Description
Object description
An edition of the British official newsreel "War Pictorial News", produced by the Ministry of Information, Middle East.
Full description
I. 'HOLLAND.' An item that covers Canadian First Army operations in the Scheldt Estuary. British commandos of 4 Commando Brigade carry ammunition boxes along a wooden jetty in preparation for their amphibious assault on Walcheren. Canadian infantrymen (2nd or 3rd Canadian Division) laden with personal kit and Lee-Enfield No.IV .303-inch rifles, climb down wooden ladders onto landing craft. The commentary outlines the strategic nature of the Scheldt Estuary in relation to the necessity to open Antwerp as a much needed supply port. Canadian troops run past a Sherman Firefly tank, shell damaged buildings are evident in the background (South Beveland ?) German troops of the 15th Army (70th Division ?) surrender to men of the British 4th Commando Brigade. German and Canadian medics tend to wounded during a lull in the fighting. An M4 Sherman drives past the camera position, the vehicle uses scrim netting to camouflage its outline. An M4 Sherman flail tank (Crab?) is shown at work in muddy conditions. Camera gun footage (CGF) shows an Allied fighter attack on a German Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf Fw 190A fighter aircraft. Cannon strikes from the Allied aircraft are evident on the fuselage and cockpit area of the German aircraft. Canadian troops flush out a German sniper who emerges from a building with his hands raised.
Full description
II. 'POLAND.' Brief footage shows Marshal Konstantin K Rokossovsky (Commander 1st Belorussian Front) talking to officers prior to his forces crossing the River Bug. Russian T-70 light tanks and T-34/76 tanks, driving in convoy, carry tank descent infantry. Aerial stock shot footage shows a flight of Russian Air Force Petlyakov Pe-2 bomber aircraft. Stock shots show a Russian artillery barrage by 152mm Gaubitsa-Pushka obr 1937g field guns firing from gun pits. Russian infantry wade across the River Bug under shell fire, an IS-2 (Iosef Stalin) tank wades the Bug with water reaching to the height of its turret ring. Russian infantry release civilians from prison following the capture of the Polish town of Chelm (Lubin). Russian Ilyushin Il-2 ground attack aircraft test their 20mm ShVAK cannons in flight. Russian T-70 tanks and SU-76 tank destroyers drive past crowds of Polish civilians who throw flowers. A Polish soldier receives flowers from a civilian. The Polish flag is raised.
Full description
III. 'CHURCHILL IN RUSSIA.' Russian leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Spencer Churchill exude an air of cordiality as they sit on a sofa posing for photographs at the end of their meeting in Moscow. The two leaders are later joined by Anthony Eden (British Foreign Secretary) and Vyacheslav M Molotov (Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs). At a Moscow airfield, Churchill reviews a Russian guard of honour (armed with 7.62mm Samozaryadnaya Vintovka Tokareva obr 1940g automatic rifles) prior to his departure in an Avro York transport aircraft.
Physical description
35mm