WAR PICTORIAL NEWS NO 181 [Main Title]

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  • Title: WAR PICTORIAL NEWS NO 181 [Main Title]
  • Film Number: WPN 181
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: An edition of the British official newsreel "War Pictorial News", produced by the Ministry of Information, Middle East.
  • Description: I. 'ITALY.' The Allied advance on Florence (Tuscany). British Eighth Army M3A1 White scout cars and Daimler scout cars raise dust as they move in convoy along an Italian country road. British Jeeps and Staghound Mk I (Chevrolet M6) armoured cars move towards Florence (Firenze). British M4 Sherman tanks (three piece noses) stand parked in a forested area. Indian troops set up 3-inch mortars in firing pits. Brief footage shows a statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi in an unidentified Italian town. British infantry carrying Lee-Enfield Mk IV .303-inch rifles and M1928 Thompson .45-inch sub-machine guns fire from the rubble of ruined buildings Eighth Army Indian troops lay telegraph wires from the back of a soft-skinned vehicle. Allied soft-skins move into Florence city limits past a road sign reading "Firenze". Allied M4 Sherman tanks move through Florence side streets. Panoramic footage shows blown Arno River bridges and the intact Ponte Vecchio. Elsewhere, British Eighth Army Universal carriers armed with Browning .50-inch heavy machine guns move out of the cover of a mountainside olive grove. British soft-skinned vehicles negotiate twisting Apennine roads. II. 'BURMA.' Indian troops construct a prefabricated bridge across a Burmese watercourse. Indian troops lead an ammunition carrying mule team across difficult mountain terrain. A British M3 Honey light tank crosses a log bridge (affording good views of its external stowage layout). British M3 Grant and M3 Honey tanks move along a road in the environs of Tiddim. A Douglas C-47 Skytrain (no markings visible) drops supplies to waiting Chindits during a low-level pass. Brief footage shows a Royal Air Force (RAF) Short Sunderland flying boat taking on Chindit wounded for evacuation to a base hospital. Brief footage shows the Sunderland start engines and take off from Lake Indawgyi. At Dibrugarh on the River Brahmaputra, Chindit wounded on stretchers are loaded into the back of a waiting ambulance. British anti-tank crews fire Ordnance QF 6-pounder anti-tank guns at unseen targets. North American B-25 Mitchell aircraft bomb Japanese jungle positions at low-level.
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1944-10-23
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Ministry of Information, Middle East (Production sponsor) War Pictorial News (Production company) Martin, Charles (Production individual) Keating, Rex1910-02-142005-01British newsreel commentator, WW2 period (Production cast)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Indian Army, 3rd Indian Division (Chindits) (regiment/service) Royal Air Force, 230 Squadron (regiment/service) Indian Army (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Dibrugarh, Assam, India (geography) Indawgyi Lake, Burma (geography) supplies, British, movement [FA] - misc (object name) medical, British military - movement (object name) combat, British (object name) operations, British military - movement: road (object name) Florence 1944, Italy, Second World War (event) Italy & Florence, Tuscany <Ponte Vecchio> (geography) Burma (geography) jungle (concept)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English Title language: English Subtitle language: Arabic
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 954 ft; Running time: 10 mins
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Notes:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    WPN 181

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:

    MWY 25 (OPERATION RIVER: AIR EVACUATION OF CHINDITS BY SUNDERLAND FLYING BOATS OF 230 SQUADRON RAF [Allocated Title]) ABY 12 ('SUNDERLAND STORY' - TRANSPORT AND EVACUATION OF BRITISH CASUALTIES BY SUNDERLAND FLYING BOAT AT DIBRUGARH, ASSAM, INDIA [Allocated Title])
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