An exhibition of Czechoslovakian manufactured goods in Moscow,Soviet Union. People look at motorbikes,cars,wearing apparel,utensils,trucks manufactured in Czechoslovakia.
Three Soviet harvesting machines in formation cut wheat in Ukraine before arrival of invading German forces during Operation Barbarossa, in World War 2. Several varying closeups of the harvesting operations and the farmers as they work. Tractor pulls a harvesting machine. Closeup of farmer teaching his wife how to operate the machinery. View of her at the wheel. People (mostly women and children) gleaning grain from the fields after the machinery has finished. Soviet soldiers carrying long handled scythes walk past the wing of an aircraft parked in a field, to join those in the harvesting. A windmill is seen in the far background. Civilians and soldiers work together with hand held tools to cut wheat. Closeup of woman twisting stalks to form a rope to bind the wheat sheaves. Views of soldiers carrying sheaves of wheat. People gathered around and atop a threshing machine. Workers,using pitch forks, toss wheat sheaves up to the threshers, who push them into the threshing machine. A tractor pulls a many wagons filled with flour, from a mill. Complete change of scene shows civilians hard at work building fortifications. Several ensuing scenes show civilians sandbagging and strengthening fortifications in other Allied countries, such as France, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Spain, and China. Soviet men with shovels digging deep antitank defenses. Many hundreds of Soviet women at work with shovels building defenses along a hillside. A cadre of Soviet women, in uniform, march under command of a military officer, at a square in Moscow. Some appear to be carrying rolled up stretchers or litters over their shoulders, reflecting their role as nurses or medics. Red Cross nurses train for an emergency. One practices bandaging the arm of another. Several Red Cross nurses line up in a formation to march
Animated map shows changes in borders and nations surrounding Poland up until 1937. A map with strategic importance city of Danzig in Poland. Map shows Czechoslovakia, Russia, Hungary, Ottoman Empire, and Germany.
Nazi rally in Nuremberg, Germany ca.1934. Massed Storm troopers and spectators salute Hitler. An artillery piece is fired. Hitler personally recognizing loyal Storm troopers. Animated map of Asia, showing Japanese occupation of Manchuria, and Italian occupation of Ethiopia. Newspaper headlines describe Britain and France hesitating to support League of Nations oil sanctions against Italy; and U.S. increasing its oil exports to Italy by 600% (ca. 1935). Hitler and Hermann Goering looking pleased in Hitler's private railroad car. Adolf Hitler at a planning table covered with maps. German citizens traveling abroad and Joachim von Ribbentrop visiting London, as ambassador to Great Britain, in 1936. View of Léon Degrelle and his Catholic-fascist, Rexist party in Belgium (ca. 1936). View of Colonel Francois de la Rocque speaking at a Cross of Fire (Croix-de-Feu) party night rally in France. Konrad Henlein, leader of the Sudeten German Party in Czechoslovakia. Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian National Socialist official, seen in an automobile during a parade. Sir Oswald Mosley addressing followers and defending Hitler. Street scenes of public disorder attributed to Nazi sympathizers in France and Belgium. Mass meeting of the German American Bund in Madison Square Garden, New York City,1939. U.S. flags and picture of George Washington decorate stage. Fritz Julius Kuhn addresses the gathering and members rough up a protester. Views of heavy industry in Germany, especially steel manufacturing for remilitarization. Persons working at a German concentration camp. Dramatized execution by machine gun. View of Heinrich Himmler. German President Paul von Hindenburg. German national conscription of 1935 during military mobilization efforts. German youth training pilots with gliders. German paratroopers, Junkers 52 aircraft, German soldiers goosestep, views of German tanks. Ju 87 Stuka plane. German invasion of Rhineland, 1936. Construction of Siegfried Line. Antitank barriers, bunkers, dragons teeth. Hitler visiting Westwall. German military parade.
Adolf Hitler addresssing the Bundestag in Berlin. Animated map shows Berlin, Warsaw, and higlights Danzig and the Polish corridor. Newspaper headline reads 'Poles will fight for Danzig.' Polish officer addressing recruits. Polish women and children watching as they march off. Polish women and old men and youths digging trench fortifications. Animated map shows Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. Map shows Vistula River and tributaries. Map shows Polish defense options. Map illustrates Nazi plan to launch pincer movements around the Polish defenses. Views of German forces marshaling near the Polish border in August, 1939. Polish infantry moving in horse-drawn wagons, supported by old fashioned horse cavalry. Film illustrates dramatic difference in military might, contrasting German armor, aircraft,and numbers to that of Poland. Closeup of German airmen loading bomb under their aircraft. German heavy artillery and siege mortar firing. German Panzer I light tank charging through snow. Motorized German forces entering Poland on September 1st, 1939. German Heinkel HE 111 bomber taking off toward the camera. Several Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers taking off. German aircraft strafing Polish aircraft on an airbase. Aircraft exploding on the ground. A Dornier Do 17 bomber maneuvering. More views from German aircraft strafing Polish aircraft on the ground. Formation of He 111 aircraft in flight. Gunner firing from blister in bomber. Aerial dogfight scenes with two Polish P50A fighter airplanes being fired upon and exploding in air. Aerial view of German Me Bf 109 as it maneuvers nearby. Me Bf 109 firing guns and flying through white smoke. A Polish P50 streaming black smoke. Another gunner in bomber firing and hitting a Polish P-50. An aircraft crashing in flames. More He 111 bombers. Glimpse of bombardier in He 111. Bombs striking Polish bridges, roads, railroads, etc. Closeup of Stuka dive bomber starting dive down on target. Polish civilians fleeing in a field. A stuka diving as children watch from hiding places. Bombs bursting near railroad. Closeup of German airman in cockpit. Polish cavalry charging. German tank tows a field artillery piece across a shallow river, A destroyed bridge in background. A Panzer I light tank emerges from the stream. German soldiers racing across the Vistula River in long powered boats. Series of maps show situation from September 5th as Germans advance and Poles retreat, ending with encirclement of Warsaw and defeat of Polish forces. Scenes of Warsaw, encircled and bombarded, but not yet fallen. Firemen respond to bombing and shelling. Buildings crumble. Germans load and fire 142mm Howitzers. Scenes of destruction from shelling. A factory chimney falls. Hitler at the front observing bombardment. Women and children seek shelter in the city. Dead horses in streets. September 27th Warsaw capitulates and German troops occupy it. Map shows Polish forces still resist in the Westerplatte fortress. German battleship, Schleswig-Holstein, firing her guns. Defenders raise white flag on October 1st, 1939. Polish prisoners marching away (one seen barefoot). Polish Nazi collaborator points out persons for arrest. Poles lined up by a pit for execution. German machine gunners firing. Glimpse of Nazi Heinrich Himmler. Bodies of executed. Polish women mourning the dead. Closeups of Polish women, children and old man. A woman throws fuel on a funeral pyre. Closeups of mourning women and girls. Hitler's Ju 52 transport plane takes off. Inside he talks with military passengers. Profile of Hitler silhouetted against the sky, looking at burning city of Warsaw. Russian army entering Poland talks with German officer. Sign boards in England say Britain declares war. French forces respond, marching from Caserne Maginot Barracks. British bombers attack German warships in the Kiel canal. German sailors rush to battle stations and fire anti-aircraft gun. Bombs away view as British planes bombs German Navy.
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.