AllMovie

As the first major war to come along since cinema's inception at the end of the 19th century, World War I was almost lovingly documented on celluloid, unfortunately, most of the footage that was shot has been lost. In the first half of this film, British men are shown being recruited, munitions are shown being made, and King George V reviews the troops as they head off to the front. The highlight of this section is the destruction of a German blockhouse. The second half focuses on the British Navy, with battleships shown guarding the North Sea. While not the most exciting World War I news footage, at least it was clearly authentic; a number of films that made it over to the States during this time contained obviously fake battlefield scenes.