Construction of India-Burma-China Pipeline during World War II

Opening scene shows a large transport ship at a dock in Calcutta, India, during World War 2. It is surrounded by cranes unloading it. In the foreground, numerous sections of pipe are piled up on the dock. Closeup of group of pipe sections being lifted by crane from the ship's hold. Some individual pipes are seen moved by groups of Indian workers carrying them over their heads. Other Indian workers roll pipe sections onto barges that are seen clustered together near a steel bridge. A convoy of trucks is seen carrying the pipe sections along the Ledo road. Some bundles of pipe sections are carried on jeeps. View of an Army Air Forces C-47 transport plane taking off. Sections of pipe being offloaded from a C-47 plane. Numerous pipe sections in organized stacks near the airfield. Sections of pipe being fastened together. Engineers re-condition the road bed using construction equipment. Long connected pipe lines being pulled through water. Caterpillar tractors working on a muddy section of the road. Workers installing pipe near graves of workers who died from disease and other causes. Workers sending a bundle of pipe segments across a river by means of a Zip line. A worker's camp of tents in the background. Workers dressed in rain gear and boots carrying a pipe section through water during the Monsoon. Workers using machetes to chop their way through jungles. An open utility train moving Chinese troops along a single-track rail line, passes pipeline workers standing aside. Engineers and other pipeline workers distributing pipe sections along the rail line from railroad flatcars. Trucks driving the road, in Burma. Various views of the pipeline in including one showing lines of pipe forming a suspension bridge across a river. Other scenes show the pipeline crossing ravines, submerged under rivers, climbing vertical cliffs. Aerial views of the pipeline from low flying aircraft. A vehicle marshaling yard filled with army vehicles. M3A3 Stuart light tank moving past a yard filled with them. Army trucks moving out of their parking yard. Aerial view of large airfield with many parked Air Transport Command C-47 airplanes. B-29 bombers being refueled at an airfield. One is seen taking off. Lieutenant General Daniel Isom Sultan, Commander India-Burma theater, comments that the pipeline is a lifeline to our beleaguered ally and that the Chinese are in on this. Views of Chinese soldiers engaged against Japanese forces. They fire artillery pieces and heavy machine guns. British soldiers carrying Bren guns and struggling to move artillery pieces in the mud. They are seen firing artillery from under camouflage canopies and firing Vickers machine guns. Aerial view of the British controlled port in Calcutta, India, where war materiel is seen being unloaded. Tanks being transported on an Indian railroad. War supplies moving on a barge line and on roads. View of a British airfield in India. North Burma Chinese troops with their weapons and army vehicles. U.S. troops advancing on roads in the jungles. Chinese Marshal Chiang Kai-shek with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, at the Cairo Conference of November 22–26, 1943. General Sultan concludes the film by reassuring American soldiers that they are in the China-Burma-India theater in the common allied effort to fight against Japan.

This historic stock footage available in HD video. View pricing below video player.