Die Deutsche Wochenschau is the title of the unified newsreel series released in the cinemas of Nazi Germany from June 1940 until the end of World War II, with the final edition issued on 22 March 1945. The co-ordinated newsreel production was set up as a vital instrument for the mass distribution of Nazi propaganda at war.
In this Die Deutsche Wochenschau video:
01:18 While convoys heading to Gilbraltar were regularly attacked by the Germans, at the time of this Newsweek issue, in early August 1941, there wasn’t any convoy that lost 21 ships. Convoy OG 69 had 9 ships sunk by U-Boats between July 27 and July 30th 1941.
01:30 This is the coat of arms of the Austrian city of Klagenfurt, which was used by the German U-Boat U-221, a Type VIIC U-boat. Laid down in June 1941, it was launched in March 1942. That means by the time of this newsreel, it was actually not finished yet. I believe this was done for secret reasons, in case this newsreel falls into enemy hands. U-221 would sink 12 enemy ships with 69,732 tons in 5 combat patrols, before being sunk by waterbombs by a Halifax bomber. All 50 crewmembers died, but the Halifax bomber was also shot down by the AA-guns of the U-Boats, with two gunners dying.
01:48 This sign is a sign you would normally find in an apartment house, it reads: “Staying, playing music, storing bicycles and letting children stay in the staircase is strictly forbidden. -The janitor”. It was probably put on the U-Boat as a joke.
02:32 Georg Schewe (1909-1989) was a German Navy officer who served as a U-Boat commander during the war. He joined the German Navy in 1928 and joined the U-Boat force in October 1936. In July 1939, he became commander of U-60, with which he undertook six patrols, sinking one ship with 4,300 tons. In September 1940, he became commander of U-105, with which he sunk a total of 16 ships with 88,730 tons, for which he was awarded the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross in May 1941. He became a staff officer after that and survived the war.
02:41 Karl Dönitz (1891-1980) was a German Navy officer during both wars, joining the German Navy in 1910. During WWII, he became commander of the U-Boat in October 1939, and chief of the German Navy in January 1943, and Hitlers successor as President of Germany in early May 1945.
03:07 Herbert Wohlfarth (1915-1982) was a German Navy officer who served as a U-Boat commander during WWII. He joined the Navy in April 1933, transferring to the U-Boat force in May 1937. He became commander of U-14 in October 1939, U-137 in June 1940 and U-556 in February 1941. He was awarded the Knights Cross on May 15th, 1941. On June 27th, his Submarine was sunk by British corvettes southwest of Iceland, with him and most of his crew being captured; he was released in July 1947. In total, he sunk 21 ships with 66,032 tons, and three more damaged.
03:37 Claus Korth (1911-1988) was a German Navy officer who served as a U-Boat commander during the war. He joined the Navy in April 1932, and was transferred to the U-Boat force in March 1936, and became commander of U-57 in December 1938. In July 1940, he became commander of U-93. From October 1941 to the end of the war, he served as a staff officer. After the war, he served in the West German navy, holding various staff positions, before retiring in 1970. In total, he sunk 13 merchant ships and 1 auxiliary war ship, with 62,824 tons total.
03:38 As mentioned before, Korth only sank 14 ships. In general, some of the numbers mentioned in this section are slightly wrong. This is however probably not for Propaganda reasons, rather there are usually some uncertainties and inaccuracies with reported numbers, e.g. ships reported as sunk that were only damaged, ships reported with higher tonnage than they actually had etc.
04:08 Engelbert Endraß (1911-1941) was a German Navy officer, serving as the commander of U-Boats U-46 and U-567. He joined the Navy in April 1935 and was assigned the U-Boat force in October 1937. He was Watch Officer during Günther Priens famous attack on Scapa Flow that resulted in the sinking of the battleship HMS Royal Oak in October 1939. In May 1940, he took over command of U-46, and in October 1941, commander of U-567. He died when U-567 was sunk by British depth charges on December 21st, 1941. In total, Endraß sunk 22 ships with 118,528 tons, making him the 23rd most successful U-Boat commander. He received the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves on June 10th, 1941.
04:43 The Hermann Castle in Narva was actually built by the Danish, who sold Narva and the eastern parts of Estland to the Teutonic Order in 1345.
