Indian troops, many of whom had been overseas for several years serving in Africa and the Mediterranean, are flown home to India and arrive at RAF Mauripur near Karachi, India (Pakistan).

A parked Short Stirling, probably a Mk V transport variant, parked at RAF Mauripur with a Consolidated Liberator C Mk VI transport, serial KL667, taxiing behind. The Liberator bears the crest of RAF Transport Command on its nose. An Indian man gives a thumbs-up from the portside waist position. Passengers and crew alighting from the aircraft's belly hatch. Various shots of Indian troops leaving the aircraft and standing about. They are greeted by Air Marshal Sir Charles Roderick Carr, Air Officer Commanding Base Air Forces, South East Asia Command, and Air Commodore G T Jarman, deputy Air Officer Commanding RAF 229 Transport Group. A white-painted Liberator taxis past, probably of Coastal Command. Air Marshal Carr talking with an Indian officer. Troops attending to their kit. Close-up of an RAF Transport Command crest showing a griffin rampant; fast pan to a group of aircrew who laugh, grin and give thumbs-up. More kit unloaded from the belly of the aircraft. A staff car drives towards the camera and a group of senior officers, including Air Marshal Carr and Air Commodore Jarman, get out. The soldiers climb into the back of a lorry marked 'Traffic Trooping'. The lorry drives away and the men wave to the camera. Parked Liberator with another taxiing behind it; a crane crosses shot in foreground. General shots of the airfield; a Liberator airborne in the distance and a Dakota parked in foreground. Local Indian labourers sweeping at the edge of a runway with a Liberator taxiing in the background.

Notes

RAF Mauripur, No. 48 Staging Post, was located 6 miles north of Karachi. An airfield was established there in 1940-41, becoming a full-blown RAF station in 1943. It served as an important air transport node for men and material moving between western and eastern theatres and for casualty evacuation. The base was transferred to the Pakistan Air Force upon independence in 1947 though the RAF continued to use its facilities until late 1956, this being the last active British military presence in the Indian subcontinent.

The Pakistan Air Force continues to operate at Mauripur, the base having since been renamed PAF Masroor. This station served as a base for operational flying during the 1965 and 1971 wars with India.

Still photographs of operations at RAF Mauripur can be seen in the IWM still photographs referenced below.

No slates, date from dopesheet.