Title:ROYAL ENGINEERS QUARRY STONE FOR ROAD CONSTRUCTION (PART 1) [Allocated Title]
Film Number:A70 117-1
Other titles:
Summary: Royal Engineers repair worn-out roads leading to 8th Corps' front east of Vire - the product of wear and tear caused by the never-ending flow of military traffic and frequent German shelling - and quarry stone for use in such repairs.
Description: Dodge tipper trucks unload stones onto a rutted and worn-out stretch of the St Martin des Besaces - Le Beny-Bocage road which engineers are seen repairing. In Le Beny-Bocage (?), rubble from houses destroyed by shell and mortar fire is loaded onto Bedford OY 3-ton lorries and, at a road junction on its outskirts, sappers fill in a part of the road with stones, loose gravel and debris prior to re-surfacing it. In a small quarry beyond Le Beny-Bocage, 13th Field Squadron RE's sappers, using pneumatic drills and the more traditional pick-axes and spades, break up a limestone or sandstone rock face and load the stone onto Dodge tipper lorries; these take the material to various road work sites. During the day, a despatch rider arrives with mail from the UK; two sappers take time off to read letters from home while the rest of the quarrymen carry on working.
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Palmer, F A W (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, Royal Engineers (regiment/service)
British Army, Corps 8 (regiment/service)
Keywords: transport, United States military - truck: Dodge 30cwt truck (object name)
transport, British military - truck: Bedford 3-ton 4x2 (object name)
engineering, military, British: road building (object name)
industry, French - primary: quarrying (object name)
Operation Bluecoat, Mont Pinçon 1944, North West Europe, Second World War (event)
Normandy, France (geography)
