MOUNTBATTEN VISITS THE FRONT: NORTHERN BURMA AND KOHIMA [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: MOUNTBATTEN VISITS THE FRONT: NORTHERN BURMA AND KOHIMA [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: MWY 224
  • Other titles: INDIAN INTER-SERVICE PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTORATE COLLECTION - INDIAN HOME FRONT AND MILITARY OPERATIONS, AND ALLIED OPERATIONS IN ITALY AND THE PACIFIC DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
  • Summary: Seen in footage by an American cameraman, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Command, visits forward areas in northern Burma, the Kohima battlefield in Assam, and the headquarters of the United States 10th Air Force.
  • Description: At an airfield, Lord Mountbatten meets senior RAF and 14th Army officers. Mountbatten poses with RAF officers before departing by staff car. At a light airstrip, with parked United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) L5 Sentinels, Mountbatten boards a jeep with Lieutenant-General Joseph Stilwell, US Army, commanding Northern Combat Area Command. Walking uphill through wooded country to Stilwell's HQ (at Ledo?). Stilwell and Mountbatten pass camera. Mountbatten departs and shakes hands with Stilwell. In a basha during a rainstorm Mountbatten talks to Major-General Lentaigne. Mountbatten, wearing a raincape, walks with Lentaigne. Mountbatten departs. On a runway a stricken USAAF Curtiss P-40 (tail number 2105931) lies with a buckled undercarriage. Mountbatten and party with VIP Dakota behind. At Kohima Mountbatten surveys the battlefield from "Lancaster Gate" with a brigadier wearing XXXIII Corps patch. Long shot looking across a valley to a hillside with a road and huts. Looking downhill over a number of tents and huts and parked lorries. Mountbatten and brigadier, with backs to camera, looking out. Wide shot with cloud-covered ridge in the background and sandbagged positions in the foreground. Mountbatten and party. Pan of the view from Lancaster Gate. Mountbatten and party walk through a former British gun position. Close-up Air Marshal Sir Guy Garrod. Mountbatten, holding a large spear and a horn, meets Naga hillmen on Garrison Hill with a British civilian man (Charles Pawsey?). One Naga man shakes hands and then salutes Mountbatten. Close-up of Mountbatten, and of a Naga. Mountbatten is presented with a blanket. Elsewhere Mountbatten inspects a captured Japanese tank, a Type 95 Ha-Go light tank, which is then demonstrated. Mountbatten addresses troops. On a body of water (possibly the River Brahmaputra at Dinjan) a small motor launch arrives carrying Mountbatten and General George Stratemeyer, commander 10th US Air Force. Mountbatten meets American officers. Mountbatten and Stratemeyer leave a building at 10th Air Force HQ. The cameraman joins Mountbatten and Stratemeyer as their launch powers across the water.
  • Alternative Title: INDIAN INTER-SERVICE PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTORATE COLLECTION - INDIAN HOME FRONT AND MILITARY OPERATIONS, AND ALLIED OPERATIONS IN ITALY AND THE PACIFIC DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised: Yes
  • Object_Number: MWY 224
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1944-06-19
  • Production Country: United States of America
  • Production Details: SEAC Photo Unit (US) (Production company) Widmayer, WilliamCombat cameraman with SEAC Photo Unit (US). (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:Mountbatten, Louis (Earl) Mountbatten, Louis (Earl) (person) Stilwell, Joseph Warren (person) Lentaigne, Walter David Alexander (person) Garrod, Alfred Guy Roland (person) Baldwin, John Eustace Arthur (person) Stratemeyer, George (person) South East Asia Command (regiment/service) Northern Combat Area Command (regiment/service) British Army, 14th Army (regiment/service) United States Army Air Force, 10th Air Force (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Kohima, North East India, India (geography) Brahmaputra River, India (geography) British Army 1939-1945 (theme) Indian Army 1939-1945 (theme)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 643 ft; Running time: 8 mins
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    MWY 224

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