Mystery footage/film

[Skipman]

I found this film, from the Huntley Film Archive. It's a mystery to me, as I have never seen this footage/film before. Is it a mixture of real footage, and re-enactment. Has anyone seen this before?

On youtube, it is titled " Silent Drama of the battle of the Somme 1920's "

Mike

[9.5mm]

That is an extended sequence from "The Somme" (1927, Directed: Marmaduke Arundel Wetherell - New Era Productions).

[Guest]

Thank you. Have not seen that before.

Mike

[Guest]

Now that 9.5mm has identified it, here's another clip from Vimeo

Piper James Richardson VC 16th (Canadian Scottish) Battalion CEF

THE SOMME

1927, Directed by M.A. Wetherell

Filmed on location: Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England.

Mike

[9.5mm]

The original is held by the BFI, Mike.

Cpl Theodore Veale also plays himself in the film and re-enacts how he won the VC.

[Guest]

Thanks again. Now we know who to ask regarding films/footage etc

Mike

[Moonraker]

A full version of the film can be seen

 

here

 

(and it doesn't have the "watermark" imposed on the clip in the opening post).

 

I've only glanced at it - the graininess doesn't encourage viewing it all at once - but I'll be interested to see if I can identify any parts of the Plain when I watch it later on.

 

Moonraker

[Moonraker]

Just watched the film. At 109 minutes long and with no sound, it was a bit of a slog, but improved in the second half, with re-enactments of Corporal Veale; Private James Miller, 7th Royal Lancaster Regiment; Colonel J V Campbell, 3rd Coldstream Guards; and Piper James Richardson, 16th Canadian Scottish winning their VCs.

 

Miller won his VC for taking an important message and bringing back its reply - Wikipedia - though my extremely brief research - and the film - failed to determine what the message and reply contained.

 

Excellent footage (from 1.15.30) of a British tank leading an infantry attack and demolishing German trenches and a machine-gun post. Several moving scenes of distressed soldiers and, towards the end, graphic footage of the mud of late 1916.

 

I thought that a few scenes might have been filmed against the background of the escarpment east of Bulford that runs towards Tidworth. I know little about the Somme, but I wonder if such a hillside is there.

 

And I wonder if the trenches had been freshly dug on the Plain for the film, or whether they were adapted from wartime training trenches. Whatever, they might confuse modern archaeological digs.

 

Moonraker

[Coldstreamer]

thanks - will take a look

[delta]

On 14/01/2020 at 21:36, Moonraker said:

 

I thought that a few scenes might have been filmed against the background of the escarpment east of Bulford that runs towards Tidworth. I know little about the Somme, but I wonder if such a hillside is there.

 

And I wonder if the trenches had been freshly dug on the Plain for the film, or whether they were adapted from wartime training trenches. Whatever, they might confuse modern archaeological digs.

 

Moonraker

 

There are similarities between part of Salisbury plain and the Somme battlefield

Wide open, unfenced farmland with woods and re entrants.

 

However I can't think of any steep ridges of the type near Bulford and Shipton Bellinger - that said others could probably identify some.

 

 

Edited 15 January , 2020 by delta