Movietone’s War Time News - Reported by Leslie Mitchell: After Hmas "Sydney" Met the Italians

Series

Series Name
British Movietone News

Issue

Issue No.
595A
Date Released
31 Oct 1940
Date submitted
Oct 1940
Date submitted
15 Oct 1940
Stories in this Issue:

Story

Story No. within this Issue
2 / 8
Section Title
Movietone’s War Time News - Reported by Leslie Mitchell
Summary
MOVIETONE CARD TITLE: Naval Action - RN V Italy. DESCRIPTION: The Australian ship sinks the Italian cruiser "Bartolomeo Colleoni". SHOTLIST: Material shipped for library. Dope: The biggest naval battle of the war and there a British ship is almost hit by Italian shell fire. Bombers from Italian land bases speed for an air attack in the sea fight raging below. The pilot signals release the bombs. They are aimed at a British ship, there’s the target. They drop a salvo of bombs. Ship and white wake as high explosives rain down. Will they hit? It’s a drama of narrow escape. There’s a violent AA fire as the Italian squadron is assailed from above. A Royal Air Force plane goes winging in a sky of bursting shells. A naval engagements modern style. In a hail of deck and fire aboard the Italian battleship Guilio Cesare. The British subsequently reported that in the battle they scored on a great battleship with a large calibre shell. The Italians admitted this, and here is the havoc done by the explosion. Smoke screen to protect Italian squadron. Laid by fast destroyers. The Italians excelled the British in speed. Both sides claimed victory in the first clash of British and Italian sea power. The Italians say they forced the British warships to retreat to the base at Alexandria and defeated their attempts to join forces with British naval units in the W Mediterranean. The British say the Italian warships ran away to their coast defences escaped under cover of the smoke screen.
Keywords
Ships and boats; Weapons; Aviation; Explosions; War damage; Navy; Military
Footage sources
United States of America
Card file number
39891
Credits:
Commentator
Leslie Mitchell
Length of story (in feet)
57
Story extras:
Film clip

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Name
AP Archive
Email
info@aparchive.com
Web
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Phone
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Series held
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How to cite this record

'Movietone’s War Time News - Reported by Leslie Mitchell: After Hmas "Sydney" Met the Italians', British Movietone News Issue No. 595A, 31 Oct 1940. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/newsonscreen/search/index.php/story/11238 (Accessed 01 Feb 2025)