Invasion

Using newsreel footage and voice-over narration, this film documents the events of World War I and the steps leading to World War II. The narrator begins by comparing the invasion of Belgium in 1914 to recent invasions by the Axis countries. Footage is shown of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which the narrator states, represents the price of freedom. The documentary then relates the events of World War I: After the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and his wife in Sarajevo, Germany declares war. Shots of the Kaiser, German soldiers, Baron von Richthofer and Marshal von Hindenburg are shown. The narrator, now representing the French unknown soldier, reports on the beginning of the war from the French perspective: The French demand the return of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine from the Germans. Germany then seizes Luxembourg and from there, marches into France. The invasion takes the French unprepared, and troops are conveyed to the front in taxicabs. In Russia, the Bolshevik government signs the Brest-Litovsk peace agreement with Germany in March 1918, leaving the Allies to continue the war. Scenes of German naval battles are shown, and then the story of the war is continued by the British unknown soldier: The British come to the aid of beleaguered France. British troops fight in Turkey and the Dardanelles, as well as on the Western Front. On the English homefront, citizens are subjected to strafing from German zeppelins, while at the front, soldiers experience poison gas attacks. Mountain warfare in the snow is depicted, and footage of observation balloons, anti-aircraft artillery and the sinking of the Austrian flagship St. Stephen is presented. Next, the American unknown soldier takes up the narration: President Woodrow Wilson exhausts all peaceful means to resolve the war, but finally institutes the Selective Service system to draft American soldiers. Over four million men serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. Footage of U.S. soldiers fighting at St. Mihiel, Belleau Woods, Vimy Ridge, Chateau Thierry and other sites follows. Peace is finally achieved in 1918. Selections from speeches calling for world peace are heard. Then radio announcer Boake Carter describes the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the Fascist revolution in Spain, the rise to power of Hitler, and Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939. Over newsreel footage of refugees, the rescue of British troops at Dunkirk, and the French evacuation of Paris, the progress of the war is traced up to 1941. The narrator then describes America's vow to send men and equipment to aid their allies.