The Burma Campaign was the longest continuous operation involving British and Commonwealth forces during the Second World War. The troops called themselves ‘The Forgotten Army’. They were given little credit and often the poorest supplies and equipment – and yet fought one of the bloodiest and cruellest campaigns of the entire war, winning 29 Victoria Crosses and emerging splendidly victorious. As the world still reeled from the events of Pearl Harbour in December 1941, Japanese forces swept across British territories in the region. Malaya fell, Singapore, Hong Kong and then Burma itself. The advance was halted along the border with India and stalemate ensured, during which time the legendary ‘Chindits’ took the war behind Japanese lines with brilliantly planned and conducted raids. After Japanese defeats at Imphal and Kohima, British forces were finally able to take the offensive, seizing back Mandalay, Akyab and then Rangoon in June 1945. The Japanese had suffered a resounding defeat, with three out of every five Japanese soldiers dying in the campaign.

This is the definitive film record of the war in Burma, focusing on the battles and campaigns fought by British and Commonwealth forces from Singapore onwards and comprised almost entirely of front line footage recorded by combat cameramen. Much of this film has never appeared on video before and some sequences – only now discovered in the Movietone archives – have never been shown publicly before. The entire land campaign is covered in considerable detail, including rare colour film, the daring Chindit operations behind enemy lines, Gurkha troops in battle and the horrific treatment of British POWs on the ‘Burma Death Railway’. Land and sea operations are also covered, with a look at vital aerial supply operations ‘Over the Hump’, never before seen sequences of RAF ‘Hurribombers’ and Beaufighters in action, a Japanese reconstruction of the attack on ‘Task Force Z’ and British aircraft carriers in action.