DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 742-743 [Main Title]

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  • Title: DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 742-743 [Main Title]
  • Film Number: GWY 242
  • Other titles: DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 1944/49-50 [Alternative Title]
  • Summary:
  • Description: I. Magicians entertain wounded German servicemen. Members of the Magic Circle Magicians Club, some in uniform, gather together to demonstrate and exchange new tricks (live sound). Magicians then entertain hospital patients, many in uniform. II. Convalescent soldier hero voluntarily returns to work. Non-commissioned officer Otto Rodewald, who destroyed five Soviet tanks in three-quarters of an hour using a Panzerschreck and was wounded by explosion on sixth attempt, has belly bandaged at hospital back in Germany. Exemplary Rodewald, wearing Knights Cross on his uniform, arrives with identity card outside munitions factory to work at his former profession as designer at drawing board while still convalescing. III. Reichsarbeitsdienst takes over military training. Experienced officers of RAD, which is now responsible for part of military training, instruct new military recruits in front of map outdoors. Men then march through country to training area for instruction via model battlefield and fire from trenches at model scale tank and learn art of camouflage and detection of enemy. Feldmeister Herz, holder of Knights Cross, ends instruction with briefing. IV. German Navy frogmen destroy Waal bridge at Nijmegen. Frogmen, representing new type of soldier who combines courage and endurance of soldier with skill and persistence of athlete, are given medical check-up before action against enemy bridges. Four members of Petty Officer Radio Operator Brettschneider's Group don woollens, diving suits and oxygen masts before going down to water's edge and submerging. Under cover of moonlight on 28 September men reportedly destroy supply bridge over Waal; night explosion, then daylight reveals distant fallen bridge. V. German Navy escorts Courland convoy and bombards Russian positions. Animated map of Eastern Front from Tilsit to Cracow. Supplies for the Courland Front are loaded aboard cargo vessel in Baltic port, then camera pans over convoy ready to sail under protection of naval units. At sea and on board large warship (Prinz Eugen ?) Admiral Scheer and Lützow sail in line ahead, with destroyer screen on horizon. Broadside view of these two heavy cruisers in distance, with Lützow in foreground and destroyer on horizon. Shells are passed along deck of large warship. Camera pans broadside of Admiral Hipper (training ship at this period). Portside guns of Lützow open fire against Russian shore positions and supply roads. Commander of torpedo boat equipped with radar mast stands with binoculars (possibly commander of 3rd Torpedo Boat Flotilla Korvettenkapitän Verlohr). Night firing and signalling. Torpedo boats in line astern include T-13, with radar mast visible. (Prinz Eugen, Admiral Scheer, Lützow and T-13 all took part in evacuation of German forces from Sworbe Peninsula on 23-24 November; Lützow film may be from bombardment of Russian positions at Memel on 6-13, 23-24 October; Admiral Hipper film is extraneous to these Baltic operations.) VI. German fortress port on French coast is bombed. Animated map of French coast with Walcheren, Dunkirk, Lorient and St Nazaire marked. Heroic fight of these German strongpoints is indicated by flak firing against Anglo-American planes overhead which form vapour trails and enemy bombs dropping very close to coastal convoy, filmed from cliff. Plane explodes in air and descends earthwards over town; French rescue workers stand near scene of burning devastation and a paint-camouflaged German ambulance passes blaze. Black smoke rises over town, in vicinity of oil storage tank. Elsewhere Lockheed Lightning lies beached on shore; names painted on fuselage indicate Captain L E Aubrey (Pilot), Crew Chief Schoenbeck and Assistant Christensen. VII. German forces defend Western Front. Offensive which Allies expected to be Blitzkrieg is now a meter by meter fight for German soil. German troops on bicycles move along muddy road; others are armed with Panzerschrecks. German artillery opens fire and grenadiers rush forward, filmed from cover of slit trench. Six Nebelwerfers fire, creating explosions in distance and wafting autumnal leaves in foreground into air. Grenadiers advance to repel push by enemy tanks; two load and fire Panzerschreck (summer foliage). VIII. Wintry battle conditions in the Vosges Mountains. As snow falls in the Vosges, Sturmpanzer IV moves through woods. Commander of one Sturmpanzer IV unit exemplifies incomparable heroism of individual German soldiers as he limps with aid of stick, having suffered seventeen wounds in recent months, towards one of his guns which opens fire, causing explosions in snow. Knocked out M10. German troops in snow camouflage uniform move through heavy snow; camera focuses on MP 40s and individual faces, then pans over snow-covered hills, as commentary states that the enemy knows that Germany has won the battle in the first round for time and therefore eventual victory.
  • Alternative Title: DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 1944/49-50 [Alternative Title]
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised: No
  • Object_Number: GWY 242
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: IWM-GERMAN Attribution: IWM – GWY 242
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1944-11-30
  • Production Country: Germany
  • Production Details: UFA (Production company)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Rodewald, Otto (person) Herz (Feldmeister) (person) Brettschneider (Funkmaat) (person) MagicCircle (regiment/service) Reichsarbeitsdienst (regiment/service) German War Navy, Midget Operations Unit (regiment/service) German War Navy, Admiral Hipper (regiment/service) German War Navy, T-13 (regiment/service) German War Navy, Lutzow (regiment/service) German War Navy, Admiral Scheer (regiment/service) Air Raid Protection, France (regiment/service) German Army (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: medical, German civilian - hospital (object name) recreation, German military - theatre: magic (object name) medical, German military - long term (object name) industry, German - munitions (object name) weapons, German - rocket [AT]: Panzerschreck (object name) training, German - combat: infantry (object name) medical, German military - preventative: check-up (object name) operations, German naval - mines: frogmen (object name) ships, German naval - cruiser: Admiral Hipper (object name) ships, German naval - battleship: Lützow (object name) ships, German naval - battleship: Admiral Scheer (object name) ships, German naval - escort: torpedo boat T-13 (object name) supplies, German, movement [RA] - munitions (object name) equipment, German naval - surveillance: radar (object name) aircraft, United States - combat: Lockheed P-38 Lightning & [captured] (object name) transport, German military - ambulance (object name) weapons, German - rocket: Nebelwerfer (object name) weapons, German - rocket [AT]: Panzerschreck (object name) armour, German - SPG: Sturmpanzer IV (object name) armour, United States - SPG: M10 & [wrecked] (object name) casualties, German wounded - battlefield (object name) operations, German military - sortie (object name) Netherlands & Nijmegen, G (geography) Russia & Courland, Latvia (geography) France (geography) Germany & <Western Front> (geography) Vosges (Mountains), France (geography) Autumn (concept) Winter (concept)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: German Title language: German Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 1170 ft; Running time: 13 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    GWY 242

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