WITH THE AUSTRALIANS IN THE BORNEO CAMPAIGNS 1945 [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: WITH THE AUSTRALIANS IN THE BORNEO CAMPAIGNS 1945 [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: MGH 4389
  • Other titles: THIRD BORNEO CAMPAIGN BALIKPAPAN JULY 1945 [Allocated Title] AMATEUR FILM BY WILLIAM COURTENAY [Alternative Title]
  • Summary: Amateur colour film shot by British journalist (Sunday Times, Sunday Chronicle, Daily Graphic) William Courtenay showing aerial views of invasion and landings on Balikpapan, Dutch East Borneo, 'Operation Oboe Two', 1 July 1945, and later scenes ashore with units of the 7th Australian Division.
  • Description: Ground-to-air shots of B 24 Liberators in flight. B 24s land on dirt runway. RAAF Liberator taxies to a halt (MJM A72-52 on fuselage. 21 Squadron RAAF) and crew disembark. Dawn shot from cockpit as aircraft taxies and takes off. Good shots of air-to-air Liberators in flight (mixed US and RAAF insignia evident). Air-to-ground of bombing raid on Balikpapan. Explosions clearly seen as bombs strike ground targets. Large columns of black smoke from burning oil tanks rise up to the level of the aircraft. Interior of aircraft and crew (including Courtenay). From the camera aircraft, Balikpapan is seen in the distance, showing large columns of black smoke rising up. Flashes from ships below indicate shelling of the landing beaches by the bombardment group (began 0700 hours 1 July). Lines of smaller craft are clearly seen, many in formation, through scattered cloud cover (the first wave of LVTs went ashore at 0850 hours 1 July). Massed craft seen, through a cloudless sky, approaching land, as an enormous plume of black smoke billows up from the burning oil tanks on land. The aircraft overflies the landing beaches (between Klandasan and Stalkudo) and ships offshore, who continue to fire their armament. A further and lower pass by the aircraft over the landing beaches clearly shows large numbers of small craft in formation approaching shore, the beaches themselves and burning oil tanks in the background. Australian soldiers stand alongside Japanese beach defences, fully exposed at low tide. Inland, a vehicle convoy (mostly Jeeps) with Australian troops rests at the edge of a dirt road. Bomb craters straddle the road. A damaged pipeline with leaking oil forming a large pool runs alongside. Clearing a road using a tractor with lifting gear and a large truck is towed from a ditch by a similar vehicle. The camera, looking seaward, pans along exposed beach defences. Bulldozers level a dirt airstrip and fill bomb craters. Several Stinson L-5 Sentinel (?) aircraft are parked at the edge of the strip. A pan from the airstrip looks seaward across across decimated Palm trees. A shot inland shows wrecked buildings in the foreground, as smoke rises from trees in the distance. Three destroyed Matilda tanks (one with the name 'Assassin') lie stranded inland from the beach (possibly the three tanks destroyed by Japanese artillery on 5 July near Manggar airstrip). MS of more beach obstacles. Australian soldiers smile at the camera and another group load and fire a mortar. LS of explosions. A jetty carrying an oil pipeline. Soldiers carrying shells and LS of barrage falling amongst trees in the distance. Netherlands East Indies Infantry cross a pontoon bridge followed by Australian troops. A six-wheeled truck with soldiers on board moves along a very rutted dirt road towards the camera. A female goat feeds its kid. A group of armed Australian soldiers pose for the camera. A stationary tank on a dirt road with soldiers crouching behind. One is reading a map. A row of six temporary Australian graves. CU of graves, showing service number, name, rank and date of death: Maj. EJ Ryrie, Bdr FC Brock, Pte G Mullins, Pte CG Clark, Pte WH Dunning, Pte BL McKenzie. All died on 10/7/1945 (Major Ryrie, Australian Armoured Corps, was killed in action on Coke - a steep knoll to the side of the Milford Highway - on 10 July. Presumably, the named others were killed in the same action). A mortar platoon rapid fires its mortars, while behind, Brigadier K W Eather commanding 25 Brigade and Lieut-Colonel R H Marson (?) commanding 2/25th Battalion discuss tactics with another officer. All look quite tense. Mortar units continue their rapid fire. CU of a group of heavily armed infantry (wearing tin hats). One group holds up a captured Japanese flag. MS of Union Flag flying from flagpole. From an aircraft cockpit, the camera shows below landing craft moving to and from land. Oil fires on land are seen to be much reduced. Small islands are overflown and an airstrip on a larger land mass are seen and the aircraft lands (landing viewed from cockpit). A brief sequence of air and ground crew alongside the fuselage of a Liberator. Some of the crew work bare-chested.
  • Alternative Title: THIRD BORNEO CAMPAIGN BALIKPAPAN JULY 1945 [Allocated Title] AMATEUR FILM BY WILLIAM COURTENAY [Alternative Title]
  • Colour: Colour
  • Digitised: No
  • Object_Number: MGH 4389
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: NON-IWM
  • Featured Period:
  • Production Date: 1945-07
  • Production Country:
  • Production Details: Courtenay, William (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:
  • Keywords:
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: Colour
  • Technical Details: Format: 16mm Running time: 21 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    MGH 4389

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