Opening of film shows image of famous statue being projected on a screen. The statue depicts a Soviet worker and a collective farm woman, respectively, raising a hammer and sickle high above their heads. The statue is a stainless steel art work created by Vera Mukhinafor the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, France. (It was later moved to Moscow, Russia.) Next a field and forest is shown on the Western front of the Soviet Union (Eastern Front of World War 2, in Europe). Soviet soldiers are preparing for combat during a temporary lull in their defense against German forces in their Operation Barbarossa offensive ,begun in June, 1941. Soviet soldiers place branches and foliage upon a BT tank as camouflage. Others assemble loose ammunition rounds into machine gun belts. Soldiers camouflaging an artillery field piece with foliage. Soviet soldiers refueling a tank. Soldiers moving through wooded area past another camouflaged gun. Several Soviet soldiers at a shelter in the woods, placing ammunition rounds in a clip. A printer producing a daily newspaper for soldiers. A soviet soldier picks one up to read. Closeup of the newspaper. Soviet munitions handlers inserting fuses into noses of artillery shells. A T-34 tank sitting in foliage. Soldiers looking at charts as they sit in the woods. A Soviet soldier running (possibly to deliver a dispatch).
Film begins with picture of famous Soviet statue of Worker and Kolkhoz Woman holding hammer and sickle, respectively, over their heads. The title,"View of the World Soviet," is superimposed. A slate gives a title in English: "The Commanders in Chief." Commander in Chief of North-West Forces, Marshal Kliment Voroshilov is seen meeting and exchanging handshakes and salutes with several Soviet soldiers in a wide open field during World War 2. Russian tanks drive past, raising lots of dust. and Commander in Chief of Western Front, Semyon Timoshenko at the front with troops. Commander in Chief of South-West Forces, Marshal Semyon Mikhaylovich Budenny, watches with several officers and soldiers, from behind a Soviet armored vehicle, as a BT-7 tank passes them. Next, Chief of Western Front, Marshal Semyon Timoshenko, visits troops at the front. Accompanied by officers of his staff, he bends down to observe something with soldiers at the front. Closeup of two Soviet troops in a defensive position. Timoshenko next to a soldier in a trench, pulls some foliage in front of himself, as camouflage. Marshal Budenny is seen again, this time, consulting with officers at the front. They converse and point at something of interest in the distance. Soviet infantry are seen advancing across a wide area in the distance.
German Kriegsmarine Grand Admiral Erich Raeder inspects coastal artillery units along the English Channel during World War 2. He arrives and is greeted by German Naval officers. They study maps on a table. He inspects the guns. A coastal gun raises its barrel, while under a camouglage net. Scene shifts to residents of a German town that had been struck by British RAF bombers. Local residents work to clear up the rubble. Views of bomb-damaged homes, with entire front walls missing. View of damaged kitchen in an apartment. Teams of men working to clear rubble. German children fill a town square to watch the demolition of an unsafe structure. Sign with skull and crossbones next to an unexploded bomb, warning that it is a dud and life threatening. German workers pouring concrete for an airfield. Scene shifts to Kriegsmarine activity in Norway. View of a fjord, and then to many German float planes in a bay near a city. German warships come under attack by British warplanes. German ships antiaircraft guns are brought to bear. German Focke Wulf FW-190 aircraft scrambled to engage the British. Views from German aircraft in flight over the area. Snow covered mountains. View from German ships in the North Atlantic. The German battleship, Gneisenau, underway. Formation of German warships underway. Two German U-boats moving on the surface. A motor torpedo boat. German Stuka, Junkers JU-87 dive bombers, in formation flight. Motor torpedo boat dropping depth charge.
'50 Years of Cinematography' depicts the role of military and news cameramen during World War II. Germany starts the War. Invasion of Poland in 1939: German Nazi Luftwaffe bombers in flight over Warsaw. Explosions due to the bombardment. Burning and damaged buildings in the war torn city. Civilians amidst rubble and ruins. Soldiers and civilians look at corpses on a sidewalk. A woman with her child cries. A man walks on a street. Dunkirk Evacuation in 1940: Allied troops evacuated from the Dunkirk coast. Allied troops on ships. Smoke rises from a ship under German attack. Soldiers wade through the water towards waiting ships. Burning ships. The Second Armistice at Compiegne after the German victory in the Battle of France, 1940: German troops stand at attention. German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, President of the Reichstag Hermann Goering, German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and other German officers arrive at the venue. The leaders and officers walk past the soldiers at attention. Hitler gives the Nazi salute. The Blitz, London in 1940-1941: Bomb damaged buildings. Cars and pedestrians amidst ruins and rubble on the streets. A train over a collapsed wall. Civilians in a horse cart. A wrecked bus in a damaged building. Rescue workers among the rubble. Clouds over the city.