Reel 1: Tented camp; two men in berets attend to two 3-inch mortars; one checks the elevation adjustment of one of the mortars. Men with 2-inch mortars and ammunition. Men with Bren gun magazines. Men washing clothes. Men at a tent; they are all wearing berets (probably Commandos) and are cleaning weapons. Men opening crates at the Sick Bay. Close-up of a crate marked 'OHMS [On His Majesty's Service] Urgent Medical Stores - To: The Officer Commanding No.11 Indian Base Medical Stores Colombo Ceylon - Please Rush - Blood Transfusion Stores'. Red cross flag flying over tents. Men at work assembling a small canoe from poles and canvas. The completed canoe. Men playing football. Back in camp signals stores are laid out and checked. Dump with sacks and crates and vehicles moving. Pile of signs reading 'Mines' or 'Safe Lane'. Officers (?) in tent; discussion over a map. Assembling a two-wheel trolley. Man packing stores with piles of coiled signal wire behind him. Fueling a 'Lifebuoy' flamethrower. The flamethrower is tested and incinerates a small tree. More stores packed; some men are 'bombing up' Bren gun magazines. At sea; one man cleans his rifle, others look at a map. Marines and sailors pose for the camera. Assembled ships. Parked vehicles and men waiting to embark; this location possibly the Naf River. Pan of waiting men with ships anchored behind. Men along a jetty. Into landing craft; some men appear to be wearing Scots bonnets. Stores manhandled aboard. Landing craft motoring away. Passing a small warship, possibly a Royal Indian Navy Black Swan class sloop. Aboard ship with landing craft alongside. On a landing craft. Men aboard the landing craft. Looking at the fleet. Other landing craft and motor launches.

Reel 2: Onboard the landing craft; men appear relaxed. Views of other craft. Troops disembarking and carrying stores up the beach. Signaller using semaphore; fast pan to ship. More landing craft come ashore including a Landing Craft Tank (LCT); a Sherman tank (probably of 19th Lancers) with wading exhausts drives up the beach. Laying track up the beach. Another Sherman is guided off an LCT with hand signals. More men up the beach carrying stores. Troops marching inland. Abandoned Japanese field gun. Passing a damaged building. Views of Akyab harbour (?), now with Union flag flying. Jeep command post; signallers use a wireless set and make notes. Men settling down, washing and shaving themselves and cleaning their weapons. Troops in file on a road through open ground; they pass camera. A Universal carrier manouevres around a lorry. A roofless brick building; an arched entranceway is marked '[illegible] and Mackenzie Co. Burma Ltd'. Bomb damage on Bazaar Road. More damage. A building marked 'Sangu Valley Trading'. Pagoda spires in distance. Indian troops and landing craft; a light aircraft overhead. Light aircraft makes low pass. Bulldozer driving onto landing craft. Bulldozer is guided backwards onto the landing craft.

Troops prepare for amphibious landings on Akyab island, off Burma's Arakan coast, with views of bomb damage after the landings.

Notes

No dopesheet for this film. This film appears to show the landings on Akyab in January 1945. The official history relates that Akyab town was occupied on 4 January; this film therefore probably dates from the last week of December to the first week of January. The brick building seen is probably of Mackinnon, Mackenzie and Company, the managing agents of the British India Steam Navigation Company. The company was founded in 1861, operating successfully as a postal, cargo and passenger line before amalgamating with P&O in 1914.

Footage of the flamethrower in this theatre is very rare.

For other film of activity at Akyab, see related items.