The First Battle of Monte Cassino, 17 January-11 February 1944. Crossing of the Garigliano River. Infantry of the 56th Infantry Division (British X Corps, US Fifth Army) crossing the Garigliano in assault boats, 18 January 1944.
The Volturno River 12 - 16 October 1943: Infantry of B Company 1/5th Queen's Regiment practise using collapsible boats in a farmyard before the assault on the Volturno.
Sappers from 1st Training Battalion, Royal Engineers, cross a river in a collapsible assault boat during a demonstration of river crossing techniques near Coventry, 30 October 1941.
There is an outboard on the small boat in the foreground of the picture. If you click on the link here you can increase the size and zoom in. http://zoom.iwm.org.uk/view/38577?cat=p ... -205195567 . It's probably too far away to work out what the outboard is, but it certainly "could be" a seagull?
"Planning and Preparations January - July 1943: View of the dockside of Sousse Harbour, Tunisia. Landing craft are loaded with vehicles and equipped in preparation for the invasion."
Good stuff, I've spent many hours hunting through the Various resources on line, IWM, National Archives, Pathe archives etc. It's very interesting what can be found, but no definitive seagull picture. I did find the video of the SD in use in the 1962 floods in Northern Germany. Other than that we still search! There are more and more old photos being unearthed and donated to the IWM archive, so who knows what will turn up. It's all about facts, and detailed research.