DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 744-745 [Main Title]

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  • Title: DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 744-745 [Main Title]
  • Film Number: GWY 243
  • Other titles: DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 1944/51-52 [Alternative Title]
  • Summary:
  • Description: I. Apprentice train drivers for Reichsbahn. In order to guarantee sufficient engine drivers Reichsbahn has introduced new scheme whereby selected boys can be apprenticed for six or seven years. Youths learn theory and practice of operating locomotives, first by dismantling engine in workshop for repair and then by joining engine driver on footplate on trial run. II. Woman stationmaster in Austria. Women have long since taken over men's jobs on railways, as at station at Tulln outside Vienna where girl wearing RBD Wien (Reichsbahndirektion) arm badge operates signal display board, helps passenger by lifting her child through the window of train on Vienna-Tulln-Gmünd line, then signals departure with old customary punctuality. III. Manufacture and use of artificial limbs for wounded. Craftsmen manufacture wooden hands and legs to give mobility to servicemen with amputated limbs. Wounded demonstrate agility by playing ballgames, running and cycling with wooden legs. Artificial limbs enable even amputees with active jobs to move easily, as demonstrated by soldier in uniform with Tyrolean comrade standing near Kufstein (?) Castle, then effortlessly descending mountainside. IV. Hitler Youth riding tests. Members of the Hitlerjugend parade in snow beside their horses at Hirschberg (Austria), then demonstrate riding and jumping skills to qualify for award of SA Riding Certificate. Close-up shows that awarded to Werner Exner (born 9 June 1931 in Zetterthal) on 17 November 1944. V. Generalfeldmarschall von Mackensen celebrates 95th birthday. Von Mackensen in his Great War uniform stands indoors (at his property Gut Brüssow near Prenzlau in the Uckermark) and receives birthday congratulations from Führer conveyed by Generalfeldmarschall Keitel, who also hands over Feldmarschall von Mackensen cuffband, now to be worn as special honour by Army Kavallerie Regiment 5, of which he is honorary commander. Great War soldier, looking very vigorous, shakes hands with Keitel. VI. Hitler receives new Hungarian leader Szálasi in Berlin. Hitler walks beside Arrow Cross leader and Hungarian Premier Szálasi, followed by von Ribbentrop and his Hungarian counterpart Baron Keményi, the new Hungarian Ambassador to Berlin Mecser and tall Dr Edmund Veesenmayer, German Minister to Hungary, during meeting at Reichs Chancellory, where political, military and economic cooperation was discussed and the determination was expressed to continue the fight and to create conditions necessary for victory. Hitler, with Keitel in the background, shakes hands with Baron Keményi and other members of the Hungarian delegation, who include Minister of War General Beregffy. VII. German Navy's Danube Flotilla defends Budapest against air attack. Animated map of Hungary, Rumania and Yugoslavia. Anti-aircraft artillery ferry and heavily armed patrol boat set out in wintry fog on Danube, as camera pans from dome of Parliament to River and Erszebet suspension bridge. Flak ferry, equipped with radar mast, opens fire against Stormoviks overhead, creating black puffs of exploding shells and reportedly preventing Russians from aiming accurately. VIII. Germans counterattack on Courland Front. Animated map of Eastern Front from Tilsit to Cracow. Eight Bolshevik armies in Courland and East Prussia have reportedly suffered huge losses. Grenadiers stand on defensive in trench fitted with duckboards against water; Nebelwerfers fire and grenadiers advance supported by StuG IIIs (with armoured skirts), which move forward firing across open plain. Other grenadiers climb out of frontline trench filled with mud and advance behind flamethrower tank. Commentary remarks that great risks demand great sacrifices, as soldiers unceremoniously drag in on a shroud a fallen comrade. Another casualty is lifted onto a StuG IV, the scene filmed from trench unobserved. StuG IIIs fire and move forward, feet trudge through mud, another StuG III with partially dislodged armoured skirts opens fire and a soldier clears a ditch using a flamethrower. IX. Germans flood Arnhem-Nijmegen area. Animated map of Western Front from Amsterdam to Stolberg. Landscape lies flooded over wide area after Germans blew up dykes containing River Waal, reportedly forcing British to seek safety in high-lying villages. German motorcycle combination passes by and flood waters surge past. X. Germans defend Western Front against enemy advance. Waffen-SS Brigadeführer Harmel, holder of Oak Leaves to Knights Cross and commander of 10th SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg, who