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Other titles:BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
Summary: Allied prisoners of war (POWs), including a number of Royal Navy sailors, are seen at No.1 POW Camp at Batavia, Netherlands East Indies (Jakarta, Indonesia).
Description: Interior of a hut; a number of men sit on camp beds. A group of sailors posing outside a building, from HMS Electra, HMS Jupiter, and HMS Encounter (destroyers) and HMS Exeter (heavy cruiser). Close-up of Able Seaman Day from Stroud, of HMS Exeter. Views of the camp. Two men; one of them appears to be reading a magazine or similar. Two men cooking in the open over a small fire. Brief glimpse of a photographer with camera and another man, possibly of the RAF Police (Deputy Assistant Provost Marshal armband). A Japanese guard standing sentry at the camp gates with rifle and bayonet. Full-frame close-up of the sentry's face. A sign in Dutch reads 'van Kamp No.1 Xe Bataljon'. Japanese signs. Men walking around camp. Close-ups of two prisoners of war; they both appear to be blind and the shorter of the two has had both hands amputated at the wrists.
Production Details: War Office Directorate of Public Relations (Production sponsor)
SEAC Film Unit (Production company)
Davis, Desmond (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Royal Navy, ELECTRA (HMS) (regiment/service)
Royal Navy, ENCOUNTER (HMS), destroyer (regiment/service)
Royal Navy, JUPITER (HMS) (regiment/service)
Royal Navy, EXETER (HMS), destroyer (regiment/service)
Keywords: Batavia, Java, Netherlands East Indies (geography)
Recovery of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees 1945, Allied Prisoners of War Far East 1939-1945, Internment (event)
Royal Navy 1939-1945 (theme)
Prisoners of War, Far East 1939-1945 (theme)
Technical Details: Format: 35mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 263 ft; Running time: 3 mins
HD Media:Yes
Notes: HMS Electra was lost during the First Battle of the Java Sea on 27 February 1942 in which she was set on fire and exhausted her ammunition before being abandoned. HMS Jupiter struck a Dutch mine during the same action and was sunk. HMS Exeter sustained a crippling direct hit to her boiler room and limped to port in Surabaya. The next day she was sunk along with her escorts HMS Encounter and USS Pope. Several hundred survivors of Encounter and Pope were rescued by the Japanese destroyer Ikazuchi.
The dopesheet names some of the group of sailors as:
Able Seaman Hunt of Brighton (HMS Jupiter).
Able Seaman Behad of Stornoway (HMS Jupiter).
Able Seaman Stollard of Birmingham (HMS Jupiter).
Able Seaman Holt of Liverpool (HMS Exeter).
Able Seaman Stafford of Chittingbourne (Sittingbourne?) (HMS Electra).
