WITH OUR BOYS IN FRANCE [Main Title]

Compilation, with partial soundtrack, of Gaumont US newsreels from 1916 to 1920.

(Reel 1) The film opens with unrelated scenes of the Western Front, mainly the Marne and Château-Thierry areas. Then Theodore Roosevelt beside the grave of his son Quentin. Behind-the-lines scenes of the Western Front, including US soldiers with captured German flame-throwers, and the Signal Corps. General Gérard, commanding French Eighth Army, decorates the US aviators, Captain Peterson, Lieutenant Eddie Rickenbacker and Lieutenant J A Meissner, while Major-General C R Edwards and his staff of 26th (not 20th) Division, and men of 94th Pursuit Squadron watch. Men of 305th Military Police groom their horses among "bomb-proof" sandbags. A salvage dump. A "German tank" (in fact a French Saint Chamond). A doctor takes a letter for a wounded soldier. Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, watches the passing out of the Class of 1918 from Annapolis Naval Academy. Back in France a M1918 tank demonstrates pushing over walls. A gas sentry and gas casualties at a first-aid post. Resting soldiers wash their clothes and hunt for lice. US Black troops (described as "these bronze warriors") sing to a banjo. An observation post of 'E' Company, 167th Infantry, in a wood - nearby another man of 42nd Division releases a carrier pigeon. Major-General A Cronkite and Brigadier-General E Babbit of 80th (Blue Ridge) Division meet in a trench. A machine gun post. Pits for 75mm guns ("heavy artillery"). Salvation Army girls hand out coffee and doughnuts in a trench. A sniper's post. An aerial view of training trenches (claimed as an attack). Josephus Daniels and Secretary of War Newton D Baker watch 6th Battle Squadron, led by USS New York, return to New York harbour in 1919. The Navy parades down 5th Avenue. A ship's bell at Pier 'A' in memory of the dead. Troopships, including the converted cruiser USS North Carolina, bring the troops home. At Great Lakes, Illinois, the end of flour rationing is celebrated by pie-eating. In Washington, Baker decorates Lieutenant-General March, his Chief of Staff, with the DSC. In San Francisco, Admiral Fullam and men of the Pacific Fleet open an "Exposition" of war trophies. A view of Amerongen, Holland, home of the ex-Kaiser. In New York 5,000 convalescent soldiers get a free matinee. Secretary of Commerce Wilson appeals for employment for veterans. Surplus Army mules and horses are sold at Camp Devens, and surplus DH9 aircraft in Washington. The Japanese delegate to Versailles, Baron Makino, calls in Washington. In 1916 President Wilson casts his vote in Princeton, looking over the college. In Philadelphia Mrs Wilson launches SS Quistconck, the first prefabricated ship (notice Franklin D Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy). Wilson sails on the SS George Washington for Versailles, passing the troopship SS Lapland. The battleship USS Pennsylvania and Newport News Class destroyers act as escort. (Reel 2) The winter and spring of 1916 in New England, showing the grain harvest. A gymkhana for the Canadian and British Red Cross in Westbury, New York. The British steamer SS Harpathian in a US port. A US fast patrol boat, SC154, on anti-submarine patrol finds a submarine (acted). The Navy guards the San Francisco Golden Gate. Members of the Foreign Press Section of the Creel Publicity Bureau leave New York for Europe. Portrait shot of Charles S Hart, Director of the Division of Films. In Washington, George Creel, Chairman of the Committee on Public Information, presents Italian journalists to President Wilson. In Chicago Amelita Galli-Curci and other Italian opera singers auction apples for charity. Ex-Ambassador Gerard opens a YMCA hut in Bryant Park, New York, with help from Ethel Barrymore. Other women take to war charities: in Venice, California, bathing girls with elephants sell War Savings Stamps; society women in Washington make bandages. War orphans are given old clothes. Women pose in "living posters". The contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink sings outside the Treasury Building. In Chicago an old woman has made an Allies-flag blanket for General Pershing's birthday. In Dunlap, California, Mono Indians learn Red Cross work. In Denver there is a Red Cross sale of calves. (At this point the film becomes silent) Women learn to plough, and in Chicago collect food for French refugees. A mobile kitchen in Boston. Irrigation in the San Joaquin Valley, California. More grain harvest, and women picking grapes in Florin, California. In New York Governor Whitman on Wall Street, with Mme Gill, encourages war loans. Convalescent Italian troops tour New York. In Chicago the Armenian national flag is raised for the first time. An artist paints war scenes for passers-by. Fund raising in Chicago. Women gas-mask makers go to the theatre in New York. In Oakland, California, the Carpenters' Union builds an Army clubhouse for nothing. Shipbuilders give demonstration boxing matches at lunchtime. In Chicago, Industrial Workers of the World leader "Big Bill" Haywood and one hundred others get 20 years hard labour and 10,000 dollars each in fines. A new Navy shipyard is opened in Oakland. In New York shipyard a ship is named after "the Lambs", the actors' club, for charity work. Marine Cadets in Alameda, California, at a flag-raising. Girls from Charleston Navy Yard learn rifle and pistol shooting. Marine Officer Cadets from Quantico pass out, march past the Potomac, and make a charge with mounted officers. Secretary Baker and General March open a Salvation Army hostel at Camp Dix, New Jersey, aided by Commander Evangeline Booth. Governor Richard I Manning of South Carolina is shown with his family at home in Columbia. The motion picture industry war effort. In Los Angeles, mock-ups of British tanks are used to encourage war donations: D W Griffith and Mary Pickford speak from the tops of the tanks. In Van Courtlandt Park, New York, cameras film a battle scene. In Los Angeles, Griffith, on-set with Lillian Gish and film crew, receives the Chevron of Honor for his war savings efforts. Madame Olga Petrova, the actress, sells war savings stamps in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In Oakland Mary Pickford welcomes returning troops. The celebrations for 4th July 1918 in Paris, France. French soldiers lead the way followed by US troops (note the French official cine-cameraman). The procession enters the Place de la Concorde. President Poincaré rides with Marshal Foch in a carriage down the Avenue Président Wilson.

16mm