Activities of the U.S. Army Military Police (MPs). A civilian family in a car is stopped at a check post by a U.S. Army MP accompanied by a local policeman, in Germany. The driver presents identifcation document. An American 1955 Oldsmobile convertible car stops at barrier on opposite side of road, and the MP and local policemen clear it to enter as they also raise the barrier for the first car. Family in the departing car wave at family in the Oldsmobile. A line of German cars awaits entry at the checkpoint.
U.S. Army tanks leaving a town in Germany during the last days of World War II in Europe. A large convoy of U.S. Army tanks drive past. U.S. soldiers throw bricks in the foreground on a muddy incline to provide traction for other military vehicles. A tank drives up and stops. Personnel carriers and trucks and jeeps follow through the mud on the road. Soldiers spread hay or straw on a muddy incline for traction. Tanks move on a rural road past a burning building. Infantry men advance across an open field.
Film opens with a map showing the Ardennes forest with cities Aachen, Maastricht, Eschweiler in the north and Saarburg and Strassburg to the south. (Elements of the American VII Corps have penetrated the Siegfried line (West Wall) in the vicinity of Roetgen, Germany, in September, 1944, when this film depicts German defense responses, from their perspective. Numerous German rockets are seen speeding through the black night sky. In daylight, German gunners fire large artillery pieces as well as more rockets (Nebelwerfer) which also can be heard as the streak past. German gunners firing a 15 cm schwere Feldhaubitze 18 or sFH 18 heavy howitzer. Shells exploding in the distance. Closeup of German soldiers observing the shells exploding. American soldiers being taken as prisoners of war, march past dragons teeth of the Siegfried line. German Panzer tanks rolling along a road as Allied prisoners march the opposite way, under guard, with their hands over their heads. German troops slogging along a muddy road. Some carry panzerfaust anti-tank weapons. One carries an MG-42 machine gun. Bodies of dead U.S. Army soldiers on the ground. Wide field with a distant Panzer V "Panther" tank advancing across the field. German tanks maneuvering and firing their guns. German soldiers in a village engaged in house-to-house combat with American soldiers.
Slate notes heavy reliance on turnips for use in many foods while potatoes and other crops were in short supply in Germany during World War I. "Kohl-Ruben Zeit" (Epoch of Turnips): a German soldier eats bread with turnip marmalade. Two German officers standing beside a tree as the other soldier eats behind them, seated.
Swimming and diving competition in Germany. Men and women participants dive into a swimming pool. Three women perform a synchronized dive. Swimming competitors swim in lanes of the pool during a race. Winner as he completes the lap. Women participants dive into the pool. Spectators watch the competition. Audience cheer for the participants. Female winner comes out and smiles.
German troops marching on a rough field, as they are reviewed by officers mounted on horses. German SA Storm troopers (Sturmabteilung) with massed Nazi swastiks flags marching at a rally in Nuremberg, Germany. Adolf Hitler walking ahead of a group of SA Storm troopers (Brown shirts) led by Ernst Röhm and Schutzstaffel (SS) in black uniforms, led by Heinrich Himmler. Hitler gives impassioned speech about German people (das eigene Volk), saying" Und für dieses Volk und um dieses Volk wollen wir ringen und wollen wir kämpfen. Und niemals erlahmen. Und niemals ermüden. Und niemals verzagen. Und niemals verzweifeln.” (And for this people, and for the sake of this people, we will struggle and fight. And never slaken, never tire, never lose courage, and never lose faith.)
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