All language subtitles for Feuertaufe.1940.DUBBED.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG

- In August 1939, Poland calls

for violence against the Reich.

Because England wants war,

Poland wants war.

Supported by promises of aid

from the Western powers,
Warsaw overreaches

its provocations against Germany.

Rydz-Smigly parades his army.

They dream of a greater Poland.

The Pilsudski-style political
megalomania is boundless.

As planned at Versailles,

Poland has built up its peacetime strength

30 divisions, standing
army two million men.

It would suit these gentlemen just fine

if Polish tanks broke through

the Reich's borders

and drove it back to the Elbe,

to Bremen, Hannover, Kassel,

perhaps even as far as Nuremburg.

The first target is Danzig.

But Danzig is German,

was German,

and will remain German.

On August 10th,

Gauleiter Forster warns-

- And Danzig can rest easy.

Adolf Hitler's Wehrmacht
are ready to take on

greater Germany's freedom fight.

The German Forces are armed.

With cheers, the old Hanseatic city

greets the training
ship Schleswig-Holstein

presenting the greatest navy.

And like a sword in the sky,

our young Luftwaffe is ready,

resolved to crush any who dare
to break the European peace.

- Attention, attention.

London here, with news for Germany.

Lord Halifax has declared in Chambers

that our guarantee to Poland is in force.

England's fleet is ready to put to sea

in a few hours.

British citizens are leaving the Reich.

- Attention,
attention, Warsaw here.

Poland is defending the
freedom of all people

Danzig must go to Poland.

- Hello,
hello, this is Radio Paris.

Hitler murders Europe.

- One and a
half million Frenchmen

are deployed against the Westwall.

London is the hub of the warmongers.

Between Downing Street
and Parliament House,

the plutocracy let their puppets dance.

It is the fateful hour,

when England gave Poland carte blanche.

The democrats' hysterical hatred

of Germany boils over.

The diplomats play their cards.

Poland should strike.

Germany will strike back.

Then you have your grounds
for war, Mr. Chamberlain.

The man on the street
gets a different story,

handed out by England's Jewish
War Minister Hore-Belisha.

What is this?

Hitler wants war?

Poland is already in a state of war!

Here the homes and farms of the

ethnic Germans are already burning;

here the defenseless are massacred.

Thousands flee into the Reich.

The elderly, women, and children

who had been hiding in the forests

now slip across the border.

How much have these people had to suffer?

Just because they are Germans!

The Luftwaffe has swapped its airfields

with East Prussia, Pomerania,
and the Baltic Sea.

High Alert.

Any hour can bring the order for action.

Borders and coastline, large cities,

bridges and industry,
are under our protection.

On the field airstrip, the
aircraft are camouflaged

against surprise attacks.

Bombs are loaded.

It's just like on maneuvers,

but now the bombs are live.

A dangerous cargo,

geared to break any resistance.

The engines are checked.

Fueling up.

It must be said.

Even the best airplane,

the most courageous crew,

are lost if the ground personnel

are not absolutely reliable.

Wabu means Arms Bunker.

Machine gun munitions are girded.

The MG in the bow is ready.

The last bomb is hung.

The bomb bay closes.

Woe betide if it opens
above enemy territory!

Germany's air power is ready.

Anyone who wants peace
must be armed for war.

The Führer still makes a final attempt

to rescue the peace.

The world holds its breath.

September first!

Ambushes on Reich's territory!

Beuthen is shelled by Polish artillery.

Two are known dead, 35 injured.

This is war!

- Brick blocks away.

The German Luftwaffe starts
its first enemy flight.

Stukas.

Reconnaissance aircraft.

Seaplanes.

Fighters.

Bombers.

The first flight over enemy territory.

Deep into Poland's heart,
the German sword is thrust.

In cockpits and tailfins,
men are at their MGs.

Like flying fish, the fast fighters

pull alongside the bombers.

Pilots and observers know their orders

find military targets, march routes,

rail lines, airfields, and supply columns.

Attention!

Deployment road!

Get ready!

In the flight path, small tufts.

The Poles are shooting.

Just wait!

We will answer with bombs.

A last glance at the map.

There's the railway junction!

Ready.

Go!

Bursting flames and billowing
smoke on the streets

cover junctions and rail lines.

German air power has
discharged a torrent of steel.

Course, homeward.

The mission is accomplished.

As the wind plays, our
fighters buzz around

the conquered air space.

On the flight back,

we see the effect of the air strikes

Railroad tracks are torn up.

Stations lie in ash and rubble.

Long trains stand abandoned.

An indescribable chaos.

Beneath us the tattered land

looks like a cratered landscape.

We are in our home port,

back from our first sortie.

Hello, comrades of the ground crew!

There is work to do!

Yes, Sir!

Let's do this!

When machines come back, they are thirsty.

And we have to fly a few more times today.

Like hungry maws, the bays
open for a new bombfeed.

A reconnaissance plane has landed.

They are the eyes of the Army.

They see deep into enemy territory,

and nothing stays hidden
from their cameras.

The photo lab is set up in a forest.

