0:00:02 > 0:00:06- I'm going to lock the door. - Three minutes to go.
0:00:06 > 0:00:10Actor and writer Hugh Dennis is one of Britain's best-loved comedians.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13The Now Show!
0:00:13 > 0:00:17He started performing while still a student at Cambridge
0:00:17 > 0:00:21and has been hosting radio satire, The Now Show, for over 13 years.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25What's the thing you most wish you had never started? Ryanair.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28Why? I'll tell you for a pound.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:00:31 > 0:00:35Hugh's also a regular on the topical TV panel show, Mock the Week.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40Napoleon. A small man? Or a long way away?
0:00:40 > 0:00:42LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:00:42 > 0:00:47I love making people laugh. And it's a two-way street, as well,
0:00:47 > 0:00:52because there's nothing nicer than being laughed at, in the right way.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58Hugh lives in East Sussex with his wife and their two children.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02He grew up in London, the younger of two boys.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06His parents, John and Dorothy, met at Cambridge,
0:01:06 > 0:01:09and John became a bishop in the Church of England.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11It's fascinating, isn't it?
0:01:11 > 0:01:14It's fascinating for anyone to find out what their family are like.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17'Both my grandfathers fought in the First War.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22'That's the period in my family that fascinates me
0:01:22 > 0:01:23'more than any other, really.'
0:01:23 > 0:01:25I feel slightly nervous.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29With anything, once you start digging, you don't know what you're going to find, do you?
0:02:05 > 0:02:09So, my first stop, really, is to go and see my parents,
0:02:09 > 0:02:15who obviously know far more about the family history than I do.
0:02:15 > 0:02:20They're very good at keeping photos and records.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22'My mother's father was called Godfrey.'
0:02:22 > 0:02:25'I remember him teaching me to catch.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27'I remember playing with him in the garden,
0:02:27 > 0:02:31'but I can't actually remember having any proper conversations.'
0:02:31 > 0:02:35My father's father... His first name was Hubert.
0:02:35 > 0:02:37His second name was Ronald. He was known as Ron.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41Just a very lovely, very gentle man.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44As far as I'm aware, he never talked about the war,
0:02:44 > 0:02:47but nor did my mum's dad.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49I've always assumed it was one of those things,
0:02:49 > 0:02:53in that generation, you simply didn't talk about.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57Hello, Pete. Great to see you. Come on in.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00- Where are we going?- In there.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06That's a photograph of my father, Godfrey...
0:03:08 > 0:03:12..when he was in the army, in the First World War.
0:03:12 > 0:03:18- How old was he there?- I should think that he's about 19, perhaps, or 20.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21He was in France throughout the war.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24- Presumably, he would've gone through some of the more horrible... - I think he did.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26Whatever it was marked him dreadfully,
0:03:26 > 0:03:30- in a sort of subterranean way.- Yes.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34So that when he became really old and not very well -
0:03:34 > 0:03:37I mean, he became confused and so on -
0:03:37 > 0:03:42he thought that he was reliving many of those war experiences.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46And...it was horrific, really.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Is there any way of finding out what he did do? Who would know?
0:03:51 > 0:03:55He talked to my sister, Margaret, quite a lot, I think.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58When she was grown up and I had left home.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01She might be able to tell you
0:04:01 > 0:04:05quite a bit more about his experiences, I think.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09And this is Granddad?
0:04:09 > 0:04:13That's my father, yes, your other grandfather.
0:04:14 > 0:04:20- He was born in 1899.- Near Sheffield? - Yes, a village called Wales,
0:04:20 > 0:04:21which is actually near Sheffield, yes.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23Do you know what he did in the war?
0:04:23 > 0:04:28No. I mean, we build up a picture from the photos that we've got,
0:04:28 > 0:04:30but he never talked about it, at all.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33His war experience was really quite short,
0:04:33 > 0:04:38because I think he'd only been in France a few days
0:04:38 > 0:04:40when he got wounded.
0:04:40 > 0:04:45And I remember huge scars down the whole of his side,
0:04:45 > 0:04:49which were there for ever, where he'd taken shrapnel on board.
0:04:49 > 0:04:54- That's your granddad, as well. - Just before he goes off to war?- Yes.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56He'd been a grammar school boy,
0:04:56 > 0:05:00so was he was naturally looked on as someone who might make an officer.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03He got his officer training at Cambridge
0:05:03 > 0:05:06before he went over to France.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09And this photograph here, as you'll see,
0:05:09 > 0:05:12we'll both recognise that. That's on the river at...
0:05:12 > 0:05:17Well, I'm assuming, on the Cam, at Cambridge.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21Yes, he's number five. That's him.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24Do you know about this period at Cambridge, the officer training?
0:05:24 > 0:05:26I don't know what he was doing, no.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28And I don't know how long he was there, either.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32We've got a photograph here of his mother and his father.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36- Edie, was a... - You look quite like her, in fact.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40Well, they call it genetics, don't they?
0:05:40 > 0:05:45She was married to John, my grandfather. He was a miner.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49And when she had children of her own,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52she was determined that they should get a good education,
0:05:52 > 0:05:55because she did not want her children to go down the pit.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05'It's remarkable really that he was the son of a miner,
0:06:05 > 0:06:10'and yet, when the First World War was on, he was an officer.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14'But, before that, it was the fact that he went to a grammar school.
