Metadata
- Title: MESOPOTAMIA (rough material) [Allocated Title]
- Film Number: IWM 59
- Other titles: WITH THE FORCES IN MESOPOTAMIA (offcuts) [Alternative Title]
- Summary: Very jumbled film of British forces in the Battle of Ramadi, Mesopotamian Front, 28-29 September 1917.
- Description: Probably offcuts from IWM 61 WITH THE FORCES IN MESOPOTAMIA. (Reel 1) Camouflaged 60-pounder guns firing dug in. A gunner observing from a perch, possibly close to Ramadi. Indian troops unload sacks from a train. A prone Lewis machine-gunner firing. British soldiers filling water buckets. A close-up of the feed action on a Vickers machine gun as it fires from a trench. An 18-pounder battery firing in the desert. Turkish 1-pounder pom-pom guns and machine guns captured at Ramadi and put on display. Shells bursting in the desert filmed from a trench. A walled city by the River Tigris with a railway station, probably Samarra. Indian troops fire through loopholes in a heavily sandbagged trench. An observation tower made from sandbags. A 6-inch 30cwt howitzer being loaded and fired. Highlanders, probably 2nd Battalion, Black Watch of 7th (Meerut) Division, march through the streets of Samarra with Lieutenant-General Sir William Marshall (?) accompanying them. A Holt tractor hauls a 60-pounder through the desert. (Reel 2) Turkish prisoners captured during the Battle of Ramadi are marched by 1/5th Battalion, the Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) through the desert, over a bridge of boats across the River Tigris at Baghdad, through 'Piccadilly Circus' and 'New Street' Baghdad and on to a prisoner of war camp.
- Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
- Featured Period: 1914-1918
- Production Date: 1917
- Production Country: GB United States of America
- Production Details: Department of Information (Production sponsor) War Office Cinema Committee (Production sponsor) International Film Service (Production company) Varges, Ariel L (Production individual)
- Personalities, Units and Organisations: Marshall, William R (?) (person) British Army, Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force (regiment/service) British Army, Black Watch, 2nd Battalion (regiment/service) British Army, Kent Regiment, West Royal, Bn 1/5 (regiment/service) Indian Army, Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force (regiment/service) Indian Army, 7th (Meerut) Division (regiment/service)
- Keywords: weapons, British - gun: 60-pounder (object name) weapons, British - smallarm: Vickers machine gun & [+] (object name) weapons, British - smallarm: Lewis machine gun (object name) weapons, British - gun: 18-pounder field gun (object name) weapons, German - gun: 1-pounder pom-pom & [British] & [captured] (object name) weapons, British - gun: 6-inch 26cwt howitzer (object name) combat, British - artillery bombardment [d] (object name) buildings, Mesopotamian - commercial: railway station (object name) combat, British - machine gun: [+] (object name) combat, Indian (object name) prisoners of war, Turkish - movement (object name) prisoners of war, Turkish - custody (object name) 01/3(567) (event) Turkey & Ramadi area, Mesopotamia (geography) Turkey & Samarra, Mesopotamia <station> (geography) Turkey & Baghdad, Mesopotamia (geography) desert (concept)
- Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: English
- Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 2 Footage: 1193 ft; Running time: 20 mins
- Notes: Remarks: some imaginative camerawork, even if this example is confused. Varges seems, generally, to be a better cameraman than Jeapes or Hurley in Palestine.
- Link to IWM Collections page:
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Related IWM Collections Objects:
IWM 61 (WITH THE FORCES IN MESOPOTAMIA - SERIES 1 (?) [Main Title])