05:09 This vehicle is an Sd. Kfz. 10, a light half-tracked towing vehicle. 14,000 units were built between 1938 and 1945. The main task of this vehicle was to tow light guns, such as the 7.5cm leIG 18 or the 3,7cm Pak 36. The variant shown here is an Sd. Kfz 10/4, fitted with a light 2cm FlaK 30 AA-gun.
05:23 Georg Lindemann (1184-1963) was a German general during WWII. He commanded the L. Army Corps during Operation Barbarossa, and became commander of the 18th Army in January 1942, briefly the commander of Army Group North in March 1944, and finishing the war as Wehrmacht Commander in Denmark. He was released from custody in May 1948.
05:26 This gun is a heavy 21cm Mörser 18. Designed to replaced the WWI-era 21cm Mörser 16, it was developed between 1933 and 1939, and 738 guns were made between 1939 and 1945. The effective firing range was around 16,7 kilometers, and the shells weighted 121 kilos.
05:56 This gun is a 3,7cm PaK 36 AT-gun.
06:56 This officer is a Hauptmann (Captain). He is wearing a Police field cap, identifying him as an officer of a police unit.
07:08 The planes shown here are Ju-88 Light/Medium Bombers. The Ju-88 was introduced in 1939 and built until 1945, with 15,183 planes built. It served a variety of roles, such as bomber, dive bomber, torpedo bomber, night fighter etc.
08:02 The gun in this scene is a heavy 15cm sIG 33 infantry guns. It was the standard German heavy infantry gun during WWII, and also the heaviest gun ever classified as an infantry gun. Around 4,600 were built between 1936 and 1945. Due to its large caliber and heavy weight (1,800 kilo) it was generally very cumbersome to use, though it had great firepower.
08:24 This gun is a 7,5cm light infantry gun 18. Introduced in 1932, around 12,000 were made from 1932 to 1945, it was the standard infantry gun of the German Army.
08:34 These soldiers carry drums for signal wires on their back.
10:07 These grenades are RGD-33 fragmentation grenades, developed in 1933 and built untill 1942, when it was replaced by the easier and cheaper to make RG-42. Over 50 million of these grenades were made, and large quantities were destroyed or fell into the hands of the Germans in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa.
11:20 Alfred Jodl (1890-1946) was a German general and chief of the Operations Staff of the German Army High Command from 1940-1945. He acted as the Chief of Staff during the Invasion of Norway and Denmark, and signed both the Commissar Order and Commando Order, which stipulates that captured Red Army Commissars and Allied Commando soldiers are to be shot immediately after capture. He was tried and hanged in the Nuremberg Trials.
12:26 Walther von Brauchitsch (1881-1948) was a German field marshal and Supreme Commander of the German Army from February 1938 to December 1941. During the failed attack on Moscow and the Soviet Counter offensive in December 1941, Brauchitsch was dismissed by Hitler and didn’t took another command during the war. He was to be tried at the Nuremberg trials, but died from pneumonia in British custody on 18th October 1948.
13:38 Reichsmarschall was one of the titles of Hermann Göring (1893-1946), chief of the Luftwaffe.
14:50 Günther von Kluge (1882-1944) was a German field marshal during WWII. Her commanded the 4th Army during the invasion of Poland, France and the Soviet Union. In December 1941, he became commander of Army Group Center, replacing Fedor von Bock. In July 1944, Kluge was appointed Supreme Commander West. He committed suicide on August 19th, 1944, for fear of being implicated in the 20th July plot.
15:01 Albert Kesselring (1885-1960) was a German field marshal of the Luftwaffe. He commanded Air Force units during the Invasion of Poland, France, the Battle of Britan, in the Mediterranean theater and Operation Barbarossa. In November 1943, Kesselring was made commander of Army Group C, thereby commanding all German forces in Italy. He was convicted by the British in 1947 to death, this was later changed to life in prison and he was released due to bad health in October 1952.