0:06:15 > 0:06:21'I imagine in a pit village south of Sheffield that was very unusual.'
0:06:21 > 0:06:24'I guess I need to start in South Yorkshire.'
0:06:27 > 0:06:30Kiveton Colliery, where Hugh's great-grandfather John Dennis
0:06:30 > 0:06:35worked in the 1900s, dominated the villages of Wales and Kiveton Park.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40At its height, it employed over 1,000 people.
0:06:40 > 0:06:45It was finally closed in 1994 and the buildings were demolished.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49Hugh is meeting Eric Chambers
0:06:49 > 0:06:52of the Kiveton Park and Wales History Society.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57- Eric.- Very pleased to meet you! - Nice to meet you.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00- So what have you found out? - Well, take a look at this.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02And this is what?
0:07:02 > 0:07:08This is the census from 1901 for Wales and Kiveton Park.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12OK, and there's... So that's John Dennis.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15So he is my...
0:07:15 > 0:07:18- ..great grandfather? - Great grandfather, yes.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Because his wife Edith is here.
0:07:21 > 0:07:26And they have two sons, and this son, here Hubert R -
0:07:26 > 0:07:30R standing for Ronald - is my grandfather.
0:07:30 > 0:07:35So John Dennis was 29 in 1901.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37And he was male...
0:07:37 > 0:07:41- which is good, and a relief. - (CHUCKLES) It really is, yes.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44And he was a... What does that say?
0:07:44 > 0:07:46- Hewer?- Hewer.- So, coal miner hewer.
0:07:46 > 0:07:48Which was what?
0:07:48 > 0:07:54They actually worked on the coalface, with a pick and shovel,
0:07:54 > 0:07:56actually cutting coal.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00And he would work an 8-hour shift on the coalface
0:08:00 > 0:08:03and he would be expected to mine
0:08:03 > 0:08:07about 17 tons altogether in one shift.
0:08:07 > 0:08:12To actually do that, to mine 17 tons of coal, in any conditions,
0:08:12 > 0:08:15but to do it under those circumstances was amazing.
0:08:15 > 0:08:20- Not a job for the claustrophobic, is it?- No, it isn't.
0:08:20 > 0:08:21Wow.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26Coal hewers in collieries like Kiveton
0:08:26 > 0:08:29worked in treacherous conditions.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Almost every miner could expect to suffer an injury
0:08:32 > 0:08:35or experience a roof fall over the course of his career.
0:08:35 > 0:08:40And deaths underground were frequent occurrences.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42Lung disease caused by coal dust was common
0:08:42 > 0:08:46and there was little welfare and no pensions for those unable to work.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48But in villages like Kiveton Park and Wales
0:08:48 > 0:08:52there were few other opportunities for employment.
0:08:52 > 0:08:59And would all these men, all these families would have worked down the pit, would they?
0:08:59 > 0:09:04Well, if you have a look. This is another part of the census,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07which will give you an idea of the occupations.
0:09:07 > 0:09:12So this family, the Turners, the head of the family is a hewer,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15then pony driver in the pit, pony driver in the pit,
0:09:15 > 0:09:17and colliery engine driver,
0:09:17 > 0:09:20coal mine plate-layer,
0:09:20 > 0:09:22pony driver coal mine, pony driver coal mine.
0:09:22 > 0:09:27Frank Robinson, 16, pony driver.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30So you start quite young, don't you? He's 15. Then 14.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34Yes, that tends to be a job that they started them off on.
0:09:34 > 0:09:39- And how young could you be? - In 1901, 14 was about the age.
0:09:39 > 0:09:44So, my great-uncle Jack is three at this point and my granddad is two.
0:09:44 > 0:09:45So they've ten more years.
0:09:45 > 0:09:50We're ten years away...from these children having to go underground?
0:09:50 > 0:09:53- That's correct, yes.- Whoa.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03In 1901, over 60,000 boys under the age of 16
0:10:03 > 0:10:06worked in British coal mines -
0:10:06 > 0:10:08nearly 9,000 of them in Yorkshire.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12In that year in the United Kingdom,
0:10:12 > 0:10:1666 boys were killed in mining accidents.
0:10:19 > 0:10:20It's astonishing, isn't it?
0:10:20 > 0:10:23When you think about how, how young 13 is, actually.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25Kind of frightening, really, isn't it?
0:10:25 > 0:10:29Well, it's a job I couldn't have done at all.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31I managed to get out through education.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35And my father always told me he didn't want me to work down the pit.
0:10:35 > 0:10:36I went to grammar school.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40- Which is what my grandfather did. - Yes.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43The way out was education, if you could get it.
0:10:48 > 0:10:53'I think, coming here, you get a real sense of why my great grandparents'
0:10:53 > 0:11:00were determined that their children wouldn't go...down the pit.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05You know, childhood, in very simple terms, childhood ended really early.
0:11:05 > 0:11:10It was by no means inevitable he was going to go to grammar school.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12In fact, it was much more likely, I guess,
0:11:12 > 0:11:16that he would've gone down the pit at 14.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26'I know my grandfather made it to grammar school,
0:11:26 > 0:11:29'but I don't know HOW he did that.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32'That's as much as I know, so I need to find out about that.'
0:11:35 > 0:11:37Hugh has come to Wales Primary School,
0:11:37 > 0:11:39to meet social historian, Professor Keith Laybourn.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42I mentioned there'll be something you might be interested in.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45- Yes.- This is the honours board of the school.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47- It's taken from the old school, put in here.- Yes.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50Is there anything that attracts your attention?
