WAR OFFICE OFFICIAL TOPICAL BUDGET 370-2 (French version, fragment) [Main Title]

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  • Title: WAR OFFICE OFFICIAL TOPICAL BUDGET 370-2 (French version, fragment) [Main Title]
  • Film Number: IWM 652b
  • Other titles: PICTORIAL NEWS (OFFICIAL) 370-2 (French version, fragment) [Alternative Title]
  • Summary: I. Newsreel item on British soldiers receiving the surrender of Turkish troops, Mesopotamia, probably May 1918. II. Newsreel item on an Italian Carabinieri band playing in central London, September 1918. III. Newsreel item on a Canadian military sports in England, September 1918. IV. French language version of a newsreel item on German damage to Béthune (?), Western Front, September 1918.
  • Description: The handful of Turks come in from the desert and walk past a British 4.5-inch howitzer. Camels and wagons carry other prisoners across a river. A large group of the prisoners is collected together. Nurses and convalescent soldiers leave Charing Cross Hospital and drive down the Strand to hear the Italians play. The bandsmen themselves arrive by horse-drawn charabanc wearing their full dress uniforms, and mix with British bandsmen, also in full dress. The Italians play their instruments outside the gates of Buckingham Palace. The sports start with a water-joust in wheelbarrows. There are three successful attempts at the joust and one almost perfect success. A race in which ladies are carried in wheelbarrows. A second wheelbarrow race in which the soldiers pushing are blindfolded, followed by wrestling on horseback. Long distance views of smoke rising over houses, described as Béthune, set on fire by the Germans, "these burning houses are proof of their love of destruction". Shells start to fall between the houses and isolated cottages.
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1914-1918
  • Production Date: 1918-09-26
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Ministry of Information (Production sponsor) Topical Film Company (Production company)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force (regiment/service) British Army, band (regiment/service) Royal Italian Army & Carabinieri & [band] (regiment/service) British Red Cross (regiment/service) British Army, Canadian Expeditionary Force (regiment/service) Canadian Army, Canadian Expeditionary Force (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: prisoners of war, Turkish - surrender (object name) weapons, British - gun: 4.5-inch howitzer (object name) prisoners of war, Turkish - movement (object name) animals, mammals: camel (object name) medical, British military - hospital (object name) buildings, British - institutional: hospital (object name) delegations, Italian international - goodwill (object name) society, British military - friendship (object name) society, Italian military - friendship (object name) arts, Italian - music (object name) equipment, Italian - personal: dress uniform (object name) equipment, British - personal: dress uniform (object name) recreation, Canadian military - sport: athletics (object name) destruction, French military - area: artillery bombardment (object name) combat, British - artillery bombardment [d] (object name) 01/3(567).8 (event) 31/3(41) (event) 31/3(41) (event) 01/3(4-15).9 (event) Mesopotamia (geography) GB, England & London, WC <Charing Cross Hospital & Strand> (geography) GB, England & London, SW <Buckingham Palace> (geography) GB, England (geography) Béthune, Pas-de-Calais, France (geography)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: French
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 293 ft; Running time: 5 mins
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Notes: Production: see IWM 651a for production details Subtitles: there is only one subtitle caption, for the last item of the issue Summary: compare the item on Béthune with IWM 295. See also IWM 68 for Mesopotamia and IWM 342 for the Carabinieri band. Note that an English language variant or continuation of item IV is IWM 461b Technical: this fragment is currently held on the same reel as IWM 652a, the can is marked as IWM 652
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    IWM 652b

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