WITH THE FORCES IN MESOPOTAMIA - SERIES 6 [Main]


View at www.iwm.org.uk
  • Year: 1918
  • Runtime: 27 mins
  • Description: I (Reel 1) The opening is filmed from the river. First, Ezra's Tomb, a landmark at Qurna, about 200 km down river from Kut, followed by Qurna itself. The boat continues downstream, passing several smaller craft, known as 'ballams', Hospital Paddle Steamer 5, a high-sterned yawl or 'mahaila', and finally passes into the port of Basra. At the Inland Water Transport yard a small ship rests on a slipway, ballams move in Khandar creek (?), a helmeted diver is at work, so is a dredger, and an Insect Class gunboat is on patrol. II. (Reel 2) The remaining scenes are mainly on land. British Military Police control a pontoon footbridge, probably over the Tigris at Basra. Marsh Arabs follow the boat as it moves, trying to sell eggs and fowl. In the market place at Baghdad, Zahroam of Amara, the silversmith known to the troops as 'the silver identity-disk man', works with his tiny furnace. At the Base Ordnance Depot in the city refugee women work sewing. III. The film ends with scenes of Kut al Amara after its capture by the British, showing the remains of the liquorice factory, Indian labourers leaving work, and two Turkish memorials to their dead.
    British film of the inhabitants of the River Tigris shoreline from Basra to Kut al Amara, mostly filmed from a moving boat, 1918 (?).
  • Keywords: EFG1914 / World War I / Zahroam of Amara / British Army, Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force / British Army, Royal Military Police / Royal Navy / World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations, British / administration, British - occupation: [-] / buildings, Mesopotamian - historic: tomb / ships, Mesopotamian civilian - inland: ballam / ships, British naval - assistance: Hospital Paddle Steamer 5 / ships, Mesopotamian civilian - inland: mahaila / equipment, British naval - personal: diving helmet / ships, British naval - light forces: Insect Class / society, Mesopotamian - ethnic: [+] / industry, Mesopotamian - craft / destruction, Mesopotamian military - area: artillery bombardment / buildings, Turkish - monumental: war memorial / buildings, Turkish - commercial: liquorice factory & [wrecked] / refugees, Mesopotamian - settlement / 01/3(567) / Turkey & Qurna, Mesopotamia / Turkey & Tigris River, Mesopotamia / Turkey & Basra, Mesopotamia / Turkey & Kut al Amara, Mesopotamia / desert / sex
  • Provider: Imperial War Museums
  • Rights: In Copyright / Imperial War Museums
  • Production company: International Film Service
  • Colour: Black & White
  • Sound: Without sound