Film showing the movement of supplies from the port of Chittagong, India (Bangladesh), to Dohazari and onwards by road to the front in the Arakan, Burma.

View down through an open hatch into the hold of a supply ship at Chittagong. The hold is full of aircraft bombs of various sizes and a hook is lowered down into the hold. Four 500-pound aircraft bombs are lifted out. They are lowered into a waiting railway wagon. View inside the wagon full of bombs neatly stacked. Close-up of the bombs being unhooked from the crane. A winch in operation. View of the dockside. A pallet of petrol tins is lowered to the dockside. The tins are unloaded by a human chain of dock workers. View of the dockside with trains, cranes and merchant ships. Railway lines in the foreground with ships behind. A berthed merchantman. Rolls of bitumenised hessian sheeting (bithess), for constructing improvised roads and airfields, are piled on the dockside with a moving crane and a smoking funnel in the background. A goods train slowly rolls away. View from a ship of the dockside. The quayside; ships and cranes stretch into the distance. A crane hoists a steamroller off the deck of a ship and lowers it onto the quay. Close-up of the crane machinery in operation. The roller is driven away. Some large oil-pumping machinery is lowered onto a flatbed railway car. A Chevrolet CMP lorry is lifted out of a hold and set down on the quayside. In the background a second lorry is also set down. The lorry is driven away. A jeep is unloaded. Chevrolet lorries drive off a railway car. Second angle. Dockers carry sacks towards a waiting goods wagon and load them aboard. A sign, spreading slightly out of frame, reads 'Chittagong'. A train, marked 'B&A' (Bengal and Assam Railway), drives away. Close-up of the train's wheels rolling. Urban street scene (in Dohazari?) with military traffic running in both directions. A traffic policeman on a podium gives directions while standing in the shade of an umbrella. Oil drums are loaded onto a lorry. Lorries leaving Chittagong dockside. Right-to-left panning view over Chittagong (?) revealing an Ordnance QF 40mm Bofors light anti-aircraft gun. An observer looks out over the town with binoculars. Second panning shot with motor transport visible on the road in the distance. A train with the driver leaning out from the cab. The locomotive gets underway. Second angle of the traffic policeman seen earlier with military and civilian pedestrians. Motor transport on a road. A sign reads 'Arakan Road: Parking Area. All OC Convoys for Arakan report to start point prior to leaving this area'. Motor vehicles passing a mosque (?) with a sign reading 'Starting Point: Arakan Road'. Lorries on a road across fields with birds wheeling overhead. The vehicles are loaded onto a train. A military policeman stops a vehicle. A sarcastic sign reads 'IEME [Indian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers] - Go Slow and Enjoy Our Scenery'.

Notes

The dopesheet adds that Dohazari (spelled Deosahri) is the nearest railhead to the Arakan, forward of which all supplies have to go by road, but adds that some are also carried to Cox's Bazaar by small ships and barges. According to the official history, the Arakan road ran as far as Buthidaung.

No date is given on the dopesheet. However, after the fall of Akyab Island and Ramree in January and February 1945, both of these became important logistical centres. The fact that there is no mention of either on the dopesheet may imply that this film was shot before they were captured. This is partially supported by a number of other films adjacent in the sequence which date from late 1944.

Other films relating to supply and communications in India and Burma can be found at the references below. See related items.