WITH THE SIRMOOR SAPPERS IN ARAKAN, 1943 [Main Title]
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- Title: WITH THE SIRMOOR SAPPERS IN ARAKAN, 1943 [Main Title]
- Film Number: MGH 4826/01-02
- Other titles: AMATEUR FILM BY MAJOR MASTERTON [Alternative Title]
- Summary: Amateur film with titles shot Major William Masterton, commander of the Sirmoor Field Company, recording the unit's move south from Chittagong and bridging and road-building activities in the in the vicinity of the Mayu Range, Kindaung, Maungdaw, and Buthidaung in the Arakan region of Burma.
- Description: 00:00:00:00 Titles: "With the Sirmoor Sappers in Arakan-1943 / Photographed and produced by Major W. F. Masterton Royal Engineers / Reel One / After reaching Chittagong we have several days halt" Three British officers sit outside a tent in wooded terrain having cigarettes; one appears in a blue shirt (RAF?). Indian troops sitting under a camouflage net strung up against a tree in bright sunshine. More troops, some playing cards and one buffing his boots. The RAF (?) officer and a British soldier. The soldier (a sergeant) and a tent. An Indian soldier administers a haircut to a comrade (others waiting for the same?). Indian soldiers, one of whom vigorously works the bolt of his rifle. 00:01:43:22 "Bridge seems to be a popular pastime". Series of shots of Indian troops playing cards. Panning shot of open ground with an open-sided building and troops, one of whom is filling a Bren gun magazine. Another general shot; local livestock wanders around. 00:04:06:22 "From railhead at Dohazari we go south by road to Tumbru Ghat on the Naf River". [B&W, spotty] Loading kit and baggage onto lorries. A lorry passes as others wait at the roadside. View from a moving vehicle; crossing a small bridge, passing through a cutting. 00:05:58:04 "At Tumbru Ghat we embark on river steamers and sail south between the mangrove covered banks of the Naf River to Maungdaw". Two moored river steamers with pan to the riverbank and general activity.Troops boarding a steamer; some carry their equipment on their heads. A local boat passes a steamer laden with troops. The steamer pulls away. [Colour improved, cleaner] Views from a vessel showing terrain, other vessels and men aboard. A steamer passes flying a Blue Ensign. A steamer with another vessel in tow. A local paddled sampan passes. Looking to the horizon. Sea gulls. British officers with pipe and cigarette. 00:10:01:09 "At Maungdaw our work starts - building jetties with the help of local labour". [B&W] A wooden and matting structure on the river bank, with a stream of local people arriving with sand bags of earth that they empty out. 00:11:33:23 "-And strengthening the old bridges on the Maungdaw-Buthidaung road to carry heavy transport". Indian sappers use a two-man chainsaw to cut a wooden beam. A Morris lorry approaches across a bridge. [colour improves] Various shots of the vicinity of the bridge. 00:13:37:10 "Observe the jungle-clad hills where several months later the Japs again appeared". Tilt up from a road to a thickly-jungled hillside. Looking out from beneath an arched bridge or tunnel (Maungdaw-Buthidaung tunnel?). Indian military policeman. Hillside and terrain. 00:15:07:10 "End of reel one". 00:15:11:12 00:15:19:24 [Kodak Safety Film] "Reel Two / We then move to the area east of the Mayu River and south of Buthidang [sic]. A section of sappers supervises 3,000 coolies improving the M.T. [motor transport] track rapidly made during the advance". [B&W, spotty] A wide road with local people. 00:16:33:18 "At Kindaung we operate a 24-hour ferry service using folding boat equipment. It looks simple but there is a 5-knot current flowing and a 10 feet rise and fall of the tide". Mules are led onto a raft ferry. Ferry in midstream. 00:17:49:23 "Observe the landing stage used at high tide". A Dodge lorry is driven off the ferry. 00:18:25:13 "And also at low tide" View of the river bank from a raft. Another lorry is driven off. 00:19:19:01 "The usual type of permanent bridge is the piled timber trestle bridge built of local teak / The team for building it is one N.C.O., four sappers and a gang of coolies". A bridge under construction, with one man at work aloft on a tall wooden frame. 00:20:07:13 "Here they are working on a Class 9 bridge 80 feet span over the Mraw Chaung". [colour] Two men with a two-man saw. Pile-driving for the bridge. 00:20:39:18 "Pulling a new pile up into position". The frame is used to pull a beam upright; local people haul on ropes. 00:21:05:12 "Driving the piles". 00:21:57:10 "Laying the decking - the transoms and road bearers are all of timber / By this rapid method of pile driving a four-pile trestle can be completed in a day". Local people at work, some sheltering beneath umbrellas against the sun. 00:22:37:17 "We have our troubles too - our compressor truck comes to grief". [B&W] The compressor truck, after sliding off the road and down the hillside, is hauled out with a rope. 00:23:32:23 "Here are a few shots of the countryside / The country west of the Mayu hills near Donbaik. From the foot of the jungle-covered hills a coastal strip of paddy fields stretches to the beach". Three British officers pass camera and pause at a lorry under a camouflage net. An Indian soldier starts unmasking the vehicle. Pan of the landscape with paddy fields in front of a steep but low ridgeline. A group of soldiers crowd around something, but it is not clear what. 00:24:55:19 "The country east of the Mayu hills is intersected by tidal chaungs - some very wide - and only a mile or two apart. The locals use sampans for all their transport". [colour] Pan landscape with watercourses and hills. View from a boat on a chaung; a heron or similar bird flies away. 00:26:10:00 "In our travels we visit a temple - now in ruins". Troops cross open ground towards a square-topped pyramidal temple on a ridge. Amongst the very overgrown temple. Two Indians stand with a stone carving that they hold up. 00:26:57:00 "This fellow seems fed up with it all" A Buddha statue with its head bowed. 00:27:11:11 "The End". END 00:27:15:06
- Alternative Title: AMATEUR FILM BY MAJOR MASTERTON [Alternative Title]
- Colour: Colour (Ektachrome) (part B&W)
- Digitised:
- Object_Number: MGH 4826/01-02
- Sound: Silent
- Access Conditions: NON-IWM
- Featured Period:
- Production Date: 1943-01
- Production Country: GB
- Production Details: Masterton, W F (Production individual)
- Personalities, Units and Organisations: Indian Army, Sirmoor Field Company (Indian State Forces) (regiment/service)
- Keywords: Buthidaung, Burma (geography) Maungdaw, Burma (geography) Donbaik, Burma (geography) Mayu (River), Burma (geography) Chittagong, Bengal Province, India (geography) Dohazari, Bengal Province, India (geography) First Arakan Campaign 1942-1943, Burma 1942-1945, Second World War (event) India 1939-1945 (theme)
- Physical Characteristics: Colour format: Colour (Ektachrome) (part B&W) Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: English Subtitle language: English
- Technical Details: Format: 16mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 2 Footage: 682 ft; Running time: 28 mins
- HD Media:
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