stevew Posted 30 October , 2003 Share Posted 30 October , 2003 For me this is one of the first things I can remember from seeing WW1 footage. I believe it is from the Somme, and it is where the camera is looking along a trench and a soldier is carrying a wounded soldier over his shoulder (and he is stooping a little bit), as he walks along the trench he has the occasional look up at the camera. I fully expect the answer to be 'no', but does anyone know who the soldier is and whether or not he survived the war, hopefully many of you will know the piece of footage I am referring to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pete Wood Posted 30 October , 2003 Share Posted 30 October , 2003 If it is the footage I am thinking of, he is carrying the wounded soldier piggy-back fashion. It's owned, I believe by the Imperial War Museum and surely must have made more money (in reproduction rights) for the IWM than any other piece of film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Bowbrick Posted 30 October , 2003 Share Posted 30 October , 2003 There was a thread on this sometime ago - Tom Morgan was the one who identified him - the guy doing the carrying. Tom? Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hill 60 Posted 30 October , 2003 Share Posted 30 October , 2003 The Beds & Herts Regimental Museum in Luton has a 'still' of this film and have claimed him to be a wounded Beds man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedley Malloch Posted 30 October , 2003 Share Posted 30 October , 2003 Claims have been made for his identification. He is said to have survived the war. From memory he was 29th or 4th Division man, possibly LF, opposite Beaumont Hamel. Was there a cameraman with the Bedfords on 1/7/16? A famous clip of film. Questions were asked about it in the House of Commons when the film was released for public showing. Was it right that the Mothers/Daughters/Wives of England should see their Sons/Fathers/Husbands dying in this manner? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Posted 30 October , 2003 Share Posted 30 October , 2003 The piece of film referred to is heart rending enough in black and white, the man doing the carrying looks about done in and terrified, however it was colorised for a recent series on the TV and the effect was even more startling. I get a lump in my throat every time I see the poor b****r struggling along carrying his mate. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm Posted 30 October , 2003 Share Posted 30 October , 2003 The man was from the 1st Bedfords, 5th Division and was filmed just before crossing the sunken lane at Beaumont Hamel presumably heading for the communication trench to Auchonvillers. Aye Malcolm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy Evans Posted 30 October , 2003 Share Posted 30 October , 2003 Infuriating. I was looking at the ‘still’ of this picture only a few days ago but can’t find it now, (I think it was on the net.) The caption said that the casualty died twenty minutes after the picture was taken. Roy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm Posted 30 October , 2003 Share Posted 30 October , 2003 It is in ' Twenty Years After Vol II ' by Major General Sir Ernest Swinton. p730. It is also an IWM still photo - sorry, don't know the number. Aye Malcolm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedley Malloch Posted 30 October , 2003 Share Posted 30 October , 2003 I am not sure he was 5 Division? Were they invovled on the first day of the Somme? I cannot find a record of them. I have seen the photo tonight (it's on the front cover of Middlebrook's FDOTS) and at least one bloke in it appears to be wearing a triangle as a divisional insignia; that was the badge of the 29th Division who were between Auchonvillers and Beaumont Hamel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinWills Posted 30 October , 2003 Share Posted 30 October , 2003 The picture appeared on the cover of Martin Middlebrook's "First Day on the Somme". Several years later Martin had a letter from someone who had seen the picture year after year at remembrancetide and felt it had a family ring about it. They wanted to obtain a quality reproduction of the picture. As a result an identification was made. I can't remember the details and, of course, it might not have been correct. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Morgan Posted 30 October , 2003 Share Posted 30 October , 2003 There was a thread on this sometime ago - Tom Morgan was the one who identified him - the guy doing the carrying. Tom? Ian I didn't identify him myself - birthday or not, I'm not that old - but I did say that the booklet which used to identify the IWM video said: In a letter to the Museum in 1978 the rescuer was identified as RSM George Wood, West Yorkshire Regiment (presumably 21st Pioneer Battalion, 4th Division) by his daughter - the man being rescued wears a 29th Division shoulder flash. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Maier Posted 30 October , 2003 Share Posted 30 October , 2003 Is this the image? He is done in but not done for. He has seen things that nobody should see and perhaps done things that nobody should do. Things that will occupy his days and nights for the rest of his life; things that he may never speak of. He is appalled that someone is filming a dying man. If his hands were free and he had the strength left, he would fell the photographer. He is everyman of the Great War. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broznitsky Posted 31 October , 2003 Share Posted 31 October , 2003 Bravo, Clive, well said. How many times was the same scene repeated, on all fronts and by all armies, but never filmed like this? Peter (sad in Ottawa ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevew Posted 31 October , 2003 Author Share Posted 31 October , 2003 Is this the image? He is done in but not done for. He has seen things that nobody should see and perhaps done things that nobody should do. Things that will occupy his days and nights for the rest of his life; things that he may never speak of. He is appalled that someone is filming a dying man. If his hands were free and he had the strength left, he would fell the photographer. He is everyman of the Great War. Yes, that is the image. I find it a very powerful piece of footage. Some very poignant words from Clive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
182 CEF Posted 31 October , 2003 Share Posted 31 October , 2003 I remember hearing or reading that there was a camera man with the Newfoundland Regt at the Somme, and some of the footage was of them. I don't know which. Dean Owen Whitby Ontario Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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