Description
Object description
Newsreel items including the evacuation from Dunkirk and the return of prisoners from the Altmark.
Full description
I. "His First Command". Shots of the officers and men of the submarine HMS Sunfish. The CO says a few words.
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II. "Adding to the Bag". Two Luftwaffe NCOs and a Lieutenant are marched along the quayside to a waiting truck. A prisoner has his injured hand disinfected and bandaged. The men are issued with bags - presumably for personal belongings. The wounded man removes his boots and wipes his feet - presumably wet after immersion in the sea.
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III. "The King at a Naval Base". King George VI leaves a County Class cruiser (HMS Cumberland ?) to the cheers of the crew. He enters an underground HQ. He inspects the crew of a Walrus flying boat fell in before their aircraft.
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IV. "Ship Launched By A Typist". A typist launches a ship - a dull, impoverished ceremony for a undistinguished merchant hull. As soon as the ship is off the stocks the first plate is laid for the keel of a new vessel.
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V. "Submarine Sinks Nazi Transport". Officers and men on the deck of the submarine HMS Sturgeon. (The sinking referred to in the title is presumably that of the 3624-ton transport Pionier, torpedoed in Danish waters on 2 September, 1940.)
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VI. "Designs for Battle Bowlers". The crew of a merchantman paint their own designs on steel helmets - a skull and crossbones, a caricature head of Hitler about to be hit by a bullet, Hitler on a gibbet, etc. Final sequence is a demonstration of metal cowlings which are thrust through the ship's scuttles to provide ventilation while running darkened.
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VII. "Evacuation of B.E.F. - Greatest Epic of the War". Opening shot at night - a Halcyon Class minesweeper flashes a signal. Cameraship at sea in company with an auxiliary paddle AA vessel and a trawler, both of which are crowded with men. CU of ship's radio operator in his shack - he is wearing steel helmet and life-jacket. HMS Icarus (D.03) steams past (she is seen here as a Long Range Escort). MS off the port quarter of HMS Winchelsea (D.46) - a ferry passes left to right in the background. XLS across the anchorage - Hunt Class sloop (?) in centre screen. A raider passes high overhead, pursued by flak. Ferry steams out to sea - in the background a pall of smoke hangs over the coast, and in lower frame is a sunken ship, mast and funnel breaking the surface. The cameraship closes on the beach and crewmen help troops onto the focsle deck - a boat rows out from the shore - one man helped onboard is wearing only pants, another is naked from the waist down. CUs of rescued men on deck - in the background is a Lewis gun on an AA mounting. The cameraship departs. Cut to MS of HMS Icarus back in harbour. Onboard the cameraship men lie exhausted on the focsle around the 4-inch gun - one scratches himself. HA onto afterbody of a ship crowded with mostly French troops. British troops pass the camera as they disembark - they are crossing the focsle of a destroyer alongside from a smaller ship (possibly a minesweeper) outboard. French troops come ashore. On the quayside, men clean up, some write letters. New clothing is issued. Final LS to the beach at Dunkirk, and view past the 4-inch gun on the focsle to the lines of men wading out to the cameraship.
Full description
VIII. "British Navy Releases Hell Ship Prisoners". HMS Cossack enters port of Leith on Saturday 17 February 1940 - the liberated prisoners from the German supply ship Altmark (previously transferred from Admiral Graf Spee) wave from the deck, and make gestures imitating a cameraman at work. They disembark. Interview with a grizzled ex-prisoner.
Physical description
35mm
