Lieutenant Pimple and the Stolen Submarine
- Twickenham
- 1914
Britannia rules the waves! Scenes of a battleship at gunnery practice, with fine shots of the guns firing.
Britannia rules the waves! This thrilling short film captures all the majesty of a British battleship, guns blazing, at a time when public interest in the navy was at its peak. It was made by Charles Urban, courtesy of Rear Admiral Percy Scott, a weapons expert hoping to revolutionise British naval gunnery in the teeth of opposition in the Admiralty. British naval power would be vital in WWI.
HUGE NAVAL GUNS IN ACTION
The outbreak of war in July 1914 came as a shock to most. But from our privileged position today, we can find among the films produced in the early 1910s scattered hints of the looming conflict that would split Europe in two.
One ominous sign was the proliferation of stories of international espionage and intrigue (played as drama or comedy), while newsreels offer evidence of the prominence of the armed forces in British society. Even so, the overwhelming majority of films of the period point to a nation blissfully unaware of the horrors to come.