“News Parade of the Year 1940” (sound version) is a black-and-white newsreel film that showcases news events for the year 1940. Made by Castle Films, segments include: EUROPE’S TOTAL WAR!, FATE’S IRONY!: Nazis and French sign armistice at Compiégne, BRITAIN’S HEROIC STAND!, AMERICAN DESTROYERS TO BRITAIN!: Fifty World War vessels are exchanged for naval bases, AMERICAN DEFENSE BEGINS!: Nation rallies to strengthen land, air, and sea might, FIRST PEACE-TIME DRAFT!: Sixteen million American youths register, FIRST THIRD TERM PRESIDENT!: Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Wendell L. Willkie in hard fought election.
Opening credits: Castle Films logo (0:09). German soldiers unload gear on a Danish dock (0:26). German soldiers march through what is perhaps downtown Copenhagen, Danes dressed in winter coats look on from sidewalks (0:28). Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands is escorted by military personnel (0:34). Belgian refugees packed onto cart clutch belongings (0:41). Belgian King Leopold III salutes line of Belgian infantry while on horseback (likely footage from World War I) (0:45). British destroyer gun crew covering Allied troops wading through the surf during the evacuation of Dunkirk, France (0:55). Battle of France: Smoke billows from explosions, debris flies, destroyed row homes (1:03). Infantry men lay low in field (1:08). Benito Mussolini makes impassioned speech from Venice Palace balcony, Rome (1:15). Piazza Venezia filled with massed crowed (1:16). Adolf Hitler Saluting as He, Hermann Goering and Others Arriving at Compiégne to Receive the French Surrender (1:25). Statue Marechal Foch (1:33). Hitler and other Nazi officials board The Compiégne Wagon (1:40). French delegation arrives at Forest of Compiégne (1:53). Close-up Phillipe Pétain (2:42). Interior of train car as armistice signed (2:52). Italian invasion of British Somaliland: Italian battleship fires at Somaliland coast, mortars hit brick and stone buildings, explosions and debris (3:00). “Britain’s Heroic Stand:” Montage British soldiers in battle, Soldiers set out in rows of perhaps Leyland Armored Cars, perhaps RAF Hawker Hurricane fly in coordination (3:27). Smoke billows after German plane crashes into field (3:59). Battle of Britain 1940: German Bomb Raiders bomb military, cargo, and supply ships headed for England (4:01). General Charles de Gaulle reviews French troops in perhaps London (4:24). The Blitz (London): Montage of destruction, smoke and flames, sounds of sirens, backlit rescue personnel (4:29). Londoners cramped in bomb shelter laugh and recline while reading newspapers and magazine (4:41). Choir sings to crowd in bomb shelter (4:49). Montage of Blitz attack aftermath in London continues: warehouse buildings on fire, smoke, debris, sirens (5:00). Fireman lifts up destroyed department store mannequin (5:24). Actor removes head of Hitler dummy (5:30). Destroyed London double-decker bus hangs out of frame of building (5:34). King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II inspecting bomb damage at Buckingham Palace with workmen, hold piece of German missile (5:41). Destruction of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London: two priests look at ruins of a destroyed altar (5:55). Workmen clear and pile pieces of destroyed RAF fighter jets, pieces of Nazi planes with swastikas (6:12). Excerpt Winston Churchill speech on Nazi Propaganda & Uniting Against Hitler (1939) (6:21). Destroyers-for-bases deal: US Navy men board 50 retired destroyers at Canadian port (6:49). Montage American military contribution: Camera pans barrel of anti-aircraft weapon, Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses (7:22). US Army Airmen parachute out of plane during drill (7:53). United States Navy WWII destroyers at sea, gun fire, smoke billows (8:15). American President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Selective Training and Service Act law/ the draft (8:28). Rows of young American men in suits and felt fedoras line up for draft service (8:35). Close-up, American World War II Draft Registration card (8:41). Secretary of War Henry Stimson, blindfolded, picks draft number capsules from fishbowl for FDR to announce (8:45). Confetti flies, crowds cheer, Wendell L. Willkie receives cheers of 40,000s Chicagoans during parade (9:07). Close-up FDR smiling, sitting among other officials, wearing fedora (9:27). United States Capitol Dome framed by bare trees and snow-covered shrubs (9:34).