Description
Object description
Unedited and uncensored newsreel footage showing men serving with 14 Platoon, 'C' Company in the 1st/7th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment simulating combat drill in woods in the British Expeditionary Force's sector in northern France.
Full description
Part I. At the foot of a tree used as an Observation Post (OP) in woods outside Flines-les-Raches near Orchies, an officer (the platoon or company commander) confers with the OP sentry before climbing up the tree with the help of wooden rungs nailed into the tree trunk. From there, he scans the countryside with his binoculars, shouts down to the sentry on the ground that the enemy is approaching and orders him to alert the rest of the men. The sentry dashes along tidily constructed communications trenches revetted with wattle and reinforced by upright wooden stakes. He reports to a dugout (decorated with a sign that reads 'No. 10 Downing Street') where the platoon (?) headquarters is located. The platoon officer (?) dashes out to see for himself; a quick look across no-man's-land from the platoon's foremost trench prompts him to alert the others with a blast on his whistle. Urged on by their platoon commander and senior non-commissioned officer, other members of the platoon, some carrying small ammunition boxes containing .303 rounds, quickly make their way along the communications trenches to take up their firing positions; for convenience's sake, their SMLE Mk III rifles are already in position. A two-man ration party carries a large and heavy box suspended between two poles with a third rifleman as their escort through the woods to the platoon positions. Outside his dugout, the platoon officer serves his men hot tea from the food container inside the box. A member of the platoon with his hair shaved like a Cherokee Indian tries to attract enemy sniper fire by raising his steel helmet, balanced on a stick, slowly above the lip of the trench and then seizes the helmet. A patrol consisting of the platoon commander, his .38 service revolver in his right hand, and five riflemen set off across the floor of the wood into no-man's-land. The riflemen with the Cherokee hair cut repeats his performance with his helmet on a stick as the rest of his section man their weapons and aim them across no-man's-land. A fir tree in the foreground masks a part of the trench manned by the platoon's anti-tank gunner, seen here armed with a Boys .5-inch anti-tank rifle.
Full description
Part II. Men of 14 Platoon march in a compact body down a dirt road leading through the wood. As if they've heard gunfire or have seen signs of the enemy, they break formation, leave the road and scatter among the trees. Two men sent ahead of the main body of the platoon as scouts skirt the road as they advance through the wood. The rest of the platoon comes into sight and scatters. A hand-held walking shot behind the platoon as it marches up the road and suddenly breaks formation. The platoon advances in open order though the wood.
Physical description
35mm