Transcripts For CSPAN3 On The Firing Line With The Germans 20170416

One hour and 15 minute feature film. The film received positive reviews and screened widely in the United States despite the fact that it depicted a favorable view of the germans. Whats next, learn about healthy restored bylm was the library of congress. And then listen to two scholars discuss how it was done. This program is about two hours. My name is cooper graham. At the moment i am retired but i used to work at the library of congress and while i was here, among the fascinating things ive found buried in the vaults, and there is a lot of stuff buried in the vulture, is a film and there is a lot of stuff buried in the vaults, is the film on the firing line with the germans. I think it reflects very well what was going on with the United States, where the United States was looking with suspicion at this war in europe and wondering how much it wanted to get involved and how much it could stay out and whether circumstances would allow it to do so. Jim i am a scholar retired from a Computer Systems career. I wanted to research my family history. I was looking into a journalist who was a workhorse for the german news stories and world war i. Researching him, i came across his byline and saw there had been a film in 1915 and that he had praised the photographer for getting real war pictures. And Wilbert Toubro did not start journalism until until 1909 and was finally at the chicago examiner in chicago. And eventually was an independent contractor. And shortly was the best reporter to be sent on assignments like the mexican troubles. In the background research, i wanted to see a film to see what they were witnessing on the east front and it was hard to research because he changed careers a lot. After about 10 years, he was still i was still working on the research and i was going to write an article and so i was organizing notes when low and behold i learned this, i read this fabulous article and was glad to her somebody else was interested in and i contacted him. With total ignorance to the fact that this was a lost film. Nobody knew what the contact was. Through contact with cooper, he gave me the magic key and the library of congress, buried in paper from the original copyright filing was a few small images from the original frames which allowed us to document the real content and in bringing in a coauthor, he brought in a lot of missed pieces of film who working with the library of congress encouraged them to recreate. I am george. It has been my job for the past 30some years to take care of the nitrate film collection of the library of congress. What that means is these are the films made from the beginning of cinema to about on nitrate film 1950 stock. The reason it is different is because nitrate tends to deteriorate and more importantly it is highly flammable. So it is important for us to maintain not only the film but the atmosphere it is stored in to give them long life and keep them from blowing up. I am a preservation specialist in the moving image section. My duty is ensuring the physical integrity of the collection. Handling and storage. I concentrate on the safety side. Maintaining the circulating film loan program and as assignments on special projects whether it is assisting in reconstruction of research or roger x. Into the projects. So on the firing line with the germans, where does that come from . Why do we still have it . It is just one of this fascinating things. From what i have learned. Film some years ago from the son of one of the , original backers of the film had founded in his fathers wine cellar. It was some reels of film. 40 it had been sitting on a shelf and several attempts had been made to put it together but there was no paperwork. So it just kind of sat there. The nitrate vaults in ohio were at Wrightpatterson Air Force base and i thought, what are all of these reels . What is this . I am so glad that finally we were able to put it all back together because it is one of those things that should not have survived. You know, there is no reason for it to survive. A wine cellar is not a good place to store a film, particularly a nitrate film. The fact that it survived all these years and probably what amp. Down d how do we get to the point from it sitting in storage to now where it is available for the public to view . I think the library, at least, people in the library had always wanted to see this film put back together. I know cooper has always been very interested in it. For myself, from a viewpoint of it being a film, i was always interested in it. I never thought i would be able to see it put back together. But when the script, as it was, was put together by james cooper and presented to us, that is when the time came plus the time had come when we were able to do high enough levels of scanning of these film reels that they could be edited together digitally rather than having to try to make a phone copy and edit it that way. Because there was such a huge volume of material, the cost would have been astronomical. In doing it digitally, it was easier for us to put things in place or say, here is a better version we will use this. So without Digital Technology i do not think this project would have happened. I guess it was two years altogether. Yes. That is just the physical putting it together. That does not count all of the prework. It takes a lot of time and effort. What is the value for the American Public . Why is it worth it . One of my sort of Guiding Principles and actually the first place i saw it was on the wall of the air force museum and in and it is a saying those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it. So i thought it was important for us to make it available for people to see so we learn from it. Whether or not we do learn from it is not my problem but i want to make sure i do my part for people to have the ability to see this other part of history that is not in the books, you know. Whether it be this film or a film about a laundry or dairy, or newsreels. Newsreels were some memorable, so many of them are lost but there were a lot of interesting stories besides the major one. Just to see what we did, how we talked, how we walked, all these major things that we do not forget. Because our society is so disposable. We were at the point now where it seems like people are disposable. That is bad. I want to make sure all of that, as much as we can carry, is still there. I think particularly the refugee references reinforce this idea of history repeating itself. We are looking at different scenes of the refugees. And going home at night and watching the news and reading the paper with the refugees, different refugees from different parts of the world best nonetheless, human but, nonetheless, this human affection and political actions that cause the regular populace ends up having