As the fight for Burma's second city of Mandalay continues Richard Casey, Governor of Bengal, visits Mandalay Hill with Generals Slim, Rees and others, and they watch the bombardment of Japanese-held Fort Dufferin.

View from Mandalay Hill; a Republic Thunderbolt fighter aircraft flies away from camera towards Fort Dufferin and two bombs fall from its wings. A thick column of dust. A Thunderbolt vanishes into a cloud of dust. Two shots of Thunderbolts dropping bombs. View of Fort Dufferin with a tall vertical plume of dust. Views of Fort Dufferin. Camera follows a party of visitors walking left-to-right. The leading figure is probably Major-General Rees, commander of 19th Indian Divsion, and following behind is Richard Gardiner Casey, Governor of Bengal, and Lieutenant-General Sir William Slim, comander 14th Army (with slung carbine). The party climbs a staircase towards the top of Mandalay Hill and a small boy watches them pass. Rees, Slim and Casey looking out over the city from a balcony (light in this shot very bright and thus somewhat blown out). View from the forward slope looking back at the figures on the balcony. The visitors look at a large bell which is rocking slightly on its mounting. The party leaves a pongyi chaung or monastery; another monastery can be seen further up the hill on the left of frame.

Notes

The political and symbolic value of the imminent fall of Mandalay attracted various senior political and military figures, and a number of service and commercial cameraman, to Mandalay Hill. For other coverage of this visit, see related items.

Mandalay fell a few days after this film was taken.