In 1945 a British Intelligence Officer in Hanover stumbled across Ukranian troops ransacking the main Gestapo Headquarters and throwing cine projectors from an upstairs window!! Bursting into the building he charged upstairs and seeing piles of film cans stacked in a blazing room, managed to grab 16 of them and retreated back to his jeep and drove them back to his Allied base camp for security analysis...
Nothing more was then heard of them until the cans resurfaced, completely intact, in 1988 and Tomahawk Films aquired all 16 and began the task of restoring these superbly detailed combat newsreels, most of which have never been seen in public before. Orginally found with German subtitles only and destined to be shown in wartime German cinemas as Die Wochenschau (Weekly Newsreels), producer Brian Matthews created and borught back to life four different titles each with its own faithfully recreated wartime music and Combat sound-effects track, which are now available all on one 90 minute DVD:
Russian Front Volume I : The all-out action begins as Wehrmacht cameramen cover the combat assault teams across the Dneiper River, taking Minsk, Stalingrad and Rostov. Close quarter action intercuts with spectacular footage in the cockpits of Me-110's and He-111's battling high above the Russian steppes... Russian Front Volume II : The intense and bloody combat photography continues in the heat of battle as the German infantry storm Kharkov and Kersch with flame throwers and heavy M.G.'s A fascinating record of the siege of Sevastapol with an incredible sequence on heavy artillery, including the massive Wehrmacht railway guns...
Air Land and Sea : A Kriegsmarine Honour Guard introduces the Scharnhorst, Prinz Eugen and Gneisenau's Channel dash under R.A.F. attack. Rare Dieppe newsreel and the Waffen-SS in Finland leads into 'Murmansk to Africa' a lightning overview of the war and ends with superb Lufwaffe action in 'Air War in the East'.. Afrika Korps : Desert combat footage from the war in North Africa includes Ju-88's in action, Italian assault troops, German troops under canvas and Rommel and the fall of Tobruk. Luftwaffe footage of the air attack on Malta and includes ground crews 'bombing-up' and close ups of Kesselring and fighter ace Marseille...