Specialists and trained teams evaluate

the strategic and tactical information

from the reconnaissance material.

This gives commanders the basis

for planning further operations.

These pictures reveal the strength

and weakness of the enemy.

These photos show what will be

put into action on our next flight.

Westerplatte, Poland's
bulwark against Danzig.

German Stukas will hammer
down on the bunkers.

Attention!

Start the dive!

Direct hit on Westerplatte!

Back at base, our Stukas
are many kilos lighter.

But the lost weight will
soon be compensated.

There's a mishap.

An aircraft comes back
without its undercarriage.

Shot away.

A final loop over the field.

Start the belly landing.

Catch it slowly, do not flip!

Bravo!

You cannot make an omelet
without breaking eggs.

Our young Luftwaffe has
received its baptism of fire.

The experience thrills every
heart, and everyone is eager

to engage the enemy anew.

Discussing maps for the next mission.

We want to go again.

Bring up a new bomb!

You have to take your time
with such a heavy load.

Refueling finished, now
off to a new attack!

Dive-bomb attack on a freight yard!

Release!

- Attention!

Enemy column on the road!

Report of the Wehrmacht High Command.

On September first, the Luftwaffe attacks

many Polish airfields.

On the second, the Luftwaffe furiously

strikes other military objectives.

September third, the two air fleets have

absolute control of Polish air space.

In the following days, the
Luftwaffe supports the Army

by joining ground battle.

Military transports are bombed,

marching columns and trains are attacked.

The enemy's retreat is thwarted.

- We're in
enemy territory to see

the ground after an air strike.

This is how all important military

targets were destroyed from
the air within a few days.

And here is what was left
of the Polish Air Force.

Skeleton after skeleton,
a pile of wreckage.

At Thorn, we capture factory-new fighters.

These plucked birds never got to fly.

By the woods, a camouflaged
reconnaissance plane

falls into our hands.

At Bromberg, the German Luftwaffe

occupies the first enemy airbase.

They work on this site.

Craters are shoveled in,

and the runway is leveled off.

In just 12 hours, this Polish airfield

has become a German one.

But Polish signs forbid
unauthorized entry.

We're flying from Bromberg to Thorn.

The railroad station in Bromberg.

Air-raid trenches, bomb hits.

The Poles did not leave a
single bridge undamaged.

Between Polish flight and German advance,

all bridges are destroyed.

The Weichsel River.

Between Bromberg and Thorn,
between the Brahe and Weichsel,

is ancestral German land.

Ethnic Germans cross over
to their liberated homes.

The advance goes on.

The September sun is hot.

Dust hangs over Poland like a fog.

And impassable as these roads may be,

Poland's bad roads have been
called her Maginot Line,

the German advance continues.

It is unstoppable.

- Report from
Wehrmacht September 10th.

Many units near Radom are surrounded.

To support the Army, air formations

join in the ground fighting.

The Wehrmacht High Command
announces On September 11th,

the surrounded Polish group at Radom

has ceased to exist.

The number of prisoners
cannot be assessed yet.

- The great battle in Poland

is approaching its climax.

On September 12th,

the ring around the Polish
capital is closed to the east.

Nine Polish divisions and
three cavalry brigades

are surrounded in the Kutno arena.

Desperate attempts by the enemy

to break through are thwarted.

The unit's concentric counterattack

is in full swing.

Again on the 13th,

Polish troops seek a way out.

The ring around Kutno is
strengthened and tightened.

On the 14th, more desperate
counterattacks are thwarted.

Camp log.

By the 15th,

the Polish Army is encircled.

September 16th.

Kutno is taken.

The retreat to Warsaw is also cut off.

About a quarter of the Polish Army

is cramped together awaiting dissolution.

Mass attacks by the Luftwaffe
hasten the dissolution.

- September 17.

The last day of the battle
for the Polish campaign,

the annihilating blow.

The Luftwaffe joins the ground battle.

Long dust trails are churned up.

We are over the battlefield.

Below us are the huge forests

between the Weichsel and the Bzura.

And now, on with the
death and destruction!

Bombs rain from the sky!

A hailstorm of steel.

Smoke and flames mark the retreat

of the shattered Polish Army.

Squadron after squadron take
off late into the evening.

Each crew flying six, seven,

or eight missions, a hot day!

Once more we take off to
experience the nightly battlefield.

We will never forget the
images of this flight.

Below us the Bzura,

the river where nine Polish
Divisions met their fate.

The Weichsel.

A heavy thunderstorm lies over the river.

Modlin, the last fortress before Warsaw.

The battlefield, blaze upon blaze.

All around a burning landscape.

The next morning we drive to the area

where Poland's defeat was sealed.

This is Sochaczew, the
bridgehead on the Bzura.

Through the deserted streets,

the wind spreads the
fire from house to house.

Air-signal-corps troops are
among the first to the city.

The communications between leaders

and the front must never be disrupted.

In long columns, the defeated army

moves through the streets.

The war is behind them.

Ahead is captivity.

We're on the road from
Sochaczew to Wyszogrod.

It's the road of the lost divisions.

