MERAUKE FORCE TRAINING: AUSTRALIAN FORCES AT MERAUKE IN DUTCH NEW GUINEA [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: MERAUKE FORCE TRAINING: AUSTRALIAN FORCES AT MERAUKE IN DUTCH NEW GUINEA [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: MWY 113
  • 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: At Merauke, on the southern coast of Dutch New Guinea (now in Papua province, Indonesia), Australian infantry and air forces are seen training and interacting with the indigenous population.
  • Description: Reel 1: Looking up at a Dutch flag flying against a backdrop of palm trees. Australian officers in discussion; palm trees and small wooden huts in the background. An emu. On a beach four Vickers machine gun teams training, possibly of 2/3rd Machine Gun Battalion (colour patch of two concentric rectangles, the smaller being darker). In a mesh cage (a fish trap) on the beach a man spears a small fish which splashes in the shallow water. Passing fish out of the cage, descaling and gutting. Some soldiers show off a saw-toothed bone or fossil. A hut with palm trees and local Papuans squatting on the sand. Middle aged man seated. Man working a piece of wood. Close-up bearded man with greying and receding hair. Man hollowing out a log. Two canoes being bound together. A jeep is driven onto them. Australian (or local Dutch) serviceman (unclear ethnicity). The jeep on the canoe, which is paddled away. An ox cart. Three servicemen pass on ponies. Officers sitting in a jeep; they include a major-general (possibly Major-General Northcott, the Australian Chief of the General Staff) and a brigadier (possibly Brigadier John Rowlstone Stevenson, commander of Merauke Force). Close-up the major-general with ‘Australia’ on epaulette. A group of civilian men and women, apparently well dressed, passing a house. A local serviceman with a small child. A barber at work. An old civilian man, his face completely in shadow beneath the brim of his soft sun hat. Servicemen sitting on the roof of a lorry. A row of (Dutch?) officers. Close-up Dutch officer. A number of Javanese schoolgirls dancing. Civilian spectators. A medic bandages a woman’s wrist. Two oxen pulling a plow. Man with a hoe. Civilians digging out a log. A small farmhouse with some chickens milling about; a man walks slowly towards it and a number of people, mostly women, walk out from it. Women outside a house; one does laundry, another pours water into a can, and another sweeps the ground. They appear self-conscious in the presence of the camera. A young girl holding a younger sibling. Servicemen (airmen) playing cards in a hut. Airmen leaving the hut. The airmen arrive at their aircraft, which are Curtiss P-40N’s (Kittyhawk IV) marked MP:Q, MP:U, MP:N and a fourth whose identification letter is not visible; MP denotes Royal Australian Air Force 86 Squadron. The aircraft have dark fuselages and light tail surfaces. MP:X and another aircraft with airmen walking towards. Pilots boarding their aircraft. Aircraft starting up. Pilots boarding. Close-up pilot. Aircraft taking off towards camera. Reel 2: Kittyhawks making low passes over the camera. Pilot in his cockpit giving big ‘thumbs-up’. Australian infantry wading through a pond in thick jungle, sometimes up to their chests in water; the men have rifles, Bren guns and Owen guns. Infantry walking through jungle, including Vickers gunners. A file of infantry walking across a marshy field. Marching over a log bridge or road over a bog. Footage from the bridge of a small naval vessel. Looking aft with Dutch flag flying. Seaman looking out to sea. Treeline on the coast. Men on deck playing chess. Huts on the coast. Treeline. Passing a hut. Approaching a village. A sack is put onto a small boat with Johnson Seahorse outboard motor. Servicemen approaching the camera vessel in narrow local canoes. The small boat reversing away. A local man has his arm swabbed with iodine by a medic. The medic draws blood. Dressing a sore on a man’s foot. Medium close-up local man, looking intently at the camera, with a white (wooden or bone?) bar through the septum of his nose. A local woman looking and smiling at the camera. Men lifting a log out of the water and placing it on a small raised platform. Narrow canoe passing. A serviceman with two young children, both naked, scrubbing something against a board. A number of canoes racing past; one crewed by servicemen is quickly overtaken. Perhaps inevitably, the servicemen’s canoe ends up capsized as the locals race past. The local boatmen, standing naked in their boats; some have white paint on their chests and faces. Local men. Servicemen. Servicemen paddling past. Local man with bar through his nose. Out of focus; local boat and boatmen passing. Focus corrected; men at their billet reading letters. Men at the water’s edge; in the background local boats. Local boats race past. Men at the edge of the water. Corralling fish in a net. Corporal reading a letter. Other men reading. Local people, including children, in the water; they appear to be washing clothes (for the servicemen?). Local people polishing a serviceman’s boots. Wideshot with lone boatman passing. Naval launch approaching. Onboard the launch; treeline at waterside. On the bridge, a naval officer at his chart; he gives a thumbs up. A light railway transporting oildrums. Shots of the driver and two servicemen sitting on the back. The engine is marked ‘Wreckers’. A local man standing by a jeep. An ox cart passes the light train. Brief aerial shot showing a coastline.
  • 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:
  • Object_Number: MWY 113
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1944-04
  • Production Country: Australia
  • Production Details:
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Royal Australian Air Force, 86 Squadron (regiment/service) Australian Imperial Force, 2/3rd Machine Gun Battalion (regiment/service) Northcott, John (person) Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Merauke, West New Guinea, Netherlands East Indies (geography) New Guinea Campaign 1942-1945, Pacific War 1941-1945, Second World War (event) Pacific 1939-1945 (theme) Australian Army 1939-1945 (theme) Royal Australian Air Force 1939-1945 (theme)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 2 Footage: 1659 ft; Running time: 19 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    MWY 113

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