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Title:SURABAYA PATROL BY 17TH DOGRAS [Allocated Title]
Film Number:JFU 493
Other titles:BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
Summary: A section of infantry from 17th Dogra Machine Gun Battalion conduct a patrol of villages in the vicinity of Surabaya (Sourabaya/Soerabaja), Java, Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia).
Description: An eight-man section of Indian infantry comprising seven riflemen and a Bren light machine gunner (on the left); they come up to attention before dressing across a few paces. View along the line; the men appear to overlap and the nearest to camera wears the patch of 5th Indian Division. The section commander and Bren gunner. Men board a lorry. Closer shot. Men kneeling by the roadside. Soldier with back to camera, looking out over a field, with his bayonet fixed. The Bren gunner, lying prone by the vehicle, looking down a road. [Film somewhat spotty from this point onwards.] Two soldiers kneeling with fixed bayonets. Man kneeling by the Bren gun. A soldier with fixed bayonet emerges from a house, followed by a British soldier. Soldiers leave one house and go to investigate another. Close shot of a soldier opening a gate door and pushing through a matting screen. Pairs of soldiers enter houses. A soldier with Bren gun at the ready. Unclear shot of a soldier standing in front of a glazed door. Men climb back onboard their lorry. Bren gunner rests his weapon on the cab of the lorry. A local man squats on the ground (as his house is searched?). Indian soldier leaves a hut; another stands with his face edge of frame right and his bayonet enters the bottom of frame. Men dismounting. Entering a house with a glazed front door. Talking to a local man. Lorry entering frame left foreground with people on the road in the distance. Looking over the Bren gunner's shoulder. Shot from the moving lorry as it passes a civilian. Civilians sitting outside, one looks accusingly at the camera ('apathetic' according to the dopesheet). A soldier leaves a hut having confiscated a long spear with a triangular blade. Men smoking by the vehicle. Patrol approaching camera. Back in the city the men unload their rifles; a goat stands by a telegraph pole in front of them. Close-up of a soldier fitting an empty magazine to his Lee Enfield rifle and closing the bolt. The men are dismissed.
Production Details: War Office Directorate of Public Relations (Production sponsor)
SEAC Film Unit (Production company)
Davis, Desmond (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Indian Army, 5th Indian Division (regiment/service)
Indian Army, 17th Dogra Regiment, Machine Gun Battalion (regiment/service)
Keywords: Surabaya, Java, Netherlands East Indies (geography)
Allied Occupation of the Netherlands East Indies, Allied Occupation of South East Asia post-August 1945 (event)
Surabaya 1945, Allied Occupation of the Netherlands East Indies, Allied Occupation of South East Asia post-August 1945 (event)
India 1939-1945 (theme)
British Army 1939-1945 (theme)
Technical Details: Format: 35mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 312 ft; Running time: 4 mins
HD Media:Yes
Notes: Surabaya had been the scene of a full-scale city battle during November 1945, and while this film appears to have been compiled with rolls out of sequence it still gives a good impression of a low-level patrol.
