Although some among the press corps accompanying the army had film cameras, no footage was shot of the actual fighting. What pretended to be films of the battle, or preparations for it, were in fact spliced footage of barracks training or troop movements far from the front. Such films maintained their popularity for months in Britain and were succeeded by short features such as the fictional "How Tommy Won the Victoria Cross: an Incident of the Soudan War" (1899) in which English soldiers survive a 'dervish' ambush.