Opens with bell tolling Victory against Germany in World War II. Next, a slate reads: "Victory Leads to Peace," and a farmer is seen with cattle pulling a plow. But narrator says "the problem now is future peace," and a map of Germany is shown overlaid with "Your Job in Germany." A cartoon of a soldier is superimposed on the map, along with one of a World War 1 American soldier and a figure of possible future soldier with similar mission. Camera focuses on parts of German aircraft in a jumbled heap. Closeups of weary defeated German soldiers at end ot World War II. Glimpse of Adolf Hitler speaking and haranguing an audience from a podium in an animated and forceful way. Swastika flags displayed from houses in a quaint German town. Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Reich Minister of Propaganda, at a microphone. Glimpse of a German concentration camp. But as they appear, each of the Nazi elements promptly disappears, showing the scenes without such Nazi symbols and persons. Skeleton remains of bombed buildings. Flower displays. Bucolic German rural countryside and quaint old villages in peaceful settings. Camera focuses on a book titled "German History." Chapter I, titled "Blood and Iron," shows Image of Otto von Bismarck. German troops march in a parade. Narrator states that "under Bismarck, the German empire was built." (He formed the German Empire in 1871, unifying Germany with himself as Imperial Chancellor, while retaining control of Prussia at the same time.) The film shows mounted German lancers as it alludes to Bismarck's campaigns against Denmark in 1867; Austria in 1866; and France, in 1870. Germany's leaders celebrating its status, in 1871, as the mightiest power in Europe. Troops marching and girls dancing nearby. Farmers plowing field with a horse and cow. Classic peaceful rural alpine scenes with local people in agricultural pursuits. A group of local German musicians playing folk music as village people dance outdoors. Back to the book, Kaiser Wilhelm II is shown on Chapter 2, entitled: "Deutschland über Alles." Gathering of German soldiers in Pickelhaube (spiked helmets). A German Big Bertha howitzer firing. German troops marching against Serbia; Russia; and France (with view of war damaged French cathedral). German invasion of Belgium in 1940 (with view of clock tower resting in rubble). German troops seen in Italy, walking past battle-damaged buildings. German Zeppelin dropping bombs on British targets and view of bombed out London neighborhood. Next scene shows a capsized ship with survivors running across its hull. Film slate labels the scene as United States, as if it is a U.S. ship attacked by Germany. (Actually, it is the Austro-Hungarian Battleship, SMS Szent Istvan, torpedoed, by Italian torpedo boats, during World War I.) Next, American soldiers in trench are seen going "over the top" and into "no man's land" on the western front of World War 1. Glimpse through a window of Kaiser Wilhelm II, after defeat of Germany, in 1918. View of Germans in a Beer Garden. Picturesque view of German town. A German orchestra performing. American soldiers marching out of Germany, with flags waving. Back to the history book,as chapter III is revealed, entitled "Today Germany, tomorrow, the world," and featuring Adolf Hitler. German troops invading Austria (where a civilian lies dead on the ground). German troops entering Czechoslovakia (where local people in tears render the Nazi salute). They march into Poland (where a girl weeps over someone, not seen, on the ground). They march into France (where a wounded, bandaged child cries in a bed). Next, is a scene from England, where a British child victim of bombing lies dead in the remains of a shelter. German troops invading Norway, Holland, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg and Russia (where a woman tries to rouse a dead woman). They invade Yugoslavia (where women sit near coffins of children) and Greece (where a woman rescues a naked child). A U.S. merchant ship explodes after being torpedoed by a German submarine (unseen). Scenes of destruction with people plucking dead victims from rubble of buildings. American troops invading Normandy, France on D-day, June 6, 1944. Several American soldiers fall to German gunfire on the beach. Wounded American soldiers being transported in jeeps on the battlefield and being placed on landing craft for evacuation. Americans walking past huge piles of destroyed aircraft parts. A landing craft filled with wounded American soldiers. American wounded and dead on a battlefield. Sailors abandoning a burning American ship by jumping into the sea. A sailor picked up in a life boat. A wounded American soldier being dragged from the beachhead at Normandy. Various wounds being treated by U.S. Medical Corps personnel. More scenes of American wounded being moved on stretchers. Scene shifts abruptly to German people folk dancing. Film concludes with question marks about the future.
