Infantry of 1st Battalion, Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) seen patrolling in monsoon conditions in the flooded 'Sittang Bend' area near Waw, Burma.

An infantry patrol walks across an ankle-deep river. They board assault boats on the Pegu-Sittang Canal. The boats motor away. Men boarding. A file of men walk towards camera with a hut behind them. They get into local boats which are punted away by local boatmen. Men disembark at a post marked 'B-62'. A soldier bailing water out of the boat. A file of soldiers approaches a wooden building (a house?). Men cross a paddy field. Soldier pass a bullock drawing a plough and driver. Men crossing a paddy field with a tall pagoda spire in the distance. Men removing their boots and socks and washing themselves. A man scrubs his clothes with soap. Men queue for tea from a can. A soldier puts a cylindrical can, full of pale liquid, onto a small fire while another chops a bit of wood with a machete. A tall statue of a chinthe (a mythical Burmese guardian creature); tilt down to a number of soldiers sat smoking at its base.

Notes

By May 1945 XXXIII Corps had advanced down the Irrawaddy Valley, and IV Corps down the Rangoon road, resulting in large numbers of Japanese troops scattering into the Pegu Yomas (hills) and the Shan Hills. The 1945 monsoon broke in the first week of May and by June a large area around the lower Sittang River, seen in this film, was an inpenetrable swamp. A week after this film was shot the Japanese began a breakout operation, known in Allied histories as the Battle of the Sittang Bend, that cost the Japanese Army 11,500 casualties.

Very similar material was also shot by Sergeant Hammond. For this, and other film relating to the lower Sittang, see related items.