to endure and figure out how to deal with. This is repeating itself. Almost 100 years to the day, we were looking at the same scenes we were seeing in the news every night. That was really shocking. This is their borough durboroughs film. As you will see in the first film segment, he rarely missed an opportunity for self promotion. It only came about because of his initiative. Many asked him to go abroad and he was the top photo journalist. There he is in the spotlight. I think you can already sense a certain kind of hardcharging tension about him. This is the cameraman. He always looked a little be wilderness but game. There he is with a cigar. Both of the guys had a cigar habit. But he looked affable. This really documented in his trip to europe. His trip to europe. How did they come about. He was commissioned to moonlight as long as he paid for extra cost and he met some chicago businessman and convince them to fund it and then went around purchasing cameras and equipment and here he is going abroad. This is about the time the lusitania was sunk, so submarines were very much on everybodys mind. And the only ones that ran were between new york and holland. Stutzs the famous bearcat. This is the lamborghini of its time. A wonderful car. One just sold in california i think for 595,000. And that was durbruroughs personality. It had set the land speed record and auto race about the year before. It was a hot car. And i think he realized the film and the car would help him get access to the individuals he wanted to film and interview. He was very good at projecting his personae and had a definite flamboyance to him. So, was world war i a really big news item in newspapers at the time in the United States . It was. Obviously, the official position of wilson was neutrality. We had a tendency to stay out of foreign affairs, at least European Affairs which seemed to always be mixed up. And, there was concern about trying to get involved by several different groups of citizenry. What are we saying here . This is ambassador gerard. He turned out to be very pro british. President wilson did not very much like him. He did a very good job of getting americans out of their once we started the war. The ambassadors were only to give input. Eyes, ears, and to implement whatever was put into play. Franz max was interesting here. Max was the first leader of the why my republic Weimar Republic which a lot of people never forgave him for, but i think he was a good fellow. Why would durburough and the newspaper cover the war from the germans and viewpoint. In the midwest, there was a lot of progerman sentiment. I will not say everybody was but there were a lot of germans and scandinavians, especially the germans, happen to be on the progerman side. There was a large irish voice in some of the big cities like milwaukee and so the feeling in the midwest was very different than on the east coast, which tended to have the most proally sentiment. I think one of the reasons was the germans could get the german side of their story told because they did not feel the New York Times and so on was doing most for them. And german propaganda was not very good get, either. By the time, seven months into the war, there were a large number of casualties. Soldiers, if you to use, what not, you will see some of that in i think it is henrietta set up the home of the blind in did hospital work. She became very famous. She was married to a very famous architect. She was originally italian and italy had just entered the war on the allied side. She did work for the german wounded. And after the war, it was turned over to the German Government and i think it is still in existence. Here is Alexander Hamilton and miss jane adams. There she is on the right. Three extremely powerful women. It is funny, as jim said, that shot you just saw is probably the most famous shot that has come out of this. So jane addams . Who was she . Jane addams ran h for europeans to get integrated into ourull hous society. E she did a lot of effort in the piece movement. Her reputation was so important she was invited to be the cochair of the peas conference the women organize. This is visiting day of the hospital . Is is very interesting. It wouldve showed the dark side becoming more and more evident in this. The summer of 1915. This is not frivolous footage. Interestingly, cigarettes became much more prominent in the trenches, obviously. I guess because they could not drink in the trenches so smoking became more popular. But i guess premade cigarettes really grew in popularity among the army. Why do you think they decided to film these things . How did that happen . I do not know. You can see this kind of frivolous guy going for the main chance but some of the footage you have to think that he was very much aware of the tragic side of all of this. He wanted to capture the civilian perspective and show it just as he could see in the film lens. There is an interesting shot. In a way, it is a godsend that harborough could not make it to the front and was stuckunstuck in berlin. He has sort of a nice portrait of the city that is beginning to suffer. You would not have gotten that if he had sort of wandered off to some battlefield. In the beginning the , correspondence, initially, they shouldve gotten credentials. They go on their own. They connect out there. This is rather famous. This is shot at the workshop of a professor who became very famous for working with prostatic devices for soldiers. You see it in the Scientific American and three or four newspapers in the United States. The same guy, the same workshop. Evidently, he was very famous. You will see a bit of the emphasis on the horse opportunities in the film. He was quite a horseman. Did he go into this project with a plan about what would happen with this film when he got back . No, i do not think so. I think he just wanted to record his trip and get enough footage so it would be able to be shown in theaters around the United States as a profitmaker essentially. But also i thought to drum up sympathy for germany, which was already unsuccessful largely in its propaganda. But i do not think the syndicate had that as the motive. Was just that obviously there was a Large Population or market for the german situation. That is true. Of course. Im i mean, they were not pro german. You can argue about wilson but they were businessmen. They wanted to make money. And huebener wanted to make his name. I should mention that. He is in 25 of the film have. The secondmost seen by government is the pluschke. The germans liked to take correspondence from cameramen. It was a safe trip. The germans like to do it because they had a lot of control over what the correspondence i ended not see and nobody was likely to get hurt and it showed the germans the chance to show they were treating prisoners well. Giving them enough to eat. Like these