Soviet troops firing field artillery in streets of Berlin, Germany, late in 1945, during World War 2. Closeup glimpse of a Soviet woman tank crew member. Glimpse of Russian tank firing at building. Glimpse through window of building as tank fires across the street. View downward of Soviet infantry running through street below. Another tank firing. Soviet infantry soldier advancing through fire and smoke. A tank crew member carrying a wounded comrade over his shoulder, past several T-34 tanks parked in the background. A tank burning. Medic tends head wound of the injured tank crewman. More views of infantry running through the rubble filled streets. Animated map showing the pincer movements of Soviet forces closing in from outskirts of Berlin toward its center. Glimpse of Soviet soldier scanning across the city with optical equipment. Camera pans across smoke filled city showing the ruins of the Reichstag Building and anther large damaged building. More views of artillery firing in street. A knocked out tank. Huge smoke clouds billow from a shelled building. Infantry scramble over rubble. German civilians hiding in a garden. A Soviet soldier helps a very old German man out of the remains of a building. Soviet machine guns rake the front of a building, causing pieces of it to fall to the ground. An old German woman wanders along a city street. A Soviet ROKS flamethrower is fired from the window of a building creating fire on a building across the street. Infantry run past the burning building. During a pause in fighting, a Soviet female soldier washes the face of a male soldier. An artillery field piece firing in the street. A wounded Soviet soldier with bandaged head, fires a captured German Panzerfaust anti tank weapon. Four Soviet soldiers carrying a wounded on a litter, run through past the camera.
Combat footage filmed during the Soviet invasion and Battle of Berlin, Germany during World War 2. Smoke rises from damaged bridges and railroad lines. Ruined buildings of Berlin in aftermath of Soviet air and ground attacks. Piles of captured German weapons. German police officers and soldiers being taken as prisoners of war. Surrendering German troops march along a street. Grafitti on building wall says "Surrender - No." White surrender flags hang from windows and balconies of buildings. (These are contrasted by edited insert of German swastika flags covering the facades of buildings in the past.) German General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the Berlin Defense Area leads other Gernan officers from a bunker in the city, following their surrender to the Soviets on May 2, 1945. Large number of surrendering German soldiers marching, while General Weidling and other Berlin Defense Area officers quietly watch as their troops march past, as prisoners.
Film begins showing German General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the Berlin Defense Area, who surrendered his forces to the soviets on May 2, 1945, during World War 2. He is describing to a Soviet officer, interogator, using a pointer and map, the defense tactics of his Berlin defense. He also describes the condition in which he found Adolf Hitler when he last visited him at his Berlin Chancery. He demonstrates the palsy-like shaking of Hitler's hand. German officer being questioned as he sits on a curb. Soviet officers examine charred bodies including a possible Hitler body double or doppelgänger, lying on the ground in courtyard of the German Chancery. The area filled with trash. View of a very tall steel tower. Closeup of the Soviet Red flag flying atop that tower. View of the damaged Quadriga statue atop the Brandenburg Gate. Soviet Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov and other Soviet officer pass under Brandenburg Gate. View of Kaiser Wilhelm monument. Marshal Zhukov and his party walking through central Berlin past various monuments and Government buildings. Several Nazi Eagle symbols are seen displayed on buildings. Crystal chandeliers inside one building. Destroyed interior of building. A cast head of Adolf Hitler in trash outside a building. Other statuary and Swastika symbols in trash. Marshal Zhukov and party stop to examine two damaged German armored cars in courtyard of a building. View of the Victory Column in Tiergarten Park adorned with a Soviet Red flag. Marshal Zhukov looking upward at it and then walking up steps toward the monument base.
A series of views filmed from the USS Essex (CV-9) of the USS Hancock (CV-19) after she was struck by a Japanese Kamikaze aircraft on April 7, 1945, off the coast of Okinawa, during World War 2. Opening scene shows the Hancock almost completely enveloped by smoke. Camera pans across the ship. Subsequent scenes show smoke abating somewhat. View from flight deck of the Essex, of the Hancock steaming away, from the Essex. Brief view of four Japanese aircraft in flight, low overhead, and seven more at high altitude. Sailors line edge of the Essex flight deck looking at black objects in the water. Scene shifts to earlier sight of the Hancock burning., as viewed from a position on the island of the Essex, occupied by an officer and some sailors, wearing headsets. It shows heavy black smoke rising from the Hancock. The Battleship, USS North Carolina (BB-55) appears briefly in the background, upwind of the Hancock. Another view shows the Essex flight deck where sailors watch as the Hancock maneuvers. More scenes fairly closeup of smoke enveloping the Hancock.
Views of Yalta city, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic during World War II. Russian woman and a child walk along mountain road to Lavidia Palace where Yalta Conference will take place. They stop at Russian pipe soda fountain for drink. A Russian man points to Russian signs, one sign indicates the advance of Nazi German forces into Soviet Union in 1941, the other dated 1945 shows their retreat.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill gets a defeat in the 1945 United Kingdom General Elections. Past events show Prime Minister of UK Winston Churchill, U.S. President Harry S. Truman and other delegates attending the Potsdam Conference in Germany.
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