At the outbreak of the Second World War the British military lagged behind the French and the Germans in an understanding of the propaganda value of film. There were no military cameramen in uniform and a ban was placed on civilian newsreel cameramen filming military subjects (Gladstone). The first cameramen appointed by the Army to cover the War were drawn from professional backgrounds in either documentary film or feature film: none of them had previous military experience and they were instead given honorary military ranks (Gladstone).

These men were posted to Public Relations Units at home or overseas where they acted as lone camera operators. Among them was Bryan Langley, who shot the footage for Cyprus Goes to War in the summer of 1941. Langley had begun his career in 1927, working as a cameraman for H.B. Parkinson Productions. In the 1930s he worked for British International Pictures at Elstree Studios, where he shot several noted productions, including a number of Alfred Hitchcock films. Following the War he worked as a special effects cameraman at Pinewood. Among the films he worked on in this period are Piccadilly Incident (1946), The Weaker Sex (1948), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), Reach for the Sky (1956) and A Town Like Alice (1956) (‘Donor in Focus: Bryan Langley’).

Langley joined the Army Film Unit in 1941. He later recalled being issued with ‘a great big revolver’ but having no military training (‘Bryan Langley: BECTU Interview Part 3’). The War Office informed him that he was better off ‘going as a cameraman uninhibited by any military regulations’; consequently he felt free to film military personnel of all ranks (‘Bryan Langley: BECTU Interview Part 3’). He was first posted to Africa, followed by stints in Cyprus, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. In India he was responsible for setting up the Indian Army’s Public Relations film Unit in Tollygunge, Calcutta. He was proud of the fact that several of his Indian students went on to become professional cameramen in India and Burma (see Coronation of the Maharajah of Manipur (1944), British and Indian Troops Liberate Ramree Town (1945) and Liberation of Yenangyaung (1945)).

In April 1941 German troops defeated Allied troops in Greece, and then achieved further success in the Battle of Crete, which lasted from 20 May 1941 to 1 June 1941. Stationed in Cairo, Langley filmed the retreat of Allied troops from Crete. Cyprus was expected to be next in line for an attack, and Langley was sent there to cover events. The island was bombed by the Germans, Italians and the Vichy French, but did not suffer an invasion by Axis Forces. Langley stayed for two months and adopted a policy of ‘filming everything’ he saw (‘Bryan Langley: BECTU Interview Part 3’). Once it was felt that the island was no longer in great danger, he was sent onwards in search of more graphic action, being informed by his employers, ‘better luck next time’ (‘Bryan Langley: BECTU Interview Part 3’).

Prior to the fall of Athens, Greece had been Britain’s only European ally fighting the Axis powers. As a means of cementing Anglo-Greek solidarity, Sir Michael Palairet, the British Minister in Athens, had recommended that the British rule of Cyprus be ceded to Greece (Hitchens, 1984, 36). His proposals were overruled by officials in the Foreign Office, who felt that such a move would prevent Turkey adopting a pro-British policy in the War (Hitchens, 1984, 36). Similarly, following the fall of Greece and Crete, the Greek government in exile had requested that it be stationed in Cyprus, but the British government insisted that they instead rule from Egypt, for fear of offending Turkish Cypriots (Hitchens, 1984, 36). The British government also initially banned the flying of the Greek flag on Cyprus, but later issued recruiting posters that used its colours and which urged Cypriots to ‘Fight for Greece and Freedom’ (Hitchens, 1984, 37). Cypriots enlisted in great numbers: by 1944 over 10,000 of them were serving in the British Army (Jackson, 2006, 133).