 The latest weapons, coupled with the fighting skill of the American soldier, stand ready on the alert all over the world to defend this country. View the American people against aggression. This is the Big Picture, an official television report to the nation from the United States Army. Now to show you part of the Big Picture, here is Sergeant Stuart Queen. At no time in history has the United States had more foreign commitments than today. Through NATO, CETO, and numerous other alliances, we are pledged to take defensive action in case of aggression in most areas of the world. In the United States Army lies our main military strength on the land. Today's Big Picture deals with one of the Army's key components, a division in one of the world's potential trouble spots, Europe. From the Sea of Japan to the Caribbean, from the Red Sea to the English Channel will be found the men and weapons of the United States Army. At hundreds of widespread bases throughout the world, units are stationed to back up our pledges of aid to our allies. The United States, being a democracy bound in alliance with other free nations, cannot strike over any frontier in attack. American divisions facing armies of dictatorship must be prepared to join battle on the defensive wherever an attack may come. At war's end in Europe, 1945, United States and Soviet armies met in central Germany. Germany then lay shattered, its cities gutted, its industry a shambles, its government nonexistent. American servicemen found a national graveyard. But like the Phoenix, Germany has been reborn from her own ashes. The Germany the American soldier sees today is a nation rebuilt, re-energized, prosperous and hard-working, producing more goods than it did even before the war. This recovery was not achieved unaided. Four billion dollars of Marshall Plan funds helped immeasurably. Because of this transformation, America's role in Germany has altered too. The job of conqueror and occupier has passed into history. We no longer govern the Germans. They govern themselves under a democratic regime of their own choosing, at least in the western half of the country. The remainder is communist territory. But by no stretch of the imagination can it be said that recovery has been complete in the Federal Republic of the West. The scars of war still serve as reminders. Also, prices are high. A big hindrance to recovery, the iron curtain. The constant influx of homeless, jobless refugees from the communist territory adds a heavy burden to the economy of the West. The flow has been long and steady. Then too, the communists frequently resort to economic blackmail. The notorious blockade of Berlin is but one instance of attempted strangulation. America's response was positive. The airlift was expensive in material and lives, but it saved thousands from starvation and left no doubt in the minds of all Germans that our intentions were just. Our desire to help them, firm. For a time, the communists too were convinced. The blockade was lifted. But periodically, through barge and trucking barriers, the communist rulers have harassed the West. Backing them up are the hordes of the Soviet Red Army, the largest standing force of men in the world today, a constant threat to peace. The Soviet Air Force is probably as large as our own today. Its fighter planes as modern. Its navy has grown to become a first-class power, second only to our own in size, with a submarine fleet even larger than Americans. It is to meet this threat that we must maintain our soldiers in Germany and anywhere else in the world where our treaties and alliances demanded of us. For the Seventh Army in Europe, Germany is the frontier. Men who have completed their tours of duty are replaced by well-trained men fresh from the United States to keep the authorized force unweakened. The Second Armored Division is a key component in the total strength of the Seventh Army. Privates butchack and burn, replacements fresh from the United States, or entering a strange and foreign world but which at the same time is a familiar one. Neither speaks a word of German, neither has ever been beyond the borders of the United States before. But the men and the routines they meet at the Second Division's headquarters in Bodkruznack are fully familiar. Moreover, they are joining a unit with proper pride in itself, with high esprit de corps. The room butchack and burn will share as a comfortable one. However, it will serve only as a home base for men on duty in Germany spend anywhere from one-third to one-half of their time on maneuvers or in training in the field. The Second Division is a ready outfit. For the replacement, the transition from home to foreign service is made smooth by customary army routine. Private butchack is a specialist, a tank gunner. He is acquainted with a wide variety of tanks and weapons, but his job now will be to know one particular tank inside and out. He will learn its individual peculiarities, its own special temperament. Men of the Second Armored insist that tanks have individual personalities. The good tank team knows and appreciates this. Even though the tank itself packs enormous firepower, the tanker does not neglect his own weapons. The 45 automatic is to the tanker what the M1 is to the infantrymen. Not all the men of the Seconds share the same barracks. Many of those with families live in apartment buildings in totally American communities. Throughout Western Germany are more than 300,000 Americans, the largest American population outside the United States. The needs of a soldier's wife and children are met with special facilities. Justice's own needs are met with top weapons and equipment. Servicing the civilian requirements of the defenders of West Germany are all the stores and gas stations which would be found in a typical community back in the United States. It's a pretty safe assumption that if a housewife in Portland, Maine or Oregon were suddenly transported to one of the quartermaster core supermarkets in the Bodd-Kruznack or Kaiserslautern areas, she'd be surprised, naturally, but she'd feel right at home doing the family's weekly marketing. Of course, not all the housefraus in the American community started life in the United States. It's only natural that a number of men who arrive to serve in Germany as bachelors leave with wives of local birth. Appropriately, they are married to the