0:11:50 > 0:11:52HE LAUGHS 1910.
0:11:52 > 0:11:58Dennis Ronald, is my grandfather, he got a scholarship.
0:11:58 > 0:11:59He got a scholarship.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03- TOGETHER: A Wales Educational Trust. - Yes.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05So what did that mean?
0:12:05 > 0:12:08Well, it was the local landowners who raised money to allow
0:12:08 > 0:12:12bright working-class kids from this district to go to grammar school.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16- So he did well?- He did very well.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19To win a trust award, or indeed, a county award,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22you are one in about 100 children.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25- That's the...- OK. - It's that rare.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29And in a sense, if you were a son of a miner, probably even rarer.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33In the early 20th century,
0:12:33 > 0:12:35secondary education was largely provided
0:12:35 > 0:12:38by public and fee-paying grammar schools,
0:12:38 > 0:12:43attended almost exclusively by children from the upper and middle classes.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45Less than 5% of working-class children
0:12:45 > 0:12:47made it to secondary school.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50But secondary education was expanding.
0:12:50 > 0:12:55The government began to help fund the building of a wave of new grammar schools.
0:12:55 > 0:12:56In return for this state aid,
0:12:56 > 0:13:01more places would be made available to children from poorer backgrounds.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04These places were awarded by scholarship
0:13:04 > 0:13:08and to win one, Ronald Dennis had to show exceptional ability.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12- Well, here's the exam...- I feel slightly nervous, if I'm honest.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16..that your grandfather would've sat.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19This is a ten and 11-year-old child that's probably taken this.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21There's an arithmetic paper.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23Um...
0:13:23 > 0:13:28"Postcards already stamped can be bought at the rate of 11 for 6d.
0:13:28 > 0:13:30"Similar postcards, unstamped,
0:13:30 > 0:13:35"can be bought at the rate of 25, for one penny.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37"Explain which is cheaper,
0:13:37 > 0:13:43"to buy postcards already stamped, or postcards and stamps separately."
0:13:43 > 0:13:47Doesn't say how much stamps were, so that's almost impossible.
0:13:47 > 0:13:48It's almost impossible,
0:13:48 > 0:13:52because I tried working that out yesterday and I couldn't!
0:13:52 > 0:13:55You have to phone the Post Office and find out.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59Our collective ignorance is quite profound really, isn't it?
0:13:59 > 0:14:03That's the kind of question that most ten or 11 years old would go, oh...
0:14:03 > 0:14:05Yes.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07This is genuinely difficult, isn't it?
0:14:07 > 0:14:11Very, very difficult, for a 10-11 year-old child.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15- Do you know anything about the grammar school he ended up at? - It was Woodhouse Grammar School.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17Opened in '99,
0:14:17 > 0:14:22designed for 200 pupils, but was demolished recently.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28The next thing we have is a picture from about 1950, or thereabouts.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30Um, see if you can spot...
0:14:30 > 0:14:32This wasn't my grandfather.
0:14:34 > 0:14:35Jennifer...
0:14:37 > 0:14:40So he's there. Yes, that's definitely him.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44- I believe you've got an Uncle Jack...- I have, yes.
0:14:44 > 0:14:45Is that Jack?
0:14:45 > 0:14:49It was a uniform and a half, wasn't it?
0:14:49 > 0:14:54And if you were, I mean, you know, kids taunt other kids,
0:14:54 > 0:14:57if you were the two kids from the mining village
0:14:57 > 0:15:01who'd gone off to the grammar school and you came home every day...
0:15:01 > 0:15:03- Yes.- ..wearing this, sort of, expensive...
0:15:03 > 0:15:07- I'd stick together, if I were them! - He would've been....
0:15:07 > 0:15:10Yes, I think the real problem I think you face,
0:15:10 > 0:15:15at the turn of the century, is this class situation.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20You are actually moving from being working class to a middle-class environment.
0:15:20 > 0:15:25You're not accepted by one and you're beginning to almost alienate yourself from another.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27I think that's a real difficulty.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29Because you get it from both ends.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31Remember, you're not really part of the middle-class,
0:15:31 > 0:15:35- but you're no longer part of the working class.- Yeah.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43'Both he and his brother Jack both went to grammar school,
0:15:43 > 0:15:48'which, kind of, set the course for where I am now, if you like.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52'If no-one had got them in or if they hadn't got themselves in,
0:15:52 > 0:15:56'I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now.'
0:15:58 > 0:16:00Ronald Dennis left grammar school
0:16:00 > 0:16:04with expectations of a professional career and a bright future.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07But the world he found himself in was in turmoil.
0:16:07 > 0:16:08GUNFIRE
0:16:08 > 0:16:12The First World War was raging in Europe
0:16:12 > 0:16:16and thousands of young British men had already been killed.
0:16:16 > 0:16:21Ronald's plans were put on hold and, in January 1917,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23he joined the Army.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25'The next thing we definitely know about my grandfather'
0:16:25 > 0:16:31is that he ended up in officer training in Cambridge,
0:16:31 > 0:16:33so I guess the next step is to...
