|
H.M.S. SCARAB and H.M.S. APHIS OPERATION
HUSKY The Invasion of Sicily Imperial
War Museum Film This website acknowledges that the following films
were provided courtesy of the Imperial War Museum. We are deeply grateful and appreciative. Film Number ADM 510 Title: Operation
Husky – The Invasion of Sicily Mediterranean Operations of the Royal Navy Production Company: Gaumont British News Cameraman: H. J. Morley Production Date: 7/1943
Author's Note: To view please click on the images Film 1:
Opening scenes onboard a Colony Class cruiser as men scan coast and sky. Gunnery and Navigation Officers check the ship’s position for bombardment. In the distance the monitor HMS Erebus fires a salvo. There are explosions onshore as enemy aircraft bomb the beach-head. LCIs (L) lie offshore. There follows a mid-distance sequence off the port bow of HMS Mauritius as she fires 4-inch AA. Then a sequence as a stick of bombs splashes around the transports. Flak pursues a high level raider. Film 2:
A sequence from the eyes of AA cruiser HMS Carlisle to a group of Indian Red Cross and freshly dressed wounded on foc’sle. Alongside to port is an Insect Class gunboat and to starboard a LSG. A party of Indians transfers to LCA. Long distance pan over transports, LCI (L)s and LSTs in anchorage. Explosions on shore from an air raid. Bombs explode among the ships while a little answering flak speckles the sky. Good mid-range sequence of bombs exploding in the water between the camera-ship HMS Carlisle and a troop transport. (Edinburgh Castle?) High above barrage balloons hang in a sky filled with flak. There follows a view aft from the foremast of the camera ship steaming at speed. Tracer is fired off at a distant aircraft. View off the port bow of HMS Taireas. The LCA from HMS Carlisle closes on the hospital ship. Film 3:
A sequence showing a stricken merchantman. Flames and smoke are billowing from the foc’sle. The crew are abandoning ship and a LCT (3) stands by to pick up the boats. The camera ship approaches the burning vessel and an Insect Class River Gnboat also draws near, a fire hose already playing from its foc’sle. A further sequence of the pall of smoke from the ship and from patches of oil burning on the sea. Final sequence past the upper works of a US merchantman to the stricken vessel now completely ablaze, back broken. LCT passes left to right. Film 4:
Commences with a long range pan over the invasion fleet at sea in low light. There follows a long sequence showing flares at night. The camera is stopped down so that these appear merely as groups of white dots. Film 5:
Early light. A long range shot of LCAs as they head inshore. More flares. LCT passes diagonally right to left across the anchorage. Inshore a destroyer lays white smoke. Film 6:
A long range silhouette of Type III Hunt Class destroyer. Long range of LSI as landing craft head inshore in misty conditions. Film 7:
Long range to shore. The sun is higher now and a transport and Royal Scotsman Class LSI (H)? lie offshore. Telephoto showing troops moving inland from the beach where LSTs and smaller craft are unloading. Long range film of a ditched aircraft, only the tail-plane is still visible. Film 8:
Long range film of support forces – Colony Class cruiser, a Tribal and other destroyers. Then long range film of a coastal town. LST and Fairmile B MLs offshore, transports and landing craft, all in poorly focussed long range silhouette. A distant cruiser opens fire. Then a long range shot of LCI (L) passing close to the beacon submarine followed by a long range shot off the port quarter of two LSTs lying offshore. In the background is a large three-funnelled transport. |
