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Title:THE WORLD'S GREATEST STORY - EPISODE 13 [Main Title]
Film Number:IWM 420-25+26
Other titles:
Summary: A thematic treatment of the British involvement in the last months of the war on the Western Front, 1918.
Description: (Reel 25) The episode starts with 'Justice'. The opening states that this was "the great final offensive, in which the whole might of Britain's arms was concentrated, with an overwhelming force, upon one visible object... from the bases they marched in endless columns, with stern-set lips and proudly beating hearts into that maw of death and desolation". British troops move across no man's land with shells bursting. Damaged villages, including Grévillers, are shown. More of the advance. A dressing station in a sunken road. A large mine crater. Mules used as water-carriers. A German observation post disguised as a house. Guns and Highland troops advance up to the front and German prisoners are escorted back. Transport and soldiers cross a temporary bridge. British troops in La Bassée (tinted red). Sappers cross a damaged bridge on the La Bassée Canal. A temporary bridge is being built. (Reel 26) A wrecked village, wounded (including Germans) on stretchers being given food and water, and one having his leg bandaged. Scenes of devastation including the ruins of Lens. A 12-inch naval howitzer firing on a railway carriage. Traction engines carrying troops. Labour battalions constructing a railway track. British troops putting out fires in Cambrai just after its capture. Meanwhile "the Navy never ceased to harass the enemy on the seas, until at last he was rendered powerless" (actually showing the Italian Navy: fast patrol boats, cruisers in line and the battleship Giulio Cesare firing a broadside.)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army (regiment/service)
Keywords: propaganda, British - inspirational (object name)
01/3(4-15).9 (event)
France (geography)
Belgium (geography)
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W (part Tinted)
Sound format: Silent
Soundtrack language: None
Title language: English
Subtitle language: English
Technical Details: Format: 35mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 2
Footage: 2076 ft; Running time: 35 mins
Notes: Production etc: see Notes to Episode 1, IWM 420/01+02
Summary: most of the material in this episode comes from the series AUGUST OFFENSIVE and SEPTEMBER OFFENSIVE. See in particular IWM 116, IWM 322, IWM 325, IWM 332, IWM 338, IWM 339 and IWM 393. For the naval material see IWM 1163
Technical: this episode is held on reels IWM 420-25 and IWM 420-26