shots, there may be a bit of parity but these guys do seem happy. Apparently they are happy enough to be in the trenches. Putting the best foot forward. To be fair, as a neutral he did watch over for the allied prisoner war camps and he did get credit for improving the conditions which were pretty bad later on. Do you know of these camps were close to berlin . One camp was very close to berlin. It was put there, it was a major training field. As i say, i do not know. I dont know if the prisoners were trying to make the germans happy but it looks to me that they seem not to be unhappy to be warm and dry. You will see later, with like warsaw here, film is a new commodity. It is like being featured in films, a novel experience so i think that was the thing that stimulated everybody if they wanted to get in front of the camera. And maybe it was a way to say, somebody from your family might see the footage and say, oh he is all right. Especially on the russian side. They recruited prisoners to help repair the roads and farms who worked without the tools, the ones with the shovels and stuff would fix the roads. These look like british. You sort of get the impression there are many journalists going around with them . Was this almost like a media tour in some cases or yeah, well, these trips to prison camps they would maybe take 10 people. It would be a group trip. They controlled them pretty well. Youll see in a bit, waiting to go to the front. They are in uniform. Initially they did not have uniforms, they did not have good control. They arrested many journalists who started to walk around and got caught and were almost shot as spies so they decided they would give them official uniform said they could be recognized and escorted from berlin by an officer. What are we seeing here . The band is leading the soldiers from berlin out from the train station to go to the front. That is the hotel avalon, one of the most Famous Hotels about a block away. Actually, they are going to go by the hotel. Right in front of the hotel marquee. These guys are headed east or west, i cannot tell you which. Anyway, they are coming from the garden area said they were headed east. At this time in the war, the german army looks rather happy. What was the situation. They were not thrilled in the again, one of the reasons for this film was there was a huge drive in the summer of 1915 starting in may, as a matter fact these guys maybe headed towards the battle front which was designed to check the russian army out of poland. There was a ring of austrian and german troops and then a northern ring which was headed toward warsaw. So, the two germans i think were very happy with the situation as they and vision then in the summer and one of the reasons they mightve been invited to do this was because they wanted witnesses and they wanted it film. Evidently, this footage is extremely privileged. I mean, you did not just go up and start shooting the royal family at 20 paces. So whether he shut this about it from somebody else, i did not know. I am pretty sure he did this. He did get to the castle. They said it up so he would be able to film this this was a review for the kaiser. The hussars were his favorite unit. Indeed, bernardi as a First Lieutenant led the hustlers hussars. Who are we seeing here . The wife of the kaiser. The daughter of victoria luisa. She was the only daughter of the kaiser. I think he had five sons and victoria luisa. And some of the sons were appointed the head of armies. Some were relieved later after they did not do too well. Sell more sort of nominal heads. The elder son wilhelm, he was actually in charge of the army at verdun. This is where all of the correspondence or most of them stayed waiting to get permission to go to the front. That is some kind of hat, fedora hat. There wearing the uniform. You mention in your essay about him speaking german. Is here. This part of the trip is actually they got cents to east prussia. One of the correspondence is a guy from new york. He spoke fluent in german. He loved war. He wanted to fight everybody and that people who did not fight wars that she was kind of a controversial leader. Notice the train in the background. George will meant created a very handful of friends. Those were still they had from the copyright paper that made it look really natural. Im going to mention this, because what these guys are wearing, my wife did not know what a friend of ours did not know these are spiked helmets. I should explain in the early part of the war, these germans were distributed those helmets. It was only in 1916 that they got the helmets that they think of as the typical german helmets. The same time the british got their tin hats and the french got their helmets. Head wounds were so bad. It is amazing how much the calvary where the shock troops wherever infantry would attack. You often said the cover into break them apart and then still lances. You will see something else. This is the war that started with horses and ended up in tanks and airplanes. In credible. Is is one of the larger cities in east prussia. It was not damaged much by the russians during the occupation. They were still pretty rough. What happened with some of the smaller powers where the russians did do some damage, the russians want there long. You will see there is this slow tracking shot and you can get a look at the background and see how much wreckage there was. Just imagine trying to supply a massive army with these wagons. They have an infinite number of them. This is east prussia. The russians invaded there in august very august very it was a part of germany. It was quite for east of most of germany. It is now part of poland since world war ii. The russians were pretty rough here. Maybe no worse than the germans were in belgium. Im not going to get into who is worse. This is another city that really took it. Somebody said there was only one family left in the whole city after the russians got through with it. It was kind of their raining nobility and to care or supposed to take care of the area. After their own castles burned by the russians. You can see some of the destruction. May be compared with the russian army did in 1945, this is no big deal. Or what the germans did in smolensk. These were incredibly powerful images, for the germans especially. It is one of the reasons they made fun hindenburg their savior of world war i. They made him almost a religious figure for better or for worse. The battle of tandberg, hindenburg pushed the russians out of east prussia . The germans set up this tour for the correspondence to take a look and see first how bad the destruction has been. Second, it shows how the russians were rebuilding and how it had not cap them down. Look at the pile of rubble. The mentality of the Central European cities that were over the various areas of war. One side germany or the other, squeezed