EXERCISE FABIUS II: AMPHIBIOUS LANDING PRACTICE BY 50TH NORTHUMBRIAN DIVISION AT HAYLING ISLAND, HAMPSHIRE [Allocated Title]

A month before the invasion of Normandy, troops of 69 Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Division take part in Exercise Fabius II, a large-scale amphibious landing rehearsal.

A very murky wide shot showing a Landing Craft Tank (LCT) passing left-to-right and a Landing Craft Assault (LCA) passing right-to-left. A pan of the beach; showing LCT 929 beached with a number of tanks and more amphibious tanks coming ashore. Looking along the beach, with tanks (including one carrying fascines) coming ashore. LCT 808. A long lens shot, slight out of focus, showing soldiers on the beach; one of them is laying mine tape. Fascine-carrying tank (long lens, soft focus). Infantry follow a mine tape through beach obstacles. LCA 1060 beaches; the ramp is slow to drop. Men come ashore. Group of signallers on the beach. LCA 1024 with men disembarking (focus still soft). Tank passes dragging away a beach obstacle (focus now sharper). LCA 921 (with sign reading PBM – Principal Beachmasters). LCT 7009 coming ashore. 7009’s ramp drops and men come ashore; a bulldozer follows. Looking along the beach with large numbers of men heading up the beach (focus soft). LCT 857 with bulldozer coming ashore; two others pass along the beach. Long lens shot of Sherman tank. Various vehicles on the beach (tank, half-track, Universal carriers, jeeps); in the background men come ashore from LCT 878 and a beachmaster waves a flag. Long lens of tanks forming up on the beach with LCT 640 and 783 in the background and troops approaching in the foreground (focus still soft). Wide shot of the beach (focus corrected). A DUKW amphibious truck drives off LCT 1034 and a Sherman from LCT 710. A beach master waves a flag as LCT 737 approaches the beach; a Sherman named ‘Alhambra’ passes and obscures him and the LCT’s ramp drops with a splash. Jeeps drive off 737. LCT 565 with ramp dropping. Wide shot with LCT 879, 678 and 631. Two Shermans, one of them an HQ vehicle marked with a diamond, with an LCA underway behind them. LCA 951 with men disembarking. LCA 1086, laden with troops, underway at speed. US Navy Landing Craft Infantry LCI 510 approaching. Long lens of men coming down the bow gangways of LCI 510 and wading ashore. Wider shot with men wading ashore and moving along the beach. Long lens of men disembarking from Landing Craft Infantry (Large) (LCI(L)) 311. Offshore a destroyer lays a smokescreen. Another shot of LCI 510, its US naval ensign clearly visible. A Churchill tank drives onto LCT 930. A Sherman returns to LCT 727.

35mm