15:27 The sign over the gate reads: “Citadel South entry”
15:29 The tank shown here is a Soviet T-38 light amphibious tank. Designed between 1934 and 1936, 1,340 were made in 1937-39. It only had between 3 and 9mm of armor, two crew members and was armed with a single 7,62mm machine gun. The weak armor meant that it was easily penetrable by rifle or MG fire, and the single machine gun wasn’t that powerful. Many of these were captured by the Germans, and it wasn’t used in combat after 1941, instead used as tractor to tow guns or for training and guarding rear areas.
15:42 These guns are 152mm M1937 howitzers, easily recognizable by their characteristic muzzle break. They were designed in 1937 as a replacement for the old 152mm M1910 guns. 6,884 guns were made between 1937 and 1947. It had a maximum firing range of 17,2 kilometers, and it was very reliable and easy to maintain. As shown here, many of these guns fell into German hands, which used them on their own and even produced their own ammunition for it from 1943 onwards. Many of these guns were exported to Syria and Egypt after WWII, which used them for fighting against Israel.
16:26 Gerd von Rundstedt (1875-1953) was a German field marshal during WWII. He joined the German Army in 1892, and retired in 1938, but was recalled at the beginning of WWII. He commanded Army Group South during the invasion of Poland, Army Group A during the Battle of France and again Army Group South during Operation Barbarossa. In 1942, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief in the West. After the German defeat in Normandy, he was dismissed, but appointed again Commander-in-Chief in the West in September 1944, before being finally dismissed in March 1945. After the war, he was charged with war crimes, but did not face trial due to his old age and poor health. He died in 1953.
16:36 Dino Alfieri (1886-1966) was an Italian fascist politician and diplomat. He became Italian ambassador to Germany in April 1940. When the Germans occupied Italy in September 1943, he fled to Switzerland.
17:53 Italy originally contributed an Expeditionary Corps to Operation Barbarossa with 3 divisions and 62.000 men. This was later expanded to an army (Italian Army in Russia) in July 1942, which had 10 Divisions and 235.00 men. This army was largely destroyed during the Battle of Stalingrad, after which the remaining troops were sent home to Italy in February 1943.
18:24 The Mykolaiv shipyard was one of the biggest shipbuilding facilities in both the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. It is still active, under the name Black Sea Shipyard.
18:27 This battleship is most likely the Sovetskaya Ukraina, which was laid down in October 1938. When the Germans captured Mykolaiv, it was only 18% complete.
18:56 I wasn’t able to find out which cruiser exactly this was.
19:31 The gun shown here is again a 3,7cm PaK 36 AT-Gun.
19:40 This is an 8,8cm FlaK 36 AT/AA-gun, employed here against ground targets.
19:44 The gun shown in this scene is a 5cm PaK 38 AT-Gun.
20:32 This tank on the right is a BT-5 light tank. It was part of the BT family, the other tanks in that family being the BT-2 and BT-7. The BT-5 had a 45mm 20K-gun, making it good against most German earlier tank models, however its armor, with only up to 23mm, was insufficient even against light German tanks. 1,884 tanks built between 1935 and 1941.
20:55 This gun being towed here is again a 3,7cm PaK 36 AT-gun. At only 330 kilos, the gun could be moved by soldiers without a tractor, this was usually not possible for later, heavier AT-guns.
20:57 This is again a 5cm PaK 38 AT-gun, being towed by an Sd. Kfz. 10.
21:16 You can see a clear change from Black and White to a more brownish, Sepia color tone. This has to do with the fact that this copy was created by splicing different segmented copies together, which is often the case for these old recordings.
22:55 This is a Komsomolets armored tractor, a tracked vehicle developed in 1936 to tow guns. It was fully armored with up to 10mm of armor, and had a single 7,62mm DT machine gun as defensive weapons. Soldiers could sit on the side of it. 4401 of these tractors were built between 1937 and 1941. During the early stages of the German invasion in 1941, some of these were used as combat vehicles, but after 1941, they were usually only used as tractors.
22:56 Semyon Timoshenko (1895- 1970) was a Soviet marshal and one of the most famous Red Army commanders during the war. He commanded the Ukrainian front during the Soviet invasion of Poland, commanded Soviet forces during the latter part of the invasion of Finland, and became Commisar for Defence in May 1940, modernizing the Red Army. During WWII, Timoshenko led the first serious Soviet counter-offensive of the war in May 1942 (the second battle of Kharkov). He later coordinated actions of Soviet fronts, finishing the war as coordinator of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ukrainian front.
