What is "shoulder arms"

Command \Com*mand"\, n.

1. An authoritative order requiring obedience; a mandate; an injunction.

   Awaiting what command their mighty chief Had to impose.
   --Milton.

2. The possession or exercise of authority.

   Command and force may often create, but can never cure, an aversion.
   --Locke.

3. Authority; power or right of control; leadership; as, the forces under his command.

4. Power to dominate, command, or overlook by means of position; scope of vision; survey.

   The steepy stand Which overlooks the vale with wide command.
   --Dryden.

5. Control; power over something; sway; influence; as, to have command over one's temper or voice; the fort has command of the bridge.

   He assumed an absolute command over his readers.
   --Dryden.

6. A body of troops, or any naval or military force or post, or the whole territory under the authority or control of a particular officer.

   Word of command (Mil.), a word or phrase of definite and established meaning, used in directing the movements of soldiers; as, aim; fire; shoulder arms, etc.

   Syn: Control; sway; power; authority; rule; dominion; sovereignty; mandate; order; injunction; charge; behest. See Direction.

vb. 1 (context intransitive military English) Of a soldier at drill, to place a rifle on the right shoulder, with the forearm parallel to the ground and the hand holding the butt. 2 (context intransitive cricket English) To deliberately lift the bat out of the path of the ball when it is judged to be missing the wicket.

Shoulder Arms is Charlie Chaplin's second film for First National Pictures. Released in 1918, it is a silent comedy set in France during World War I. The main part of the film actually occurs in a dream. It co-starred Edna Purviance and Sydney Chaplin, Chaplin's brother. It is Chaplin's shortest feature film.

Shoulder Arms'' (German:Das Gewehr über'') is a 1939 German drama film directed by Jürgen von Alten and starring F.W. Schröder-Schrom, Rolf Mobius and Rudi Godden. It was based on a novel by Wolfgang Marken. The film's German title refers to a word of command in the German drill book.

A German emigrant to Australia becomes concerned that his son has been too strongly influenced by the democratic, permissive attitudes of the country and decides to send him back to Germany for military service. While his son at first resents and resists his new lifestyle, he is eventually converted to the cause of Nazi Germany.

The film was made as a piece of propaganda to support the policies of the Nazi regime. It was one of a growing number of films of the late 1930s that were hostile towards life in the British Empire on the eve of the Second World War.