Summary: An edition of the British official newsreel "War Pictorial News", produced by the Ministry of Information, Middle East.
Description: I. 'HOLLAND FREED.' Large numbers of Dutch civilians throng the centre of Rotterdam. Dutch civilians ride on Canadian soft-skinned vehicles. Civilians and nuns wave at the camera from the balcony of a Rotterdam hospital. Dutch civilians ride on Canadian Universal carriers Brief footage shows shaven-headed Dutch female collaborators displayed for the cameras. British troops are carried shoulder high by the crowds.
II. 'ON THE BURMA FRONT.' The British Fourteenth Army advance towards Rangoon. HMS Eskimo fires its 4.7-inch guns in support of the Arakan landings (environs of Taungup ?). Indian troops disembark at an undisclosed location carrying Lee-Enfield Mk III .303-inch rifles and a Bren light machine gun. Indian troops (26 Indian Division) cut jungle foliage with machetes. Royal Navy (RN) landing craft (LCA) make for a beach under covering fire from larger ships. British troops are led along a jungle track by an RN officer carrying a US M1 .30-in carbine. Brief aerial footage shows HMS Eskimo at anchor in an unidentified Burmese estuary. Aerial footage shows South East Asia Command (SEAC) Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber aircraft operating over Burma, with standard shots of bombs dropping and impacting on Japanese jungle positions. British Fourteenth Army casualties are evacuated by river on an LCA landing craft, its crew, armed with a 9mm Sten sub-machine gun and a Lewis .303-inch light machine gun scan the river bank for Japanese sniper activity. An RN beachmaster supervises the off-loading of stores and vehicles during the main British landings near Rangoon (Operation Dracula). British DUKW 2.5-ton 6x6 amphibians and Grant M3 (and M3A5 ?) tanks are off-loaded at the landing point. An LVT-1 (Landing Vehicle Tracked) amphibious load carrier moves at speed from surf to shore. Men of the 26th Indian Division advance past Japanese corpses. SEAC Douglas C-47 Dakotas (Skytrain) drop members of the 2/3 Gurkha Parachute Battalion over Elephant Point, during the final Allied push on Rangoon.
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: Royal Navy, ESKIMO (HMS), destroyer (regiment/service)
Indian Army (regiment/service)
Keywords: celebrations, Dutch - liberation (object name)
combat, British (object name)
medical, British military - movement (object name)
casualties, Japanese dead - battlefield (object name)
operations, British military - sortie (object name)
ships, British naval - destroyer: Eskimo (object name)
Netherlands & Rotterdam (geography)
Burma (geography)
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: 931 ft; Running time: 10 mins