Surrender of the German Army in Berlin, Germany during World War II. Flags of the Allies are unfurled at the Tempelhof airfield. Lined up cars at the airfield. An English airplane arrives with Royal Air Force Marshal Arthur William Tedder (Lord Tedder) and U.S. Army General Carl Andrew Spaatz. Lord Tedder and General Spaatz shake hands with Soviet officers including Soviet Marshal Vasily Danilovich Sokolovsky. Field Marshal Keitel and staff arrive. A band plays as Soviet troops march. German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel enters a car and reads surrender papers. Lord Tedder and other officials get into cars. The cars are driven away from the airfield.
Surrender of the German Army in Berlin, Germany during World War II. Officials are driven through ruined streets of Berlin to headquarters where surrender papers are signed. Guards stand on duty at the gate of the headquarter building. Interior of the building. Officials and officers enter the building. German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel sitting at a table. He talks to an officer.
Surrender of the German Army in Berlin, Germany during World War II. Interior of headquarters where surrender papers are signed. German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Stumpf and Friedensburg sign surrender documents followed by Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov; Royal Air Force Marshal Arthur William Tedder and U.S. Army General Carl Andrew Spaatz. Soviet deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs Andrey Vyshinsky and French Army General DeLattre de Tassigny present.
A documentary Soviet film showing their forces during Battle of Berlin, Germany during World War 2. Soviet troops firing artillery point blank on streets of Berlin. Soviet infantry running in the streets. Soviet Artillery firing at high degree of elevation. Infantry run past a knocked out T-34 tank. Soviet artillery and gun crew set up on a railroad bridge. Infantryman runs past a T-34 tank firing its gun on a railroad bed. Soviet armor and artillery massed in a street. Soviet troops and vehicles jammed up and moving slowly on one side of a boulevard. A knocked out German tank. Soviet infantry finding protected spot behind destroyed building near a stairwell. Soviet gunners firing artillery piece point blank at a building across the street. Scene changes to quiet residential section of Berlin, where women and an old man read a bulletin board directing Berliners to clean up the rubble in their streets. Closeup of the posting in Russian and German. View from rear of group of Berliners reading the proclamations. Fires burning in a building, behind Berlin civilians with shovels clearing street of debris. A large group of German civilian men and women working with shovels to clear rubble from a street. Scattered work groups of civilians cleaning the detritus of war. Some civilians hurry as they carry packets of food.
At beginning, the film shows views of the smoking ruins of Berlin from an overflying aircraft. Scene shifts to illustrations of confilict in 18th Century Berlin. A sculptured bust of young Frederick the Great of Austria. Flags of various States and historic horns displayed in a museum where all the exhibits are labeled in Russian. Flash forward to the final phases of the Soviet offensive against Berlin, Germany during World War 2. Soviet soldier picks up an artillery shell and hands it to member of a gun crew who loads it into the breech of a harge gun. Another Soviet gun being loaded. Soviet artillery pieces of all sizes and kinds are seen firing into Berlin, creating explosions and smoke and demolishing buildings. A civilian man and woman run along a street carrying their belongings in a baby carriage. Other German civilian refugees fleeing the battle zones. Three Soviet officers confer looking at a map. Soviet infantry running from house to house. A woman running along a rubble strewn street. Civilians taking shelter at corner of a building. A boy holding his ears against the sounds of the artillery fire, as he joins several civilians sheltering in a doorway. Three civilian women with their belongings walk along a street but stop and turn back when a building ahead of them is struck by shellfire and partly collapses into the street. A woman running away from the battle zone trips and falls down. Soviet troops using a flame thrower that sets a building on fire. Soviet infantry scampering through damaged buildings and rubble.
Soviet advance into Berlin, Germany during World War II Battle of Berlin. Soviet tanks and troops advance into Berlin from all direction and continue to bombard the city. Hungry German civilians cut up a dead horse on a street, desperate for food. Soviet soldiers carry an injured comrade on a stretcher. An injured Soviet Army soldier is assisted in walking by another Russian soldier through the rubble of Berlin. A Soviet soldier fires a shoulder mounted rocket launcher at a building. Desperate German civilians (women, older men, elderly) form a queue line to fill cups from a wooden water barrel. Many wear white arm bands. An older woman scrapes her fingers across a barrel opening looking for any bit of food or drink. A mass of tangled and smashed civilian cars and military vehicles fills the streets in one area, completely blocking any movement. Soviet soldiers continue to capture Berlin street by street. Smoke fills the streets. Civilians carry buckets of water from a street pump. Soviet army vehicles advance on street. Soviet tanks fire at buildings and Russian soldiers fire machine guns at German enemy soldiers in buildings, and then advance into the buildings. Line of German children, women, and elderly men holding buckets as they wait for water. They wear white arm bands. Two older German men pump a water pump to draw water for the crowd of civilians. Heavy Soviet artillery firing from positions in the streets of Berlin. Soviet troops climb over piles of rubble and through bombed out buildings and continue to fire rifles and submachine guns at enemy positions. German soldiers emerge from a building with their hands up, surrendering to Soviet troops. One Soviet soldier is behind the group moving them at gunpoint. Another group of German soldiers emerges from a small doorway with their hands up, as Russian soldiers point rifles at their exit area. At least one of the German soldiers appears to be a fairly young teenage boy soldier. Animated map depicts the Soviet capture of Berlin, sweeping in circles across zones of the city.