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.
Near the end of World War 2, U.S. submarines were being refitted with extra guns and undertook more surface combat operations. Here, the USS Bowfin (SS-287) is seen in surface training activities off Guam, during May,1945. Its armament now includes (in addition to its original 4-inch/50 caliber deck gun) a Bofors 40mm aft of the conning tower and an Oerlikon 20mm cannon forward of it. As the Bowfin heads out, its deck gun is seen. Next, in a view from the conning tower fairwater, looking aft, the Bofors 40mm autocannon can be seen below. Scene shifts forward and then to side, where deck gun barrel is seen at extreme right of image. It fires at distant target boat. More views of targets being fired upon by autocannons and deck gun. Smoke rising from struck target. Sequence ends with the Bowfin firing a few rounds on its way back to Apra Harbor.
Low altitude aerial views from an aircraft circling the Dutch submarine, O 19, stranded on Ladd Reef, in the South China Sea, with bow raised high above water and stern submerged. Note: According to Klaas van der Veen,of the Netherlands, whose father was second in command on the O 19, the boat went aground while on the way to Subic Bay, Phillipines, on July 8, 1945 (July 7th East of the International Date Line). After three days trying to free the O 19 using full reverse power at high tide, blowing air, firing torpedoes, and jettisoning ballast, the crew was rescued by the U.S. submarine, USS Cod, which torpedoed the O 19, after all critical equipment had been removed.
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