LANDINGS AT MYEBON - MINE CLEARING, DESECRATED TEMPLE AND MUD

This film is held by the Imperial War Museum (ID: FUB 69).

Synopsis

Reel 1: At sea on a landing craft; views towards Myebon. Commandos on board landing craft; other landing craft heading ashore. Landing craft with Indian Navy sloop. Other vessels on the horizon. Smoke in the distance. Warship on horizon firing. Smoke trails (from landing craft?). Aircraft laying smokescreen. Commandos off their landing craft into the water and wading ashore. Two troops, one with spade, lifting and carrying a Japanese mine. A number of removed mines surrounded by mine tape. The probes of a mine above the ground; two soldiers unearth it. Cutting a wire. Digging out the mine. Empty hole. Sign Mines. British and Indian wading through thick mud. Men struggle out of the mud; a sign reads Mines in verge. Two men in thick vegetation uncovering a captured Japanese 37mm gun. Examining the gun. Traversing and elevating. Close-up of the breech; the breech block is missing. Soldier walking amongst trees and broken ground. Soldiers digging in; and another on a wireless set. Closer shot of the signaller. Man peeling off muddy boots and socks. Hand holding a mud-covered Colt 1911 .45-calibre automatic pistol. Dead Japanese in a trench. Small village amongst trees; a DUKW amphibian drives into shot. Hillside with pagoda on top. Temple wreckage with headless Buddha statues. Closer shot headless statues. Temple bell. Ornate wooden carvings. Pagoda spire with soldier keeping watch. British troops cleaning weapons; a Japanese flag hangs in the background. The soldiers unfold the flag for the camera. Defusing a Japanese box mine. Close-up of the detonator; apparently made from a Japanese hand grenade. Another type of mine (?). Two men man an observation post up a tree. Indian soldiers conferring over a map.

Reel 2: Slow pan left-to-right; deserted village. DUKW amphibian drives along road; it raises dust. Damaged wooden building. Road with two British soldiers walking from camera; they salute an officer in an oncoming jeep. The commander of 25th Indian Division and the brigadier in command of the tank forces conferring over a map. British soldiers kneeling amongst cover. Sherman tank of 19th Lancers, marked with a 5 in a triangle on the turret, reverses; camera follows it. Sherman firing its machine gun. Smoke drifting from burning grass; British troops advancing. Troops advancing through grassland with smoke. Troops walking towards camera; they break into a run with conspicuous suddenness. More troops passing. Two troops prone in cover; one points something out to the other. One soldier appears to slap another (asleep or pretending to be?) in the face. Men with boxes of ammunition by a Morris Quad artillery tractor. Loading the boxes onto the tractor. Carrying stores from a landing craft. Landing craft coming ashore; the ramp drops and men unload stores.

Footage from the landings at Myebon, in the Arakan coastal region of Burma, with landing craft going ashore, clearing Japanese mines, muddy beaches, a desecrated Buddhist temple and Sherman tanks in support of British troops.

 

Titles

  • LANDINGS AT MYEBON - MINE CLEARING, DESECRATED TEMPLE AND MUD (Allocated)
Series Title:
BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR
 

Technical Data

Year:
1945
Running Time:
13 minutes
Film Gauge (Format):
35mm
Colour:
B&W
Sound:
Silent
Footage:
1183 ft
 

Production Credits

Production Countries:
GB
Sponsor
War Office Directorate of Public Relations
Production company
SEAC Film Unit