Clot, Dennis Francis Emile (Oral history)

British NCO served as film cameraman with RAF Film Production Unit in India, Burma, Singapore and Java, 1942-1945

REEL1: Background in GB: family background in Kilburn, London; Swiss father; education; employment as clapperboy at Fox British Studios; pay; trainee projectionist at Carlton Cinema, Acton and Odeon Muswell Hill; question of dual nationality delaying call-up. Aspects of period with RAF in GB, 1941-1942: story of applying for air crew and rejection due to high-blood pressure; basic training and specialist training as instrument repairer; posted to Bombay, 1942. Recollections of operations as cameraman with RAF Film Production Unit in India and Burma, 1942: story of applying to join RAF Film Production Unit; posted to Calcutta; description of cameras; description of filming Gurkha parachute jumps in Kirklala; rank; other personnel and chain of command; death of Warrant Officer McGee; problem of filming on aircraft as part of crew; description of 'camera hanging' on aircraft; problem of supply of cameras and parts; transportation of cameras and film; opinion of organisation; nature of repairs to cameras; problem of climate affecting cameras and film; malaria and treatment; morale; description of filming parachute drops from Dakota DC-3 porthole; question of seeing own films; processing and editing material; opinion of training as cameraman; story of learning to parachute to film closer to lines. REEL 2 Continues: problem of filming during monsoon season; method of returning exposed film to base by aircraft; film processed in Calcutta and flown back to Air Ministry in GB in Spitfires; description of uniform; comparison of British and American rations; story of being fired on by Japanese near Mandalay; daily routine as cameraman and subjects filmed; problem of filming under fire; problem of winding film in camera and lack of changing bag; description of fitting motorised Eyemos to wings of aircraft; problem of cameras not being linked to guns; problem of lack of spare parts. Aspects of period as cameraman with RAF Film Production Unit in Singapore and Java, 1942-1945: memory of witnessing surrender in Singapore, Sep/1945; story of complaint from Mountbatten about filming; opinion of Mountbatten; posted to Java to film operations against Sukarno rebels; story of finding mutilated bodies of Allied air crew in village and filming exhumation; question of reprisals against village; description of filming Dutch POWs in camps; role of unit and question of what to film. REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of post-war life and employment in GB: marriage; story of wife's experiences as internee in Chidak camp as prisoner of Japanese Kempeitai; description of filming POW camps; attitude to shooting silent films; question of sound units in field.