strains of Wagner's wedding march from Lowendrin. It's also natural that when the tankers of the Second Armored or of any other outfit receive passes or leaves, they set about seeing as much of this foreign land as possible. The average soldier is as avid a tourist as any civilian. This makes perfect sense. If a man is going to spend several months of his life serving in his country's defense while in a foreign land, it's only sensible that he learn as much about his place of duty as possible. In Germany, he has roaming ground that has been the joy of civilian tourists for generations. The city of Hamburg, town and hamlet, is packed with historical interest. Many of the homes occupied even today were built in the years before Columbus set sail on his historic voyage. Colorful festivals and spectacles take place the year-round in cities stretching from Munich to Hamburg. For the soldier with a taste for fine art, Germany's many renowned art galleries provide rewarding experiences. A tour here offers the viewer what else in the world. Germany and Germans have long played important roles in the history of the Christian religion in the western world. For the tourist soldier, there are the magnificent cathedrals of Cologne and Ulmen, or the simple but impressive mountain chapels of southern Germany. Here, perhaps the American serviceman on duty with the 7th Army can best reflect upon and appreciate why he serves where he does. From the outside, a church card inside may not look quite like the familiar church at home, but the fundamental character of a place of worship is the same the world over, or wherever churches are allowed to exist. Germans and Americans share a love for music. The scores of Germany's great composers are played by service musicians wherever Americans are on duty, fostering international goodwill through common interests. To some, it may seem like a busman's holiday to pick up a gun or fishing rod, but the woods and streams of Germany are bound with fish and game which are a constant lure to sportsmen, civilian and soldier alike. Familiarity between German civilians and American servicemen breeds not contempt, but friendship. Two sportsmen sharing a common interest and pleasure in the woods and fields of Germany may achieve more international accord than a dozen diplomatic pouches. In the clear lakes and towering mountains, German swimming and even mountain climbing are there for the taking by the soldier-tourist. Baseball is becoming a familiar sight, although soccer is the German national sport. Army teams frequently compete with German clubs as our national pastime grows more popular every day. For men on leave less athletically inclined, rest camps are maintained by the army at places like Garmisch and Bechtesgarten. These then are but some of the advantages and recreations available to Americans in western Germany. But soldiering is the proper business of the soldier, and that is what the men of the 2nd division do the year round. The bulk of the division is on duty round the clock. To keep the men on their toes, maneuvers are secretly planned to be sprung on the division at a moment's notice. Constant readiness is the key word, for if west Germany is ever attacked, there is little likelihood of warning. We want no Pearl Harbor in Europe. Troops in Germany anchor men on the NATO defense chain which stretches all the way to the Middle East. Laxity or weakness here would endanger the whole defensive network. Hence, when the maneuver notice is posted, the men of the 2nd Armored Division are ready to move. While they load their multi-ton vehicles for simulated combat, other units in the area are also preparing to play their parts in the maneuver. The tools of the 2nd run all the way from the 45 and a bayonet on the end of a rifle and a leader gun. The ability to move this power fast is important. Weeks of planning have gone into the maneuver. Now orders must be executed instantly. The Armored Division of today operates on two simple principles. Hit the enemy as hard as possible with as much as possible while protecting our men to maximum. The German border to the east is 300 miles long. Its defense calls for a lot of manpower, a lot of protection A short time after the maneuver notice was posted, the whole 2nd Armored Division is ready to roll from camp, geared for action. Among all the weapons being revolutionized for the battlefield of today or tomorrow, the tank ranks high for the tank's intrinsic qualities make its survival possibilities in an atomic attack a good bet. Moreover, the tank is highly mobile, another quality that raises its stature in the atomic age. The sight of these lumbering monsters has become a familiar part of the everyday scene for Germans living in the area. But the spectacle never fails to bring out the populations of neighboring towns as the division rolls toward the maneuver zone. Meanwhile, the huge 280-millimeter guns are converging on the maneuver scene. These guns can fire either atomic or conventional 360-pound shells. The motto of these artillery men is have gun will travel. Moving up also are the honest Johns, the free flight rockets which can be adapted to carry atomic warheads. Never before in American history has a peacetime army been so strenuously trained. Men of the 2nd spend more than half their time in the field on maneuvers like this or on training exercises. Less emphasis is put on garrison duty than in years past, but a great deal more emphasis is put on the basic job of fighting. The woods are becoming as familiar as the barracks at camp. Men who don't know from one day to the next at times whether or not they'll be spending the night in a heated room or under the canvas of a leaf-spotted tent sometimes jokingly refer to themselves as field happy. This observation contains three basic truths. The men of the 2nd know how to live in the field. They are half the time in the field ready to fight and if the time comes when they will have to fight an earnest, they will find themselves in familiar surroundings applying their weapons and training in the woods and in the fields they know so well. After a night in the field the tankers of the 2nd armored rise to face the new duties of the day. They are given no timetable on which to fight. As they go about their routines in the Bivouac area no one but the maneuver director knows when the simulated attack will