Activities of German soldiers after battle for Woronesch (aka Aussprache or Voronezh), Russia during German summer offensive of 1942, in World War 2. A map shows areas of engagement in Russia. View of the city from hilltop. Destroyed houses and buildings. Wrecked tanks in the area. Smoke rises from fires still burning. Dead soldiers lying on a street. Ruins of buildings along the sides of the street. A group of local Russian men going to work, are monitored by German soldier. A German soldier cleans his face with water from a tin. German soldiers milk a cow and share the milk. A soldier breaking eggs in a skillet, over an open fire in a field. Soldiers eating fried eggs.
The final struggle for Stalingrad during World War Two. Christmastime, 1942 in Moscow. Russian civilians obtaining fir trees for Christmas celebrations. A large beautifully decorated Christmas tree set up in the Hall of Pillars, in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union. Men and women couples dancing in the hall to music from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. Smiling Russian children at play indoors, on slides, on a carousel ride, and playing hand games with one another. New Year's eve is different. World War 2 Soviet war production workers in a munitions factory greet each other but continue working without stopping. On the Stalingrad front lines, the Soviet Army marks the New Year, 1943, by launching artillery barrages, through the night and continuing unabated well into the next day. Russian Sukhoi Su-2 light bombers drop incendiaries on German positions. Brief partial glimpse of a Russian Sherman tank. Soviet Army soldiers using flame throwers. Soviet troops moving across ice and snow on armed Aerosan ice gliders. Batteries of Soviet Katusha rockets fire barrages. Soviet infantry and tanks advance across vast barren snow-covered terrain. Animated map depicts Nazi German military forces being pounded on several fronts. A solitary horse standing in midst of Stalingrad destruction and ruins. Scene from February 2, 1943 as Soviet soldiers, symbolically, fire the last shot in the Battle of Stalingrad. A smiling Soviet soldier then places a cover over the muzzle of the field artillery piece. Scenes of the battle's aftermath. Russian officers hug one another. The Soviet Union flag is hung from a city building. Numerous German soldiers surrender under a white flag of truce. Many surrendering German Generals are seen.
Smoke rising from fire burning on West bank of the Don River in Russia. Camera pans down to river and some German soldiers crossing on what appears to be partly a pontoon bridge and partly remnants of a damaged one. German troops hunkered down on the West side by the damaged bridge. Horses and damaged vehicles clutter the approach to the bridge in a scene of utter destruction. Camera pans across scene of fire, smoke, and war materiel abandoned by the Russians. The area has been devastated by attacks from the air and heavy shelling. Away from the river, two German soldiers ride in motorcycle and sidecar. Barrel of a siege gun is raised and fired. German soldiers remove tree branches camouflaging an 8.8cm anti-aircraft gun to fire on attacking soviet bombers (not seen). Others firing a Flakvierling 38 anti-aircraft gun. View of an airplane, hit by the gunfire, falling with smoke trailing.
Opening slate at start of film reads: "1942--1943 The Turn of the Tide." A column of British armor enters Bengazi, Libya, led by several troops in tankettes. Next seen are a Lee Medium Tank, M3 followed by an infantry tank, a jeep, another infantry tank and another Lee M3 Medium tank. Closeup of local people greeting the troops with upraised hands giving the "V" for victory sign. Another Lee M3 tank passes close by the camera. Black smoke is rising in the background. Scene changes to a half sunken ship near another burning in the harbor. Another view of this from further away above port buildings. Closeup of three smiling British soldiers leaning over a cartoon on a tank, of Winston Churchill (As a bulldog smoking a cigar and wearing a cap with the word "Victory" written on it). A crumpled captured flag with swastika on it. British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery stands atop a vehicle (unseen) and looks through binoculars. Below, a column of British supply vehicles is making its way along a path in the desert. Two tanks coming toward the camera through sand. Animated map shows Nazi territory being threatened by the Allies from the Mediterranean, the USSR, and the English Channel. Views of Soviet infantry advancing against German forces in the snow of winter on the eastern front. Soviet troops firing updated 76-mm divisional gun model 1902 hidden in woods. Shells exploding in snow-covered field as Soviet BT series tanks advance. Various Soviet artillery firing from fixed gun batteries and from woods. A shell striking in distance. Fallen German soldiers lying on snowy field. Makeshift battlefield crosses marking graves of fallen German soldiers. German steel helmets lined up in the snow. A sign, posted on a birch tree, lists the names and birth dates of 16 German soldiers from the 3rd Panzer Division (3Pz-Pi-BH.39) buried at this site on November 28, 1941. Scene shifts to Joseph Stalin addressing Soviet troops in Red Square, Moscow, Russia. All the soldiers in formation seem to be singing (unheard). Film switches to animated map again. This time delineating the Eastern front being pressed by the USSR, and showing area of the 2nd Soviet winter offensive in 1943. Change of scene from Europe to the War in Asia, against Japan, shows General Douglas MacArthur after arriving by a B-17 bomber at a Pacific island American base. He ascends a steep hill in a jungle area, accompanied by other officers. Closeup of MacArthur. American infantry moving in single file in New Guinea, as a field piece fires a round in the direction they are headed. U.S. artillerymen load shells into a 105mm howitzer gun. A fire burns as mop-up operations begin on New Guinea. An Australian soldier is seen firing a Bren gun in jungles. Other Australian soldiers fire a mortar that explodes, raising earth and dust. More views of shells exploding near Allied soldier advancing. A soldier with fixed bayonet makes a fake charge toward the camera. Views of Japanese prisoners of war guarded in an outdoor compound. Japanese dead soldiers on Guadalcanal. An animated map shows new battle lines in the Pacific, closing in on Japan, with pressure from China, the USSR, and the Pacific islands being captured by the U.S. Arrows are added showing new pressure from American naval fleets and from British and American bombers out of Australia and captured islands.
