Footage from July 1944 showing a road convoy setting out for Imphal from Dimapur in Assam, India, and footage of operations towards Ukhrul in pursuit of Japanese forces retreating towards Burma.

10:10:00-10:10:11 Wide shot of waiting lorries at Dimapur in Assam. Sign by bamboo basha LDO Loaded Despatch Office. Lorries get underway including some heavy 6x4 vehicles. A lorry drives into an open-sided servicing shed with a trench down the middle; mechanics (?) wait along side. Loading a lorry; the lorry is full to capacity with small wooden crates and the tailboard is closed. It drives away. Lorry reversing. Another lorry is loaded by Indians who carry boxes on their heads; one smiles for the camera as he passes. Wide shot of a open plain with road with vehicles and hills in the distance and a dramatic sky above. Wide shot of vehicles passing a lake or pond. Closer shot; a lorry passes towing a low-loader with a Lee medium tank onboard. More motor vehicles of various sizes. Roadsign by a hut TCP [Traffic Control Post] 73 Enquiries: Telephone: Information. The sign is decorated with the elephant insignia of IV Indian Corps. Lorries pass on a road; in the background parked aircraft can be seen, so presumably one of the airstrips in the Imphal area. A light ambulance crosses a Bailey bridge. A light lorry and jeep pass TCP 5. Jeep with TCP 5 sign in the back; it crosses the Bailey bridge. More vehicles pass. A flight of six friendly fighter aircraft passes overhead. Lorries carrying Indian troops pass over the bridge. A light ambulance crosses a scissors bridge. Abandoned vehicle at roadside. An Indian Engineers (Madras Sappers and Miners) working party at work repairing a road. View of a narrow track, entirely unpaved, with a light lorry bogged down. Fighters patrolling overhead. A suspension bridge over a substantial river with mules watering in the foreground. Various shots of Stuart (Honey) light tanks passing on the Ukhrul road. Wide shot of gently sloping hillside with apparently regularly spaced shattered trees; troops walk uphill away from camera. Wide shot; hillside road with drifting cloud. Traffic passing. Convoy passing through devastated area (Kohima?) Light lorry stuck in mud. Aircraft overhead. Light lorries negotiating the track seen earlier, one of which is seen to be wearing the sword insignia of 20th Indian Division. Two officers, both wearing the golden arrow patch of 7th Indian Division, in discussion over a map, possibly at Hung Dung south of Ukhrul. Two Gurkha spotters, probably from 4th Battalion 8th Gurkha Rifles, look out from their position. Medium close shot of a Gurkha lance-naik with Thompson submachine gun and foliage in his hat. A Gurkha patrol advances cautiously towards camera, with a good shot of a silhouetted Gurkha with fixed bayonet (this patrol apparently mopping up Japanese stragglers). Grey shots of Sikh troops with allied Douglas Dakota transport aircraft passing in the distance. Shot of two Sikhs (both with 7th Indian Division patches, probably 1st Battalion 11th Sikh Regiment) sitting in a jeep with a sullen Japanese prisoner between them; one of the Sikhs gestures to the camera and pokes the prisoner in the head to make him look at it. More shots of Dakota in the distance with parachute supply bundles dropping. The cameramans jeep, which had slipped off the road, is towed back onto the road. Activity at a railhead, presumably Dimapur. Loading a lorry directly from a train; one box is marked Service Biscuits. Loading sacks of rice from an open hut marked E1 (appears to be shot from the drivers seat of the cameramans jeep). Loading sacks and closing tailboard. Lorry driving away. Loading small wooden crates, apparently a duplicate from that seen earlier. 10:19:15

Notes

This material is documented on three dopesheets. The first is dated 13 July 1944, the second 15 July, and the third 22 July. However, the third dopesheet's content description is practically identical to that of the first dopesheet, which suggests the later shooting date is a contemporary administrative mistake.

In addition, this reel appears to have been compiled with rolls out of sequence. The lorry loading material seen at the beginning and end, for instance, is clearly from the same location and should be together.

Series note: The MWY series of films is believed to be part of a ‘pool’ of film received by the Government of India from various sources, including South East Asia Command, the Indian Inter-Service Public Relations Directorate, the Ministry of Information, and from Allied governments. This footage would have been considered for editing and release through the Indian Newsreel Parade; see INR series.