Description
Object description
Unedited and uncensored newsreel footage showing HM King George VI inspecting army and Royal Air Force units serving with the British Expeditionary Force in northern France.
Full description
I. Filmed on a wet day in fading daylight, HM King George VI, makes his way on foot along duckboards towards Bachy (?), a village near the Franco-Belgian frontier. He is accompanied by Major-General Harold Alexander, commander of 1st Division, who walks alongside him on the wet ground. They walk past a large number of soldiers from 2nd Battalion Royal Hampshire Regiment who give the King three cheers.
Full description
II. Accompanied by senior Royal Air Force officers including Air Vice Marshal Blount, commander of the British Expeditionary Force Air Component, the King inspects Royal Air Force personnel from various units and squadrons on parade on a fairly small hard apron at Lille/Seclin (?) airfield; seen drawn up on the apron are a Bristol Blenheim IV light bomber, a Westland Lysander I, two Bristol Gladiators and five Hawker Hurricane I fighters from RAF 85 Squadron fitted with two-bladed non-variable pitch propellers. Following the King's party of RAF commanders is a large number of army officers led by General Lord Gort, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), and Lieutenant-General Alan Brooke, commander of II Corps. A row of RAF non-commissioned officers and an Army Air Co-operation Lysander pilot on parade.
Full description
III. The king inspects an anti-aircraft gun battery manned by a Royal Artillery unit. He is seen inspecting individual 3-inch anti-aircraft gun emplacements, range-finder and predictor detachments and the unit's Nissen hut.
Full description
IV [The same location as Section I] HM King George VI at the head of a procession of British and French officers walks out the village of Bachy past a large number of troops from the Hampshire Regiment who give him three cheers. He uses a ladder specially built for the occasion to climb onto the roof of a large French bunker manned by British troops (2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards ?), surveys the view with a large number of British officers and then makes his way back down the ladder. A low-angle shot of the King talking to an officer near the bunker is ruined by somebody standing in the way.
Physical description
35mm