Film Review: Churchill, 2015

A friend loaned us this DVD (thanks Pat!), which we watched this evening. About 15 minutes into it I was perplexed. About 30 minutes in I was annoyed. By the end, I was mostly just bemused. The first thing was that we both - Teresa (my wife) and I - remarked how much better Gary Oldman was in Darkest Hour, (a much better film).

I also found myself comparing it with Ike, in which Tom Selleck portrays Eisenhower over the same period - the days running up to D-Day - a film that shares some commonalities in terms of scale of production. Both films were, in Hollywood terms, low-budget affairs. But whereas Selleck's movie, if not entirely devoid of factual mistakes, gets the basic tenor spot on, Churchill is a bizarre ahistorical travesty.

Historian and Churchill biographer Andrew Roberts makes a number of acerbic observations in a review of the film entitled Fake History in Churchill, starring Brian Cox, describing the latter's portrayal as "a depiction that Dr. Goebbels would have been delighted with"! Roberts lays the blame squarely at the feet of Alex von Tunzelmann, who wrote the script/screenplay.

With rather staggering irony, von Tunzelmann authored a column for the Guardian for a period, Reel History, whose subject is the relationship cinema has with historical truth! One has to wonder how and why someone who regularly dissects films to see how accurate they are could then go and commit such blatant calumny. Especially at a time - the 70th anniversary of the war's end - when both the man and the times and events depicted were being celebrated and remembered.

Brian Cox is a decent actor, and he plays his role with, er... well, if not gusto, then something similar. But the Churchill we see here is petulant, contrarian and ill-informed. The issue for me isn't really about how this portrayal undermines the celebrated image of Churchill, which it certainly does. It's about the implausibility of so many moments, from the more personal and mundane level, like his secretaries' emotional outburst over her spouse, to grand strategy; the idea that Monty only let Churchill in on his plans for D-Day the day before the invasion is utterly preposterous.

We did watch the film all the way through; the acting and production made it watchable. But I did find it beyond the pale, in terms of attempting to pass itself off as an exposé of the 'man behind the myth' (a tag-line for the movie was "the icon you know, the man you don't"). In the parlance of our times this might be described as a historical 'reboot'. But that would play down what is, frankly, a shockingly poor, slanderous even, rendering of history.

By all means watch it. But be sure to check it against real history.

Book Review: D-Day, Stephen Ambrose

This is an excellent book. It's a pity it overhypes itself on the cover; as good as it is I don't think it's definitive. I'm not sure any single volume account of D-Day could really achieve that, frankly. It's also both heavily weighted to the U.S. perspective, and within that, the events at Omaha beach. Both latter facts are understandable enough, but mitigitate very heftily against any claims of being definitive. Never mind that the Canadian and British aspects are given very brief coverage, mostly at the end of the book.

A couple of more basic or general points in its favour, leaving aside for the moment the core content, which is excellent, are the glossary - they should be absolutely mandatory in all military history books, in my view - and the excellent maps, which by the looks of them were commissioned specifically for this book.

A fuller view of the Robert Capa photo that appears on the cover.

Ambrose has a very nicely tuned and balanced writing style, it's dry and factual where it needs to be without being dull, and he uses primary sources - a lot of oral history (interviews either he or others have conducted with veterans) - as well as any of the best (or should I say most popular/slickest?) war writers, like Beevor or, going back a bit further, Cornelius Ryan.

Indeed, re the latter point, Ambrose is in a powerful position to be the erudite authority he so clearly is, in that he was (now decesased, I believe?) at the time of writing, deeply involved not only in teaching on this subject, but also as a custodian involved in the fairly recently founded (again, when this was first published) New Orleans D-Day Museum*. And one of the many great things the museum could boast, with Ambrose involved again, was a unique (in its size and scope) 'oral history' collection.

And it's from these sources that this very colourful account gets many of its richer hues.

I believe this may be another of Capa's blurred but highly evocative images.

Whilst he doesn't shy away from the tragedies of war, collateral damage, friendly fire, prisoner executions, and all that, Ambrose does give a decidedly heroic ring to it all, pitting the 'citizen soldiers' (a phrase that's also the title of another book he's written) of an 'aroused democracy', fighting inly to liberate, against the empire-building Nazis, whose troops are - by this stage if the war, and in this particular theatre - either indoctrinated Germans, either docile or fanatical, or unwilling thralls, as per the Ost-truppen.

