Hampshire's Unseen D-Day | Army Film Production Unit | June 1944 | AV161/3-8

Up to 09:53:

World War II preparations for D-Day in June 1944 on the Hampshire and Dorset coast.

A35 Southampton-Hythe road in the New Forest is seen with newly-laid concrete extensions on both sides of the road.

Workmen demolish a reinforced concrete pillbox by the side of the A35 at Totton.

A concrete mixer at B3055 Brockenhurst-Beaulieu.

Warning signs at Bovington RAC camp.

Bedford OY three-tonners and Austin light utility cars, excavator at work. D8 caterpillar, D4
CB (A70 17-1) V. Bovington RAC Camp in Dorset, pipes buried in soil and concrete during the construction of a culvert.

Troops serving with 79th Armoured Division's 6th Assault Regiment RE ride in Bedford QL lorries past civilian workmen engaged in widening the A35 (?) Southampton-Hythe road. Concrete pouring.

Road signs on B3055 Brockenhurst-Beaulieu

Sappers prepare concrete in a mixer on the road construction site near Bovington and pour it into the gap between the culvert pipes.

*
From 09:54

From 16:11-Up to 19:09.
Tank crews from 13/18 Hussars 'C'squadron arrive in a street in Portsmouth and prepare their machines for D-Day. Mother and child Janet Colman walk past, and tank commander Jock Fisher makes a fuss of her for the camera. Crew members rest, do some chores and queue for lunch from a mobile canteen. Column of tanks and other armoured vehicles queue up in a Gosport street prior to embarkation. Some vehicles reverse on to tank landing craft 853.

From 19:10 to 23:20
Transit camp in New Forest - exercises on rough ground involving radio sets, walking in columns, map briefing, various tents on site.

From 23:21 to end
Lord Lovat addresses commandos of 1st special service brigade prior to embarkation from sealed transit camp;men from No 6 commando board infantry landing craft at Warsash (Hants); men from 13/18 Hussars board landing craft at Gosport, with their vehicles following; invasion craft anchored in Spithead. Semaphore signalling; troops relax on craft and read official books on France, cook and eat meals in cramped conditions

Shared by kind permission of Imperial War Museum, IWM A70/17/1, A70/17/2, A70/23, A70/24, A70/25/1, A70/25/1, A70/25/4. Description supplemented with IWM data.

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