Item STERN 6/4 - Copy of a BBC-made film including views of early tanks at the Tank Museum, Dorset, and Stern talking about his tank work, 1957

Roll of 16 millimetre acetate film with soundtrack produced by the BBC Television Film Unit entitled 'First hand - tanks (sequences)', relating mainly to World War One tanks and consisting of seven separate sequences, including film of a Mark I tank at the Royal Armoured Corps Centre, Bovington, Dorset, showing exterior shrapnel damage, compartment, ammunition storage, 6 pounder gun and engine, with commentary; the prototype tank, 'Little Willie', (manufactured by William Foster and Company, Lincoln, Lincolnshire in 1915) at the Royal Armoured Corps Centre, Bovington, Dorset, with commentary; a description of tank operations on the Western Front, 1917-1918; footage of Stern taken at his home at Barham Court, Kent in 1957, in which he describes his difficulties with the War Office while engaged in pioneering work on the development of tanks with the Mechanical Warfare Supply Department, 1916-1917, his meeting with the Right Hon David Lloyd George, Minister of Munitions at which an order was placed for one thousand tanks, Sep 1916, the cancellation of that order by the Army Council, his refusal to cancel the order, his order for Ricardo engines and his meeting with the Rt Hon Winston (Leonard Spencer) Churchill, Minister of Munitions, Oct 1917, which culminated in his dismissal; a description of training with Heavy Branch, Machine Gun Corps and Tank Corps 1916-1917. The film was forwarded to Stern with a covering letter from the BBC Film Librarian, 11 Dec 1957. Duration 10 minutes.