Dating to the dark days of the Blitz in WWII, and apparently shot on a real location near Trafalgar Square, this Ministry of Home Security film TEAM TRAINING OF RESCUE PARTIES shows how debris can be safely moved, so as to rescue victims of an air raid from collapsed structures. The film shows a rescue party arriving at the scene of a damaged building, with the leader making a strategic assessment of the integrity of the structure and coming up with a plan of action before beginning work. In this instance, since the stairs are not considered safe, a ladder is erected at the outside of the building (4:23). At 5;25 a casualty is evacuated from the cellar across a bomb crater. At 6:03, three more victims are found in the upper floors and evacuated by ladder. At 11:30, civilians are asked to pitch in to help in the clean-up effort so that coal plates (covers of chutes used to load coal into a building’s basement) can be located and opened. The chute opening are used to communicate with people trapped in the building’s basement. At 13:00, a carpenter works to shore up the building so the rescue effort can continue.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com