between two big powers. It changes the whole concept of their nationality and how they have to live. There does seem to be some wanton destruction. This is kind of interesting that the correspondence were sort of on the road. They got a chance to see the great man himself, von hindenburg, the savior of tandberg. A couple of the correspondence who were progerman suggested von hindenburg looked like a mixture of foxy grandpa and father christmas. I dont get that impression. He looks like he has his mind another things. The guy on the left is functionally from. This was germanys idea of how to win. This is the head of the 20th our marine corps which was stationed in outshine. He was very much involved in the big battles in poland. Here the correspondence are taken to the area of the lakes and the battle of town park where they took place. It is almost like visiting gettysburg. This is only a year after the battles. Evidently there are people who are going and touring and let us see what happened. I think the guy right behind dobro is his official watchmen, guardian. You can see a bit of the Missouri Lake area. You can see the barbed wire emplacement is everywhere. Whether the russians put them up in the first place with the germans, i dont know, but they look formidable. Here they have correspondents cars. You can see them on the back of the lake. They did not make it on this trip. They were bundled up in six cars and toward the battlefield. Look at the barbed wire. Can you imagine trying to cut through that stuff under machinegun fire . I am glad i have not been born yet, i will tell you that. Would this have been german barbed wire . I dont know. Whatever barbed wire they could find. There the correspondence again. These people are touring the area. Where von hindenburg saved germany. I think that is the way the germans really did look at it. That is the front there. Or try to figure out what is where. This is the story, you can see on the intertitle. I could never quite verify but there was a report in the paper that the germans saw the russians coming across a lake and it was very thick ice so the russians that they were sneaking up on positions. The germans fired artillery at the lake and Something Like 10,000 germans i mean russians did go into the lake and die. Either way, there are a lot of debt russians in that lake. You can get a feeling of how beautiful this area is. Even shot 100 years ago in ortho chromatic film. It is a Great Holiday place for germans and polish. Very lovely. On april 1 mall they were on the boat, they started rationing fuel. No private vehicles were allowed. He had to get special permission. Incredibly, he got it from the authorities. This was another town that was destroyed by the russian army. It is hard to tell who has destroyed it. Probably this part was the russians. Again, it got pretty wet. There is a shot here, this is clearly taken from a car. Driving down the main widen. Is good film for the time. Would american audiences have seen other world war i films when this was shown later . I dont know. American film, i dont know. I doubt it. There was a tie in with hearst. Pathway films was french. There was a company that did distribute quite a bit of various reels. I dont think it was seen much more broadly. This guy on the left is kind of a rakish character. He fought in the spanishamerican war. He is a soldier of fortune kind of guy. Also in the boers war. His grandfather was very prominent. Working for frederick the gate great in prussia. Again, these families of nobility that they seem to run into fairly often out there. Theres also the issue of facemasks. Wait till you see. Again you get the feeling of space. You get this feeling of whether it is true or not of them kind of wandering around and seeing who they bump into. It all seems kind of spread out, kind of random. Poland is a big place. That is him there shaking hands again. 25 of the film he shows up. And sometimes you have to look hard. I can come and say there he is again. Oftentimes he is sort of invisible he is there. Other times it is obvious. If he has a camera in his hand, that is probably bureau. It is about here that the film stops shooting the correspondence in east prussia and starts to zero in on the german armies headed into poland. Financing is right, it was a big railroad center, a jumping off point for the troops heading east. Usually has the still camera in his hand. At the same time he was taking still photos and writing articles as well . He was taking still photos while he was filming for his own war film syndicate. The cameraman is usually read reece. Everything was handcranked. About 19 to 21 frames per second. It had to take a steady hand. This was done pretty well. You mean the cranking up the camera would dictate the speed of the film . Yeah. There was no electricity out there, or electronically timed stuff. It was all regular study. If a bomb goes off next to, i guess they cut that scene out. It is hard. He was a good cameraman. I think he did some useful beautiful framing. It should be a delousing station. There are a few grammatical errors. Describe what is happening here. They are going into get fumigated. Apparently the foregoing home or whatever or moving around after a period of time, they visit stations like this and spend a little time. I guess there was a special chemical. The soldiers said the lice drove like crazy. Later on youre going to see even more impressive, what was required to supply the calvary horses. And the wagons horses. Remember, this part of the land was like a pyramid. A lot of the land had been just devastated. You had to provide it as the army traveled. The infantry used to use mostly should love her back then. These uniforms the germans are wearing our blue instead of the usual field grade. Some of the units still had not been issued field grade. The grind in the white floppy cap disappearing is someone who is kind of interesting. He is a correspondent with them and is the brother of the famous theologian. He is with them for the rest of the trip. He wrote quite a few dispatches. Somewhat controversial. Some people thought he might be a spy. He certainly was progerman. After United States got into it, he then worked very arduously for the americans and was involved in making some great proamerican propaganda films. An interesting person. These guys a pretty squared away i think. In this part of the film theyre working their way towards the front. Tell us where they are going most of it is behind the front. Than there was the first big offensive Movement Towards warsaw. Was poland and independent country at this time . It was pretty much occupied by the russians. Matter of fact, they did control it. They are not particularly happy under russian rule. There were some polis regions that were set up to help the germans get the russians out. There is the