HMS SPARTAN BOMBARDS ANZIO [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: HMS SPARTAN BOMBARDS ANZIO [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: ADM 514
  • Other titles: MEDITERRANEAN OPERATIONS OF THE ROYAL NAVY [Allocated Series Title]
  • Summary: HMS Spartan bombards from a position in Anzio Bay. In a glider bomb attack at dusk on 29 January she was hit aft and sank an hour later.
  • Description: I. Reel One. A surgeon conducts an operation in a rock shelter. II. Anzio Bay. LS to the coast - destroyer HMS Jervis is lying inshore. Cameraship HMS Spartan opens fire with X and Y turrets - the mountain slopes behind the shoreline show the effects of the bombardment. Answering fire falls behind Jervis and a motor minesweeper. Onshore, US infantry moves forward, arms shouldered - a US Chevrolet 1-1/2 ton 4x4 truck drives along the road past them. HMS Spartan continues firing. LSs to shore - Jervis and a companion lie nearby. Pan over LSTs in the bay. Captain McLaughlin and his officers study the sky through binoculars. MS of Fairmile B ML 565 passing left to right before two minesweepers, HMS Bude (J.116) and an Algerine. A Scott Class long range escort passes. The bombardment continues, Jervis firing a full broadside. A shell falls ahead of a LST making for the shore. Two LCI(L)s pass left to right - in the background a destroyer lays a smokescreen, black smoke from the funnel and white from canisters on the quarterdeck. On Spartan, X and Y turrets continue firing. III. Reel Two. Onshore at Anzio. CU pan over a group of locals. MS of a 40mm Bofors emplacement by the harbour, in which a LST and various smallcraft are anchored - a bomb explodes in the harbour just as the Bofors opens fire. In the bay - LS as a stick of bombs falls among LSTs and transports. IV. Sinking of the Spartan? Night - cameraship is on fire aft, and flaming fragments are thrown up by explosions. A wounded man is helped down a companion ladder - only his bare legs, badly cut about, are visible in the partial illumination. More fragments are thrown up. V. Daylight. LS across the anchorage as flak speckles the sky - cameraship opens fire. LS pan showing LSTs steaming in two columns - between the columns is a LCI(L), and the US sub-chaser PC 621 passes left to right in the foreground. MS of Spartan capsized in shallow water, bilge keel showing - in the background is a Barnegat Class seaplane tender.
  • Alternative Title: MEDITERRANEAN OPERATIONS OF THE ROYAL NAVY [Allocated Series Title]
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: ADM 514
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1944-01
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Gaumont British News (Production company) Morley, H J (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Royal Navy, Spartan (regiment/service) Royal Navy, BUDE (HMS), minesweeper (regiment/service) Royal Navy, ML 565 (regiment/service) United States Navy & PC 621 (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: ships, British naval - cruiser: Spartan & [wrecked] (object name) ships, British naval - minesweeper, ocean: Bude (J.116) (object name) ships, British naval - light forces: ML 565 (object name) ships, United States naval - escort: PC 621 (object name) combat, British naval - bombardment (object name)
  • 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: 2 Footage: 572 ft; Running time: 7 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    ADM 514

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