A condensed history of Germany from the first World War through the rise of Hitler and the 3rd Reich, prior to World War II. From the Nazi German perspective, 'Sieg Im Westen' depicts German activities during and after World War 1. German troops take an oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler. The Alpine landscapes, the Rhine and the Cologne Cathedral. An animation of the German frontiers in Bismarck's time. Interior and exterior scenes of the Ruhr industrial area. View of the Hamburg Harbor. Two German soldiers in Prewar uniforms on honor duty as sentries. A German prewar naval vessel or navy ship. An animation of the extent of World War I fighting beyond German borders and ending with the presentation of situation on November 9th , 1918. Scenes of World War I fighting, with many explosions and dirt flying upward on battlefields in World War I, and view of German soldiers in trench carefully looking out towards "no man's land". An animation of World War I fighting. Paul Von Hindenburg, a German General and his deputy, General Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff, at a headquarters. Signatures in the Versailles Treaty. An animation depicts the creation of the Polish Corridor. Demilitarization and disarmament activities of German factory areas. World War I German fighter planes are dismantled and wrecked. Labor strike riots and communist rebellion in Berlin with fights in front of the Brandenburg Gate. French occupation of Ruhr area. German postwar hyperinflation. German workers getting books stamped at a payroll office. Hyperinflation demonstrated with various German monetary notes growing in face value, superimposed on a spinning roulette wheel. Types of German inflation money during post-war collapse of economy in Germany. Adolf Hitler addressing a crowd. Storm troopers in regimental parade formations.
U.S. Army infantry soldiers patiently making their way on foot at various places in Europe and the Pacific during World War 2. Troops under fire during an amphibious assault. Others employing small arms in fire fights. American soldier firing a Browning 30 caliber light machine gun from a protected position. The American flag planted at a beachhead on a Pacific island. Landing craft in the background. Infantry moving widely spread out across a field. A line of soldiers standing side-by-side firing their rifles toward an enemy position. Closeup glimpse of soldier with fixed bayonet on his rifle. Flamethrower being employed. A soldier throwing a hand grenade. Another firing a bazooka from prone position in woods. Other infantrymen employing weapons, including: machine gun; mortar; a light howitzer artillery piece. A soldier sharpening his knife on a ground stone. Aerial view of amphibious assault underway below. Closeups of infantry in fast moving landing craft Views of many wading ashore from landing craft in a shallow bay. Lines of infantry wading ashore from a Landing Craft Infantry Large (Number 747) in a Pacific campaign. Closeups of soldiers reaching shore. A formation of Waco CG-4A gliders in flight, and then some seen landing in plowed fields of Normandy on D-Day, 1944. One noses over and remains tail upright after a rough landing. Infantry moving under fire. Some cluster for protection next to a Sherman tank. Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark briefing officers with pointer and very large tactical map, in the open, in Italy in 1944. U.S. infantry moving under fire in rugged terrain of Italy. Troops moving casually past a fallen enemy soldier. Closeups of individual soldiers making their way past the camera and taking a break. One of their wounded seen on a litter in the background. Infantry moving along a dusty road and then slogging through a muddy stretch. A soldier with numerous cans of combat film, at a War Department repository. An army Signal Corps clerk reviews caption sheets that accompany the combat films. Infantrymen gathered at side of a hill and later digging foxholes in fields. Lines of infantry moving forward in rugged terrain, with pack horses behind them. Infantry moving in concert with advancing armor. Individual soldiers moving under heavy enemy fire. A grenade explodes and American soldier fires his rifle, striking fleeing enemy soldier who falls. Soldiers firing a 75mm M1 Pack Howitzer; rifles; and a flame thrower. Infantry seated in a line of DUKW amphibious trucks. A soldier in heavy cold weather gear, eating from his mess kit at a fox hole he prepared in snowy area. his trenching tool sits next to him. In contrast, soldiers are seen helping civilian refugees moving through rice paddy area somewhere in the Pacific. One carries a small child. A shift change at a U.S. war plant, shows thousands of workers . Lines of miners heading to work. Men and women war production workers punching time clocks as they leave after their work shift. Closeups of American men and women engaged in war production work of various kinds. A worker building machine gun triggers. Other workers building various war materiel. Workers standing by a line of machine gun barrels. African American woman war production worker using a factory machine. Workers machining parts, using industrial drills and other equipment. Men on an assembly line for military vehicle chassis. Split screen shows war plant workers on one side and formations of soldiers on the other. Cemetery with grave stones of fallen American service personnel. One is marked "Unknown." Animated chart showing rising war production against backdrop of factories emitting smoke from chimneys.
15th Air Force Operation Reunion (Operation Gunn) to rescue Allied prisoners of war in Romania during World War II. The Romanian Ministry of National Economy in Bucharest (now demolished). Sign reads “Ministerul Economiei Nationale Comisariatul General Preturilor”. United States OSS (Office of Strategic Services) Evacuation Party leaders convene outside the Romanian Ministry of National Economy. Captured Allied prisoners of war at a camp near Bucharest. Allied prisoners of war play a card game. Romanian troops raise the Romanian flag on a flagpole. Crowds of Allied prisoners of war waving and cheering. Colonel Krager gives out evacuation instructions to Allied prisoners of war. Some Allied prisoners of war are seen wearing German Stalhelm helmets. A young British prisoner of war looks at the camera. Prisoners of war waiting patiently for their evacuation to Popesti Airfield.