23:04 These guns in the foreground are heavy Soviet Maxim M1910 machine guns.
23:08 These guns are Soviet 76mm regimental gun M1927, a Soviet infantry support gun. Designed in 1927 and produced between 1928 and 1943, 18,116 were made. As with most Soviet weaponry, hundreds of these guns were captured by the Germans during their initial advance into the Soviet Union.
23:36 I wasn’t able to verify what exactly this building is. But given this is a propaganda newsreel, there is a chance its maybe not what the speaker claims it to be. The GPU was the secret police of the Soviet Union, formed in 1922. It became part of the NKVD in 1934.
26:51 These vehicles are Sd. Kfz. 232, heavy 8-wheeled scout cars designed in 1936. They were equipped with a 2cm autocannon and a 180hp V8, achieving a top speed of up to 100kmh. Between 1937 and 1943 607 Sd. Kfz. 231 and 232 were built. The difference between the 231 and 232 is that the 232 was used as a radio car, and is equipped with an antenna, as shown here.
26:58 This vehicle is actually a Soviet Ba-10, an armored car built on a GAZ-AAA truck chassis and armed with a 45mm gun in a turret. 3,311 of these were built between 1938 and 1941, and it was extensively used in the first few months of the invasion but became rare after 1941 due to many being destroyed in combat. Many were also captured by the Germans and other Axis countries. As shown here, they were often pressed into German service.
28:52 This soldier being treated here is a Sergeant (Unteroffizier), the lowest NCO rank in the Wehrmacht.
29:19 While I wasn’t able to identify these gun, I am pretty sure they aren’t German, most likely Czech or French artillery pieces, which were often used by the Germans.
30:52 The song “From Finland to the Black Sea”, also called “Forward to the East”, was a song composed by orders of Goebbels for the German invasion of the Soviet Union, but it was delayed and not finished in time for the invasion, played for the first time on 29 June 1941, a few days after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa.
Source :
https://archive.org/details/die-deutsche-wochenschau-berita-mingguan-jerman-no.-574-3-september-1941-teks-indonesia
https://digitaler-lesesaal.bundesarchiv.de/en/video/5356/696934
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSKpJw1DPBw
In this Die Deutsche Wochenschau video:
01:18 While convoys heading to Gilbraltar were regularly attacked by the Germans, at the time of this Newsweek issue, in early August 1941, there wasn’t any convoy that lost 21 ships. Convoy OG 69 had 9 ships sunk by U-Boats between July 27 and July 30th 1941.
01:30 This is the coat of arms of the Austrian city of Klagenfurt, which was used by the German U-Boat U-221, a Type VIIC U-boat. Laid down in June 1941, it was launched in March 1942. That means by the time of this newsreel, it was actually not finished yet. I believe this was done for secret reasons, in case this newsreel falls into enemy hands. U-221 would sink 12 enemy ships with 69,732 tons in 5 combat patrols, before being sunk by waterbombs by a Halifax bomber. All 50 crewmembers died, but the Halifax bomber was also shot down by the AA-guns of the U-Boats, with two gunners dying.
01:48 This sign is a sign you would normally find in an apartment house, it reads: “Staying, playing music, storing bicycles and letting children stay in the staircase is strictly forbidden. -The janitor”. It was probably put on the U-Boat as a joke.
02:32 Georg Schewe (1909-1989) was a German Navy officer who served as a U-Boat commander during the war. He joined the German Navy in 1928 and joined the U-Boat force in October 1936. In July 1939, he became commander of U-60, with which he undertook six patrols, sinking one ship with 4,300 tons. In September 1940, he became commander of U-105, with which he sunk a total of 16 ships with 88,730 tons, for which he was awarded the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross in May 1941. He became a staff officer after that and survived the war.
02:41 Karl Dönitz (1891-1980) was a German Navy officer during both wars, joining the German Navy in 1910. During WWII, he became commander of the U-Boat in October 1939, and chief of the German Navy in January 1943, and Hitlers successor as President of Germany in early May 1945.
