Title:SAPPERS UNEARTH ANTI-PERSONNEL MINES DURING 12TH CORPS' ADVANCE TOWARDS VILLERS-BOCAGE AND THE ORNE (PART 1) [Allocated Title]
Film Number:A70 112-5
Other titles:
Summary: As German formations retreat before the 2nd Army as Operation "Bluecoat" gets underway, German engineers leave behind them minefields which delay a rapid Allied follow-up. In this film, 59th (Staffordshire) Division's sappers clear a lane through a minefield so that the advance may continue.
Description: A two-man team from 510th Field Company RE's No. 2 Platoon probes for mines in a meadow. One sapper pinpoints the location of a suspicious metal object with a mine-detector and leaves his partner, who is armed with a metal prodder, to dig it up. In this instance, an 'S'-mine (known to Allied troops as 'Bouncing Betty' because of its habit of leaping into the air on contact and then spewing ballbearings over a 20-foot radius) is uncovered. Its familiar three-pronged pressure igniter is first neutralised by passing a safety-pin through it and is then unscrewed from the explosive and ballbearing-packed cylinder.
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Gross, A C (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, Royal Engineers (regiment/service)
British Army, Bde 197 (regiment/service)
British Army, Div 59 (regiment/service)
British Army, Corps 12 (regiment/service)
Keywords: equipment, British military - damage control: mine detector (object name)
operations, British military - mines: clearance (object name)
weapons, German - mine: S-mine (object name)
Operation Bluecoat, Mont Pinçon 1944, North West Europe, Second World War (event)
Normandy, France (geography)
