Description
Object description
British NCO served as sergeant cameraman with Army Film and Photographic Unit in North Africa, Middle East, Sicily, Italy, Yugoslavia and Austria, 1942-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in GB, 1923-1941: father's employment as film cameraman; visits to film studios; interest in documentary films; story of father surviving plane crash; state of British film industry in 1930s; experience working with father and employment in film laboratory; filming air raid on Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd factory at Brooklands near Weybridge, 4/9/1940; question of pursuing career as doctor; studying photography at night school; employment as assistant cameraman with Gaumont-British Pictures Corporation.
REEL 2 Continues: description of training films; duties as assistant cameraman; comparison of various cameras used in civilian employment and with Army Film and Photographic Unit; colour film. Aspects of training as private Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regt and British Army and Army Film and Photographic Unit in GB, 1941-1942: initial enlistment in Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regt, 1941; attitude to military life and discipline; basic training with Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regt; transfer to Army Film and Photographic Unit; problem of illness caused by inoculation; selection of stills and cine cameramen.
REEL 3 Continues: film training exercises on Hampstead Heath, London. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Queen Mary from GB to Egypt, 1942: messing arrangements; accommodation; issue of tropical uniform; contracting dysentery. Recollections of operations as cameraman with No 1 Army Film and Photographic Unit in North Africa and the Middle East, 1942-1943: move to transit camp in Suez, Egypt; description of trade test; issued with DeVry Standard 35mm Cine Camera; explanation of term 'matte'; story of losing revolver; promotion to sergeant including pay and attitude to rank; identification; relations with troops; memories of other Army Film and Photographic Unit personnel; comparison of roles of newsreel and Army Film and Photographic Unit cameramen; posting for further military training to Palestine, 6/1942.
REEL 4 Continues: attitude to role as army cameraman and question of danger; discipline in unit; attitude to filming re-enactments of battle scenes; comradeship with troops; question of authenticity of war filming; assignment to section commander Lieutenant Derek Knight at Headquarters, XXX Corps; story of crashed Hawker Hurricane; daily routine and nature of filming duties; coverage of visits by General Bernard Montgomery and his relations with Army Film and Photographic Unit; opinion of senior commanders including Generals Bernard Montgomery and Harold Alexander.
REEL 5 Continues: daily life in Cairo, Egypt; relations with civilian population; use of Willys Jeep for transport; attitude to desert conditions; accommodation; rations and compo boxes; water supplies; washing clothes in petrol; bathing; problem of contracting jaundice; story of Willys Jeep hitting mine.
REEL 6 Continues: nature of wounds and medical treatment at 63rd British General Hospital in Egypt; description of assignments in Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and on border with Turkey; story of charcoal heater; visits to Jerusalem, Palestine. Aspects of period as cameraman with No 2 Army Film and Photographic Unit in North Africa and Mediterranean, 6/1943-7/1943: transfer to unit in Algiers, French Algeria; move to Tripoli, Libya, 6/1943; story of being torpedoed aboard ship in Mediterranean on route to Sicily, Italy, 7/1943.
REEL 7 Continues: rescue and medical treatment; return to Cairo, Egypt. Recollections of operations as cameraman with Army Film and Photographic Unit in Italy, 1943-1944: landing at Syracuse, Sicily; weight of equipment; description of filming on Catania Plain and Dead Horse Corner, Sicily; sight of crashed gliders with dead bodies; story of chapain giving last rites; receiving a Mentioned in Despatches; opinion of commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Keating; civilian background of officers.
REEL 8 Continues: attitude to filming battles and use of reconstructions; opinion of commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel James 'Monty' Stopford; story of filming reconstructions in beachhead at Anzio; attitude of troops to taking part in reconstructions; filming in Monte Cassino area; organisation of No 2 Army Film and Photographic Unit; method of allocating cameraman; story of entering Rome and type of subjects filmed; role in making film 'The Third Freedom' (1944); question of co-productions; opinion of film 'The Road to Rome' (1944); relations with American film crews.
REEL 9 Continues: story of King George VI and Victoria Cross award; amusing story relating to Prime Minister Winston Churchill; problem with noise of sound camera; question of competition with war correspondents and other cameramen. Recollections of operations as cameraman with No 2 Army Film and Photographic Unit in Yugoslavia, 1944-1945: transfer to Josip Tito's headquarters and aircraft flight from Italy to Yugoslavia, 9/1944; description of stills and cine camera equipment; photographing bomb damage in Belgrade; filming Josip Tito; opinion of Soviet film crews and equipment; filming Ustase atrocities in Sarajevo; reaction to sight of murdered civilians; filming German prisoners of war captured by Yugoslav Partisans; opinion of Josip Tito; personnel in British Maclean Mission; attitude to working with communists; activities of secret police.
REEL 10 Continues: memories of war correspondent Maurice Fagence; story of filming trial of Yugoslav Army officer; relations with Yugoslav civilians; role in training Yugoslav cameramen; working with Soviets; opinion of American photographer John Phillips; relations between Americans and Yugoslavs; story of photograph autographed by Josip Tito; marriage in Yugoslavia; further comments on activities of secret police. Recollections of operations as cameraman with No 2 Army Film and Photographic Unit in Austria, 1945: commissioning and posting to Vienna following end of war, 5/1945; personnel in No 2 Army Film and Photographic Unit; filming daily civilian life and military personnel in Vienna; attitude to repatriation of Soviet citizen; relations with Soviets; question of treatment of prisoners of war.
REEL 11 Continues: role unit in Vienna; promotion to captain and description of public relations role; opinion of conditions in camps for Displaced Persons; black market activities; official attitude to black market and penalties; co-operation with Austrian film cameramen; description of films made by United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA): demobilisation and return to GB; attitude to public relations work.
REEL 12 Continues: reflections on period of service with Army Film and Photographic Unit; post-war life and employment as cameraman; attitude to censorship and codes of practice in wartime filming.