Tanks and men from 255th Armoured Brigade and 17th Indian Division spearhead the advance across the Irrawaddy River towards Meiktila, Burma, and en route an airfield is captured at Thabutkon without opposition.

A mortar is aimed and mortar rounds are prepared for firing. Troops of 17th Indian Division IV Corps walk through deserted and damaged buildings; they carry various weapons including a Bren gun. A column of Sherman tanks of Probyn's Horse (5th King Edward VII's Own Lancers) cross dusty ground and pass British troops of 9th Battalion Border Regiment lying prone in the scrub. There are some 105mm Priest self-propelled guns of 18th Field Regiment Royal Artillery making up part of the column. A dead Japanese soldier is examined; he has a steel helmet with a star on the front. A Sherman tank is followed by troops of 6th Battalion 7th Rajputana Rifles. A building burns as a column of lorries, jeeps, Sherman tanks and Priest self-propelled guns pass it on the road. An injured Japanese prisoner is treated on a stretcher. British troops mount a Sherman tank and are driven into the distance. The Border Regiment clear a small village and sweep it for enemy soldiers. A CG-4A Hadrian glider is towed across an airfield by jeep and drums of cable are unloaded. A C-47 Dakota (Skytrain) lands and several others taxi. Men of 1st Battalion 3rd Gurkha Rifles disemplane and gather their kit. A Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun is ready for action. A C-47 taxis behind the Bofors gun.

Notes

The airfield captured is not in Meiktila itself, but is instead probably the field at Thabutkon, which according to the official history was taken at 2pm on 26 February with work beginning immediately to fill in slit trenches and craters. The fly-in of 99th Brigade was undertaken by the US Army Air Force's 1st Air Commando, making 53 Dakota sorties by the end of 27 February, and the fly-in being complete by 2 March.

Meiktila was a major battle in which IV Corps sought to destroy a large Japanese garrison and secure a number of key strategic airfields. Meiktila also stood at the head of the main road to Rangoon, and after its initial capture there followed a number of determined Japanese counterattacks throughout March 1945 before it was completely secure.