THE AMERICANS IN THE GOTHIC LINE [Allocated title]

At San Marino, troops of 5th Indian Brigade, 4th Indian Division occupy the town, while Harold MacMillan and Sir Oliver Leese meet the Regent.

Following US II Corps' attack on the Gothic Line south of Firenzuola, the German withdrawal allows American transport to advance past abandoned German defences, and General Mark Clark visits the front.

AYY 813/01, shot by Sergeant Deeming, 23 September 1944 General Mark Clark with Brigadier General Edward Samuel Greenbaum and Julius Amberg, aide and special assistant respectively to the US Secretary of State for War. Clark and party looks at a map; camera pans to a valley and the town of Firenzuola. Clark and Greenbaum in discussion over a map. Landscape pan; this location may be the hill above Casanuova, south of Firenzuola). Light motor traffic on a road. Landscape pan (with smoke rising from shelling?). American infantry, in silhouette, climb a steep hillside. American troops passing camera on foot right-to-left; camera pans with one soldier who stares at the camera, and pan shows the terrain they are crossing. American troops passing left-to-right. Wide shot; landscape with small figures of troops marching along a ridgeline. Motor vehicles pass camera in the village of Rifredo, between Barco and Caselle south of Firenzuola; the first vehicle is a light truck marked 'Wire Patrol' and is followed by jeeps and ambulances. A towed 155mm M1 howitzer passes. Another towed howitzer (155mm 'Long Tom'?). On a road outside the village, tank destroyers (M18 Hellcats?) pass followed by a half-track, an M8 armoured car, and a jeep. Jeeps on a road. Motor vehicles pass woodland where the trees have been badly damaged by shelling. Close-up of broken tree trunks. Brief shot shows a tracked gun tractor towing an artillery piece. An M4 Sherman tank (cast hull) drives towards camera along a road with infantry standing at the roadside. Another angle of a Sherman passing infantry. American infantry advance on foot along a road through woodland. Close-up of marching feet; tilt to the marching column. The entrace to a wood and earthen bunker, entered via a trench; pan to a lorry passing on the nearby road. Looking down onto a road descending a steep hill; a lorry passes. A serviceman wearing a sidecap descends a slope and peers into a bunker dug into the hillside. A bunker entrance with fast pan to the valley it overlooks. A hillside studded with stakes apparently for a barbed wire entanglement, but no wire is present. Close-up, a dead body. A tilt up of the dead body. Close-up of barbed wire stakes; in the background lorries drive past and camera tilts to show the valley, one man riding in the back of a vehicle waves his helmet at the camera. Entrance to a dugout; camera pans to lorries passing. Further shots of lorries passing, one towing a bowser.

AYY 813/2, shot by Sergeant Rodwell, 23 September 1944 At the Palazzo Pubblico, the seat of government in San Marino, Harold MacMillan (Minister Resident in the Mediterranean) and Lieutenant General Oliver Leese (commanding Eighth Army) pass camera. MacMillan inspects the pipe band of 2nd Battalion Cameron Highlanders. Leese and MacMillan depart by jeep, with Leese driving. The pipe band performing at the Palazzo. A jeep passes camera, climbing a steep hill, and passes a sign board reading 'SAN MARINO'. A Universal carrier bounces along a steeply sloping street. A bust of scholar Bartolomeo Borghesi, with an artillery observation post beyond. View of terrain looking over an artillery observer's shoulder. Looking down on buildings below in Borgo Maggiore; they all have white crosses on their rooves as an indicator of San Marino's neutrality. Pan looking towards the Adriatic coast, showing the road over which 5th Indian Brigade, 4th Indian Division advanced to capture San Marino. View of a tower previously used by the Germans as an observation and machine gun post, showing damage from a 75mm tank shell; according to the dopesheet an unexploded 75mm round can be seen lodged in the tower's stonework, though this is not obvious in the copy viewed. MacMillan and Leese are introduced to the Regent of San Marino, Professor Francesco Balsimelli. MacMillan and Leese go into the Palazzo. Tilt down the face of the Palazzo. The pipe band playing on the square, marching towards camera. Leese and Balsimelli on the balcony. Pipe band playing.

35mm