Other titles:MEDITERRANEAN OPERATIONS OF THE ROYAL NAVY [Allocated Series Title]
Summary: Support Force East bombards coast and defends transports from air attack. One merchantman is hit by bombs and has to be abandoned.
Description: Reel One. Opening scenes onboard a Colony Class cruiser as men scan coast and sky - Gunnery and Navigation Officers check ship's position for bombardment. Distant monitor HMS Erebus fires a salvo. Explosions onshore as enemy aircraft bomb the beach-head - LCI(L)s lie offshore. MS off the port bow of HMS Mauritius as she fires 4-inch AA. MLS and MS as stick of bombs splash around transports. Flak pursues a high level raider. Cut to MS from eyes of AA cruiser HMS Carlisle to group of Indian Red Cross and freshly dressed wounded on focsle - alongside to port is an Insect Class gunboat, and to starboard a LSG - a party of Indians transfer to LCA. LS pan over transports, LCI(L)s and LSTs in anchorage. Explosions on shore from air raid. Bombs explode among the ships while a little answering flak speckles the sky. Good MS of bombs exploding in the water between the cameraship Carlisle and a troop transport (Edinburgh Castle ?) - high above barrage balloons hang in a sky filled with flak. HA.MS aft from foremast of cameraship steaming at speed. Tracer is fired off at a distant aircraft. MS off the port bow of HMS Tairea - the LCA from Carlisle closes on the hospital ship. Sequence showing a stricken merchantman, flames and smoke billowing from focsle - the crew are abandoning ship and a LCT(3) stands by to pick up the boats. Cameraship approaches the burning vessel, and an Insect Class gunboat also draws near, a fire hose already playing from the focsle. MLS of the pall of smoke from the ship and from patches of oil burning on the sea. Final shot past upper works of US merchantman to stricken vessel, now completely ablaze, its back broken - LCT passes left to right in mid-ground. Reel Two. LS pan over invasion fleet at sea in low light. Long sequence showing flares at night - the camera is stopped down so that they appear merely as groups of white dots. Early light - LS to LCAs as they head inshore. More flares. Early light - LCT passes diagonally right to left across the anchorage. Inshore a destroyer lays white smoke. LS silhouette of Type III Hunt Class destroyer. LS off port quarter of LSI as landing craft head inshore - misty conditions. LS to shore - the sun is now higher, and a transport and Royal Scotsman Class LSI(H) (?) lie offshore. Telephoto showing troops moving inland from the beach where LSTs and smaller craft are unloading. LS of a ditched aircraft, only the tailplane still visible. LS of support forces - Colony Class cruiser, a Tribal and other destroyers. LS to coastal town - LST and Fairmile B ML offshore. Transports and landing craft, all in poorly focused LS silhouette. Distant cruiser opens fire. LS of LCI(L) passing close to beacon submarine. LS off port quarter of two LSTs lying offshore - in the background is a large three-funnelled transport.
Alternative Title:MEDITERRANEAN OPERATIONS OF THE ROYAL NAVY [Allocated Series Title]