Whilst it's a all a bit rich - apple-pie 'n' God Bless the U. S. of A, and all that jazz - for a very sceptical chap like me, Ambrose does make pretty solid case in contrasting the sclerotic command malfunctions of the German's, Hitler in bed till noon, his panzers immobile without his personal authority, with the hands-off approach of Ike and Churchill. Gone is the  flexible auftragstaktik that characterised the first blitzkrieg years of the war.

Capa again: Omaha, pinned down on the beach, sheltering behind German obstacles.

One of the things that winds up happening is that things are in exact reverse of how, on paper, they should've been: the Allies were landing against a supposedly extremely well-fortified coast, not using harbours, but beaches. The Germans, with the land and its transportation networks at their backs should've been the easier supplied and maneuovred. But, thanks to the Allies total air and naval superiority, it is the Allies who are free to manoeuvre and resupply more or less at will, with the Germans in Normandy effectively cut off, on a landlocked island.

Whilst D-Day wasn't on the scale, in terms of troop numbers and vehicles, as some of the largest clashes on the Eastern Front, it was the most massive combined operation by land, sea and air ever. Even Stalin freely admitting as much, and suitably relieved/impressed by it. The mind still boggles at the scale of it. And it continues to exercise a deep fascination. It's kind of shocking and surprising how little photographic documentation has come down to us so far.

It's a bit surprising there aren't more photos like this, conveying the enormity of the operations.

Another of Capa's few surviving images.

The fate of Robert Capa's photos [1], one of which is on the cover of this edition, may possibly sum that situation up. Related to all this, yesterday I caught the tail end of a recently produced American TV documentary entitled The Battle of Normandy: 85 Days in Hell, which appears to include lots of 'previously unseen' footage (much of it looking very nicely restored, and a good deal even in colour). So perhaps as time goes on more visual material will emerge? I do hope so!

Anyway, this book is excellent, a suitably rousing document that is also a tribute to the events and the men it brings to life again for us. Superb, and very highly recommended.

---

Ambrose as I first saw him, on ITV's superb The World At War.

NOTES:

[1] The story goes that Capa shot 106 photos, but that back in England the excited developer botched his job in his eagerness, only eleven of the photographs surviving. There are also stories going around that suggest Capa 'sexed up' his account. Read more here.

Book Review: D-Day, Philip Warner

Philip Warner's superb book is in fact mostly a compendium of accounts by men who took part in the manifold aspects of D-Day. The quality of these correspondent's writings is variable. But the best stuff is absolute gold.

Warner opts to deploy his sources in a chronological-cum-thematic manner, which is good, as we can concentrate on one strand of action at a time, such as airborne drops, or the naval contribution, tanks, infantry, and so on, and thereby see how the bigger picture unfolds through multiple colourful facets, adding up to an exciting kaleidoscopic view of the whole.

Here's a list of the chapter headings:
I  Invasion from the Air: The RAF, the Gliders and the Parachutists
II  The Navies
III  On The Beach - The Sappers and others
IV  The Armoured Corps
V  The Infantry
VI  Marines and Commandos
VII  Intelligence and Signals
VIII  The Medical Services
IX  The Royal Army Service Corps
X  The Canadians
XI  The Royal Artillery
XII  The Chaplains
The French Viewpoint

The above list conveys both the arrangement of the books contents, and the scale and scope of Overlord itself. One thing that consistently emerges from the many vivid and moving testimonies that appear here is awe at the scale of it all. The book appears under a banner for The Telegraph newspaper, as it was in their pages that Warner published a letter asking for survivors of D-Day to contact him.

Philip Warner's own part in the content is quite minimal, consisting of brief introductory remarks for each chapter, and the selection and arrangement of the firsthand testimonies. These are, unsurprisingly having been collected in the U.K., very much weighted towards the British perspective. Americans and Canadians are mentioned in passing (the latter even having their own very brief chapter), but this is an avowedly and unashamedly Anglo-centric account.

What makes this particular book really enjoyable - thrilling, I would say - is the patchwork quilt of very personal stories. These range from the drily formal 'At 06:00 hours, we...' etc, to the very colourfully anecdotal ('we breakfasted on whisky and Mars bars'!). But, whilst none are Pulitzer Prize winning professional journos, the quality is, by and large, superb. Sometimes poignant, often funny, filled with both pride and humility, and replete with fascinating detail, they bring this gargantuan operation vividly to life in a way little else can.

