WAR PICTORIAL NEWS NO 110 [Main Title]

An edition of the British official newsreel "War Pictorial News", produced by the Ministry of Information, Middle East.

I. 'SIX HOURS LEAVE.' An Egyptian landowner meets a visiting party of British soldiers who were farmers and land workers in their former civilian lives. The British visitors enjoy a six hour leave period watching demonstrations of traditional Egyptian farming methods at a agricultural centre near the Pyramids of Giza. Egyptian field workers harvest a grain crop by hand. A member of the British party examines the quality of grain having separated it from its husks by hand. An Egyptian woman with child looks on with evident interest. An Egyptian land worker demonstrates the operation of a cattle-drawn threshing machine. A British soldier attempts to control the threshing machine, much to the amusement of his fellow visitors and the Egyptian land owner. British troops attempt to separate grain from chaff by using the old Egyptian method of pitch-forking the husks into the breeze, they succeed only in covering themselves with the debris. The British visitors enjoy demonstrations of ploughing and irrigation by sakia (cattle powered waterwheel). At the end of an instructive day, the Egyptian farmer and his British guests sit contentedly on the porch of his house as Turkish coffee is served to them.

II. 'EGYPT HONOURS THE 8th ARMY.' Hundreds of British and Commonwealth servicemen, veterans of the Second Battle of El Alamein, are invited to the opening of the Alamein Club in Cairo. The opening ceremony is attended by the Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa el Nahas Pasha, other guests include General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson and Lady Wilson, Lord Killearn (formerly Sir Miles Lampson) and Sir Amin and Lady Osman Pasha. The Cairo Mounted Police give an enthusiastic demonstration of their horsemanship on the Alamein Club polo field. The City Police give an interesting marching presentation entitled "The march of the toy soldiers" as bemused members of the Royal Marines and Royal Navy look on from the spectators benches. Nahas Pasha gives a speech for the occasion (unrecorded). A New Zealand pipe and drum band closes the proceedings "playing a stirring rendition of the Retreat."

III. 'NEWS FROM ENGLAND.' The Royal Air Force (RAF) Regiment undertakes the mounting of the guard at Buckingham Palace on the twenty fifth anniversary of the founding of the RAF. Gathered civilian crowds watch as an RAF Flight Sergeant leads the RAF Regiment Band past the Queen Victoria Memorial and in through the gates of the Palace. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth watch the proceedings as the RAF Regiment relieves the Coldstream Guards from their official duties. Visiting dignitaries watching the proceedings include Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal (Chief of the Air Staff), Sir Archibald Sinclair (Secretary of State for Air), and Lord Trenchard (Marshal of the Royal Air Force). A Guardsman is relieved from sentry duty by a member of the RAF Regiment. The Coldstream Guards leave the Palace performing an immaculate slow march for the crowds. Elsewhere, on her first unaccompanied public engagement, Princess Elizabeth inspects a contingent of Grenadier Guards. A close-up of the Princess shows her to be wearing a Grenadier emblem on her hat. The Princess reviews the guard of honour who carry Lee-Enfield .303-in No 4 rifles with attached bayonets. The commentary states that the Princess, who is Colonel-in-Chief of the Grenadiers, performed her duties throughout the ceremony with a simple and solemn dignity.

IV. 'AROUND THE CLOCK AIR OFFENSIVE.' An introduction to the work of the United States Eighth Air Force based in England and their significant contribution to the Allied bombing offensive. A caterpillar tractor tows a Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress from a hangar. Various members of the B-17's crew are shown wearing B3 shearling leather flying jackets and B6 helmets. A British cameraman (Jack Ramsden, British Movietone News) wearing an Irvin flying jacket fixes a camera to a B-17 aircraft door, fitting an electrically heated cover to prevent the camera mechanism from freezing at high altitudes. A Boeing B-17F takes off on a mission (fuselage legend difficult to read but may possibly be "The Wolves"). Mission footage shows the bombing runs on Wilhelmshaven and Rouen. Air to ground footage shows bombs impacting on marshalling yards. The B-17 aircraft return to base after another successful mission. A United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Lieutenant wearing an A2 leather flying jacket cadges a cigarette from the British cameraman who accompanied him on the mission. The commentary states "The American air force is hitting hard and continuously. Good targets and happy landings."

35mm