By the summer of 1941, Britain’s manpower resources and fighting forces needed restocking. The boundaries of conscription were consequently, and drastically, widened. Instead of calling up males aged between 20 and 30, the National Service Act of December 1941 announced provisions for men from 18 to 50. Unmarried women from 20 to 30 could also be summoned for duty. Among the services, the Army saw most of the new recruits, who brought with them many uncertainties and fears. To address these worries, the Amy training film The New Lot was put into production in 1942. The script vividly presents five new recruits of different backgrounds, grumbling at first but finally moulded into a fighting unit by an Army necessarily concerned with discipline, though still with a touching degree of concern for the well-being of each soldier. Credits on the film itself kept quiet about personnel involved, only revealing that it was “supervised by an Officer appointed to the General Staff; produced for the Directorate of Army Kinematography”. But almost every soldier watching it would have been able to identify Bernard Miles, John Laurie, Raymond Huntley, and the co-writer Peter Ustinov among the raw recruits ultimately cheered and transformed by the Army’s care. Some of the Army elite initially balked at the amount of grumblings and resentments aired in the film. But its psychological value, humour, and cinematic drive were quickly appreciated by many.


Geoff Brown