Army Film & Photo Section (PR)

It's easy enough to check using Geoff's Wonderful Search Engine !

Here's the first one.

EMMETT, BERNARD
Initials: B
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: The King's Regiment (Liverpool)
Secondary Unit Text: attd. 5 Army Film Photo Sec.
Age: 22
Date of Death: 06/06/1944
Service No: 3782008
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 13, Column 1.
Memorial: BAYEUX MEMORIAL

Could the lack of graves for each of the three suggest a loss at sea ?

 

Paul Reed...
You posted a link which indicates that the Bayeux Memorial remembers three in No. 5 Army Film & Photographic Section who died on D-Day.
Very intriguing.
Do you have any more info about these casualties? Are they actually listed on the memorial as being with 5 AFPS?
I ask because (a) the AFPU didn't have privates other than transport staff (drivers, despatch riders), usually on attachment from RASC, (b) AFPU transport didn't arrive until a few days after D-Day, and (c) if these chaps are such, wouldn't they be remembered under their parent units, corps, brigades or whatever?

CWGC quotes King's Regt (Liverpool), but attached to 5 AFPU. Most likely listed as King's Regt on the Bayeux Memorial. I am going to photograph all of the panels to post on the Forum soon. I'll keep a note of your Forum name and advise you when I've done it.

Cheers - Rob

 

Diane...

Thanks for your welcome. Most kind.
Yes, I do intend to publish my Dad's biography. The (not quite) final manuscript is currently being considered by some publishers who I hope will allow me to keep its current title, "When You're Smiler".

Here's an extract from the synopsis...

Eddy “Smiler” Smales was an accidental pioneer in British feature films in the 1930s, combat filming in the 1940s and television news in the 1950s. His is an extraordinary tale of an ordinary bloke whose lot in life was not to make History, but to be there to film bits of it happening.
When You’re Smiler gives a personal perspective on the dramatic evolution of factual film and television in the mid-20th Century set against the social, political and military history of the times. It tells tales of halcyon days in the British film industry and of the foundation and operation of BBC TV News during its first 25 years, but its primary focus is on Smiler’s part in the ground-breaking Army Film & Photographic Unit and its development and operation in North Africa and Europe during WW2.
The forgotten heroes of the AFPU never get the credit they deserve. When You’re Smiler attempts to put that right by relating the how the Unit came to be and evolved to produce an outstanding visual record, and by telling stories of Smiler's exploits in 1 and 5 AFPS. It also includes an original and most definitive record of the men (and one woman) who served in or alongside the AFPU in some role at some stage.

My eagerness to get that record as complete and comprehensive as possible is why I asked about the privates remembered on the Bayeux Memorial.
Please excuse my naivety as a new boy, but where do I find "Geoff's wonderful search engine" as nudged by Rich?

 

Film units provide so much visual history: - WW Rare Color film D Day 1944.
World War II The lost color archives (the spelling shows the unit!)

 

My dad Eddy "Smiler" Smales was one of the original AFPU cameramen in 1 AFPS.
He served from 1/42 to 6/43 in Syria, Transjordan & Palestine (as it then was), through Egypt (including at Alamein) to Libya & Tunisia. He was one of the cameramen on "Desert Victory", released 6/3/43.

The first task for 2 AFPS was to cover the First Army's invasion of Algiera (8/11/42)and, from there, east into Tunisia (12/42 to 2/43). Sgt Martin Wilson was with 2 AFPS in the advance from Algiera into Tunisia, which is where he won his MM.

In Tunisia, 2 AFPS met up with 1 AFPS who had come east from Libya with the Eighth Army. Once Montgomery's plan to invade Italy started cooking, it was decided that 2 AFPS would cover the invasion reinforced by some who transferred from 1 AFPS, including Sgt Billy Jordan (who also won the MM in Tunisia). Jordan's book "A Cameraman for All Reasons" appeared in 1999.

Eventually, Wilson transferred to 5 AFPS which had started by covering the build-up to and the invasion on D-Day, and then went with the (non-US) Allied advance all the way to Berlin, including the Luneberg Heath surrender on 4/5/45. By then, Wilson was a lieutenant leading coverage of Belsen-Bergen, although Sgts Ian Grant and Peter Norris were the first AFPU men there on 16/4/45.

My dad arrived in Normany on D+6 (12/6/44) and finally got home on 7/8/45. Along the way, he covered (among other things) the fall of Caen, Operation Totalise (the northern pincer at Falaise Gap), the liberation of the Lower Seine and Operation Astonia (to take Le Havre), Operation Infatuate (to take Walcheren and open the Schelde access to Antwerp), Operation Turnscrew (across the Rhine), the capture of Bremen and the ruins of Berlin. He was at Luneberg too, but not in Monty's tent.

