Tag: archival film research

The “Camp Activities” Mystery: Discovering Normandy Airfields

sgreene820

Today’s film presents a mystery. The given title of this Army Air Forces (“AAF”) film found at the National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”) is simply “Camp Activities”. This is the first of four rolls showing the construction and early operation of an Advanced Landing Ground airstrip in Normandy about 10 days after D-Day, making this one of the earliest Allied airfields in liberated France.

The description provided by the AAF provides no location and the only clue is a brief shot of a local church or abbey at 1:25. It looks like the back half of the church tower is missing.

The strip was apparently setup in a farmer’s field. The camp for Army personnel looks like it was setup next to one of Normandy’s numerous canals, but apparently the soldiers and airmen also setup in nearby wrecked gliders, suggesting this was a glider landing ground on D-Day. The film includes numerous shots of WWII aircraft: P-47 fighters, Spitfires, C-47’s, Horsa gliders, and CG-4A gliders in action (and also as wrecks on the ground).

My suspicion is that this was the Carentan Army Airfield (Advanced Landing Ground A-10), which is today the site of the Normandy Victory Museum. These airfields provided life-saving landing alternatives for aircraft and crews in trouble. They were often used to evacuate casualties as well. I’m hopeful that Norman locals can chime in here to help conclusively identify the site!

UPDATE!

Many thanks to my good friend and colleague Tom Hogan who identifed the church as Saint-Côme-du-Mont near Carentan. Further information received from a Normand suggests this is landing strip A-6, aka Beuzeville/Ste. Mère Eglise airstrip, since it was closer to the glider landing ground that figures so prominently in this film.

Context is critical to gain the full impact of archival film for your production. An experienced archival media researcher can leverage the full power of archives for you!

An “outtake” for a reason

sgreene820
Universal Newsreel outtake footage of a Harry S Truman re-election campaign speech at Charleston, West Virginia from October 1, 1948

Today’s feature is especially topical while those of us in the United States are in the heat of the Campaign 2020. This film, an outtake, is part of the Universal Newsreel film collection, which was donated in its entirety to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in 1977. The deed-of-gift included Universal’s copyrights to this unique (and voluminous!) collection.

This film illustrates perfectly why some outtake content remains just that: outtakes. The image bounces slowly, probably due to a poor transfer, a camera malfunction, or film misthread. The speech itself is classic Truman populism, an excellent illustration of how he came from behind to win re-election in 1948. In normal times, a film copy would likely be available in the research room, but thanks to the COVID19 pandemic, those research rooms have been closed for six months. In the meanwhile, this copy represents this particular newsreel assignment.

This content is not described or identified in the National Archives On-line Catalog. It was not identifiable to anyone not able to physically access a card catalog in the National Archives Research Room in College Park, MD. “Searching” is not researching; don’t depend on a Google search conducted by an intern or production assistant to find you the exact images and sounds you need to add impact and polish to your production. Hire a professional archival media researcher!