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Combat Footage WW1 and 2

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by Darrenatwork (U11744656) on Monday, 2nd November 2009

  How much combat footage shown on the telly from World Wars one and two is genuine? I get the impression that much WW1 footage is faked and that much more is genuine from WW2. Is this supposition correct.
  
  Also, in the WW2 footage a lot of the sound seems added in afterwards (i.e. explosions being heard and seen at the same time - not allowing for the differnce in speed of light and sound). Was this done at the time or more recently for telly?

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Mike Alexander (U1706714) on Monday, 2nd November 2009

  As far as I'm aware, there's very little genuine combat footage from WWI. I think the only footage I've seen is of the attack on the Somme, but it was shot from so far behind the line that all you can really see are tiny specks moving in the landscape.
  
  There was a D.W. Griffith propaganda movie, "Hearts of the World", featuring footage shot in France in 1917, leading many to assume it was genuine combat footage, but in fact it had been staged well behind the active frontline.

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• Message 3

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  Posted by Sixtus Beckmesser (U9635927) on Monday, 2nd November 2009

  " in the WW2 footage a lot of the sound seems added in afterwards "
  
  yes....sound film only came in the late 1920s/early 30s

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• Message 4

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  Posted by Sixtus Beckmesser (U9635927) on Monday, 2nd November 2009

  ooops! Didn't read the message properly.
  
  I thought it was WW1 you were talking about, when, of course, there was no such thing as sound film.
  
  Much of the archive film in WW2 is of cine-type, which is, of course, silent. Therefore, any sound track would be dubbed on later.
  
  

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• Message 5

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  Posted by Mike Alexander (U1706714) on Monday, 2nd November 2009

  I seem to recall some war correspondents in WWII were lugging around huge great machines that cut a wax master (as used in vinyl record production), which was then sent off to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ or pathe news or whatever. Presumably magnetic tape was in its infancy, or deemed too expensive.

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• Message 6

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  Posted by baz (U14168465) on Tuesday, 3rd November 2009

  During the battle of Stalingrad, the Red army surrounded the German 6th army in a pincer movement, eventually meeting up at a place called Kalach. The advance was so swift that there had been no time to film the two parts of the pincers meeting, so it was re-enacted for the camera. I learned this from the Stalingrad episode of World At War.
  There is also a shot from WW1, where some British Tommies are going over the top and one of them falls, apparently shot, back into the trench. I heard that scene was faked, too.

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• Message 7

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  Posted by Grand Falcon Railroad (U3267675) on Tuesday, 3rd November 2009

  A lot of the famous....by which I mean well known to general population.....WW2 pics were "recreatrions" tho e.g. raising the flag on Iwo Jima - the original pic had been taken but the one that the USMC memorial is based on was a recreation (rather than a fake).

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• Message 8

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  Posted by suvorovetz (U12273591) on Tuesday, 3rd November 2009

  During the battle of Stalingrad, the Red army surrounded the German 6th army in a pincer movement, eventually meeting up at a place called Kalach. The advance was so swift that there had been no time to film the two parts of the pincers meetingΒ  Not to mention the fact that this operation had been likely conceived as secondary to the concurrent thrust directed at Rzhev, where much more troops and assets were committed.

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• Message 9

  , in reply to message 6.

  Posted by colonelblimp (U1705702) on Tuesday, 3rd November 2009

  There is also a shot from WW1, where some British Tommies are going over the top and one of them falls, apparently shot, back into the trench. I heard that scene was faked, too.Β 
  
  That's right, it's the well-known scene from the "Battle of the Somme" film first screened in August 1916 which often crops up in documentaries on WW1. Other shots from the film are genuine, though.
  
  

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