Headlines of prominent newspapers show rising tensions prior to World War 1. Headline of New York American 'Czar expects war declaration today, England and Germany ready to strike, Austrians and Serbs in big battle'. Montage of headlines from various newspapers regarding looming war. Berliner Tageblatt New York Times headlines say 'Austria and Serbia ready for war, Russia gives warning to Germany, London still sees hope for peace'. New York Times and Freier Press headlines about the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. Serbian police dragging the assassin. Blood stained tunic of Archduke. Burial ceremony of Archduke Ferdinand with coffin covered with Austrian flag. Czar Nicholas II of Russia reviews troops. Various Cossack regiments being reviewed. Russian Revolution scenes and mass demonstrations and riot in streets of Moscow as Bolsheviks seize power in 1917. Russian civilians and Bolshevik loyal soldiers armed with rifles marching in mass funeral processions and demonstrations in Russia against the Czar led government. Leon Trotsky speaking to a crowd and saluting Red forces as Bolshevik troops parade. Food distribution to Russian children and people eating on snow covered streets of Moscow around time of revolution. Headlines showing Russian entry in World War I. Snow covered Kremlin. Vladimir Lenin at a desk talking. More views of newspaper headlines regarding outbreak of World War 1.
Segment of orientation film for American troops occupying Japan after World War 2. First scene shows Japanese troops marching shouldering rifles with fixed bayonets. Viewed from more distance they are seen marching past the Japanese Imperial Palace on a hill in the background. Slate is superimposed over the scene reading: "Created to Rule the Whole Earth." Japanese soldiers rising from trenches to charge their enemy. Shells bursting all around them. Views of some huge explosions. Dead Chinese woman and child lying in rubble. Japanese soldier holding Rising Sun flag, charging past building. More dead women and children. Japanese troops advancing against wooden houses. Dead soldier lying on ground, with pistol held in his upraised hand. Japanese troops advancing past burning rural dwellings. Dead Chinese civilians in wreckage. Japanese troops holding Japanese flags celebrate a battlefield victory. Views of wounded Allied soldiers being transported on litters by American soldiers, interwoven with views of Japanese troops celebrating. Japanese civilians celebrating en masse. View of a human brain superimposed over scenes of celebrating Japanese soldiers and people. A slate superimposed at this point reading: "This is Japan's Last War." Views of Japanese workers busy in war production plants and factories, with Japanese war production workers building armament, war planes, and tanks; Japanese military officers walking in full dress uniforms ; Japanese warships; and Mitsubishi Ki-21 bombers in formation ("Type 97 Heavy Bombers") . All these views of war machinery are symbolically ended by intervening views of explosions. View of crashed Japanese warplane. Several American soldiers are seen among many Japanese people. Several American soldiers check identification of a Japanese man. U.S. soldiers standing guard in a roadway, as many Japanese stand in background. American soldier searching an unarmed Japanese soldier. Two American soldiers use a phrase book as they ask directions from a Japanese woman and her daughter. Japanese youth clapping hands and holding a homemade American flag. U.S. military officers accepting Chrysanthemum flowers from girls in traditional Japanese attire. A U.S. soldier reads a comic book to a Japanese boy. Other American GIs talk with a Japanese soldier. American troops in a chow line at a dining hall. U.S. soldiers with Japanese children at the Great Buddha of Kamakura at the Kotoku-in Temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. American soldier riding a bucking bronco in a Western Rodeo put on by U.S. forces. U.S. soldier and Japanese police sentries standing side by side.
Film titled 'Me and Mr. Marshall' depicts developments of coal mines in Germany and aid to other European nations affected by World War II. German coal miners dig deep in a coal mine soon after the end of World War 2. Volunteers awarded at a ceremony. Volunteers board a train and proceed for work at coal mines. Volunteers eat food, give their shoe size, under go training on mine machinery. Miners on lift move underground. Miners at end of the day walk out tired and blackened by coal dust, from a mine. Miners take hot showers after work and get clean clothing hung high on ropes. Salary given to workers for a day's work. Headlines of German newspapers about Marshall Plan. General George C. Marshall speaks his plans at a meeting in Washington DC, America. Aerial views of ruined buildings and factories, wrecked harbor, refugees in tenements in Europe after World War II. Buildings, monuments and bridges in London and Eiffel Tower and other buildings and civilians on roads in Paris, and view of Kremlin in Moscow, Soviet Union. Map shows countries under Marshall recovery plan. View of meeting in progress of Conference for European Economic Cooperation in July 1947, in the Grand Dining Room of the French Foreign Office. Meetings of leaders of nations adopting Marshall plan. Ruins of industries of Germany. Ruins on the ground after war in London, with Big Ben in the far distance. Workers at a factory. Miners take a horse inside a coal mine. Empty coal cars at a German coal mine. Men push coal cars full with mined coal out from mine, on rails. Views of buyers in suits at a German trade show and conference, promoting German products and industries to potential buyers in other countries, a few years after the end of World War 2. U.S. Congress and President Harry Truman in Washington DC approve the Marshall Plan and provide monetary aid to other European countries. Scenes in Germany as it recovers economically after the war: Workers in a factory. Harbor, fruit and vegetable market; customers in a bakery; coal cars and machinery at a coal mine under normal operation under the plan.
