The AFPU - The Origins of British Army Combat Filming During the Second World War

Abstract

The films and photographs shot by British Army cameramen and photographers during the Second World War include some of the most frequently repeated sequences and stills of the key figures and events of the period, from the Blitz of London to the Normandy Beaches and the Liberation of Belsen. Surprisingly little is known however about the soldiers who created these images, or the background to the development of the organisation to which they belonged, the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU).2 This neglect may partly derive from the fact that their work has been incorporated anonymously into television programmes and publications alongside the output of their civilian counterparts in the newsreel companies and press, better attuned to publicising their own exploits. It may also reflect the Army's own ambivalence towards film publicity, always viewed as a potential threat to military security yet sometimes also recognised as a weapon. This article examines how these contrasting views affected the development of film and photographic publicity policy in the British Army in the period leading up to the formation of the AFPU in October 1941. It ends by describing the special training and equipment of the AFPU which influenced the operations of British combat cameramen during the Second World War. The Army Directorate of Public Relations and the Official War Office Cinematographer, September 1939-June 1940