British, American, Indian and Chinese personnel released from Japanese captivity in Rangoon arrive by hospital ship in Calcutta.

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.

Notes

A good illustration of the multi-national nature of the war in South East Asia.

Dopesheet remarks that many of the men seen here had been imprisoned for over two years.

Scene at No.9 Base General Hospital apparently shot with sound, but soundtrack appears not to have survived for Archive preservation.