Events early in World War I. Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria gets out of the car and walks with military escorts in front of troop formation. French troops happily enter protected fortified area. Woven wooden supports for trench. French Colonial soldier smiles as he poses in trench with rifle. German Kaiser Wilhelm II leads procession in front of honor guard. Ladies are in attendance. German parade led by goose stepping military band. Russian cavalry and the mass of autos. German lancers. Sign posted in France, announcing general mobilization of Army and Navy. French street scene with notices being passed out among the population. French Legionnaires march in crowded street. British palace guards parade in London followed by British Horse Guards. Belgian refugees walking along a roadside and cattle pulling wagons loaded with refugee belongings.
Montage of scenes related to European mobilization and preparations for World War I, from 1914 through 1919, plus brief views of Mark VIII tank maneuvers, circa 1924. Patriotic French citizens fill a street as France mobilizes for World War 1. Italian soldiers marching to war through a town. British King George V seen with Prime Minister David Lloyd George and other British officials. British First Lord of Admiralty, Winston Churchill poses and "mugs" for camera. British troops being transported along a country road on double-decker buses and slogging through the mud in France. Two French soldiers join the line of "tommies" to be photographed, and then step out of line to watch. King George V with Field Marshal Douglas Haig, and other officers, next to their automobiles in field, during the King's visit to his troops in 1916. The King and British officers observe tests of Mark IV tank, circa 1917. Scene shifts to August 10, 1916 showing the Prince of Wales and King George V, accompanied by Field Marshal Douglas Haig, and other officers, observing the Battle of Pozières (in Battle of the Somme) from a safe distance, using a telescope. U.S. Army Mark VIII International Tanks in daytime and nighttime maneuvers (likely at Fort Meade, Maryland) circa 1924.
Gun camera footage from U.S. Army Air Forces fighter planes shows numerous German aircraft being shot down during World War 2. Also shown are German aircraft being destroyed on the ground and all manner of conveyances being destroyed by strafing along lines of communication.
The Spirit of St Louis with engine running at Le Bourget aerodrome (Paris-Le Bourget Airport, Rue de Prague, Zone Aviateurs, Le Bourget, F-93350) in Paris as American aviator Charles Lindbergh prepares to fly to Brussels. Aircraft takes off as people look on. Lindbergh lands at Evere Airfield or Haren Airport in Brussels and is greeted by 25,000 people. He drives away in a car with a huge bunch of flowers. Lindbergh at a reception ceremony after the first nonstop trans-Atlantic flight. Many people gathered outside the building.
American aviator Charles Lindbergh places a wreath at a memorial in Belgium at a ceremony. The Spirit of St Louis parked at Evere field, in Belgium, with a large number of people gathered around it. Charles Lindbergh, in leather flying coat and boots, walks by tail of aircraft, bids farewell to offiicials, and climbs aboard the Spirit of St. Louis. He starts the engine and taxis away rapidly. Nearly,100,000 gather in Croydon to welcome Lindbergh. Ambassador Houghton also present to greet Lindbergh after his successful non stop trans Atlantic flight. Lindbergh lands at Croydon, as another airplane follows him and passes overhead. He climbs a ladder up to a fenced porch, where he joins several men who greet him. One holds a large megaphone. . A smiling Lindbergh addresses the large gathering as he speaks into a megaphone.
Film opens with a glimpse of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in a forum. Next, Big Ben and the British Parliament building are seen in the background as soldiers (and some civlilans) gather around a British 3-inch antiaircraft gun. British civliians assembling sections of a prefabricated shelter made of corrugated metal. View of a crowded railroad platform where hundreds of British children board a train to evacuate them from London to safety in the countryside, as part of Operation Piper. Parents and loved ones stand back on the platform to see them off. Closeup of children, each tagged with their personal information, climbing aboard the train. Next, after they have boarded the train, parents and others move close to the train windows to wave goodbye to the children. Parents, at a different railroad station, waving goodbye to children on a train carrying them to safety. complete change of scene shows the U.S. freighter ship, SS City of Flint, with hundreds of passengers onboard, who were rescued from the liner SS Athenia, sunk in the first hours of World War II, by the German submarine, U-30, on September 3, 1940. (The City of Flint landed its passengers in Halifax, Nova scotia, and New York City.) A formation of British soldiers is seen marching through a village in the United Kingdom. Glimpse of an underground control room of a German Fort in the Siegfried line. German troops entering the fort, Werkgruppe Scharnhorst Panzerwerk 1238, to take up defensive positions there. Heavy guns firing from underground.