The Spanish Civil War. Nationalist Commanders General Emilio Mola and Francisco Franco meet in Burgos. General Mola and General Franco walks amidst civilians. They appear in a balcony after attending mass. Civilians gathered outside the building as they cheer.
The Spanish Civil War. Republican (Government) forces moving forward to engage Nationalist (Rebel) forces in the battle of Jarama during the Spanish Civil War. Black smoke rising where bomb shells burst from Nationalist artillery on the heights of La Maranosa. Republican infantry moving across a field. A rebel shell bursting close to the camera. Republican soldier rendering first aid and bandaging the face of a wounded comrade. A Russian T-26 tank moving towards the rear on a dirt road, where troops carry wounded on stretchers and place them into field ambulances. Wounded being treated by medics. Wounded sitting on the ground. Two soldiers rushing a wounded away on a litter. Medic treating face wound of a soldier. Various scenes of wounded being treated and evacuated. Field ambulance driving away with wounded on board. View through trees of a building and one span of the Arganda bridge over Jarama river. Next, the entire Arganda bridge is seen with Republican troops dug in defensive positions. View of troops firing rifles from those positions, and Nationalist (rebel) shells bursting nearby. Defenders firing machine gun at rebels. More scenes of shells bursting and smoke rising. The Republican tricolor flag waving in the breeze as narrator states that the counterattack has been successful. Camera pans battlefield. Soldiers gathering up equipment underneath span of the bridge. Vehicles moving over the Madrid-Valencia road, with Republican forces in control of the Jarama valley in that area, for the time being. Scene shifts to barefoot farm boy using a mattock to open way for water to flow from river into irrigation sluice to water local crops. View of the sluice. Water flowing in the fields and farmers directing its flow. Civilian and military traffic on the Valencia road. Troops and a black and white dog riding on a T-26 tank. Closeup of Republican soldier aiming and firing his rifle. Water moving to irrigate parched farm field. (Note: Scenes from film "Spanish Earth," directed by Joris Iven)
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt delivers his Annual Message to Congress (State of the Union) in Washington DC, USA. President delivers his message to a new Congress within a fortnight of the expiration of his office term. He reviews the existing state of U.S. National affairs and outline broad future problems. He asks immediate consideration of Congress in matters such as extending the life of certain authorizations and powers, addition to the existing Neutrality Act to cover specific points raised by the unfortunate civil strife in Spain (Spanish Civil War), and a deficiency appropriation bill.
Animated map shows the front line of battle, between Republican and Nationalist forces, curving North from Aranjuez, towards Madrid, during the Spanish Civil War. View from hilltop of shells exploding in distance. Closeup of Republican trenches and soldiers taking doors from a town, to reinforce them. The troops installing the doors in the sides of the trenches. Troops carrying supplies and gathering together for a meal behind a protecting hill. Soldiers eating and reading posted information and sharing newspapers inside their fortified positions. A soldier climbs steps into a truck equipped as a traveling barber shop, where he gets a shave and haircut. The mobile barbershop moves on to another location. A camouflaged military vehicle tows a huge loudspeaker out the gates of of a Republican army post. It drives to the front lines, where it broadcasts music for the Republican army troops. View inside the control trailer where the operator places a vinyl record album on a phonograph player. Sound of the broadcast transmitted in the area. Troops in trenches listening as they man their positions and maintain their weapons. An instructor reviews information about their weapons with a group of soldiers, who had little prior experience with firearms. These new recruits are being taught how to disassemble and reassemble a rifle.
Camera pans walls of a Republican army base. Several statues stand on pillars between sandbagged fortifications. Barbed wire is seen in some locations. Camera pans down face of tall building showing shell holes in places. Sign next to elaborate entrance door refers to general mobilization. A Red Cross car displaying white flag rushes down empty street toward place where smoke is rising from rebel shelling. Another scene shows civilians running and one falling during a shelling attack. A shell explodes near the camera with black smoke billowing. The Red Cross car rushes to another location. City dwellers walk about near rubble from shelling. Boys look for shell fragments in the rubble. A woman holding a baby runs for cover. Another shell explodes nearby. Two civilians lie where they have fallen, victims of the shelling. (Narrator ascribes the shelling to German artillery.) A cyclist in uniform walks his bicycle through broken glass as he steps past the dead pair of victims.
View of sleepy village in Spanish hills. A Woman comes out of her house with a basket of food. An airplane is heard in skies above and someone shouts "aviación," and it echoes down the hill. Three airplanes are seen in formation overhead, followed by two more. The planes maneuver. Filmed closeup of explosions is followed by scenes of smoke rising in a village and people walking about in despair. Villagers in an alleyway look at rubble from a bombing. Two women and a baby look out through a hole blasted in the side of a house. Villagers gather near a large house with windows hattered and roof destroyed. They sadly walk past four dead bombing victims laid out at near the site including one young boy. Narrator states that three Junker planes did this. Interior view of roof destroyed in the house. View through hole in wall of the house, showing villagers outside mourning the two victims. Building exterior pockmarked by gunfire and scrapnel. Two little boys wearing army hats, pose for the camera, in front of the building, while another sits near a soldier cleaning his rifle. The boys are seen playing in rubble in front of the building. Scene shifts to a dogfight overhead, between two airplanes. One,that appears to be a Nationalist Fiat CR.32 biplane, is shot down and spirals to crash on the ground. Scene shifts, again, to Republican soldiers and local people looking through jumbled pieces of a downed Junkers plane spread over a large crash site. Seen, are a tail wheel and corrugated metal section, identifying the wreckage as that of a large German Junkers Ju-52 trimotor aircraft (clearly unrelated to the earlier dogfight scene).A placard is shown with data about the Junkers aircraft parts. A parachute is also seen with harness instructions. A view of landscaped through a gaping hole blown in a stone wall. An isolated house showing battle damage. Fallen Italian soldiers in a field, and letters they had with them.