ACTIVITIES ON MEIKTILA AIRSTRIP [Allocated Title]

RAF and US Army Air Force (USAAF) operations at and around Meiktila following its capture by British forces.

Bomb damage to buildings and railway rolling stock. A number of stone or plaster figures of the Buddha appear to have survived amongst one pile of rubble. American lorries at Meiktila airstrip. A lorry reverses up to a waiting Douglas Dakota transport aircraft and unloads ammunition boxes containing 25-pounder artillery rounds. A petrol bowser marked '100 Oct[ane]' passes parked Dakotas. A ground crewman passes a refuelling hose to another on the wing of a Dakota. A line-up of Dakotas on the perimeter track. A tent, apparently Flight HQ, with an unidentifiable squadron badge fixed to a nearby tree. Aerial view of the airstrip at Meiktila with gliders scattered about; the gliders are USAAF CG-4 Wacos ('Hadrian' in RAF service). An oil drum is unloaded from a Dakota. Dakota KJ916 is loaded from a lorry. Parked aircraft with gliders coming in to land; some of the parked aircraft are USAAF Curtiss C-46 Commandos. Wounded troops on stretchers are lifted onto a Dakota. Ambulances parked by a Dakota. Dakotas taking off. Waco gliders landing. Soldiers and local people attend to a tangled pile of parachutes. Close-ups of local Burmese people including women and children. A soldier examines an abandoned Japanese artillery piece on an archaic-looking wheeled carriage. An extremely brief shot of a wrecked Japanese light tank, probably a Type-95 Ha-Go. A wrecked Dakota with close-ups of a hole in its fuselage and a wrecked engine. A sign reads 'Meiktila Landing Strip'. Dakota take-off. A large pile of parachutes.

35mm