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  • Short Summary

    British Petroleum Company prepares to search for oil in Libya.

  • Description

    Unissued / Unused material.

    Search for oil in Libya by British Petroleum Company.

    Various shots setting up equipment to look for oil. Various shots arrival and departure helicopter at mine clearing camp. Various shots takeoff from desert and aerial views of part of concessionary area. MS Major English, Mine Clearance Supervisor, arriving at forward camp by Land Rover, he picks up his Arab assistant (who tells him in which area the sweepers are working) and exits.

    LS Land Rover bumping down long road. MS tail of hurricane in desert, Land Rover passes. MS tilt up from grave to German Scout car wrecked by thermos bomb. MS scattered bones of a camel which has been blown up by bomb. Tilt down to CU's thermos bombs. MS arrival Land Rover at end of swept track.

    Various shots mine sweeping, one man finds a mine and kneels down to start scraping sand away from it. CU hands and pick clearing sand from mine. CU face, CU hands uncovering mine. MS as he calls mine lifter who waves him away. Lifter lies down by mine and lifts it. CU hole in desert left by mine.

    CU three mines lying beside a white washed track marker. Enter Major English who inspects mines and calls his assistants to pick them up, then exits. MS assistant opening bonnet of Land Rover, Major English makes contact with the wire to his detonator on the car battery. LS as the mines are destroyed. Various shots equipment used to detect oil.

  • Tags

  • 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

Comments (2)

  1. 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 .....

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  2. 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.

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