03:07 Herbert Wohlfarth (1915-1982) was a German Navy officer who served as a U-Boat commander during WWII. He joined the Navy in April 1933, transferring to the U-Boat force in May 1937. He became commander of U-14 in October 1939, U-137 in June 1940 and U-556 in February 1941. He was awarded the Knights Cross on May 15th, 1941. On June 27th, his Submarine was sunk by British corvettes southwest of Iceland, with him and most of his crew being captured; he was released in July 1947. In total, he sunk 21 ships with 66,032 tons, and three more damaged.
03:37 Claus Korth (1911-1988) was a German Navy officer who served as a U-Boat commander during the war. He joined the Navy in April 1932, and was transferred to the U-Boat force in March 1936, and became commander of U-57 in December 1938. In July 1940, he became commander of U-93. From October 1941 to the end of the war, he served as a staff officer. After the war, he served in the West German navy, holding various staff positions, before retiring in 1970. In total, he sunk 13 merchant ships and 1 auxiliary war ship, with 62,824 tons total.
03:38 As mentioned before, Korth only sank 14 ships. In general, some of the numbers mentioned in this section are slightly wrong. This is however probably not for Propaganda reasons, rather there are usually some uncertainties and inaccuracies with reported numbers, e.g. ships reported as sunk that were only damaged, ships reported with higher tonnage than they actually had etc.
04:08 Engelbert Endraß (1911-1941) was a German Navy officer, serving as the commander of U-Boats U-46 and U-567. He joined the Navy in April 1935 and was assigned the U-Boat force in October 1937. He was Watch Officer during Günther Priens famous attack on Scapa Flow that resulted in the sinking of the battleship HMS Royal Oak in October 1939. In May 1940, he took over command of U-46, and in October 1941, commander of U-567. He died when U-567 was sunk by British depth charges on December 21st, 1941. In total, Endraß sunk 22 ships with 118,528 tons, making him the 23rd most successful U-Boat commander. He received the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves on June 10th, 1941.
04:43 The Hermann Castle in Narva was actually built by the Danish, who sold Narva and the eastern parts of Estland to the Teutonic Order in 1345.
05:09 This vehicle is an Sd. Kfz. 10, a light half-tracked towing vehicle. 14,000 units were built between 1938 and 1945. The main task of this vehicle was to tow light guns, such as the 7.5cm leIG 18 or the 3,7cm Pak 36. The variant shown here is an Sd. Kfz 10/4, fitted with a light 2cm FlaK 30 AA-gun.
05:23 Georg Lindemann (1184-1963) was a German general during WWII. He commanded the L. Army Corps during Operation Barbarossa, and became commander of the 18th Army in January 1942, briefly the commander of Army Group North in March 1944, and finishing the war as Wehrmacht Commander in Denmark. He was released from custody in May 1948.
05:26 This gun is a heavy 21cm Mörser 18. Designed to replaced the WWI-era 21cm Mörser 16, it was developed between 1933 and 1939, and 738 guns were made between 1939 and 1945. The effective firing range was around 16,7 kilometers, and the shells weighted 121 kilos.
05:56 This gun is a 3,7cm PaK 36 AT-gun.
06:56 This officer is a Hauptmann (Captain). He is wearing a Police field cap, identifying him as an officer of a police unit.
07:08 The planes shown here are Ju-88 Light/Medium Bombers. The Ju-88 was introduced in 1939 and built until 1945, with 15,183 planes built. It served a variety of roles, such as bomber, dive bomber, torpedo bomber, night fighter etc.
08:02 The gun in this scene is a heavy 15cm sIG 33 infantry guns. It was the standard German heavy infantry gun during WWII, and also the heaviest gun ever classified as an infantry gun. Around 4,600 were built between 1936 and 1945. Due to its large caliber and heavy weight (1,800 kilo) it was generally very cumbersome to use, though it had great firepower.
08:24 This gun is a 7,5cm light infantry gun 18. Introduced in 1932, around 12,000 were made from 1932 to 1945, it was the standard infantry gun of the German Army.
08:34 These soldiers carry drums for signal wires on their back.
10:07 These grenades are RGD-33 fragmentation grenades, developed in 1933 and built untill 1942, when it was replaced by the easier and cheaper to make RG-42. Over 50 million of these grenades were made, and large quantities were destroyed or fell into the hands of the Germans in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa.
