The Cine Technician (1943 - 1945)

September— October, 1944 THE CINE T E C II N I < ' I A N JACK RAMSDEN Movietone) I was assigned to a defcroyer, and the arrival ►f a '" khaki type " with , nads ut camera gear so m created a buzz on tijgjl the lower deck. Our job was to protect the minesweepers going in ahead to sweep a channel for the invasion craft. If we were hit we were to beach and continue firing. From my all-night station on the bridge I could see only dim shapes, but the coming of the dawn was like the raising of a curtain on the mightiest amphibious operation the world has ever seen. It didn't seem real until our sister ship, niil\ a few hundred yards away, blew up with startling reality. In spite of being busy filming I shall never forget the teii-etie- of that moment. Everybody was just watching — grimly — blowing up his lifebelt as fast as he could. A Petty < (fficer nearby grinned, and said it reminded him of one ■ it his pals — an old sweat — who was off Crete in tin early days of the war when a similar thing happened. He was blowing away when a youngster, who was on his first trip, said " Ya, winilx !" ' Listen, my boy." said the old sweat, still blowing, "If you take iu\ advice" —blow, blow — ,11 do the same — it's the only air support you'll get around here! " We were now close in to the French coast and the fun had started. There was no doubt about our air support this time. Overhead the Allies were in complete mastery of the skies. Below them, as far as the eye could see, assault craft after issault craft was going in. Every ship in the • British Navy seemed to be firing. Fifteen and sixteen-inch bricks from the big battle-wagons behind us and the -mallei six and eight-inchers from the cruisers went screaming over our bridge like machine-gun bullets. 2,000 tons of naval shells hit those beaches in ten minutes. The noise was icredible. Our own guns were also going full blast and only the footage indicator on m\ camera told me il was still running. It was quite impossible tn hear it. During the bombardment our forward observation officer on the beach was killed. Fur a time we had no target, much to the annoyance of our captain who was pacing the bridge like a caged I on. He made frantic signals to nearby ships who ire -till firing, such as "Do you require any galling, as we could see the enemy tanks moving about but couldn't be sure how near they were to ours. Although we were but a small cog in the enormous machine he seemed annoyed that it should continue to function very well without us! Suddenly we found ourselves being shelled b\ a coastal battery and sunn had plenty to do dealing with it. Thus our captain was appeased, and a good time was had by all, although I must ■> that the naval idea of a good time dues not always conform with mine. I was very satisfied with the pictures I got on this trip, those especially of the Airborne Division going over in the late evening, which I think are some of the finest 1 have ever had the g I fortune to make. However, a cameraman must always have his moan, and it was heartbreaking to have so much material censored, particularly some of my later stuff taken in Cherbourg. Otherwise the general arrangements for coverage functioned perfectly and 1 have nothing but praise for Commander Dillon Robinson, R.N., and his staff, who provided us with such excellent facilities. I only wish they could arrange things so that we could have a 48-hour week on these jobs and maybe we could then get a little sleep instead of being on watch "2 t horn s a dav ' JOHN TURNER (Gaumont-British) hell -all to no purpose. It did seem a bit When daylight revealed our tloat ing Army on June !';t h. 1 found it hard ti i realise that this was D-Day. So thoroughly had the press anal him arrangements been thought out ( I echo the praise of Jock ( remmell for Commander Dillon Robinson and staff) that 1 was tempted to think that they had arranged this zero-hour to give the picture boys a chance ! I found the scene unreal because we'd expected something different. I was in a very old destroyer — it seemed unreal to all of us in that ship — we had been keyed Up to expect blond and thunder, and instead, when we reached the Assault \rea. it might have been am da\ in a verj crowded harbour. Here we wi re, well within sight of the enemy coastline in daylight— the centre section of the invading force-. No wonder the scene seemed unreal for where were the diving enemy planes, where the flashes