Title:THE 59TH (STAFFORDSHIRE) DIVISION CAPTURES THE TOWN OF THURY-HARCOURT [Allocated Title]
Film Number:A70 124-2
Other titles:
Summary: Reinforcements cross the Orne river into 12th Corps' bridge-head and British troops patrol the ruined and deserted town of Thury-Harcourt.
Description: 59th Division sappers keep watch on the locking pins of their Class 9 folding boat bridge spanning the Orne at La Bagotiere as it flexes under the weight of Fordson and Canadian military- pattern three-tonners and a detachment from the 2/5th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers' carrier platoon moving slowly over to the east bank of the river. A panorama over Thury-Harcourt and the high ground dominating the town reveals smouldering buildings - the handiwork of British artillery - at its centre. A pre-war milestone greets all who enter its eastern outskirts along the N162 road from Caen, some twenty-two kilometres away. A two-man patrol from the 2nd Battalion Gloucester Regiment makes its way along Thury-Harcourt's high street, checking deserted houses and gutted ruins for stray Germans and booby-traps, and takes up defensive positions in a pile of broken masonry at the end of the street.
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Johnson, John Norman1909 (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, Bde 197 (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Engineers (regiment/service)
British Army, Div 59 (regiment/service)
British Army, Gloucester Regiment, 2nd Battalion (regiment/service)
British Army, Bde 56 (regiment/service)
British Army, Corps 12 (regiment/service)
Keywords: armour, British - carrier: Universal (object name)
transport, United States military - truck: Fordson 3-ton 4x4 (object name)
transport, Canadian military - truck: CMP truck (object name)
engineering, military, British: Class 9 folding boat bridge (object name)
destruction, French military - area: bomb (object name)
weapons, British - smallarm: Bren (object name)
Orne (River), France (geography)
Thury-Harcourt, Calvados, France (geography)
Normandy, France (geography)
