“CAMERA IN BATTLE”

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 68, Issue 5943, 15 May 1944, Page 6

“CAMERA IN BATTLE”

EASTER ACTION AT BOUGAINVILLE (Official News Service) He wanted action and he got it. He had been sent north to the South Pacific battle area by the New Zealand National Film Unit with instructions to shoot the raw material for a picture which would give civilians some idea of what jungle fighting was really like, and he felt that, though the camera was accused of being unable to transfer the danger of battle to celluloid, the best place to photograph fighting was where fighting happened to be. So, in the words his “dope-sheet” used, “as each batch of -troops went into action I tagged along. Though a good deal of the material could have been arranged more pictorially, you just have some wild heathen trying with everything he’s got to remove you to the hereafter and just see how you feel about gerting nice composition. But I think, in the end, there’s quite a likely story to be cut out of this junk.”

A dope-sheet, by the way, is a technical report designed to help film editors to “understand” the negative. It is not intended for publication, and doesn’t stop for commas or style, but translated, this piece of camera jargon in the dope-sheet meant that his pictorial instincts had been subordinated to his news sense, and that he

was just a wee bit pleased because he felt a good picture would come out of the adventure. The adventure began at an R.N.Z.A.F. camp where everyone was halfway underground and rapidly improving his position because the area was close enough to the enemy for occasional shells to be visitors. He took some A.A. batteries in action and then some scenes at the perimeter wire where an attack by the 6th Japanese Imperial Division, the division which made itself infamous in the early days of the war against China by its bestiality in Nanking, had been crushed. Then 2000 yards beyond the perimeter where coloured American troops we in position under fire, though their general air of cheerful unconcern did not suggest it. This was the introduction. Then came a Fiji patrol, and a camera shot of a wounded man receiving blood plasma on the battlefield brought the fighting a little nearer. Then the cameraman tagged on to a Fijian patrol which went out in an attempt to cut off enemy elements which were holding up the main Fijian force. He went forward with the leading men and the adventure quickened. “Only two days ago this was thick jungle,” his dope-sheet said. “Jap snipers and automatic fire raked the ground about us as we slowly worked round behind them. At times when the Fijians stopped moving forward for a spell a quiet would descend over the field. With your nerves keyed up, the stillness was deafening. Suddenly a rifle or a tommy-gun would break out and after the dead silence scared hell out of me. The Japs could be

heard quite clearly by now shouting to one another. It was a funny experience, Fijian being used by the men about me and the Japanese on the other side. I could hear both, but could understand neither. . . . This advance was so sapid that I had difficulty in getting pictures and keeping up at the same time. I concentrated on keeping up as I hdd absolutely no desire to be left alone in that place unarmed.”

After an advance of 50Q0 yards a concentrated blast of small arms, grenades, and knee-mortar fire stopped the rest of the patrol some 70 yards behind the Five Fijians and the cameraman tagging along who formed the spearhead and who halted discreetly behind a log. “Each time the fire died down a little, one of the small party would blast away over the log we were isolated behind till finally the lad beside me got himself neatly drilled in the chest”; and the dope-sheet went on: “In here there wasn’t any room to move about to get good coverage even if I hadn’t been scared. Another fellow was makingprogress towards us dragging a box of grenades and a shirtful of Bren gun clips. When about 20 feet away he decided to make a run for it with the clips as we were almost out of ammo. He nearly made it when a shot w’ent through his hand, deflected off a clip, and went on down through his leg. As he fell he threw the ammo., so it landed within reach. We dragged him into a hole and I managed to get a couple of shots of another lad giv ing him first aid. “We stayed then behind that log for just on two hours, Jap grenades bouncing off the opposite side and knee mortars falling well behimj. At last we drew lots to return and bring up grenades. Camera was forgotten. I drew third. I only wish I could write well enough to put that period into words. We all made a trip and started in pitching as soon as the pins could be pulled. Under this cover one of the wounded chaps was removed. I got some shots of the next guy going out. First he crawled by himself or got grabbed by some guy till finally he got back where the rest of the patrol was dispersed. Here one of the Fijians hoisted him on his back and set off in a series of leaps and bounds, bullets missing* them by inches. My trip back to the lines was much slower. If I remember right, the last shots were of another wounded Fijian being placed on a stretcher and rushed away. From here, too, I broke into a gallop as the whole patrol was at last managing to retreat back across the battlefields to the comparative safety of our wire.”

The next action was with an American Negro Division. He went with some patrols following the retreating Japs until they came up against pillboxes beside a river. An American officer, who went across on his Own and worked down the row of enemy pillboxes with grenades, provided another subject; but the cameraman was so worried for him in his dangerous job that he was not sure what his shots would be like. Then the officer waved his men to follow, and the camera went with them, waisthigh in the river, and under enemy observation. And he got some shots of the crossing. Then a machine-gun came into action and the whole party re-crossed the river under cover of their own troops’ fire. The cameraman commented that he wasn’t sure which fire scared him most—there was so much going overhead. He got some more shots and then took the officer’s advice to get out.

There was some comparatively quiet work to follow; a trip in a Cub plane —an unarmed artillery spotter—with some shots of a destroyer shelling enemy positions, and then a run on the destroyer itself. Later he tagged along with another patrol, and “went well out ahead and got pictures of the patrol advancing towards the camera.” Some pillboxes attracted him. So he went out on his own while the patrol drew the fire in the opposite direction, trying to get some shots of “live Japs.” But though he got within 40 feet of a pillbox without being spotted, he couldn’t see any movement above ground. He took one shot through the trees, though, says the dope-sheet, “camera sounded like a machine-gun in the quiet.” The affair hadn’t ended yet. He went with another company and forward with some flame-throwers, managing to get close enough for pictures where the enemy had been holed up. There were pillboxes about and action crowded him once more. Straight after a flame-thrower had been used, two grenades were thrown by the enemy and landed within a few feet. “There was a certain amount of diving earthwards. Already on my knees I managed to stand the ground first, camera under me. This was bad as one of the riflemen finished his plunge right on top of me nearly caving in my chest. Just as soon as I could with safety I withdrew about ten yards just to be away from the grenades. This was the first time I left my tripod on the field, also some cans of film—the rolls of film were rendered useless by the grenades but by persistence I managed to retrieve the tripod a little worse for wear. This left me short of film. I managed to get another roll later on after having my last fresh roll in my pocket pierced by a lump of grenade or mortar.” So he decided to pull out before he had outlived his luck. Action seemed to be reaching a surplus. But it hadn’t finished with him; there were other experiences to round off the adventure. A terrific rain storm came up and he missed the right trail, fell into a lagoon with all his equipment, and came as close to drowning as anyone, other than a suicide, could wish to go. Going home was a long business. There were minefields to cross and double-wire to prevent the last stage being too pallid. • There was still the film. Some of it was saved by prompt treatment, though, the dope-sheet mourns, the lagoon did for the last roll showing the final assault on the pillbox. He finished on his birthday, and on that day received two messages to return to New Zealand. Thet dopesheet records this, after going through a lot of technical advice about treatment of his negative, especially those rolls which had been with him in the lagoon: “Though I can’t think of a better idea, I’m feeling a little breathless at the moment about the whole business.”

' And that is how Stanley J. Wemyss, •of the New Zealand Government Film Unit, who wanted action, found it and incidentally found the material from which “Easter Action on Bougainville” was made.