Reel 1: Men gathered around sketch map. Close-up with finger pointing out various locations. A Burmese instructor in front of a blackboard teaches RAF airmen basic phrases such as 'Where are the Japs?' and 'Have you any food?'. Models of huts demonstrate differences in local constructon methods. A medical officer demonstrates the contents of a survival kit including water sterilisation tablets, anti-malarial tablets, aspirin, salt, potassium permanganate, morphine, anti-burn mittens, fishing tackle, jungle torch, waterproof matches and anti-mosquito cap. An airman demonstrates the anti-mosquito cap. Close-up on insect specimens including centipede, spider and scorpions. Shots of bamboo used as cooking utensil. Meat cooked on bamboo skewers. Two Burmese eating rice from leaves. A British airman with pistol and kukri lights a cigarette before walking into the jungle. Airman walking through jungle, pauses to relight cigarette. Men in clearing setting a trap made from a spiked tree limb. A Burmese man splices bamboo and demonstrates how to make rope from it. An airman tries twisting strands together. The finished rope is tested in a tug of war. Panning landscape shot. Demonstration of trip wire, pit trap and spiked tree limb trap.

Reel 2: Spiked tree limb and pit trap. Burmese man leads an airman through the jungle. Wide shot of a raft under construction, panning past a hut and then to a group of airmen making snares. A snare is demonstrated. Closer shot of raft under construction. Burmese man demonstrates a simple wooden bow. An airman in his underwear pushes a small raft carrying his clothes across a lake, possibly Lake Venna. A two-man raft is paddled across a lake. Shot of flagpole with RAF ensign before panning to buildings. Airmen emerging from undergrowth before pausing to check their direction with a compass. Men sleeping. Burmese man with airman - close-up on cigarette packet (Players). Two-man raft coming ashore. Men leave rafts and head into jungle. Burmese leads airman up rocky outcropping. Group of airmen washing by the side of a creek before suddenly running away, some only partly dressed. Man looking out. Man swimming in small pool with waterfalls.

Reel 3: Lone airman emerges from jungle but then falls into a hidden pit. British men in a clearing shown plucking a bird, eating, roasting a vegetable over a fire and drinking from a bamboo container. Men walking in the jungle, one points out a sign left on a tree. Airman asleep in tree wakes up and fires a catapult. Burmese man and airman with bow and arrow. Men hacking their way through undergrowth. Men leaving a building with dog. Airmen on balcony before descending a flight of stairs. Men appearing from behind cover and walking through jungle. Raft under construction. Man swimming. Three takes of a Burmese man smoking by lakeside, before suddenly getting up. Lone airman walking stops to rest. Burmese man with airman.

Scenes of instruction in jungle survival at RAF Mahabaleshwar, in the Western Ghats, Maharashtra, India

Notes

Dopesheet adds that despite this school being in western India, the instructors are Kachins, described as 'a sturdy race of Burmese hillmen'. Prior to the Japanese invasion the Kachin people had been reasonably well integrated in the British colonial state, partly due to their Christian faith, and during the war would distinguish themselves for their effectiveness as guerillas and for their assistance of stranded soldiers and airmen.

Some of this footage appears in an edited form with sound on the RAF's 'The Gen' newreel No.12. See reference below.

This footage can also be seen in a cut and assembled form, complete with voiceover commentary, in ABY 158.

Multiple dates on slates, likely filmed over several days. Date on dopesheet 16/9/1944.