start. The division may camp here another day another two days or for just another hour. Its alertness and readiness to respond will be tested fully. At the Bivouac command post the division officers study maps of the area. Intelligence reports have been coming in on the location and activities of the other American units which will play the role of the aggressors. They of course have one great advantage the ability to attack suddenly unexpectedly wherever they will. In addition to setting the time of battle for their convenience the aggressors will also be able to select the place. This is very much like playing cards with a stacked deck. Every booby trap every man dug in at an unexpected point is a marked car. Unfortunately these very same conditions would exist if an attack were actually launched against West Germany. In as many respects as possible the simulated battle conditions are made as realistic as possible. Just as they would be at a time of real alert religious services are performed for men of all faiths. All pray God that such an eventuality may never be realized. Now when the men of the second armored and the least expected the start of the attack is heralded. The aggressors atomic artillery. The defender's reaction is immediate and lethal. The honest John Rocket is sent winging its way toward the heart of the enemy's forces. Now that the enemy have revealed their whereabouts the men of the defending forces bring their own 280 millimeter gun into play. To move the gun into position set it up for action low in a name takes less than 30 minutes before firing. For the maneuver of course conventional shells are used. The enormous chess game has begun. The battle has been joined. Now the problem is to force the enemy into isolated pockets of resistance and once bottled to attack him with intensified force. Regular artillery pieces are now brought into play for this concentrated bombardment. The aggressors had launched their attack against friendly troops garrisoned in the target town of Schwannberg an abandoned village in the maneuver area. The mission of the second armored will be to cut off the town and route or destroy the aggressors. The tankers must approach Schwannberg over an open plane which provides no cover for the vehicles. Soon a position above the town has been secured. Now personnel carriers bearing the foot soldiers are ordered up. These new vehicles bring the infantryman right up to the front with maximum safety deliver him fast and untired from a long hike. The combination of simulated atomic bombardment and conventional artillery fire leads the town to ruins. But experience has shown that some of the enemy will survive until they are wiped out or captured and the land controlled neither the battle nor the war can be considered won. This is the job of the foot soldier and Schwannberg proper is the most ticklish part of the maneuver. Overconfidence on the part of the officers directing the attack underestimating the strength of the aggressors still dug in in the town could lead to costly casualties. As the infantry move in under cover of the protecting tanks the individual units learn to operate swiftly and efficiently as members of a smoothly functioning team under battle conditions as realistic as possible. Here the lessons of cover and concealment are instilled forcefully. The wisdom of taking advantage of existing obstacles is learned through experience. The occurrence of atomic tactical weapons and military arsenals does not alter the basic fact that only ground troops using the old proven techniques of firepower plus mobility are capable of taking and holding the land. Ground blasted by atomic firepower must still be physically occupied by troops before it can be considered secure. And of course if atomic weapons are not used on any future battlefield these basic facts are all the more important in application. And once shaken by heavy fire the aggressors troops and positions must be cleaned up before the enemy can recover. Even after the battle the enemy's troops are a continuing problem. Those who have not been wiped out must be driven into the open and disarmed. The taking and handling of prisoners of war are important techniques which are learned as part of the total operation. The performance of every tank crew, platoon and company in the division is carefully evaluated throughout the maneuver. Mistakes made now can be pointed out and corrected before a later slip up which might prove fatal to an individual to the division or to the seventh army's strength as a whole. The respite after battle is welcomed eagerly by the tired and thirsty tankers and infantrymen. But the pause can be only a brief one. Vehicles must be cleaned. Any damage repaired and the vehicles returned to combat readiness. No one knows when the next surprise maneuver will come or a real battle should the communist forces of the east decide to annex the new federal republic by force of arms. West Germany today is building up an army to protect itself. But the day of complete military self dependence is still in the distant future. Therefore we must continue probably for some years to come to support armed forces of greater strength than ever before in our peacetime history. Through units like the Second Armored Division we are offering both our allies and our potential enemies, firm proof that we stand ready to back up our pledge to maintain peace with military might if attacked. For the men on duty with a typical US army division service in Germany as we've just seen can be an interesting and rewarding experience. But more important their very presence west of the Rhine has undoubtedly brought rewards to every American citizen in the past by helping to safeguard our national security at home. Moreover we hope their presence will continue to bring the same rewards in the future. Now this is Sergeant Stuart Queen inviting you to be with us again next week for another look at your army in action on The Big Picture. The Big Picture is a weekly television report to the nation on the activities of the army at home and overseas produced by the Signal Corps Pictorial Center presented by the United States Army in cooperation with this station. You too can be an important part of The Big Picture. You can proudly serve with the best equipped the best trained the best fighting team in the world today the United States Army.