'The Battle of the Somme'; includes footage of the Somme Rescuer, filmed by official cinematographers, Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell.
Impression sketch
of Geoffrey Malins filming
the Somme Rescuer - by Jamie.
i
136 days of the
Somme had seen changes
Of a battle
ground situation; the first days
Had been a fight
through grass and crops,
Under heat of
dust and sun - yet final days
Saw a quagmire of
bitter, churned up mud.
Amid the presence
of the fighters observed
Correspondents,
recording stories unfolding
Before their
presence and gain various events
On film -
Geoffrey Malins, a cameraman, had
Opportunities to
move locations to film events.
Along with fellow
cameraman John McDowell,
The two men lugged equipment about the field;
Moy & Bastie
Cinecamera's - being a wooden
Box 16 by 9 by
18 inches, balanced on tripods -
To aim 400 feet
of raw film onto their subjects.
Styled in uniform
to carry out his task, Malins
Equipment would
have been an easy target
For any enemy sniper
- with these problematic
State of the art heavy
cameras, such dangers
Led to some
staged scenery amid real events.
ii
Day 1; with genuine
footage of a mine blown
At Hawthorne, Geoffrey
Malins turned his lens
Elsewhere - likely
not to consider too deeply
To record those
men that would be in view -
They snatched any
possible interesting event.
To capture film
shots these would be taken
Over a number of
days as opportunities arose.
One such chance
that would last barely six
Seconds would
haunt audiences, to question
Identity of one;
known as Somme rescuer.
Faces of the men
were important to show,
Giving the film's
future audience a tentative
Chance to spot a
loved one - chancing one
Point, Malins
pulled in a view across ragged
Ground, scarred
with chalky trench marks.
Malins later recalled
how many wounded lay
Lost in shell
holes, crying out for help. They
Saw numerous
attempts to get to fellows by
Red cross men who
were simply shot down.
As one cried out;
a trench mortar man heard.
iii
Would someone
help to get him? One fellow
Volunteered -
over parapets and between
Barbed wire, two men edged closer and closer.
Watchers with held breath
witnessed success;
Was this then
what Malins hastily filmed?
Filmed in the
last stages, two men with a man
Hunched between, staggered up a slope then
Lowered him to
cover, all in 13 seconds - closer
Inspection showed
the limp unmoving soldier;
One rescuer
taking a chance without his helmet.
Likely in that
same proximity, Ernest Brooks
Took a still image of these likely same two
Men, who carried
the weight of a wounded
Man - they
maneuvered him out of tangled
Barbed wire ditch
- one held him on his back.
Brooks looked
over boards at point when
A helmeted man
lifted limp legs, as the bare
Headed rescuer sees
the photographer -
An expression of
effort to be always frozen
In their awkward
angle, adding to questions.
iV
The soldier with
cropped fair hair, slumped
Heavy, unresponsive
over cardigan shoulders -
Loose arms with palms
outwards - a diamond
Badge on ripped left
sleeve, with a partly torn
Right shoulder; evidence
of that filmed man.
They stepped from
frozen image into focus
Of a cinecamera lens at end of a trench,
Sloping sides littered
with debris - Malins
Positioned there -
an official presence likely
Blocking way to
any urgent passing traffic.
By absent seconds
Malins missed a link
To solve the
relay of that same limp figure.
His cropped head
of hair on right shoulder
Of another, bent with
his weight almost tips
Him over as
seven men watch from behind.
One man evidently
taking the second stage
Was suddenly burdened; the Somme rescuer.
By his job conveying
unconscious man
He carries a pale
look to camera - slightly
Self-conscious, to see Malins stand in his way.
V
The unconscious soldier's
swinging arms, fell
Over broad
shoulders - this carrier's burden
Almost biblical -
whose efforts emphasized
By his untidy hair, pressed
wet by perspiration
Across his
forehead, with features stained.
