DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 672 [Main Title]
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- Title: DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 672 [Main Title]
- Film Number: GWY 179
- Other titles: DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 1943/31 [Alternative Title]
- Summary:
- Description: I. Doenitz inspects new U-boat crews. Grossadmiral arrives by car at parade ground beside quayside, with rising ground behind, and is met by junior officers wearing submariner's badge. After inspecting men drawn up on parade, Doenitz steps onto podium to address sailors who after their training are now ready for battle in the Atlantic and distant waters. II. Destroyer protects U-boats from air attack. Sailors on quayside and beside supply vessel wave farewell to their comrades standing on deck of U-boat setting out from port. Type IX steams on surface of calm sea. Destroyer, with large setting sun low in sky, flashes signal to U-boat which it is escorting out to sea. Fire-fighting canvas hoses are unrolled in case of emergency on board destroyer. During practice air-alert gunners on destroyer don helmets and man 2cm Flakvierling; others load and fire 3.7cm Flak at "British" plane. Junkers Ju 88s fly low over sea to ward off enemy air attack. Two Type IXs are now on high seas, so destroyer returns at high speed (engine room scenes) to escort out other U-boats ready for action. III. Discovery of mass murder of Ukrainians near Vinnitsa. After discovery of terrible mass murder at Katyn, another crime of the Jewish GPU (Soviet secret police) is uncovered in the Ukraine. Corpses of some of the thousands of Ukrainian workers and peasants, victims of the Bolsheviks' bloody terror, lie exposed in wood. Cut-in shots of head-scarved Slav women, artificially lit for camera, show grieving relatives who reportedly gave valuable evidence to civilian and uniformed German investigators, seen making notes. Photographs and personal effects, including spoons, are laid out to aid identification. Orthodox priest stands at altar to conduct open-air funeral service before corpses placed in mass grave, where uniformed German waits to lay wreath, are covered by earth. Women weep, as commentary concludes that on top of Katyn Vinnitsa is further witness to bloodthirsty and murderous Jewish Bolshevism. (End of Reel 1) IV. (Reel 2) Fighting near Orel in Battle of Kursk. Animated map of Orel, Kursk and Bjelgorod area. Battle between Orel and Bjelgorod is spreading to ever more sectors of the front. As endless column of supply vehicles approach front over dusty roads, Generalfeldmarschall von Kluge stands with some officers by roadside looking at map and through binoculars. As Soviets attempt to relieve pressure on their front at Bjelgorod with artillery fire, Germans crouch in deep trenches and see large explosion in distance. Damaged cable in trench is immediately repaired by one soldier, while another waits nonchalantly smoking cigarette. Camouflaged medium artillery opens fire on plain and Russian attack is reportedly foiled. V. Germans bomb Russian positions in Battle of Kursk. Round-the-clock attacks by Luftwaffe are typified by Heinkel He 111s of Kampfgeschwader 27 taxiing on airfield, taking off and in flight before one of the heaviest air attacks ever. Air-to-air shots show close formation, cockpit views and release of bombs over Soviet troop concentrations left and right of a road. Long sequence records bombs dropping one by one from nearby He 111. Aerial film records explosions below. Trench system is also attacked in high-level raid. VI. Fighting near Bjelgorod in Battle of Kursk. Animated map of Bjelgorod, Kursk and Orel. Distant views in dusk of Nebelwerfers firing show start of new push by German forces. Men of Waffen SS Panzerdivision await orders; one sleeps on hull of Pzkpfw IV draped with swastika flag for recognition by Luftwaffe. Distant planes are identified as Russian and one spirals into ground with parachute fatally caught in tail. Cut-in of another crashed plane ablaze. Distant and close views of Nebelwerfer barrage creating mass of smoke precede launch of infantry attack against front and flanks of enemy, as grenadiers leave trenches and advance across field. Sdkfz 251/8 halftrack ambulance is loaded with stretcher cases, with red cross flag visible and Pzkpfw IV in background. Tanks advance on a broad front across wheat field, followed by grenadiers. Pzkpfw IV with armour skirts and Sdkfz 251 pause. Large explosion in distance is described as tank; destroyed remnants blaze and two T-34s, one on top of the other in a depression, are part of total of more than 4,200 enemy tanks reportedly destroyed in last two weeks. Panzer troops rest temporarily; dead Russians lie sprawled in overrun trench; destroyed matériel; Germans, including several with bandaged head wounds, sit on moving tank. Evidence that Soviet losses are unusually high is apparent from film of abandoned horse, knocked out tanks, dead Russians on a flowering plain, captured truck-mounted Katyushas (Stalin guns) and long lines of prisoners of all ages. Aerial tracking shot shows armoured spearhead over stormed Russian positions. Monocled Generaloberst Model stands with his tank officers. Enemy air attack causes men and vehicles to scatter over wide area before plane crashes into ground, with wreckage visible. Sappers prepare bridge to allow Pzkpfw IVs to cross river. Wespe and StuG IIIs open fire across wheat field against Russian armoured attack; explosions in distance (Russian tanks ?). Great barrage of Nebelwerfer fire lightens dusk, Stukas pass overhead and Russians reportedly are unable to develop attack. Russian prisoners and wounded are brought in. Over artillery fire and advancing German armour, "the battle continues".
- Alternative Title: DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 1943/31 [Alternative Title]
- Colour: B&W
- Digitised:
- Object_Number: GWY 179
- Sound: Sound
- Access Conditions: IWM-GERMAN Attribution: IWM – GWY 179
- Featured Period: 1939-1945
- Production Date: 1943-07-21
- Production Country: Germany
- Production Details: UFA (Production company)
- Personalities, Units and Organisations: Doenitz, Karl (person) Kluge, Gunther H von (person) Model, Walther (person) German Navy, U-Boat Arm (regiment/service) German Navy (regiment/service) German Air Force, Kampfgeschwader 27 (regiment/service) DE.S (regiment/service)
- Keywords: training, German naval - specialist: submarine (object name) operations, German naval - sortie: submarine (object name) ships, German naval - submarine: Type IX (object name) aircraft, German - combat: Junkers Ju 88 (object name) casualties, Russian dead - civilian (object name) supplies, German, movement [FA] - misc (object name) aircraft, German - combat: Heinkel He 111 (object name) combat, German: air-raid (object name) weapons, German - rocket: Nebelwerfer (object name) armour, German - tank: Pzkpfw IV (object name) armour, German - halftrack: Sdkfz 251/8 (object name) casualties, German wounded - battlefield (object name) casualties, Russian dead - battlefield (object name) armour, Russian - tank: T-34 & [wrecked] (object name) weapons, Russian - rocket: Katyusha & [captured] (object name) combat, Russian: air-raid [I] (object name) Russia & Vinnitsa (geography) Russia & Orel area (geography) Russia & Kursk area (geography) Russia & Kursk area (geography) Russia & Kursk area (geography) Russia & Bjelgorod area (geography)
- Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: German Title language: None Subtitle language: None
- Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 3 Footage: 1724 ft; Running time: 18 mins
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