0:16:35 > 0:16:39..maybe get to Cambridge and see what there is there.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44Hugh is visiting St John's College,
0:16:44 > 0:16:48which housed officer cadets during the First World War
0:16:48 > 0:16:50and which he himself attended 60 years later.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54'I started there in the '80s.'
0:16:54 > 0:16:58'I imagined I was going to places my grandfather had been previously.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01'But I've no idea what he did or what the officer training school was.'
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Hugh is meeting Professor Gary Sheffield,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10an expert on the history of officer training during the First World War.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12- Hi, Gary, how are you? - Nice to meet you.
0:17:12 > 0:17:17- This is rather odd for me, because this is my old college.- Oh, right.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20Before coming to Cambridge for officer training,
0:17:20 > 0:17:22Ronald Dennis had joined the Army as a private soldier.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26Gary has found a copy of his military service record.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30If you'd like to start by looking at this form.
0:17:30 > 0:17:36So this is an application for admission to an officer cadet unit.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39He's been talent-spotted.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42He's in training as an ordinary soldier,
0:17:42 > 0:17:44someone has recognised that there is...
0:17:44 > 0:17:47there is some sort of potential for leadership there
0:17:47 > 0:17:50and therefore he's recommended to be commissioned.
0:17:50 > 0:17:55Was it unusual for grammar school boys to get commissions?
0:17:55 > 0:17:58- How did that work? - Before the war, definitely yes.
0:17:58 > 0:18:03The vast majority of officers came from public schools.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07But during the war itself, well, given the huge casualties,
0:18:07 > 0:18:11particularly among officers, the Army was actively
0:18:11 > 0:18:16looking to recruit erm, talented soldiers,
0:18:16 > 0:18:18no matter what their social background
0:18:18 > 0:18:22and to some degree, social snobbery goes out the window.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24Actually, it's "Can you do the job?"
0:18:24 > 0:18:27That's fascinating.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32The First World War had taken a huge toll on the officer class.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35During the worst periods of the war,
0:18:35 > 0:18:39the average life expectancy of a junior officer on the Western Front
0:18:39 > 0:18:41was just six weeks.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45Many of these public schoolboys, who would have been undergraduates,
0:18:45 > 0:18:47were now fighting and dying on the front.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51Meanwhile, back in Cambridge,
0:18:51 > 0:18:54whole colleges had been commandeered by the Army
0:18:54 > 0:18:56to train a new generation of officers
0:18:56 > 0:18:59from very different social backgrounds.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03- Now, what's happening there? - That's...- This is target practice.
0:19:03 > 0:19:05That's right.
0:19:08 > 0:19:10There's a really nice photo there.
0:19:10 > 0:19:15So this is bayoneting... bags of something. Sandbags.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17This is, this is bayonet training.
0:19:17 > 0:19:22This is the sort of obvious military tactics training.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26What a weird, sort of conflict of worlds almost, isn't it?
0:19:26 > 0:19:30Because this is a centre of learning, isn't it? And kind of...
0:19:30 > 0:19:33intellectual learning, then on the grass at the back,
0:19:33 > 0:19:35people are bayoneting sandbags.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39There's a very interesting photo here I'd like you to have a look at.
0:19:39 > 0:19:45This is the, kind of, formal, mediaeval dining hall.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50And this is all the officer cadets being served, I guess, isn't it?
0:19:50 > 0:19:52- Yes.- Wow.
0:19:52 > 0:19:57The Army had a strong belief that soldiers would only follow gentlemen
0:19:57 > 0:20:03and gentlemen had an ethos which fitted them out to be leaders.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06Officer training is not just about tactics,
0:20:06 > 0:20:12it's not just about learning to be an officer in the technical sense,
0:20:12 > 0:20:14it's about learning to be a gentleman,
0:20:14 > 0:20:16if you're not born or educated as one.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19So on some occasions, you would actually have instructors
0:20:19 > 0:20:22sitting on the same table as them, checking their table manners.
0:20:22 > 0:20:23HE LAUGHS
0:20:23 > 0:20:25They're learning that stuff about
0:20:25 > 0:20:27do you lean to the left or the right when the wine comes in?
0:20:27 > 0:20:30And the way to pass the port and all the rest of it, yeah.
0:20:30 > 0:20:35So it was a proper training course in moving up a social class, wasn't it?
0:20:35 > 0:20:36It absolutely was and, of course,
0:20:36 > 0:20:40Ronald would have done this, or something very similar to this,
0:20:40 > 0:20:45coming from his background, suddenly he's in a mediaeval hall,
0:20:45 > 0:20:48high table off to one side, being served dinner.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51- A new experience.- Yeah.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55I mean, talking about this idea of creating gentlemen,
0:20:55 > 0:20:59there's an interesting poem written here called A Perfect Course.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02Perhaps you'd like to have a look at the last verse.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08"It's one star now and a sand-brown belt
0:21:08 > 0:21:10"and a temporary gentleman, too."
0:21:10 > 0:21:14"So remember, my boy, whenever you go
0:21:14 > 0:21:18"the 'Varsity you've been through." Wow.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21For me, this really captures what it's about.
0:21:21 > 0:21:23I mean, "A temporary gentleman".
