From the Munich Agreement to the Outbreak of World War II
About This Footage
Reel 3 of The World at War (1942) presents pivotal events that set the stage for global war. It opens with the Spanish Civil War, where German and Italian backing for General Franco’s forces previewed the coming conflict. The reel then highlights the 1938 Munich Agreement, as Neville Chamberlain, Edouard Daladier, Benito Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler conceded the Sudetenland to Germany in a failed attempt at peace. Hitler ridicules President Roosevelt’s peace appeal in the Reichstag, while Hermann Göring and Foreign Minister Ribbentrop prepare the Nazi-Soviet Pact. The reel culminates in Germany’s 1939 invasion of Poland, featuring Luftwaffe bombing raids and overwhelming German military power, marking the beginning of World War II in Europe.