Scenes of RAF 211 Squadron Bristol Beaufighter ground attack aircraft being serviced before mounting attacks on enemy positions and transport from an airfield at Chiringa, India.

A Beaufighter under a tarpaulin is uncovered. 20mm ammunition is loaded and an engine cowling replaced. Three views, including close-ups, of 60lb rocket projectiles ('RP') being fitted to their launching rails. Navigator climbs up through crew boarding hatch. One engine starts up. Second aircrew boards an aircraft. Beaufighter shown taxiing before a mechanic is seen winding an engine. More shots of aircraft taxiing before footage of a Beaufighter taking off. A mechanic pauses from cleaning another aircraft's guns to watch the Beaufighter. Two angles of the aircraft getting airborne. Internal shots from the Beaufighter's cockpit, looking forward over the pilot's shoulder. Airborne views of the Burmese countryside, with fields, woodland and many Buddhist temples. Nose view of cannon attack on barges on Irrawaddy River near Pagan. Shots of low flying over Burmese plain. Shallow dive cannon attack on buildings with cannon strikes visible. Further cannon attacks on targets in wooded area. Internal shot looking down and back over target areas. Nose view of cannon attack on motor vehicle. Cannon attack against train on Lashio-Mandalay railway. Internal shot looking down over target. Burning railway wagons clearly visible with dense smoke.

Notes

One aircraft identifiable as NE-752.

Pilots named on dopesheet: Squadron Leader Muller-Rowland and Warrant Officer White.

Chiringa (north-east of Cox's Bazaar) now in Bangladesh.

No slates, date from dopesheet.

One of the cameramen of this piece, Warrant Officer John Laing McKee, was killed on 21 January 1945. Flying in a Liberator heavy bomber of RAF 99 Squadron supporting the landings on Ramree Island, McKee's aircraft collided with another Liberator of the same squadron and both disintegrated. All aboard both aircraft were killed. McKee, and the nineteen other aircrew of the two bombers, are buried in the CWGC Maynamati War Cemetery, near Comilla in Bangladesh.