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  • Short Summary

    Destroyers at sea - probably after sinking German battle cruiser Scharnhorst.

  • Description

    Location Unknown / Unclear.

    Destroyer at sea. Several shots of a group of seamen onboard the ship. One black man is among them. Another man comes and puts safety belt around black man's neck. Sign on belt reads 'HMS Belfast'. People laugh. Close up shot of a face of black man with ship's cat in the ring of the belt with smiling faces of the crew around.

    Several shots of a destroyer at sea. Various shots of the troops cheering and smiling at the camera. More shots of the destroyer. Several shots of the men looking through binoculars.

    Close up shot of sign on ship 'Duke of York'. Several officers posing for camera. Close up shot of a plaque reading 'This Plaque is presented to HMS Norfolk to commemorate her adoption by the citizens of Norwich during warship week January 31st - February 7th 1942'. Various shots of the crews, officers and warships at sea.

    Note: German battle cruiser Scharnhorst was sunk on 26th of December 1943 in the Atlantic. Five ships took part in the action: Belfast, Norfolk, Sheffield, Duke of York and Jamaica. This footage is probably aftermath of the action.

  • Tags

  • Data

    Film ID:
    1931.03
    Media URN:
    73606
    Group:
    Unissued unused
    Archive:
    British Pathé
    Issue Date:
    1940 - 1949
    Sound:
    Mute
    HD Format:
    Available on request
    Stock:
    Black & White
    Duration:
    00:02:38:00
    Time in/Out:
    01:07:59:00 / 01:10:37:00
    Canister:
    UN 799 C

Comments (2)

  1. jamied says

    As the shots list already mentions, we see a plaque dated 1942 on board HMS Norfolk. This enables the current date range to be safely reduced to 1942-45.

    At 01:01 we see coming in to shot the M-class Destroyer HMS Meteor (G73).

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  2. MikeAsh says

    The opening shot is almost certainly the cruiser HMS Belfast at anchor in 1942/1943. The warship at 00:46 looks like Duke of York, and the warship at 2:38 is a German opponent such as Scharnhorst or Hipper, noting the uniforms of the crewmen on deck. There were many more RN ships involved in the action of 26th December 1943, the five mentioned were the battleship and cruisers - perhaps link the title to the Battle of the North Cape? The officers shown briefly include Admirals Fraser and Burnett.

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