Indian Engineers at work building a pontoon bridge. Pushing out beams. Positioning beams. Pulling up a line. The Chief Royal Engineer, Lieutenant-General Sir Ronald Charles, inspects the bridge. He steps down into one of the pontoon boats. An assault boat motors fast towards the river bank and an Indian soldier scrambles out as the boat hits the bank. A motorised pontoon boat passes camera. The cameraman, onboard one of the boats, passes under a bridge towards the site of the pontoon bridge. The cameraman’s boat comes alongside the pontoon bridge.

Indian troops cross a gully using ropes. Troops climbing over a sandbag parapet. Crossing by ropes. Running along high beams and jumping down. Troops climbing up a steep earth bank. Climbing through windows in a brick wall. Climbing down a high wooden frame and running towards a wire across a gully. Indian troops crossing using the wire, with close-up of boots on the cable. Wide shot of the assault course. Troops doing rhythmic physical training. Troops vaulting boxes. Indian troops run and jump up a 10 or 12-feet high wall and climb over; one soldier doesn’t manage it. Closer shot, climbing the wall and dropping down the other side. High shot panning over a massed parade of ten thousand Bengal Sappers and Miners. Charles inspects the parade from a moving jeep. March past; troops march towards camera and make a left turn almost directly below it. Charles at the salute. Sappers marching past.

Assault course; troops leap from a wall to the ground. Troops leaping from a wall over a flaming trench (a banger or small pyrotechnic explodes in the trench). Troops climbing a wooden frame and a climbing a tree to a walkway. A soldier runs across a gap on a length of rail. Soldier climbing out of the pit and crawling into a hedge. Auchinleck’s party moves on. Crossing gap. Auchinleck by a German tank. Watching troops on exercise. Inspecting troops. Presenting a colour to 1st Punjab Regiment. Taking salute at a march past. Auchinleck addressing the Boys Battalion. Auchinleck opens ‘Auchinleck House’ at King George Royal Indian Military School, Jhelum (now the present Indian Army's Military College Jhelum). Boys battalion in PT kit. Auchinleck inspecting. Boys at PT. Auchinleck inspecting British cadets at Dehra Dun.

Two item reel showing (1) Lieutenant-General Sir Ronald Charles, Chief Royal Engineer, inspecting Indian troops of the Bengal Sappers and Miners, who demonstrate bridging techniques, complete an assault course, and mount a parade, and (2) Auchinleck inspects the 1st Punjab Regiment and presents them with a colour, as well as visiting a military school at Jhelum and the Indian Military Academy at Dehra Dun.

Notes

Degree of uncertainty about this film. The reference MWY 16 is associated with a single film item, but with two dopesheets. Not all of the material described on the dopesheet appears to have survived. The first dopesheet describes Charles' visit to the Bengal Sappers and Miners, and the second Auchinleck's visit to 1st Punjab Regiment, Jhelum, and Dehra Dun. The Punjab Regiment and Jhelum material was shot on 29 November 1943, and the Dehra Dun material of 4 December 1943. All of these were shot by Beauchamp.

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.