The Making of an Officer: with the Artists Rifles at the Front, Official Pictures of the British Army
Item
Title
The Making of an Officer: with the Artists Rifles at the Front, Official Pictures of the British Army
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Identifier
5739.mp4
IWMFILM203-low.mp4
Creator
War Office
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Abstract
British basic officer training in the Artists Rifles, St-Omer, Western Front, December 1915. Drill and musketry instruction. On sentry training British and French sentries together stop a staff car to check the occupants. Out in the country, the trainees cut brushwood for hurdles. They learn how to make bridges from tree trunks and rafts from gas capes filled with straw. They repair trench systems, and construct wire entanglements. An officer teaches them the elements of map reading. After a final address by the commanding officer they leave the training battalion in a bus of 16th AUX MT Company. On arrival at an officer cadet school they are instructed in using and stripping the Vickers machine gun and throwing hand grenades. The BTCFWF symbol appears on this film as a single negative flashframe. Summary: by this date the Artists Rifles, or 1/28th (County of London) Battalion of the London Regiment, enjoyed a unique status not as a fighting unit but as a holding battalion entirely for men undergoing officer training in France. This film was subject to censorship at GHQ France.
Date
31 January 1916
Date Created
1916-01-31
Spatial Coverage
St. Omer, France
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Source
DVD copy of original film
Medium
DVD copy of original film
Type
Footage
Contributor
Alisa Miller
Publisher
The First World War Poetry Digital Archive
producer
The British Topical Committee for War Films
Subject
Allied Forces
Fighting Men
Western Front