Film opens showing Adolf Hitler, in uniform, on the balcony of his new Reichs Chancellery on Wilhelmplatz (completed in 1939). He is accompanied by Deputy Fuhrer, Rudolf Hess and Schutzstaffel Leader, Julius Schrek. Supporters crowd the square and cheer them. Scene shifts to a nighttime rally, and then to Closeup of Hermann Goering on a balcony with others (unidentified). Glimpse of a Schutzstaffel brass band marching in torchlight parade and Hitler saluting from a balcony. Schutzstaffel assembled in Wilhelmplatz (77 Wilhelmstraße, 10117 Berlin, Germany). Some spectators climb a tree to get better view of events. Crowd returning Nazi salute to Hitler standing alone on Reichs Chancellery balcony. Inserted slate reads: "Memorial Day, 1936."
1939 Chillán earthquake in Chile, South America. Thousands of people are killed, and houses destroyed because of an earthquake. Destroyed houses and buildings in Chillán, south-central Chile. Soldiers walk through rubble. Smoke rise from pile of debris. Men view the destruction caused by the earthquake and walk through the debris.
View from the waterfront pier, of the German Battleship, SMS Schleswig Holstein, firing its 150mm and 290mm guns point blank at the Polish Westerplatte defenses, on September 1, 1939, as Germany precipitated World War 2 and invasion of Poland. Views from the Schleswig Holstein, where her Captain, Gustav Kleikamp, is seen observing the effects through binoculars,at timecode 00:20. Following these bombardment scenes, film shifts to Polish tanks (Vickers?) moving out of woods. Sequence shifts again to amphibious tanks moving through water and climbing onto shore.
Finland attacked by the Soviets during the "Winter War" or Russo-Finnish War of 1939-1940, coinciding with World War 2. Vyacheslav Molotov addresses Soviet men in a hall. View of Stalin seated near a wall. Soviet Men applaud. Soviet planes in flight. Soviet Paratroopers jump from the plane and descend with the help of parachutes towards Finland. Soviet army soldiers place and fire a line of artillery on the battlefield. Soviet airplanes in flight over Helsinki. The city of Helsinki being bombed by Soviet aircraft. People flee from the area. Damage in the area due to the bombardment. Destroyed houses, buildings and rubble on the ground in Finland from aerial bombing. A wrecked airplane on the street.
Coat of arms of the city of Warsaw, the capital of Poland. Aerial bombing of Warsaw by German Luftwaffe during the invasion of Poland in World War 2. German soldiers fire artillery. People run for safety in devastated streets of Warsaw. A building in Warsaw lay in ruins. Soldiers and tanks rolling through country after Dunkirk. Warsaw in smoke during aerial bombings by German Luftwaffe. A burned car on street in Warsaw. Polish citizens evacuating as streets of Warsaw in smoke from German aerial bombings. Dead horses in Warsaw street. Polish man cuts horse carcass for meat. Horse skeleton after being scavenged by hungry Poles. People evacuate from burning Warsaw Radio building. German occupying forces enter Warsaw. In Rakow, near Warsaw, Polish and German officers, including Polish officer Kutrzwea and Colonel Aleksander Praglowski along with General Johannes von Blaskowitz sign the surrender of Warsaw in a railroad car on 29 September 1939
On the German Western Front in World War II a group of German troops bury the two-person crew of a French airplane that was shot down on September 11, 1939. The funeral, which takes place in Saarbrücken, is conducted with full military honors. The two French pilots were Lieutenant Jean Sueur and Captain Jacques Rosignol of 2 Escadrille de Reconnaissance 551. Each headstone is shown with the airman's hat on top. German soldiers place wreathes on the caskets and lower them into the ground. A large group of German soldiers, including a German military chaplain, are shown saluting the dead Frenchmen.
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