Film begins showing formation of German bombers in flight. Next, British and French troops are seen retreating under fire across a river using inflatable rafts. British artillery fires guns from sparse tree line. German troops crossing a river, in small inflatable boats, under heavy Allied artillery fire. German soldiers launch boats next to a destroyed bridge over a river. British artillery firing from tree line. Shells striking near the German forces by the river. German soldiers in Einheits-Pkw field cars ford a shallow river. German troops unroll a spool of communications wire upon the ground using a rolling dispenser. Sd.Kfz.11 German half-track pulling a 15 cm schwere Feldhaubitze 18 (heavy field howitzer) up a muddy hill. Soldiers moving in a river aboard a Sd.Kfz. 251/1 Ausf. A armored car. A Panzer tank being offloaded from a barge. Various German artillery firing, including a siege mortar, with their shells exploding on targets. German soldier holds his ears as heavy gun is fired. German troops, with shells bursting near them in water, carry timber to repair bridge. Line of Panzer tanks advancing. German heavy gun firing. Silhouette of tank treads moving through fire. A rocket sails through the air and strikes ground. Many rounds of machine gun tracer bullets seen in night. Fires consuming numerous buildings in Louvain (Leuven), Belgium. A dead horse on the street. Inhabitants fleeing the city on foot, bicycles, and in cars. View from distance of heavy black smoke over the city. Closeups of burning buildings. Police help an injured woman lying in grass beside a path. Glimpse of another woman lying on a stretcher. More scenes of fires. In Louvain, the tower of St. Peter's Church crashes in flames. More views of refugees in countryside, continuing to walk away from the city. One is a young girl with a wooden leg prosthetic using a cane. German troops entering the city. German troops, without helmets, manually moving an artillery piece along a path. A soldier seated, sleeping, at side of path. Two soldiers asleep on a motorcycle and sidecar. Many views of German soldiers sleeping beside the path. Another soldier asleep in the sidecar of a BMW motorcycle. Scene shifts to black smoke billowing from burning oil storage facility at Antwerp, torched by Allied forces in retreat. Aerial views from German Henschel He 126A-1 reconnaissance airplane, of Brussels, which was spared from destruction. German forces seen moving in the city. Shadow of reconnaissance airplane seen on ground as it flies over the city. Street level view of German forces in various vehicles driving on city street and others in countryside. Some troops on horseback and on bicycles. White smoke rising from industrial facility. A sign identifies the city of Sedan, Ardennes, France. A building smoking after being shelled. huge fires burning in Sedan. View from Meuse River of fires burning in Sedan. (Allied forces retreated to Dunkirk, from where many were safely evacuated to Britain.)
Annual opium profits of $15,000,000 in Sui Yuan, Mongolia. Mongolian Monarch and ruler of opium-rich area, General Ma Fuxiang, seated with his family. The multi-millionaire opium king celebrates birthday with his private army maintained to guard a large territory. Mongolian people in an opium field. The poppy seed of the opium flower. A man inspects a poppy flower. A massive wooden water wheel pulling water from a canal and transporting it to a high ramp which runs down to irrigate large poppy fields.
War veterans swamp the Bureau for loans on new bonus plan in Washington DC. The war veterans of the AEF (American Expeditionary Force) stand in a queue for loans. J. M. Betz, Deputy Disbursing Officer operates an automatic signature device which certifies 15 vouchers at a clip and 20000 in a day. A crowd of beneficiaries line up outside Uncle Sam's pay window in New York.
In South Bend, Indiana, views of a "Giant Car" Studebaker roadster built by a group of 60 craftsmen working under Studebaker's Paul Auman. This giant scale version 1931 model 80 Studebaker Four Season Roadster was used in the film "Wild Flowers." The Giant Car is 41 feet long with a wheel base of 325 inches. It is 13 1/2 feet high, 15 feet wide, and weighed 5 1/2 tons. Men drive up beside the giant President roadster in a normal vehicle. Some use a rope ladder to climb up into the giant car and others climb up the wheel fender and then onto the hood. A boy is shown trying unsuccessfully to climb up a giant wheel of the car (each wire wheel was 6 feet 8 inches in diameter and weighed 600 pounds). The boy's small pedal car is seen beside the Giant Car tire. A police officer in a motorcycle rides up beside the giant car. He places a board-style 'Police Ticket' on the running board and then climbs up onto the running board to present the ticket to a woman who is behind the wheel of the giant roadster.
15 teams participate in the 50th International Six Day Bike Grind in New York City. Champions from all over the world participate in the race. The participants ride their bicycles on the track. Cyclist Reggie McNamara eats a meal. The spectators stand near a railing along the track and watch the race.
A United States Army training film about defense against chemical warfare. U.S. soldiers affected by a poisonous gas attack are transported to a base hospital in Chateau-Thierry, France on 15 August ,1918. Gas attack casualties in the AEF (American Expeditionary Force) during World War I. Injured soldiers on stretchers lined up in front of the hospital.