SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER LORD MOUNTBATTEN VISITS MANDALAY, BURMA [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER LORD MOUNTBATTEN VISITS MANDALAY, BURMA [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: ABY 86
  • Other titles: ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
  • Summary: The Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia Command, Lord Louis Mountbatten, visits Mandalay, Burma, with other senior British and American officers.
  • Description: A bridge over a small river. A small empty lorry crosses. Series of static shots of bomb-damaged buildings. Many are missing their roofs or are spilling rubble into the street. A small group of local Burmese run towards the camera. More broken buildings. A jeep with two British servicemen drives along a street. Shot down a long street with damaged buildings and Burmese civilians (including women and children) milling about. Two men push bicycles. A lone man walks past a bombed-out building with his shirt over his head against the sun. Two Burmese men push a heavily laden tricycle or rickshaw. Railway wreckage. A gutted station. Wrecked wagons and coaches. Two British men walking around the station. A staff jeep, with miniature flags and the dagger insignia of the 19th Indian Division, pulls up and Mountbatten gets out. With him in the jeep are a general wearing a 19th Indian Division patch (presumably Major-General Thomas Wynford Rees), Air Marshal Sir Keith Park and an American officer, likely Major-General Horace Hayes Fuller (US Army, Deputy Chief of Staff, South East Asia Command). The other officers get out and chat briefly. The officers get back into their jeep and drive away while a second jeep follows. Mountbatten chatting with three men, probably of the Royal Tank Regiment (based on beret and cap badge). The party visits a temple. Shot of an impressively large statue of a chinthe or mythical lion-like guardian. Walking up the covered southern steps of Mandalay Hill (AKA Pagoda Hill or Monastery Hill). Mountbatten and Park get back into their jeep as a small group of Gurkha troops pass by. Jeeps passing through the gates of Fort Dufferin. The jeeps steer around a small crater in the road, possibly from a mortar. Mountbatten and the rest of his party inspect an abandoned Japanese tank. The party view various parts of the fort and city.
  • Alternative Title: ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: ABY 86
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1945-03-22
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Air Ministry, Directorate of Public Relations (Production sponsor) Royal Air Force Film Production Unit (Production company) 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: Mountbatten, Louis (Earl) (person) Rees, Thomas Wynford 'Pete' (person) Park, Keith Rodney (person) South East Asia Command (regiment/service) Indian Army, 19th Indian Division (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Mandalay, Burma (geography) Mandalay 1945, Burma 1942-1945, Second World War (event) Royal Air Force 1939-1945 (theme) Far East 1939-1945 (theme) Burma 1942-1945 (theme)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 503 ft; Running time: 6 minutes
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    ABY 86

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:

    JFU 77 (VISIT OF LORD LOUIS MOUNTBATTEN TO MANDALAY [Allocated Title]) JFU 78 (MANDALAY AND SUPREMO'S VISIT [Allocated Title]) JFU 85 (MANDALAY - MOUNTBATTEN VISITS KING THIBAW'S PALACE [Allocated Title])
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