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Clip description
Stretcher bearers bring wounded soldiers into the Bécourt Château dressing station, during the battle for Pozières. From here they are loaded on trucks and taken to a Casualty Clearing Station. As shells burst in the distance, the camera examines some old German guns destroyed earlier in the fight for Pozières. The titles say that the shells bursting on the horizon are German.
Curator’s notes
The titles here indicate that the scenes were filmed around Pozières on the Somme and they may be accurate. Many wounded of Pozières were treated first at Bécourt, in an old chateau that would pass from German to British control and back again during the campaigns of 1916, 1917 and 1918. Charles Bean, the Australian correspondent directing the British cinematographers, was particularly keen to show the work of the stretcher-bearers and medical units, whom he greatly admired. Some of these shots may be from late July 1916, others from August, and possibly by different photographers. Bean spent much of his time from 23 July, when the Australians attacked Pozières, observing and reporting on the battle, the most intense and difficult the Australians had ever encountered.
In January 1917, he went to London to put this film together. Part of the process involved him selecting shots made by other British cameramen, Geoffrey Malins and John MacDowell. His diary notes for this period list specific shots that he might want to use, because they illustrated Australian troops. The list includes Malins’s shots of 18-pounders, taken in May 1916, and MacDowell’s shots of General Sir William Birdwood at Anzac HQ, Anzacs returning from and going up to Pozières, wounded at a dressing station and a funeral. The funeral, part of clip three, and this footage of Bécourt dressing station, are likely to be shots by MacDowell.
A photograph at the Australian War Memorial (EZ0066) shows unidentified members of the Australian Army Medical Corps dressing wounded Australian soldiers at Bécourt Château. The caption says that the chateau was occupied at the time by a field ambulance of the 2nd Australian Division, as well as a British field ambulance. The photo is dated only as July 1916. The diamond shape of the colour patches on the sleeves of the men loading the stretchers confirms that some of these men are of the 2nd Division.
The titles identify the shots of destroyed German artillery pieces as being ‘in front of Pozières’ and if that is true, then these shots are almost certainly taken during the Battle of Pozières. The titles identify the shells as being German shells landing on British positions. The date is uncertain because Bean visited Pozières with a photographer on more than one occasion. Ernest Brooks went with him to the Centre Way trench, leading into the destroyed village, on 28 August. He was there again in September and October as well, each time close to German shelling. The AWM photos EZ0099 and EZ0100 show views from the Centre Way trench taken on 28 August, which suggest similar terrain to that seen in the shelling footage in the clip.
