Description
Object description
Anti-aircraft training for merchant seamen.
Full description
(Reel One) A Lieutenant-Commander RN addresses a group of soldiers and merchant seamen: they are about to live-fire machine guns over 30 yards against a moving target, which represents a low-flying aircraft at 400 yards. The instructor lectures them on firing signals - open and cease fire, check fire, etc. The men fire four pedestal-mounted weapons - the nearest to the camera is a .30 calibre US Marlin aircraft machine gun, Model 1917. Camera then switches to the butts where a model aircraft passes back and forth - after numerous near misses the target is demolished. A second model survives, the gunners firing too high. The scene shifts to a RM instructor with a 2-inch PAC device - his explanation is partly masked by loud birdsong. The firing sequence is complicated by the instructor's dog, which barks continuously and has to be removed. The order to open fire comes finally only after the rocket has taken off and left the picture. LS of the descending parachute.
Full description
(Reel Two) Machine gun lessons resume, the men queuing up to fire short bursts at an aerial target - the gun nearest to the camera will not fire and the RM instructor works to unjam it, watched by some stoical Naval ratings. MS sequence as an Army crew, hectored by sarcastic instructors, attempt to train and fire a 4-inch BL Mark IX gun - several takes are necessary before the gun fires. A second shot follows. MCU of the breech as the harassed crew go through their paces, panning right to the trainer and then to the muzzle as a third shot is got off. Cut to MS of pillarbox mounting for the 2-inch rocket weapon emplaced on the coast - the mounting is trained and layed and the rockets are ripple fired in two salvoes. Reel Three. LS of the firing of 2-inch PAC from a scaffold tower - as in Reel One. Sequence showing the model target, Free Flying Glider Mark 1 and two women operators, who attach the tow wire and hand-launch the glider - it flies a short distance then spirals in to crash, losing its wings. On the machine gun range a trainee tries to shoot down the glider - it is too fast for him. PACs are launched as alternative targets, but LS of a drifting parachute shows it unscathed. Cut to shots of trainer on 4-inch BL, and RM instructor climbing into pillarbox rocket mounting - as in Reel Two. Final sequence shows men being instructed in the use of the Oerlikon gun.
Physical description
35mm