has personally stabilised the front, emerges from building, climbs onto Sdkfz 251 and heads for command post at front. Camera in same halftrack records passage through battered town past Konditorei J Schroeder until journey is halted by enemy fighter attack. Harmel, having exchanged his peaked cap for helmet, climbs off Sdkfz 251 and takes cover with his comrades in building. Waffen SS soldier caught in open demonstrates correct procedure for racing in short bursts over open ground before crouching to take cover; another carries a Panzerfaust. German positions on edge of River Roer. Artillery shells are brought forward for 9th SS-Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen and guns open fire on Geilenkirchen (taken by US 9th Army on 19 November); men wait in trenches, ready to attack or defend. Two long columns of Pzkpfw VI Königstiger (Panzer-Abteilung 503) and Pzkpfw V tanks line either side of forest road facing opposite directions. More Pzkpfw VI Königstiger tanks drive past, shovelling gear and Zimmerit anti-magnetic finish clearly visible. Sdkfz 138/1 opens fire and Sdkfz 251 races forward along road. Flamethrower tank casts ca 300 metre flame across horizon in order to clear enemy breakthrough; German soldier is bandaged and another fires Panzerfaust (very clear); signal flare is fired at start of German counterattack, with infantry advancing and soldier crouching ready with flamethrower. Commentary declares that every day the individual infantryman tests his courage and hurls his heart against the enemy, over climactic action.
  • Alternative Title: DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 1944/51-52 [Alternative Title]
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: GWY 243
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: IWM-GERMAN Attribution: IWM – GWY 243
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1944-12-14
  • Production Country: Germany
  • Production Details: UFA (Production company)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Exner, Werner (person) Mackensen, August von (person) Keitel, Wilhelm Bodewin Gustav (person) Hitler, Adolf (person) Ribbentrop, Joachim von (person) Szalasi, Ferenc (person) Veesenmayer, Edmund (person) Keitel, Wilhelm Bodewin Gustav (person) Beregffy (General) (person) Kemenyi (Baron) (person) Harmel, Heinz (person) Hitler-jugend (regiment/service) Reichsbahn (regiment/service) SA (regiment/service) German Army, Kavallerie Regiment 5 (regiment/service) Hungarian Arrow Cross (regiment/service) German War Navy, Danube Flotilla (regiment/service) German Army, Panzer-Abteilung 503 (regiment/service) German SS Panzer Division 9 & Hohenstaufen (regiment/service) German SS Panzer Division 10 & Frundsberg (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: transport, German civilian - rail: apprentice drivers (object name) society, German - education: engine drivers (object name) transport, Austrian civilian - rail (object name) training, German - specialist: riding (object name) animals, mammals: horse (object name) medical, German military - long term: artificial limbs (object name) industry, German - craft: artificial limbs (object name) celebrations, German - event-related: Birthday of von Mackensen, 95th (object name) delegations, Hungarian international - state (object name) ships, German naval - anti-aircraft: Artillerie Fährprähme (object name) casualties, German wounded - battlefield (object name) weapons, German - CBW: flamethrower (object name) armour, German - funnies: tank (object name) armour, German - SPG: StuG IV (object name) armour, German - SPG: StuG III (object name) casualties, German dead - battlefield (object name) weapons, German - gun: (object name) demolition, German - denial: flooding (object name) armour, German - tank: Pzkpfw VI Königstiger (object name) armour, German - tank: Pzkpfw V (object name) armour, German - funnies: flamethrower (object name) weapons, German - rocket [AT]: Panzerschreck (object name) weapons, German - projector [AT]: Panzerfaust (object name) Austria & Tulln, Lower Austria <railway station> (geography) Germany & Tulln, Lower Austria <railway station> (geography) Austria & Kufstein, Tyrol <Kufstein Castle ?> (geography) Germany & Kufstein, Tyrol <Kufstein Castle ?> (geography) Austria & Hirschberg, Vorarlberg (geography) Germany & Hirschberg, Vorarlberg (geography) Germany & Prenzlau, Brandenburg <Gut Brussow> (geography) Germany & Berlin, Berlin <Reichs Chancellory> (geography) Hungary & Budapest (geography) Russia & Courland, Latvia (geography) Netherlands & Waal (River) (geography) Germany & Geilenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia (geography) (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: 1087 ft; Running time: 12 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    GWY 243

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