SA battery of British artillerymen firing 18 pounder field pieces at German forces in the Hindenburg Line, during World War 1. Change of scene shows British soldiers at side of a road as wagons of French refugees and children on foot and with bicycles, flee the combat zone. British troops, horses, vehicles,and a heavy mortar (covered) move through center of a town choked with departing refugees. Views of ammunition train moving across open fields. Stacks of heavy artillery shells at a munitions dump. Wrecked guns and equipment at the front. (WWI. WW1)
Opening slate identifies Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, Commander of British Forces, and the Right Honorable Arthur J. Balfour, British Foreign Secretary, meeting and conferring in France, during World War 1. They are seen seated side by side on a bench in a park-like setting.
Huge numbers of German 7.7 cm artillery field pieces (Feldkanones) and other artillery of various kinds, captured by Canadian forces during a battle in World War 1. Camera pans over the guns, arranged in neat rows by type, in a large storage area. Shells for the artillery are also arranged in rows on the ground in front of the weapons. Also seen on the ground are rows of machine guns. A British officer steps amongst the captured military weapons.
Palestinian workers loading bulk supplies onto British Army trucks, lined up, bumper to bumper, in the desert, during World War 1. A supervising British officer is seen briefly. Similarly, Palestinians loading British Army supplies into horse-drawn carts, at a British military encampment in the desert. As loaded carts begin to drive away, Stacked sandbags and tents can be seen in the background. A Brtish soldier appears briefly as carts leave. Next, a British soldier poses with his camel. He demonstrates how docile the animal is, by placing his arm into camel’s mouth. Palestinians are nest seen with camels at a watering hole, before they begin travel. Then, British Army soldiers are seen astride camels as they make their way in a column across the desert. A column of British Army Vauxhall 25hp motorcars moves along a desert road, of sorts, between rock outcroppings. (Preceding Slate states,” it takes a lot of gas to haul water for the men.”)
A French soldier walks through bomb craters and devastation in a Battle of the Somme World War I battlefield in France. Wrecked trees in the field. Shell wrecked trenches. View of trenches from above. Ruins of a building and ruins of the bombed out church at Esnes France. Wide shot of barren landscape scarred and devastated by bombing and battle of World War I.
Aviation cadets of U.S. Army Air Service or Aviation Section of U.S. Signal Corps undergo aviation training in the United States before wartime deployment during World War 1. Cadets march in uniforms. They examine a biplane and work on it. They observe an airplane engine running and learn about it. They sit perched over a painted mock aerial landscape and take notes or a test noting features of the landscape.