https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/50c7886a-a0eb-4f5f-a44d-d6387813a6cd Victory at Thermopylae is a 1950 film produced and directed by David Kurland that was part of a number of films produced in Europe during the Marshall Plan and shown throughout Europe to “tell the story” of U.S. participation in Europe’s post-war recovery. The film begins with two men walking four oxen pulling a plow through a field. A tractor pulls a plow down a field. Footage shows some of the mountains of Greece, including snow-capped peaks and rocky mountainsides. Farmers use hoes to till the soil (02:22). The film then shows the small town of Anthili with its church (02:55); the village is located between the sea and the famed site of Thermopylae. Footage shows the barren plain around the village—it is left fallow because of its alkali salt levels. Two U.S. jeeps drive through a field, and four Greek farmers watch the American contingent pull up. The Americans, led by Walter Packard, take a sample of the alkali soil (04:15). At a University of Athens laboratory (04:42), Packard tests the soil. The Americans sit with the president of Anthili and talk with the townspeople about how to use rice to remove the alkali salt (05:19). The Americans and a few Greek men survey the surrounding fields (06:28). Heavy equipment from the Greek Ministry of Agriculture dig earth, as do men from the village, creating irrigation canals and ditches. A dragline excavator helps dig an irrigation canal. Irrigation water is pumped out of the fields’ irrigation system and down to the sea (07:44). The rice paddies are flooded (08:13), and a man wades through the water tossing rice. Three farmers sit on the side of a canal and wait to see if the rice will grow. There is a good shot of the young rice plants (08:57), followed by a panoramic shot of the fields of mature plants. The paddies are drained, and salt lines on the canal walls show the successful leaching of the salt (09:38). Two men examine the rice crop. Several of the town’s farmers walk along a village street (10:11). A combine harvester drives through the field, harvesting the rice (10:31). Men walk behind the harvester and haul off the sacks of rice once filled. Two men load the bagged rice onto a wagon. There is a good shot of Anthili (11:20) and footage of women standing around a group of younger women dancing to celebrate the harvest. A dozen men sit around a table outside of what appears to be a café (12:28), next to a new street sign named in honor of Walter Packard. Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. We collect, scan and preserve 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have films you'd like to have scanned or donate to Periscope Film, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the link below. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrA7pSLImhI Mirrored from Periscope Film (https://www.youtube.com/@PeriscopeFilm) Thu, 11 Jun 2026 06:27:37 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://peertube.dngr.us https://peertube.dngr.us/lazy-static/avatars/41a6fee9-7f57-42d0-a5fc-5db4f1af2e31.png https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/50c7886a-a0eb-4f5f-a44d-d6387813a6cd All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://peertube.dngr.us/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.