RAF BLENHEIM SQUADRON IN INDIA [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: RAF BLENHEIM SQUADRON IN INDIA [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: MWY 249
  • 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 an airfield in India, a Royal Air Force squadron operating Bristol Blenheim light bombers mounts a sortie, probably as training.
  • Description: Reel 1: Sheltering from the rain beneath the wing of an aircraft, looking out as a bomb train passes. Two bombs are lifted off a trolley and rolled away. Looking up into a bomb bay; two airmen lift the bomb onto a third airman’s back, who stands up to lift the bomb into the bay. Alternative angle. Adjusting a bomb’s impeller. A lorry with a number of airman aboard in pouring rain. Closer shot; an RAF officer following an unseen aircraft with his eyes. Close-up dashboard of the lorry; a hand presses a button. Driver releasing hand brake. The vehicle (a Morris fire engine or crash tender?). Close-up looking through an open cockpit window at a pilot. Propeller starting up on a Blenheim. Close-up propeller spinning. An unsteady fast pan following a Bristol Blenheim Mk V, serial BA926 (last digit unclear) taking off. Another angle of BA926 taking off. Another Blenheim taking off. Blenheim taking off over camera. Stationary Blenheim BA926 with engines running; the chocks are taken away. Airman hurry past camera and board a lorry. Lorry slowly driving away along a muddy track. Men debussing. An attractive aircraft interior shot, sharply focused, showing a navigator at work. Close-up airman wearing ‘Canada’ shoulder title. Close-up airman smoking a pipe. Close-up Australian flight lieutenant, smoking. Strapping on a belt on which is hung a pistol and a large kukri. Airman attending a briefing. Pan faces of airman attending briefing. Squadron leader giving the briefing; he points things out on a map. Pan of airmen listening. Close-up Australian pilot officer. Reel 2: Aircrew walk to their aircraft in heavy rain and climbing aboard. An airman, standing on the wing, puts on his parachute harness. An air gunner climbs aboard. Man putting on harness. Windsock hanging loose. Men on the crash tender. Hand cranking the engine. Interior; airmen synchronising watches. Footage taken from a moving aircraft showing an airman in front guiding the aircraft. Aircraft with propellers spinning; the chocks are removed and the aircraft starts to taxi away. Aerial footage; five Blenheims in formation. Air-to-air shots of the aircraft, including BA709. Some fine views of the aircraft. Terrain view showing a broad river below. Bombs falling from the aircraft. Terrain view; the target area is coastal with small islands. View of the camera aircraft’s propeller spinning. Cloudscape. View (from a ventral hatch?) looking straight down; some vibration in this section. Bombs falling away from the camera aircraft. The target is not obvious; the bombs explode on a road and on surrounding low hills. More vertical ventral footage; the shadows of aircraft can be seen and bombs fall away. One bomb explodes on a river and others explode in an area with a regular arrangement of roads but the target is not clear. Back at base; airmen in discussion over a map. Aircraft overhead. Aerial footage; grey enveloping cloudscape. Pilot at his controls. More clouds.
  • 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 249
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1943
  • Production Country: India
  • Production Details: Public Relations Directorate, India (Production sponsor) Bovill, Frederick Oscar1891-04-18Bovill joined the film industry in 1906 with Gaumont, then moved to Barker Motion Photography in 1909. He joined the army in 1914 and served with the 1st City of London Regiment, Royal Field Artillery. When he was discharged in 1916 he was made official photographer/cameraman for the Canadian War Records Office at the Western Front. Whilst his earlier work was praised his later work was greeted with criticism and he was discharged in June 1917. In November 1917 he joined the Royal Air Force as an observer. After the war worked for Goldin and Lloyd's 'Horseshoe Comedies' series and as a cameraman to the London Underground and Omnibus Control. In the Second World War he joined the PATHÉ GAZETTE and filmed in Iceland and the Far East. (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Royal Air Force, 113 Squadron (regiment/service) Royal Air Force, 34 Squadron (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Bengal Province, India (geography) India 1939-1945 (theme) Burma 1942-1945 (theme) Royal Air Force 1939-1945 (theme) Bomber operations, Air operations over Burma, Burma 1942-1945, Second World War (event)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 2 Footage: 1328 ft; Running time: 15 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    MWY 249

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:

    MWY 80 (RAF BRISTOL BLENHEIMS IN INDIA [Allocated Title])
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