Landships II

How I filmed the war: Geoffrey H. Malins (Somme)

http://www.archive.org/details/ifilmedwar00maliuoft

should go well with the film avalaible here:

Battle Of The Somme [1916] [DVD]


"Keep low as you run across the road, sir. The
Bosche can see right along it ; make straight for
the other side." With that he ran across, and I
followed. Then I set my camera up and filmed the
scene. I had to take every precaution in getting my
machine in position, keeping it close to the bank,
as a false step would have exposed the position to
the Bosche, who would have immediately turned on
H.E. shrapnel, and might have enfiladed the whole
road from either flank.
I filmed the waiting Fusiliers. Some of them looked
happy and gay, others sat with stern, set
faces, reahsing the great task in front of them."

The Crater....

"TIME : 7.19 a.m. My hand grasped the
handle of the camera. I set my teeth.
My whole mind was concentrated upon
my work. Another thirty seconds passed. I
started turning the handle, two revolutions per
second, no more, no less. I noticed how regular I
was turning. (My object in exposing half a minute
beforehand was to get the mine from the moment
it broke ground.) I fixed my eyes on the Redoubt.
Any second now. Surely it was time. It seemed to
me as if I had been turning for hours. Great
heavens ! Surely it had not misfired.
Why doesn't it go up ?
I looked at my exposure dial. I had used over
a thousand feet. The horrible thought flashed
through my mind, that my film might run out before
the mine blew. Would it go up before I had time to
reload ? The thought brought beads of perspira-
tion to my forehead. The agony was awful
indescribable. My hand began to shake. Another
250 feet exposed. I had to keep on.

Then it happened.

The ground where I stood gave a mighty con-
vulsion. It rocked and swayed. I gripped hold of
my tripod to steady myself. Then, for all the world
like a gigantic sponge, the earth rose in the air to
the height of hundreds of feet. Higher and higher
it rose, and with a horrible, grinding roar the earth
fell back upon itself, leaving in its place a mountain
of smoke. From the moment the mine went up my
feelings changed. The crisis was over, and from that
second I was cold, cool, and calculating. I looked
upon all that followed from the purely pictorial point
of view, and even felt annoyed if a shell burst out-
side the range of my camera. Why couldn't Bosche
put that shell a little nearer ? It would make a
better picture. And so my thoughts ran on.
The earth was down. I swung my camera round
on to our own parapets. The engineers were
swarming over the top, and streaming along the
sky-line. Our guns redoubled their fire. The
Germans then started H.E. Shrapnel began falling
in the midst of our advancing men. I continued to
turn the handle of my camera, viewing the whole
attack through my view-finder, first swinging one
way and then the other.
Then another signal rang out, and from the
trenches immediately in front of me, our wonderful
troops went over the top. What a picture it was !
They went over as one man. I could see while I was
exposing, that numbers were shot down before they
reached the top of the parapet ; others just the
other side. They went across the ground in swarms,
and marvel upon marvels, still smoking cigarettes.
One man actually stopped in the middle of ''No
Man's Land '' to light up again."


Cheers

-- Edited by Ironsides on Tuesday 15th of March 2011 02:45:42 PM