The AFN (American Forces Network) announcer speaks in French as part of an educational program, at AFN Orleans in France. Sgt. Bill Crawford talks about cultures and history of various nations. From AFN Berlin, Mrs. Jean Vavrin talks about cooking and various recipes. Also from Berlin, Pat Hicks hosts childrens program for the young listeners.
Adolf Hitler addresssing the Bundestag in Berlin. Animated map shows Berlin, Warsaw, and higlights Danzig and the Polish corridor. Newspaper headline reads 'Poles will fight for Danzig.' Polish officer addressing recruits. Polish women and children watching as they march off. Polish women and old men and youths digging trench fortifications. Animated map shows Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. Map shows Vistula River and tributaries. Map shows Polish defense options. Map illustrates Nazi plan to launch pincer movements around the Polish defenses. Views of German forces marshaling near the Polish border in August, 1939. Polish infantry moving in horse-drawn wagons, supported by old fashioned horse cavalry. Film illustrates dramatic difference in military might, contrasting German armor, aircraft,and numbers to that of Poland. Closeup of German airmen loading bomb under their aircraft. German heavy artillery and siege mortar firing. German Panzer I light tank charging through snow. Motorized German forces entering Poland on September 1st, 1939. German Heinkel HE 111 bomber taking off toward the camera. Several Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers taking off. German aircraft strafing Polish aircraft on an airbase. Aircraft exploding on the ground. A Dornier Do 17 bomber maneuvering. More views from German aircraft strafing Polish aircraft on the ground. Formation of He 111 aircraft in flight. Gunner firing from blister in bomber. Aerial dogfight scenes with two Polish P50A fighter airplanes being fired upon and exploding in air. Aerial view of German Me Bf 109 as it maneuvers nearby. Me Bf 109 firing guns and flying through white smoke. A Polish P50 streaming black smoke. Another gunner in bomber firing and hitting a Polish P-50. An aircraft crashing in flames. More He 111 bombers. Glimpse of bombardier in He 111. Bombs striking Polish bridges, roads, railroads, etc. Closeup of Stuka dive bomber starting dive down on target. Polish civilians fleeing in a field. A stuka diving as children watch from hiding places. Bombs bursting near railroad. Closeup of German airman in cockpit. Polish cavalry charging. German tank tows a field artillery piece across a shallow river, A destroyed bridge in background. A Panzer I light tank emerges from the stream. German soldiers racing across the Vistula River in long powered boats. Series of maps show situation from September 5th as Germans advance and Poles retreat, ending with encirclement of Warsaw and defeat of Polish forces. Scenes of Warsaw, encircled and bombarded, but not yet fallen. Firemen respond to bombing and shelling. Buildings crumble. Germans load and fire 142mm Howitzers. Scenes of destruction from shelling. A factory chimney falls. Hitler at the front observing bombardment. Women and children seek shelter in the city. Dead horses in streets. September 27th Warsaw capitulates and German troops occupy it. Map shows Polish forces still resist in the Westerplatte fortress. German battleship, Schleswig-Holstein, firing her guns. Defenders raise white flag on October 1st, 1939. Polish prisoners marching away (one seen barefoot). Polish Nazi collaborator points out persons for arrest. Poles lined up by a pit for execution. German machine gunners firing. Glimpse of Nazi Heinrich Himmler. Bodies of executed. Polish women mourning the dead. Closeups of Polish women, children and old man. A woman throws fuel on a funeral pyre. Closeups of mourning women and girls. Hitler's Ju 52 transport plane takes off. Inside he talks with military passengers. Profile of Hitler silhouetted against the sky, looking at burning city of Warsaw. Russian army entering Poland talks with German officer. Sign boards in England say Britain declares war. French forces respond, marching from Caserne Maginot Barracks. British bombers attack German warships in the Kiel canal. German sailors rush to battle stations and fire anti-aircraft gun. Bombs away view as British planes bombs German Navy.
News headlines in the New York Times. A scrolling news marquee at the building of New York Times: "Read The New York Times", "Stalin Blames Britain U.S. And France For Failure To Solve Berlin Dispute-- Charges West Follows Warmongering Policy But Discounts Possibility Of New World Conflict" and "Stalin Flays Former British Prime Minister Churchill As 'Chief Instigator of War' ". Pedestrians and motor traffic in foreground. A scrolling news marquee: " Stalin Blames Britain U.S. And European Revival", "Western Diplomat Describe Stalin's Attack On Allied Powers As Propaganda Statement" and "Britain U.S. And France Halt Heavy Flow Of Western Marks Out Of Berlin". Two men and a couple look at the marquee. Views of a man looking at the marquee.
