TROOPS DISEMBARKING [Allocated Title]

Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes showing reinforcements for the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) landing at St Nazaire and the construction of railway facilities at a base park for the Royal Engineers outside Rennes.

I. A British soldier sent from the United Kingdom to join the BEF in France on a ferry normally used on the Liverpool-Belfast route (MV Ulster Monarch or MV Ulster Prince) poses for the camera with his mascot, a puppy, as he leans out one of the windows on the upper deck. Soldiers wearing steel helmets, army greatcoats and shouldering SMLE Mk III rifles use a gangway to disembark from the ferry in the port of St Nazaire, France; the cameraman has got other soldiers to cheer the new arrivals as they step ashore. Newly disembarked troops gather underneath a long shed on the harbour quay. Soldiers wearing the old style of British Army service dress and 1908-pattern webbing (indicating that they are members of a Territorial unit) descend down a steep gangway from the ferry. A view through one of the ship's scuttles or portholes of troops on the quay. A slightly-out-of-focus panning shot over British soldiers standing around next to large wooden wine barrels and looking cheerful in the shed on the harbour quay. An over-exposed shot showing soldiers standing around (the cameraman has not changed the exposure setting over from filming in poor light). Troops wearing steel helmets and shouldering SMLE Mk III rifles in ranks of three march from the docks into St Nazaire; many wear greatcoats and all of them have gas mask satchels slung around their necks. At one point the cameraman stands in the middle of the troop column and films soldiers marching by on either side. Three French women gaze down on the spectacle from an upper storey window.

II. A panorama from a high point overlooking a site in the countryside around Rennes, Brittany, where British soldiers are seen digging a trench during the construction of a storage depot for the Royal Engineers. Men use spades and pickaxes to excavate a deep and wide ditch. Soil is tossed with shovels into a railway wagon. Large numbers of men (probably Royal Engineers) are seen cutting a step into an embankment of soil during the construction of a railway platform (?). A back travelling shot filmed from a rail dolly showing a gang of men spreading soil around and under sleepers on a newly-laid section of railway and then stopping their work to wave at the camera.

III. In one of the harbour basins at St Nazaire, British soldiers on the well deck near the stern of their transport (MV Ulster Monarch or MV Ulster Prince) and local inhabitants, mainly women and children, wave at the camera. A Corporal wearing the old style of British Army service dress and wearing leather boots and a French docker (?) in wooden clogs pose for the camera on the quay where the transport from Britain has docked. Soldiers poking their heads out of scuttles on the starboard side of their ship and on the boat deck above wave at the camera. A large number of soldiers cram themselves into the well deck near the ship's stern for the camera and look out from the ship's railings at the crowd of French civilians gazing at them from the shore. A low-angle shot of soldiers lining the railings on the ship's boat deck; the camera keeps running although the cameraman has forgotten to switch it off. A head-on view of the troop transport (MV Ulster Monarch or MV Ulster Prince) in a harbour basin in St Nazaire. A view framed by the open doors of a warehouse of a tug towing the troopship towards a quay by a tug. Scenes showing the troopship docking and a French dock worker looping one of the ship's wires around a mooring bollard on the quay. Curious British soldiers crowd the railings on the well deck and the starboard side of the quarterdeck next to a large sign board warning people to stay well clear of the two propellers at the stern.

35mm