Description
Object description
An edition of the British official newsreel "War Pictorial News", produced by the Ministry of Information, Middle East.
Full description
I. WPN Special- 'INVASION.' The commentary outlines the events of Tuesday June 6th 1944, the Allied invasion of Western Europe (Normandy landings). Film footage taken from the interior of a Royal Air Force (RAF) Avro Lancaster bomber shows its starboard Merlin engines in operation (Merlin XX ?). High altitude aerial footage shows Allied shipping steaming in the direction of the Normandy beaches. Douglas Boston aircraft fly at low-level over the Channel during the early stages of Operation Overlord, black/white invasion striping is evident on their fuselage and wings. The commentary states that the aircraft's mission of softening German coastal defences and interdicting communications is a vital task in the overall invasion plan. Camera gun footage (CGF) shows Allied air attacks on river traffic (barges), trains and ammunition dumps. CGF stock shots show Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109F fighter hit by cannon fire at low-level, and a Focke-Wulf 190 fighter also hit by cannon fire in a head on attack by and unidentified Allied single engine fighter aircraft. CGF footage shows a low-level Allied air attack on Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111 bomber aircraft parked in concrete revetments at an undisclosed location in France. United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Martin B-26 Marauder and North American B-25 Mitchell bombers drop sticks of bombs on unseen ground targets. Film footage taken from a support landing craft, possibly a rocket firing LCS(R), shows the approaching coastline and other landing craft making for shore. The commentary states that over four thousand ships and eleven thousand aircraft were engaged in the landing operations and that the beachheads were established within only a few hours. A Churchill tank drives ashore, British (or Canadian) infantry move from the shoreline into the cover of sand dunes. Stock shots show a pair of North American Mustang fighter aircraft jettisoning their fuel drop-tanks at low-level on an unseen target (shown in silhouette- presumably USAAF aircraft). An M4 Sherman tank drives up a beach, landing craft LCM 115 is evident in the surf in the background. Brief footage shows the Allied Commanders involved in the Normandy landings who include, Winston Churchill, General Bernard Law Montgomery (Commander 21st Army Group), Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsey (Naval Commander-in-Chief), General Dwight D Eisenhower (Supreme Commander) and Air Marshal Arthur Tedder (Deputy Supreme Commander).
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II. 'MIDDLE EAST NEWS.' Lord Killearn (Sir Miles Lampson) takes the salute from a reviewing podium as British troops perform a march past through the streets of Cairo in celebration of the birthday of King George VI. Evident on the reviewing podium standing alongside the British Ambassador are Lieutenant General Stone and Air Marshal Sir Keith Park. Detachments from all branches of the fighting services are represented in the parade, including infantry contingents from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. A contingent of Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) members march past the reviewing podium followed by a motorised section of Morris-Commercial 4X4 artillery tractors towing limbers and Ordnance QF 25-pounder howitzers.
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III. 'PACIFIC.' Australian infantry (Australian 7th Division) walk along a grassy mountain track in the Finisterre Ranges (New Guinea) armed with Lee-Enfield Mk III .303-in rifles and Owen 9mm Sub-machine guns. The commentary describes the Ramu Valley Campaign as being one of the toughest in all the fighting in New Guinea. An Australian infantryman stands on the side of a steep mountain slope, scanning the horizon with a pair of binoculars, a makeshift tent (basha) is evident next to him. A well dug-in Australian mortar crew fire their mortar (Ordnance 3-in smooth bore mortar ?) rapidly at unseen targets. The mortar crews are supported by fire from a Bren .303-in light machine gun and a water-cooled Vickers .303-in machine gun. Smoke rises above the jungle canopy from impacting mortar shells as the commentary stresses the difficulties in fighting a campaign over such harsh terrain. Australian troops tend to wounded comrades in a jungle clearing, others lie on stretchers to await medical attention and evacuation. Australian infantry cross a jungle water course using a wooden ladder. Elsewhere, an Australian rifle squad and Bren-gunner get out of a canoe manned by New Guinean people. An Australian infantry patrol (7th Division ?) armed with Owen 9mm sub-Machine guns moves cautiously along a jungle trail.
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IV. 'NEWS FROM ENGLAND.' The commentary outlines the importance of logistics and supply to any successful military operation, using as an example the Allied landings at Anzio in Italy (Operation Shingle). United States Navy (USN) tank landing craft disembark soft-skinned vehicles as US infantry look on. Black US troops unload supplies from a small landing craft. Crated supplies are unloaded by crane hoist from the hold of a berthed Liberty ship. The commentary makes the point that in comparison with the Anzio landings, the supply requirements of the "Second Front" (Normandy Landings) are enlarged out of all recognition. Panoramic footage shows a British Army ordnance depot which has scores of Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft guns and Ordnance 6-pounder anti-tank guns stored in its grounds (The location is possibly the Central Ordnance Depot at Bicester in Oxfordshire). Metal ammunition boxes are stacked in their hundreds at a very large external storage point. Brief footage shows an unidentified Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot briefing Airlanding glider pilots wearing Denison smocks, an Armstrong-Whitworth Albemarle glider-tug aircraft stands parked in the background. An Airspeed Horsa glider lands at an unidentified grass strip (RAF Harwell in Oxfordshire ?). An RAF Armstrong-Whitworth Albemarle aircraft acting as a tug, tows a Horsa glider into the air.
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V. 'RUSSIA.' An item that looks retrospectively at the defeat by the Russians of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad and the great strides that have been made by the citizens of Stalingrad in the reconstruction of their city. Stock shots show the remnants of the German Sixth Army filing past destroyed buildings on their way into captivity following their surrender on February 2 1943. Extensive footage highlights the destruction caused during the fighting for Stalingrad with wrecked commercial buildings and residential houses being shown. The commentary states that over forty thousand buildings had been destroyed in the course of the fighting in the city. A narrow-gauge locomotive carries coal through the rubble-strewn yard of the "Red October" steel works. Civilian recruits work their way through rubble, collecting abandoned weapons, helmets and scrap metal for eventual recycling at the steel works. Russian civilian volunteers load abandoned German helmets, 7.92mm leMG34 and leMG42 light machine guns onto the back of a narrow-gauge goods carriage. Russian steel workers pour molten steel in an unidentified factory (Red October steelworks ?). Russian women civilians use buckets to clear rubble by hand during the reconstruction of Stalingrad. Stalingrad citizens wait for trams which are running despite the fact that many of the streets are still blocked by rubble from damaged buildings. Russian children return to school. Brief footage recaps on the presentation of the Stalingrad Sword to Russian leader Josef Stalin at the Russian Embassy in Teheran (cf WPN 136). At the Kremlin in Moscow, the final stage of the hand-over ceremony shows the Stalingrad Sword being presented to the Chairman of the Stalingrad City Council. The commentary states "This sword is a token of the admiration and respect of one courageous people for another" as a close-up of the Stalingrad Sword is shown.
Physical description
35mm