0:21:23 > 0:21:27This is actually a dreadfully snobbish term
0:21:27 > 0:21:29that was bandied around at the beginning of the war.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33Officers like Ronald would hold temporary commissions -
0:21:33 > 0:21:35they would be known as temporary offices officers,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38as in, once the war was over, they would be back to civilian life.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41But the assumption was - and it's very snobbish assumption -
0:21:41 > 0:21:44that these people would only have the manners
0:21:44 > 0:21:47and the bearing of an officer, of a gentleman,
0:21:47 > 0:21:50for the period the war was going on.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53So it must have been very difficult, I guess.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57You know, your father is, literally, on the coal face
0:21:57 > 0:22:00and then you are brought to these ridiculously plush,
0:22:00 > 0:22:05really, isn't it, surroundings in Cambridge.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08- So how long would he have been here then? Six months?- Six months.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11It was a six-month course
0:22:11 > 0:22:14and at the end of it, he would have gone off to join his unit.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21Between periods of military training,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24the cadets in Cambridge were encouraged to take part
0:22:24 > 0:22:27in all the traditional activities of student life -
0:22:27 > 0:22:31playing sports, punting on the river and rowing.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38'I should think Ronald, my grandfather,
0:22:38 > 0:22:40'found it very, very strange to be here.
0:22:40 > 0:22:42'I should think this was unlike anywhere
0:22:42 > 0:22:44'he'd imagined he would end up.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47'But I don't suppose any of this felt very real to him.
0:22:47 > 0:22:48'I don't think it could.'
0:22:54 > 0:22:57I think it was probably taken from about here.
0:22:57 > 0:23:02There's a pub in this shot called the Fort St George,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05which is just...there.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07So it's definitely here.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10So this is obviously the end of his time here,
0:23:10 > 0:23:11cos the leaves on the trees.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15He started in January and he was only doing six months so, you know,
0:23:15 > 0:23:17this is spring or early summer.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22As the end came to his time here
0:23:22 > 0:23:29I should think he could only have viewed leaving here with, sort of, trepidation, really.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44'According to my dad, Ronald only arrived in France
0:23:44 > 0:23:48'in the last weeks of the war and was quite badly wounded.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51'I need to find out what happened to him.'
0:23:53 > 0:23:57Hugh is visiting the Imperial War Museum in London.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01- He's meeting military historian Nigel Steel.- Hi, I'm Hugh.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03Pleased to meet you.
0:24:03 > 0:24:09But what I'm interested in is my grandfather,
0:24:09 > 0:24:13when he leaves Cambridge and heads off to war.
0:24:13 > 0:24:18Well, the first thing, I think, is his medal index record,
0:24:18 > 0:24:21and what's useful about the medal index record
0:24:21 > 0:24:25is it actually gives us the date he arrives in France.
0:24:25 > 0:24:30- So he goes to France on the 12th of October.- 1918.
0:24:30 > 0:24:34And then the war ends on the 11th of the 11th of '18,
0:24:34 > 0:24:37although presumably there is a bit of stuff after that.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39There's a month to go,
0:24:39 > 0:24:44but what's interesting about entering the Western Front
0:24:44 > 0:24:47in the beginning-middle of October
0:24:47 > 0:24:50is that you are almost at the climax of the war.
0:24:50 > 0:24:54There are large numbers of German soldiers
0:24:54 > 0:24:56who are fighting as hard as they have ever fought
0:24:56 > 0:25:00and although we can historically see that there may only be a month left,
0:25:00 > 0:25:02it doesn't make a difference. He doesn't know that.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06By October 1918,
0:25:06 > 0:25:10the fighting on the Western Front was getting ever more desperate.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15The stalemate of trench warfare had been replaced by chaotic
0:25:15 > 0:25:18mobile combat across devastated terrain.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21The Germans had fallen back towards the Belgian border,
0:25:21 > 0:25:24close to the River Sambre, so the British High Command
0:25:24 > 0:25:28planned a major assault to smash these new German lines.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34- And what does he do when he arrives then?- He was a platoon commander,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38so he would have been in command of a group of 30-35 men.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42- He was 19.- He was 19 years old, he's just arrived from Britain.
0:25:42 > 0:25:47There's a group of maybe 25-30 hardened soldiers
0:25:47 > 0:25:52from the North of England and you've been plonked from nowhere on top.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54I mean, it's an intimidating prospect.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01The target of Ronald's platoon was the village of Futoy.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03To capture it, Ronald would have to lead his men
0:26:03 > 0:26:06through more than a mile of fierce German defences.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11The attack takes place at five o'clock in the morning,
0:26:11 > 0:26:14it's very dark, there's a mist floating around.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16It's going to be extremely noisy -
0:26:16 > 0:26:19the shells will start flying in both directions instantaneously.
0:26:19 > 0:26:21Machine guns will crank out.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24You're not really going to be able to see where you're actually going,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28so very soon, casualties will fall. I think the battle will degenerate
0:26:28 > 0:26:32into an almost inconceivable, terrifying experience.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36Despite the German resistance, Ronald and his battalion
0:26:36 > 0:26:39successfully captured the village of Futoy,
0:26:39 > 0:26:41but they suffered heavy losses.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47"The battalion was unlucky in losing 13 officer casualties,
0:26:47 > 0:26:49"five killed, eight wounded."
0:26:49 > 0:26:53- And he gets wounded?- He gets wounded. - On this day?- That's right.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56Yes, we know that because if we go down the rest of the medical reports
0:26:56 > 0:26:58that we've actually got for him
0:26:58 > 0:27:02and this is the description of the wound that he actually gets.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04"Wounded as above by fragments of shell.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08"Shell wound, upper arm, right."
