Following the breakout of Japanese forces in the Pegu Yomas, mortars, armoured cars, tanks and infantry are deployed to prevent their escape eastwards, and a number of Japanese prisoners are taken.

Views of a battery of Ordnance SB 4.2-inch heavy mortars in action at a railyard at Penwegon, Burma. An Indian mortar team operate an Ordnance ML 3-inch mortar mounted on a converted Humber Armoured Car. Daimler Armoured Cars of 16th Light Cavalry firing their QF 2-pounder main armament and machine guns. Open ground with drifting smoke. Turret of a Sherman medium tank with coaxial machine gun firing. A Sherman parked by a railway line; a crewman passes ammunition up to another in the turret. Ammunition is passed down into the tank. The tank's main gun firing. Infantry cross a river. Infantry of 1st Battalion 10th Gurkha Rifles advancing in open order across paddy fields. A group of 30 Japanese prisoners of war (POWs) apparently captured east of the River Sittang by Burmese Patriotic Forces (formerly Burma National Army). Shot of prisoners' bare feet. Slow pan across group of POWs; some are without any clothing except loin cloths, others more or less fully clothed and they wear a variety of blank or sullen expressions. The POWs file off. Two Sikhs of 4th Battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment, with a Japanese POW who has his hands bound. Local Burmese porters carrying supplies. Wide shot of Sikhs crossing a paddy field; one misses his footing and falls into a ditch with a splash. Sikhs patrolling across frame.

Notes

Following the advance of 14th Army south through central Burma, large numbers of Japanese troops were dispersed into the Pegu Yomas (hills). While the Japanese 28th Army prepared a breakout operation, British IV Corps spread itself over more than a hundred miles of front in order to block their way. July 1945 proved a disastrous month for the Japanese Army suffering 11,500 dead. Even so, the British official history describes the breakout as 'a heroic effort' and judges that 'most of the 660 POWs were taken only because they were incapable of further effort'.

The heavy mortar unit seen at the start is probably 82nd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery, based on the divisional history of 17th Indian Division. They were attached to 63rd Brigade in the Penwegon area.

In all this film gives a good impression both of the firepower brought to bear and the poor state of the Japanese Army during this final battle. For more footage of the processing and treatment of POWs, see related items.