Launching of German guided missiles at Peenemunde, Usedom island during World War 2. Sign: Peenemunde. German technician working on instrument at base of German V-2 rocket. Missile is shown in transporting trailer and elevating device. V-2 being elevated into launching position. Two technicians are standing on special ramp fixing access door onto warhead of missile.
Crowd greets German leader Adolf Hitler upon his return from Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he signed a declaration establishing the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The scene shows a swaying crowd at night, outside a hotel. Hitler and Hermann Goering appear on the hotel balcony, which is festooned with a garland of greens. Four candles appear in each window of their section of the hotel.
Opening scene shows Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov and officers of his staff walking across a field in Russia, during World War 2. Soviet SU-100 (Samokhodnaya Ustanovka 100) tank destroyers armed with a 100 mm anti-tank guns, rush past the camera. Next, Marshal Zhukov is seen surrounded by senior Soviet officers as he speaks on a field telephone. A formation of Soviet warplanes flies over the advancing tank destroyers. Marshal Zhukov and staff observe field operations from an established trench covered by a camouflage netting. Closeup of Zhukov examining a map. Soviet armor moving under fire from German shells exploding near them. Glimpse of Zhukov and staff in another observation point. Soviet armor and infantry enduring explosions from German gunfire and moving forward in smoke. Animated map shows gradual Soviet advances beginning at the River Oder and pressing toward and beginning to encircle Berlin.
Opening scene shows Katyusha rockets fired by Soviet forces in streets of Berlin at night during World War 2, during Battle of Berlin. They create fires in Berlin buildings leading to fire storm with whole buildings engulfed in flames. Soviet troops are silhouetted against the fire backdrop as they rush through the city streets. Insert of German film showing Adolf Hitler standing on a podium at a torchlight ceremony with Sturmabteilung (Storm Troopers) prior to World War 2. They march carrying torches as Hitler gives Nazi salute from the podium. Views of the torches in formation and glimpse of the Storm troopers marching. Film reverts back to 1945 and German prisoners of war being marched under guard as Soviet troops fire Katusha rockets in the background,during daylight, in Berlin. The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, on KurfĂĽrstendamm is seen dimly. Soviet troops scamper among ruins of buildings and self propelled gun fires in a street. Desperate German civilians enter a damaged store and loot fabric and clothing as well as small boxes of goods. One man carries a huge pile of clothing and towels on his back.
Opening scene shows Soviet soldiers, carrying PPSh sub machine guns with drum magazines, enter burning building in Berlin during World War 2. One is seen dragging a German soldier from a cellar. The German soldier immediately falls to the ground and the Soviet soldier does too, to avoid gunfire. View from inside a burning shop as Soviet soldiers enter. Others climb stairs inside an elaborate building and throw throw down a suit of armor. A tank fires its gun. Heavy white smoke rising obscures everything behind the Brandenburg Gate. View of the Quadriga statue atop the Brandenburg Gate. Flashback glimpse of German troops marching through the Brandenburg Gate much earlier in World War 2. View of that same area now a scene of destruction and fire. Soviet troops fire a heavy gun in a street. Its shell strikes causing a large explosion and raising heavy smoke. Soviet soldiers loading rockets into a Katyusha launcher. The rockets being fired and striking buildings and creating fires. Shells being picked up to load a heavy gun. A Soviet 152 mm gun M1935 (Br-2) firing in the street. Other artillery firing in the streets. Brief closeup of two Soviet gunners. Smoke rising everywhere as Soviet troops carrying a Red flag rush toward the Reichstag building. They clamber up the steps of the badly damaged building, and enter it. Next, accompanied by several others, a soldier ties a Red flag to the Statue of Germania atop the Reichstag Building. Group of Soviet soldiers pose and wave tor their photographer. Another glimpse of the Red Flag waving vigorously in a strong wind on the Germania statue. More views of posing Soviet troops. View from the ground of the Red Flag on the Germania statue.
Film begins showing German General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the Berlin Defense Area, who surrendered his forces to the soviets on May 2, 1945, during World War 2. He is describing to a Soviet officer, interogator, using a pointer and map, the defense tactics of his Berlin defense. He also describes the condition in which he found Adolf Hitler when he last visited him at his Berlin Chancery. He demonstrates the palsy-like shaking of Hitler's hand. German officer being questioned as he sits on a curb. Soviet officers examine charred bodies including a possible Hitler body double or doppelgänger, lying on the ground in courtyard of the German Chancery. The area filled with trash. View of a very tall steel tower. Closeup of the Soviet Red flag flying atop that tower. View of the damaged Quadriga statue atop the Brandenburg Gate. Soviet Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov and other Soviet officer pass under Brandenburg Gate. View of Kaiser Wilhelm monument. Marshal Zhukov and his party walking through central Berlin past various monuments and Government buildings. Several Nazi Eagle symbols are seen displayed on buildings. Crystal chandeliers inside one building. Destroyed interior of building. A cast head of Adolf Hitler in trash outside a building. Other statuary and Swastika symbols in trash. Marshal Zhukov and party stop to examine two damaged German armored cars in courtyard of a building. View of the Victory Column in Tiergarten Park adorned with a Soviet Red flag. Marshal Zhukov looking upward at it and then walking up steps toward the monument base.
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