Beschreibung:

The Ron Penhall Collection The Second World War North-West Europe operations M.M. group of five awarded to Sergeant I. J. Grant Royal Army Ordnance Corps, who was decorated for his services as a cameraman in the Army’s Film and Photographic Unit (A.F.P.U.): he later published Cameramen at War, a vivid account of his experiences under fire - having landed with Lord Lovat’s Commando Brigade on D-Day and covered the crossing of “Pegasus Bridge”, he and his camera accompanied 11 Armoured Division throughout the N.W.E. campaign, including the liberation of Belsen, undoubtedly his most traumatic wartime experience Military Medal, G.VI.R. (3059999 Sjt. I. J. Grant R.A.O.C.); 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf, the first in its card box of issue and forwarding box with related War Office forwarding letter, dated 20 January 1947, extremely fine (5) £3000-4000 Footnote M.M. London Gazette 24 January 1946. The original recommendation states: ‘This N.C.O. has throughout the campaign proved that he has always been ready to go far beyond the normal call of duty to obtain films of British troops in action. Apart from his courage and military bearing, he has maintained a consistently high level of photographic quality. He landed on D-Day at H. + 90 with 45 R.M. Commando. After the ensuing operations which involved the death of his partner, he was transferred to 11 Armoured Division and remained with them almost exclusively for the campaign. He secured remarkable pictures which attracted great attention, of tanks in action in all the “beach-head” battles till the Falaise Gap period. After the advance to Antwerp, he photographed the fighting at the Albert Canal, Helmond, Deurne, Overloon and Venraij. He was with 1 Commando Brigade in their crossings of the Rhine and Elbe. Otherwise he was with 11 Armoured Division till the end of hostilities. The result of his work is that some very fine operational pictures have been taken all through the campaign of British tanks in action, so that through the newsreels and such films as “Left of the Line” world wide recognition and publicity have been given to the British soldier.’ Mention in despatches London Gazette 10 May 1945. Ian James Grant was born in Edinburgh in 1917 and was called up for military service in 1940, initially spending two and a half years with the Royal Scots as a Lance-Corporal. But yearning for something beyond regular regimental employ, he volunteered to attend an Army Photographic Film Unit (A.P.F.U.) training course at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, a course that paid rapid dividends in the form of excellent quarters and the company of similarly employed A.T.S. and W.A.A.F. teams. Graduating as a fully fledged cameraman in the rank of Sergeant in time for the Normandy landings, Grant’s first official commission was to capture on film a selection of top secret vehicles on the Isle of Wight, vehicles that became known in the invasion as “Hobart’s Funnies”, after Major-General Percy Hobart. The work of the A.F.P.U. was well-known prior to the Normandy landings, feature films such as Desert Victory already having reached a wide and appreciative audience - ground-breaking operational footage captured by the likes of Captain Alan Whicker, who was to win yet greater acclaim for his work in the Italian campaign (recently the subject of a television documentary and his wartime memoirs). But the operational brief accorded the likes of Grant, a member of No. 5 A.F.P.U., for D-Day (and hopefully beyond), was arguably one of the most challenging to date: armed only with a camera - but sometimes a revolver - he and his colleagues were expected to penetrate the much-vaunted defences of the Atlantic Wall, hot on the heels of assorted Commandos, and seek out the action where it was the hottest. For his own part, Grant was assigned to Lord Lovat’s 1st Special Service Brigade, comprising 3, 4 and 6 Commandos, and 45 Royal Marine Commando, and he l