I absolutely loved this book, and highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in this most momentous day. In one word: brilliant!

Book Review: The Germans In Normandy, Richard Hargreaves

Whilst this isn't 100% perfect - very little in life is! - it's bloody good. And I use the word bloody deliberately. This is very much in the (combat ruptured) vein of Anthony Beevor's WWII writings, in its expert deployment of firsthand testimony from all levels, revelling in mud and blood.

The book starts with pre-invasion preparations, and the odd mixture of ennui and anxiety, as the occupiers wait for the inevitable but long time coming opening of the 'second front' [1]. Once the invasion gets underway we move around, from the German reactions to initial Allied paratroop drops, to the lethargic response of the fractured chain of command, so familiar from other accounts and the depiction in the classic Longest Day movie. Yep, Hitler really was left to slumber!

Hitler demanded the impossible of von Kluge, at left. [2]

We frequently encounter characters such as Rommel, and Von Kluge, and it's interesting to note how their outward actions relate to their own inner personal feelings, the former apparent from their orders and their relations with both subordinates and superiors, the latter coming via less guarded comments to colleagues, or letters home. It's very clear that for all the vaunted fighting spirit, cutting edge materiel, and the dynamism and flexibility of auftragstaktik, the fragmented nature of the German armed forces and the complicated chain of command worked against decisive action.

But as the book proceeds, the air of inevitability builds: the Luftwaffe was by this point a spent force, the Kriegsmarine never became the equal of the Royal Navy, let alone the combined might of the UK/US maritime coalition, and the ground forces - split between the Wehrmacht, the SS, and diluted with Ostruppen, the young and the old Volksturm, etc. - were simply overwhelmed by the weight of Allied materiel.

Rommel on a tour of inspection of the Atlantikwall.

When the fighting is near the coast and the Allied position on land is still tenuous - Rommel's idea that Germany could only win if they prevented the Allies gaining a foothold was almost certainly the best hope they had [3] - the Allies could still bring to bear not only their airborne superiority, a decisive factor on the Western Front from hereon in, but also the incredible weight of their naval flotilla's firepower.

As the fighting moved inland the combination of total Allied airborne dominance and the scraping-bottom dribs and drabs situation for the German's, combined with Hitler's by now totally unrealstic and detrimental 'power of the will' philosophy, which would countenance no retreats, was a certain recipe for disaster. What's most amazing is how the Germans continued to believe and obey. I suppose sheer desperation and having been locked into a victorious mindset for so long may have enabled this.

It's not just top brass, this book is a paean to the trials of the 'Landser'.

As I say, this isn't perfect: there's no glossary, and the maps could've been more plentiful and informative. The photos aren't the best selection on the subject I've seen [4], and occasionally the text repeats itself somewhat. But this is not a dry recitation of unit names and troop movements, as so many military history books are, and is instead a very well put together patchwork or collage of firsthand testimony, which really brings the events to life.

I found this terrifically informative exciting and compelling, and would highly recommend it.

---

NOTES:

Funk, poster-boy got the German war effort.

The main dustjacket photo is a colourised version of a very famous image of 18 year-old Hitlerjugend panzergrenadier Otto Funk, right after a small unit action in Rots, Normandy, 1944. Here's an interesting link to a webpage where you can learn more about the series of photos this came from, Otto Funk, and the location 'then and now'. The above image, cover of a German photo-feature magazine, is from the same series

[1] Really a third front, with the Ostfront (and Balkans) as the first, and the north-Africa then Italian/Med as the second.

[2] Kluge typifies the German generals: honour bound to obey, but ultimately unable to deliver, vacillating between belief and despair. His relation to the Stauffenberg plot and the fallout from that is a fascinating and tragic sub-plot. And it's a story echoed in the actions and fate of Rommel and others as well.

[3] Albeit still a forlornly unrealistic one.

[4] Apart from the Funk cover pic, all my picture selections for this post are not in this book.

Misc: D-Day 75th Anniversary!

75 years ago, today, the world's greatest military armada landed Allied troops and materiel on the shores of Normandy. I thought I'd remember and celebrate this with a post on the subject.