My dad's story will be told in "When You're Smiler", a biography I hope to get published later this year (2011). It takes a more personal perspective than McGlade's book but it will, I hope, add to the general understanding and appreciation of the contribution made by the AFPU as a whole to military tactics and wartime propaganda at the time, and to historical knowledge since. It will include a detailed appendix that lists over 400 people who served with or alongside the AFPU in some role at some stage.

 

Whoops!

Should have added that everyone in AFPU were officially on attachment from their original units. They all wore the same AFPU shoulder badge and their uniforms gradually became more contiguous, but you could tell their origins by what was on their heads. Unit photos show a right old hotch-potch of hats, caps and berets.

Dad had been TA, then RA and eventually ROAC just days before he was accepetd in the AFPU in 11/41, so he was on attachment from something he never really knew.

 

Hmmm. Merger of two threads has me looking repitious (sorry about that) but, more importantly, has also lost my post about Major Roy Oliver.

Oliver did a fantastic job with AFPU chaps as PRO both on D-Day (arriving D+1) and at Arnhem, where he parachuted in with Sgt Mike Lewis to join Sgts Gordon Walker & Dennis Smith, who arrived by glider with a team of team signallers, censors and civillian correspodents. These are the three guys on the cover of McGlade's book. Smith took all the stills and was eventually (Jan 46) awarded the MM largely (but not only) because of his bravery on this mission.

Not only was Oliver a comms whizzkid (the only radio link to Montgomery, Eisenhower & Churchill) but he led this team of non-combatants to safety when it all went pearshaped - and personally saved loads of exposed still and cine-film when he was shot by a sniper and fell into the Maas while escaping. If it hadn't been for him, more than half the stills and movie footage now in archives would've been swept into the North Sea.

Strangely, it wasn't the British who recognised this but the Americans, who awarded him the US Silver Star.

 

Thanks for the advice, dbf, but I think what happened was that I posted just as you merged, then didn't check at the time. No problems. Easy to fix.

But given how many folks value Dennis Smith's stills of Arnhem, it's right to give credit to Roy Oliver for getting them out.

 

Here's a pic of my dad, Sgt Eddy "Smiler" Smales, then of 1 AFPS. Taken in Tripoli (Syria) in Summer 1942.

 

All film and photographs taken by AFPU personnel were War Office exclusive. Those which survived have now passed to the Imperial War Museum.

However, my brother and I have a number of personal shots taken by Dad of AFPU colleagues or of him with some of them - for example, Duggy Wolfe and Charlie Crocker (who Dad paired up with at Alamein and Walcheren respectively).

However, I won't share these pics just yet on this site. I hope to include in When You're Smiler (my book about Dad) a selection of as many as poss of them alongside some IWM images.

I will also eventually donate to the IWM those pics that would enhance their collection, including a couple of AFPU team photos (one on the eve of Alamein, the other a week or so pre-D-Day).

 

The association of former members of the AFPU is run by the youngest surviving member, Paul Clark (a sprightly 85 years old in 2011). He runs this website....

Army Film & Photographic Unit

Other AFPU survivors include Peter Norris, Harry Oakes and Bob Sleigh (pronounced Slee, and actually of the Canadian Film & Photo Unit, but living in Cheshire). Other members of the association include sons and daughters of ex-AFPU boys Harry Ames, Cyril Garnham, Billy Greenhalgh, Hugh Stewart and my dad, Eddy Smales.

The AFPU will mark its 70th Anniversary (24th October) when it is hoped that Len Puttnam's boy (Lord David) will be the guest of honour at an IWM event on 25th October 2011 to celebrate the Army Photographer of the Year.

 

All film and photographs taken by AFPU personnel were War Office exclusive. Those which survived have now passed to the Imperial War Museum.

At the time they were also given free to Major News Agencies and you can find the same photos being referenced as being the property of several of them.
If you are rich and lazy you can pay Pathe 60 quid for a few minutes footage or (if you are clever) get the original unedited reel from the IWM for a lot less.
The drawback is the IWM stuff is lower quality than the (now)digital Pathe stuff.

 

m kenny...
You are correct about sources. But I've found the IWM to have a more comprehensive record and a more helpful attitute. And in my view - although it would be nice if the IWM could do even more (and would if it wasn't cash-strapped) to promote and celebrate the AFPU - we all benefit from its commitment to heritage preservation and access rather than £££.
Cheers.... NPMS