DEVONPORT FIELD GUN COMPETITION TRAINING [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: DEVONPORT FIELD GUN COMPETITION TRAINING [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: ADM 2532
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: Amateur footage shot sometime in the 1970s showing Royal Navy personnel at HMS Drake at Devonport taking part in heats for the field gun contest in order to select the team for the Royal Tournament in London.
  • Description: START 10:00:00 Members of one field gun team are seen during the 'run out' phase of the contest whereby they manhandle a 12-pounder gun limber, minus its wheels, through a narrow gap in the five-foot hugh 'enemy' wall. They are seen lifting the heavy 12-pounder gun and ammunition limber, minus their wheels over the 'enemy' wall as they begin their 'run back'. The team members use a wire and traveller to send the gun barrel, its trail and axle unit and themselves across a twenty-eight-foot-wide gap or 'chasm'; the last man across, an Afro-Caribbean member of the team, topples the sheerlegs supporting the wire by hurling the wooden pole he is carrying at it. During the final 'run home' phase, the team manoeuvres the limber through a narrow gap in the 'home wall'; the wheels on the 12-pounder gun are taken off their axles and the gun itself is manoeuvred through the gap. The wheels are quickly put back on the limber and the gun carriage and the team 'hooks up and pulls for home'. 10:00:52 While their trainer (seen here wearing a white sports vest) keeps time, the team begins a new 'run out' by running the length of the course to the 'home' end where, once they have scaled the 'home' wall, they set up the sheerlegs and use it to swing themselves and the big pole that will carry the travelling wire on the 'enemy' side of the gap across the 'chasm'. They then manhandle all their equipment through the gap in the 'enemy wall' and quickly re-attach the wheels. Team members push the ammunition limber to the spot where the others are closed up around their 12-pounder gun. At the beginning of the 'run back', the team run up to the 'enemy wall' with the intention of scaling it with all their equipment (film cuts). 10:01:43 Back-to-back coverage of time trials simultaneously taking place in the grounds of HMS Drake. On a course next to a row of wooden huts, a vertical pole is set up on the 'enemy' side of the chasm for the wire and traveller during the 'run out'; the rest of a team of novices, watched by a Petty Officer armed with a clipboard, quickly makes the crossing with all the gear for the field gun and its limber and dashes off to clear the 'enemy' wall. At the end of their 'run out', the novice team closes up around their 12-pounder gun and limber. 10:03:08 On a stretch of ground overlooked by the grand buildings built between 1880 and 1889 in the grounds of HMS Drake, another team, more expert than the last, is seen scaling the 'chasm' with the help of the wire and traveller during the 'run back' phase. The camera concentrates on the team members busy hauling on the line to get the rest of their comrades and all the equipment across. The last one over the gap (known as 'the flying angel') topples the sheerlegs whilst their trainer keeps time with his stopwatch. 10:03:08 On the course next to the wooden huts, the camera focuses on three members of the novice team busy hauling in their comrades and all the heavy gear across the chasm. Their 12-pounder gun is hurriedly reassembled amid lots of dashing about. 10:03:43 The camera concentrates on the men who pull on the rope to get their team mates and all the equipment across the 'chasm' during the 'run back' phase; their numbers increase from two to six as the rest of the team gets across; last over is 'the flying angel' who collapses the sheerlegs with the log he is carrying. The team closes up around its 12-pounder gun and the ammunition limber, watched by other naval personnel who have been participating in field gun contest time trials (?). END 10:04:28
  • Alternative Title:
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised: Yes
  • Object_Number: ADM 2532
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © Crown copyright. IWM (ADM 2532)
  • Featured Period: 1946-1975
  • Production Date: 1970
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Admiralty (Production sponsor)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:
  • Keywords:
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 16mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 167 ft; Running time: 4 mins 28 secs
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    ADM 2532

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