Soviets defeat Germans at Vitebsk in summer 1944
Creator(s)
- Ilya Kopalin (Editor)
- Central Studio for Documentary Film, Moscow (Producer)
- United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Motion Picture Reference
Scope and Content
Title on screen: Battle of Vitebsk. Map showing Vitebsk (50 miles due west of Moscow), narrator explains the strategic importance of the city and the military situation as it was by June 1944. Soviet army begins assault. German soldiers advance toward city, come across camp of Soviet civilians. LS Russian T34 tanks move to front silhouetted by sunrise, MLS of column of men marching, SU100s, tanks, jeeps, trucks, Katusha rocket launchers, camouflaged armored vehicles move to front through woods and fields. Map of closing Russian circle, insert CU Generals Czernickhowski and Bagramian in middle of map. Map diagrams Russian plan of attack. VS Field artillery, howitzers fire. Russian soldiers wait in trenches with machine guns. AV MS Russian air force planes flying, drop bombs. Artillery bombardment continues. MCU of Russian soldiers crouched in trench. Infantry goes over top and advances across field behind tanks. CU tank and men. 4:15:34 German dead, wrecked equipment, as Russian tanks race by, LS taking of German prisoners in open field and hustling them back toward Russian lines. Russian fighter bombers strafe at low level. AV plane's eye view of firing and targets. VS Smashed fortifications and German dead in field and trenches. Columns of German prisoners. MLS Russians advance with motorcycle troops and in tanks. 4:18:06 LS Large crowd of civilian survivors of concentration camp (about 8,000 people were in camp) and soldiers in field. CU of women, infant, individual faces of women crying or distraught. Bodies of several dead including woman. Russian soldiers load woman on stretcher into truck. CU of child then shots of children with Russian soldiers. MS soldiers handing out loaves of bread from truck. CU soldier gives little girl sugar cube, CU of little girl. Man with beard and glasses stretched on ground reads Russian newspaper. Civilian man speaks to Russian officer. Shot from above, long column of refugees walking along road to return home.
Note(s)
Other credits: Edited by I. Kopalin; Military Adviser: Major-General S. P. Platonov.
Subjects
- POWS (GERMAN)
- CIVILIANS
- BELARUS (BELORUSSIA)
- PRISONERS (GERMAN)
- BOMBINGS
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY (SOVIET)
- ATTACKS
- GERMANS
- JEEPS
- CORPSES
- MILITARY OFFICERS
- SOVIET UNION
- AIRPLANES
- POWS
- MARCHING
- TANKS
- MILITARY ADVANCES
- CONCENTRATION CAMPS
- TRENCHES
Places
- Vitebsk, Soviet Union
- , Belarus
Genre
- Film
- Documentary.