Troops of 71st Brigade, 26th Indian Division, XV Corps enter Kyauktan (south west of Rangoon) and recently liberated Allied prisoners are seen at Rangoon jail (gaol).

Men push a bogged lorry out of mud. Troops of 1st Battalion 18th Royal Garhwal Rifles marching into Kyauktan. Local people watching the troops march by. View looking over a large crowd of civilians in Rangoon. The crowd waves and applauds. At Rangoon jail a group of newly liberated Allied prisoners of war pose for the camera. In the background the message 'Japs Gone' can be seen on the roof of one of the prison buildings. One of the group unsheaths a Japanese sword, presumably dumped by a Japanese soldier when the prison was abandoned, and waves it triumphantly. The officer commanding Allied prisoners at Rangoon jail, Wing Commander Lionel Hudson, Royal Australian Air Force, and formerly commander of RAF 82 Squadron, seen with his adjutant. Close-up of the thickly bearded Wing Commander Hudson. Prisoners receiving a ration of rice. Some of the men are naked except for loincloths and clearly severely emaciated. A Union flag, previously used only for burials, flying above the jail. Chinese prisoners of war. Indian prisoners behind a barred gate. Indian prisoners, one of them a turban-wearing Sikh, standing close to camera and looking relieved to be free. View of the prison's main gates with a number of former prisoners standing outside. One them is armed with a rifle and bayonet.

Notes

A week before this film was shot 437 men still sufficiently fit had been force-marched out of Rangoon jail on 25 April 1945. The Japanese intention had been to march them to Moulmein for shipment to other camps in South East Asia. However, finding their route cut off, the Japanese cut these prisoners loose. They reached British lines a few days later and were received by 1st Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment, of 17th Division. Some of this party can be seen in the IWM film referenced below.

Soon after their liberation these men were evacuated to India, some going by sea and others by air. Men can be seen embarking at Rangoon docks, and later arriving by hospital ship in Calcutta, in the films referenced below. See related items.

The diary of one of the Rangoon inmates liberated the day this film was shot can be read at the Internet address below. The IWM's Department of Documents also holds a number of accounts by Rangoon jail survivors. Wing Commander Hudson wrote about his experiences in his memoir 'The Rats of Rangoon', a copy of which is held by the Museum's Department of Printed Books.