Summary: 214th Brigade sends the 1st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment to retake the village of Mouen.
Description: The Battalion's commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Harrison, holds an 'O' group with his company commanders at Cheux. Infantrymen from the Worcesters' 'A' Company move up to their startline and advance in scattered groups through wheatfields towards Bas du Mouen on the Battalion's left flank; airbursts from German artillery appear over the undulating countryside. A Hitlerjugend panzer grenadier is brought in as a POW; the cameraman examines the corpse of another teenager killed by 179th Field Regiment Royal Artillery's creeping barrage. Another dead German is found in Bas du Mouen whose orchards, cottages and narrow sunken lanes are occupied by 'A' Company, its troops on the alert for snipers. In anticipation of shelling and mortaring, troops dig in; stretcher bearers take a casualty away to the regimental aid post. 6-pounder gun detachments from 59th Anti-Tank Regiment RA pass through the Company's positions accompanied by a 4th Somerset Light Infantry ambulance truck and a Universal Carrier from the 1st Worcesters' support company. Two wrecked Mark IV 'specials' and a Sturmgeschütz III from the 21st Panzer Division are found nearby. The Battalion's intelligence officer plots German positions on a map with a colleague.
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Alcock, J (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Harrison, A R (person)
British Army, Worcestershire Regiment, 1st Battalion, A Company (regiment/service)
British Army, Somerset Light Infantry, 4th Battalion (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Artillery, AT Regiment 59 (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Artillery, Field Regiment 179 (regiment/service)
German Waffen-SS & SS Panzer Div 12 (Hitlerjugend) (regiment/service)
Keywords: intelligence, military, British - briefing: 'O' group (object name)
combat, British (object name)
combat, British - artillery bombardment [I] (object name)
prisoners of war, German - surrender (object name)
casualties, German dead - battlefield (object name)
medical, British military - movement: stretcher (object name)
transport, British military - ambulance (object name)
armour, British - carrier: Universal (object name)
armour, German - tank: Pzkpfw IV & [wrecked] (object name)
armour, German - SPG: StuG III (object name)
weapons, British - gun [AT]: 6-pounder gun (object name)
Operation Epsom 1944, North West Europe, Second World War (event)
Cheux, Calvados, France (geography)
Mouen, Calvados, France (geography)
