Opening scene shows the Rathaus Schöneberg (John-F.-Kennedy-Platz, 10825 Berlin, Germany) where Mayor of Berlin Willy Brandt addresses a large crowd of West Berlin citizens, concerned about the building of the Berlin Wall by the Soviet Union. Many carry placards and signs, including some in English, reading: "We trust Kennedy, Pay any price, Bear any burden, for survival of Liberty" and "Millions behind the Iron Curtain ask for help." Scene shifts to a limousine driving into the center of a crowd. United States Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson steps from the car, accompanied by General Lucius D. Clay, who is seen next, with arm raised, acknowledging the crowd, while standing with Johnson and Brandt, at a podium cluttered with microphones. (Narrator refers to him as "Father of the Airlift.") The next day, British and American soldiers are seen driving in jeeps and trucks and M59 Armored Personnel Carriers, through cheering crowds, as they arrive to reinforce their Berlin garrisons. Closeup of cheering Berliners, waving handkerchiefs. Change of scene shows animated map of Europe illustrating the Westward expansion and growth of Soviet Communist occupation through World War II and the postwar era, concluding with East Berlin, in 1962. The threat to other Nations and regions is also illustrated. Legislators are seen in session in the plenary chamber of the German Bundestag in Bonn. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer is addressing the assembly. He states that Germany does not stand alone in the world. In France, Prime Minister Georges Pompidou addresses the National Assembly, regarding the Berlin Wall. In London, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan addresses Parliament. In the United States, on September 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy, is addressing the UN General Assembly, in New York, about the dangerous crisis in Berlin. Scenes of the Berlin wall and Checkpoint Charlie. Memorials to persons killed attempting to escape East Berlin, are seen along the wall.
Elevated views and busy street views of automobile and pedestrian traffic on streets of New York City in the late 1930s. A streetcar stopped in the street. A roadside news stand. Men in suits and women in dresses walking on sidewalks near office buildings and stores in New York City. Children of late primary school or middle school age walking to school. Children exiting a school bus to go to school Two boys wrestle as a group of boys gathers around and encourages them. Girls play a game like "London Bridge is falling down." Scene changes to a farm field with a farmer plowing a field with his tractor. A farmer cuts crops with a sickle. Brief view of the main street in a small town somewhere in the United States, likely east. Scene changes again to a neighborhood with nice homes and two girls play skipping rope at a house. A woman prepares toast in a electric toaster. Vegetables and food items seen on shelves of an open refrigerator in a home. Scene changes to dense urban tenements and scenes of relative poverty in New York City. Elevated view looking out over dense tenements and apartment homes. Two young women sit on sleeping cots on a rooftop 1930s cars parked on a narrow street among crowded city dwellings, and and people sit outside their houses. Kids playing "stoop ball" throwing a ball against steps of their dwelling on the lower east side of Manhattan. A movie promotion poster advertises "Yellow Jack" playing at the Loews Commodore Theatre . Children play.
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).
German infantry advances through a field on the Eastern front. German Marder III H Panzerjaeger tank destroyers fire at targets. Scenes of smoking targets and destroyed tanks. (World War II period).
British Army officer leads British Cabinet officials on tour of the wartime front in France, during December, 1939, in the so-called "Phoney War" at outset of world War 2. A British Naval officer accompanies them. The weather is foggy. Next, a closeup reveals that among the officials is British foreign minister, Lord Halifax (Viscount Halifax). The group converses as they are escorted about the British Expeditionary Force areas of operation. Momentary glimpse of General Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Commander of II Corps in the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Views of extensive fortified trenches, and a sign reading: "Canadian Front Line, 1917." Change of scene shows contingent of Canadian troops marching in a town. Their commanding officer salutes as they pass. Standing with him, is a French officer in battle helmet. Local French civlians watch the troops on parade. More soldiers march past in background, behind the French spectators. Scene shifts again, to the civilian officials being escorted on tour of the area. Camera focuses on the Canadian War Memorial, at Vimy Ridge, and then pans to the touring group arriving there.
Scenes of warship and people on the French Navy ship in Le Havre, France. French submarine "Archimède" is moored beside the ship. The Archimède is then seen underway and submerging in ocean waters. On shore, a funeral ceremony is held to honor French sailors who died in the Redoutable-class submarine "Phenix" lost off Indochina on 15 June, 1939. French Navy sailors and officers offer garlands and officers keeping their caps low and heads down in a ceremony in the Place Gambetta, at the site of the French memorial known as Monuments aux Morts. French political and military leaders stand by. Sailors with rifles on shoulders pass by marching in formation. Large crowd gathered to see the memorial ceremony.
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