Valuable Service

Although the title of this book is misleading, Mr. Stewart has performed a valuable service to researchers, filmmakers, and writers wishing to examine the visual images of World War I. Battlefilm is not about feature films, but rather a catalogue of footage, which the Army Signal Corps filmed before, during, and after the war of the Army’s activities.

The book is divided into two parts, the first “Military Operations” and the second “Civilian Activities.” Part I begins with “Army Scenes: 1914 and Prior” showing West Point cadets, troops taking target practice and other activities. However, as Stewart notes, some of the scenes were actually shot in 1916. The long section includes battlefield combat, and ends with a peace parade in London on July 19, 1919, in which General Pershing appeared and American troops marched.

Part II is much shorter. It includes brief sections titled “Personalities and Events,” “Industry,” and “Miscellaneous Activities.” President Wilson’s two trips to Europe, meeting troops, taking part in the Versailles peace conference, and his return to the U.S. comprise most of the first section. The other two sections show the manufacturing of war materials and civilian support of the war through bond drives and the burial of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

Stewart has based his book on the original finding aid compiled by a National Archivist, K. Jack Bauer, and published in 1957, titled Special List Number 14: List of World War I Signal Corps Films (Record Group 11). Until Stewart’s Battlefilm, it remained the basic source for locating World War I footage for 50 years. Stewart became familiar with the List while researching his book War Wings: Films of the First Air War. Ultimately, he recognized the need for an updated version of Bauer’s book, which had become difficult to find. Consequently, Stewart expanded the original book to include information he had discovered in the course of his research and described Battlefilm as the List “on steroids.”

Given the additional information he included, Stewart’s book has become the basic research tool for people working on the portrayal of the United States armed services in World War II. The films are clearly not documentaries, which convey a story of an actual event, more or less accurately. Rather the Signal Corps footage provides the starting point for documentarians and scholars wishing to see the Americans as they actually performed on the battlefield and on the home front. Stewart must be praised for providing such a valuable catalogue.