REEL 1 - Views in Alexandria Harbour show battleships HMS Malaya and HMS Warspite, cruiser and French three-funnel troopship; Short Sunderlands and Fairey Sea Fox aircraft taking off; Mediterranean caique; Leander Class cruiser, various sailing vessels including Egyptian Royal Yacht Maroussa and training ship; Cree's friends or relatives posing for camera. On board C-Class cruiser in Mediterranean, with destroyers and Suffren Class French cruiser (ie pre-July 1940), and Leander and other C-Class cruisers on sweep, and smoke on horizon. Ashore in Malta: bougainvillea in flower, fellow RN officers larking in sea and seated in deck chairs. Sailing out of Grand Harbour, Valletta; off Gibraltar; fellow officers including Captain and Marine on deck; dolphins. Voyage from Mediterranean to South Atlantic (?) continues in company with HMS Hermes, signalling in sunset while Fairey Swordfish fly off and land on in distance; deck hockey on board Cree's cruiser; vivid tropical sunset; off Freetown (?), crowded with merchant shipping; gulls; sunset; Crossing the Line ceremony, as Neptune ducks his victims; monkey onboard. C-Class cruiser (presumably Cree's ship) with merchant shipping in South African (?) port, backed by hill; sunset. Cree's cruiser off Trinidad and among group of small islands (?). Fast troopship liners (3, 2, 1 funnels) forming 10,000 ton convoy are escorted by cameraship HMS Malaya across Atlantic.

REEL 2 - HMS Ark Royal and other vessels off Gibraltar, including battleships HMS Hood, HMS Resolution and HMS Valiant, destroyer D34 (HMS Velox), ca mid-1940. HMS Ark Royal and battleships as convoy escort in Mediterranean which comes under air attack (high altitude Italian bombers ?); bombs explode in sea between vessels. Mail transfer between merchantman and Cree's ship, a C-Class cruiser. Scene changes to vicinity of Iceland, as Cree's County Class cruiser sails through pan ice in North Atlantic; ship's Supermarine Walrus aircraft takes off; ice-bound turrets; bridge scenes; units (no USN vessels) anchored off Iceland including a Kent Class cruiser which Cree boards to film officers clowning on quarterdeck, with King George V Class battleship in background. At sea off frozen coast of Iceland, with King George V Class battleships in company with Nelson Class, with brilliant wintry sky, Fairey Swordfish fly overhead and Fairey Fulmar makes repeated passes, simulating enemy attacks, over Cree's cruiser.

Amateur film shot by Lieutenant Cree serving on cruisers in Mediterranean and Atlantic, ca 1940-42, includes shots of convoy under Italian aerial attack and HMS Hermes.

Notes

Acquisition: via Roland Smith, 1989