WORLD PICTORIAL NEWS NO 233 (22/10/1945)

This film is held by the Imperial War Museum (ID: WPN 233).

Synopsis

I. 'ROYAL VISIT TO SCOTLAND.' Princess Elizabeth visits a Girl Guide rally held in Glasgow, Scotland. Princess Elizabeth has Girl Guides dance around her to the appreciation of the three thousand strong audience. The Princess later makes a short speech (mute) to the gathered Guides and Brownies. King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth review a victory parade held in Princes Street, Edinburgh. The march past includes contingents from the Royal Navy (RN), Royal Marines (RM), Army, Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) and Women's Land Army. Footage of the march past is taken from behind the Royal party standing on a raised viewing podium.

II. 'FROG-MEN.' "Frogmen" divers are helped into their rubber diving suits by Royal Navy (RN) ratings wearing white pullovers bearing the initial AEDU. across their chests. The divers don breathing apparatus and flippers prior to entering a swimming pool. Exterior footage shows bemused civilians watching four fully clad frogmen carry an inflatable dinghy along a street. An RN Lieutenant-Commander oversees an underwater obstacle clearance exercise in a swimming pool. Frogmen tumble from a dinghy into the swimming pool. A frogman cuts anti-submarine netting at the bottom of the pool.

III. 'THE FAR East.' A convoy of United States (US) M20 armoured utility cars, Dodge 4x4 command/reconnaissance cars and Ford M8 light armoured cars (Greyhound) makes its way along a Japanese road towards Tokyo. Japanese children hold the US and Union flags as they watch the progress of the convoy from the roadside. General Douglas MacArthur is apparently greeted by Major General William C Chase at the US Embassy in Tokyo (may be earlier footage taken in Luzon). Aerial footage shows the widespread destruction caused by United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombing raids on the Mitsubishi aircraft works at Nagoya, Honshu. Internal footage taken in a less damaged part of the works shows fuselage sections of Mitsubishi G4M2 Type 1 (Model 24 ?) "Betty" naval bombers in partial stages of assembly. Aerial footage shows RN surface vessels anchored in Hong Kong Harbour (Victoria Harbour). A Royal Navy landing party fire Lee-Enfield Mk III .303-inch rifles and Lanchester 9mm Mk I sub-machine guns at isolated pockets of Japanese snipers. A Royal Marine fires a Bren .303-inch light machine gun at a building containing Japanese snipers. Two Japanese soldiers later emerge from the building with their hands raised in surrender. Internal footage taken at Government House shows part of the Japanese surrender proceedings. Vice-Admiral Cecil H J Harcourt and Admiral Sir Bruce AF Fraser oversee the signing of the surrender document by Vice-Admiral Ruitako Fujita and Major-General Okada. Major-General Pan Hwa Kuei (China) and Colonel Adrian Williamson (United States of America) act as representatives of their respective countries at the surrender ceremony. Vice-Admiral Harcourt receives the swords of Fujita and Okada at the end of the proceedings. Japanese prisoners of war clear rubble from a shell-damaged part of Hong Kong.

 

Titles

  • WORLD PICTORIAL NEWS NO 233 (22/10/1945)
 

Technical Data

Year:
1945
Running Time:
10 minutes
Film Gauge (Format):
35mm
Colour:
B&W
Sound:
Sound
Footage:
926 ft
 

Production Credits

Production Countries:
GB
Sponsor
Ministry of Information, Middle East
film editor
Martin, Charles
Production company
World Pictorial News