The first thing I'd like to note is how, growing up in the village of Comberton, five miles west of Cambridge, my family would frequently pass the American Cemetery (read more on the latter here), at Madingley. My dad would never fail to mention it, as we passed, on our way in to or out of town. But even in the ensuing years in which I grew to be fascinated by military history, models and wargaming, etc, I never took a real interest in the place.

The American Cemetery at Madingley, Cambridgeshire.

Indeed, it wasn't until my return to both my old 'neck of the woods', having moved back to Cambridgeshire after about a decade in London, and my eventual return to the hobbies and interests of my youth, which came later, that I finally started to visit the Cemetery, and comprehend its significance. I've been there three or four times now. It's well worth a visit. I was surprised they aren't holding a D-Day memorial service today. But I found out they did so earlier this year. In fact I only just missed it; May 27th.

Rather than me going into it, and why there's an American Cemetery here in the first place, interested parties should read the previously mentioned link, or this post, the latter of which has plenty of interesting info' from a local perspective.

I'll be watching this later. with a drop of vin rouge, to celebrate.

I had hoped that perhaps my Canadian grandfather, Bert Palmer, had taken part in the D-Day landings, or the Normandy Campaign. And he might have, even if only indirectly. Based on some sketchy information from my father I believe he remained in the U.K, due to a traffic accident/injury (sustained under wartime blackout conditions), working as a mechanic and chauffeur.

I reckon I'll take the afternoon off, and watch The Longest Day. But numerous chores need to be attended to first. Speaking of The Longest Day, a phrase I believe Cornelius Ryan got from (or at least attributes to) Rommel - and The Desert Fox was on TV yesterday! - I'm currently reading an excellent book entitled The Germans In Normandy, by Richard Hargreaves. This superb book does for Normandy what Andrew Field's Waterloo, The French Perspective, did for that momentous clash, giving views from 'the other side of the hill'.

An excellent exciting read.

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Some time later... chores mostly out of the way.

I tried to buy a bottle of red wine from Normandy, but couldn't find any in my local Sainsbury. I know the region is more famed for cider and Calvados. But I fancied a decent French red. It wasn't until the day after (i.e. now, on the 7th, when I'm typing this!) that I 'googled' the subject. And as the map below shows, nowadays Normandy isn't really considered a wine region.

French wine regions.

Nevertheless, I did find this producer. No English options on their website, alas. And I haven't tried to see if they sell any wines here in Blighty. Anyway, the wine I bought yesterday - and I departed from my usual tightwad budget of £5-8, and sploshed out (Flyodian pun) on a £12 bottle - whose name/region escapes me now, was terrifically good; soft and smooth as a velvet slipper! Teresa, who won't usually imbibe during the week, took a slug or two when I told her the occasion.

Ok, I'll admit I haven't said a huge amount here about either D-Day itself, or the Normandy campaign, or the contemporary events held on June 6th, 2019. But that's not really the point of this post. This is simply a moment of celebration and remembrance of those seismic events of 75 years ago. So, here's to all those who stopped Hitler's rot. Bottoms up!

And, to conclude, shown above is a very interesting video I found on YouTube, which is a film of D-Day to D+3 footage, as shown to the Allied leaders - Churchill, Eisenhower, etc. - very shortly after the events.

Book Review: From Arromanches to the Elbe, Charles More

This fascinating book follows the 144th Regt, RAC (Royal Armoured Corps) from landing, on D-Day +8, through the Normandy campaign, into Belgium/Holland, and ultimately across the Rhine. It does so in part through the memoirs of several who served in the regiment, leaning particularly heavily on the writings of Marcus Cunliffe. [1]

Churchill tanks act as Battle taxis, ferrying troops over the Elbe.

Initially equipped with Churchills, which were replaced with Shermans, the unit would eventually be reborn as the 4th RTR (Royal Tank Regiment), and was then furnished with Buffalo LVTs, in which capacity it had the honour of being the first British unit across the Rhine, ferrying troops over. [2]

One of many things I really enjoyed about this book was the way it covered both very well known actions - so for example we hear about how the regiment was embroiled in the famous Ardennes/Bulge actions - and also those frequently glossed over, such as their first real action, at Noyers, or when they helped in the reduction and capture of le Havre.

