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THE CINE-TECHNICIAN September— October, 1943
A.F.U. to TUNISIA
MAJOR HUGH STEWART (Coram aaidliiirag Airaiy Filum Ueat)
I HAD been a Territorial gunner for 17 months before joining the Army Film Unit in January, 1041, and so had been obliged to wait a long time before getting a chance to go overseas at the end of 1942. The same applied to most of us. Captain H. Rignold, of course, was an exception, for he had been in France and on Commando raids. Captain H. M. Glendining and Captain Alfred Black had also been on odd raids, but for must of us it was an entirely new adventure. With one exception, none of the camera sergeants who went out with me had handled a movie camera in his life before joining the Army Film Unit for a course of training. However, after a careful process of selection we found all the "cine" and " still " Sergeant's we wanted, all intelligent men, extremely enthusiastic, and most important of all, good soldiers.
It lias been said that the North African Campaign was one of the best kept secrets of the War, and that certainly applied to the Army Film and Photo Section. Unlike most Units, we travelled in dribs and drabs over various convoys.
Although the cameramen were always ready for any incident that might crop up during the voyage, nothing at all startling happened in any of them — with one exception. An enemy submarine had been forced to the surface by depth charges, and was rammed by a destroyer quite close to the ship on which one of my men was travelling. It would have been a wonderful shot to get. bul unfortunately the man concerned was one of the drivers, who naturally had no camera with him.
Army Film Unit cameramen landed witli several different assault parties. Sergeants West and Bowman landed at Algiers, and got the shots you probably remember of British and American troops landing there. Sergeant Wilson went in. with the Commandos at Cape Serrat not very far from Bizerta. They had to walk along a submerged sand bank at night for about a quarter of a mile before they got to the shore. After a march of twelve miles they had a battle with an enemy patrol during which Wilson distinguished himself h\ evacuating wounded from under fire, knocking off a few enemy soldiers with a Bren gun, quite