Part 1, shot by Sergeant Benedict: Outside a wooden hut (a command post?) a British brigadier wearing the triangular insignia of 26th Indian Division gets into a jeep with a number of Indian soldiers as escort. He drives away. On a dirt road the stationary car starts up and passes camera followed by a jeep marked Official photographer. A 5.5-inch gun (possibly 6th Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery) passes camera followed by the jeeps again. The brigadier speaking to another officer.Group of officers sit on the ground in a circle with maps in their laps.

Part 2: shot by Sergeant Benedict: Grant medium tank (possibly 146th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps?) driving towards camera and kicking up dust. More Grants pass. Indian infantry climb aboard a tank. Tanks driving slowly with infantry crowded on their hull. Jeep follows with British brigadier (?) driving. Jeep; pan to tanks driving across a shallow chaung (river or watercourse). More tanks cross. A lorry towing a 25-pounder field gun with men hanging off it; one man loses his hat. A number of towed 25-pounders are driven across a chaung. An RAF Stinson Sentinel, serial KJ450, lands in a field, taxis to a halt and a 26th Indian Division brigadier climbs out. He drives away in a jeep.

Part 3, shot by Sergeant Paul (?): Somewhere on the River Irrawaddy, a view from water of a beached river steamer of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company named Ontario; a XXXIII Indian Corps DUKW (Duck) amphibian beached alongside. The DUKWs attempt to drag the Ontario off the beach; there is a large pagoda behind. Various views of the Ontario. More shots; the Ontario slides into the water.

Part 4, shot by Sergeant Block: View from beach with DUKWs on the water and bulldozer on the beach. Men at work on the beach. Men onboard the Ontario. Bulldozer passing and shunting the Ontario. Men heave on a pole to lever the boat into the water. The boat slide free and men literally jump up and down and clap with delight. Looking up at the pagoda on the waterfront with people watching. Men on the beach. The Ontario afloat. Close-up of an Indian Electrical and Mechanical Engineer officer addressing his men. Ontario with men on the beach in foreground. Two officers, a British sergeant and some of the Indian troops pose for the camera. People watching from the pagoda. Ontario with DUKWs.

A four-part film, shot by American cine cameramen of the South East Asia Command Photo Unit, showing a 26th Indian Division conference in the Arakan, tanks and guns crossing a river, and the refloating of an Irrawaddy Flotilla Company steamer, the Ontario.

Notes

Something of an odd reel with a number of heterogeneous elements. The presence of 26th Indian Division implies a location in Arakan coastal region, but the footage of the Ontario comes from 7th Indian Division's area of operations on the Irrawaddy in central Burma. Being shot at around the same time it seems likely that these films were compiled onto a single reel when received from the field. The cameraman's slate in Part 1 gives the location as 'Zenia', but it is not clear where this is. At the time, 26th Indian Division was beginning its preparations for the amphibious assault on Rangoon, Operation Dracula.

For stills coverage of the refloating of the Ontario, see related items.