AFPU Association
When the Second World War broke out, the War Office’s initial reaction was “a cameraman is more sinister than a whole regiment of Germans”. Although it reluctantly recruited a few photographers and cameramen to cover military preparations and combat, it was two years before realisation dawned how valuable film and photographs could be for informing military tactics, for training, for the historical archive and, perhaps most importantly, for propaganda. The RAF Film Production Unit and the Army Film & Photographic Unit were founded in October 1941. Both played vital roles in gathering footage for Desert Victory (March 1943), perhaps the most pivotal British war campaign film of all time because of its convincing evidence that the war could be won.
Eventually, over 400 cameramen, photographers, directors, technicians and editors served at AFPU headquarters at Pinewood Studios or in one or more of five theatres of war – north Africa, Italy, Greece and Yugoslavia, northern Europe and the Far East – where they were supported by Royal Army Service Corps drivers and motorcycle couriers always regarded as integral to the team. The Unit covered many key moments, most famously the Battle of Alamein, the liberation of Tunisia, the invasions of Italy, the Battle of Monte Cassino, Chindit operations, the Battle of Kohima, D-Day, the crossing of the Rhine, the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and the fall of Berlin. It suffered 33 fatalities and was awarded 19 personal decorations as it provided numerous newsreels and photographic press releases and made significant contributions to the production of three other campaign films – Tunisian Victory (1944), Burma Victory and The True Glory (both 1945).
Many of the AFPU went on to notable careers. To name but a few: director Roy Boulting, producers Hugh Stewart and Bob Baker, cinematographer John Wilcox, reporter Alan Whicker, photographer Bert Hardy, sound technicians Peter Handford and John Aldred, editors Dickie Best and Ernie Walter, documentary maker Peter Hopkinson and TV news cameraman Mike Lewis. They all joined an informal post-war network of former AFPU members which enjoyed reunions in a London pub, often at The White Swan in Fleet Street. Since 1954, their memorial to fallen AFPU and RAFFPU colleagues has had pride of place at Pinewood where it is the focus of an annual Remembrance Ceremony.
Paul Clark served the AFPU in the Far East in 1945. He has long been the heartbeat of this AFPU Association which has gradually grown to include families and select friends such as RAFFPU families and Imperial War Museum historians. He will soon be 99 (July 2015) and has for some time been supported by Nigel Smales, son of Eddy Smales, an AFPU cameraman from 1941 until 1946.