At a Royal Air Force airstrip in the Arakan coastal region of Burma severe monsoon weather damages buildings and roads, and Hawker Hurricane fighter-bombers go on patrol.

Pan of a tented camp by a road in torrential monsoon rain. Rain splashing in standing water. Men queueing at a cookhouse; Flying Officer Pumia looks on. More men queue; one man is African. An RAF Douglas Dakota transport lands on a muddy airstrip. A hose is used to siphon fuel from petrol drums; camera follows the hose to a small pump. Indian serviceman with hose. The hose is passed to a bowser. Local men unloading sacks from a lorry. British other ranks playing badminton. Indian other ranks playing volleyball. Brief shot shows enrolled camp followers patching ruts with bricks. A series of shots of Hawker Hurricane aircraft landing. Group of pilots having archetypal discussion using hand movements to describe aerial manoeuvres. Indian ground crew at work on a Hurricane Mk IIC, serial LD117. A jeep negotiates muddy ground. Pilots scramble out of a tent. Running to their aircraft; Hurricanes Mk IIC LD963 ‘F’ and LE700 ‘A’ are nearest. A series of fine aerial shots showing five Hurricanes in flight over the Arakan, the aircraft are ‘F’, ‘L’, ‘X’, ‘C’ and ‘A’. Local men, wading in water and dumping baskets (of gravel?) at the water’s edge. A lorry passes laden with building material; a tangle of metal netting in the foreground. Indian troops shovel gravel into the back of a lorry. Stones or bricks are fed into a crusher. Shovelling out the gravel. Unrolling a roll of steel mesh. Pan; huts in the distance and engineering stores and broken ground in front.

Notes

No production date on the dopesheet for this film, but a censor date of 24 July 1944, so presumably shot earlier that month.

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.