Presidential Palace in Havana. U.S. Secretary of State, Cordell Hull speaking at the Havana Conference. Flags of Nations attending. Franklin Roosevelt, on May 16, 1940, telling congress to mobilize for national defense. Airplane and engine factories and manufacturing plants. Navy ships being built. U.S. sailors and marines on parade. U.S. soldiers training with mock weapons. Flour bag "bombs" hitting a U.S. Army tank M2. Army trucks labeled "tanks." U.S. Army tanks M3. Empty "Adelphi" brand beer cans used for training. National Guard units Nationalized. President Roosevelt reading first draft numbers under the Selective Service Act. New recruits getting draft notices and physical exams. New soldiers in boot camp. German Ju 87 and Dornier 17 bombers taking off. Animated map showing German air attacks against Britain. View of radio broadcaster Edward R. Murrow in studio as he is describing the "Blitz" from London. German He 111 bomber aircraft in flight during blitz bombing of London, England, United Kingdom. British antiaircraft guns firing. London citizens in underground bomb shelter. British Fire brigades directing water hoses on burning buildings. British warships at sea. U.S. Destroyers transferred to Britain. British Prime Minister Churchill assigning military base rights to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Berle. Brandenburg Gate and German, Italian, and Japanese flags flying in Berlin on September 27, 1940 Hitler greeting Italian Galleazzo Ciano, and Japanese representative Saburo Kurusu. Signing of Berlin Pact. London civilian citizens resting in underground air raid shelters, while the relentless bombing goes on. American Charles Lindbergh talks to an audience and says Britain is losing the war. Next scene shows Wendell Wilkie saying "England will not only survive, England will win!" British people cleaning up after a German blitz bombing run during the Battle of Britain. Fire fighter moving a mannequin from a store among rubble; a large commuter bus on its side and resting against a building in rubble; a British man with a hard hat clearing rubble finds a small British flag and mounts it in a wall. Polls showing increased American support for Britain based on polling between 1936 and 1941.
Nazi forces in German-occupied Vienna after the Anschluss. Stahlhelm helmets on top of packages and rifles on the ground. A woman pours coffee for German soldiers on a street. Nazi soldier lifts a child to ride a horse. Boy grinning while being held by a soldier. Soldier lifts a boy holding a Nazi German flag. The soldier shows an anti-aircraft gun to the little boy. Little boy views the inner portion of the anti-aircraft gun barrel. German soldier carries a boy and a girl. German soldiers engage in small talk. Soldiers and civilians in the balcony of Gasthof Schroll (Ulricusstrasse 13, Kirchbichl 6322 Austria) in Kirchbichl, Tyrol. Austrians sitting on top of a tank. The Nazi flag flutters. Nazi officials saluting to each other. A battalion of the German-Austrian 15th Infantry Division marching in Berlin. Crowds watch a Nazi military parade in Berlin.
View from above, of the surrounding walls and courtyard of a prison in Rheinbach, Germany. Ground view inside the prison yard, where German civilian Matthias Gierens is being escorted to the gallows by U.S. military police, and accompanied by a German Catholic priest, on June 29, 1945. They ascend the gallows and final charges and sentence are read to Gierens. Next scene shows bodies stacked up at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp operated by Nazi Germany. Scene returns to the gallows, and a hood is placed over Gierens' head. View of Allied army officer witnesses, in formation, at parade rest. Noose is placed over Gierens' hood. View of a a bird flying overhead, trapdoor opens, Gierens drops, and noose tightens. Next is an unrelated scene of several German soldiers being executed. They are seen hanging from four gallows in a line in a public square while a large crowd, possibly Soviet citizens, looks on. (Notes: Regarding the execution of Gierens in the opening scene: German civilian Matthias Gierens was a 37 year old railroad worker. He was executed for the August 15, 1944, murder near Priest, Germany, of a downed American airman, who was later identified as U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lieutenant Lester E. Reuss. Gierens and three other German civilians, Peter Kohn, Peter Back, and Matthias Krein, were convicted on June 2, 1945 in Ahrweiler, Germany, of the murder. Their trial was the first Allied trial in Germany of civilians charged with a war crime.)
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