Australian
Screen

Clip description

Three soldiers walk in the bottom of one of the huge craters created when 19 mines were detonated under Messines Ridge, on 7 June 1917. Messines Ridge is now held by British and Australian troops, and it is being shelled by German artillery, from the other side of the ridge. Australian gunners to the west of the ridge watch the shell bursts from a safe distance, drinking tea and walking in front of the camera. One shell lands very close to where the film is being shot, near a soldier out in the open.

Curator’s notes

One of the difficulties of these official films is that the titles are sometimes misleading or wrong, for whatever reason, and this appears to be a clear example. We see two shots at different parts of the film that are clearly taken from the same position, yet one is labelled British shelling, and the other is labelled German shelling. For that to be true, Baldwin would have had to return to the exact spot on different days, for shots that are virtually the same (including the weather), but entailing very different degrees of risk. It’s possible, but highly unlikely. The footage from the closer position from which the shelling is filmed in clip two is the same place as in the latter part of clip one. This suggests that these are both shots of German shells raining on Messines. That would mean the original titles on clip one are wrong. That makes sense, because Baldwin would have had to be behind the British forward positions on the ridge and sheltered from enemy snipers, to be able to get his camera above the parapet of the trenches. The long shots in clip one are quite possibly authentic shots of British shells hitting German positions. The close-up shots in both clips are more likely German shells, hitting the areas blown up by the mines, which were taken by the British, New Zealand and Australian troops on 7 June. They are no less remarkable, and it is clear from the final shell in clip two that they were very close to where Baldwin was filming. Charles Bean had a high regard for Baldwin’s courage (see main notes), but the titling of these films was done later, away from the battlefield, and often not by the person who shot the film.