Title:VERA LYNN CHATS WITH TROOPS [Allocated Title]
Film Number:MWY 33
Other titles:INDIAN INTER-SERVICE PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTORATE COLLECTION - INDIAN HOME FRONT AND MILITARY OPERATIONS, AND ALLIED OPERATIONS IN ITALY AND THE PACIFIC DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
Summary: Vera Lynn, the popular female vocalist known as 'The Forces Sweetheart', visits units of the 14th Army at Sylhet, a short distance from the Indian-Burmese border.
Description: START 00:00:00 Close-up of the cameraman's cue card 'Eyemo B - Blakey'. Shots showing Vera Lynn, wearing a WAAF cap, khaki officer's tunic and shorts and sitting on the running board of a Chevrolet 30-cwt truck, in conversation with about a dozen British and Karen soldiers seated on an embankment nearby. The officer seated on her right on the running board is Flying Officer Leslie George Whitworth, a reconnaissance pilot based in India and Burma who was given the job of driving Vera Lynn and her musical director, pianist Len Edwards, to various sites near the front line. A shot of Vera leaning on the bonnet of a jeep (on the passenger side) chatting to three men including F/O Whitworth and on the far left, the pianist Len Edwards.
00:00:32 Shots showing Vera Lynn chatting to four anti-tank gunners and looking through the gun sights of their Ordnance QF 2-pounder 40mm anti-tank gun. Afterwards, British riflemen pose for the camera in the foreground whilst Vera signs autographs in the background. She scribbles her signature on the brims of slouch hats proffered by a ring of her military admirers.
00:01:24 Shots showing Vera and a group of soldiers watching a three-inch mortar team in action during a firing demonstration and smoke produced by a mortar round landing several hundred yards away. Visible in the background are several Ordnance QF 2-pounder gun detachments, including the one she was seen inspecting earlier.
END 00:01:44
Alternative Title:INDIAN INTER-SERVICE PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTORATE COLLECTION - INDIAN HOME FRONT AND MILITARY OPERATIONS, AND ALLIED OPERATIONS IN ITALY AND THE PACIFIC DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
Production Details: Directorate of Public Relations, Delhi (Production sponsor)
Indian Army Film Unit (Production company)
Blakey, D R (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Lynn, Vera (person)
British Army, 14th Army (regiment/service)
Keywords: British Army 1939-1945 (theme)
India 1939-1945 (theme)
Indian Army 1939-1945 (theme)
Sylhet, Bengal Province, India (geography)