Made for the home market in Germany during WWII, and sold in department stores, this silent newsreel shows scenes from the Heer’s campaign in the Balkans / Yugoslavia. The film begins with shots of German panzer tanks on the move on mountain roads. At :59, Stuka dive bomber crews scramble into the air. At 1:17, a telephone linesman moves across a shattered bridge, laying down a vital communications cable. At 1:44, a German general, probably Field Marshall Maximilian von Weichs, is shown studying a map. At 2:09, German troops use a Flammenwerfer 35, or FmW 35 (flame thrower). At 2:19, soldiers advance through barbed wire. At 2:43 a flak gun or anti-aircraft gun crosses a stream. It appears to be an SdKfz 10/4 half-track with 20mm flak gun. Other vehicles move across the stream followed by infantry. At 3:21, the Wehrmacht enters Belgrade. The film concludes with images of German armor and infantry pushing relentlessly onward past anti-tank traps and towards the next target: Greece.
The Balkan Campaign began with the Italian invasion of Greece on 28 October 1940, but the campaign stalled by the early months of 1941. Germany deployed troops to Romania and Bulgaria, to aid the beleaguered Italian forces. A coup d’état in Yugoslavia on 27 March caused Hitler to order an invasion, which began on 6 April. By 17 April the Yugoslavs had collapsed and signed an armistice, and by the end of April all of mainland Greece was under German or Italian control. Bulgarian forces then became an occupation force in parts of both Yugoslavia and Greece.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