The photographic segment isn't the most exciting of it's type, but it does illustrate some of the people and places depicted. The several simple maps are better than average. And there's also a glossary, which is always a good thing. The book itself is well written, albeit in a rather plain way. At first I was worried it'd be one of those dry recitations of unit numbers and movements, and might be too obscure/specialised to keep me interested. But it proved otherwise, thanks in no small part to the extracts from the writings of Cunliffe and others, like Alan Jolly and Hilary Phillips.

Sherman's of the 144th Regt.

In the end, once I'd gotten really stuck in, More's account turns out to be a model of clarity and balance. Rather interestingly he addresses several well-worn clichés concerning the allegedly poor training, morale, equipment and performance of British troops and Allied materiel, giving a much more positive view than one is sometimes accustomed to hearing.

A number of familiar themes emerge, during combat or 'action' (not always the same, as when a recce in force advances unopposed), such as how tank numbers rapidly dwindle due to bogging down or mechanical failure. And the confusion or muddle, as when a barrage causes advancing troops to lose their way in the dust that's raised, or two units are given the same task. But such things are commonplaces of war, and More shows that these weren't necessarily purely Britush failings.

One clear thing that emerges is the imbalance of materiel. At one point the Shermans of the regt. - sixty or so - are temporarily mothballed, while the unit is issued with the Buffalo LVT. Whatever failings the Sherman may have had, often overstated anyway, they were available in numbers that meant, no matter how good the Panthers or Tigers opposing them were, there simply weren't enough of them.

'Buffalo' LVTs of the 4th RTR are readied for crossing the Rhine.

Structurally the first six chapters, after an initial introduction, follow the unit as it campaigns across Western Europe in 1944-45, the following chapter headings give a good overview: Arromanches to Noyers; Operation Totalize; Advance to the Seine; Holland and the Ardennes; The Rhine to the Elbe. For those of us who like potential wargaming scenarios, there are numerous terrifically exciting vignettes, such as first blood at Noyers, or the delivery of troops over the Rhine to take Sees.

The final chapters, The Experience of War and Regimental Ins and Outs are also very good, adding some very welcome supplementary dimensions to the book. Indeed, some of the most poignant personal revollections, as when the tanks force passage through a distraught elderly French woman's home, when crossing the Calonne at La Vallette, are tnot be found here.

All in all, an excellent book. Well worth reading.

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NOTES:

[1] Cunliffe was a successful academic and writer. An interesting footnote is that his first wife, Mitzi Solomon, was an American Modernist sculptor, whose chief claim to fame may well be that she designed the BAFTA Awards mask.

[2] Much to Monty's chagrin, the Americans were already across at Remagen.

Book Review: Kent at War, 1939-1945, Mark Khan

According to the back-cover blurb, the photos in this particular Images of War title were rescued from a rubbish tip! Apparently 4,000 images were rescued, and have been digitised, from which 150 were selected for inclusion here. [1]

General Sir Brian Horrocks is quoted as follows: 'Invasion or not, it [Kent/South-East England] was certainly the most exciting part of England at that time. We had a grandstand view not only of the Battle of Britain, with its dog-fights over our heads, but also of the nightly naval war that went on in the Channel.'

Training Exercise. Unarmed combat. The Barracks Maidstone c1939-45. [2]

Chapter titles give you the basic shape of the book and its content: The Early Years, The Kent Home Guard, Life During Wartime, Soldiers in Kent, Military Vehicles (etc), VIP Visitors, The War at Sea, Women at War, D-Day, The End of the War. Within each chapter Khan provides a brief outline of appropriate information, and then the photos and their captions illustrate the themes further.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and perusing the photographs, and would highly recommend it. Indeed, it makes me want to find out more about my own relatives who were or might have been involved. For example, my Canadian grandfather, Albert 'Bert' Palmer, who lived and worked in Kent during some of this period.

An enormous PLUTO 'conundrum', beached at Greatstone. [3]

The range and selection of pictures is excellent, making for a fascinating account of life in this, the garden county of England, and also home to Hell's Corner, being as it was on the flightpath of the German bombing runs into England/London. Highly recommended.

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NOTES:

[1] The entire collection can be viewed for free online, here.

[2] This pic is from the web archive, not the book. But similar pictures can be found in the book.

[3] PLUTO, or the Pipe Line Under The Ocean was for sending fuel across the channel, under the sea, to supply the D-Day invasion forces with as little disruption to the ordinary sea and land traffic as possible.

The Medway Queen, which became HMS Medway Queen during WWII.

