Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

FILM EVALUATIONS by L. C. Larson and Carolyn Guss World War I: The War Years (Coronet Film s. Coronet Building, Chicago 1, Illinois) 13 minutes, 16mm, sound, black and white, 1960. $75. Teacher's guide available. Description Second in a series of three films on the first World War, World War I: The War Years traces events from the invasion of Belgium, following Germany's declaration of war on Russia and France, to the negotiations at Compiegne. It emphasizes the use of trench warfare with its resultant fouryear deadlock and describes the conflict of 1914-1918 as "total war." Like its companion films it utilizes a conversation between a high school boy and his uncle, whose narrative provides continuity for the graphics and the newsreel excerpts which comprise most of the film's pictorial material. By using Belgium as the natural route to France, Germany had hoped to strike a lightning blow against Russia's aUy. But she had not anticipated so immediate a reaction from a "shocked world" and particularly from England who soon made good her pledge to the invaded neutral. Germany's offensive was stopped at the Battle of the Mame, and with its troops withdrawn to the Aisne a stalemate began. French and English forces on one side and German on the other dug long lines of trenches as protection against the new types of weapons which now prohibited use of the old frontal assault. Meanwhile Austria was able to do little against Russia, even though the latter had already been hard hit by the Germans. In 1915 and 1916 there was an allied "sideshow" in Turkey and a similar campaign by the Central Powers in Russia but both were failures. Naval engagements in the North and the South Adantic and land fighting in Africa, China and the Pacific Islands, while not as sustained as in Eiu-ope, gave the war a world character. The airplane and other terrifying advances in me«S»anization also made it something of a total war, with production on the home front almost as important as efforts on the fighting fronts. Germany's resort to submarine warfare stemmed from her futile effort to break the British blockade in the Batde of Jutland, and it was her great initial success with this craft that crystallized American public opinion against the Central Powers. Arrival of United States troops in France came just in time to combat the Central Power forces recently released from the eastern front. Warweary and revolution-torn Russia had dropped out of the fighting and Communists, whose government had replaced the short-lived liberal democracy, made a separate peace with Germany. Rid of an old foe but faced now with a new and more energetic one, Germany decided in 1918 on a grand offensive to end the stalemate. But three attempts that summer failed, and the Allies took the initiative in such memorable batties as Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thierry. With Bulgaria, Turkey and Austria-Hungary out of the war, Germany surrendered as the Kaiser was overthrown, and terms were arranged at Compiegne. Appraisal As the uncle and his nephew look at a photo of the now-famous railroad car and recall its role in World War II, the youth suggests that the first World War did not resolve all the conflicts which had combined to produce the conflagration. As to why it did not, his uncle reminds him, is material for another whole conversation, and this is filmed in World War I: Making the Peace. There are also references to their first conversation filmed in World War I: Background of the Conflict, wherein they examine the factors operating between the Franco-Prussian War and the "spark" at Sarajevo. Many thought of this incident at the time as nothing more than the start of another six-month Balkan War. How it rapidly assumed world-wide proportions and why the subsequent fighting lasted so long is remarkably well explained in this carefully organized middle film, now imder review. One does not anticipate a detailed and complete description of such a conflict in a film of this length. But its well selected points of emphasis, the convincing tone in which the uncle reminisces, and the choice and quality of visuals provide a thumbnail yet vivid sketch of the 1914-1918 events. Certainly such a treatment is needed, at least by younger secondary students. They frequentiy confuse causes, campaigns and personalities if the two great wars, and find it hard, even with carefully guided reading, to conceive of the second as but a continuation of the first. For such pupils, prone to get lost in a sea of details, this overall presentation is interesting as well as useful. Those who were teen-agers during World War II may find interest in the From Coronet's "World War 1: The War Years" Educational Screen and Aidiovisual Guide April. 1%1 187