#italy44

[george-the-good]

KING GEORGE VI meets Movietone cameraman PAUL WYAND in Arezzo, Italy, July 1944.

‘His Majesty met the various war correspondents covering his Italian visit. He walked along the line with the conducting officer, and as they reached me the King pointed and said: “I know this man.”’

PAUL WYAND - USELESS IF DELAYED (1959)

Wyand had filmed the King on multiple occasions before and during the war. He later covered the Royal Tour of South Africa in 1947 and the King’s final public appearance in January 1952.

[george-the-good]

King George VI and General Oliver Leese, Commander of the Eighth Army, in Italy, outside the caravan HQ where the King spent two nights. General Leese points out enemy positions on the opposite hillside. // July 25, 1944

[george-the-good]

King George VI and General Alexander in Italy, July 1944. // British Pathé

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ITALY, JULY 31, 1944: King George VI with Lieutenant-General E.L.M. Burns, General Officer Commanding 1st Canadian Corps. // x

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THE KING IN ITALY

King George VI and General Alexander in the Map Room at H.Q., A.A.I., where His Majesty was given an outline of the battle situation in Italy. // July 24, 1944

IWM - NA 17199 / NA 17200

[george-the-good]

KING GEORGE VI meets war correspondents at Caserta Palace in Italy, 1944. He is pictured shaking hands with the BBC’s GODFREY TALBOT

“As one of the correspondents covering the royal tour, I was presented to His Majesty. He was looking tired (and had often shown his irascibility that week), but evinced interest when my name was said. ‘Ah, you’re the voice we hear,’ he said. ‘Now we’ll know what you’re like - big: the BBC seems to go in for tall chaps. We listen to you in the News at Windsor. We’ve wondered how you get through from the front.’ I was encouraged to try to explain the business of recording and beaming discs to England. I was able to add that we had now got a semi-mobile transmitter of our own and that BBC engineers had been sent out with it - a great improvement.”

- Godfrey Talbot (Permission to Speak, 1976)

[george-the-good]

King George VI with Lieutenant-General E.L.M. Burns (General Officer Commanding 1st Canadian Corps) in Italy, July 31, 1944. // x

Some colour photographs from this day that I posted earlier: x

[george-the-good]

King George VI meeting Senior Officers of the British 8th Army from units cooperating with the 2nd Polish Corps. Here he is being introduced to Lieutenant Colonel E. W. Tilley by General Oliver Leese, the Commander of the 8th Army. General Harold Alexander, the Commander of the Allied Armies in Italy, is in the background. (Castiglione del Lago airfield, Italy, 26 July 1944.) // IWM