0:27:08 > 0:27:11And what would "shell" mean that instance?
0:27:11 > 0:27:12Does that mean artillery shell?
0:27:12 > 0:27:15Yes, an artillery shell would have been fired
0:27:15 > 0:27:18and burst into fragments and this large lump of hot metal
0:27:18 > 0:27:21would have flown towards him and ripped across his arm.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25It's all healed up within two or three weeks,
0:27:25 > 0:27:29so it's actually not that bad, but it's bad enough to take you off the battlefield.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31Lucky. Very lucky.
0:27:31 > 0:27:36You know, a tiny bit higher. Tiny bit to the left.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40That's where luck is on his side.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44It does seem to be, when you look at the way it pans out for him.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49He could be somebody you could say had a lucky war.
0:27:49 > 0:27:50Well, a very, very lucky war.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56Following his injury at Futoy,
0:27:56 > 0:28:00Ronald Dennis was sent home to England to recover.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02After the war, he left the army,
0:28:02 > 0:28:05married and became a secondary school teacher.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09He died in 1990, aged 91.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13I wonder, when I hear about his service,
0:28:13 > 0:28:17whether he'd rather underestimated what he had achieved.
0:28:19 > 0:28:23I mean, what I'm rather proud of, really, is the fact that
0:28:23 > 0:28:26when he was called upon, he did the thing that he was called upon to do.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30Without my grandfather's journey,
0:28:30 > 0:28:36I don't suppose my life would be in any sense the same,
0:28:36 > 0:28:40because his story, it seems to me, is one of social mobility, really,
0:28:40 > 0:28:43which had only started to become possible at that point.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48And if none of that happened, I wouldn't be here, so...
0:29:00 > 0:29:04Now, Hugh wants to explore the very different war experience
0:29:04 > 0:29:07of his other grandfather, Godfrey Hinnels.
0:29:07 > 0:29:12My mum's dad obviously had this very long war.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15I want to know where he fought and what his story was, really,
0:29:15 > 0:29:19cos I know even less about that and there's more to know, really.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23Hugh's aunt Margaret has come up to London
0:29:23 > 0:29:25to share her memories of her father.
0:29:25 > 0:29:30- How lovely to see you. Long time. - It's a small room you've got here.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33Extraordinary. So, there we are.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36Now, mum said - and this is why I'm here, really -
0:29:36 > 0:29:41that you would know more about your father's war record than she does.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45Yes, I think possibly I do. Yes, I do.
0:29:45 > 0:29:47We've got photographs here
0:29:47 > 0:29:51and this is one that was particularly...
0:29:51 > 0:29:53I knew so well.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55It's a family gathering.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59There's his beloved brother, Frank, who'd just joined up,
0:29:59 > 0:30:03and there's my father, still in civvies.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07Frank then went off and got killed at Gallipoli.
0:30:07 > 0:30:12- How old was he there? He was 17? - 17. 17, yes.
0:30:12 > 0:30:17And he was his best friend.
0:30:17 > 0:30:22And there was my father towards the end of the war, I take it.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25- This is a group of sergeants, isn't it?- Yes, that's right.
0:30:25 > 0:30:29He was in the war for a long time, wasn't he?
0:30:29 > 0:30:34Yes, he was, both in France and in Belgium.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38And did he tell you any, kind of, specifics of his war?
0:30:38 > 0:30:39I don't know how I know this story -
0:30:39 > 0:30:43you have to understand that I don't know -
0:30:43 > 0:30:47but he was on a hill
0:30:47 > 0:30:53with an enormous amount of British troops
0:30:53 > 0:30:56and the Germans surrounded them
0:30:56 > 0:31:01and at the end of the battle,
0:31:01 > 0:31:05there were nine of them left - nine British -
0:31:05 > 0:31:09and the Germans had really won, obviously,
0:31:09 > 0:31:14and to get out of this hill, from this hill,
0:31:14 > 0:31:18they had to use the dead bodies of their comrades...
0:31:18 > 0:31:21I mean, it's so horrendous, isn't it?
0:31:21 > 0:31:24..to build a bridge,
0:31:24 > 0:31:26because it was very marshy, I think,
0:31:26 > 0:31:30and, well, that was the only way out.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34- So he had one hell of a war, didn't he?- He did.- Awful, awful.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38It must've been so hellish for him.
0:31:38 > 0:31:39And do you think...
0:31:39 > 0:31:44I mean, obviously, towards the end of his life, when I knew him,
0:31:44 > 0:31:51and I remember him as a very gentle, friendly grandfather, wasn't he?
0:31:51 > 0:31:54- Yes, he was lovely.- He taught me to catch and stuff like that.
0:31:54 > 0:31:59But do you think it absolutely coloured the rest of his life?
0:31:59 > 0:32:02Inside. Inside him.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06He woke every morning at six, or just before,
0:32:06 > 0:32:12and got up, because he said the thoughts that crowded him
0:32:12 > 0:32:17were too terrible. To get away, he'd go into the garden and...
0:32:19 > 0:32:23..he tended our garden so beautifully
0:32:23 > 0:32:26and it was his salvation, I think.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30- It's not something you'd really ever get over, is it?- No, no, no, no.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35It just sounds like he had a horrific time.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40One story that Margaret told me
0:32:40 > 0:32:45about my grandpa being one of nine men left after a German... A battle.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49I didn't know any of that, at all.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53I want to know where that was and what happened.
