The Cine Technician (1943 - 1945)

88 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN Sep r— October. 1 I modation sharing a cabin with that companionable and conscientious worker V. W. Perfect (Daily Telegraph). Jock Gemmell spent a night aboard the Flagship on his way back to U.K. and 1 retain happy (tho' hazy) memories of the select little party in our cabin. Jock took a short (but deep) sleep on an Ante-Room settee, pushing off on a M.L. a little alter dawn — I still wonder how he managed it ... . It was good to find, on getting back, that our stories bad hern so well received and 1 feel, with ■ le nmell, (bat no one should object if we cameramen sometimes apply a spot of gentle pressure to our own backs. What a pity that the biggest story is sometimes the one that got away ! I made some pictures I'm not allowed to talk about, and the censors have seen to it that they got away— from the public gaze. A bit galling sometimes. When in action I'm scared (who isn't'.'), hut somehow it's an inspiring tonic-like brand of fright. Back home again I'm restless, often bored — deflated. D-Day was something of a nightmare . . . on D-Day. Now, D-Day seems to have been the real thing, and tins life (I write from my home set in pleasant country near Cardiff) a dream-like existence ! ALEC TOZER (Movietone) To he the Merchant Navy's first and only aci ; edited newsreel correspondent was a great honour and my first assignment with them . . . the invasion. Ah ship, a 12,000 ton troop carrier, was lying out and it was a pleasant afternoon's trip 1>\ launch in order to hoard her. We steamed hack to t he docks to pick up some 8,000 troops. On the wa\ I got "invasion take-off" pictures of every type of landing craft, troop-carriers and their escorts. The whole sea appeared to he jammed tight w'lh ships. Assault barges crammed with troops were already pushing off for the assembly point. These pictures with the embarkation seems were useful for the first invasion issue of the newsreel as they were dispatched from the ship before she left the dock. The embarkation took place within full view of hundreds of people. They must have guessed that D-Day was approaching. \> daw n on 1 >-Day v rep nd tin for the English Channel. A we enti the narrow St r. I ' . -r our escort 1)' s belching dense columns or black smoke screens. Slow-dying aircraft skimmed the water als leaving a wall of smoke behind them. <) balloons were pulled down to the mast head g that they would not he seen ab tl sci Em m\ coastal battel ies w en firing in1 i screen but their shells were falling so far u us that they did not even make good pictures. W altered course somewhat when shells began bi ing ahead of our convoy. With such a large shiji as ours we were not due at the beach-head until D + lb and 1 wondered what we were d the Channel so near the enemy co D-D perhaps we were aiding as a kind of decoj '.' Our convoy got through safely. I was told we • the first convov through the Straits since Dunkirk. At anchor that night and all the following d I thought the waiting was the most nerve rackin part of the whole trip. On the night of D + 1 we pushed our wa_\ the Channel, through the mine-swept lane enemy aircraft dropped flares around us searcl for this invasion highway. One ship far to the end of our convoy was ablaze — an E boat was responsible for this. At first light of dawn, instead of the ex; enemy air attacks We saw nothing hut swarms our own air cover fighters, and abov I en tl white vapour streaks of our bombers gone: to from the enemy coast. And then my firsi view of the French ci since May. 1940. Never have I seen so man; ships, and so many different types I si ips. Enemy shells from some miles inland wo bursting on the be ches whilst terrific broad from naval ships ae h\ '-' i c : being throw u b at them. A landing craft hit a mine and was h to pieces just behind me. Our troops, in spirits, climbed down a rope netting to landin craft below to take them through the sh water to the beach less than a mile away. That night we had a grand firework display wit all the ships flinging up everything they had agains; the enemy aircraft which 'hardly dared to themselves in daylight. Thev were searching us again the following night on the waxacross the Channel and the droning of their engines did nol leave us until tin first jl mn ■ daylight . An impressive trip but in m\ case not i so full of action as I had imagined it would '•■