Bomb damaged and ruined buildings of Nazi Germany in 1945, including the Reichstag. Nazi Eagle symbol of Third Reich pulled down from building and crashes to the ground at end of World War 2. United States Army of occupation marches into city as German population lines sidewalks and watches them parade. Sign on a shop reads "Gaststatte Schosser." Many buildings in view are damaged or destroyed from bomb attacks during World War 2. American soldiers occupying German give candy to German children who at first hide from them. Nazi leaders including Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Wilhelm Keitel, seen on trial in the Nuremberg war crimes trials. German people struggling to rebuild. women and children trying to gather wood from stumps of trees for fuel. A woman sawing a log. Women and children scraping food from inside trash cans and refuse bins, to stay alive during scarcity and shortages after the war. Americans providing food assistance and feeding German children in relief lines. Close up of a smiling boy as he receives food or drink. Soviet Russian Army soldiers occupying East Berlin and marching in formation. Russians removing an industrial lathe and other machinery and tools from Germany as the Soviet Union continues to strip Germany of resources after the war. A map of Germany and Berlin seen with divided regions as American, British, French and Soviet zones. Views of empty streets and heavily damaged buildings of Berlin after the end of the war. Children play amidst the desolation and destruction in East Berlin. View of Kammergericht, Headquarters of the Allied Control Council. Leaders seen meeting inside include American General Joseph T. McNarney, French General Marie Pierre Kœnig (Marie-Pierre Koenig), Soviet General Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov,. British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery. View of Spandau Prison guarded by troops of occupying powers. Soviet and American troops drill and march on the grounds of Spandau Prison. An American soldier relieves a Soviet soldier at a watch post. Soviet blockade of West Berlin begins in June 1948. View of a man shutting down power in a power plant and lights going dark in Berlin. Blackout conditions in Berlin during the blockade. Germans plant vegetables in city to survive. Germans exchange goods in black market setting. A man plants vegetables in view of the Brandenburg Gate. The Berlin Airlift operations underway. U.S. Air Force C-54 aircraft flying low and arriving in Berlin, bringing supplies to West Berlin. C-97 landing. U.S. military forces unloading relief supplies and food from airlift aircraft. American C-47s and C-54s in the Berlin Airlift. Soap and milk being unloaded from airplanes. German children gather on a hill and watch low-flying American airlift planes as they approach to land at Tempelhof Aerodrome in Berlin. An Air Force airman throws a package out of the aircraft. It is a very small parachute with candy that drops from the American airplane to the waiting children. Children run to retrieve it and they share and eat the candy. Blockade is lifted in 1949 and rebuilding of West Berlin resumes. View of railroad tracks being re-linked, a locomotive running on tracks, and trains cross between East and West Berlin. Ships loading goods onto trains for Berlin. A coal processing factory running again in Germany. German workers producing industrial parts and goods again in production factories. West German construction workers rebuilding structures in West Germany. German people cast votes, establishing Federated German Republic (West Germany). Figures seen include U.S. General Alfred B. Gruenther with Konrad Adenauer, President of the new German Republic, together in Bonn, Germany. Soviet Russian troops marching on parade in East Germany. East German workers rioting in 1953, in protest of increased production quotas in Communist controlled East Germany. Soviet forces in armored vehicles patrol the streets and disperse the crowd. A large electronic billboard banner flashes West German messages and propaganda to those who can view it in East Berlin. Citizen refugees from East Germany arriving in a processing center in West Germany, carrying bags and luggage. East German refugees laying on the ground on blankets in a crowded immigration processing center of West Germany. A woman irons clothes in the immigration center, while a child plays with dolls.
The United States declares war against Germany during World War I. On May 28, 1917 Major General John J. Pershing, Chief of American Expeditionary Forces aboard the S.S. Baltic on its way to France during World War I. Nearly 2,000,000 American soldiers disembark at a port in France. The troops disembark from the ship. A ship at the harbor. Ships underway at sea. Sailors on the deck of a ship. A German U boat underway. Naval gun being fired at the U boat. Explosion occurs at sea. A man waves signal flags from a ship. The troops disembark from the ship. Soldiers at a rail road station and a train pulls up to carry them to the war front. (World War I; World War 1; WWI; WW1)
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