October 1946, an Allied engineer unit with a mix of British and US uniforms and equipment does its bit for peace, blowing up leftover Nazi bunkers along the Siegfried Line in France. Polish-language newsreel, possibly French or Polish engineers.

We couldn’t figure out ow to embed the video, so you’ll have to follow the link:

http://www.repozytorium.fn.org.pl/?q=pl/node/4894

Seriously, does language matter when you’re watching guys blow big stuff up?

Here’s the key points of the film, po-polski:

Opis sekwencji
00:00:01:00 Wielki betonowy bunkier.
00:00:03:00 Wnętrze, tunel.
00:00:04:18 Dynamit.
00:00:07:07 Przed wejściem do fortyfikacji kilku żołnierzy alianckich, niosą skrzynki z dynamitem.
00:00:09:21 Żołnierz podpala lont i ucieka.
00:00:14:06 Wybuch.
00:00:17:06 Zapalony lont.
00:00:19:04 Bunkry. Wybuchy.
00:00:23:21 Bunkier, widoczne zabudowania.
00:00:25:12 Żołnierze detonują wybuch.
00:00:29:16 Bunkier, miasteczko, kościół. Detonowanie wybuchu. Wybuch.
00:00:40:06 Napisy końcowe: “FILM POLSKI”.

And here’s our meatball translation:

Time and Sequence
00:00:01:00 Big concrete bunker.
00:00:03:00 Entrance tunnel.
00:00:04:18 Dynamite.
00:00:07:07 Several Allied soldiers place dynamite in the bunker.
00:00:09:21 Soldier lights the fuze and runs. (This must be staged, because the cameraman would have been running, too! -Ed).
00:00:14:06 Explosion.
00:00:17:06 Lit fuze.
00:00:19:04 Bunkers; explosions.
00:00:23:21 Bunker near other buildings.
00:00:25:12 Soldiers set off an explosion.
00:00:29:16 Bunker in a city with church. Explosion set off. Another explosion.
00:00:40:06 end titles: “Polish Film”.

There are quite a few other interesting films at that site, which is some kind of national film archive, but you need a little Polish to get around.

This entry was posted in The Past is Another Country on by Hognose.

About Hognose

Former Special Forces 11B2S, later 18B, weapons man. (Also served in intelligence and operations jobs in SF).

Chuck

When I was a child growing up over there I used to play in those blown up bunkers. The good old days of playing with stuff that would now make you cringe.

archy

Anybody know how you say *Fire in the hole* in Polish? I suspect a Google translation of those exact words would not convey the idiomatic meaning.

I used to know how to say *Give me another good Polish beer and a cute blonde Polish girl* but that was a long time ago. A REAL long time ago….

[FYI, Some of those GROM guys have got REALLY cute sisters….]

Al T.

Reminds me of one of the above ground bunkers (abandoned) on the south west side of Grafenwoehr Training Area. Back in the late ’80’s, it was intact and rumor had it, that several attempts at explosive destruction met with failure.

Simon

We still have a number of the Flak towers in Vienna. It was apparently too difficult to destroy them without flattening half of the district. One has been converted into a water zoo full of fish. Good place to take the kids on a rainy afternoon.