DIE DEUTSCHE WOCHENSCHAU NR 753 [Main Title]

I. Octogenarian Swedish explorer Sven Hedin receives German ambassador. Hedin, a great friend of the German people who has just celebrated his eightieth birthday, looks at a map in his study before receiving a visit from German Ambassador Thomas who conveys the congratulations of the German nation.

II. Konstantin Hierl visits searchlight battery and presents medals. Septuagenarian Reichsarbeitsdienst leader, reportedly honoured by the Führer with Germany's highest award, visits a searchlight battery operated by RAD girls in Luftwaffe uniform beside a predictor. Elsewhere, as snow falls, Hierl presents Knights Cross to an RAD leader for distinguished service on the front. Comrade wears flak and wounded badges.

III. Shot down Oberst Rudel speaks encouragingly from hospital. Lying in bed in Luftwaffe hospital Stuka ace speaks live in turn to his doctor, wife Ursula and Deutsche Wochenschau correspondent about his eagerness to get back into action as soon as his rapid recovery allows, how he was wounded in the leg by flak as he attacked a Russian "Stalin" tank and how he misses not being with his comrades and Geschwader. Speaking direct to camera Rudel urges everyone to clench their teeth and accept sacrifice so that at the very end "this people which has fought so bravely and striven so hard can win final victory". Commentator asserts that this brave people will go clenching their teeth.

IV. Berlin Volkssturm prepare city's defences. Following call-up into the People's Army, Berlin women and elderly men wearing Volkssturm armbands build street barricades and smile as they pass bricks along a human chain. Girls load rubble from bombed buildings into carts and a wrecked tram with Berlin bear symbol is made into a barricade. Crane digger and many shovels create deep anti-tank ditch. Commentary pronounces that Berliners are ready to defend every house and every street with as much courage and dedication (Fanatismus) as their most sacred possession.

V. Snorkel-fitted U-boat demonstrates new equipment. Type VII U-boat raises its snorkel within sight of ship and land, then submerges slowly before surfacing. Stock shot film shows commander at periscope sighting convoy and blazing and sinking ships. Commentary claims that snorkel-fitted U-boats have torpedoed over half a million tons of enemy shipping in the past three months, excluding a high tally of enemy naval vessels.

VI. Germans counter-attack near Jülich. Animated map of Dutch-German border area. Reserves armed with Panzerfausts and seated on Sdkfz 251 move through village in order to cut off a breakthrough on the Western Front, where British, Canadian and American forces have moved onto the offensive. Paratrooper keeps watch over the Roer. 12cm GrW 42 mortar sited in ruins fires and soldiers rush forward across railway tracks near Jülich to counter-attack. Soldiers move along muddy trenches. Close-ups of two determined-looking soldiers with stubbly chins.

VII. Survivors of break-out from Budapest reach rest point. Animated map of Central Europe. First pictures of soldiers who have fought their way through to the German lines west of Budapest suggest the severity of their heroic struggle. Sdkfz 251 bearing soldiers who look exhausted moves through snow-covered village. Beside sign "Waffen SS refreshment point for rearguard fighters from Budapest" soldiers, including one wearing collar patch of 22nd SS-Freiwilligen-Kavallerie-Division Maria Theresia, help each other down from transport and receive food and drink. Sign indicates frontline is 400 metres distant. Bearded soldiers in variety of battle dress smile encouragingly and depart by truck.

VIII. German grenadiers move up to the Silesian battle front. Soldiers armed with Panzerfausts move along road made muddy by thaw, past sign indicating Ratibor as 6 kilometres distant. Commanding general of Breslau Fortress watches a Reichsarbeitsdienst crew fire a 8.8cm flak as a ground weapon and a ball of flame rises on the horizon. General gives box of cigarettes to smiling soldier.

IX. Russian atrocities in recaptured German village. Shattered Russian armour and truck with Cyrillic script loaded with clothing looted from the German population introduce item which states that atrocities committed by Bolshevik soldiers are too atrocious for everything taken by the camera to be shown. Victims of these murderous beasts include an old man shot in the back of the neck, male and female corpses shrouded, terrified women recounting their days of indescribable horror at the hands of the brutish hordes, a dead old woman and another murdered woman lying on her back with her legs splayed. Ransacked rooms with upturned and smashed furniture suggest the rapacious greed of the Soviets.

X. Heroic acts of defence by individual German men and women. View of the bridge at Fürstenberg (over the River Havel, north of Berlin ?) after its demolition by Sapper Justus Jürgensen, who reportedly risked his life blowing it up. Elsewhere auxiliary woman signaller Erna Hirsekorn (newspaper clipping) stands wearing the Iron Cross, posing with members of the Hitler Youth with whom she defended a village.

XI. Goebbels inspects Frankfurt an der Oder defences. View of city across the Oder. Goebbels with General Busse walk together in indeterminate area. Machine gun positions along the Oder fire, while infantry and artillery are in position along a railway embankment in the same area.

XII. Supplies head for the front, where German and Russian armour is engaged. Train loaded with armour and trucks, and with smiling SS Knights Cross holder on board, passes by. Soldiers armed with Panzerfausts and Raketenpanzerbüschen climb down from trucks. German armour and machine guns open fire against a locally limited Soviet armoured breakthrough. Scene shows resulting knocked out Russian tanks, including a Sherman, and a dead Russian. Soviets reportedly attempt to flee, but German shells leave a T-34 without its turret and another burning. Close-ups of SS and Army soldiers smiling and smoking personify the toughness and determination with which the German soldier is throwing himself against the enemy on all fronts.

35mm