''America Goes Over'' was a silent documentary propaganda film produced by the

US Army Signal Corps ) , colors = Orange and white , colors_label = Corps colors , march = , mascot = , equipment = , equipment_label = ...

in 1918, documenting the activities of the American Expeditionary Forces in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

under General John J. Pershing. The movie was a product of the Division of Films of the

Committee on Public Information The Committee on Public Information (1917–1919), also known as the CPI or the Creel Committee, was an independent agency of the government of the United States under the Wilson administration created to influence public opinion to support the ...

, the Washington, DC-based federal agency in charge of wartime propaganda in the United States.

Plot

The film opens with footage of the war prior to America's entry, including many areas where the US never became involved, such as the Italian Front and the conquest of Palestine. The lead-up to America's entry is covered with President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

warning the Germans about unrestricted submarine warfare. From that point on, the film takes the viewer to the front line of the Western Front during the final months of the Great War. In between the usual combat footage, which is considerable, there are many "human interest" clips about

doughboys Doughboy was a popular nickname for the American Infantry, infantryman World War I#Entry of the United States, during World War I. Though the origins of the term are not certain, the nickname was still in use as of the early 1940s. Examples inclu ...

on KP, using slop buckets, digging trenches, even one of their lion mascot. Those shots are accompanied by a still cartoon soldier resembling

Private SNAFU Private Snafu is the title character of a series of black-and-white American instructional adult animated shorts, ironic and humorous in tone, that were produced between 1943 and 1945 during World War II. The films were designed to instruct servi ...

. The combat footage, which includes some graphic scenes of the dead and wounded, is accompanied by animated maps of the front, and the gradual inching toward Germany.

External links

* US Army Signal Corps, ''America Goes Over.'' Washington, DC: Division of Films, Committee on Public Information, 1918.
Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V
* American World War I propaganda films Western Front (World War I) films 1918 films American black-and-white films American silent feature films American documentary films 1918 documentary films 1910s American films Silent war films 1910s English-language films {{1910s-documentary-film-stub