ARRIVAL OF RELEASED PRISONERS OF WAR AT CALCUTTA [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: ARRIVAL OF RELEASED PRISONERS OF WAR AT CALCUTTA [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: ABY 103
  • Other titles: ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
  • Summary: British, American, Indian and Chinese personnel released from Japanese captivity in Rangoon arrive by hospital ship in Calcutta.
  • Description: A stretcher case, in an open wooden box, is hoisted aboard. The box carrying the stretcher case is lowered onto the deck and the patient lifted out. Two men attend to a patient on a stretcher. A line of prisoners of war (POWs). A man on a stretcher is carried through a doorway to the operating theatre. A Medical Officer talks to an Indian POW wearing a turban. Man carried out of operating theatre. A line of Chinese POWs sitting on the deck. A surgeon, with a mask around his neck, closes a door marked 'Op Theatre and emergency FA [First Aid] post'. A Major of the Indian Army Medical Corps examines a POW. An Indian POW, wearing a shirt obviously patched together from rags, stares intently at the camera. The ship's commanding officer, Major Power, leads a line of men to collect clothes, blankets, soap etc. A man's eyes are checked by a medic. Blankets and clothing are issued. An Indian Air Force Flight Lieutenant. POWs putting on clothes and sandals. POW's wearing their new clothes. HM Hospital Ship No.36 Karapara berthing at Calcutta. Shot from the quayside of the berthed ship. Men lining the rails. Richard Casey, Governor of Bengal, boards the Karapara. An RAF airman looking out from the ship. A local Wing Commander talking with RAF POWs. A local Army commander inspecting a line of Chinese POWs. Two RAF airmen chatting with white nurses. Close-up of Wing Commander Hill; men heave on lines in the background. Group of men with a white nurse. Another group of men; one has RAF pilot wings on his shirt, another wears a Scottish tam o'shanter. Close-up on an airman wearing the badge of an Air Gunner. Stretcher cases being disembarked. Close-up on the patient. American military policemen are in attendance. One patient on a stretcher, a naval officer, is handed something from a basket by a woman wearing a Red Cross lapel pin. Stretcher cases are loaded into an ambulance. Close-up of a white woman wearing a soft peaked cap with a Red Cross button and a shoulder flash reading 'RC & St. JA' (Red Cross and St John's Ambulance). Two more stretcher cases loaded into an ambulance. Stretcher case disembarked down gangway. Close-up of a patient on a stretcher. A man lying on a stretcher on the ground, talks to a young boy. A man, looking rather thin, lies on a stretcher in striped pajamas. Chinese POWs come ashore; each wears a paper tag and are checked off a list by an American man. A man on a stretcher talks to a woman. A man asleep on a stretcher. Two men walking with a white nurse. Women, likely of the Women's Voluntary Service (WVS), distribute refreshments to the men. Brief shot of a woman going into the back of a WVS lorry. Distributing cups of tea. Civilian and service women talking. Interior shot of a hospital ward at No. 9 Base General Hospital; a nurse hands a patient a paper. A man comes and sits on the end of the bed and talks with the patient. Group of new arrivals at RAF Sick Quarters. Men talking amongst themselves.
  • 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 103
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1945-05-19
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Air Ministry, Directorate of Public Relations (Production sponsor) Royal Air Force Film Production Unit (Production company) Lang, T W (Production individual) Shears (Sergeant) (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Casey, Richard Gavin Gardiner (person) Royal Air Force (regiment/service) St John Ambulance (regiment/service) Women's Voluntary Service (regiment/service) Chinese Army (regiment/service) British Red Cross Society (regiment/service) Indian Air Force (regiment/service) Royal Navy, KARAPARA (HMHS) (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Calcutta, North East India, India (geography) Allied Prisoners of War Far East 1939-1945, Internment (event) Burma 1942-1945, Second World War (event) Liberation of Rangoon 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: 473 ft; Running time: 6 minutes
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    ABY 103

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:

    WPN 217 (WAR PICTORIAL NEWS NO 217 [Main Title]) JFU 223 (ENTRY TO KYAUKTAN AND LIBERATED ALLIED PRISONERS OF WAR AT RANGOON JAIL [Allocated Title]) JFU 243 (17TH DIVISION'S DRIVE ON RANGOON - PRIESTS IN ACTION AND RECOVERED ALLIED PRISONERS OF WAR AT PEGU [Allocated Title]) JFU 246 (BRITISH PRISONERS OF WAR LEAVE RANGOON [Allocated Title]) JIN 58 (CALCUTTA: FREED PRISONERS OF WAR ARRIVE FROM RANGOON BY HOSPITAL SHIP KARAPARA [Allocated Title])
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