MOSQUITO BUILD-UP [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: MOSQUITO BUILD-UP [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: ABY 155
  • Other titles: ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
  • Summary: Operations by RAF De Havilland Mosquito aircraft at Joari airfield, east of Cox's Bazaar, India, and paratroopers descending on Rangoon, Burma.
  • Description: An RAF De Havilland Mosquito Mk VI fighter-bomber, HR622, being serviced. Two fitters work on one of the aircraft's engines. Two armourers service a gun supported on two oil drums. Mosquito VI QB:S of RAF 45 Squadron takes off followed by QB:T. A Mosquito's engines revving up. Mosquito VI HR540 'B' taxis from dispersal. Mosquitos take off; UX:B of RAF 82 Squadron passes two local Indian men working the ground next to the runway. Mosquitos taking off and landing. A Mosquito in flight overhead. Seated airmen being briefed from a blackboard; they get up and disperse. Aerial footage; three Douglas Dakota transport aircraft in formation. Parachutes drop from the Dakotas. Footage looking back over the tailplane of an aircraft (probably a Bristol Beaufighter) as a bomb bursts on a coastal position. Beaufighters in formation.
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1945-05-01
  • 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: Royal Air Force, 45 Squadron (regiment/service) Royal Air Force, 82 Squadron (regiment/service) Indian Army, 50th Indian Parachute Brigade (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Joari, Bengal Province, India (geography) Rangoon, Burma (geography) Liberation of Rangoon 1945, Burma 1942-1945, Second World War (event) Airborne operations, Air operations over Burma, Burma 1942-1945, Second World War (event) Royal Air Force 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: 276 ft; Running time: 4 minutes
  • Notes: The shooting date, taken together with the presence of RAF 45 Squadron and RAF 82 Squadron, strongly suggest that the location is Joari airfield, east of Cox's Bazaar, India (now Bangladesh). The parachutes seen are described as supplies on the Air Ministry's shotsheet, but given the Dakotas' altitude and close formation, and the speed with which each parachute follows the next, it seems more likely that these are paratroopers being deployed. If so, they are a Gurkha paratroop battalion of 50th Indian Parachute Brigade, landing on plains near Bassein south-west of Rangoon, Burma. On 2 May 1945 the cameraman of this piece, Flight Lieutenant Sidney Woodcock was airborne off Rangoon with his pilot, Flight Lieutenant John Buchanan, in Mosquito HR446 'Z' of RAF 110 Squadron (also based at Joari at this point). They failed to return and are buried in adjacent plots in Rangoon War Cemetery.
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    ABY 155

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:

    ABY 30 (RAF BRISTOL BEAUFIGHTER OPERATIONS IN BURMA [Allocated Title]) JFU 202 (AMPHIBIOUS LANDING AT RANGOON BY 26TH INDIAN DIVISION [Allocated Title]) JFU 203 (AMPHIBIOUS LANDING AT RANGOON BY 26TH INDIAN DIVISION [Allocated Title]) JFU 204 (AMPHIBIOUS LANDING AT RANGOON BY 26TH INDIAN DIVISION [Allocated Title]) JFU 205 (AMPHIBIOUS LANDING AT RANGOON BY 26TH INDIAN DIVISION [Allocated Title]) JFU 224 (SEABORNE LANDING AT RANGOON BY 36TH INDIAN INFANTRY BRIGADE [Allocated Title]) CF 583 (ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN THE FAR EAST, 1941-1945) CF 584 (ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN THE FAR EAST, 1941-1945) CF 586 (ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN THE FAR EAST, 1941-1945)
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