Made in 1941 and sold to the home market in Germany on 16mm film, this silent newsreel — one of a series extracted from newsreels shown in theaters — is entitled “Europe’s fight against Bolshevism Part II: A continent marching.” The film shows the German drive on Minsk in the Soviet Union, a high point in the war on the Eastern Front for the German Army and a moment when the Soviets appeared on the brink of collapse. The film begins with images from previous German victories in Belgium (:23), Denmark (:27), Holland (:33) and France (:38), and also shows Fascist forces victorious in Spain (:43) where volunteers are seen joining up to fight against the Bolsheviks. At :54 Mussolini is seen saluting his troops, and a :58 Romanian forces are shown on the march,and at 5:10 Czech forces and Croatians. At 1:27 a German Storch reconnaissance aircraft is shown taking off and at :48 its precious film is dried on a drum. At 1:56 the German advance East is shown with German troops advancing with tanks and machine guns. At 2:38 German horses are seen on the move as the army pushes towards Riga. At 2:50 German troops use small boats to cross a river where the bridge has been destroyed.At 3:09 what might be Riga is shown in ruins. At 3:16 the map shows Lemberg — Lviv in Poland — with German trucks and motorcycles advancing along a sandy road. At 3:43 armies converge at Minsk. Interesting details are seen throughout the film, including Wehrmacht troops riding bicycles into combat at 3:53. At 3:58 a Panzer fires across a field. At 4:07 Soviets surrender to the Germans while motorcycle troops advance at 4:20. At 4:24 a horse rests while a soldier eats out of a can. At 4:44 German trucks rumble into Minsk while at 4:53 a breakout attempt is seen. It is met by heavy fire by the Germans. At 5:05 some of the 325,000 Russian prisoners are shown along with smashed Russian artillery and vehicles. At 5;14 an obsolete Russian T-35 tank is shown as a prize of war. It has multiple turrets. At 5:27 some of the smashed and abandoned Soviet Air Force is seen, destroyed on the ground in the opening days of the war. The film ends with images of Germans advancing on horseback towards — what they believed was victory but what would end up being a bitter defeat.
The Battle of Białystok–Minsk was a German strategic operation conducted by the Wehrmacht’s Army Group Centre under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock during the penetration of the Soviet border region in the opening stage of Operation Barbarossa, lasting from 22 June to 9 July 1941.
The Army Group’s 2nd Panzer Group under Colonel General Heinz Guderian and the 3rd Panzer Group under Colonel General Hermann Hoth decimated the Soviet frontier defenses, defeated all Soviet counter-attacks and encircled four Soviet Armies of the Red Army’s Western Front near Bialystok and Minsk by 30 June. The majority of the Western Front was enclosed within, and the pockets were liquidated by 9 July. The Red Army lost 417,729 men against Wehrmacht casualties of somewhat over 12,157.[7]
The Germans destroyed the Soviet Western Front in 18 days and advanced 460 kilometers into the Soviet Union, causing many to believe that the Germans had effectively won the war against Soviet Union
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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, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
