Title:EIN KAMPFTAG AN DER WESTFRONT : Aufnahmen aus dem Weltkrieg [Main Title]
Film Number:GWY 701
Other titles:A FIGHTING DAY ON THE WESTERN FRONT : pictures from the Great War [Translation]
Summary: Inspirational film combines actuality and training sequences from varied sources to create impression of a typical day's fighting on the Western Front, culminating in a German victory.
Description: Compilation of material from the period 1916-1918, apparently shot both on training grounds and on the battlefields of the Western front, shows the following sequence of events - columns of infantry and supplies moving up during winter, soldiers resting and by roadside in summer, French, British and American gunners firing, Germans in trenches firing at advancing enemy with rifles and machine guns, "French" soldiers pretending to fall dead a few yards from the German lines. German counterattack now commences - pioneers leave their trenches, cut barbed wire, hurl stick-bombs, lay a field telephone wire while the artillery opens up. Infantry clamber from a crater and advance with flamethrowers, while a British Mark IV tank, marked with an Iron Cross and named "ERNI", wheels around. This impression of a bloodless German triumph ends with film of French prisoners, including North African forces, being marched along past a camouflage screen, and with a view of British prisoners, some of whom shield their faces from the camera.
Alternative Title:A FIGHTING DAY ON THE WESTERN FRONT : pictures from the Great War [Translation]
Production Details: Reichsanstalt fur Film und Bild in Wissenschaft und Unterricht (Production company)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: German Army (regiment/service)
Keywords: armour, British - tank: Mark IV & [captured] & [impressed] (object name)
propaganda, German - inspirational (object name)
prisoners of war, British - surrender (object name)
prisoners of war, French - surrender (object name)
defences, German - emplacement: trenches (object name)
combat, German (object name)
combat [simulated], German (object name)
combat, Allied - artillery bombardment (object name)
operations, German military - movement (object name)
Germany (geography)
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W
Sound format: Silent
Soundtrack language: None
Title language: German
Subtitle language: German
Technical Details: Format: 16mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 345 ft; Running time: 9 mins
