Troops of 19th Indian Division lay on a special party for children, recently released from Japanese internment, in parkland at Maymyo (Pyin U Lwin), Burma.

Sergeant Hammond's slate number board is seen held by a young (Indian?) boy sitting in a jeep and wearing a steel helmet. British soldiers dance with Anglo-Burmese and Anglo-Indian women at 'The Dagger Arms' a house converted into a canteen. A pianist plays on an upright piano. A lorry with a large loudspeaker broadcasts news to newly liberated internees. Soldiers and girls cutting sandwiches for the party. Children and soldiers watching a performance of 'Stepping Out' by an RAF cast.

Notes

The dopesheet for JFU 177 provides a long and detailed narrative preamble to these events, and credits the idea for this children's party to the cooks of 33rd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery. Other performers apparently included a duet of 'When the Lights of London Shine Again' by two children aged 10 and 6, and 'Danny Boy' by 'a self-possessed young man of 11'. The experience of children freed from internment at Maymyo is also covered in JFU 275. 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 the first rest centres for Allied troops in Burma itself, who previously would have to travel to India for leave.

For more film coverage of this party, and of Maymyo more generally, see related items.