Film opens with date: 10 May 1940 (date of the German invasion of Luxembourg, Holland, and Belgium, in World War 2). Huge precise formation of German soldiers is shown. Alternating closeups of individual soldiers and camera pans across the formation. Animated map shows Germany, Belgium, France and Holland, plus Rein River, City of Lille, and Paris. It shows positions of English and French armies, ostensibly attacking from France, across Belgium and Holland, toward the German Ruhr region (but actually moving to repulse the German offensive). Belgian troops advancing on motorcycles past sandbagged buildings. The French border being opened followed by many French military vehicles, including trucks, trailers, artillery pieces, and some French Lorraine 37 tracked vehicles. A steam locomotive pulls a boxcar troop train. French and British forces seen on the train. Many of the Allied soldiers sit in its doorways with their legs dangling. A French Char B1 heavy tank rumbles along a road. French light tanks. More views of Allied troops, including French Colonials, marching through towns and villages. Closeup of the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, General the Viscount Lord Gort, with another British Commander. British troops in armored personnel carriers. British troops marching as someone is hear singing in background, about "washing day on the Siegfried line." Several British self-propelled heavy guns in motion. German army engineers detonating a charge followed by large explosions.
Views from dock in New York and from aboard ship as the SS Marine Flasher arrives in New York on May 20, 1946, after departing Bremerhaven Germany on May 11, 1946. Crowd of people gathered to greet passengers getting off the ship. Scenes show jubilant people and some reunions of family members or relatives. The passengers are largely displaced persons and refugees from World War 2. People disembark the ship. A woman with her child stands in front of a hatch. Three women aboard the ship pose. A woman kisses a man. People meet their relatives. People leave with their luggage. The luggage of the people with tags. Luggage tags with name (Ingeborg) Inge Rummeni of 824 North 38th St. Milwaukee Wisconsin on them. A woman and a child show concentration camp number tattoos on their arms from a Nazi German prison camp.
The London Blitz. Sections of London ablaze from German bombing during Battle of Britain. US President Franklin Roosevelt signing H.R. 1946, Lend-Lease legislation in World War II. View of last page of H.R.1946, signed by Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and by President Roosevelt. United States sends war material to England. 'USA' written on Lend-Lease boxes being loaded on lorry after arrival in Britain. Huge crates of Lend-Lease war materiel on railroad flat cars pulled by locomotive. Smoke rises up from the engine. 'Machine tools, BULLARD, Bridgeport Conn.' written on crate in transit.
A captured Wehrmacht Major General gets into a jeep after German defeat from the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. A German Volkssturm militia man with an armband. Armband reads “Deusches Volkssturm Wehrmacht”. Volkssturm militia carry discarded Schmeisser guns to defend a town in the Ruhr Valley. A Volkssturm militia man surrenders to an American soldier. Surrendered Volkssturm men shows a place to an American soldier, where arms have been hidden. American soldier being led to a riverbank of the Rhine River where the German Volkssturm men show him flame throwers. The mass escape of prisoners from a German concentration camp. Polish, Czech, Yugoslavian, and Soviet prisoners of war find United States soldiers in the forest after their escape from a German prison camp. An Asian man, likely Soviet, after escaping a German concentration camp. Food and medical aid being provided to them by the Americans. Women being released from a camp by the Americans. Russian prisoners appear happy after being released from German prisons.
Reconstruction problems in Europe in the aftermath of World War II. Examples of prewar Germany's industrial and commercial prowess, showing its consumer products and famous cameras. A German coal-burning power plant and miners extracting coal from Germany's vast natural supplies. Coal being transported by conveyer belt. Open rail cars loaded to capacity with German coal. A German iron and steel plant dependent on coal. Shift to postwar destruction including destroyed: German factory; locomotive; rail yards; trucks; farm machinery; fertilizer plant; farm fields lacking crops. Shift to prewar era with view of British coal cars getting ready to be emptied for export to Europe. Current postwar view of British coal cars and coal, that narrator says are barely enough for her own needs. View of prewar German coke being loaded onto conveyers. Coal miners receiving food ration cards. Animated map showing "Iron Curtain," of Soviet occupation, separating traditional German regions of agriculture from those of industry. British Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin; French Foreign Minister, Georges Bidault; Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov; and U.S. Secretary of State, George Marshall; are seen at the Paris Conference in 1946 where they negotiated the postwar future of Germany. Reminder footage of Hitler with brownshirts in 1930s. Italian police coping with communist inspired unrest in Italy. Bombed out buildings in snow. Europeans literally scratching for bits of food from pavement and trash heaps. Two women fighting with each other during time of shortages and ration. Dejected woman. French Communist party leader, Maurice Thorez, speaking to a large crowd. Party flag with hammer and sickle behind him.
A memorandum expresses Adolf Hitler's desire to invade Czechoslovakia. Munich Pact discussed during the trial of Nazi leaders for war crimes in Nuremberg, Germany in 1946. Footage from 1938 as Adolf Hitler and other leaders from Britain, Italy and France sign Munich Agreement or Munich Pact that leads to annexation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany. Czech President Emil Hacha arrives to meet the German leaders.
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