Film opens showing Adolf Hitler, in World War 2, with Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch, Army Commander-in-Chief, and other top military members, planning for Operation Barbarossa (Attack to the East toward the Soviet Union). As he walks away from the table, he speaks briefly to Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, head of the Kriegsmarine (German Navy). Next Hitler and Marshall Hermann Goering are seen strolling and conversing at the Eastern Front headquarters, "the wolf's lair," (Wolfschanze) near Rastenburg, East Prussia (now Poland). Scene shifts to the Soviet Union, where Joseph Stalin is seen speaking at a podium. A large outdoor audience, including some soldiers, is gathered to listen. Images showing the Soviet people responding to defend against the German Nazi invasion. Closeup of Soviet soldiers with shouldered weapons. The nearest is holding a PPSh-41 submachine gun. Closeups of Soviet women and men in military uniforms. Soviet citizens heading to enlist in the military. Soldiers marching loosely n a city street. Patriotic singing is heard in background. A formation of Soviet women marching. Some carry furled banners. Soviet women carrying simple farm implements, marching in a rural part of Russia and joining others who are working to prepare anti-tank ditches and barriers in the countryside. Views of hundreds of people working on this project. Weapons being provided to rural Soviet guerrillas who will operate behind enemy lines. Anti-aircraft guns being set up overlooking a harbor. Closeup of Soviet soldiers manipulating controls on a camouflaged anti-aircraft gun and others maneuvering a four-barreled anti-aircraft machine gun. Local farm family members on makeshift towers keeping watch over huge fields of wheat. Soviet farmers harvesting the wheat with scythes. An armed farmer shielding his eyes as he searches the skies for German airplanes. Closeup of a man cutting wheat with a scythe as women gather the sheaves behind him. Motorized harvesters at work in a field of wheat. Closeup of a woman operating one. Tractors used in harvesting. Women and children gleaning what remains behind in the harvested fields. Farmers driving their cattle East (away from advancing Germans). Evacuating Soviet people employ a scorched earth policy, burning their homes, barns, and anything that might be of value to advancing German forces. Views of burning houses. Soviet industrial enterprises working around the clock producing war materiel. Seen are petroleum facilities; a large plant expelling coke; coal pouring into a barge; men at work at a steel furnace; ribbons of hot steel moving out of rollers; a huge manufacturing plant in operation. Next, a Soviet Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tank is seen moving across a field. Soviet Russian Polikarpov I-16 fighter planes in flight. A large formation of German Dornier DO 17 bombers in flight high overhead. Soviet forces retreating. Views of fallen German soldiers, fires burning, and remnants of a downed German bomber. German prisoners of war marching under guard and others surrendering with hands in the air. Closeups of some German prisoners. A Russian Petlyakov Pe-2 aircraft parked in snow with engines running. Fallen German soldiers lying in the snow along a roadway, in Winter of 1941-42. A Russian Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tank maneuvering in the snow. Russian Bt-7 Light Cavalry Tanks proceeding toward the front in Springtime, 1942.
A British ship convoy underway in the North Sea as part of the Arctic Convoys supplying ships, weapons, and materials to the Soviet Union at Arkhangelsk and Murmansk during World War II. A map showing the North Sea route. The British ships underway. The ships carry weapons and other equipment to Russia as an aid for the fight against Nazi Germany. A man aboard a ship watches the area through binoculars. Crew dressed for Freezing cold temperatures. Enemy aircraft in flight over the area. The German aircraft drop bombs on the convoy. Guns fired from the ships. Smoke rise from firing and bombardment in the area. Circa 1942.