He wears no tunic
- thick, heavy boots stumble
Almost totally
bandaged with khaki puttees.
A process to echo
personified desperation
To save a life -
a moving image, he struggles
With effort in
representation of every rescuer.
This is a strong
man yet he's weighed down,
And in those
minutia seconds he looks into
Malins box - his
unconsciousness quizzes
Any observer - a
phase of puzzlement like
A shadow. Hs expression
is a question; why?
The way he
carries him is awkward, hurried -
Holding him up with
arms twisted around his
Lower back - the heavy,
limp weight pushes
Him down; perhaps this carrier's expression
Is just reaction
to the effort of his the burden.
Vi
Held in a piggy
back as with children at play -
An action turned upside down - image of grown
Men into life and
death, but without obvious
Signs of wounds -
both devoid of helmets
Intensifies the
fact that these are mortal men.
Rewind to first few
seconds; what of those
That watch? Making
no move to help them,
Only to witness him
carry the wounded man -
An exception lays
in one figure also devoid
Of any helmet;
the same man Brooks caught.
The cardigan man
with long, side parted hair
Holds a can in
his left hand; the first carrier.
He sways left to
right with virtual exhaustion.
Breathless he
tips against the trench wall -
This is a shared effort
to save one man's life.
Look again, this wounded man was no youth -
Worn by
exhaustion of his wounds unseen
Till later - his
bereft chest reveals the fatal
Result -
high-cropped hair gives air of youth;
Look again to see eyes of closed shadows.
The burdened man
takes him out of the scene
Followed by
another, a helmeted corporal
From out of the
seven; his tunic buttons half
Undone, his serious
eyes fall from the camera -
With another
bearer he takes the wounded man.
Vii
Passing by Malins, the prone cropped haired
Man, tunic open
shows wounds to his middle,
On the final
stage by stretcher - though Malins
Reported he would
be dead within 30 minutes.
Yet those 6
seconds made the greatest impact.
The premiere of
the finished film, 10 August
1916, released
widely by 21 August - by start
Of October across
the British Isles some 20
Million people
had seen the final footage of five
Reels, to last 77
minutes along with live music.
The words of
Lloyd George prompted people
To think it was
their duty to see the picture at
Multiple
screenings across numerous cinemas.
While many folk
were curious to see familiar
Faces, others
felt it was seen as entertainment.
Such depiction of
violence and its results were
Berated by church,
which ran alongside shows
Of comedy - As
divided critics people still went.
Many women would
avert their eyes at the horror,
But then looked
again for signs of familiar faces.
Viii
The growth of
legend began with reel 5, that
Had depicted the 'Somme
rescuer,' whose
Identity was
never quite realised - Brooks
Official
photograph had depicted a rescuer,
Who held a man on
his back, to be a driver.
The man in
the cardigan being Tom Spencer;
But the fame
passed onto the man in shirt
Sleeves and braces,
whose stare of pathos
Into Malins
wooden cinecamera - the mystery
Resisting solving,
with emerging later claims.
Perhaps Private
Frederick Drakes - or perhaps
The face belonged
to Bertram Leslie Andrews -
Known to have
been in the locality of events,
Assigned to the
Royal Army Medical Corps;
Still more emerged to share this anonymity.
While claims
might carry on over a hundred
Years, it is 6
seconds of a man fatally wounded
Carried by the
stooped frame of a piggy back -
Limp arms over equally unknown man whose
Eyes catch the viewers in pathos, to ask why?
Eyes catch the viewers in pathos, to ask why?
by Jamie Mann.
Source: File:
Imperial War Museums: Moy & Bastie 35mm cine camera. Available at: <http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30004694> [Accessed 14 November 2016]
Source: File:
Imperial War Museums: How IWM Is Trying To Identify The Man In This Film by M
Lee. Available at: < http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-iwm-is-trying-to-identify-the-man-in-this-film> [Accessed 14 November 2016]
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 14 November 2016).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Somme
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