THE PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN VISITS NORMANDY, 12 JUNE 1944 (PART 1) [Allocated Title]

Six days after the establishment of an Allied beach-head in Normandy, Churchill visits France for the first time since June 1940.

The Prime Minister of Great Britain is brought ashore on board a 536th GT Company Royal Army Service Corps 'Duck' at 'Mike Green' Beach at Courseulles where the 21st Army Group commander, General Sir Bernard Montgomery, is on hand to welcome him and his party. Clearly identifiable among the latter at this stage are Rear-Admiral Philip Vian, Eastern Naval Task Force commander, and Field Marshal Jan Smuts, Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa. Churchill gets into one of three jeeps provided to take the VIPs to 21st Army Group's Tactical HQ at Creully and lights up a thick cigar. At Creully, Churchill, Smuts, General Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and Lieutenant- General Sir Miles Dempsey, 2nd Army commander, step into Montgomery's map caravan. Churchill, Montgomery, Brooke, Smuts (armed with his own cine camera), Dempsey and Lieutenant-General Sir Richard O'Connor, 8th Corps commander, pose for the Army Film and Photographic Unit cameramen and converse with one another in the HQ's grounds, pausing at the end to look up at German aircraft flying overhead.

35mm