Title:49TH (WEST RIDING) DIVISION IN ACTION ON 30TH CORPS' FRONT PRIOR TO OPERATION EPSOM (PART 2) [Allocated Title]
Film Number:A70 49-9
Other titles:
Summary: Scenes of devastation in the French countryside on 30th Corps' front as 49th (West Riding) Division units go into action.
Description: I. French civilians gather outside the Sous-Préfecture in Bayeux to listen to a BBC news broadcast relayed to them over a loudspeaker.
II. A Sherman tank squadron from the 8th Armoured Brigade rumbles along a dusty road leading to 49th Division's front between Tilly-sur-Seulles and Fontenay-le-Pesnel past a shot-down Royal Canadian Air Force Spitfire IX from No 412 'Falcon' Squadron.
III. The camera surveys the desolation in Cristot, its shattered stone cottages and farm buildings, with gutted and smouldering interiors, and dead livestock, of which a chicken and a cow appear to be the only survivors. Also present are the wrecks of a German lorry and an SdKfz 250 halftrack armoured personnel carrier from the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend. A 1/4th King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry patrol on the lookout for snipers passes a farmhouse set ablaze by German artillery. At the village calvary, a chicken shows little interest in food offered by a KOYLI Sten gunner.
IV. Near Ducy-Ste-Marguerite, two 25-pounder gun detachments from 'D' troop in 185th Field Regiment Royal Artillery's 386 Battery fire smoke shells to cover an attack being made by 49th Division.
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Parkinson (Sergeant) (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, Div 49 (regiment/service)
British Army, Bde, Armoured, 8 (regiment/service)
British Army, Yorkshire Light Infantry, King's Own, Bn 1/4 (regiment/service)
British Army, Royal Artillery, Field Regiment 185, Bty 386 (regiment/service)
Keywords: journalism and record, British - radio: BBC news broadcast (object name)
aircraft, British - combat: Supermarine Spitfire IX & [Canadian] & [wrecked] (object name)
armour, United States - tank: M4 Sherman & [British] (object name)
operations, British military - movement: road (object name)
destruction, French military - area (object name)
animals, mammals: [casualties] (object name)
armour, German - halftrack: Sdkfz 250 personnel carrier & [wrecked] (object name)
combat, British - artillery bombardment (object name)
weapons, British - gun: 25-pounder gun (object name)
Second World War, North West Europe & Operation Overlord & 17/6/1944 (event)
Sous-Préfecture, Bayeux, Calvados, France (geography)
Tilly-sur-Seulles, Calvados, Normandy, France (geography)
Fontenay-le-Pesnel, Calvados, France (geography)
Cristot, Calvados, France (geography)
Ducy-Sainte-Marguerite, Calvados, France (geography)