Men working in ruins of bombed out city of Avellino, Italy. Men with various equipment cleaning up the remains and debris of wrecked buildings. People working in ruins, people gather at the public square, several people moving on carts, bicycles and signs on the wrecked buildings seen in background, including "Germania 1918" and "Plaza Centrale" on the Red Cross building. Sign of 'Danger Unexploded Bomb' is planted in the rubble. (World War II period).
Aviator Charles Lindbergh visits San Juan, Puerto Rico. A huge crowd awaits his arrival at an air field. Lindbergh's plane 'Spirit of Saint Louis' lands and taxis. Men move towards the plane as it comes to a halt. Closeup of the 'Spirit of Saint Louis'. Several officials stand near the airplane as Lindbergh prepares to leave the cockpit. Among them is George H. Estes, Jr., Commander of U.S. Troops in Puerto Rico. ( He held rank of Brigadier General, in 1918, but now wears peacetime rank insignia of Colonel.) Others greeting Lindbergh include Puerto Rican government officials and civilians, who watch as Lindbergh climbs out of the cockpit. Lindbergh poses with Governor of Puerto Rico, Horace M Towner, and other officials.
World War 2 era film that also includes some World War 1 scenes. Show girls or chorus girls in follies-like show, costumed as U.S. silver dollars and marching to tune and lyrics alluding to dramatic increase of currency in circulation, over the years. Animation with stacks of coins shows increase in national income from $46 billion,in 1933, to $71 billion, in 1939, and $142 billion in 1943. Back to the "follies dollars," a boy asks why, and then scenes of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,are shown, with U.S. battleships being sunk. Wartime arms plants are shown. An M2A3 Light Tank rolls off a production line. Ships being constructed in a shipyard. B-24 Liberator bombers being built in a factory. Artillery shells being produced. Defense workers receiving their pay. The "follies dollars" group themselves to illustrate the fractions of income devoted to taxes and savings. But other spending is curtailed by wartime shortages. A woman talking with clerk in a drug store. U.S. Army troops crossing a pontoon bridge in open trucks, towing 75mm M1A1 howitzers. Infantry on the march. Animation showing industrial production devoted to war materiel and lots of dollars chasing few civilian goods. A grocery clerk offers to sell a woman customer butter for more than the established price, and she agrees. The "follies" performers then introduce the idea of an "inflationary dollar," and some history of past U.S. inflations. Animated examples of price inflation are shown. Glimpses of World War I scenes are seen, circa 1917 -1918, including: a 12-inch railway gun firing; a huge explosion from shell bursting near the camera; various scenes of United States infantry soldiers and French soldiers in battle action, running to bomb craters for cover and emerging from trenches to go up "over the top" into no-mans land during combat. Meanwhile, singing narration refers to the home front inflation due to competition for limited civilian goods. Map shows Europe and singing narration cites rising prices for food in occupied France and other countries suffering ravages of World War II. Montage of scenes showing needy civilians obtaining food in those countries. Animation shows increases, by 1944, in cost of U.S. civilian goods since the Pearl Harbor attack. "Follies" character called "Double-duty dollar," appears explaining he serves the war and curtails inflation on the home front by being saved through investments in War Bonds and stamps.
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.
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.
German cavalry on horseback entering Belgium and Berman infantry marching in France, at the start of World War 1 (1914). The famed Taxicab army is seen carrying French soldiers in Paris. General Ferdinand Foch reviewing elements of the French 9th Army. French and British troops firing a British BL 8-inch howitzer. French troops rushing across no-man's land of trenches and barbed wire, as shells burst. German soldiers taken prisoners in trench. General Foch shaking hands with U.S. General Pershing, aboard a U.S. warship. Sketch of signing of the armistice, November 1, 1918 on a railway carriage at Compiegne. Monument to Marshal Foch. Monument to Minister of War, Andre Maginot. concrete being poured. French construction of the Maginot Line. Animated illustrated cross-section of the line.View of troops moving on rail cars in the Maginot line. Glimpse of Maginot line guns on surface. At outbreak of World War 2, French troops deploy to the Maginot line. French troops inside bunkers and tunnels of Maginot Line. Marshal Petain reviewing the troops as they deploy. Muzzle of a Maginot line gun. Hitler with Military Chiefs planning. View of French Foreign Minsister, Aristide Briand,during signing of the 1928 Kellogg-Briand antiwar pact in Paris.Frank R. Kellogg, U.S. Secretary of State at the table to Briand's left. His signature on the document. A field full of French Morane 406 airplanes. French airman poses with Potez 58 airplane. French AMC 34 tanks. Crowd milling about at Renault Building and unrest elswhere in Paris, France. Newspapers chronicle failure of the League of Nations. Movie cartoon about weakening of France by Nazi inspired social strife and sabotage. French Army troops in mess hall eat at long tables and pour wine with meal. Idle French troops across the Rhine River targeted by German propaganda and psychological warfare including banners; messages by balloons;German bands playing French tunes; large loudspeakers broadcasting in French.
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