19TH INDIAN DIVISION RELAX AT MAYMYO (29/3/1945)

This film is held by the Imperial War Museum (ID: JFU 111).

Synopsis

Just days after the capture of Maymyo (now Pyin U Lwin), central Burma, the town is used as a leave and rest centre for British soldiers.

275th Anti-Tank Battery Royal Artillery hold a dance on a verandah; they dance with local Anglo-Burmese women. One soldier gives a couple of playful leg kicks as he passes camera. The Anglo-Burmese women and the soldiers sit around table laid out with party food. British troops mess around in Harcourt Butler Lake. They jump into the water off a captured Japanese assault boat. A man dries himself with a towel. A horse-drawn carriage, known as a tanga or tonga, pulls up outside a European-looking brick-built house. This building is now used as a canteen and has been dubbed "The Dagger House" after the badge of 19th Indian Division. British soldiers get out of the carriage wearing bush hats and carrying their rifles. One of them pays the driver. A sign reads. "The 19th Dagger Arms" and it has a crudely painted 14th Army badge on it.

Notes

For more footage from 'The Dagger Arms', see related items.

Maymyo was a British hill station which served as the summer capital of Burma due to its cooler and less humid climate than Rangoon. During the war it was the site of a Japanese internment camp in which large numbers of British, Anglo-Indian and Anglo-Burmese civilians were held. After its capture it became one of the first rest centres for Allied troops in Burma itself, who previously would have to travel to India for leave.

 

Titles

  • 19TH INDIAN DIVISION RELAX AT MAYMYO (29/3/1945) (Allocated)
Series Title:
BRITISH ARMY OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR
 

Technical Data

Year:
1945
Running Time:
2 minutes
Film Gauge (Format):
35mm
Colour:
B&W
Sound:
Silent
Footage:
187 ft
 

Production Credits

Production Countries:
GB
Sponsor
War Office Directorate of Public Relations
cameraman
Beech, P M (Sergeant)
Production company
SEAC Film Unit
 

Countries

 

Production Organisations