Reel 1: Panning shot showing an apparently intact (T-shaped?) single-storey building on a hillside in the Kohima area with devastation all around. View from the hillside looking down over the same building and with a road visible across a valley; possibly the strategically important Dimapur-Imphal road; pan shows a smaller wrecked building. Distant shot of a hilltop with small buildings and dotted with parachutes; slight pan left. British troops make their way up the hillside towards camera. Dim footage, probably in a tent, with Naga tribesmen talking to a seated British man in civilian dress, described on the dopesheet as a Civil Liaison Officer with a table of maps in front of him. Closer shots with discussion over the map. In the jungle a party of Nagas in traditional dress prepare to mount a patrol; a man points out something in the distance. One or two of the men have apparently antiquated firearms but most are armed with spears or hatchet-like edged weapons. Medium close-ups and profiles of Naga men with good views of their hairstyles, beads, clothing and weapons. The Nagas set off into the jungle. Shots of the Nagas moving stealthily through the jungle with spears at the ready. An Allied Douglas Dakota transport aircraft drops supplies by parachute on a hill. Dakota passing. Another Dakota passing with supplies dropping. More distant views of Dakotas dropping supplies. Slow pan showing parachutes hanging in trees. Pan showing crouching soldier and then an emptied parachute supply bundle. Pack mules are led up the hillside (same location as opening shot). A (probably Japanese) corpse lying amongst rubble. View from inside a damaged wooden building (probably the small hut seen in the second shot) of mules being led up the hillside; water streams in from the broken roof and men hasten down the hill. Soldiers walking in single file along a hillside away from camera. Grant tanks and Universal carriers on a road with men stood about; a carrier rolls slowly towards camera. Light lorry and motorcycle drive away from camera and a man climbs out of the carrier. Men carrying supplies and a lorry enters shot. Low angle looking up as a Grant tank rolls slowly forward. Close-up of the tank's tracks and running gear as it passes; after the tank passes there is a momentary glimpse of a (knocked out?) Stuart ('Honey') light tank. Smokescreen spreading of an opposite hillside. Hawker Hurricane fighter-bombers overhead.

Reel 2: Mules on a road with a steep embankment on the left side, a small building in right midground and cloud or smoke in background. Distant hillside (Jail Hill?) with small huts and bare trees; a small explosion raises dust in the centre of shot on the skyline. A Hurricane overhead. Long shot of a steep hillside with smoke drifting behind. Wide shot of a field battery position. Wide shot of an Ordnance QF 25-pounder field gun being fired and reloaded. Closer shot. 'Profile' view of the gun from 90-degrees to its line of fire (gun appears to be firing to the left). Close-up of the muzzle as the barrel recoils (gun still appears to be firing to the left of frame). View of the gun from almost directly behind. Smoke spreading on hillside in the distance; slow pan right. More smoke on hillside. View of a 25-pounder from the gun's right hand side. Two rear-quarter shots showing the gun and the 'No.1' or gun commander; the No. 1 is seen to shout 'fire' and the barrel recoils. Close-up of the muzzle. Two views of the battery position with multiple guns firing. View from directly behind a gun looking over the gunshield. View of the breech block as the gun is fired and reloaded. Slightly out of focus shot of the gun commander shouting 'fire'. Side-on shot of the loader and layer at their positions; the layer fires the gun and checks his sight while the loader opens the breach. Close-up of the muzzle. Long shot of the battery position with vehicles on a road in the distance and smoke as the guns fire. More views of a different gun team at work. Infantry moving forward, heavily stooped and with bayonets fixed, in wooded terrain strewn with parachutes. A soldier moves, stooped over, before lying down prone. Men walking along hillside. Closer shot of men walking away from camera. Two kneeling soldiers, one with a Sten submachine gun and the other with a rifle. Troops on wooded hillside. An Indian soldier crawls towards camera on his hands and knees. A wounded man is helped up the hill by three others. Three men behind cover and with their weapons in the aim. A man carries another in a 'fireman's lift' through low undergrowth. A man being carried piggyback. A soldier lying prone behind a tree. Brief shot of a ridge. A soldier dresses another man's wounded arm or wrist; another half-lying nearby. A man runs very fast directly towards the cameraman's position. A soldier crawls on his stomach towards camera and joins a number of others. Three men crawl on hands and knees left-to-right and the camera follows them. One of the men, apparently wounded, is picked up by another who places him across his shoulders and runs away (with surprising speed) while a third man follows; they appear to follow a trench line. A number of soldiers low to the ground. Across a patch of open ground with a broken tree opposite (see note below) a cloud of smoke or dust rises after an explosion. A soldier wearing his steel helmet and looking worse for wear gestures with a folding pocket knife. Another explosion across open ground raises dust or smoke and debris rains down. A single figure makes his way across the open ground towards the site of the explosions. The man seen in earlier with the pocket knife with others. Men looking at a patch of smoking ground next to a large sheet of corrugated metal, presumably a collapsed roof. In an area of damaged open-sided huts a man sprints out of shot. Two men in an area of smashed trees and wreckage with thin smoke drifting. Static shot of the broken tree seen earlier (the tennis court?) with men's heads visible in silhouette. A man in steel helmet fires a revolver, apparently into a Japanese dugout. A patch of open ground with a tumbledown shack with corrugated metal roof, probably close to one end of the tennis court. Man wearing steel helmet with revolver, and with a broken lanyard trailing from his belt and cigarette between his teeth, cautiously investigates an area screened with corrugated metal sheeting. In the same area another man creeps forward. A man with Bren gun at the ready peers over the metal sheeting. A shot (taken from a safe distance) appears to show a man armed with a pole charge (a wad of high explosive on the end of a long pole) blowing in a Japanese bunker close to the metal-screened area. A man takes cover on a bank of earth and a moment later an explosion blasts earth into the air. The man with revolver, still smoking his cigarette, glances at the camera before walking away; other men stand about. One of the men's uniform is noticeably lighter than the others. Smoke drifting below the tennis court. An explosion within a few yards of the cameraman rains debris down on him but as he gets up we see two men (presumably the soldiers seen in previous shots) who were even closer to the explosion than he was. Camera follows the drifting smoke. View from a foxhole or crater, with cameraman obviously keeping very close to the ground, as a powerful explosion showers him with earth and a piece of sheet metal flies towards him (the cameraman noticeably presses himself a little closer to the ground). A Grant tank picks its way through trees and passes camera; a Stuart light tank can be seen behind and the Grant traverses its turret. Three shots showing men checking an area strewn with debris next to a long, low sheet metal hut. Shot of the tennis court area with smoke drifting. A man is handed a square metal tin (containing explosives?) and sprints off across the tennis court with it. Smoke rises from the slope just past the tennis court. The man seen earlier with pocket knife leans on a stick and talking to the men around him; they stand next to a structure apparently built from upright steel girders (this possibly a water tank in the vicinity of the tennis court) and two look at the camera. Three men run across the tennis court with the man in lighter coloured uniform bringing up the rear.

