PATRICIA BURKE ENTERTAINS AN RAF SPITFIRE SQUADRON AT SADAUNG [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: PATRICIA BURKE ENTERTAINS AN RAF SPITFIRE SQUADRON AT SADAUNG [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: ABY 85
  • Other titles: ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
  • Summary: British actress Patricia Burka, serving with the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), entertains airmen at Sadaung, Burma.
  • Description: Patricia Burke performs to an audience of RAF airmen from a stage made of ammunition boxes with parked Spitfires in the background. She sings accompanied by a small piano. Men listening. The men applaud and Burke bows. Burke steps down from the stage to chat and joke with the airmen. Men watching the show. Camera pans past the piano player to Burke singing on stage with violin accompaniment. The airmen applaud again. Burke puts on a wool cap comforter for another song. She has her pianist (possibly her mother Marie) join her on stage to join in the applause. Men applauding. Spitfire with squadron code 'AF' (RAF 607 (County of Durham) Squadron) seen in the background. Reverse angle from behind Burke looking towards the audience. More footage of Burke's performance and men applauding.
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1945-02-22
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Air Ministry, Directorate of Public Relations (Production sponsor) Royal Air Force Film Production Unit (Production company) Shears, R (Production individual) Woodcock, Sidney Leslie1945-05-02Flight Lieutenant Sidney Leslie Woodcock, service number 175562, cameraman with No.3 Royal Air Force Film Production Unit. Killed in action 2 May 1945 while filming from a Mosquito of 110 Squadron RAF over Rangoon, Burma. Buried in Rangoon War Cemetery alongside his pilot, Flight Lieutenant John George Buchanan (415744) see [http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2261432 accessed 24 February 2011] (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Entertainments National Service Association (regiment/service) Burke, Patricia Rosa Moore (person) Royal Air Force, 607 Squadron (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Sadaung, Burma (geography) Welfare and recreational activities and services, Burma 1942-1945, Second World War (event) Royal Air Force 1939-1945 (theme) Far East 1939-1945 (theme)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 95 ft; Running time: 2 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Notes: Degree of confusion on dopesheets, one correctly naming the performer as Patricia Burke, the other as Marie Burke, her mother. This discrepancy possibly due to the fact the two were touring together. Sergeant Shears named as cameraman on dopesheet but only Pilot Officer Woodcock appears on slates. This tour by Patricia Burke and her mother was also covered by an RAF photographer. See related items below. One of the cameramen of this piece, Flight Lieutenant Sidney Woodcock, was killed in action. He and his pilot, Flight Lieutenant J G Buchanan of RAF 110 Squadron, failed to return after a Mosquito sortie over Rangoon on 2 May 1945. They are buried in adjacent plots in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Rangoon War Cemetery.
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    ABY 85

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:

    ABY 71 (MEMBERS OF ENSA PERFORM FOR RAF AIRMEN ON TABINGAUNG AIRSTRIP, BURMA [Allocated Title]) JFU 45 (PATRICIA BURKE PERFORMS FOR BRITISH TROOPS AT AKYAB [Allocated Title]) ABY 89 (GEORGE FORMBY'S ENSA PARTY, CEYLON 1945 [Allocated Title]) ABY 84 (PATRICIA BURKE ENTERTAINS AN RAF THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [Allocated Title]) CF 374 (ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN THE FAR EAST, 1941-1945)
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