Description
Object description
With the surrender of Japan, British forces return to Singapore; troops come ashore, civilians greet the troops, a Japanese headquarters is taken over and prisoners of war are freed.
Full description
Onboard Landing Craft Infantry (Large) (LCI(L)) 125 looking at signal flags flying alongside a White Ensign and men looking out. Looking over a sailor's shoulder towards land. From the bridge; pan showing other vessels in the convoy. Foreground a bearded naval officer with binoculars; behind a Royal Navy V Class frigate, HMS Vigilant (R93). Dockside with civilians waving. Spitfires overhead. Indian soldiers and a British sailor as the landing craft berths. Wide shot; good view of Royal Navy heavy cruiser HMS Sussex. Naval officers and Brigadier Denholm-Young (commander 123rd Indian Infantry Brigade) on the bridge. View of a landing craft. Close-up Denholm-Young addressing his troops using a tannoy. Looking up at a naval officer speaking from the bridge. LCI(L) 491 with two launches alongside. Looking down on a group of officers in discussion, the group includes a Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve lieutenant-commander, a major wearing South East Asia Command patch, a lieutenant-colonel with Welsh Guards cap badge (?) and a major, possibly of 7th Rajput Regiment. Officers with binoculars. Indian Engineers officer with binoculars. Three Indian soldiers, probably of 2nd Battalion 1st Punjab Regiment. Signallers sending messages. British face framed by a porthole. An Indian lance-naik checks his Sten gun. Convoy in line astern. Officers sitting on the gunwale; their baggage on deck. Close-up junior officer of 7th Gurkha Rifles. In port; troops forming up on the quayside. Low-angle medium close-up Indian soldier [also seen in other film] Local children on the dockside; one of them is dressed in rags. White Ensign flying and naval officer waving form the bridge. Japanese officer two small stars on epaulette speaks to Denholm-Young. Party of Japanese officers. A British colonel greets an Indian (?) lieutenant. The seat of a Japanese officer's trousers showing their worn condition. A British corporal. Outside the Mariners' Training Institute a crowd of former Australian and Dutch prisoners of war (POWs) are greeted and given cigarettes by a lieutenant-colonel of the Royal Artillery and another officer, a colonel. Some of the men are emaciated. Footage from a moving jeep or lorry, possibly driving north on New Bridge Road; local people wave (one building may be the Great Southern Hotel). Further along the road a bilingual shop front appears to be 'Hung Tack Lee – Wholesales of Hardware'). Denholm-Young and others outside the Municipal Building. Waving civilians on the building's steps. The officers go up the steps into the building. A party of Japanese officers outside the dock offices, the building formerly being a Japanese headquarters and about to be occupied by 123rd Indian Brigade headquarters; the same interpreter as before is present. Denholm-Young speaks to a Sikh officer (possibly Sarbjit Singh Kalha, commander of 2nd Battalion 1st Punjab Regiment). Group of Indian troops with a colour of 1st Punjab Regiment outside the building. Japanese troops, still armed, formed up outside the building. Singh Kalha (?) and his men. More Japanese forming up. Japanese soldiers, now without their arms. A barbed wire fence with former POWs behind; three British soldiers enter shot and start shaking the men's hands through the fence. Closer shot; a grinning former POW vigorously shakes hands.
Physical description
35mm