Summary: Record film of Krupp factories in Essen devastated by bombing.
Description: Film shows the extensive devastation to the industrial and administrative buildings of Essen caused by repeated RAF bombing raids. Industrial production appears to have been brought to a standstill although smoke issues from a few factory chimneys and a goods train passes by on the Krupp interplant transportation network. Civilians wrapped up against the cold pass wintry trees. A truck for clearing rubble passes and a small motorcade of uniformed servicemen and civilians, including the hatted Dr Müller sitting in the back seat of the first car, prepares to move off watched by workers standing nearby. Exteriors of the Krupp factories appear to have suffered more extensive damage than do the machines which lie inside the roofless structures. Identifiable sites include the damaged locomotive shed with twisted girders, the gasholder with tower (still standing at the end of the war) and the firing ground where various guns, including a 17cm Kanone and Russian 152mm howitzer in the background, lie covered in rubble. Firemen play hoses on a smouldering coal heap although in general the footage, which includes ground level and high angle shots, does not give the appearance of having been shot in the immediate aftermath of a raid.
