Title:RESTORATION OF THE RAILWAY NETWORK IN BAYEUX, NORMANDY (PART 3) [Allocated Title]
Film Number:A70 70-3
Other titles:
Summary: Additional, complementary coverage of 72nd Field Company Royal Engineers' work on assembling a new road crossing over the Caen-Cherbourg railway at St Loup Hors, Bayeux.
Description: I. At the site of the old bridge destroyed by Royal Air Force bombing on D-Day, sappers have strung white tape over the sixty foot wide gap as a means of determining the alignment of one of the two Class 40 Bailey bridges due to be launched across it from the northern end with steel rollers on the opposite side. The assembled Bailey bridge is slowly pushed across the gap with the help of steel rollers and is secured to a jack (which will be used to lower it onto its final resting position).
II. Both Baileys are seen in position as sappers use pneumatic drills to demolish a projecting section of the old bridge's remaining fabric and begin clearing rubble off the railway with the help of a heavy bulldozer. Watched by engineers and French civilians, the commanding officer of 7th Army Troops Engineers, Lieutenant-Colonel Lloyd, and the Mayor of Bayeux formally open the crossing by breaking the tape and driving across both Baileys; a mobile excavator is seen demolishing the German-built bypass in the background.
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Leatherbarrow, RichardPrior to the Second World War Leatherbarrow was a portrait photographer. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Armoured Corps, transferring to the Army Film and Photographic Unit in 1943, when he received training at Pinewood. He was one of the cameramen on Juno Beach during the D-Day Landings. (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Lloyd, T I (person)
British Army, Royal Engineers, Field Coy 72 (regiment/service)
Keywords: reconstruction, British: Caen-Cherbourg railway (object name)
reconstruction, French: Caen-Cherbourg railway (object name)
demolition, British - obsolescence: bypass road (object name)
engineering, military, British: bridge building (object name)
transport, British military - engineering: excavator (object name)
transport, British military - engineering: bulldozer (object name)
ceremonies, British - event-related: bridge opening (object name)
Second World War, North West Europe & Operation Overlord & 4/7/1944=5/7/1944 (event)
Saint-Loup-Hors, Calvados, France (geography)
Caen-Cherbourg Railway, Bayeux, Calvados, France (geography)
