Invasion of the USSR
Creator(s)
- George R. Wheeler
Scope and Content
German soldiers on horseback and in vehicles on a dusty road, moving east, on the march toward Schaulen (Siauliai). The camera focuses on one soldier who has his foot soaking in a bucket, riding on a horse-drawn cart. The music is upbeat and slightly comical. Three soldiers carry radio or telephone equipment between them as they walk. The music changes as the soldiers engage the enemy with automatic weapons and rifles. A few Soviet soldiers, with their hands in the air, surrender to the Germans. More fighting, surrender, burning vehicles. Close-ups of POWs, including one woman, described by the narrator as a "Flintenweib," or female partisan. Many of the POWs are Asian. More POWs marching; as a result of the "double battle" of Bialystok and Minsk, says the narrator, almost 350,000 POWs were captured. He goes on to list numbers of tanks airplanes, and other weapons destroyed or damaged, as we see destroyed vehicles on the road. Close-ups of one of the largest Soviet tanks, also destroyed. Destroyed planes on an airfield.
Note(s)
Original film canisters located in Museum offsite storage. EITHER DW 566/29/1941 OR DW 567/30/1941. Donor of the collection had no information as to the copyright status. The numbers found in the "Source Archive #" field of the USHMM database are the original German newsreel numbers and production dates, as found in Bucher, Peter. "Wochenschauen und Dokumentarfilme 1895-1950 im Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv" Koblenz: Bundesarchiv, 1984.
Subjects
- FIRES
- SURRENDER
- HORSES
- MARCHING
- AIRPORTS
- WOMEN
- AIRPLANES
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY (GERMAN)
- DESTRUCTION
- SOVIET UNION
- CARTS/WAGONS
- TANKS
- BATTLES
- FIGHTING
- POWS (SOVIET)
Places
- Siauliai region, Lithuania
- Bialystok, Poland
- Minsk, Soviet Union
Genre
- Newsreels.
- Film