SECOND LIFE GUARDS [Main Title]

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  • Title: SECOND LIFE GUARDS [Main Title]
  • Film Number: IWM 425
  • Other titles: THE BRITISH REGIMENTS [Allocated Series Title]
  • Summary: Behind the lines activities by 2nd Life Guards on the Western Front, probably 1917.
  • Description: I. The film opens with extra scenes of 9.2-inch howitzers and 15-inch howitzers firing, followed by a sergeant and two privates in a trench spotting with a trench periscope. II. The main body of the film shows a troop of 2nd Life Guards, including a Lewis gunner, running forward. (Note that the Hotchkiss automatic rifle replaced the Lewis machine gun in most of the Cavalry after late 1916.) The men form a prone line and open fire. A group of the soldiers attempts to move a gas cylinder stuck in mud. A dismounted squadron of 2nd Life Guards parades on a French village square, and is checked over prior to mounting. III. The film ends with an interpolated scene of the temporary graves of men of the Canadian 7th Battalion, and soldiers at a checkpoint beside a wood.
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1914-1918
  • Production Date: 1917
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: War Office Cinema Committee (Production sponsor) Topical Film Company (Production company)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, Life Guards 2 (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: operations, British military - routine (object name) training, British military - combat (object name) equipment, British military - personal: trench periscope (object name) weapons, British - gun: 9.2-inch howitzer (object name) weapons, British - gun: 15-inch howitzer (object name) weapons, British - smallarm: Lewis machine gun (object name) weapons, British - CBW: gas (object name) casualties, Canadian graves - formal (object name) 01/3(4-15).7 (?) (event) France (geography)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 330 ft; Running time: 6 mins
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Notes: Title: this is taken from the shotsheet Summary: this is probably part of the BRITISH REGIMENTS series (see IWM 388 etc) which was made in autumn 1917, but the presence of the Lewis gunner makes this less certain. What appears to be a missing scene from this film is now in IWM 429 Remarks: like the rest of the series, completely valueless as a record of a specific regiment, but good stockshot material
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    IWM 425

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:
Register