Here perished the Polish Army

that after the battle of Kutno

tried to withdraw east over the Bzura

and go to Warsaw.

Not a single man from these
nine divisions reached Warsaw.

The pass through the Bzura,

Napoleon's crossroad over the Berezina.

And now on this road of horror,
the first refugees return,

victims of the ruthless warmongers.

The great German victory

was not obtained without losses.

The Ju 52 is used as a military hospital,

safely transporting those who could

only be saved by an emergency operation

to Berlin in just two hours.

The Weichsel battle has ended.

The Polish army is
destroyed in just 18 days.

This war cannot go down in
history as the obliteration

of a small, poorly equipped
force by a modern giant army.

The German soldier had to
fight a well equipped opponent,

often while badly outnumbered.

The advance continues across
the Bzura toward Warsaw.

- From the Wehrmacht
Report of September 20th.

Only Modlin and Warsaw
still offer resistance.

- We must
consider the magnitude

of the Polish defeat

to grasp the criminal madness

with which the people
in Warsaw were persuaded

that Poland was not yet lost.

Charred villages, burned
in battle or in retreat.

Only chimneys remain, like
tombstones in a graveyard.

Below us the Weichsel, sand-choked

and ruined, like Poland's life blood.

Demolished bridges, blocked waterways.

There are prison camps
throughout the land.

Poland's rail network has been
torn apart by the Luftwaffe.

Those were supply trains.

This was a railway embankment
where a munitions train stood.

Our Stukas hit with deadly accuracy.

Poland is lost!

But her leaders still hope for
a miracle of England's favor

promised them by the lying London

radio network until the very last day.

It is the final battle
for Poland's capital.

The bombardment of the forts has begun.

The outer forts are taken.

The Poles withdraw into the inner city.

Our troops stand in the suburbs.

In the burning suburbs,
the mob is looting.

Outside of the city

lies an armored train hurled
from the tracks like a toy.

Okecie, the capital's airport,

is a picture of devastation.

Our bombers finished it off
in the first days of the war.

Warsaw's position is hopeless.

The German High Command
drop leaflets on the city.

At the airfields around Warsaw,

after this warning, the Luftwaffe

is limited to reconnaissance.

It has gotten cold in the
second half of September,

but you must make due,

and an improvised barracks is livable.

The days are spent waiting.

But the German warning is unheeded.

Warsaw will not be reasonable!

The white flag along a street?

Surrender?

No!

Diplomats and foreigners
leave the capitol city

and seek German protection.

In Warsaw, madness still triumphs.

The city commandant compels
the people to resist,

making the open city a fortress.

September 25, Luftwaffe orders.

The Luftwaffe is ordered to
break military resistance

in the Luftwaffe's last
operation of the campaign.

Even the Ju 52s see action.

There, Warsaw on September 25th.

The drama of a city draws to a close.

The bombardment begins at dawn.

Wherever the steel death falls,

the flames rise from
Warsaw's fortifications,

batteries, and trenches.

After only a few hours, a
dark gray curtain of smoke

drifts over the houses.

Now it shows what a monstrous crime it was

to make Poland's capital a fortress

and to call the populace
to senseless resistance!

Between flights, a bite
from the field kitchen.

Then it's back over the city.

Flight after flight.

The wind drives the smoke eastward.

The sun glares off the
white cumulus clouds.

The heat of the flames
rising in bizarre formation

like a gigantic mountain range.

Below it lies Hell.

36 hours later, Warsaw surrenders.

The German Wehrmacht
have struck their blow.

Now the weapons are silent.

Weapons at the ready, our guards

stand at the outskirts of the city.

After frightful days and nights,
the starving populace leave

their cellars and fill the streets.

No one is allowed to leave the city,

except for a group of orphans.

During the negotiations,
we fly over the city again.

Without bombs this time.

Mister Chamberlain is to
accompany us on this flight!

What do you say now, Mister Chamberlain?

Here you can see for yourself

the catastrophe you have wrought.

Don't you fear the curse
of a people betrayed?

Here is the result of your
ruthless war politics!

This is all your doing!

An offense you will have to answer for

before the judgment of world!

And take heed, this is how it is

when the German Luftwaffe strikes.

It will know how to find
the most guilty of all.

Our flight over Warsaw is over.

The shadow of our aircraft
glides over the negotiations,

while in this hour the curtain
falls on this Polish drama.

The surrender is signed.

Commandant and mayor return to the city

to perform their last official act.

The march out begins that night.

One can understand the good
spirits of these prisoners,

knowing they are ethnic German students

who were drafted into the Polish Army.

The withdrawal continues
into the next day.

Railway workers.

Firefighters.

On the morning of September 28th,

the German advance guard
marches into Poland's capital.

Barricades.

The main train station.

Bombed underground tracks.

The military headquarters in Warsaw.

Officers of two fronts face one another

as surrender terms are read out.

German troops march
across Pilsudski Square.

But at the city gates the rest
of a defeated army gather.

While those in power fled abroad

like cowards shirking their duty.

With man and horse and wagon,
the Lord has struck them down!