POLISH CARPATHIAN BRIGADE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, 1940-1943 [Allocated Title]

Amateur film shot by Tadeusz Chrominski, a Polish pharmacist in the Carpathian Brigade (Samodzielna Brygada Strzelców Karpackich, SBSK), records miltary and off-duty scenes in Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Iraq during the period 1940-1943.

Reel 1: Polish soldiers at Homs (Syria), May - June 1940. manning dug-outs in desert at Latrun (Palestine). June - October 1940. Polish Brigade General visits troops in Western desert near Alexandria (Egypt). Mine-clearance training exercise; bandaging injured soldier; uncovering and defusing German Teller mine. Long column of transport and towed artillery in Western Desert. Another Polish Brigade General visits the Poles in Western Desert (Mersa Matruh - May 1941). Tourist scenes: Pyramids and Sphinx outside Cairo; Royal Navy sailors on camels, ruins of Luxor and Thebes; Cairo street scenes; Mena Gardens, Cairo Zoo. Polish Brigade celebrates Catholic mass in Western Desert. Combat training exercise in rock-strewn hilly terrain, with bren carriers, mortaring and bandaging wounded arm. General Sikorski visits cemetery in desert and awards medals. Injured Polish soldiers. Long line of Italian prisoners of war in desert. Digging grave in desert. Another VIP visit. Long column of transport.

Reel 2: Polish Army nurses and soldiers, including Tadeusz Chrominski (flexing muscles), swimming and relaxing, Palestine. Large military camp, with Polish servicewomen and nurses. Polish military hospital: operating theatre, with handful of guts replaced into belly of patient; pharmacy. Polish men, women and children, plus nurses, off-duty in Iraq, 1942-1943. Colour film of Polish couples in national costume dancing in a rose garden in Scotland, ca 1946. Back to wartime - Comedian entertains Polish troops, singing and impersonating Hitler. Catholic mass and parade at large camp, Iraq, 1942-1943. Another Catholic mass, kissing colours, parade and flypast before General Anders, 3rd Division, Iraq, 1942-1943. Another marchpast, with Polish and British officers taking joint salute.

16mm