You realize prisoners in camps would have been killed by such bombings, while this town was stucked between two heavily fortified positions - Alet and Cézembre - which wouldn’t surrender
I spent a couple of days in St Malo just a few years ago on the way to and from Jersey. It is once again a beautiful town. The French have done a magnificent job of restoring it to its former glory and I'd highly recommend a visit if you are anywhere near - eg in Normandy or Brittany or the Channel Islands. The devastation that had to be inflicted on so many places in Occupied Europe to throw out the Nazi forces was horrendous but as here, in St Malo, the restoration is such that unknowing visitors could well not realise that anything had happened.
C’est désolant d’entendre des choses comme ça… C’est sûr que la ville n’ayant pas pris les armes pour se défendre de là prise de possession par les nazis, ils ne l’avaient pas plus défiguré qu’en truffant les environs de blocs de bétons et de canons
Seeing that motorcycle being unloaded made me wonder? Could this be the very motorcycle that ran over and killed my family's beloved water spaniel "spot"? There is great irony in spot's story, as my Grandmother risked her life to take him back from the Germans. Too long a yarn to write here. Great bit of film. Thank you.
does JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY DIE when the journalist gains FAVOUR FROM THE MONARCH? or does freedom of speech and peaceful protest REMAIN as bastions of society.
DID THE PUBLIC HAVE A CHOICE?? and would they have realised OCCUPATION by germany was two years away whilst the kings family the SACHS-COBURG GOETHERS were from germany - SAXONY were the ENEMY OF BRITAIN in ww2. or should we just shut up and go to the co-op?
THAT WENT WELL DIDN'T IT. two years later we were OCCUPIED by the king's GERMAN FAMILY and britain was AT WAR WITH THE ROYAL'S HOME TOWNS of SAXONY & HESSE.
Suburb film. My late Father was one of the Liberators on that day, he piloted one of the DUKW's (duck). Unfortunately I can't tell if he's on that film. He returned every year until his death for liberation week ,and it is still carried on by myself now. They made some great friends over the years.
Superbe ! Le film de 39 montre une ville intacte avec la cathédrale et sa flèche élevée sous Napoléon III. Le film de 46 montre l'étendue des dégâts ! Sur le film de 49 on aperçoit, bordant les remparts, les hôtels d'armateurs du 18 ème s. encore calcinés et aujourd'hui soigneusement restaurés. A 4' 22 une Bretonne avec sa coiffe. A 4'44, le chevet de la cathédrale St-Vincent émerge d'un champ de ruines... Sa flèche ne fut achevée qu'en 1972. Ces Français d'après-guerre ressemblent à ceux que j'ai connus dans les années 60...Quel changement depuis !
As a Breton Frenchman I have the vague feeling that People dont seem to be as joyfull as the French, say in Paris !! Hanving been numérous times to the Channel Islands,...well it doesn't surprise me , though !
I know the Germans confiscated cameras and movie cameras. Was this film kept through the occupation then used in 1945 or was it brought from the mainland?
The film and camera must have been hidden away. There is one 400 ft reel (approx 20 mins) of footage taken during the course of the five years of the Occupation that features family around the house and garden, concluding with this footage of Liberation Day.
While this film has been recently digitised, the footage was previously transferred to VHS by CITV in 1994 and featured in a series by Eric Blakely titled "The Arthur Harrison Collection".
Hi there, I am loving all your content from the Battle of Flowers in Jersey. I currently run the Jersey Battle of Flowers Official RU-vid Channel, I was wandering if I could use these films on the Battle RU-vid Channel. I would happily credit yourselves and Arthur Guiton Harrison, CBE.
