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Weekly Review No. 140 - Easter Action on Bougainville
Short Film (Full Length) – 1944
This intense newsreel reports from the war in the Pacific in Easter 1944, as American, Fijian, and New Zealand soldiers battle the Japanese in the Bougainville jungle. Cameraman Stan Wemyss found himself isolated with a Fijian patrol, amidst casualties and under fire from 'Japs'. He later recounted being so close to the action he could hear troops talking in two languages he couldn't understand; at one point he lays down his camera to pitch a grenade. Grandfather of future actor Russell Crowe, Wemyss was awarded an MBE in 1947 for his services as a war correspondent.
No longer tropical jungle it resembles more burnt out bush on New Zealand farms.– Narrator Rex Walden, on the shell-blown jungle
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