WITH THE SIRMOOR SAPPERS: RAIL TRAVEL FROM WANA TO BOMBAY [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: WITH THE SIRMOOR SAPPERS: RAIL TRAVEL FROM WANA TO BOMBAY [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: MGH 4827
  • Other titles: AMATEUR FILM BY MAJOR MASTERTON [Alternative Title]
  • Summary: Amateur film shot Major William Masterton, commander of the Sirmoor Field Company (Indian State Forces) recording the unit's move by rail from Wana in Waziristan, India (now Pakistan) towards Bombay.
  • Description: 00:27:22:00 [B&W] Landscape views from a moving train. Train at a halt with Indian troops standing (sentry?) alongside outside the carriages. Locomotive reversing away from camera; a station sign reads ‘Tank’. Train leaving the station and passing camera (one carriage is marked NWR (North Western Railway)). Train underway with a steep ridge in the background. Passing through barren and rocky terrain. At a halt with pan along the train to a close look at the loco. Tender marked NWR and ‘ZE 230’ with driver or fireman on the footplate. Pan of rocky, mountainous terrain with a river (probably the Indus) and a large town on the far side. Steel bridge with train crossing. Landscape pan (from the bridge?). British officers beside the train at a halt. Indian troops outside the train, some with rifles and fixed bayonets. Group of officers at the engine, apparently with some senior civil personage (?) dressed in white. View from the train as it pulls away, passing a sign that reads ‘Mari-Indus’. Landscape. At another halt troops stand around as chappatis are cooked; a canopy reads ‘Ferozepore Cant Jn’. Chappatis or other bread is cooked. [Colour] 00:34:26:10 Indian troops stripped to their undershorts wash under a hosepipe. More cooking and washing. Two men wrestle. Washing. Two Brits, one in khaki with a still camera in hand, the other in RAF blue and sunglasses, with an Indian officer, walking on the platform. More of bread being cooked, including two men pumping hand bellows to fan the fire. More men washing. Brief shot of several small monkeys. 00:37:53:08 [B&W, appearing blue] Indistinct wide shot, apparently taken on water. Onboard a motor launch or similar. Local sailing boats. Passing local boat with sails billowing. A local boat unloading with waiting troops next to it and other boats moored nearby and in the background. Slow pan of the anchorage. Unloading the boat. A jetty and parked vehicles by a beach seen from an approaching boat. Pan from a Ramp Cargo Lighter to troops formed up on the beach. Pan along jetty. From a vessel moving amongst mostly beached boats, some of which are quite large. 00:42:19:12 [Colour] Troops in bashas in poor light, apparently doing personal admin. Three soldiers, one a havildar, in discussion over papers. 00:43:04:19 [B&W] Lorry being unloaded. Indian troops and a bamboo basha. Indian troops with a bulldozer, apparently being repaired. 00:44:25:24 END.
  • Alternative Title: AMATEUR FILM BY MAJOR MASTERTON [Alternative Title]
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: MGH 4827
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: NON-IWM
  • Featured Period:
  • Production Date: 1942
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Masterton, W F (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:
  • Keywords: North West Frontier, India (geography)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 16mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: ca 350 ft; Running time: ca 12 mins (16 fps)
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    MGH 4827

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