AIRFIELD CONSTRUCTION AT COMILLA AND DUM DUM, INDIA, ON THE BURMA FRONT [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: AIRFIELD CONSTRUCTION AT COMILLA AND DUM DUM, INDIA, ON THE BURMA FRONT [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: ABY 20
  • Other titles: ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
  • Summary: Documentary scenes showing the process of airfield construction in forward areas.
  • Description: Various stages in the construction of an airfield, starting with a landscape shot with aircraft parked in the background and local labourers with engineering plant in the midground. Two RAF officers operating a theodolite. Bulldozer clearing loose earth and locals using tools to clear turf as a twin-engined Avro Anson takes off very close by. Coolies unload stones from a lorry. Other workers busy breaking bricks, and a riddle is used to sort these. Baskets of stones are laid down and tar poured over them. A number of labourers pull a roller. Shot of a bullock cart, while in the background an Anson taxis past a Buddhist temple. A cement mixer, tar engine and steamroller. Bricks are laid in an alternating diagonal 'herringbone' pattern. One labourer mixing cement with his feet. Cement poured over brickwork and tamped flat. RAF Douglas Dakota aircraft taxiing before departing the airfield.
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1944-09-04
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Air Ministry, Directorate of Public Relations (Production sponsor) Royal Air Force Film Production Unit (Production company) Goozee, S (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Royal Air Force (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Comilla, Bengal Province, India (geography) Dum Dum, Bengal Province, India (geography) Burma 1942-1945, Second World War (event) India 1939-1945 (theme) Royal Air Force 1939-1945 (theme)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 530 ft; Running time: 6 minutes
  • HD Media:
  • Notes: For other film showing the use of bitumenised hessian sheeting ('bithess') to lay airfields more quickly, see related items. The importance of landing strips to the Burma campaign made the rapid construction of airstrips an important task. Anson aircraft is EG-676. Comilla now in Bangladesh, Dum Dum in India. No slates, date from dopesheet.
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    ABY 20

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:

    ABY 59 (USE OF PREFABRICATED BITUMINOUS SURFACING IN AIRFIELD CONSTRUCTION [Allocated Title])
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