DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 736 [Main Title]

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  • Title: DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 736 [Main Title]
  • Film Number: GWY 236
  • Other titles: DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 1944/43 [Alternative Title]
  • Summary:
  • Description: I. German miners build defences. Film of miners at end of day's shift dropping their lamps and taking up shovels to dig trenches voluntarily are evidence of Germany's great strength. Large mass of material for construction of defensive positions is unloaded from train and enables miners to build two-man bunker. II. German officials in Poland dig anti-tank ditch. In Government General offices stand empty on Sunday. Officials from lowest clerk to top general lay down their uniform jackets and regardless of rank spend day digging anti-tank ditch. III. German Navy evacuates Estonian refugees. Animated map of Eastern Front from Narva to Warsaw. Estonian women and children are helped aboard German steamer in port (Tallinn ?; last German convoy leaves on 23 September), forming part of convoy protected offshore by German Navy units, including destroyers and Prinz Eugen On board warship old woman shakes hand of Vizeadmiral Thiele in gratitude, for inhabitants of Baltic states have already had enough experience of the horrors of Bolshevism. IV. Latvians join up as Luftwaffe auxiliaries. Young Latvian men who have volunteered to serve with the German forces stand on parade ground beneath Latvian flag with airmen of the Luftwaffe, into which they will be sworn as auxiliaries. Recruits wearing Luftwaffe uniforms with Latvian arm badges march past Luftwaffe officer and Latvian civilian leader. V. Focke-Wulf Fw 190s bomb Russians on Eastern Front. Fw 190s have been successful in German counterattacks and are seen taking off, flying in formation, releasing four bombs in distance, crossing coast and (brief sequence) then attacking troops and transport on road. VI. Germans destroy Soviet bridgehead in Courland. In morning mist, and with sun low in sky, troops with guns move across the Courland plain. Soviets have like Anglo-Americans suffered heavy losses in armour; StuG IIIs and StuG IV move into position, with grenadiers armed with Panzerfaust and MP 40 waiting in trench; StuG III fires and Russian T-34 blazes. Another T-34 races along road throwing up dust and escaping destruction; soldier in left foreground (training film) fires Panzerfaust at stationary T-34, which explodes in flames. Grenadiers observe effect of their Panzerfaust weapons on wrecked SU-85 and T-34. VII. Stukas dive-bomb building in Warsaw Uprising. Warsaw Uprising is reportedly now broken, as Ju 87s dive-bomb large housing block on horizon, described as one of strongest resistance points. (End of Reel 1) VIII. German forces retake Lunéville. Animated map of Western Front from Arnhem to Belfort. Germans have reportedly held their positions and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. In Lunéville area camouflaged Pzkpfw V with grenadiers on top moves forward; grenadiers advance to clear wood, as camera pans from troops to Pzkpfw V with anti-magnetic Zimmerit finish. General von Manteuffel stands looking at map with officer wearing Knights Cross at briefing before counterattack begins; Pzkpfw Vs advance with infantry across open field, and success is suggested by film of captured American halftracks, Germans seated in captured jeep and smoking cigarettes and US prisoners being brought in. Artillery opens fire and in hard fighting infantry clear enemy nests from blazing town of Lunéville. IX. Goebbels visits Generalfeldmarschall Model on Western Front. Goebbels arrives by car at headquarters of the commander of the Army West for review of situation at front, which is threatened by enemy. Minister then emerges from building with Model and departs in open saloon. X. Goebbels addresses armaments workers in Cologne. Three wall posters (script only) predict final German victory. Later, on same day as visit to Model, Goebbels speaks live to a thousand workers assembled in swastika bedecked hall, beside SA banner Köln (presumed location): "enemy will learn in months to come that there is a difference between occupying Paris and Bucharest to Cologne and Königsberg. Preparations for Reich's defence have been feverishly made in recent weeks. Do not have any illusion that it is better to live under the Anglo-Americans than under the Bolsheviks". (Voice modulates so widely that parts of speech are scarcely audible.) Figures in audience include Gauleiter Grohé of Cologne-Aachen. Goebbels concludes that as representative of the People and as a native Rheinlander "we shall never give up this land and that we shall defend it like a fortress to the last breath". Over massive parade of Pzkpfw VIs, with anti-magnetic Zimmerit finish and camouflage paint clearly visible (schwere Panzer-Abteilung 503 at Sennelager/Paderborn ), commentary declares "that is the Königstiger, created for the last decisive battle", as patriotic Rhineland song "Vater Rhein" is heard on track.
  • Alternative Title: DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 1944/43 [Alternative Title]
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised: No
  • Object_Number: GWY 236
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: IWM-GERMAN Attribution: IWM – GWY 236
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1944-10-11
  • Production Country: Germany
  • Production Details: UFA (Production company) Frickhöffer (Production individual) Jensen (Production individual) Kröner (Production individual) Kubesch (Production individual) Schneider, Wolf (Production individual) Stoitzner (Production individual) Stüxfc;rmer (Production individual) Walkenberg (Production individual) Zeplin (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Thiele, August (person) Manteuffel, Hasso von (person) Goebbels, Paul Joseph (person) Model, Walther (person) Goebbels, Paul Joseph (person) Grohe, Joseph (person) German War Navy, Prinz Eugen (regiment/service) German Air Force, Latvian Auxiliary Unit (regiment/service) German Army, Panzer-Abteilung 503 (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: defences, German - emplacement (object name) industry, German - primary: mining (object name) defences, German - emplacement (object name) administration, German - occupation: Poland (object name) refugees, Estonian - flight (object name) ships, German naval - cruiser: Prinz Eugen (object name) recruitment, Latvian (object name) aircraft, German - combat: Focke-Wulf Fw 190 (object name) weapons, German - rocket [AT]: Panzerfaust (object name) armour, Russian - tank: T-34 (object name) weapons, German - smallarm: 9mm MP 40 (object name) aircraft, German - combat: Junkers Ju 87 Stuka (object name) armour, German - tank: Pzkpfw V (object name) transport, United States military - utility: jeep & [captured] (object name) industry, German - munitions (object name) arts, German - music: Vater Rhein (object name) armour, German - tank: Pzkpfw VI Ausf B (object name) Germany & Ruhr area, North Rhine-Westphalia (geography) Poland (geography) Russia & Tallinn, Estonia (geography) Russia & Latvia (geography) Russia & <Eastern Front> (geography) Russia & Courland, Latvia (geography) Warsaw, Poland (geography) Lunéville, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France (geography) Germany & <Western Front> (geography) Germany & Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia (geography) half-light (concept)
  • 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: 2 Footage: 1173 ft; Running time: 13 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    GWY 236

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