'Better Housing' contrasts modern and obsolete bath facilities, and depicts the progress in bath equipment. A young boy sits and bathes in a round wooden tub. He soaps and washes himself in the small tub. The inventor of the shower tries out the new shower system. He smokes a pipe while he pulls a string to pour water from two buckets on himself. A newer zinc plated bath tub. A man sits and bathes in the tub. A woman bathes in a tub. A boy in a modern tub with a built in overhead shower. Progress in bath furnishing: A woman puts on a shower cap at a black marble basin with a mirror. She walks into a glass enclosed shower stall and takes a shower.
A new ship, named "Bold Creek" is ready for a launch out of Sausalito California shipyards (or Richmond California). A ceremony takes place. A formation of crew members welcome guests by saluting them. The guests climb a platform and Christen the ship which slides down the ways into the water. Work commences immediately on another ship in the same place. Another ship is launched (number 22 on its bow). The yard launches 5 ships per day for two years. A ship is moved by a boat called a "sea mule." into a line of ships being outfitted. After being outfitted with everything for operation and living, a Liberty ship departs on its maiden voyage.
Opening scene shows Tyrolean town of Kufstein nestled in Brandenberg Alps in Austria. A young Austrian woman and a soldier in uniform sit on a hillside with part of the Kufstein Fortress in the background (Festung 2, 6330 Kufstein, Austria). A Music professor named "Butler" sits at the famous organ (Heldenorgel), the world's largest open-air organ, in the Kufstein Kaiser turm (Imperial tower). He plays music as a wedding party stands, listening, outside. View through the building window shows the bride and her new husband, a German officer in uniform, surrounded by family and friends in a courtyard, outside. Scene shifts to the courtyard in sunlight and shadow, where townsfolk, including many children, are assembled. A large military style German Cross of stone dominates the foreground. Closeups of wounded German soldiers attended by a nurse. A German sailor in uniform stands with several girls. The organ music permeates the scene. View from behind spectators leaning over a railing shows the courtyard to be somewhat oval. Locals in traditional Tyrolean costumes are part of the crowd. Closeups of various persons in attendance. Glimpse of the organ pipes showing this to be an impressive instrument. Camera pans from the pipes to an opening in a tower, where they are located, revealing a panoramic view of the town and landscape below. Among things seen below are Saint Vitus Church and other significant buildings. View from afar of Kufstein Fortress and Brandenberg Alps with clouds behind. View framed by fruit tree blossoms across a field being plowed by farmer and team of oxen. The town in the background. More scenic views.
Film opens showing German Colonel General Heinz Wilhelm Guderian, who was appointed Chief of Staff of the Army, by Adolf Hitler, on 21 July 1944, in World War 2. He is being feted as the New Army Chief. He reviews a large Honor Guard of German troops who line both sides of a street, in Germany. Local people cheer him from the sidewalks, and he is greeted by several German Youth girls. He steps into a building where other officers greet him and present him with a scale model of what appears to be a Panther Ausf. G tank. He looks closely as another officer points out the model's features. He then writes his name in the city's book of distinguished visitors. Complete change of scene shows General Guderian visiting members of his family, who greet him with kisses at the entrance to their house in Goslar, Germany. Inside their home Guderian shares coffee and cake with them at their dining room table. He and family members then look together through albums of photographs and memorabilia, of his career in the military, including one photograph of General Guderian with Adolf Hitler.
Veteran Spanish Blue Division soldiers returning to Madrid from Russia after being relieved by new volunteers, during World War 2. The Blue Division soldiers were volunteers serving in the Eastern Front for the German Army. Officers salute the soldiers passing in trucks. The soldiers carry Spanish flags. Mass crowd of civilians along the streets of downtown Madrid cheer and wave, greeting and celebrating the soldiers. A woman cries. Buildings in downtown Madrid Spain. People look from the buildings. A building with a statue of a horse carriage on top of it. Blue Division soldiers, many raising hand in Nazi salute look to officer leadership saluting form a balcony above the streets.
Opening scene shows a cathedral and houses near the English Channel coast in World War 2. German troops, part of a force of 100 Divisions, are seen advancing through French towns toward the coast. A German army band leads some. Others march through the countryside. Close-up of some ot the marchers, along with a Sd.Kfz.9 Half-Track pulling an artillery field piece. A column of German army trucks raising dust on a French country road and many waiting in line to cross a canal. A covered German halftrack pulling a covered trailer across a partially collapsed bridge. View from a moving railroad train with German troops and one manning an MG-08 machine gun on an open flat car. German soldiers in a "bucket brigade" passing cargo, including jerry cans, being off-loaded from a German Junkers Ju-52 transport plane at a grass airfield in France. A German Krupp K5 railway gun being run up an elevated rail. Imaginative animated map showing Nazi-dominated Europe in contrast to the British Isles. British troops marching. Change of scene to the beachhead at Dunkirk, France, during the mass evacuation of British forces ahead of approaching German armies. View from a British Destroyer of troops wading out through the water towards it. Close-up of two British soldiers being pulled from the water onto a boat, by two men in fowl weather gear. In skies above, British and German aircraft are engaged in aerial dogfights. A British Destroyer filled with soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk. Vickers/Maxim Octuple QF 2-pounder Mark VIII guns being fired by a British warship. British soldiers, some covered with oil, on the deck of a destroyer. Scene shifts to armor and weapons abandoned by the retreating British forces, including trucks, tanks, anti-aircraft guns and armored cars. Scene shifts to England where rescued soldiers begin ascending a gangway from the crowded deck of a warship to a pier above. Smiling British soldiers relaxing as they arrive on a pier. Many rescued soldiers getting organized on land. Narrator mentions that the losses of war materiel leave Britain short of its needs. Soldiers standing around a British Infantry Tank Mk.III Valentine. Soldiers manning a coastal defense machine gun position. Views of the British English Channel coastline. A British battleship (or Battle Cruiser) showing two forward triple gun turrets, is seen underway, ahead of an aircraft carrier. Silhouetted distance views of several British destroyers, and closer view on one escorting a supply shiip. (Narrator notes the British navy was absorbed in protecting supply lines all over the globe.) Animated map illustrates the overwhelming superiority of German Air Forces directed against Britain. view of British airfield displaying flag with Union Jack and RAF roundel. Several RAF personnel stand around an Avro Anson twin engine airplane, parked on the ramp. Several Supermarine Spitfire aircraft are seen parked on an airfield. Close-up of two flying in formation. View of St. Paul's Cathedral in the heart of London, England. British people are seen in a city and at home engaged in ordinary activities, scrubbing floors, chatting over drinks at a Pub, and waiting on a customer in a lady's shop. A farmer tends sheep in a field next to a church, where he converses with the Vicar. A baby crawls across pavement to his mother who reaches out from a doorway. New recruits in uniform mingle with people on a sidewalk. Mature women in uniform walk along with British Army officers in uniform. British sailor and an officer walk past the camera. A boy and older men at work in a field. Four businessmen dressed in civilian clothes are next seen in military uniforms, shouldering rifles. Home Guard civilians carrying rifles are trained in close order drills on a lawn. A home guard man points to a drawing of a tank as he asks a question during an outdoor training session. Recruits watch demonstrations with Browning M1917 water-cooled machine gun, and hand grenade launcher on Enfield rifle. A recruit takes his turn firing a single round (to save ammunition) from a Thompson M1921 submachine gun. He hands the weapon back to the instructor and returns to his place.
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