War production work by American women contributing to the war effort in World War II. Women work in factories and other places producing war materials. View of nursery schools and personal services like banks, ration card issuance, driver's license issuance, and beauty shops open at longer hours in and near war production plants to help working women. Women meet their children in the schools. They enjoy meals in a women's dining rooms. Women enjoy leisure time bowling in a bowling alley. On the job in a factory, a view of several women welders in uniform, welding for war production. They produce soldiers' helmets and other war materials. They work on machines in manufacturing plants and factories. Women and men workers boarding buses at the end of a workday. Women using drill presses and driving trucks and forklifts. A ship blown up at sea during a World War 2 attack. View of Soviet soldiers helping a child and then a woman with a baby emerge from an underground bomb shelter in Europe. A woman on stage at a rally in Italy holds a small child. Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini steps forward and kisses the child. Women assembling tail assemblies and airplane fuselage in America for an aircraft. Smoking ruins of a leveled European city soon after a bombing raid. A body of a soldier floating in water at the edge of the ocean. A ticker tape parade in New York city with ticker tape streaming down. A view of the Statue of Liberty as seen from near its base, looking upward.
Film opens showing large factory building with all its lights on at night. Smoke stacks at industrial plant emitting white smoke against dark sky. Sparks flying outdoors from a steel plant at night. War production workers inside a fabricating plant drawing a ribbon of hot steel from a roller and dragging a newly made sheet of metal across the floor. Two men with shovels stoking a furnace. Men shaping parts on forging machines. A group of men using sledge hammers to drive down pipe supports under a large piece of sheet metal. Women employees at work inspecting U.S. Army helmets on an assembly line. Workers in a crowded machine shop. A sign reading: "500 workers needed NOW Training on the job." A display of job recruitment announcements in newspapers. A room full of idle manufacturing machinery (ostensibly due to labor shortages). Sign on iron fence outside a building, reads: "Essential WAR WORK Day or Night Men and Women" and "We have a war job for you. Apply here." Some more similar signs. Animated chart of Labor Needs with Labor supply lagging behind, superimposed on a drawing of a defense plant. Map of the USA highlighting areas of industrial might where labor shortages exist. Camera zooms in on Dayton, Ohio on the map. Aerial views all over the city of Dayton, Ohio. View from a tall building overlooking a major Dayton commercial street. The Gem City Savings building, with clock tower on top, at the corner of Third and Main streets. On April 7, 1943, two hundred leading citizens of Dayton are seen attending a meeting at which Stanley C. Allyn, President of the National Cash Register Company, is speaking. He speaks about the danger of Dayton falling behind its war production goals because of manpower difficulties. View of the audience, which includes several military officers in uniform. Allyn speaks of the potential for war work being moved elsewhere because of this, and challenges Dayton's leaders to solve the problem without requiring action from Washington. Next, an emergency committee of community leaders is seen around a table. Camera pans over attendees, including labor leaders from AF of L and CIO; Government officials present, including Area Director and Deputy Regional Director of the War Manpower Commission, and Chief of Program Requirements for the Region; leading industrialists and retailers are shown. Local officials seen include the Mayor of Dayton and Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce as well as the Commanding Army Air Forces Generals of Wright Field and Patterson field. In final scene, Stanley Allyn is seen at the head of the table, speaking to the group. He outlines three ways to obtain more war workers from the Dayton population during World War II.
Prewar and early World War 2 conditions of the British in Great Britain. War ammunition for Britain transported from the United States to Britain as part of lend lease plan. Also war materiel sent the other way around from the United Kingdom to the United States, as the war progressed. A map showing the path between the United States and Great Britain through the Atlantic Ocean. Tanks for Russia from Britain. Aircraft and guns for the United States by Lend Lease. Tons of food and clothing in large containers for troops in Britain. Clusters of houses and buildings. Two men on a bridge. A lane in Britain. People in the lane. Tanks prepare for war. British soldiers in uniform. A woman seated at a vanity putting on lipstick makeup. Men and women in the streets in England. A man turns to notice the legs of a woman as she walks by. View of legs of many women walking by, not wearing stockings due to rationing. Brief shot of driver in a car in the United States as he hands his gas ration ticket to the gas station attendant. Back in England, scene as a man goes to a pub for whiskey. The pub keeper laughs at him as there is none. Men in a field harvesting grains for making industrial alcohol. Soldier painting word "Hitler" onto a bomb shell. Cartons of whiskey being transported to the United States as pay for the material that comes in to Britain. A man opens cartons from the U.S. with 'Made in U.S.A.' painted on it. Images of American made industrial machine goods purchased by the British, including machinery signs for "Cincinnati Bickford", "The Ohio Machine Tool Company", "Niles Tool Works, Hamilton Ohio", "The Cincinnati Planer Co.", "American Hole Wizard", and "Barnes Drill Company, Rockford, Illinois" A woman worker moves a large planer or drill press into position. Crane at a ship dock is seen moving a large wooden crate with "Ford" label on it. A man goes to buy cigarettes. A 'No cigarettes today' board. If there were cigarettes he would have paid the cost of the cigarettes and the tax to the shopkeeper. Close up view of coins on a table and large portion going to British taxes to pay for war. A newspaper headline which says "Britain spends 49,000,000 per day on war." Several industrial plants in Britain, with smoke and pollution rising from chimneys and stacks during high output war effort. Laborers working at a construction site, including brick layers, who pay 29% tax. Rich men who pay 97½ % tax: A man in a nice car parked in front of a church. He leads a bride in a wedding gown and possibly the Bride's father toward the doors of the church. Various views of British workers and workmen walking in and out of factories. British citizens in ration lines. Sheep being herded on pasture land in Australia. Vessels in ocean used by the British for supplies to Russia. Aircraft from the U.S. on board a ship, and British troops arriving on a ship dock.
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