The Museum has received a collection of pictures that captured the filming of ‘A Bridge Too Far’, the award winning 1977 war epic that depicted Operation Market Garden.
The photographs were taken by military film advisor ‘Scouse’ – a tankie from 3rd RTR who took his camera on set and was able to take behind the scenes footage of the XXX Corps and the Hollywood stars.
To people of a certain age if someone mentions the iconic film ‘A Bridge Too Far’, most of them would be able to list a “Who’s Who” of contemporary acting legends who featured in the film.
Sean Connery, tick. Michael Caine, tick. Anthony Hopkins, tick. Robert Redford, tick. Gene Hackman, tick. Sir Laurence Olivier, tick and the director, Sir Richard Attenborough, tick.
It’s not just your acting knights and Hollywood legends who make films; productions on this scale require scores of unsung, largely uncredited, individuals to assist in myriad ways to make the film realistic. ‘Scouse’ and his fellow tankie ‘Ringo’ were part of the British Army’s khaki dozen who were seconded to the film for six weeks, to crew the nine running Shermans of XXX Corps that the filmmakers had acquired.
The Shermans used in the film were mainly sourced from the Royal Netherlands Army; a 105mm which was modified into a Firefly and a Sherman Dozer which had a plastic turret added.
The Belgian Army really came up trumps supplying two Fireflies, two 76mm Shermans and a 105mm as well as two towable hulks.
Wooden mock-ups and plastic Sherman replicas on long-wheeled based Land Rovers were also used.
Fortunately for us, `Scouse’ took his camera and was able to capture a few behind the scenes images of the XXX Corps filming sequences which he faithfully kept in a photograph album, now in the Museum’s Collection, and which allows us to look back at the making of this iconic film.
To the right, a very busy behind the scenes photo which shows the logistics required to produce a film like ‘A Bridge Too Far’.
Dickie Attenborough stands front and centre, in hat, coat and red jumper. The lady seated on the left of the photo is Connie Willis, the film’s Script and Continuity coordinator.
In addition to the film crew and extras, all the paraphernalia required to film a scene, lights, ladders, tripods and the inevitable transport vehicles are visible.
Picture below, is one of the PaK 40 7.5cm anti-tank guns from the PaK battery sited at the edge of a wood ready for its ambush role against XXX Corps (0.57.50 sec mark) as it advances to contact along the road. Two camouflage nets can be seen hanging from the trees and can be seen in the film sequence where a battery of (RNA) 25-pounders walk an artillery barrage onto the German’s positions.
Click the dots to see all the pictures.