man of the strange floppy hat. Here are these guys digging in a bit. Again, this may be shot during training. Again, you get the feeling everything would have stopped dead without horses. It was a horse war. You had mentioned a spiked helmet. How long had the germans been wearing that . Why did they give it up . Is it something it went back a long time . The british were wearing a cloth cap at the beginning of the war and the germans were wearing these pickle helmets. They are not metal. Theyre kind of leather and copper engraving, some of them. They did not give you any kind of protection if you got it will it in your head. All three of the armys decided about the same time that they needed some kind of metal helmet to protect headlands. The germans came up with the there helmet. The french, was also worn by the italian. The british had much the same thing the americans were when they got into it. They are presenting this as combat, but this was a training exercise. The camera is up to hide. There are some shots later. Machinegun practice. They spliced them in in the last part of the assault. It is obvious they are not actually in combat. That scene was not taken in combat. Is that something that would have been found upon at this time as far as journalism is concerned . I dont know. People were lucky to get any film in those days. It was germans showing the type of how they approach the combat and infantry support and whats not. I do think he is trying to make a narrative story that is interesting. I think if you look at it from that perspective, i think it is ok. Unless you documented and say this is how they train and were used in combat. Probably not the best. The sensors took an awful lot of the stuff. You kind of had to this red cross for instance, there are photographs of this same shot that appear in berlin newspapers in june, which is three months before they headed east. These were used to sniff out the people from the battlefield after the assault was over. They could get triage and red cross to them quickly. They were not individual soldiers. It is hard to imagine that many horses. There is some scary to diptych about how many horses died in world war i. It is millions. Maybe 500,000, i dont know. This is also probably pretty fake. This is him at his hammiest. He cant stand to have all of these guys in some kind of fake warfare without him being in it. In a minute he will pop up to the right here. They will resplice it and he will be there. There he is. Same spot. It is hard to get a really good shot of the shell or rocket firing. When you do get a good one, it tends to get reused. This shows how primitive things were with the airplanes and aircraft. As well as the aircraft. Pretty primitive. They really evolved quickly. Notice the hobnailed boots. This is probably training film. Again, they say any shot with a camera where the camera is looking down at the soldiers is probably fake because a camo would probably almost immediately be dead. This is kind of interesting to show you prussian training. These guys are digging shoulder trenches and you can see they cant hold their rifles while there digging, but rather they put them on the ground, lay them across the back of their legs so they will stay clean. Which is pretty clever. I think this looks real. I think this is real. You can see the hole in his cap at the end. When this film was released in the United States later, how was it received . It was acclaimed. The second showing was in chicago. Sponsored by the Chicago Daily news. The movie critic for the tribune praised the film highly. She had panned the chicago tribunes film. She said a few hundred marching around. This one, she really gave it the blueribbon. The tribune was a rival newspaper for the daily news. I think that was a pretty Fair Assessment of her opinion. This filming is in june of 1915. You wrote that it opened in milwaukee in 1915. He came back and arrived in new york city in september. 1915. In october 1915, the Chicago Daily news was announcing this film was going to be made, and it first showed in milwaukee at a scripps newspaper for a week. Then a week later, it started in chicago sponsored by the daily news. Later, three weeks by the syndicate and later by the local theaters on the rhone financial exposure. Their own financial exposure. This is one place that evidently was not faked. Look in the back. He is kneeling with a pipe. He is loading film into his camera at least i think he is. Watch the guy here. He just got hit. And will try to chase him down. I dont think that was staged at all. That has the look of authenticity. There is a lot of mud. A lot of mud. Yup. Just to go back to the screenings, the film made a profit. I am sure debated profit for the syndicate. In the syndicate it only lasted for about two years. Bennett dissolved. Hen it dissolved. Showing the sometime in march before we joined the war. Relations in mid february. Film wasime the german not popular in the theaters. If you people who subscribe to it earlier had been showing it. By april, i never saw it. Do you know where we are now . That a junction in poland. They are bringing the wounded back. It was a couple of hours drive from warsaw. He said he was shot at while filming this. It is hard to tell. Would it have been him or his cameramen flying . Reese was awarded a iron cross by the general staff. That would help strengthen the russian side. Publicity. Was there are a couple million iron crosses awarded. By the german army. I dont see anything in this shot. No. It looks like they have these lines, if you look at it closely all the trenches have two or three lines. There are a lot of counts by that name. He was in poland. He liked to ride horses. I would be very curious to know more about him. He also flew on the east front briefly. It was the thing to do if you had the chance. Watch the pile drivers. Engineer. Ombat in the 60s they were still doing it this way. This is a road south of warsaw. Think i dont think this is that road. Is, at least his camera is back. This is the only place in the film where you see Something Like trenches. D fortifieds hav positions so the germans probably did as well. This was about 80 miles or so. Constructing a pontoon bridge was probably a good place for them to fortify. Warsaw was not defendant. Russia abandoned it. The entry into warsaw was very peaceful. See some shotso of the jewish quarter. Ironic butem kind of 25 years before hitlers, germans were trying to get the jews of poland on their side. They were hoping they could enlist the Jewish Community and that german side. They are celebrating their very happy entry into poland. This was their big war. Accountable pop up again here. Is the warsaw head. That guy will show up on a lot of shots. Here is the jewish quarter of warsaw. Everybody was trying to stay in front of the camera. [laughter] sapper, that is like