The Army Stages Its Own Battlefront Show

The War Illustrated, Volume 10, No. 249, Page 582, January 3, 1947.

On a bombed site in Oxford St., London, in December 1946, the Army exhibited realistic jungle and mountain warfare scenes and war relics the latter including the two swords surrendered to Admiral the Viscount Mountbatten by Field-Marshal Count Terauchi, Supreme Commander of the Japanese Expeditionary Forces in the Southern Regions. The bulletproof car used by Field-Marshal Goering was displayed – a Mercedes of 20 feet long and weighing five tons, with an eight-cylinder, supercharged engine, armour plated and, as an additional protection against mines and grenades, with a specially fitted steel floor.

Authentic drawings of the Malayan campaign and of 3½ years of life in Japanese prison camps were made secretly, at risk of torture and death, by Mr. Leo Rawlings, late of the Royal Artillery. His brushes were made from human hair and the colours from blood, chalk, crushed stones, soap and oil. A special exhibit was the Union Jack which was flown outside Field-Marshal Montgomery's headquarters on Lüneburg Heath on May 4, 1945, when he received there the formal surrender of the German forces. A varied display of German medals and badges, and of German and Italian uniforms and equipment, called for attention. Arranged by Headquarters London District, the well-attended exhibition was in aid of The Army Benevolent Fund.

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The War Illustrated

The Army Stages Its Own Battlefront Show

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