First Division troops of the American Expeditionary Forces get acquainted with machine guns at their training area.Gondrecourt, France, during World War 1. Several soldiers set up in firing position with a Maxim M1904 water-cooled machine gun. A soldier field strips a Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun and places its parts on a canvas spread out on the ground. He stands at attention when finished.
Troops of the First Division, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) pose in front of a building at their Gondrecourt training area in France, during World War 1. Six Stokes mortars are set up in a line on the ground in front of them, with unit flags fastened to them. Two soldiers adjust elevation of a Stokes mortar and then commence firing it rapidly. Another pair of soldiers are seen firing a Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun. They remove the gun and its tripod carriage, separately when done firing.
Film starts showing and American soldier atop a hill in France during World War I. He is hatless and looking through a periscopic telescope mounted on a tripod. Next, American troops are seen preparing defensive positions at the base of a slope. They are using picks and shovels. Not far behind them, in the background are buildings of a French village. Closeup of soldiers in their entrenchment. One wears a headset and kneels by a field communications device. A lieutenant, smoking a pipe, comes to him with a log book and hands him a paper dispatch to transmit. The soldier transmits the message using a telegrapher's key. The next scene shows two soldiers at another communications site, near a tall slender transmission pole, rigged up with guy wires.
Opening scene shows American troops in the far distance, moving across open terrain in France during World War I. Some are on a road closer to the camera position. Next, an American unit, with horses and wagons, is seen pausing to reorganize its gear and supplies. View, again, of the American troops in the far distance, with smoke rising from a shell strike near them. More views of shells striking and white smoke spreading low across the terrain. Troops on horeseback and in wagons, coming from the shelled area along the road below the camera position. Multiple shell bursts striking closer to the camera. Suddenly, American troops with their wagons begin to move the opposite direction along the road (towards the area being shelled). One shell strikes right on the road, and other nearby. Scene shifts to group of American soldiers firing a Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun.
During a lull, American soldiers help comrades wounded by German shelling during World War 1. in France. They support ambulatory soldiers and carry another on a stretcher, along a road past a caisson and dead horses (and possibly dead soldiers). Next, soldiers carry wounded on stretchers from a defensive position littered with debris, from enemy shelling. An officer stops to check a completely covered soldier (dead) lying on the ground. Medics in a protected gully treat wounded soldiers and then experience some difficulty placing them on litters into a field ambulance.
American troops served food at a field kitchen in France during World War I. Troops form chow-line and get their food. Scene shifts to a rustic wooden building serving as a local Headquarters. The date, "1916" is displayed in the wood on the porch roof overhang. Sentries at the entrance, salute officers as they exit the building. An American and two French officers are looking at a map and conferring in front of the building. More join the discussion. A closeup shows an aviator in flying garb, pointing with his arm as he holds and refers to the map. An American field grade officer in a side cap is listening intently. A French officer in steel helmet is behind him.
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