Description
Object description
Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes showing Mr Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Secretary of State for War in Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's wartime cabinet, inspecting field defences in a sector of the Allied front line on the Franco-Belgian border held by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and firepower demonstrations of weapons in service with front line British infantry units.
Full description
I. A brief glimpse of Royal Army Service Corps (?) drivers standing at a doorway near a microphone stand. Wearing a homburg hat and and a smart double-breasted coat, Leslie Hore-Belisha, Secretary of State for War in Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's wartime cabinet, addresses the camera, "During this visit to France, I think I can claim to have seen the General commanding every Corps and Division and also all the Brigadiers, and I have of course seen thousands of men. I can assure you that the spirit of every one of them is at the highest possible level. They're working hard, their health is good and they are completely winning the war!"
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II. Scenes filmed from the roof of a camera car on a bright winter's day showing a small fleet of staff cars parked on the outskirts of Mouchin, a village very close to the Franco-Belgian frontier, Mr Hore-Belisha stepping out of his vehicle and being greeted by a local British unit commander; accompanied by General Lord Gort, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force and two other officers, they walk along a path past an anti-tank ditch cut in a zig-zag pattern towards a large French block house about two hundred yards away. Long lens shots of a large number of officers standing around the block house whilst the War Minister is inside. A top shot showing Hore-Belisha with a large number of officers, including Major-General Harold Alexander, the general officer commanding 1st Division; Gort introduces the War Minister to the Brigadier in charge of the locality who in turn introduces him to one of his battalion commanders. Gort, Hore-Belisha and Alexander peer over the edge of a trench dug by British troops and revetted with wattle and sandbags. Scenes showing the War Minister and a large number of officers inspecting field defences as they are being dug by soldiers on work detail; at one point the camera compares Hore-Belisha's smart clothes and shoes with the more practical Army trousers and Wellington boots worn by a private soldier. A top shot showing Gort standing next to a barbed wire entanglement with several other officers as he explains its features to the War Minister; several war reporters in the foreground realise they are blocking the shot and move out of the way. The BEF C-in-C and Hore-Belisha engage in conversation. The party heads off in the direction of another French-built blockhouse. As the Minister is inside inspecting the layout of the bunker, Gort and Lieutenant-General Sir John Dill, the commander of I British Corps, have a chat. Hore-Belisha stoops low as he emerges from the bunker; the officer behind him strikes his head on the low roof. The minister's procession makes its way past a steel gate guarded by a British sentry wearing the 1924-pattern British Army service dress. Alexander and Hore-Belisha take a close look at a section of trench flooded with rain water. The Minister talks to a junior officer.
Full description
III A large number of officers and other ranks stands on top of a grass embankment outside the village of Montenescourt looking at an anti-tank detachment from the 2nd Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (?) taking part in a fire power demonstration with a French Hotchkiss 25mm cannon. The soldiers are all wearing the 1924-pattern service dress. The five man crew - gunner/gunlayer, loader and three ammunition 'numbers' are seen closed up around the Hotchkiss as two rounds are fired, watched by the junior officer in charge of the detachment and the large crowd of spectators in the background. The daylight is not good. Once the firing is over, the crew make the Hotchkiss ready for travelling and drag it away by hand as the spectators make their way on foot to another location a short distance away. The anti-tank cannon is wheeled onto the back of a Bedford MW 15-cwt truck. At a site chosen for another firing demonstration, six members of a 3-inch mortar team (all wearing gas mask satchels around their necks over their 1924-pattern service dress) are seen in a sunken lane some distance away from their vehicle, a Morris-Commercial CS8 15-cwt truck; the spotter for the mortar detachment has positioned himself on the lip of the grass embankment overlooking the lane. The members of a 3-inch mortar detachment from the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers collect the parts for the mortar and ammunition from the back of their truck and make their way further down the lane to commence their fire power demonstration.
Full description
IV. A Bedford MW 15-cwt truck carrying a Hotchkiss 25mm anti-tank cannon crew is driven up a sunken lane and into a farm track. The gun crew dismounts, drags the Hotchkiss cannon off the back of the truck with the help of two ramps and prepares it for a fire power demonstration by attaching the gun sights and the flash cover to the muzzle of the gun barrel. The men wheel the light cannon into a field and put the hand bar they have used to pull it along back in its place on one of the gun trails. The gunner, loader and two ammunition 'numbers' are seen from different angles, closed-up around the Hotchkiss anti-tank cannon as a 25mm armour piercing round is inserted into the breech. As a round is fired, an empty shell case flies out of the breech, followed by a cloud of smoke.
Full description
V. The two-man observation party for the Inniskilling's mortar crew take up position on the lip of the grass enbankment whilst in the sunken lane below the mortar team is in position. The officer in the observation party is seen using a pair of binoculars. A short section of camera waste.
Physical description
35mm