Title:MINE CLEARANCE AND RELIEF WORK IN NAPLES [Allocated Title]
Film Number:ADM 1293
Other titles:MEDITERRANEAN OPERATIONS OF THE ROYAL NAVY [Allocated Series Title]
Summary: Minesweepers begin to clear the harbour at Naples. Water supplies were cut by the withdrawing Germans, and the occupying Allies try to organise the few remaining sources and supervise the allocation of essential foodstuffs.
Description: Two GIs look out over Naples - Vesuvius is visible in the distance. A street scene - locals crowd round working taps trying to obtain drinking water - Chianti bottles are popular containers. Some Royal Engineers preside over the mêlée. CUs of wrecked transporter cranes and scuttled vessels in the harbour - a hospital ship lies capsized at its berth, its masts broken against the jetty - on the quayside in front of it is a sandbagged Bofors position. CUs of the deck of the hospital ship, shot from the jetty - in the next berth is a passenger liner, listing slightly at its moorings. A view along the jetty beneath the overhanging masts of the hospital ship, shows the ruined harbour buildings. In the harbour, BYMS 2209 ("British Yard Mine Sweeper") is conducting a sweep for magnetic mines. MS of a group of Italians waving to something (the minesweepers ?) in the harbour - one couple not waving in the group shot are selected for a close-up, and now wave with the best of them. LS of the smoking Vesuvius looming over the city, and then pan down to the harbour - BYMS 2209 emerges from behind a ship lying on its beam ends in the shallow basin. BYMS 2024 is also at work in the harbour. Street scene - Italians queuing outside a panificio are kept in order by some armed GIs - one offender is frog-marched off, although in a fairly restrained manner. CU of an Italian youth holding a small loaf in his extended hand.
Alternative Title:MEDITERRANEAN OPERATIONS OF THE ROYAL NAVY [Allocated Series Title]
