Battle of Stalingrad, Soviet Union during World War 2. View from inside a German Army vehicle rolling down a road, as Soviet soldiers with arms raised in surrender appeal to be taken as prisoners of war. Soviet prisoners march on a road. Bombed out buildings of Stalingrad, Russia. Aerial view of destroyed Russian building. German soldiers search a civilian at gunpoint. Views of two dead Russian civilians.
United States provides aid to Allies. United States President Franklin Roosevelt seated in his office. Lend Lease Administrator Edward R. Stettinius reports to President Roosevelt about the aid provided to her allies. Lend-Lease shipments prepared and shipped. Merchandise, tanks, planes sent to Soviet Union and Britain. Rail cars carry crates of machine tools made by Bullard Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut. These crates are seen being loaded in a ship destined for the Soviet Union. A ship at sea. Smoke rises up from smokestack. (World War II period).
The Nazi Germany attempt to capture Leningrad during the Siege of Leningrad in World War 2. A map depicts Leningrad in the USSR. German artillery bombards Kronstadt on the Kotlin Island. An artillery barrel as it is fired. Soldiers load and fire artillery guns. Smoke due to the explosions. German aircraft attack the Kronstadt harbor. Explosions in the water. A soldier mans a gun. The Soviet battleship Marat (Petropavlovsk) is hit by a German Junker Ju 87 or Stuka. The battleship enveloped in smoke. German Luftwaffe bombers in flight overhead. The aircraft bomb the industrial area of Leningrad. The bombs descend to the target area. Smoke due to the explosions.
A concert pianist (Emil Gilels) in civilian clothes sits at a grand piano set up on a stage outdoors on the flight line of a Soviet Air Base during World War 2. Soviet airmen dressed in flight gear, listen attentively to the concert, as several sit in their cockpits or on the wings of their Mikoyan-Gurevich (MIG 3) fighter aircraft. Many others are assembled around the stage.(Several lend-lease C-47 aircraft are seen in the background.) A Mig-3 flies low over the the assembly.Lieutenant Aleksandr Ivanovich Pokryshkin,a renowned Soviet fighter pilot, is seen in cockpit of the plane, after landing, as he shuts the engine down. He climbs down, wearing a seat-pack parachute, and walks across the ramp toward two decorated Soviet airmen. They exchange salutes. Pokryshkin then joins them,leaning against the wing of a MIG-3. The camera focuses upon Pokryshkin. The concert pianist finishes playing and the airmen applaud. Scene shifts to airmen loading boxes of supplies aboard a C-47 transport airplane. A C-47 in flight overhead.
Soviet military operations in World War 2. Soviet tanks and infantry moving quickly through area of trees and fields. Soviet soldiers throwing hand grenades and firing field artillery. Squadron of Soviet Polikarpov I-16 pursuit aircraft taking off. Soviet Pe-2 bomber in flight and dropping bombs. Wartime views in a Soviet city. People going about their daily activities. Soldier directing traffic. Civilian air raid wardens wearing armbands.
Soviet animated aircraft recognition footage showing German warplanes including: Heinkel He 111; Junkers Ju 88 ; Me-110 and Dornier Do 215 aircraft. Airspeed indicators illustrate speeds of several of the aircraft.