Front Lines - The Trenches

This 1964 documentary returns to the battlefields where over 100,000 Canadian soldiers lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. The film also visits cemeteries where servicemen are buried. Filmed from Hong Kong to Sicily, this documentary is designed to show Canadians places they have reason to know but may not be able to visit. Produced for the Canadian Department of Veteran Affairs by the renowned documentary filmmaker Donald Brittain.

A tribute to the combatants in the First World War, this film traces the conflict through the war diary and private letters of five Canadian soldiers and a nurse. Hearing them, the listener detects between the lines an unspoken horror censored by war and propriety.

The film mingles war footage, historical photos and readings of excerpts from the diary and letters. The directorial talent of Claude Guilmain breathes life into these 90-year-old documents and accompanying archival images so that we experience the human face and heart of the conflict.

For the educational sector, five documentary vignettes have been drawn from the film: Nurses at the Front, The Officer's Role, The Life of the Soldier, Faith and Hope and The Trenches, each with further information on its particular subject.

This short documentary made in 2008 looks at the gruelling life of a soldier in the First World War. The letters home speak of the physical and emotional hardships and the mental strain of what they witness on the battlefield. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 2008, 90 years will have passed since the signing of the Armistice ending the Great War in Europe. More than 600,000 men and women crossed the Atlantic with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and more than 60,000 of them never returned. Front Lines features veterans' letters to their families and images from the NFB archives, the Canadian War Museum and Library and Archives Canada.

This short documentary made in 2008 looks at First World War officers. They often wrote reports and updates to headquarters. With all the devastation that they would see, they still needed to encourage their troops to not give up hope. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 2008, 90 years will have passed since the signing of the Armistice ending the Great War in Europe. More than 600,000 men and women crossed the Atlantic with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and more than 60,000 of them never returned. Front Lines features veterans' letters to their families and images from the NFB archives, the Canadian War Museum and Library and Archives Canada.

This short documentary made in 2008 looks at the role of nurses and health workers during wartime. Long days, brutal injuries and both sad and triumphant outcomes are part of their reality. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 2008, 90 years will have passed since the signing of the Armistice ending the Great War in Europe. More than 600,000 men and women crossed the Atlantic with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and more than 60,000 of them never returned. Front Lines features veterans' letters to their families and images from the NFB archives, the Canadian War Museum and Library and Archives Canada.

This short documentary made in 2008 reflects on how religion and faith became a solace to many Canadians serving in the First World War. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 2008, 90 years will have passed since the signing of the Armistice ending the Great War in Europe. More than 600,000 men and women crossed the Atlantic with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and more than 60,000 of them never returned. Front Lines features veterans' letters to their families and images from the NFB archives, the Canadian War Museum and Library and Archives Canada.

Cavalry detachments come and go at a staging post, while in the background, men feed the horses. Various types of armoured vehicles travel along a country road. They are carrying provisions, soldiers and a heavy piece of metal. The armoured vehicles are also engaged in combat. From inside a bunker, a soldier fires on a tank with a machine gun.

A supply company transporting provisions and soldiers advances amid the ruins then along a country road. It then crosses the main square in a French town while a company on bikes goes by at a good clip. Soldiers move equipment in flooded trenches. On the battlefield, trains on a narrow-gauge track carry munitions, prisoners and casualties.

This third short film on the Battle of Arras shows artillery fire, troop movements and several explosions on the battlefield. German prisoners can also be seen in the trenches, as well as enemy bombs falling on the town of Arras. A classic World War One film.

This short film from 1918 shows various types of footage involving aircraft. An aircraft moves down the runway and takes off. Three planes in formation are seen from the air. Viewed from the cockpit, a pilot is at the controls. A hydroplane gets ready to land in a British port. Seen from the air, bombs fall on the battlefield. An enemy plane is pursued by fire from an anti-aircraft battery, while another spirals down and crashes on the ground. Canadian aviators pose proudly for the camera while an American crew attaches bombs to an aircraft.

This silent short film from 1918 demonstrates the devastating effects of shelling. Firemen, soldiers and civilians fight several fires in a village, brick buildings are reduced to rubble, and a water tank in a factory is totally destroyed.