Stilwell Road (1945)

Writer:

Robert Presnell Sr. (writer)

Genre:

Documentary | War

Plot:

Documentary about the construction of the Stilwell Road--originally called The Ledo Road--a 478-mile passage from Assam...

Plot Keywords:

India | Burma | WWII | China

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Ronald Reagan	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Harold Alexander	...	Himself (reads map) (archive footage)
Claude Auchinleck	...	Himself (studies map with Wavell) (archive footage)
Alan Brooke	...	Himself (in conference at Quebec) (archive footage)
Claire Chennault	...	Himself (leaves car) (archive footage)
Kai-Shek Chiang	...	Himself (archive footage)
Winston Churchill	...	Himself (at Quebec with FDR) (archive footage)
Ernest J. King	...	Himself (in conference at Quebec) (archive footage)
William D. Leahy	...	Himself (in conference at Quebec) (archive footage)
Douglas MacArthur	...	Himself (with Nimitz) (archive footage)
George C. Marshall	...	Himself (in conference at Quebec) (archive footage)
Chester W. Nimitz	...	Himself (with MacArthur) (archive footage)
Charles Portal	...	Himself (in conference at Quebec) (archive footage)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt	...	Himself (at Quebec with Churchill) (archive footage)
Archibald Wavell	...	Himself (studies map with Auchinleck) (archive footage)
Orde Wingate	...	Himself (archive footage)

Runtime:

51 min

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Filming Locations:

Assam, India

Trivia:

Available as an extra on the VCI Entertainment 2008 DVD edition of Surrender - Hell! (1959).

Horrific task surmounted by unsubduable will.

An excellent tribute to the 63000 men who constructed the 478 mile road from Ledo, Assam, into East Burma, this documentary depicts many of the extraordinary achievements of military engineering required for the passage's completion, a 26 month ordeal completed in 1945 by bordering massive gorges, overstriding raging rapids and invading some of the world's most impenetrable jungles, with a cost of many lives and 150 million dollars. "We got run out of Burma, and it is humiliating as Hell", early in the film states "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, Commander of troops in the CBI (China-Burma-India) Theatre, and the veteran warrior, serving as Chiang Kai-shek's chief of staff returned with a vengeance at the head of his doughty troops, aided later appreciably by personnel from Australia, New Zealand and India under the leadership of British General Ord Wingate, whom we see just prior to his final, fatal flight. Incisively edited, and briskly narrated by Ronald Reagan, the 51 minute work reveals the ongoing testing endured by the construction crews (28000 engineers), in addition to support personnel such as medical staff, maintenance workers for the heavy machinery, et alia, and is replete with combat footage recording the manner in which the original Ledo Road was expanded into the Stilwell Road (renamed in 1945 by Chiang Kai-shek) despite vigourous Japanese opposition, enabling crucial supplies to move from India to China.