0:32:53 > 0:32:54I need to get to the bottom of that, I think.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04Hugh is starting by doing an online search
0:33:04 > 0:33:07for Godfrey's military service record.
0:33:14 > 0:33:18So here he is. Godfrey Parker Hinnels.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22Bury St Edmunds, aged 20 years and four months. That's him.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29Right, so these are the records of his service,
0:33:29 > 0:33:32so he embarks for France
0:33:32 > 0:33:35on the 13 of February -
0:33:35 > 0:33:40that's my birthday - in 1917.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42It's all in a strange order,
0:33:42 > 0:33:47but he's in active service in France for 18 months or so.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49It's very confusing
0:33:49 > 0:33:52cos they've just filled in gaps wherever there is a gap,
0:33:52 > 0:33:55so it seems to start in 1919
0:33:55 > 0:33:58and then go back to 1916 and it's just dates, really.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01I need to get to the story behind it.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04Find out what happened in each of these places.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16I'm aware that this is a very different kind of journey.
0:34:16 > 0:34:22He left on 13th February, 1917, presumably on a troopship,
0:34:22 > 0:34:24going out to a very harsh training camp.
0:34:24 > 0:34:32By contrast, I'm on an nice, warm ferry heading - I hope - for a hotel.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38It must have been deeply frightening, I think,
0:34:38 > 0:34:44when you know that the next step is...action.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47You must, kind of, look back and just think,
0:34:47 > 0:34:50"I wonder if I'll ever get back there again."
0:34:56 > 0:35:01Hugh is in northern France heading south to the city of Arras,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04where Godfrey was sent shortly after he arrived.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07It was the scene of one of the pivotal battles
0:35:07 > 0:35:08of the First World War.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14By April 1917, the Western Front was in stalemate,
0:35:14 > 0:35:19with both sides dug in in a vast network of trenches.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22To break this deadlock, the British launched a major offensive
0:35:22 > 0:35:25against the German trenches, outside the city of Arras.
0:35:32 > 0:35:34Godfrey had been assigned to the Suffolk Regiment.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37In early April, 1917, they were stationed close
0:35:37 > 0:35:41to the village of Neuville Vitasse, southeast of Arras.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48To find out what they were doing there,
0:35:48 > 0:35:51Hugh has arranged to meet battlefield historian Jeremy Banning
0:35:51 > 0:35:54at a military cemetery on the outskirts of the village.
0:36:03 > 0:36:09- Hi.- Hello, Hugh. Nice to meet you.- And you.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11- Can I tell you what I know?- Yes.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16What I've worked out so far is that his war - his action -
0:36:16 > 0:36:19started here, somewhere here.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23There are other bits of his story that I'm following, as well,
0:36:23 > 0:36:26where he gets stuck on the top of the hill with, sort of, nine men
0:36:26 > 0:36:29and they're the only ones left standing, really,
0:36:29 > 0:36:31which I want to get to the bottom of.
0:36:31 > 0:36:36I'm just interested to know what happened here and why he was here.
0:36:36 > 0:36:40Well, I've got some maps. I can show you modern maps
0:36:40 > 0:36:42and we can see whereabouts we were.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49OK, well here's the town of Arras here
0:36:49 > 0:36:53and this is the village of Neuville Vitasse just here
0:36:53 > 0:36:56so the tree-lined road that you can see just running on the ridge,
0:36:56 > 0:36:58perhaps 300 yards away from us,
0:36:58 > 0:37:01that's the position that they're brought to -
0:37:01 > 0:37:04between Neuville Vitasse and Henin-sur-Cojeul.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07- And we're here.- We're just here, yeah.- Looking that way.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09Absolutely, looking back across the field.
0:37:09 > 0:37:14So what was Godfrey doing here in April, 1917?
0:37:14 > 0:37:17Well, if I can refer you to the war diary here,
0:37:17 > 0:37:19if you have a look on the 13th...
0:37:19 > 0:37:21OK, so a great deal of burial
0:37:21 > 0:37:24and salvage work was done by the battalion
0:37:24 > 0:37:30in the vicinity of the trenches in front of the...Hindenburg Line.
0:37:30 > 0:37:35The trenches up towards this area had been attacked on 9 April,
0:37:35 > 0:37:40so the Suffolks were brought in, as the war diary says, to bury the dead
0:37:40 > 0:37:45who had been killed in the attack on 9 April and that's why we're here,
0:37:45 > 0:37:49because there's a very, very good chance that Godfrey and the Suffolks
0:37:49 > 0:37:52created the cemetery that we're standing by.
0:38:01 > 0:38:08"The weather was bitterly cold and it snowed heavily."
0:38:08 > 0:38:11- Wow, so it snowed here.- Yeah.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14The bodies of the men who had been killed in this attack
0:38:14 > 0:38:16would have been lying under a blanket of snow
0:38:16 > 0:38:19and so, Godfrey's role would have been
0:38:19 > 0:38:21to find those men underneath that snow and...
0:38:23 > 0:38:27..dig into it, to try and recover that body.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31A lot of the bodies would have been blown into pieces, as well,
0:38:31 > 0:38:36so they would have been in a pretty dreadful state. So, a horrible job.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39You can see the fact that these men are buried
0:38:39 > 0:38:43with the headstones buttressed next to each other,
0:38:43 > 0:38:46there was no time for individual graves.
