In this 1955 episode (TV-326) of the television series The Big Picture, viewers get a glimpse of life in West Germany for the 7th Army’s 2nd Armored Division. Sgt. Stewart Queen speaks to camera about U.S. Army strength in Europe. Army men walk off a ship in Europe and load into transport trucks. There are several shots of central Germany’s cities, severely damaged from the fighting during World War II (02:22). A quick montage of footage of German industries shows the effectiveness of the Marshall Plan. Viewers see West Germany’s Parliament, but they also see people walking past still-ruined buildings, and refugees from East Germany pulling carts as they are allowed into West Germany. Men load supplies during the Berlin airlift. Soviet tanks and troops participate in a military parade. A Soviet crew operate a submarine (04:54). Two men from the 7th Army arrive in Bad Kreuznach and get into a jeep for the headquarters of the 2nd Armored Division. The Privates get their gear at headquarters (05:50), then are taken to their tanks. Men work on the tanks, and one soldier cleans his .45 handgun. The film shows an apartment in a military housing building, women shopping at the Quartermaster’s store on the base (08:07), and a German bride preparing to wed an American soldier. Several soldiers go sight-seeing throughout Germany and take in famous buildings and hamlets. People celebrate a festival in the streets (09:55). The episode shows several men walking through an art museum, the Crag Church (Felsenkirche) at Idar-Oberstein (10:27), and U.S. servicemen playing classical German music for an audience (11:14). An Army baseball team competes against a German team (12:15), and some Americans relax at an Army retreat in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (12:36). Men of the 2nd Armored Division prepare their tank for a training maneuver (13:35). The division leaves the base, and the tanks roll through a German town where young kids wave. Army trucks haul massive 280-mm guns to the maneuver zone (15:38). Honest John rockets are towed to zone as well. The troops arrive in the field for the maneuver training and set up camp (16:38). The exercise begins with the launch of an Honest John rocket, simulating an atomic and conventional warfare scenario. Men load a shell into the 280-mm gun and fire. Tanks move into position, and regular artillery guns are fired at the ruins of the abandoned town of Schwaneberg. Personnel carriers drop off infantry (21:35), and the men follow the tanks into the town (22:36). Soldiers fire machine guns and climb over the rubble of the town. Soldiers sweep through capture the “enemy” soldiers (24:47). Men sit for a debriefing of the maneuver. Then the division moves their tanks into a river to clean the machines. The episode closes with Sgt. Stewart Queen speaking to camera.
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