British tanks being loaded at a UK port, bound for the Soviet Union, during World War 2. A Cruiser V Covenanter tank in the foreground and several Valentine tanks lined up behind it. A trainload of tanks moving on a British railway. Convoy of Allied ships headed toward the Soviet Union. Map shows route from the UK to Murmansk. View from aboard a ship in the convoy as gunners man antiaircraft gun to defend against German bombers attacking from Norway. Black flak clouds in the air. View of the convoy proceeding through waters containing drifting pieces of ice.
Film opens showing Adolf Hitler ascending stairs to the Bergfhof, accompanied by Marshal Hermann Goering, and followed by other high ranking Nazi officers. Inside, General staff officers begin briefing Hitler about plans for German expansion Eastward. Finger points to Austria on map. Next, on March 12, 1938, Border Guards are seen dismantling barriers at the border as German troops march into Austria. German aircraft fly overhead. Hitler stands in his open touring car as it drives into Vienna, where local people line the sidewalk, and welcome him with the Nazi salute. Maps depict the fall of Austria and illustrate the anticipated conquest of Czechoslovakia. Brief overlay image of Bismark as narrator quotes him about Bohemia being key to control of Europe. German troops advancing up steep mountainous terrain. German soldiers on horseback and wagons passing road sign pointing to cities of Karlovy Vary and Cheb, in the west Bohemia region of Czechoslovakia. Czech troops marching in formation with shouldered arms. View of Czech Avia B-534 warplanes at an airfield. Interior of a Czech Skoda works munitions factory. President of Czechoslovakia, Edvard Beneš, signing papers at his desk. French lancers marching in formation, on parade. (Narrator comments on French military alliances with Czechoslovakia and Great Britain.) View of warships in British fleet. Hitler outdoors, surrounded by German military officers, looking over large maps. Animated map highlights the "Sudetenlands" bordering Germany, including districts of Bohemia, Moravia, and parts of Silesia inside Czechoslovakia, where use of German language was common. Street scene from that area showing some youths in uniforms, marching. Hitler giving speech about bringing the German people together again. The uniformed youth marching at a camp. Sign erected on stone wall at the camp reads: "Die Faune ist mehr als der..."(the flag is more than ...) Youth in Naval garb march on a street with a Nazi flags. Spectators give Nazi salutes. Young men in Khaki uniforms march with Nazi symbols. Scenes shift to similar parades in Norway, Sweden,China,and the United States. Back in Czechoslovakia, Hitler reaches down from his podium to shake hands with parading youth. Images of Admiral Chester Nimitz, Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, Senator Robert Wagner, Wendell Wilkie, Henry J. Kaiser, and American military members, superimposed on American flags. Sudentenland Nazi supporters marching. Konrad Ernst Eduard Henlein, Sudeten German politician, with a Nazi officer. More views of Sudeten Nazi supporters. Nazis in an office showing blackjacks. Hospitalized Czechs who suffered at hands of Nazi supporters in street fights. Hitler speaking before the Bundestag. Closeup of Joseph Goebbels.Foreign minister Maxine Lichtenhof speaking to League of Nations meeting announcing Russia's readiness to back action against Germany. Czech borders being closed. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain arriving by plane in Munich. Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Hermann Goering with Chamberlain, at the meeting to sign the Munich Agreement. View of protests by people in the streets of Czechoslovakia. French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier and Chamberlain, both being praised by countrymen upon their respective returns from Munich. (Chamberlain seen arriving just before giving famous "peace for our time" speech.)
USS City of Flint in Baltimore, Maryland. City of Flint written on the ship (and home port of Philadelphia Pennsylvania written below it). Captain on ship deck. Crew members on the deck. Woman waving. USS City Of Flint, seized by a Nazi German battleship, set free in Norway, arrives at port in Baltimore Maryland.
