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Title:PREPARATIONS IN TRIPOLI FOR OPERATION; BEACH LANDING [Allocated Title]
Film Number:AYY 493/5
Other titles:BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
Summary: Loading LCTs at Tripoli Harbour for the invasion of Sicily. The 2nd Battalion, Buffs on a beach landing exercise.
Description: Various shots of RAF and USA Army Air Force ground crews driving in their vehicles onto LCTs. The door of the LCT is raised and the craft pulls out into the harbour. 2nd Echelon troops including Fighting French, Basuto Pioneers and troops from the UK boarding a large transport. Grant tanks converted into Scorpion minefield clearers being manoeuvred onto LCTs. The tanks being loaded. Infantry marching through the bow doors of an LST. Vehicles follow them on board. The signal for the departure of the main convoy from Tripoli is flashed from the top of Tripoli Fort to the leader of the flotilla of LCTs. The Captain of the flotilla leader shouts orders on receipt of the signal and the crew run to their places. The signal is flashed down the line of waiting landing craft. The LCT casting off wheels and chains. The door comes up and the slip flag is run up. The anchor is raised.
A company of men from the 2nd Battalion, Buffs wade ashore and come under shell fire as they reach the rocks. Two men climb up onto the beach and run up to the wire. The men run back to cover as the charge they have laid blows the wire. The troops climb up and dash for the gap. They come under shell fire again as they cross the wire but reach the cliff. Infantry wading ashore through smoke. Crossing the wire through smoke.
Alternative Title:BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
Production Details: War Office Film Unit (Production company)
Hopkinson, Peter Richard Gunton1920-06-272007-06-28Hopkinson started him career in the film industry at the age of 16 as a clapper boy at Ealing Studios, then working at Denham Studios. He volunteered for overseas service in 1941and was an AFPU photographer and informant in the "Wartime Filming" interview project. He was sent to Persia initially to make a film about getting supplies through to Russia and made many other films in the Western Desert. He joined the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). His career after the war was mainly filming documentaries and his last documentary was Whickers War, made in 2004. (Production individual)