Scenes from 5th Indian Division's drive along the Rangoon road between Pyinmana and Toungoo, Burma, including Indian wounded, Japanese dead, destroyed enemy motor transport, the recovery of Indian prisoners of war and the preparation of an airstrip.

Views of an Indian-manned Vickers medium machine gun being fired. Indian officers conferring. Indian troops walk towards camera; there is a covered walkway leading up a low hill in the background. An Indian soldier has several minor-looking wounds dressed by an Indian doctor with the American Field Service. Walking wounded make their way along a road. Wideshot looking towards a treeline with smoke rising. Japanese dead. Wideshot with a group of Indian troops standing by a tree with a Sherman medium tank of 255th Indian Tank Brigade in the midground. Open ground. A jeep ambulance; wounded are helped aboard. A Stuart ('Honey') light tank, probably of 7th Light Cavalry, with two men riding on the hull stops in front of camera and reverses slightly. British officers conferring, one of them possibly a Major Muskett. Knocked out Japanese lorries, which had apparently driven unawares into an Allied brigade perimeter, with scattered stores. Indian troops knocking down a signpost. A man up a tree chops away at one of the upper branches. Two men use a double-handed saw to chop down a telegraph pole. The pole is pushed down. A light aircraft overhead, probably a Stinson Sentinel. A group of Indian prisoners of war, captured in 1942, with close-ups of Sweeper Mamraj of 'a Punjab Regiment' and of 'Bugga' (another sweeper?) of 19 Hospital Corps. Troops advancing with fixed bayonet past a pile of what looks like aircraft wreckage. A small fire; Indian troops carry a wooden packing case towards it. A fire by a wooden hut; a wooden cart is dumped nearby. Indistinct wideshots. Tracked and wheeled vehicles passing, one of them a Sherman tank named 'Archbishop', possibly of 116th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps.

Notes

These operations form part of IV Corps' southward drive along the road to Rangoon from Meiktila.

The dopesheet preamble for this film refers to an attack on Pyinmana (north of Toungoo) which was taken on 19 April 1945 by 1st Battalion 1st Punjab Regiment and 4th Battalion 7th Rajput Regiment (161st Brigade, 5th Indian Division) with a squadron of 5th (Probyn's) Horse in support. The 'Jap Army HQ' referred to was the headquarters of General Honda's 33rd Army.

The dopesheet also refers to the capture of an airfield at Toungoo, which according to the official history fell on 22 April 1945.

The troops seen knocking down signposts and telegraph poles were preparing the site for a fly-in of American gliders carrying engineering plant. The location for this section is probably the airstrip at Lewe, near Pyinmana, rather than the larger and more strategically significant facilities at Toungoo. For film of the entry to Toungoo, see related items.