Japanese troops parade for Emperor Hirohito, mounted upon a white horse. Italian troops goosestep and German troops goosestep on parade. View of an Austrian town with snow-covered Alps mountains in background as German troops enter Austria on March 13, 1938 during the Anschluss. Local citizens welcome them, displaying swastika flags and giving Nazi straight arm salutes. Troops, military vehicles, tanks, motorcycles, and horse-drawn artillery comprise the German invading force. Shifts to Spain, where war torn buildings reflect effects of German and Italian intervention during the Spanish Civil War. A donkey standing near field artillery piece. Artillery being fired from an urban park in Spain. Artilleryman using a range finder. German gun crew with heavy artillery piece. Soldiers wearing Adrian steel helmets, firing a two-wheeled water-cooled machine gun. Spanish carrying wounded on stretcher. Spanish civilians inadvertently slain during civil war conflict. Starving dog walking in street. Huge poster of Francisco Franco and view of him on reviewing stand saluting marching Nationalist troops. Repeat of Hirohito reviewing troops and Italian and German troops goosestep. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini stand together in open car heading to Fuhrerbau in Munich, Germany, for signing of Agreement between Germany, Italy, Britain, and France in 1938. Neville Chamberlain, and Edouard Daladier riding in car to Fuhrerbau. Views of the principals signing the accords. First is Adolf Hitler, followed by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini, and Edouard Daladier. After the signing, the principals, plus Hermann Goering, mingle and converse. Change of scene to nighttime in Rome, Italy, where Benito Mussolini addresses a huge throng gathered near the Victor Emmanuel Memorial to cheer him after his return from Munich. Next, German troops are seen entering Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia) greeted by joyous ethnic German inhabitants. Banners are stretched across a street. One gives thanks to the Fuhrer. Several scenes of cheering population. A woman strews flowers in a roadway. Hitler arrives, standing in an open car, and is met with cheers of adulation. A military brass band plays from the open beds of two moving army trucks. Signpost points to Prag (Prague), Eger (Cheb), Joachimstal (Jáchymov), and Komotau (Chomutov) after German annexation. Scene shifts to Prague, where German troops are seen occupying the city. High ranking German officers in a car are seen coming through the gateway from the Court d´honneur of the Prague Castle into the Hradčany Square. The next sequence shows an Italian Freccia-Class destroyer in the Albanian Port of Durrës. An Italian L3/35 Tankette is driven off a large cargo ship. Italian troops on bicycles ride in a city street. A German 88mm antiaircraft (flak) gun is shown, mounted at a fort overlooking a river and city. Final scene shows Adolf Hitler addressing a meeting of the Bundestag in the Kroll Opera House (alternate meeting place after burning of the Reichstag). He reads, contemptuously from an April 14, 1939 letter sent to him by U.S. President Roosevelt, asking him to give "assurance that your armed forces will not attack or invade the territory or possessions of the following independent nations: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain and Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Russia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Iraq, the Arabias, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Iran." As Hitler reads through the litany of nations, the Bundestag erupts in laughter.
German naval vessel underway at a sea in the European Theater during World War 2. A brief view of a Scharnhorst class Battlecruiser. The Heavy Cruiser Admiral Scheer following her refit in late July 1940. Note her (slight) raked bow and the seaplane mounted behind the funnel. The bow of a Scharnhorst class Battlecruiser. Note the two forward 28 cm. triple turrets. Crew stand at attention at the bow of the ship. A German flag flutters on a flag pole. The angled funnel cap and lack of torpedo launchers on the rear deck identify this as a Scharnhorst class Battlecruiser. The forward 28 cm. turrets rotate prior to opening fire. View of the 28 cm. main armament. 28 cm. and 15 cm. guns open fire (possibly on targets in Norway?).
Adolf Hitler consulting with Panzer Generals Paul von Kleist and Heinz Guderian, during World War 2. Animated map showing German invasions of Denmark, Norway,Holland,and Belgium. People hear on radio about the German Blitzkrieg. Many views of families and gathering of men, women, and children listening to various portable radios, console radios, and car radios to hear the news of the attacks. Masses of refugees moving slowly in France and Belgium, and being strafed by German Ju 87 Stuka aircraft. Americans listening to news of German war successes. British forces being attacked by German Ju 87 Stuka bombers as they evacuate at Dunkirk, France.