A remarkable film showing scenes of 2nd Division in action at the Battle of Kohima, including Naga tribesmen on patrol, air supply, tank support, artillery bombardment, rescuing wounded under fire and demolition of Japanese bunkers.

Notes

It is tempting to identify the T-shaped building in the opening shot as the Deputy Commissioner's bungalow, based on the official history's map of the Kohima battlefield which shows the bungalow to be that shape and the apparent congruity of the terrain to that shown on the map. If so, this footage shows a key location on the Kohima battlefield. However, without any corroborative sources, and given the dopesheet's lack of specific shotlisting, this is a tentative identification.

A contemporary photograph (reference below IND 3700) suggests that the open ground with the broken tree is the Deputy Commissioner's tennis court on the north-eastern face of Garrison Hill. In a number of shots an ornamental lantern is seen on the side of the court, and its position relative to certain trees suggest that most if not all of the latter portion of Reel 2, showing the blasting of the bunkers, was shot in a very small area.

The dopesheet, while deliberately vague, refers to 'an all-British division' (the 2nd Division), 'a Welsh unit' (probably 1st Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers, seen attacking in the trees) and 'men of a Wessex Regiment' blasting the Japanese bunkers (probably 2nd Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment). The Stuart light tank is of the Indian Army's 45th Cavalry and the Grant tanks of either 149th or 150th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps.

There is no date on the dopesheet other than the date the film passed the censor, given as 19 May 1944 in Calcutta. The probable shooting date therefore is no later than 14 or 15 May. The nature of the Kohima battle makes it difficult to identify specific events in this film, but the tennis court area was cleared by the Dorsets in an assault on 13 May, supported by a Grant tank of B Squadron, 149th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps (which had only been able to reach the tennis court after enormous efforts to build a track by sappers of the Royal Engineers) and the fire of 3.7-inch mountain howitzer of 10th Assault Field Regiment, Royal Artillery. The activity in this part of the film is therefore probably the Dorsets 'mopping up' after the assault. The Stuart tank may be that which was knocked out during an attempt to reach the tennis court on 30 April. Dates for other sequences in this film, which may have been shot over several days, are more ambiguous.

The Sound Archive holds a recording with Lieutenant-Colonel McNaught, commander of the 2nd Dorsets, describing the Dorsets' attack on the tennis court and the clearing of the bunkers. See related items. See also an interview with Lintorn Trevor Highlett.

In all an extremely valuable piece of film, one of very few film records of the fighting at Kohima, and recording such important factors as the importance of air supply and air support, the growing superiority of Allied armour and artillery, the key location of the tennis court and the difficulty of eliminating Japanese bunkers, the loyal service of the Naga tribesmen and the extraordinary physical devastation of the battlefield. Some shots are particularly remarkable, including those of the Royal Welch Fusiliers and the close-range views of explosions. In sum a fine illustration of a battle which Mountbatten described as 'the British-Indian Thermopylae'.

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.