an engineering corps . People who dug, they would take tunnels and then line that with explosives. That way they can penetrate the wall. Which looks like an incredibly attractive town. Shotsthere are some coming up where you will see lancers. Of these guys are not wearing the usual uniform. You have the lancers here. That looks incredibly oldfashioned to me. Know if the polish citizens were happy that the germans were there . I think they were happy enough. I am better they were thrilled with the germans but at the very best i think they were neutral. I dont think they had a hard time. I like this shot. It is really a nice shot. They are scuttling out here. A different world. Yes indeed. A shot of a polish officer. They were very happy to fight with the germans against the russians. Because the polls and germans were catholic there is that. They had to survive. This is being built because they destroyed the bridges . Yes. They pretty much only destroy the bridges into warsaw. That is not this one, that comes later. There it is. It. He top right you can see there will be a couple of other shots of it as well. We do not know where they are going. I dont know if they are looking for shelter. See peasants in the farms. It is a disaster. Here is that bridge. I am sure the russians did low up the bridges. They were trying to go in that direction. This is a bridge built by the germans, i guess. It is faster to build a small bridge then to rebuild. , i should also mention nevermind. Bus of point they join a correspondence that are on their way. I dont exactly know where that happened. It had served his time but the artillery leapfrogged. The general was also called battering ram because he was an expert with his heavy artillery. He was now given his head. Zeppelins have fun london by now. Now. Bed london by with a have been affected by now . They would have been spotting for artillery. It was pretty will destroyed and 1939. In 1939. In this real you dont get the feeling of a theater. The projection can be sped up or down. Minute orake another two to switch out the film reels. Did they have musical accompaniment . Pianists,d finalists, sometimes even full orchestras. It would change with the mood of the music. I think you also said that he went around to the screenings. He went to some of the screenings in chicago, and milwaukee. Park in front of the upper house that it was showed and then he would run up and down the streets firing a loud gun. Absolutely. These of those polish officers i was talking about. That almost like it was out there. Praga is a suburb of warsaw. Of the fortthe side there were going to assault. Macau happy and excited they are. Like lancers to attack a fort. This is the cavalry they were famous for. I dont know. The film seems to be building to the attack on this fort. How would you put this in perspective with the larger war . Is it over exaggerated in this film . It was the climax of the films story. He left shortly after this. As i said in late august. In september. Once he got this, he came home. Appreciate the stress and strain physically. Cameraman especially. They had these heavy cameras and tripods. You can see that they had to set it up. It was an ordeal. The russians have a series of forts. This was one of the biggest ones. There is another one. That was further south. There is supposed to be a line to protect russia and poland. The one in the south was built in 1815. Withstood theave artillery at of 1870. Castles were often put a critical crossings, they were natural citadels. They could be easily fortify this way. Stage the mentality is there. A lot of the russians knew it was a loser. They could not evacuate because there was so many guns, there was so much ammunition. They never could get it out in time. Spiritual reasons call for us to defend this. Down they knew they were not going to be able to hold this. I think it is one of those things you cannot avoid. I am not taking away what the germans did. It is not an easy target by any means. Help theoes not germans captured a russian the complete map and defenses. There are soldiers everywhere. I think it is fair to say that these guys were progerman. The guy on the right was a writer for the chicago tribune. He chose the wrong side sort of. They should be telling their handling officer where they want to go. You mention the difficulty for camera people, you have a book about this dont you . About the cinematographers of the great war, yes. Had to carry a 100 pound camera. Thing is you did not somethingave without to eat in your pocket. You did not know when you are going to eat next. At the front it was difficult. To remind people the timing of this, when did they start filming . 1915, how longof did this all go on . They started filming and april of 1915. He got there about mid april. Probably late august or early september. He had to go through the sensors. Censors. So much was rejected he postponed his film, he arrived in the very end of september. Tooke trip to prussia place in june. When he left for poland, after that i dont know. These must be unique shots. At one point he goes through a very sandy spot. Back a few weeks later and fix it up. It was not easy to keep that running. Developed a closer emotional relation with that. These are some of those earlier prewar uniforms on the right. First aid . This could have been taken anywhere and spliced in here. He was doing something because he got shot. I you mentioned the censors, assume you mean the german cens ors. Yes, before they transmitted this. Most of the censorship took they with controlling who have access to and where they could go. This was both before and after. And the text that was cabled back to the United States from first but they did was cut all of the cables. That way they could filter all of the correspondence back to america. It, changed some of specifically some small and large stuff. Sections of text. Julie we know how much film he shot . Bought 25,008 of fresh nitrate film before he got picked up. He shot to reels going over. About,ed and processed he only have 400 feet to film on the way back. It, henot print all of censors about 20,000 feet. He said that only 6000 feet complied. They called and said they would have another review hoping to get a better result. That is why he had to postpone this another week. The film that the germans did not allow them to use, did they destroy it . I went looking for it over in berlin. Different various places. It was probably lost to the ages. Anybody has seen this let me know. Is this a special title that was put up . Was a call back to his time in chicago. Out. Ve a special shout there they are worrying about the flag. He also wore an opera cake aside from goggles. , look tot own a car the point in his life. That is a large gun. That, but io find am not sure if i am right about what it is. It is not the mortar. You