11:20 Alfred Jodl (1890-1946) was a German general and chief of the Operations Staff of the German Army High Command from 1940-1945. He acted as the Chief of Staff during the Invasion of Norway and Denmark, and signed both the Commissar Order and Commando Order, which stipulates that captured Red Army Commissars and Allied Commando soldiers are to be shot immediately after capture. He was tried and hanged in the Nuremberg Trials.
12:26 Walther von Brauchitsch (1881-1948) was a German field marshal and Supreme Commander of the German Army from February 1938 to December 1941. During the failed attack on Moscow and the Soviet Counter offensive in December 1941, Brauchitsch was dismissed by Hitler and didn’t took another command during the war. He was to be tried at the Nuremberg trials, but died from pneumonia in British custody on 18th October 1948.
13:38 Reichsmarschall was one of the titles of Hermann Göring (1893-1946), chief of the Luftwaffe.
14:50 Günther von Kluge (1882-1944) was a German field marshal during WWII. Her commanded the 4th Army during the invasion of Poland, France and the Soviet Union. In December 1941, he became commander of Army Group Center, replacing Fedor von Bock. In July 1944, Kluge was appointed Supreme Commander West. He committed suicide on August 19th, 1944, for fear of being implicated in the 20th July plot.
15:01 Albert Kesselring (1885-1960) was a German field marshal of the Luftwaffe. He commanded Air Force units during the Invasion of Poland, France, the Battle of Britan, in the Mediterranean theater and Operation Barbarossa. In November 1943, Kesselring was made commander of Army Group C, thereby commanding all German forces in Italy. He was convicted by the British in 1947 to death, this was later changed to life in prison and he was released due to bad health in October 1952.
15:27 The sign over the gate reads: “Citadel South entry”
15:29 The tank shown here is a Soviet T-38 light amphibious tank. Designed between 1934 and 1936, 1,340 were made in 1937-39. It only had between 3 and 9mm of armor, two crew members and was armed with a single 7,62mm machine gun. The weak armor meant that it was easily penetrable by rifle or MG fire, and the single machine gun wasn’t that powerful. Many of these were captured by the Germans, and it wasn’t used in combat after 1941, instead used as tractor to tow guns or for training and guarding rear areas.
15:42 These guns are 152mm M1937 howitzers, easily recognizable by their characteristic muzzle break. They were designed in 1937 as a replacement for the old 152mm M1910 guns. 6,884 guns were made between 1937 and 1947. It had a maximum firing range of 17,2 kilometers, and it was very reliable and easy to maintain. As shown here, many of these guns fell into German hands, which used them on their own and even produced their own ammunition for it from 1943 onwards. Many of these guns were exported to Syria and Egypt after WWII, which used them for fighting against Israel.
16:26 Gerd von Rundstedt (1875-1953) was a German field marshal during WWII. He joined the German Army in 1892, and retired in 1938, but was recalled at the beginning of WWII. He commanded Army Group South during the invasion of Poland, Army Group A during the Battle of France and again Army Group South during Operation Barbarossa. In 1942, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief in the West. After the German defeat in Normandy, he was dismissed, but appointed again Commander-in-Chief in the West in September 1944, before being finally dismissed in March 1945. After the war, he was charged with war crimes, but did not face trial due to his old age and poor health. He died in 1953.
16:36 Dino Alfieri (1886-1966) was an Italian fascist politician and diplomat. He became Italian ambassador to Germany in April 1940. When the Germans occupied Italy in September 1943, he fled to Switzerland.
17:53 Italy originally contributed an Expeditionary Corps to Operation Barbarossa with 3 divisions and 62.000 men. This was later expanded to an army (Italian Army in Russia) in July 1942, which had 10 Divisions and 235.00 men. This army was largely destroyed during the Battle of Stalingrad, after which the remaining troops were sent home to Italy in February 1943.
18:24 The Mykolaiv shipyard was one of the biggest shipbuilding facilities in both the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. It is still active, under the name Black Sea Shipyard.
18:27 This battleship is most likely the Sovetskaya Ukraina, which was laid down in October 1938. When the Germans captured Mykolaiv, it was only 18% complete.
18:56 I wasn’t able to find out which cruiser exactly this was.