This steam powered roller crushed pots and pans in the salvage drives of WWII.

Book Review: The Americans On D-Day & in Normandy - Brooke S. Blades

Another excellent title from the very useful Images of War series. The pictures are terrific, as one would hope they would/should be in a series with such a title. The text is pretty good. At first I wasn't too sure, re the latter, as in places it's very dense with unit numbers and movements. But overall the text is actually pretty good.

Blades treats the subject to a mixture of chronological and themed chapters, starting with preparations in England, and then moving via airborne troop drops to the beach landings. So far so chronological, but then comes a chapter titled Soldiers, Prisoners and Civilians. The action then moves further inland, before we're given chapters on the wounded, the dead, and the battlefields then and now.

There are some minor issues with the text, like references to characters (usually the photographers) by one single name, with no other contextualising info. And at times the density of unit/movement info can get near headache inducingly opaque. With so much to cover this could've been a mess. But it works pretty well overall. And the pictures are fab.

The best of these Images of War books are really great resources for wargamers, modellers and military history buffs when, as here, they're packed with great photos, accompanied by illuminating text. The pictures are admittedly all black and white - and the US was one of the few participants, alongside Germany - to make frequent use of colour film in WWII. But it's really nice, as well as useful, to have such rich visual material as this to hand in print form, as opposed to trawling the web for it.

I'd definitely recommend this to anyone with more than a passing interest in the U.S. role in D-Day and beyond.

Book Review - Images of War: M7 Priest, David Doyle

I'm beginning to gather a reasonable collection of these Images of War titles. When I bought Sherman Tank, by Gavin Birch, to support my concurrent 1/72 kit builds, I was a bit disappointed , as it was mostly Shermans in British service (which the title didn't make clear), and whilst the images were okay, the text was less so.

This time around I got the book first and, loving it, then went out and bought a couple of kits. First off, this is a better put together book anyway, being better written, very clearly, simply and well structured, and appropriately (not to mention copiously/richly!) illustrated. As befits a title from a series called Images of War, the pictures are fabulous.

M7 firing on German positions near Ribeauville, on the Rhine, France, Dec' '44.

Carentan, France, 1944.

The text and images start with a written introduction to the subject, followed by pictures and history of the first trial type (a model of which I intend to build, based on the superb visual ref contained herein). Words and imagery then move through the various production models/variants, based around the various orders placed by the US military with several contractors, before moving to descriptions, written and photographic, of the M7 in the field.

The M7 saw service in North Africa, Italy, the Invasion of Europe and the Pacific, and there is excellent material here from all theatres. There's one rear-view pic of a British mortar carrying variant, and mention of the Kangaroo personnel-carrier type, but no. pics of the latter. The Priest's development and deployment by the US continued into the Korean War, in the early '50s, which Doyle covers. 

An M7 in Luzon, The Phillipines, June, '45.

A nice colour pic from '43, showing a Priest firing during training.

As well as a few WWII colour pics there are a generous selection of crisp full colour photos of surviving examples, adding to the already rich arsenal of visual reference. The evolution of this vehicle is superbly and compellingly communicated. This has, quite unexpectedly (as I generally favour German WWII stuff) become my favourite title, thus far, in the Images of War series.

I liked it so much I immediately went out and bought a couple of Revell 1/76 kits of the M7 Priest, from a friendly local model seller. 

Okinawa, May, 1945. Note the spare track used as armour.

M7 Priest dug in, to achieve higher gun elevation, Kleinblittersdorf, Germany, Dec. '44.

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 More Pics!

This is not David Doyle's first book on this subject. Pictured below is the cover of a Squadron Signal publication he did on the same subject.

A previous publication by Doyle on the same topic.

As mentioned above, I enjoyed this so much I went out and bought some models, and during research for my model and this review, I came upon a load more pics not used in the books, some of which come from the same series of pics used here.

Preparing artillery rounds for firing.

Inside the fighting compartment.

Disembarking a Priest from a landing craft.

Hosing down the vehicle.

Nice view of the manned machine gun.

Bogged down in mud.

What are these doodads?

This appears to be a still from a colour film of an M7 Priest.

A nice view of a Priest's driver.

The Priest featured in Life magazine.

Contemporary photo of a surviving M7 Priest's interior.

Amphibious training in California.

An M7 Priest alongside a recovery vehicle.

A Priest being serviced during firing.

In Action in Italy.