SONS OF OUR EMPIRE EPISODE 1 : Winter on the Western Front [Main Title]

Winter training for British troops, and Bapaume after its capture, Western Front, early 1917

I. (Reel 1) Winter training for British troops. Infantry guns and Highlanders move in columns along the roads up to the snow covered trenches. Hot soup is brought to troops in the trenches. A dawn 'stand to'. Rifle grenades and a 3-inch Stokes mortar are test fired. A bombardment in snow by various British guns: 6-inch howitzers, 9.2-inch howitzers, 18-pounders and 60-pounders, directed by air observation. A major daylight trench raid through the snow, covered by smoke grenades. The raid is in four waves including wiring parties. Meanwhile other trenches are repaired and 6-inch howitzers continue the harassing fire. II. (Reel 2) Damage to Bapaume shown after its capture. Highland Light Infantry (?) repair the Bapaume road. A panorama of the town starting with the railway station. Views from the Rue de Casernes and the Rue de Bapaume. Some buildings are still smouldering and parties of British troops who walk by warm themselves by the fires. A detailed scene of the railway station. A German observation post on top of the sugar factory. More damage, including the town hall, and a Vickers machine gun emplacement on the Rue de Péronne. British troops, including lorry-mounted 13-pounder anti-aircraft guns, move through the town. Australians, probably of Australian 5th Division, enter the town.

35mm