MR OLIVER STANLEY, SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR, WITH BEF IN FRANCE [Allocated Title]

Unedited and uncensored newsreel rushes showing anti-tank gunners serving with the British Expeditionary Force's 2nd Division wearing improvised winter camouflage overalls and a tour of inspection of field defences under construction in 1st Division's sector near the Franco-Belgian border by the new Secretary of State for War, Oliver Stanley MC.

Part I. Scenes showing an Ordnance QF 2-pounder anti-tank gun detachment belonging to 44th Battery, 13th Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery, in the middle of a field covered with several inches of snow at Beuvry-la-Forêt. The gun is covered with scrim netting, strips of white cotton and white cotton sheets have been draped over the gun shield and around the gun barrel. Its crew has camouflaged itself in identical fashion. An anti-tank gunner armed with a Bren gun is lying on the ground in a prone firing position close by. He and his gun are also camouflaged with white cotton sheets. All twelve members of the 2-pounder anti-tank gun detachment stand to attention in their improvised winter camouflage overalls and helmet covers. Another crew in winter camouflage is seen closed up around their 2-pounder anti-tank gun. A two-man Bren gun team is seen nearby; the gunner inserts a new magazine passed to him by his Number 2.

Part II. Wearing a dark coat and homburg hat, Oliver Stanley, the new Secretary of State for War, tours a sector of the BEF's zone of operations close to the Franco-Belgian border in terrain covered in snow. Accompanying him is General Alexander, commander of the 1st Division, General Lord Gort VC, Commander-in-Chief of the BEF (wearing his usual gabardine coat), and several senior staff officers. Alexander, in dress uniform, uses his swagger stick to point out on his map the layout of his division's defences. Stanley's party files along a path formed by barbed wire 'knife' barriers at Bercu. With them is Field Marshal Milne, Chief of Imperial General Staff from 1926 to 1933, seen here wearing a 'British warm'. Stanley surveys the countryside as snow falls. Scene outside a farmhouse used as a headquarters by a 1st Division unit; a Guard of Honour comes to attention as Stanley, Gort and their entourage emerge to continue their tour of inspection in the staff cars parked in the road. The minister is introduced to the officers of a Scottish infantry regiment in the courtyard of their farmhouse billet by their commanding officer.

Part III. Camouflaged with white sheets, an Ordnance QF 2-pounder anti-tank gun detachment (possibly the same one seen earlier by the road) is seen in position on a grass verge with a good field of fire over the road nearby.

Part IV. Stanley's party heads across the snow-covered countryside and inspects a forest of steel reinforcing rods rising out of the foundations of a pill box being built by Royal Engineers in 1st Division's sector at Bachy (?) while Alexander provides a running commentary. He is seen pointing out local tactical features to the VIP party, which at this point includes Lieutenant-General Sir John Dill, commander of I Corps. In the village of Bachy, Alexander looks on as Stanley and Gort inspect a Guard of Honour belonging to an infantry unit under his command, the 2nd Battalion Sherwood Foresters, as snow falls. Both men engage members of the Guard of Honour in conversation. Views through the loopholes of a pillbox in the course of being built of Gort leading Stanley across country. The VIP party continues its cross-country walk. Stanley chats to an artillery officer at Ouvrignies. Gort leads the procession through a farm gate, followed by Alexander who engages his Commander-in-Chief in conversation, and the war minister. At Rue Blonde outside the village of Genech, Stanley's party makes its way across churned up soil to a large anti-tank ditch which is being dug with a civilian mechanical excavator on caterpillar tracks; the completed sections of the ditch have been revetted with timber props. Filmed from the ditch itself, Stanley is seen taking a close interest as the excavator does its work while Gort, Alexander and the rest of the VIP party stand a safe distance away. A bulldozer is seen moving earth in the background.

Part V. Filmed on 16 February 1940, a detachment of mule carts belonging to one of the four Royal Indian Army Service Corps (RIASC) animal transport companies serving with the BEF is inspected by Oliver Stanley and General Lord Gort at Wambrechies, a village just outside Lille. Also present is Field Marshal Milne and General Alan Brooke, General Officer Commanding (GOC) II Corps, and a civilian, possibly Stanley's personal secretary. Accompanied by the Indian Army major in charge of the detachment, Stanley inspects the animals hitched up to the supply carts and saddled up as pack mules. Along with Gort and Brooke, he shows particular interest in a mule wearing a specially-designed gas mask.

Part VI. Stanley and his entourage of senior BEF officers stride across the wintry landscape as more snow gently falls; the other civilian in the VIP party, possibly Stanley's personal secretary, walks with a pronounced limp. They inspect a section of preserved First World War trenches in a wood that has grown since 1918. Led by an officer whose coat has a fur-lined collar, Stanley, Gort and Milne make their way out of a dugout along a communications trench and up onto level ground. Close-up of a sign tacked to new trees "Little Hell".

Part VII. A Caterpillar Company bulldozer is seen excavating an anti-tank ditch in a field covered in snow as more snow falls. Providing manual assistance are men from a Scottish infantry battalion who are dressed against the cold in leather jerkins and greatcoats. The camera focuses on the bulldozer operated by 135th Excavator Company, Royal Engineers, the large piles of heavy soil dislodged by its dozer blade and the driver, wearing a balaclava and a greatcoat, operating the bulldozer controls. The bulldozer is seen burrowing a channel through the soil as a preliminary to digging work by the civilian mechanical excavator parked nearby. Stanley, accompanied by a Royal Engineers officer, probably Major S A Westrop, the officer commanding the excavator company (in officer's dress and jodhpurs), walks over to examine the anti-tank ditch and, joined by Gort, Alexander, Dill and Milne, watches the mechanical excavator's bucket at work. Dill is seen at one point using his swagger stick to show Stanley some of the features of the anti-tank ditch. Labourers from the Scots infantry unit use pick axes and spades during the digging of another section of the anti-tank ditch but make little impression on the frozen soil. As the VIP party prepares to leave, Stanley bids farewell to the sapper Major.

35mm