START 10:00:00 An African motorcycle despatch rider (DR) motors past the camera during manoeuvres in Kenya or Madagascar. Wearing steel helmets, African soldiers serving with the King's African Rifles (KAR) make their way through dried-up bushes with SMLE Mk III rifles and a Boyes .5-inch anti-tank rifle. They take a break from their march and rest in the shade of a tree. Two African soldiers lying prone on the ground next to their two-inch mortar.

10:01:10 An intertitle: 'General Platt Bids Farewell to Belgian Congo Troops'. Shots showing General Sir William Platt, Commander-in-Chief East Africa Command (1941-1945), inspecting rows of Askaris from the Belgian Congo somewhere in Kenya (?) in company with senior Belgian and British military officers and government officials.

10:02:04 Shots showing a column of Ford 30-cwt trucks fitted with wide GS (General Service) bodies motoring slowly along uneven dirt roads during manoeuvres in Kenya or Madagscar, with African soldiers and their belongings riding in the back.

10:02:47 Shots filmed early in 1944 showing three lines of KAR infantrymen serving with 22nd (East African) Brigade boarding a Ford 3-ton lorry parked in the shade under a tree somewhere in Madagascan bush country; another infantry detachment climbs into another lorry (a Dodge 3-tonner) parked nearby. The Dodge 3-ton lorry and the Ford 3-tonner motor past the camera. The two troop-carrying lorries are seen arriving at a spot overlooking a bay on the Indian Ocean. Their complement of fully-armed KAR soldiers jump down from the vehicles and mount an infantry attack in something like platoon strength.

10:03:57 Shots of palm trees and other tropical greenery on the top of a beach on Madagascar overlooking the Indian Ocean. KAR soldiers charge up a slope with fixed bayonets as a smoke shell shell bursts in the foreground. A KAR Sergeant poses with his Thompson M1928 sub machine-gun for the camera.

10:04:34 Sunset views on stretches of the Madagascan shore - palm trees or coconut trees on top of a sandy beach, a sandy bay and a headland covered in tropical trees etc.

10:06:50 Scenes filmed in Madagascar (?) showing first aid training for KAR soldiers: an aerial ropeway is used to bring a battle-casualty in a stretcher down from a hillside. An African soldier simulating bone fractures has his legs braced and his hands tied together by the wrists before being dragged along the ground at the end of a strap attached to his upper torso and put onto a stretcher by two of his comrades. Another 'casualty' in a brace is lowered by rope from a tree. Suspended on slings from a wooden pole between two bearers, he is then carried off. Two 'battle casualties' with broken limbs are seen lying on the ground; one of them has his left arm put in a sling.

10:07:06 Two South African-built Marmon-Herrington Mk II armoured cars manned by African crews on manoeuvres. Two Africans wearing steel helmets, one the driver, in the front compartment of a Universal carrier. Point of view shot from the carrier as it pivots on its tracks. A Universal carrier (registration T65603) balancing on a conical hillock and motoring down it. A panning shot over an expanse of terrain dotted with trees (unknown location). A bare-headed KAR soldier sitting in the back of a Universal carrier aims his Bren gun. African riflemen filing past a 3-ton lorry parked in a fold in the ground and advancing purposefully towards the camera with their rifles and bayonets. The same group of African soldiers - one Lance-Corporal and six riflemen - in single file past the camera. Two Universal carriers. The driver of one of them turns his steering wheel to the right.

10:08:47 A view along a row of palm or coconut trees on top of a sandy beach with African riflemen in position behind each tree. (Accidental upside down shots of the Bren gunner in his Universal carrier). Two Universal carriers parked next to each other, a barrel of Boyes .5-inch anti-tank rifle poking out of the firing embrasure of the vehicle on the left. Two soldiers, one of them carrying a box of ammunition with him, leap out of one of the carriers. A line of KAR soldiers charges out of the surf towards the camera and advance in shallow water along a beach in Madagascar.

