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Messages Home: Lost Films of the British Army

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Heart-warming video messages from World War II servicemen.

Recently rediscovered World War II footage reveals frontline British soldiers fighting in Burma recording video messages to their loved ones back home.

Stories including a lovelorn gunner yearning for his sweetheart back home, a father speaking to a daughter he'd never met, a decorated war hero traumatized by the lives he took, a special operations 'Chindit' who saw action behind enemy lines but told his family he was a "cabbage mechanic" in the catering corps are all revealed via these extraordinary films and private photo albums, archive and letters.

The footage, shot in a style remarkably similar to a modern day Skype call, gave each solider around 30 seconds to share a personal message.

These heart-warming films featuring soldiers from the Burma campaign were discovered in old film canisters in a Manchester basement and offer a glimpse into the lives of these courageous servicemen as they endured long periods of separation from their homes while serving in the Far East. In all there were 600 messages discovered in the basement of Manchester Town Hall during a refurbishment of the building and given to the North West Film Archive. 

These British troops who were stationed in India, Burma and Sri Lanka - fighting a relentless Burmese Campaign against a fearsome Japanese foe - regarded themselves as The Forgotten Army. Home leave wasn’t possible, post was slow, and sometimes letters didn’t get home at all.  Some left behind pregnant wives or elderly parents who would pass away before they returned or young children who would barely recognize them by the time they came home.

For the first time in 70 years, the North West Film Archive set out on mission to track down the veterans and their families featured in the Calling Blighty messages and invited them to a special screening of the films.

Programme Information

  • Genre: Factual

  • Subgenre: N/A

  • Producers: OXFORD SCIENTIFIC FILMS LTD

  • Broadcaster: Channel 4 UK

  • Duration: 1 x 60'

  • Tags: Army messages WWII British

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