Title:SAPPER AND INFANTRY UNITS IN ACTION ON 59TH (STAFFORDSHIRE) DIVISION'S SECTOR OF 12TH CORPS' FRONT [Allocated Title]
Film Number:A70 111-5
Other titles:
Summary: 59th Division's 197th Brigade's advance towards Villers- Bocage is delayed by German minefields.
Description: Sappers serving with the 510 Field Company RE lay white tape over the ground to indicate cleared lanes through the battered village of Monts some 3 miles north-east of Villers-Bocage. A short distance away lie the remains of a Wehrmacht Mercedes 4 1/2-ton cargo half-track. Two engineers, one equipped with a mine detector, sweep a tree-lined lane while a 59th Recce. Regiment Daimler scout car waits to go forward. The enemy is encountered in the form of graves belonging to Waffen-SS troops who served with the headquarters staff of the 2nd Battalion, the 26th Panzer-Grenadier Regiment, 12th SS Panzer Division 'Hitlerjugend', until they were killed in action during June 1944. Their mission completed, three sappers return with a collection of defused Teller mines. A section of infantrymen from the 5th Battalion East Lancashire Fusiliers searches a deserted château for German stragglers. Two sappers probe a roadside verge for additional mines.
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Walter, Ernest Henry1919Family origin: Barry, Glamorgan, South Wales (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, Royal Engineers (regiment/service)
British Army, East Lancashire Regiment, 5th Battalion (regiment/service)
British Army, Bde 197 (regiment/service)
British Army, Div 59 (regiment/service)
British Army, Corps 12 (regiment/service)
Keywords: memorials and tombs (object name)
equipment, British military - damage control: mine detector (object name)
operations, British military - mines: clearance (object name)
Teller mine (object name)
armour, German - halftrack: Mercedes 4-1/2-ton (object name)
Operation Bluecoat, Mont Pinçon 1944, North West Europe, Second World War (event)
Normandy, France (geography)