will see the mortar in a second. It was manned by the austrians. That is a 30. Understand the germans were pretty accurate but they were not as mobile. Quietly. This pretty we know that the fort fell and the russians were moved back. What happens to the russian army and then the year or so . Retreat. Retreat. Back, germansng kept following them. Imagine 100 pounds of the camera back and fourth doing those lines of trench. You are a broad targets. That put the germans in a dilemma and if they follow the russians and go all the way to moscow . The head of the german general napoleon remembered and didnt think that was a good idea. The basically chased russians out of poland and set a along the polish russian border. And it stay that way until the russian revolution. The germans sent the officers, Liaison Officers because the austrians didnt perform quite as well as they were hoping in the initial part of the war. Is this actual combat . , hard to say. If you look at that hill in the back there is an occasional shell burst. Articlefound an suggesting a shot coming up here it seems to be a general shot. Because we are not their area. Hes got something in his mouth. He wrote about that shot. Authentic. I was suspicious of this shot because the weather was so different. I would be suspicious. Is any evidence he encouraged he couldnt get the camera set up in time before he essentially got too much of it. He asked to do it again and they did. That this typical is the clement and the timing. Thats fair game i think. There were some things he asked people to do and spliced and presented as part of the offensive thrust into this battle. He was trying to represent best he could what actually was there. This is the target range. It would very much suggest they were shut under training conditions, these guys are right off the parade route. Kneeling without a battle helmet, that was probably the training officer. The other kind of helmets are. Ery kind of free war think of the time audiences would have thought this was authentic or would they have known . Think they would took it as representing reality. Lets face it, special effects in the theater hadnt been developed very well. Anybody who had been in combat anywhere. The germans in the audience would be pleased and sharing and cheering. Again you can say it may be fake at some level but this is a real machine gun, these are machine gunners. They are performing. This is what they are going to be doing on the battlefield. I think this was at the front. Anytime they have this cover over their helmets tends to suggest this is for real. It looks like that front is pretty well matched up. I think people try to clear the field to make sure the defensive positions had clear lines of fire. Just like in world war ii, retreating troops. There is a picture of that in the New York Times, june 21. This was shot when he was still in berlin. It looks pretty good. These guys had to get as realistic. You have to go through mud. Dont hesitate. Him they made use of what the natural landscape provided for positions and cover. You can see people in the back, whether it is a training exercise. The horsemen are hiding in the trees and tend be less prime targets. It is just hard to say. I guess we dont think of russian aviators and world war i. But there must have been. There were a few. Mostly used for intelligence spotting. Getting a sense of strength of the enemy. Now this is interesting, they say they are behind a nice little help. Im inclined to think this is real. This was probably real. You will see the same shot a couple of times. In a minute here they will pan to the right here. Pretty clearly the camera isnt quite sure where they are going to land. Obviously the russians were over a little to the right. Its interesting how sometimes the authentic stuff is the least exciting. When they got that nice trail i think george might have included it. According to the title, thats the way they explored it. It looks like rockets going off. I will have to complement George Willman and for the selection and getting the best quality. This has been an excellent film. For member looking through all the film and seeing all the damage . When he first went through the film, where was it . It was in the nitrate of vaults of culpepper. Repurposed federal reserve, cold cash storage for rising the economy after a thermonuclear a disaster. They keep it in 40 degree nitrate refrigerated vaults, special spark resistant lights and covers and switches. It is very explosive film. And then you stand in a cement floor with no static generation usually. I think this stuff might be right and real. Actually the National Archive had made a partial, they had just taken the film and shot it and made a tape. Parts were repeated. Just to get an idea of what was there. 60 some reels of film started up in this wine cellar. He couldnt do anything with it but he got the afi, there was no commercial value. But he realized the significance of it and offered it to the National Archives. About half of the film was so badly corrupt at that time. Here is an austrian gun crew. A formidable weapon. What he must have done is bringing in some austrian teams with these incredible weapons. This isnt the isnt as big as the mortars in belgium, but it is a much easier weapon to do you and still does the job. The 30. 5 square a terrible and will scary weapon. For the people who dont know what a mortar is drop a very heavy shell over a high loft, comes down and just demolishes it. And it explodes when it hits, it is not just a hard mass that goes through a wall is a large chemical bomb, if you will. Its like dropping a bomb from an airplane. And that is pretty much true. The surrender did take place in the middle of the night, which is always unfortunate for hi cameramen to read especiallyn world war i, there were always attacks before dawn. All of the action seemed to take place before dark, that is the way it goes. If you see a film of going over a top trench, they usually pounded the trench with artillery first, and then after maybe an hour or two or three, then there was a slight pause and they went out of the dark, they went out over the top. Everything opened up. Here is 42 centimeter gun. I cannot for the life of me see it. Look in the back, back in the upper right corner, and you will also see the wounded guys being carried in stretchers. I did not see the gun. It is off the screen now. I believe you. Here is the pallbearers, the stretcher bearers bringing back the wounded. You have to give credit to the red cross or the medic, the unarmed medics that go in there. Some of this was shot earlier in east prussia. They came up with this ingenious system of trailers so they could carry the wounded. I have no reason to think these are fake shots, though. They are dropping them off at the fieldhouse. Actually he never got wounded except for maybe mexico, he had a slight shrapnel wound in the knee. He said he fainted from lack of food and sleep. You have to let the army get by with the trucks and the fumes were just incredible that he got nauseous and fainted and woke up in the field hospital. I think that is a valid, im pretty sure that happened. But he never got shot or wounded in europe. 