Die Deutsche Wochenschau №745 (1944)

Germany.

December 17 - Day of the Imperial Railways /Reichsbahn/.

A ceremonial meeting of railway workers.

On the podium is Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production Albert Speer.

Presentation of awards to honored railway workers.

Germany.

Restoration of a telephone cable destroyed by an explosion.

A signalman repairs a cable.

Monitoring the restoration of communications.

Germany.

A workshop for the manufacture of prostheses for wounded soldiers.

Craftsmen at work.

A craftsman cuts out a joint, comparing the size with an X-ray.

Wounded on prostheses in a rehabilitation center.

They play ball, ride bicycles.

A soldier on prostheses demonstrates his abilities to a Tyrolean leaning on crutches.

He easily descends a mountain.

Austria.

Members of the Hitler Youth take horseback riding exams at a school in Hirschberg.

The boys stand in the snow in front of their horses, performing various exercises that require agility and dexterity.

They jump off the horse's back onto the ground, roll over on the saddle.

The young man rides without holding the reins.

Horse riding.

Steeplechase.

Presentation of certificates.

Close-up of the certificate in the name of Werner Exner, dated November 17, 1944. Germany.

Field Marshal August von Mackensen, a participant in World War I, accepts congratulations on his 95th birthday at his estate.

As a sign of special respect, the Fuehrer names the 5th Cavalry Regiment after Field Marshal von Mackensen.

Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel hands over a letter and an armband from the Fuehrer.

Germany.

Hitler receives the Hungarian fascist dictator Ferenc Szalasi, whom he has appointed as head of the Hungarian government to replace the elderly Admiral Horthy.

They walk down the corridor accompanied by Reich Foreign Minister Joachim Ribbentrop and his Hungarian counterpart Baron Gabor Kemeny.

Also present at the meeting in the Reich Chancellery are the new Hungarian ambassador to Berlin, Mecher, and the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Hungary, Edmund Veesenmayer.

During the discussion of political, military and economic issues, the wish was expressed to continue the struggle until victory.

Hitler and Field Marshal Keitel shake hands with members of the Hungarian delegation, including the Hungarian Minister of Defence, General Karol Beregffy.

Hungary.

Views of the embankment and the silhouette of the parliament in Budapest in the winter fog.

The German naval flotilla protects Budapest from air attacks.

Soviet bombers attack patrol ships.

On-board artillery fires, repelling the attack.

The ships approach the bridge.

East Prussia.

Battle in Courland and East Prussia.

Map showing points from Tilsit to Krakow.

Eight Soviet armies in Courland and East Prussia are suffering enormous losses.

German soldiers are on the defensive, hiding in trenches, firing machine guns.

There is standing water in the trenches, a plank flooring has been laid.

A German mortar is firing.

The infantry is preparing for battle.

Grenadiers are running after the tanks into the attack.

A wounded man is being carried from the battlefield.

Explosions from heavy gun shells.

Soldiers are moving forward along the trenches, their feet are getting stuck in the mud.

Tanks are firing at a populated area.

Western Front.

On the Arnhem-Endhofen-Aachen line.

Flooding in Arnhem as a result of the Germans opening the floodgates.

A large area is covered with water.

A German motorcyclist is riding along a flooded road.

Defensive battles on the Western Front against enemy troops.

SS Brigadeführer Heinz Harmel, Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves holder, commander of the 10th Panzer Division "Frundsberg", leaves a building, gets into a car and heads to the command post.

The half-track vehicle travels through the ruined streets of the city until the journey is interrupted by an attack from an enemy fighter from the air.

Harmel, having exchanged his officer's cap for a helmet, leaves the car and hides with his comrades in the ruins of a house.

Waffen-SS soldiers fire from inside the building with a machine gun and a Faustpatrone.

German positions in Holland on the banks of the Ruhr, which are now being washed away by high water.

Officers discuss the military situation.

Artillerymen carry shells to the gun, fire.

In Geilenkirchen.

A column of tanks stands on the highway awaiting battle.

Soldiers walk past the tanks.

Tired and exhausted, they walk in the rain through the mud.

Grenadiers attack behind tanks.

The wounded are treated on the battlefield.

Fragments of the battle.

Infantrymen shoot each other, flamethrowers in action.