A Tyne Tees Television actuality film of a Parachute Regiment training exercise taking place in Northumberland. Shot by cameraman Norman Jackson the film shows members of the regiment preparing for and them jumping from airplanes. Once on the ground a sergeant leads a platoon in taking a position and capturing a prisoner. The film was screened as part of North East Roundabout on the 17th October 1962. Title: Northern Flight At an airfield soldiers lay on the grass relaxing or napping on...

A Tyne Tees Television actuality film of a Parachute Regiment training exercise taking place in Northumberland. Shot by cameraman Norman Jackson the film shows members of the regiment preparing for and them jumping from airplanes. Once on the ground a sergeant leads a platoon in taking a position and capturing a prisoner. The film was screened as part of North East Roundabout on the 17th October 1962. Title: Northern Flight At an airfield soldiers lay on the grass relaxing or napping on their gear. Nearby a line of army vehicles parked along a road and four aircraft parked on a runway. One solider laying on the ground throws a knife at a leaf, a group of soldier’s chat over cigarettes. Some of the men are drinking cans of McEwan’s beer. Metal vats of water are boiling nearby, milk from a bucket and from a can are poured into the mixture. Men come over with their canteens and tea is poured while a sergeant hands out sandwiches from a cardboard box. On a table nearby the men pour ketchup or other sauces onto their corned beef sandwiches. An officer wearing a beret with the insignia of the Parachute Regiment on it stands talking with his men, some begin to get to their feet. One man takes a parachute from a carboard box and helps one soldier put it on making sure it is secure, around them others are doing the same. A group of soldiers, one wearing an arm band with a red cross, stand around an officer who is talking with them and point down at a map. One solider begins to check over a Bren light machine gun making sure it is operational. On another part of the airfield’s officers stand arounds listening to another discuss the mission. Inside one of the airfields huts pilots are also given details about this training exercise. Helmets and gear are laid out in a line on the ground behind each of the four aircraft seen previously. A line of soldiers walks past, the film changing to them now wearing helmets and gear seen on the ground. A Non-Commissioned Officer goes along the line checking each of the men’s equipment is correct and secure. Now ready they begin to board one of the aircraft carrying their gear on their shoulders. The pilot and co-pilot climb a ladder into the airplane, beside the door an emblem and the name ‘Abingdon’. The propellors begins to turn as the aircraft makes ready for take-off. It taxi’s along the runway as the men on board sit on benches, some looking a little nervous while others chat happily. The first airplane lifts off into the air followed by two others. From the cockpit the pilot wearing oxygen mask looks out on the clouds below. Inside the soldiers continue to sit patiently chatting amongst themselves. A navigator sits at his desk plotting a course as the aircraft passes over Alnwick Castle and the River Aln below. From the ground the first of the soldiers jumps from the aircraft, their parachutes opening. More jump from the other aircraft watched by an officer on the ground. The first of the men lands and begins to perform a parachute landing fall to protect themselves from injury. More soldiers come into land rolling include a sergeant who collects in his parachutes and taking out and making ready his rifles. He gets up and moves off and is joined by two other soldiers, together they rush across a field. At a barbed wire fence a group of soldier’s crawl under and run across another field grouping in the undergrowth of a treeline for cover. The sergeant and a private crawl through the underground towards a barbed wire fence, the sergeant points towards a farm in the middle distance. They crawl backwards returning to the others in their force and the sergeant report the situation to the other men. The sergeant orders his men to ‘fix bayonets’ which he is filmed doing before the platoon stands and begins walking in a line across the field. Suddenly the group rushes forward falling into the long grass on a small hill. Some of the men cock their guns before rushing out towards another hillock which contains an entranceway into a tunnel. Some of the men rush inside returning with a prisoner holding his rifle above his head with a white handkerchief attached to the barrel. The sergeant orders his men to surround the prisoner and the film ends with them marching away. End title: The end