14TH ARMY BREAKS JAPANESE COUNTERSTROKE IN THE ARAKAN: BATTLE OF THE ADMIN BOX [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: 14TH ARMY BREAKS JAPANESE COUNTERSTROKE IN THE ARAKAN: BATTLE OF THE ADMIN BOX [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: MWY 20
  • 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: After the headquarters of 7th Indian Division is surrounded by the enemy, tanks and infantry fight to break the encirclement and a number of enemy prisoners are taken.
  • Description: On a road in the Arakan a signpost reads 'Adm[in] Base HQ' and is decorated with the 'Golden Arrow' insignia of 7th Indian Division. A jeep is parked left foreground and a Lee-Grant medium tank of 25th Dragoons and a horse and rider can be seen in the midground. A number of mules are led across shot. General scene with men, tanks and jeeps; it is raining heavily. A file of heavily laden men pass a parked tank. An officer of a Scottish regiment talks to a British soldier. Parked vehicles and men in the rain. Tank crewmen, probably of 25th Dragoons, mount up. View from a moving vehicle, probably a Valentine bridgelayer, of tanks on a hillside road; possibly the Ngakyedauk Pass. View from a Universal carrier. A tank approaches camera. Footage apparently taken from inside the tank looking forward through the open driver's hatch. Looking along a road infantrymen climb the hillside. View across the valley. Indian soldiers line a low crest on the hillside; two soldiers (one with a rifle and another with a Bren gun) shift positions. A line of troops lying on the hillside; they are well armed and have rifles, at least two Bren light machine guns and one soldier has a grenade discharger fitted to his rifle. An Indian (officer?) with another gestures across the valley. Cloud drifting across the valley. A stationary tank. Another line of soldiers lying prone on a crest with a tank on the road below. Two tanks. A Lee, framing the left edge of shot, fires its main gun across the valley. Unnamed senior officers (including General Briggs?) in conference. Tank (?) interior; Briggs speaking on a wireless set. Various angles of tanks firing on Japanese positions. Smoke on opposite ridge. Indian (probably Sikh) infantry lying in scrub; a (probably non-commissioned) officer waves them forward and they advance uphill away from camera. Alternating footage of a Bren gunner and tanks firing. A tank fires followed by brief shot showing impact. Man on top of tank observes the fall of shot. Infantry crawling up hillside; one throws a hand grenade over the crest. Another shot of a Lee. Indian infantry seen before advance over the top of the hill. Troops come down a bank towards a shallow stream, apparently being led by Burmese civilians. Around a bend in the river the patrol encounters a lone and wounded Japanese soldier, his uniform in tatters, who surrenders to them. A stretcher is improvised from a blanket and some lengths of bamboo. A British officer dresses one of the Japanese soldier's wounds. The Japanese soldier drinks from a folded leaf. He is helped onto the stretcher. Panning views of a wrecked Main Dressing Station where a Japanese atrocity was committed against British and Indian patients and medical staff. Corpses (probably Japanese) lie scattered about. A British officer points out what looks like a large bloodstain on a stretcher lying amongst the wreckage. Grave markers nearby. Three Japanese prisoners are brought in under guard. A fourth prisoner is escorted in; he has a distinctive patch on the side of his soft peaked cap but it is not clear what it is. The prisoners are seen sitting in the shade of a tent behind barbed wire and talking to a British officer. The fourth prisoner seen earlier smokes a cigarette. The wounded prisoner on the improvised stretcher is unloaded from a lorry. A Japanese soldier has plaster put on a broken leg. Japanese prisoner on stretcher. The wounded prisoner is carried on a stretcher by two bearers. A medical officer cuts off the dressing on his arm. The wound is cleaned. More footage of a Japanese prisoner's leg being plastered. The fourth prisoner, earlier seen smoking, drinks from an enamel mug. Ambulances pass a parked tank; one is marked with the 'three V' insignia of XV Corps.
  • 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]
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised: Yes
  • Object_Number: MWY 20
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1944-02
  • Production Country: India
  • Production Details: Public Relations Directorate, India (Production sponsor) Indian Public Relations Film Unit (Production company) Beauchamp, Antony19181957 (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Sharp, Richard (person) Briggs, Harold Rawdon (person) Indian Army, XV Indian Corps (regiment/service) Indian Army, 7th Indian Division (regiment/service) British Army, 25th Dragoons (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Sinzweya, Burma (geography) Ngakyedauk Pass, Burma (geography) Battle of the Admin Box 1944, Burma 1942-1945, Second World War (event) Second Arakan Campaign 1943-1944, Burma 1942-1945, Second World War (event) British Army 1939-1945 (theme) Indian Army 1939-1945 (theme)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 435 ft (approx); Running time: 4:50 mins
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    MWY 20

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:

    ABY 5 (AIR RESUPPLY AND EVACUATION DURING BATTLE OF NGAKYEDAUK PASS [Allocated Title]) MWY 19 (FIGHTING IN THE ARAKAN [Allocated Title])
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