.
  • Alternative Title:
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised: Yes
  • Object_Number: BDY 67
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1940-05-11
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: British Movietone News (Production company) Fisher, N (Production individual) Gray, M (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Expeditionary Force (1939-1940) (regiment/service) British Army, 15th/19th King's Royal Hussars (regiment/service) British Army, Royal Artillery, 20th Anti-Tank Regiment (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Leuven, Brabant, Belgium (geography) Vilvoorde, Brabant, Belgium (geography) France (geography) Tiensesteenweg, Louvain, Brabant, Belgium (geography) German Invasion 1940, France and the Low Countries, Second World War (event) Artillery (theme) Armoured Warfare 1939-1945 (theme) Belgium 1939-1945 (theme) British Army 1939-1945 (theme) Camouflage (theme) Land Warfare (theme) Refugees (theme) Tanks and Armoured Fighting Vehicles 1939-1945 (theme)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English Title language: None Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 886 ft; Running time: 9 mins 51 secs
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    BDY 67

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:
Register