The Battle of Russia
1943 · National Archives and Records Administration (via FedFlix)
Finding US Government work
The record names a federal body as the creating agency: Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Chief Signal Officer. A work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person's official duties has no US copyright (17 U.S.C. 105; before 1978, section 8 of the 1909 Act).
The record names a federal body as the creating agency. A work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person's official duties has no US copyright (17 U.S.C. 105; before 1978, section 8 of the 1909 Act). This says nothing about copyright outside the United States, or about music, stock footage or other material the film may incorporate.
- Creating body, as recorded
- Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Chief Signal Officer
- National Archives Identifier
- 36071 (local identifier 111-OF-5)
- Internet Archive item
- gov.archives.arc.36071 (uploader's licence mark: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
The record
The Internet Archive item's description, as transcribed by the uploader from the source archive's record. Check it against the National Archives catalog entry linked above.
Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Chief Signal Officer. (09/18/1947 - 02/28/1964) ARC Identifier 36071 / Local Identifier 111-OF-5 1943 The Battle of Russia This motion picture film examines the war in Russia, 1941-1943. Reel 1 dramatizes Russia's military history. Alexander Nevsky defeats the German knights in 1242. The Swedes are defeated in 1704 in a cavalry battle at Poltava. French troops retreat from Moscow in 1812. Kaiser Wilhelm inspects troops on the Eastern front in 1917. Reel 2 shows mine operations, agricultural scenes, oil fields, and manufacturing scenes. People of many ethnic groups present native dances. Civilian and military units parade in Moscow. Maksim Litvinoff asks the League of Nations to aid Ethiopia in 1935. Reel 3 maps Axis expansion into eastern Europe. Hungarian, Rumanian, and Bulgarian troops parade prior to Nazi occupation. Footage shows puppet leaders Admiral Miklos von Nagybanya Horthy, General Ion Antonescu, King Michael of Romania and King Boris of Bulgaria. Adolf Hitler and Generals Wilheim Keitel and Alfred Jodl meet. Nazis march through Hungarian cities. Yugoslavian cities are bombed and Greece is occupied. Tanks roll from Russian assembly lines and troops are inducted. German panzer divisions invade Russia in June 1941. Reel 4 maps the German advance in 1941 and analyzes Russian strategy. Hitler makes a victory speech in October. Footage shows intense street fighting in Sevastopol. Russians of all ages are mobilized. In Reel 5, houses, factories, and a large dam in the Ukraine are burned or dynamited before the advancing Nazis. Guerilla units draw arms and then dynamite Nazi installations. Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, and other leaders pose. Red troops parade in Moscow in Dec. 1941. In Reel 6, citizens pray in churches on Christmas Day. Russian tanks, cavalry units, and ski troops advance beneath air support. Villages are liberated and refugees return. In Reel 7, dead and tortured Russian civilians are found. Footage shows prewar Leningrad. Barricades are erected. The city is intensively bombed. In Reel 8, the city is besieged. Women remove rubble from streets. Defenses are manned. Food is rationed. Shell manufacture continues. Supplies are brought in by truck, tractor, and railroad across frozen Lake Ladoga. Winter snows blanket the city. Nazi planes bomb trucks on the lake. The spring thaw arrives. Children play in the sunshine. German prisoners enter the city. Reel 9 maps the battle for the Caucasus and the Crimea. Stalingrad is bombarded from the air by artillery and house-to-house fighting is shown. Reel 10 maps the Russian encirclement of Nazis at Stalingrad. Marshal Nikolai Voronoff confers with his aides. The encircling Red armies meet in Dec. 1942. Flamethrowers, rockets, and artillery are used to force the surrender of remnants of 22 Nazi divisions. The final scene maps Russian gains and cites statistics on Nazi losses thus far in the campaign. DVD Copied by Tim Vollmer.