A bridge over a small river. A small empty lorry crosses. Series of static shots of bomb-damaged buildings. Many are missing their roofs or are spilling rubble into the street. A small group of local Burmese run towards the camera. More broken buildings. A jeep with two British servicemen drives along a street.…
A bridge over a small river. A small empty lorry crosses. Series of static shots of bomb-damaged buildings. Many are missing their roofs or are spilling rubble into the street. A small group of local Burmese run towards the camera. More broken buildings. A jeep with two British servicemen drives along a street. Shot down a long street with damaged buildings and Burmese civilians (including women and children) milling about. Two men push bicycles. A lone man walks past a bombed-out building with his shirt over his head against the sun. Two Burmese men push a heavily laden tricycle or rickshaw. Railway wreckage. A gutted station. Wrecked wagons and coaches. Two British men walking around the station. A staff jeep, with miniature flags and the dagger insignia of the 19th Indian Division, pulls up and Mountbatten gets out. With him in the jeep are a general wearing a 19th Indian Division patch (presumably Major-General Thomas Wynford Rees), Air Marshal Sir Keith Park and an American officer, likely Major-General Horace Hayes Fuller (US Army, Deputy Chief of Staff, South East Asia Command). The other officers get out and chat briefly. The officers get back into their jeep and drive away while a second jeep follows. Mountbatten chatting with three men, probably of the Royal Tank Regiment (based on beret and cap badge). The party visits a temple. Shot of an impressively large statue of a chinthe or mythical lion-like guardian. Walking up the covered southern steps of Mandalay Hill (AKA Pagoda Hill or Monastery Hill). Mountbatten and Park get back into their jeep as a small group of Gurkha troops pass by. Jeeps passing through the gates of Fort Dufferin. The jeeps steer around a small crater in the road, possibly from a mortar. Mountbatten and the rest of his party inspect an abandoned Japanese tank. The party view various parts of the fort and city.
Notes
Mountbatten's visits to Mandalay were also covered by British Army cameramen. See related items.
The cameraman of this piece, Flight Lieutenant Sidney Woodcock, was killed in action. He and his pilot, Flight Lieutenant J G Buchanan of RAF 110 Squadron, failed to return after a Mosquito sortie over Rangoon on 2 May 1945. They are buried in adjacent plots in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Rangoon War Cemetery.