10:09:28 KAR soldiers lash wooden (bamboo ?) poles on either side of a stretcher to allow it to be towed behind a draught animal. Under the supervision of a European NCO, they attack the trails of the extended stretcher to the saddle on a mule. A demonstration showing how a battle casualty, here being played by the NCO, can be transported back down the line for proper medical treatment on the stretcher drawn by a mule.

10:10:28 Scenes from manoeuvres carried out by the King's African Rifles in the Aberdare Mountains of Kenya (?); men from a headquarters unit in position in a narrow donga (a ditch created by soil erosion in the rainy season) and infantrymen deployed in open order in high-veld country. Clearly visible in both shots are aerials for portable wireless transmitter/receiver sets.

10:10:37 African and British sappers serving with the East African engineers use a pneumatic drill and pick axes and spades to break up rock hard soil at the approach to a crossing over a stream which they are building for tracked vehicles somewhere in Kenya or Madagascar. Other African sappers are seen preparing the site for a bridge crossing on the far side of the stream marked out with three long white tapes. The sappers building the approaches prepare the site for a demolition charge to widen the gap. A brief view of the smoke and dust from the resulting explosion. African sappers gather rocks and heavy boulders to construct a ford for tracked vehicles across the stream A Universal carrier manned by an African crew is guided by a British sapper officer through the narrow gap in the steep river bank made by the sappers and is driven across the ford. Sappers continue their work on preparing the site for a bridge crossing.

10:13:21 An Ordnance QF 25-pounder gun-howitzer position filmed somewhere in the Northern Frontier District of Kenya in 1945, with the gun barrel being elevated. Two British officers and an African signaller manning an artillery Observation Post (OP). One of the officers notes the location of a target on his map. A field artillery battery command post manned by two African signallers and a British battery commander. Five African gunners close up around their Mk III/1 25-pounder gun-howitzer. The gun layer brings the gun onto the correct target bearing and elevation.

10:14:25 East African sappers assemble a Bailey Bridge on one side of the River Tana (?) in Kenya's Northern Frontier District sometime in 1945. The bridge spans a gap 250 feet wide gap. A tracking shot over the newly-completed crossing.

10:16:10 Lieutenant-General Sir Kenneth Anderson, Commander-in-Chief East Africa Command, is seen riding around in a jeep (registration M1346419) with his driver and his African batman (in the back) and conferring with British Army brigade and battalion commanders and staff officers during manoeuvres in hot bush country in Kenya, sometime in 1945.

10:17:00 A Union flag and brightly-decorated banners with Arabic lettering at a gathering of tribal elders and former members of the King's African Rifles (wearing their old campaign medals) somewhere in Kenya where, judging by the Arab clothing worn by many of the men seen here, there is a majority Moslem population. A senior British Army officer, most likely General Sir George Giffard, former Inspector-General of the King's African Rifles (1936-1943), meets members, past and present, of the King's African Rifles. Close-ups of the decorations on the chest of one KAR veteran - they comprise the 1905-1906 Nandi Campaign medal, the 1914-1915 Star, the 1914-1919 Victory Medal and the 1914-1920 British War Medal.

END 10:18:26

Troops recruited in East Africa train for active service against the Japanese in South-East Asia.

Notes

Summary: John Wernham recorded audio commentary over this film on 14 May 1992, DVD Reel 6 "Reel 22" from 6.20 to end.

After the May-October 1942 campaign to secure Madagascar from the Vichy French, the island was garrisoned by 22nd (East African) Brigade until May 1944 when it returned to Kenya. This information helps to identify the African troops Sergeant Wernham filmed on manoeuvres in Madagascar.

The artillery unit seen here might have been part of 307th (East African) Field Regiment RA for which the war against Japan ended too soon for it to leave Kenya for active service in Burma.

Remarks: This material, together with the rest of Wernham's film record of his time in East Africa, constitutes a valuable and possibly unique pictorial record at this time in the region's colonial history.