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Title:WAR OFFICE OFFICIAL TOPICAL BUDGET 354-1 (fragment) [Main Title]
Film Number:IWM 1061-02d
Other titles:PICTORIAL NEWS (OFFICIAL) 354-1 (fragment) [Alternative Title]
Summary: I. Newsreel item on British floating guns on the Piave River, Italian Front, May 1918.
II. Newsreel item on British troops watching refugees, probably Béthune, Western Front, 9th-10th April 1918.
Description: The camera, on board a boat, travels down the river, being passed by a light launch. On a camouflaged raft moored at the side of the river are two British 4.7-inch guns. Further down is a moored barge with a 6-inch BLC siege gun. The light and reflections from the water make it difficult to see details.
British soldiers watch while a column of refugees with carts moves up a dirt road into a wood. Other refugees halt their wagons in Béthune (?) while a column of British troops passes up the road in the other direction, including a limbered 60-pounder gun.
Production Details: Ministry of Information (Production sponsor)
Topical Film Company (Production company)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, Royal Artillery, Royal Garrison Artillery (regiment/service)
British Army (regiment/service)
Keywords: ships, British naval - light forces: river launch (object name)
weapons, British - gun: 4.7-inch (object name)
defences, British - passive: camouflage (object name)
weapons, British - gun: 6-inch BLC siege gun (object name)
weapons, British - gun: 60-pounder (object name)
refugees, French - flight (object name)
01/3(45).8 (event)
01/3(4-15).83 (event)
Italy & Piave (River) (geography)
Béthune, Pas-de-Calais, France (geography)
half-light (concept)
Summer (concept)
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W
Sound format: Silent
Soundtrack language: None
Title language: None
Subtitle language: English
Technical Details: Format: 35mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 124 ft; Running time: 2 mins
Notes: Production: see IWM 651a and IWM 1061-01 for production details
Summary: see IWM 184 for the refugee sequence. Note that a French language version of story II and two additional items from this issue is IWM 676b
Technical: this fragment is currently held on the same reel as IWM 1061-02a-c, the can is marked as IWM 1061-02
Remarks: the use of old film of the Battle of the Lys to suggest the British contribution to the opening of the Battle of the Marne is noteworthy