19:31 The gun shown here is again a 3,7cm PaK 36 AT-Gun.
19:40 This is an 8,8cm FlaK 36 AT/AA-gun, employed here against ground targets.
19:44 The gun shown in this scene is a 5cm PaK 38 AT-Gun.
20:32 This tank on the right is a BT-5 light tank. It was part of the BT family, the other tanks in that family being the BT-2 and BT-7. The BT-5 had a 45mm 20K-gun, making it good against most German earlier tank models, however its armor, with only up to 23mm, was insufficient even against light German tanks. 1,884 tanks built between 1935 and 1941.
20:55 This gun being towed here is again a 3,7cm PaK 36 AT-gun. At only 330 kilos, the gun could be moved by soldiers without a tractor, this was usually not possible for later, heavier AT-guns.
20:57 This is again a 5cm PaK 38 AT-gun, being towed by an Sd. Kfz. 10.
21:16 You can see a clear change from Black and White to a more brownish, Sepia color tone. This has to do with the fact that this copy was created by splicing different segmented copies together, which is often the case for these old recordings.
22:55 This is a Komsomolets armored tractor, a tracked vehicle developed in 1936 to tow guns. It was fully armored with up to 10mm of armor, and had a single 7,62mm DT machine gun as defensive weapons. Soldiers could sit on the side of it. 4401 of these tractors were built between 1937 and 1941. During the early stages of the German invasion in 1941, some of these were used as combat vehicles, but after 1941, they were usually only used as tractors.
22:56 Semyon Timoshenko (1895- 1970) was a Soviet marshal and one of the most famous Red Army commanders during the war. He commanded the Ukrainian front during the Soviet invasion of Poland, commanded Soviet forces during the latter part of the invasion of Finland, and became Commisar for Defence in May 1940, modernizing the Red Army. During WWII, Timoshenko led the first serious Soviet counter-offensive of the war in May 1942 (the second battle of Kharkov). He later coordinated actions of Soviet fronts, finishing the war as coordinator of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ukrainian front.
23:04 These guns in the foreground are heavy Soviet Maxim M1910 machine guns.
23:08 These guns are Soviet 76mm regimental gun M1927, a Soviet infantry support gun. Designed in 1927 and produced between 1928 and 1943, 18,116 were made. As with most Soviet weaponry, hundreds of these guns were captured by the Germans during their initial advance into the Soviet Union.
23:36 I wasn’t able to verify what exactly this building is. But given this is a propaganda newsreel, there is a chance its maybe not what the speaker claims it to be. The GPU was the secret police of the Soviet Union, formed in 1922. It became part of the NKVD in 1934.
26:51 These vehicles are Sd. Kfz. 232, heavy 8-wheeled scout cars designed in 1936. They were equipped with a 2cm autocannon and a 180hp V8, achieving a top speed of up to 100kmh. Between 1937 and 1943 607 Sd. Kfz. 231 and 232 were built. The difference between the 231 and 232 is that the 232 was used as a radio car, and is equipped with an antenna, as shown here.
26:58 This vehicle is actually a Soviet Ba-10, an armored car built on a GAZ-AAA truck chassis and armed with a 45mm gun in a turret. 3,311 of these were built between 1938 and 1941, and it was extensively used in the first few months of the invasion but became rare after 1941 due to many being destroyed in combat. Many were also captured by the Germans and other Axis countries. As shown here, they were often pressed into German service.
28:52 This soldier being treated here is a Sergeant (Unteroffizier), the lowest NCO rank in the Wehrmacht.
29:19 While I wasn’t able to identify these gun, I am pretty sure they aren’t German, most likely Czech or French artillery pieces, which were often used by the Germans.
30:52 The song “From Finland to the Black Sea”, also called “Forward to the East”, was a song composed by orders of Goebbels for the German invasion of the Soviet Union, but it was delayed and not finished in time for the invasion, played for the first time on 29 June 1941, a few days after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa.
Source :
https://archive.org/details/die-deutsche-wochenschau-berita-mingguan-jerman-no.-574-3-september-1941-teks-indonesia
https://digitaler-lesesaal.bundesarchiv.de/en/video/5356/696934
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSKpJw1DPBw
