INDIAN NEWS PARADE NO 57 (1944)

This film is held by the Imperial War Museum (ID: INR 57).

Synopsis

I. ARMY TRUCKS RALLY TO RAILWAY'S RESCUE

I. ARMY TRUCKS RALLY TO RAILWAY'S RESCUE - Empty Army lorries, you've often seen them and may be you've often had the same idea as the railways, why not use them to help ease the congestion on our railroads. Well, it's being done, and here you see them taking a load that was waiting for a train. They can't often get convoys of fifty lorries like this, but when they can they certainly don't miss the chance. So next time you hear lorries rumbling by may be it's just the railways taking a short cut past your front garden.

II. OFFICER CADETS FOR THE INDIAN AIR FORCE

II. OFFICER CADETS FOR THE INDIAN AIR FORCE - Air Commodore Vincent goes to witness what is called the passing out parade. It's the Indian air Force Cadets so may be they ought to call it a taking off parade. But they stick to Army traditions as here, where Officer Cadet Jebb gets the Sword of honour for being the best cadet of the course. Even more in the tradition of prize giving was the silver bowl that another cadet received. And talking of traditions, air Commodore Vincent reminded them that they were joining an Air Force which, though young already had some very fine traditions of service and courage of its own. And some notabilities too. The Raja of Jawa for instance a flight lieutenant. But every boy of the two hundred who were in the march past had high hopes of being a notability in his own right, of doing something that people would talk about and remember in his new career. It's India's Air Force of tomorrow on parade.

III. A BUMPER CROP

III. A BUMPER CROP - Not just pictures of harvest, but pictures that make up a cross section of changing India. The crop is magnificent. That's what we've always had, wonderful natural resources. And the peasants, they're another part of our permanent wealth. They've worked this way since history's first harvest. Is it the best way? As the bullock carts move off, a new India looms in the background, a great white bridge, a sign of the machine age, like the rubber wheels that here and there, are found on the bullock carts. Then, suddenly the machine age jumps into the foreground, and power driven threshing machines beat out the corn that is urgently needed to feed our ever growing population. It's pointing the ways that India must go. We must grow food, and grow it quickly. Only machines can make the pace.

IV. IAMC ANNIVERSARY

IV. IAMC ANNIVERSARY - A new flag going up to celebrate the first anniversary of the youngest formation in the Indian Army. General Board and Colonel Basu inspect the parade of the year old Indian Army Medical Corps. There was a message from the Commander-in-Chief and Colonel Thapar read it in Urdu. The C-in-C said they'd done good work in the first year and he relied upon them to continue it. It's certainly important work. You've only to think of the Burma Front to realise that, tropical jungle, where disease, uncontrolled, would be worth a dozen divisions to the Japs. So the medical Corps at the invitation of the Colonel's wife, proudly went to its first birthday party.

V. DARING ESCAPE FROM A JAPANESE PRISON

V. DARING ESCAPE FROM A JAPANESE PRISON - Meet a man who met the Japs, and knows them for what they are. Havildar major Allah Dad was captured, crammed into a small room with fifty other prisoners, starved and brutally treated. Set to building roads, he escaped into the jungle, swam the Salween river, and now he's home with an IDSM and a wonderful story to tell.

VI. WINGATE'S PHANTOM ARMY

VI. WINGATE'S PHANTOM ARMY - "He was so proud of you". That is what Lord Louis Mountbatten said to Wingate's men when he told them he was dead. Here in these last pictures of him, you can see him among them men that he was proud to lead. It is difficult to recognise him without his beard, easier to see why he was called this war's Lawrence of Arabia. With Lord Louis we can look back on those things that made Wingate famous. To call out his genius, Wingate had to be asked to do the impossible. Such men build triumphs out of tiny details; Wingate's equipment of his men was a masterpiece of care. Wingate knew that a man in a jungle is a man on his own. He gave his men that ultimate courage, the courage to fight alone. He liked the wild places of the earth. In Abyssinia, in the jungles of Burma he led his soldiers out to fight a modern war where men had thought themselves lucky to be alive at all. Nobody but he could have sent Indian, British and American troops out into such country and brought them back in triumph. Like T E Lawrence, he knew the deadly power of the small weapon accurately handled. The mountain gun, the mortar, the light machine gun in the hands of his men outshone the vast machines of contemporary battle. And at this last parade was Colonel Philip Cochran, whose men won Wingate's last great triumph, when with brilliant organisation he put a fighting force by glider behind and between the enemy's lines. And Lord Louis ended his inspection of the men who were seen to lose a leader whom he described as the finest any force could wish to have.

 

Titles

  • INDIAN NEWS PARADE NO 57 (1944)
Series Title:
INDIAN NEWS PARADE
 

Technical Data

Year:
1944
Running Time:
7 minutes
Film Gauge (Format):
35mm
Colour:
B&W
Sound:
Sound
Footage:
599 ft
 

Production Credits

Production Countries:
GB, India
Sponsor
Department of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India
cameraman (Indian)
Ghatak, S C
cameraman (Indian)
Khopkar, A M
cameraman (Indian)
Khopkar, A M
cameraman (Indian)
Mani, T S
cameraman (Indian)
Rao, D P
editor
Moylan, William J (FRGS, FRSA)
producer
Moylan, William J (FRGS, FRSA)
Production company
SEAC Photo Unit