Prime Minister Winston Churchill, accompanied by Lady Churchill and several officials, visits Bristol, April,12, 1941, the day after the so-called "Good Friday bombing raid." Churchill pauses to contribute to a charity being represented by a uniformed sailor. He takes a small token of his contribution from the sailor's box and pins it to his coat collar. He speaks with some women lining the sidewalk, and pats the head of a small child held up to him by one of the women. Next, Winston, and Lady Clementine Churchill, speak with a woman, standing near some rubble, as a British officer takes a snapshot. The Churchills, and other members of their party, make their way through some rubble, past several bombed buildings. Several citizens take photographs. Scene shifts the University of Bristol's Wills Memorial Building on Park Street. University officials and faculty in academic robes inside the building. At the center of the ceremonial activities, is Winston Churchill, Chancellor of the University, who presides over the awarding of Honorary degrees to American Ambassador, John Gilbert Winant, and Australian Prime Minister, Robert Gordon Menzies. Churchill is later seen leaving the Memorial Building, flanked by the honors recipients, Winant and Menzies. (World War II period).
British soldiers moving horses and supplies through thick mud during the First World War. A soldier with his face covered with mud. A shell bursts showering British soldiers with shrapnel, as they hunker down in the mud at night. In daytime scene British infantry advances across no man's land as the unit piper plays bagpipes and marches along crest of hill in World War 1. (Slate states Piper Richardson was killed later that day and was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry.) Scenes are from a British film released post-war.
Life of the poor in China. A few women playing cards on a side walk. A child standing beside them. Several bills which were not paid on New Year's day stuck on the door of a shop. A Chinese farmer making a pile of grains in a field. The farmer using a horse for harvesting. The horse pulling a ridge over the grains spread on the ground. A few women and child beggars on a street. A beggar woman holding a baby. A woman stretching a container in her hands for alms.
Camera pans along a portion of the "Berlin Wall" made of rough concrete blocks topped by barbed wire. Next, a large group of East German people are seen lined up along a fence topped with barbed wire. They look through the fence. More views of the rough concrete block wall. Scene shifts to Asia, where large numbers of refugees are seen moving along a dirt road. Glimpse of Soviet military on parade in Red Square. Refugees and displaced persons in various places and conditions. Some are barefoot. Huge crowds filling Red Square in Moscow,Soviet Russia. The Kremlin wall and old Russian Senate building and Senate Tower in background. Glimpse of Felix Dzerzhinsky giving empassioned speech in Soviet Russia. A baby with an angry expression throwing a tantrum. Glimpse of fallen refugees beside a road. The film displays a rotating globe of the earth and slate identifying "The Big Picture." A statue and photograph of Karl Marx, the philosopher who espoused Communism. Communists marching during early days of the Russian Revolution in Russia circa 1917. Series of One-way road signs in various languages. Large gathering of German people carrying signs reading "Frieden" (Peace). View of a person apprehended attempting to escape across the barrier separating East and West Germany. Closeup picture of East German citizen, Bernt Leuton, who was shot by East German border guards, after successfully swimming to West Germany.
U.S. propaganda piece about threats by communists against various European countries. The Czechoslovak coup and demonstrations. Czech citizens moving on a street in Czechoslovakia during a strike forcing conservative elements to resign from the cabinet. Scenes of police brutality and beatings against strikers. Communists take over the police. Czech President Edvard Benes with conservative politicians in a government building. Huge crowd on a street. Police clashing with crowd. Czech Prime Minister Klement Gottwald with officials. President Edvard Benes, facing possible civil war or invasion by the Soviet Union, accepts a Communist cabinet. He is seen signing documents to that effect on February 25, 1948. Other officials beside President Benes during the signing. View of the first President of Czechoslovakia Tomas Masaryk's son, Jan Masaryk, who remained the Foreign Minister, and did not agree to the new government. Two days later Jan Masaryk is discovered dead. The body of Jan Masaryk in a coffin. Edvard Benes, who resigned in June 1948 after refusing to sign the communist constitution, is seen walking slowly outside the Parliament using a cane. A guard saluting Benes. View of the body of Edvard Benes, who died in September 1948, laying in a coffin. Mourning citizens offering flowers and cry. Officials bearing the coffin. Shift several years later to street strikes in East Germany in 1953. People during a strike and riot in Poland in 1956. Russian tanks moving on a street and Soviet soldiers are seen. Elevated view of panic and Polish citizens fleeing soldiers. October 1956: Student demonstrators on street in Budapest Hungary during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. Soviet Russian red star is toppled by crowds from a building roof in a sign of defiance. Russian troops respond with tanks on the streets in Hungary. Crowd fights back. Russians retreat. Crowd overwhelms local police. Imre Nagy, Prime Minister of Hungary, ascends steps. Hungarian crowd on streets burn communist books and papers. Russian tanks invade Hungary to crush revolt. Tanks fire guns on Hungarian street. Imre Nagy's execution announced June 17, 1958.
A trans-Atlantic cruiser in New York, United States. An outboard cruiser during a trans-Atlantic cruise from Copenhagen, Denmark to New York. The cruiser approaching a harbor in New York. The Statue of Liberty. The cruiser surging on water. The U.S. flag on the cruiser. 'Coronet Explorer' written on the cruiser. One of the men on the boat looking through binoculars. Men on the cruiser smiling. The boat reaches New York Harbor after a ten-day long cruise from Copenhagen. Several people at the harbor.
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