Film begins showing German ace pilot Oberleutnant (Major) Helmut Lent, of a night fighter wing, with other pilots on the occasion of his 100th aerial victory, on July 31, 1944, when he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. Next, a night fighter Messerschmitt Bf 110 twin-engine heavy fighter is seen taxiing out for takeoff at night in heavy rain. Scene shifts to a Nazi memorial service for Major Lent, who was killed in a crash on October 5, 1944. His flag-covered coffin is seen flanked by an honor guard. A display of his military awards is seen, also. View from beside the honor guard shows Field Marshal Hermann Goering raising his baton in salute as other attending the ceremony render the Nazi salute. Goering offers his condolences to parents of Major Lent. He then ascends steps toward the coffin and salutes. View from behind the honor guard as Goering delivers a eulogy. View Luftwaffe (Air Force) officers filling the seats of the hall, including famous ace, Adolf Galland. Goering steps from the podium and stands in front of the coffin, saluting with his baton, as the audience rises and all render the Nazi hand salute. With help of two soldiers, Goering places a large wreath of flowers before the coffin. Closeup of the wreath and Goering saluting with his baton. A large wreath with ribbons showing it is from the Furhrer (Hitler).
As film opens, a sign in German is displayed reading "Soldier You enter an area with brave and believing people who also know and have overcome carpet bombing." Camera focuses on a large seemingly undamaged cathedral. German troops are seen gathering up their gear and preparing to move during World War 2. Glimpse of a German sailor standing nearby. People boarding a tram with the cathedral in the background. A truck driver stopped and presenting identification to a German soldier on the sidewalk. German troops with their gear, including bedrolls, walking en masse toward and past the camera. Several older civilian men in the background. Signs on building walls (in German) reading "With the Leader to Victory" and "Now fight even more to Victory."
A large cathedral dominates the opening scene. It seems relatively undamaged although their are destroyed buildings all around it from bombing during World War 2. People are seen carrying their belongings as they flee the area. They pass through narrow corridors between destroyed buildings. View of an orphanage named St. Catharina. View of infants in cribs inside the orphanage. Staff and nurses leading the children out of the building and then loading them aboard a bus. One attendant giving treats to very small infants. Staff waving goodbye to the children and caregivers on the bus, as it departs. Refugees using wagons pulled by cattle to transport them and their belongings. Livestock on the hoof being herded along a road.
Narrator announces the "9th of November in Munich." (It is 1941, early in World War 2.) A gathering of Nazi officials in a church. They are celebrating the anniversary of the Nazi Beer Hall Putsch of November 9, 1923. Next, a large group of Nazi officials are seen conversing in a large hall. Adolf Hitler arrives to the cheers and Nazi salutes of the attendees, as he walks through their midst and spends time greeting and shaking hands with his old comrades from the 1920s. He steps to a podium. Closeup of him at the podium responding to the adulation of the assembly by rendering a bent elbow Nazi salute. The audience is applauding. According to the narrator, Hitler speaks disparagingly about U.S. President Roosevelt and Soviet leader Stalin.
Adolf Hitler addressing the Reichstag, meeting in the Kroll Opera House makes fun of an April 1939, letter from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hitler reads a list of countries that FDR asked him not to invade. As he drones on through the extensive list, it becomes comical and the Reichstag member burst out in laughter. Next heavy guns are seen firing and formations of German Junkers JU-52 airplanes flying overhead as narrator cites September 1st 1939 and the German invasion of Poland as start of World War 2. Motorized German forces, and infantry are seen rushing across the landscape. German 17 cm Kanone 18 guns are seen firing. Formations of German JU 87 Stuka dive bombers in flight and Heinkel He 111 bombers dropping bombs on Poland. Bombs exploding and devastation on the ground with buildings burning and collapsing. Aerial view of Polish city being bombed. Huge number of disarmed Polish Army prisoners of war walking along roads. German troops marching into Copenhagen, Denmark in 1940
A captured Wehrmacht Major General gets into a jeep after German defeat from the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. A German Volkssturm militia man with an armband. Armband reads “Deusches Volkssturm Wehrmacht”. Volkssturm militia carry discarded Schmeisser guns to defend a town in the Ruhr Valley. A Volkssturm militia man surrenders to an American soldier. Surrendered Volkssturm men shows a place to an American soldier, where arms have been hidden. American soldier being led to a riverbank of the Rhine River where the German Volkssturm men show him flame throwers. The mass escape of prisoners from a German concentration camp. Polish, Czech, Yugoslavian, and Soviet prisoners of war find United States soldiers in the forest after their escape from a German prison camp. An Asian man, likely Soviet, after escaping a German concentration camp. Food and medical aid being provided to them by the Americans. Women being released from a camp by the Americans. Russian prisoners appear happy after being released from German prisons.
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