British News No 3

• This newsreel is a very useful primary source for the World War II depth study in the year 10 history curriculum. It is especially relevant for the content description about the course of the war. Most of its segments deal in some way with the shock of the fall of France and the fact that Britain, supported by its Empire, was now standing alone facing German invasion. The sixth segment highlights the importance of US war supplies in mid-1940. At the time Britain was rapidly using up its gold reserves purchasing the weapons shown.
• The whole newsreel is of considerable value for the content description in the depth study that refers to the impact of World War II, including the use of wartime government controls such as censorship. Newsreels were controlled under the censorship rules of the Ministry of Information and one of the rules was that they must boost civilian morale. Much of the commentary is propaganda, bearing little relationship to the truth of the disaster in France and the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) for a second time.
• The resource may make some contribution to students attaining the year 10 history achievement standard. It provides a multimedia source from World War II that may help students explain the context for people's actions in the past. It could also be used by teachers to provide students with an opportunity to sequence events and developments within a chronological framework, and identify relationships between events in different places in June and July 1940.

10