A medium bomb (probably dropped by a U.S. Navy aircraft) is seen hitting the German Battleship Ostfriesland on July 20, 1921 in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, United States. A formation of U.S. Navy Curtiss F5L flying boats is seen in the air. The following day, July 21, 1921, 2000 lb. bomb is seen exploding near the Ostfriesland. The bomb is dropped by an airplane from an Air Corps unit commanded by Army Brigadier General Billy Mitchell (neither seen). Several other 2000 lb. bombs explode on and near the Ostfriesland, causing it to roll over and sink.
Brigadier General Billy Mitchell taxis in a Boeing Model 15 ( or a Curtis P-1Hawk) airplane, after landing at an airfield. . Battle ships underway at sea. Mitchell organizes 1st provisional Air Brigade for bombing demonstration against battleship target.. Crews and airplanes train and prepare at Langley Field, Virginia. Soldiers load bombs under plane wings. Planes take off to bomb the obsolete U.S. battleship USS Alabama. View from airplane in flight as it drops phosphorus bomb on the Alabama. View from water as bomb strikes with huge explosion. Armorers prepare heavier bombs for the next demonstration. Planes take off and bomb the USS Alabama again. General Mitchell crouched down beside a bomb loaded on an airplane for new tests in 1923. General Pershing, Admiral Shoemaker, Assistant Secretary of War, Davis, and General Patrick on deck of the Ship, USS St. Mihiel (AP-32) to observe the tests. Views of planes dropping bombs on Battleship USS Virginia and the ship rolling over and sinking. Large formations of 1920s era Air Service aircraft in flight.
Depicts life near the southern Appalachian region of Marion, Virginia in Smyth County, and specifically the path of Kenneth G. Killinger from being a mill operator to becoming a mountain missionary of the Lutheran Synod of Virginia. Man carries sack of corn to a water powered mill. Sign "Corn Ground." Young man actor portraying Kenneth G. Killinger weighs the corn with a simple scale and then pours it into the stone grinder. He gives the ground corn to the customer, along with a booklet that reads, "The Augsburg Sunday School Teacher, 1910." Close view of the contents page of the booklet. The young man standing at the edge of the mill, water wheel turning beside him. Scenes portraying two memories from his youth: A woman taking a paddle to a boy as punishment. Next scene is a group of teenage and younger boys gathered together and taking drinks of moonshine whiskey alcohol from a bottle. They cringe from the taste and pass the bottle around. Scene of men digging a grave in a graveyard beside a rural church. Killinger reenters the mill. Scene of young Killinger sitting on the porch of a rural home, reading to young children. Killinger counseling a bed-ridden elderly woman. On screen text reads, "Kenneith G. Killinger. 'The Mountain Missionary' of The Lutheran Synod of Virginia. Marion, Virginia. July 24, 1921." View of Killinger in 1921, preaching to congregation sitting under a tree. The congregation entering a small makeshift church building. The congregation entering an abandoned rail car turned into their church. The congregation later in a larger church building. Killinger preaching. Rural children singing from hymnals. Churchgoers exiting the church.
Several Keystone LB-5s (triple tails) and LB-5As (double tails) move across an airfield, circa 1928. Test bombing of captured German battleship, Ostfriesland, in 1921. Smoke arises due to bombing. A formation of four Martin NBS-1 bombers over the former USS Alabama (BB-8), in the Chesapeake Bay, on September 23, 1921. A white phosphorus bomb explodes atop the ship raising a huge white cloud. One of the Martin bombers flies low over the water drops a smoke curtain. (World War II period).
Scenes from the Russian Revolution and years immediately after in Russia, roughly 1918-1921. Troops moving in the snow. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the Bolshevik leader, makes peace with the Germans. The Civil War breaks out in Russia. White Russians continue war with World War 1 allies, against Germany. Czarist Cossacks seek to restore the monarchy of Nicholas II. Photograph of the Russian Czar and family sitting outdoors on the ledge of a wooden building. Secret police seen arresting people. Bolshevik firing squad executes three prisoners, who fall dead into a mass grave behind them. Lenin, holding a kitten in his hand, seated at a table. March 7, 1921: Workers and sailors gathered on the streets, in Kronstadt, demanding peace, freedom, and bread. Red Army Troops disperse the crowd, shooting many of them. Leon Trotsky, Commander of the Red Army, states that the slaughter was necessary. Trotsky seen walking with other officers. People on the sides of a path watching Trotsky. Families looking over dead workers and sailors in a field.
Scenes from a November 12, 1921 protest parade of anti-war women march to support disarmament and promote messages of peace and "No more war". The parade coincided with the start of the Washington Naval Conference, also called the Washington Disarmament Conference. Women march in New York City, under the Washington Square Arch, with a banner that reads "The way to disarm is to disarm." A banner for "Religious Society of Friends" (Quakers). People march holding placards demanding complete military disarmament. A placard reads "Thou shalt not kill" and another reads "War means death famine pestilence." Another sign reads, "Cooperation pays better than competition. Let's try it between nations." A banner reads "Mothers do you teach your sons to save life or to kill?". View changes to parade as it continues on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. Large banner includes "Immediate, Universal, complete disarmament". Scene changes to Washington DC, several months later, on July 29, 1922. A group of pacifist women in Washington DC in front of their "No more war' banner. Women hang "no more war" signs on a artillery piece that is on display in a public square. Group of women raise their banner for "No more war" in front of the Headquarters of the Council for Limitation of Armaments, located at the National League of Women Voters headquarters building, at 532 17th St., NW, Washington, DC. (The Friends Disarmament Council of the Society of Friends was involved in this group, which was predecessor of the National Council for Prevention of War in the United States.)