In response to an uprising of Polish miners and sympathizers in Upper Silesia, German police are seen taking large numbers into custody, in Kattowitz (Katowice). One Polish-Silesian resident being arrested by a German policeman.
After World War 1, in accordance with Article 88 of the Treaty of Versailles, residents of Upper Silesia are deciding by ballot, whether to be attached to Germany or Poland. Citizens in Kattowitz (Katowice) milling about in front of a building with a sign that reads ' Deutsche Sammelstelle. ' A horse and wagon passes them. Armed French occupation troops climb aboard an open truck. A small boy watching is chased away by a soldier.The truck drives away, past crowds of people on sidewalks. Three uniformed French soldiers pose in front of crowd of spectators. Three uniformed men with Red Cross arm bands stand under red cross flag flying from building. People massed at entrance to a building move into it under sign reading "eingang." A French officer (General Henri Le Rond) standing with a British officer (Colonel Henry Percival) and an Italian officer (General Antonio de Marinis), reads a newspaper and converses with the others in garden at Oppeln (Opole). Views from moving train of industrial complexes with numerous smoke stacks and factories, in the Oppeln region of Upper Silesia. A map showing area of plebiscite, and the coal reserves and coal mines of the region.
Colonel Archibald Percival Wavell (Rt. Hon. Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell) Commander of the 2nd Battalion, Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) is seen conversing with a Colonel of local German forces in Oppeln,Upper Silesia. (This is during the period when elements of the British Durham Light Infantry, the Black Watch and the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Leinsters, were serving, under the auspices of the Inter-Allied Commission of Government and plebiscite, as "peace keepers" to stop conflict between the Germans and Polish insurgents, in Upper Silesia.) Colonel Wavell is showing his counterpart a flexible spring mace, which the latter manipulates and examines. Behind them on a railroad siding are flat cars carrying Mark V tanks of Company B, 5th Battalion, British Tank Corps. Numbers: E18 and E17 appear on two tanks, respectively. Scene shifts to a checkpoint supported by soldiers of the Black Watch. A German officer checks credentials of a civilian leading a goat. He is permitted to pass and walks along smoking a pipe. A German lights the cigarette of a Black Watch soldier. German soldiers relax at edge of woods where they fly the Imperial flag of black, White, and red. A wagon load of German irregulars is pulled by a horse. They display the German flag. A team of horses pulls two caissons with irregulars riding on them.
Group of British Army officers relax while stationed in Oppeln (Opole), Upper Silesia, with other Allied forces as peacekeepers after the third Silesian uprising following the post World War 1 plebiscite. Several Italian Army officers pose for the camera. A unit of French Army bicyclist troops walks their bicycles as they leave a military post at Malapanerstrasse (Ozimska Street). French bicycle troops on their bicycles, riding along a rough road, causing several to fall, at side of the road. Several armed men patrol rail bridge, at Sczepanowitz (Szczepanowice) where one span had been destroyed by the Polish Konrad Wawelberg Destruction Group, on May 2nd. View of the bridge in state of partial reconstruction. A French Bicycle soldier and another armed man accompany a soldier operating a small rail car on the line. In the final scenes, behind the men riding the railway handcar, silhouettes of building spires can be seen on the horizon, in the distance, in Old Town Opole (now in Poland). Among these may be the Piat tower, the Town Hall, and the cathedral.
A large crowd gathers in the city of Oppeln (Opole), Upper Silesia (now Poland). People crowd around contingent of British Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) as they march into the city along Ozimska and Damrota streets, after arriving from Rosenberg, 20 miles to the Northeast, where they had first been quartered in June. The Regimental Pipe Band leads the procession. Officers are mounted and infantry march as they enter the city. The final scenes show the troops moving on Cracow Street, passing the Cafe Residenz.
Invading German infantry are seen advancing at a slow pace into Polish regions bordering Germany. They carry weapons and supplies on pack horses. Austrian troops and Mountaineers ascend hills and mountains on the Southern flank. Views of residents happily welcoming the invading troops in former German areas (West Prussia, Poznan, and Upper Silesia). Women and children throw flowers to German troops riding in a Sd.Kfz. 11 special motorized vehicle (Sonderkraftfahrzeug) towing an artillery piece. They throw flowers at German soldiers in a Sd.Kfz. 231 8-Rad armored personnel carrier. A group of mostly women and children waver enthusiastically from the front of what looks like a school building. Another group of welcoming residents includes several men in military uniforms. They wave as mounted German troops and horses pass. A local man tears down a Polish street sign. Crowds watch and cheer a passing German Panzer IV Ausf E with a short-barreled 75-millimeter gun. German officers riding in open staff cars are surrounded by cheering crowds as they make their way with difficulty through the throng. Crowds give Nazi salute and call out "Sieg Heil." German troops march with difficulty through the center of the crowds.