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Women Unloading Railway Trucks

Sprucely dressed women set themselves to lugging tarpaulin and unloading sacks in this WWI newsreel

Non-Fiction 1917 2 mins Silent

Overview

Sprucely dressed women set themselves to lugging tarpaulin and unloading sacks from railway trucks under the watchful eye of their male supervisor, in this WWI newsreel item. One of the young women catches the eye of a passing soldier and asks him to lift her up onto the truck - to the apparent enjoyment of them both. There's also some vividly stark footage of soldiers at the Front digging trenches - perhaps intended as a patriotic reminder of the reasons for the women's labours.

There are about 15 seconds of the preceding newsreel story at the beginning of this film, also featuring women at work supporting the war effort, from a story titled Re-making Sacks for the Army.