85,000 russians. 700 guns. It was a huge victory. Pretty much wiped out any organized offense in russia and poland. You can see this is a bit of a rainy day. Except you will see a fellow with a gun i dont think the russians were at all interested. Probably a couple of thousand soldiers and a couple of dozen germans. They were glad to be out of the battle. This is kind of interesting. Kaiser wilhelm shows up with what is called where he is to congratulate his troops. Here is the old car. Their borough couldnt stand, and he started running out and started filming. He had a couple of officers he asked for permission and said, no, you cant leave the area. Another person turned robin told him to stop smoking. His feats made the cover of los angeles times. Though the time you drew a lot of attention for he drew a lot of attention himself or his activity. He saluted him. I was the part that didnt survive. The kaiser recognized and saluted. There was speculation he may have been shot at the firing squad. They figured that the kaiser didnt look disgusted and acknowledged him. I dont think the kaiser understood or heard him. This is part of the destruction. Has the film is coming close to an end, what was the risk of durboroughs career after this . In 1917 he was sent abroad to be behind the ally line and behind the british sector. Nothing was published, and i think it was because by that time the british hated the journalists as much as germany did. Nothing was published and he came back after six months in the middle of the year. Soon the committee for Public Information while they were processing his commission he joined as a First Lieutenant in the cinema group with a couple of others. Made a film, how to defend fort lewis in the state of washington. He fake some wounded people, but he starts out with people sitting and enjoying their sunday, theyre relaxed sunday visit. Telephone calls coming in to rile the troops. He also took some film of ships being launched and other similar types of things to show howard getting prepared and getting ready to fight the war, take the war to the germans. He left after 1919 after two years in the army. They sealed the tires and the air in the tires and spent a lot of the tour in canada and northeastern u. S. Quite a few thousand miles. And a certified that the tires held up. It was a recapping process that was a more efficient process that was less expensive. I think durborough has the good taste to stop showing off his movie and just let the images speak for themselves. Including some incredible shots of refugees. I think the inner title is all too accurate. A couple of people in the red cross were asked to take a look at the refugee situation in poland. They said what they saw and poland was infinitely worse than anything they had seen in belgium. But unfortunately the political situation had gotten so bad at the time that neither the germans nor russians nor anybody else were allowed an international relief. He had written quite a bit about the severe shortage. When you think about these polish refugees in world war ii, but not world war i, so is this what were seeing here . Yes. The polish i mean the russians and the germans blamed each other. The russian said it was the germans fault because they were carrying out a scorched earth policy. They were destroying crops and houses as they retreated. Russians would probably say no, that germans were taking everything like locusts as they headed east. And theres probably truth on both sides. Either way, these are the people who are going to pay the bill. A centrally they had to pack up everything they thought they were essentially they had to pick up everything they thought they were going to have in the future. Theres a great shot coming up. These wagons, its amazing they held together. The wheel is at 45 degrees. I think this is the one. There it is. Good luck, buddy. So these are presumably returning to their homes because the russians had been forced to leave . I guess, i think so. It is interesting to know whether they were heading east or west, and what a difference it would have made. They were just trying to survive. I dont think they cared for either, just leave them alone. To we know anything about how many civilians might have been killed in this part . Or just died of starvation and disease again, more people probably died of disease and starvation and accidents and whatnot. The civilians we are talking about. I havent seen any real numbers. And these were probably forced off the road to let the army come in. The army comes in with a big caravan. You would probably say, would you just stand there for a while . But this has to be real. This is what people had coming up. And there is that lean to. In philadelphia, the Pennsylvania State centers required them to remove these portraits at the end, fearing anglophiles and germaniphiles would start a fist fight. Now it before the opening. They had to take the film out. Later on the center was declared wrong. It was only from morley objection on material from morally objectionable material he has done a service. He has been sending us stuff he has been finding in the paper. Online and on the web. He is a webmaster. I dont know what we would have done without him. He has done a very good a few very good lock spots very good blog spots. If you are interested in this era of world war i film, connect to his blog. The head film archivist says it is his favorite. And that is hike complements. Complements high complements. It is indeed. How modern warfare has evolved with new technologies. Interviewed by member of the house election House Selection Committee i look at what i feel is the new form of warfare emerging in the 21st century. I have covered National Security affairs for over 30 years all over the world covering these issues. All over the world covering these issues, and i think it is a reflection of the Information Age that we are now looking at this new warm of warfare, which i Call Information warfare, and i do i ciber thattechnical we have seen so much of it in terms of cyberattacks from the and chinese, as the content influence type thing, which really emerged in the last president ial election. The cyber enabled influence operation, these two things are going to be the dominant form of warfare. Watch afterwards tonight on cspan book tv. Low plated the new museum of the American Revolution and Independence Hall in philadelphia, the portrait gallery of the second bank of the united dates houses more than 150 paintings