French people in District Town Hall (Mairie du XXe Arrondissement) in Paris, France, at start of World War 2. . Women try on the gas masks. Men of National Guard of France (Garde Mobile) fit gas masks on the faces of people. Several gas mask cans on a table. Boxes in the background. People come out with gas mask cans. A child stands at the entrance.
Crowds gathering around parliament during tense period on eve of British entry into World War II. Film opens showing several Well-dressed women political campaigners outside parliament, carrying placards for Churchill. They walk quickly through the crowd gathered there. London Bobbies trying to maintain order, urge several women with children to move back. View of the area thronged with people. A large group standing at the gates of the old palace yard, Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament). Several Bobbies are among the crowd. Blurred camera view from rapidly moving vehicle passing crowds gathered all around the area. Crowd gathered at the St. Stephens entrance, Houses of Parliament. The Evening Standard Newspaper front page displayed on a lamp post by vendor, reads: "Americans Told to Leave Britain." Closeup of equestrian statue of King Richard I, the Lionheart, at Parliament (Palace of Westminster).
Londoners gather as their government makes momentous decisions on the eve of British entry into world War 2. Crowds gathered in London near Whitehall and Downing Streets. Bobbies hold traffic for an official car leaving Downing Street and turning right on Whitehall. Soon they repeat the process for another car leaving Downing Street. Soon the crowds on the opposite side of Whitehall move en masse across the street and cluster at the corner of Whitehall and Downing. Mounted police and other Bobbies maintain order. Some folks are seen relaxing on the lawn in St. James Park. The crowds gradually disperse and are seen walking along Whitehall, past the Cenotaph.
Camera focuses on destroyed buildings in aftermath of German bombing during the Battle of France in World war 2. School boys rummage through a stack of debris. Smoke rises from a smashed automobile at a roadside. Local people beginning to evacuate, hauling their belongings in horse-drawn wagon. Closeup of a damaged trolley track, in center of city street. Smoke rising at end of street and towers of a church or Government building seen in background. Firemen direct water from a hose at a burning building. Camera pans over smoke rising from rubble and shows fire burning the interior of a building. More views of destroyed and burning buildings
Refugees flee from advancing German forces during Battle of France in World War 2. Refugees fill a street transporting their belongings on bicycles and in horse-drawn wagons. A British Expeditionary Force soldier walks past them on the sidewalk. Camera pans to destroyed and burning buildings in the city. View from behind refugees as they move away. An automobile follows behind them. closeup of smoldering debris. Broken manequins beside destroyed clothing shop. A man stamps out some smoldering material, with his feet. Fire raging in a building. Cobblestones missing from street in front of burning building. Smoke from fires obscures view of street. Uniformed French soldiers remove some furniture from a burning building. More views of burning buildings, including one showing flames and heavy smoke billowing from top of a building.
Wounded soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.) being carried aboard a British ship for evacuation from Boulogne during the Battle of France in World War 2. Ship in the background. Ambulances stand on the port. Wounded soldiers are carried on stretchers. Other soldiers carry belongings of the wounded.
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