Film begins showing two German soldiers in an established log lined firing position at an artillery training facility in Germany during World War 2. One is using a periscopic telescope. Closeup of a soldier hurrying along a log-lined trench toward a communication center. He picks up a field telephone that is next seen ringing and picked up at another communication center manned by several German officers. One takes the phone call. Scene shifts to an artillery crew at a log-lined gun emplacement where they attend to a 10.5cm artillery piece. Closeup of soldier signalling for guns to fire. Shells exploding in the distance. Crew at another gun emplacement hold their ears as their gun fires. Many more views of guns firing and smoke filling the air.
Film opens with map of western coast and towns in France. Camouflaged trucks filled with German infantry drive along rural French road in World War 2. Closeup of smiling soldiers in one truck. A makeshift sign reads (in German) "One-way street to the front." A soldier passes out newspapers to other soldiers riding bicycles. Closeup of a soldier reading the newspaper. Closeup of the paper has headline reading (in German) "Eisenhower has not surprised us." Troops on bicycles ride through a village. Large wooden sign warns (in German) that the enemy understands things you might say about military activities. Camouflaged vehicles drive along a road, passing overturned civilian vehicles at the sides of the road. View from rear of German soldier on motorcycle, with foliage on his helmet, looking skyward for aircraft. Formations of Allied aircraft are seen overhead, and German troops seek protection in ditches at side of the road. Scene shifts to German troops firing anti-aircraft guns at the planes. Black flak clouds are seen near the Allied airplanes. A lone B-17 bomber is seen overhead. Next, burning wreckage of an aircraft is seen strewn across a field. No markings are visible on the wreckage. A sign identifies the town of Avranches in Southern France. German infantry enter the war-torn town on civilian cars and other vehicles of opportunity and motorcycles. A German half track personnel carrier tows an artillery field piece.
At beginning, and throughout the film, organ music is heard as camera pans from top of a church tower, down across the roof and sides, to the front of a church building in a German occupied town in Southern France, during World War 2. A lone German soldier patrols an empty street in the background. Closeup of the German soldier patrolling. Camera pans over stained glass window inside the church to a German soldier at keyboard playing the church organ. Camera shifts to view of interior balcony and stained glass windows at front of the church. View of soldiers hands on the keyboard as he plays the organ. Interior view of side of the church with pillars above which Gothic arches extend toward the roof. Camera pans down to view from behind the organist, showing him and the full interior of the church in the background, behind him. (The organ is located in a loft at the rear of the church.) Closeup profile of the soldier organist. Camera pans inside, showing damage to roof and then down to large pieces of masonry rubble on the floor. View changes to closeup profile of a German soldier standing outside at the door of the church.
Opening scene shows a German half track (Sd.Kfz. 251) racing through sandy areas in Normandy during World War 2. Closeup of the half track. It is followed by a Panzer III tank. View across a grassy field of shells exploding in the distance. Glimpse of a German soldier's helmet as he ducks down to fire an artillery piece. Close view of a shell exploding and throwing debris into the air. A destroyed building in the background. View from top of closed up self-propelled gun as it fires.Shell exploding in near distance, raising dense smoke. Closeup of a knocked out smoking Allied tank. German soldiers silhouetted against background, as they run from area filled with white smoke. German tank firing from camouflaged position nested in huge pile of twigs. German infantry advancing along sides of a road in a rural village and running past some bombed out buildings including some on fire.
American soldiers of the 104th Infantry Division, 104th Reconnaissance Troop, drive along a road, deep in Gernamy, near the end of World War 2 in Europe. According to signposts, they are 3 Km from Bennstedt and 11Km from Halle, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. An M18 Hellcat tank destroyer follows behind the jeeps, carrying 4 soldiers atop its turret. Another behind it carries 6 soldiers on it.
At the Führer Headquarters (Führerhauptquartiere) or Wolf’s Lair, in Gierłoż, East Prussia (later Poland), German leader and Führer Adolf Hitler walks in a garden with a group of Nazi senior officials during World War 2. Hitler salutes guards while passing them. Hitler and the group of officials enter headquarters. Hitler meets with Otto Skorzeny, an Austrian-born SS Lieutenant Colonel ( Obersturmbannführer ) in the Waffen-SS. View of Skorzeny talking to Hitler.
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