WAR PICTORIAL NEWS NO 215 [Main Title]

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

I. 'ETHIOPIA.' Panoramic footage shows large crowds gathering in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. Haile Selassie, Negus of Ethiopia, walks to a saluting base prior to reviewing a march-past by elements of the Imperial Ethiopian Army. An Australian Army contingent armed with Lee-Enfield Mk III .303-inch rifles march past the reviewing stand as the Negus salutes. Ethiopian Army armoured cars and soft-skins drive past the saluting base. Ethiopian dignitaries sit in a reviewing stand. Ethiopian Army personnel lead mules that are laden with disassembled mountain howitzers (possibly captured Italian stock). Ethiopian lancers fly the flags of Allied nations from their lances.

II. 'U-BOATS SURRENDER.' German Kriegsmarine Type VII U-boats (submarines) are shown in the Oslo approaches making for a designated surrender area. Brief footage shows a German Type XXI U-boat making a signal by Aldis lamp from its conning tower. German Kriegsmarine ratings assemble on the deck of a Type XXI as it manoeuvres towards a berthing area. A Royal Navy (RN) guard of honour stands to attention (With Lee-Enfield Mk IV .303-inch rifles) as a Type VII U-boat glides into harbour. RN ratings armed with Lanchester 9mm sub-machine guns and Lee-Enfield Mk IV rifles stand guard over the crew of (Type VII U-boat) U-802 which is berthed in Londonderry (Derry) Harbour (Lough Foyle). Some of U-802 crewmembers sport three-quarter length grey leather submarine coats. A British-crewed Type VII U-BOAT sails under Tower Bridge to a mooring point near the Houses of Parliament. Panoramic footage shows large numbers of beached German midget submarines in the environs of Copenhagen. Close up footage shows a 35-ft Molch (Salamander) Type midget submarine (built by Flender in Lübeck). Danish officers inspect an experimental 16-ft Delphin one man submarine that is still secured to its launching trailer.

III. 'GERMANY TODAY.' The arrest of the German High Command at Flensburg (Schleswig-Holstein) (and stock shots elsewhere) by elements of the British 159 Brigade, 11 Armoured Division (May 23 1945). Close up footage shows Regent of Hungary, Admiral Miklos Horthy talking to an unidentified United States (US) Major-General (US 36th Infantry Division ?). Arthur Seyss-Inquart and his staff are shown under guard by British infantry armed with Sten 9mm sub-machine guns. Brief footage shows German Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt talking to US troops. Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring talks to an officer from the US 101st Airborne Division. Brief footage shows the covered corpse of Reichsführer der SS Heinrich Himmler following his suicide by poison (Lüneburg) Reichsmarschall Hermann W Goering talks to assembled Allied pressmen in the garden of a house in Augsburg. In Belsen concentration camp captured German soldiers wearing protective overalls move corpses to a burial trench. German troops bury corpses under guard from British Second Army (VIII Corps) soldiers armed with Lee-Enfield No.IV .303-inch rifles. British Army chaplains read the burial service over a mass grave. British Second Army caterpillar tractors knock down prison huts. Remaining prison huts are ceremoniously torched by Second Army (43rd Wessex Division ?) Wasp (Universal carrier) flame thrower vehicles (MAY 21 1945). The Union flag flies as Belsen prison huts burn in the background.

35mm