An edition of Fox Movietone News, Australian Edition, volume 16 no. 22, showing the Australian troops of 9th Division invading Tarakan in May 1945 during the Borneo campaign against the Japanese.

Brief high shot overlooking a march past. Title: ‘AUSTRALIANS LEAD ASSAULT ON BORNEO’. View of a beachhead with lorries and Landing Ship Tanks. Buffalo and Alligator amphibians. Supply and logistic organisation ‘puts success beyond all doubt’. Australian troops board landing craft. General Thomas Blamey meets the troops. Senior officers conferring; General Leslie Morshead. United States Navy Admiral Forrest Royal. Major-General George Wootten. Air Commodore Harry Cobby. Assault an ‘all Australian’ affair. Bombing up Royal Australian Air Force Liberator heavy bombers. MJ:B of RAAF 21 Squadron takes off. Liberators overhead. Aerial footage (Liberator GR:H of RAAF 24 Squadron); Liberators drop leaflets ‘to tell the Japs the truth. And then sticks of bombs to impress it upon them!’. Aerial views of bomb damage. Australian Imperial Force sea convoy bound for Tarakan. Officers brief their men, a ‘Borneo native’ amongst them. Naval bombardment. Landing craft head ashore; ‘landing unopposed, with a minimum of casualties’. Troops go ashore. Objective secured in four days. Troops moving up; they pass ‘liberated natives’ seeking ‘care and attention’ at the beachhead. Food and medical attention for emaciated local people. Tanks and artillery. ‘Peace in Europe but the war in the Pacific goes on. Now the AIF has a task in keeping with its magnificent fighting tradition.’ Movietone closing titles. Fox Movietone News Australian Edition Volume 16 No. 22.

Notes

Series note: The MWY series of films is believed to be part of a ‘pool’ of film received by the Government of India from various sources, including South East Asia Command, the Indian Inter-Service Public Relations Directorate, the Ministry of Information, and from Allied governments. This footage would have been considered for editing and release through the Indian Newsreel Parade; see INR series.