British Petroleum Company prepares to search for oil in Libya.
This video has no sound
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Short Summary
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Description
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Data
- Film ID:
- 2854.13
- Media URN:
- 80978
- Group:
- Unissued unused
- Archive:
- British Pathé
- Issue Date:
- 1957
- Sound:
- Mute
- HD Format:
- Available on request
- Stock:
- Black & White
- Duration:
- 00:09:19:00
- Time in/Out:
- 01:22:35:00 / 01:31:54:00
- Canister:
- UN 2938 B
michael english says
My father is the Major Raymond William English in this video and was so pleased to see it. Almost 93, a birthday that he may or may not see in a week's time, memories like this give great pleasure to him and others.
I too was with him in the desert for this work, stories about which have been much repeated in the family ... but as I was aged 18 months at the time don't remember much! However his work as a non medic to treat the ill son of a local sheik caused a road in the desert to be named after me, Sharia Michael or Michael's Road. I don't know where it is but a geologist came across it a few years later so made the effort to visit us in Kent to discuss ... sadly father was at work and mother was not very hospitable so he went away without meeting father. Whoever you are I do apologise!
His official work was clearing mines to build roads to access areas that he had 'surveyed' by Bell helicopter and felt seismologists should take a look at. Unofficial work included .....
michael english says
.... clearing out ancient biers and underground canals built by Romans. He said that beneath the Libyan deserts are hundreds of miles of them now full of sand. His mine clearers were the best that could be found from many nations who had only recently been at war with one another. He forbade alcohol in camp and made sure he was the only one to have a revolver! German teller mines impressed him for their quality but he dreaded defusing some less reliable mines, Yugoslavian I think.
Trips to the BP club back up in Benghazi were welcome, but not my winning a 'beautiful baby' prize (ie fat) as we were no longer Army.
Our landrover convoy once met a ghost truck convoy in the desert, a tale that links in with a similar experience reported by Barbara Toy in 'A fool on wheels'.
I hope some others may have comments to add to this video clip.