U.S. President Herbert Hoover and his wife Louise Henry Hoover at the Presidential retreat, Camp Rapidan, located on Doubletop Mountain in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Madison County, Virginia. The camp is at the headwaters of the Rapidan River in the Shenandoah forest. The President does some fly casting in a stream. President and Mrs. Hoover seated in wicker chairs. The president pets his dog. The President reads a book and his wife knits. A waterfall in the background.
German reinforcements arrive on the plains of the Ukraine. A map shows various places. German troops arrive at a railroad train station and get off for a short rest stop. They obtain cigarettes and snacks at a refreshment stand attended by local women. Sign above the stand reads: "Marketenderei." The troops wash and shave and then reboard the train to continue their journey. The train travels through flat featureless snow-covered terrain, arriving at an Army base, where the troops leave the train. Writing on the side of a wooden building reads:"Urlauber GD hier melden gegenuber Haus 29." The troops sign in, receive instructions, and board trucks to the front, where they proceed on foot in the snow. One soldier carries a pet lamb in his arms. They move supplies on sleds pulled by horses through a forest, past parked German tanks and halftracks. Troops line up for soup and relax as they eat. Two soldiers,in white winter combat uniform gear, talk about their families at home. One shows a photo of his child, and the other shows a black doll dressed in skirt and hat -- perhaps a Christmas tree decoration. The soldiers amuse themselves wrestling and throwing snow at one another. A soldier in a StuG III tank destroyer. Troops in white outerwear seen in trenches, crawling through the snow, and operating a switchboard in a field communications center. Officers discuss over maps. Infantry moves out in the snow, carrying small arms and trenching tools. Tiger tanks of s.Pz.Abt.503 along with artillery and infantry move across vast barren snow-covered plains.Two Soviet soldiers in a foxhole, are captured. German soldier unearths a mine. Several more seen. Sign erected warning of mines. Artillery fires. Wooden buildings in village set ablaze. Soviet tank abandoned and smoking. Knocked out Soviet tanks, artillery, and vehicles. (World War II period).
Adolf Hitler greets dignitaries at a railroad station in Germany. Adolf Hitler stands on rail road station. Train arrives. He greets Benito Mussolini and Italian Minister of Defense, Rodolfo Graziani. Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Heinrich Himmler, Gestapo Chief at forest meeting place.
Elements of U.S. Army arriving in a town in France, in August, 1944, during World War 2. Local people line the sides of the roads to welcome them. Young French women reach up to American soldiers in the back of an open stake truck and later mingle with them on the ground. Some of them kiss the soldiers. Some American flags are displayed by people in the crowd of well-wishers. One American soldier holds up a souvenir Nazi flag.Large crowds of French people gathered in a square to welcome the Americans. Many display the "V for Victory" sign with their hands. Film fades to a brief glimpse of a fallen soldier, and new slate reads: "Counterattack." Next, U.S. Medical Corpsmen are seen carrying American wounded to ambulances in the field in December, 1944.Several views of medics attending to American wounded soldiers. American infantrymen advancing across a field beside a Pershing T26E3 tank. (Note: It has 6 bogey wheels. Not designated M26 until 1945.) American infantry advancing into area of burning buildings and then into built up part of town, where they take up defensive positions inside a building. A U.S. soldier firing out a building window. Other U.S. soldiers firing from positions behind a wall. One is next to a mortar. Buildings burning and destroyed all around them. Close-up of American soldiers firing M1 Garand rifles from behind the wall. Infantrymen hunkered down behind a stone wall with light snow atop it. An explosion from a hand grenade raises smoke. A medical Corpsman checks a fallen American soldier for sign of life. Next, a Chaplain is seen reading from a small bible or prayer book, as he stoops over the fallen soldier. Fallen and wounded soldiers are carried to a truck, from the battlefield, on stretchers. Scene shifts abruptly to captured German film depicting two junior officers conversing in the field and then to German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel conversing with an artillery assault gun officer. Rommel holds a pair of eyeglasses in his right hand. The gun officer wears binoculars around his neck. A war torn city. German Volkssturm (People's Militia) parading. Some carry panzerfaust anti-tank weapons over their shoulders. A field full of German King Tiger II Ausf. B Heavy Tanks. One being driven out of the field. A German SdKfz 251 halftrack maneuvering in woods. it is covered with foliage for camouflage. German soldier in an open single seat courier car. It and he are spattered with mud. Close-ups of the mud-spattered driver smoking an cigar. German infantry moving across a field and moving along a road, in the mist. German infantry moving along a muddy road near a forest. A German V-1 Buzz bomb seen overhead with engine running. It flames out. Next an explosion and rising smoke is seen inside a town.
German troops of KG Peiper advance in Malmedy, Belgium during World War II. A map points out Belgium, Germany and France. Camouflaged German StuG III Assault Guns advance. Flamethrowers used. German soldiers fire at American positions and bombard. German soldiers pass by a U.S. Army motor convoy in flames near Malmedy. The United States Army soldier prisoners of war in the town under German guard. Red Cross personnel examine the bound bodies of U.S. POW that were found and, separately, of Belgian civilians massacred by the German troops near Malmedy (the so called Malmedy Massacre). The dead are buried in a common grave. Wrecked houses and buildings. News headline reads, "3rd Army deep in Germany." Fire blazing in supply depots left by the retreating United States forces. U.S. artillery and antiaircraft guns fired point blank at the advancing German tanks. The U.S. tank guns and machine guns fire over the snow covered battlefield. Smoke arises from firing. U.S. Army Air Force aicraft and German Luftwaffe aircraft engage in aerial dogfight combat. Contrails across sky. U.S. soldiers in snow covered forest of trees in Battle of the Bulge. General Eisenhower visits troops at the front. News headlines about Russians smashing German lines and 40 Japanese ships sunk. Views of dead U.S. soldiers on Belgian battlefield.
Agricultural progress motivated by the demands of World War 2, in the United States. Efforts made to develop substitute crops for foreign products now unavailable. Farmer on a tractor in the farm. Crop planted and harvested with the help of tractor. Man takes seeds in hands from a bag. A 100 pound bag of 0-14-14 fertilizer reads: 'AAA for use only in carrying out soil building practices. Agriculture Conservation Program of the Agricultural Adjustment Agency." Farmer Harry Vetch in Mississippi shown in his field of nitrogen rich legumes that he is growing in order to obtain nitrogen fertilizer since nitrogen is needed in the war effort and unavailable to farmers. View of a field of crimson clover also for use in obtaining nitrogen. View of soybean and clover also used for nitrogen in corn fields. Man on tractor spreads manure fertilizer. A sign board reads: "Emergency Rubber Project. Quail Creek Nursery. Forest Service U.S. Department of Agriculture" outside a building. A man examines a test planting of a Mexican hule rubber plant needed to meet war demand for rubber. Man beside a 'Department of Agriculture' truck bounces a chunk of rubber. Also shown is a test planted row of Kok-saghyz Russian dandelion used to produce rubber. Milkweed and goldenrod plants are shown. Narrator talks about Victory Gardens as images of farmers plowing small fields are shown. Samples of Victory Garden vegetables shown on a table with signs noting the nutrients in each such as calcium, iron and vitamin B. A woman in a home victory garden holds up produce. View of a shelf of canned vegetables from a victory garden. Houses and trees on a farm, as a combine harvester works the fields. Mountains in the background. A row of grain silos. Man plows a field with yoked oxen. A woman works on a farm and drives a tractor. Farmers drive tractors and harvest potatoes or onions in a field.