Title:SAPPERS COMMENCE CLEARANCE AND REPAIR WORK AT BOULOGNE (PART 3) [Allocated Title]
Film Number:A70 179-2
Other titles:
Summary: An RN underwater obstruction clearance team assists No 2 Port Construction and Repair Group RE's efforts to re- open Boulogne.
Description: On the Quai Chanzy, a bulldozer clears away rubble while sappers restore the quayside railway. A cement mixer is seen in operation in the Arriere Port (?) providing material for sappers building a concrete road. Another bulldozer is seen at work underneath the wrecked Quai du Sud, where an RN diver is lowered into the Bassin Loubet to search for mines; sappers operate an air pump for the diver on the quayside. The badly-cratered Appontement Nord is seen being repaired; RE's reinforce the remaining quayside supports, remove the rough edges with pneumatic drills, sledge hammers and wire cutters and prepare foundations for new upright beams. The blockships in the Inner Entrance are disposed on in a spectacular series of explosions - the first of 28 depth-charges, the second of 14 the third of 18 - at high tide from 9th to 11th October; in between the first and second detonations, RN demolition teams plant depth charges on the blockships. The cameramen examines a battered pre-war sign for British holiday-makers returning to Folkestone. MFV 1003, an RN inshore minesweeper, steams into the Inner Channel.
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Laws, George E J1916-02-15 (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations:
Keywords: Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, France (geography)
