This film is part of Free
Footballer's Battalion
Professional footballers answer the call of duty and get in training; many would go on to fight in the Battle of the Somme.
Overview
Can you imagine today's star footballers going off to fight a war? Or staying behind and playing games while others fought and died in their thousands? Despite the hi-jinks in this film, and their propaganda value, the 17th Service Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment - or the Football Battalion - was no gimmick, and proved to be all-too 'final' for many, who would fall at the Somme and elsewhere.
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