Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Britain sits pensively at his desk. Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine, walking together in London. King George VI stepping from a car and entering 10 Downing Street. Mobilization of British forces for war. British civilians marching casually wearing steel army helmets. A man volunteering for the Army. New recruits being issued uniforms. Others, in civilian clothes, learning to drill with rifles and then marching away from a village. Recruits in bayonet practice. Winston Churchill speaking about the tragedy brought upon Europe by Hitler (this Churchill speech was at St. James's Place, London, June 12, 1941, in an address to Allied delegates). Aerial views of the destruction of Poland by Luftwaffe aircraft of Germany. Civilian Polish victims of German bombardment. A boy and women mourning over the dead. A child being held near a bonfire to warm her. Children rescuing a few possessions from a destroyed home. Parents carrying children. Women and girls crying and in mourning for the loss of loved ones and destruction from war.
Map shows coast of Europe with discussion of various places for a possible Allied invasion of France during World War 2. Normandy was chosen. German coastal defenses on English Channel and Atlantic shore (Atlantic Wall). German officers inspect defenses. Map highlights Cherbourgh, Le Havre, and Caen in Normandy. American workers building war machinery in defense plants and shipyards. Huge numbers of workers are seen in the yard of a U.S. defense plant. View inside a U.S. factory where numerous M3 Lee tanks are being manufactured on production lines during 1941-42. A welder at work. A woman using a saw and many other workers in a busy machine shop. B-17 bombers being built in a Boeing factory. Liberty ships under construction at a shipyard. A lookout watching the skies above a city, for enemy aircraft. A man and woman working together on a plumbing job. British women in Army uniforms working with typewriters. An American woman driving a forklift and loading a piece of ordnance on a railroad freight car. A rail yard filled with stream locomotives and freight trains. A line of trucks carrying war time cargoes. An army truck being loaded into the hold of a cargo ship. Ships underway in a harbor.
A film about uses and importance of weapons since old times in the United States. Rifles being manufactured at the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts. Men work on machines at the armory. A man operates a barrel straightener machine. Parts of rifles being assembled. A man inspects the receiver of a rifle. A rifle being test fired at the armory. German aircraft in flight as they drop bombs over cities in Europe during World War II. Civilians run for cover during an air raid by the Germans. United States Congress ion session. The Japanese attack the Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in December, 1941. Explosions occur during the Japanese air attack.
A film about uses and importance of weapons since old times in the United States. Past events depict smoke rising from Pearl Harbor in Hawaii after Japanese attack of December 7, 1941 during World War II. American soldiers fire machine guns during the war, from a jungle area in the Pacific. The soldiers run through muddy waters. Sky filled with parachutes, as seen from the ground, as U.S. Army paratroopers descend and land for an airborne invasion. American Army Infantrymen on a snow-covered landscape in Europe fire M-1 rifles at enemy German positions during World War 2.
Series 'Why We Fight' episode "Prelude to War" depicts the battles during World War II. United States soldiers parade on street lead by a band. Japanese bombing attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. The London Blitz with buildings destroyed and burning. The Eiffel Tower in Paris with Nazi flag flying atop it. German troops marching into Paris, through the Arc de Triomphe. Japanese warplanes bombing shanghai, China, in 1937. Chinese residents running for shelter. Glimpse of German "Schwerer Gustav" 80 cmrailway gun firing during German offensive against Soviet Union in 1941. German forces entering Czechoslovakia in 1938. German mounted troops entering France in 1940. Heavy guns firing. German ships en route to Norway 1940. German Ju-52 aircraft flying low over trees. Montage showing rapid succession of war scenes, including heavy guns firing, smoke rising, explosions, an aircraft shot down and crashing straight down, German armor on the move, German Ju-52 aircraft dropping paratroopers into Holland and one flying over Athens, Greece, with Mount Lykabettus in the background. More of the same with Narrator mentioning Belgium, Albania, Yugoslavia, and Russia (where citizens are seen digging anti-tank trenches and fortifications). Cavalry charging across a field. A German tank rolling forward. A German Dornier Do-17 bomber taking off, and bombs falling.
Adolf Hitler addresses the Reichstag in Berlin on December 11, 1941 declaring war operations against the United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and United States. Marshall Hermann Goering, Sharp and other Nazi leaders listen to him. A map shows eastern front with Nazi German Armies advance in Soviet Union. Battle scenes between German and Soviet armies. German soldiers capture a Soviet prisoner of war. German soldiers fire artillery during a battle. View of German tanks advancing and firing on a battlefield. Ruins of a wrecked, smoking Soviet tank. Scene shifts to United States President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill at Atlantic Conference aboard ship "Prince of Wales" for signing of Atlantic Charter. The Allied leaders are seen singing "Onward Christian Soldiers" during a service.