Summary: On 15th (Scottish) Division's left flank, 44th Brigade sends the 6th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers to capture St Manvieu where its leading company suffers 50% casualties from the village's Hitlerjugend defenders.
Description: Infantry belonging to the Fusilier's 'B' Company advances behind an artillery barrage in widely-scattered groups through oat and wheatfields; note the presence of Major Stewart, the officer commanding No 5 AFPS (Army Film and Photographic Section), with a stills camera. Churchill tanks belonging to the 9th Royal Tank Regiment support the infantry assault. The cameraman accompanies men serving in 'B' Company's No 12 Platoon as they first enter the wrecked and smouldering village, on the alert for snipers and stragglers, and eventually reach St Manvieu's church and cemetery at its southern end. Scottish troops are seen in position at the village's cafe while their comrades, much reduced in numbers, consolidate the Battalion's grip on their objective. Infantrymen are seen in position in a German trench; a signaller uses his No 18 radio to get in touch with battalion or company HQ. A man in the foreground runs for cover as a German mortar bombardment falls on the village. A Cromwell tank from the 2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanry's 'C' Squadron moves up through St Manvieu (?).
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Connolly, J R (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Stewart, Hugh (person)
British Army, Scots Fusiliers, Royal, 6th Battalion, Coy B (regiment/service)
British Army, Army Film and Photographic Unit (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Tank Regiment, Bn 9 (regiment/service)
British Army, 2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanry, C Squadron (regiment/service)
Keywords: combat, British - artillery bombardment (object name)
armour, British - tank: Churchill (object name)
armour, British - tank: Cromwell (object name)
destruction, French military - area: mortar bombardment (object name)
communications, British military - electronic: wireless, No 18 (object name)
01/5(4-16).232 [ Operation Epsom] (event)
Saint Manvieu, Calvados, France (geography)
La Gaule, France (geography)