0:38:46 > 0:38:50They would have dug a long trench and buried them in there.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04You know, for someone who hasn't yet been to war, that must be...
0:39:04 > 0:39:07It's pretty harrowing stuff, isn't it? You have to...
0:39:08 > 0:39:10..come to thinking, "Well, I'm next," aren't you?
0:39:10 > 0:39:12Unavoidably, I would have thought.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14It would be a very, very tough introduction
0:39:14 > 0:39:17to what modern warfare was, really.
0:39:36 > 0:39:39So we're coming up now on to this high ground of Henin Hill,
0:39:39 > 0:39:44and the German line ran across to the left just behind the ridge.
0:39:45 > 0:39:46If you look in front of you, to the left,
0:39:46 > 0:39:49you can see the remains of a German strongpoint here.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52This whole landscape used to be dotted with these
0:39:52 > 0:39:56and this was a machine gun position within the Hindenburg Line.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02The Hindenburg Line was a massive German fortification
0:40:02 > 0:40:04that stretched across northern France.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09It was made up of an elaborate network of trenches and tunnels
0:40:09 > 0:40:13surrounded by fields of barbed wire.
0:40:13 > 0:40:14During the Battle of Arras,
0:40:14 > 0:40:18breaking through the Hindenburg Line was the Allies' main objective.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24Godfrey's next assignment with the Suffolks
0:40:24 > 0:40:27was to launch an attack on this formidable fortification.
0:40:27 > 0:40:28Anywhere here?
0:40:28 > 0:40:32Yeah, perhaps if we stop in there, we can pull up on the right here.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37Jeremy has brought Hugh to the site of the attack.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44The Hindenburg Line itself was two lines of trenches
0:40:44 > 0:40:47and we're between the two. And the reason we know where we are
0:40:47 > 0:40:49is because you can see this white chalk line
0:40:49 > 0:40:51in the field running through there.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53Can you see the residue on the surface?
0:40:53 > 0:40:56So that gives you the perfect line of the support line
0:40:56 > 0:40:58of the Hindenburg and that is because
0:40:58 > 0:41:00that had been dug down into the chalk
0:41:00 > 0:41:02and so it leaves a perfect scar on the landscape.
0:41:04 > 0:41:06The Allies had already seized
0:41:06 > 0:41:10a short stretch of the Hindenburg Line north of this area.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12The plan was for Godfrey's Suffolk battalion
0:41:12 > 0:41:15to enter the German trenches in the north
0:41:15 > 0:41:17and fight their way down using grenades,
0:41:17 > 0:41:21killing and capturing German soldiers as they went.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27This is a German map of the time,
0:41:27 > 0:41:30showing perfectly the Hindenburg Line running down here in blue.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34This is their start position and they are working down
0:41:34 > 0:41:37the front and support line of the Hindenburg Line.
0:41:37 > 0:41:40You're actually attacking along trenches
0:41:40 > 0:41:42rather than attacking against them.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45- And what happens?- Let's have a look at the war diary once again.
0:41:45 > 0:41:50- So let's see.- Oh, OK. "Advance commenced at 4:45 AM.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54"Meeting with a good deal of opposition of all sorts,
0:41:54 > 0:41:57"until reaching the second sunken road,"
0:41:57 > 0:42:00- which is this, is it?- Absolutely. - So they're not in open country.
0:42:00 > 0:42:02They're fighting their way down a trench.
0:42:02 > 0:42:04Above the trench or in the trench?
0:42:04 > 0:42:08No, they're in the trench. To put it in its crudest terms,
0:42:08 > 0:42:11what you're doing is you're throwing grenades at the enemy,
0:42:11 > 0:42:13who are doing the same to you, as well.
0:42:13 > 0:42:17I'll show you what the trench was like.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21You can see the way it goes along and then returns in fire bays,
0:42:21 > 0:42:23so you have this zigzag shape.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25So when you're bombing your way along,
0:42:25 > 0:42:28you don't know what you're going to encounter
0:42:28 > 0:42:31when you're working your way round each bay.
0:42:31 > 0:42:33Specialist bombers who would pull the pin on their grenade,
0:42:33 > 0:42:36throw the grenade up over the top here
0:42:36 > 0:42:40and then specialist bayonet men, whose role would be,
0:42:40 > 0:42:42in the split-second that grenade explodes,
0:42:42 > 0:42:45to be round the corner to bayonet any Germans.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48Once they'd bayonetted them, the quickest way to dispatch someone
0:42:48 > 0:42:51is rifle butt in the face. So it's smash into the face.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54The nature of the fighting within this
0:42:54 > 0:42:56is about as brutal as it can get
0:42:56 > 0:43:01and if we think about Godfrey having joined the battalion in March,
0:43:01 > 0:43:05he's thrown into one of the most savage infantry battles
0:43:05 > 0:43:11of the entire war, so he is now from being as green as you can get
0:43:11 > 0:43:14in the middle of this utter melee.
0:43:16 > 0:43:18Three hours after starting their attack,
0:43:18 > 0:43:22Godfrey and the Suffolks were within 200 yards of their objective,
0:43:22 > 0:43:24but there, their progress was halted.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29The Germans began a fierce bombardment of the trenches
0:43:29 > 0:43:33from a neighbouring village and the British were forced to retreat.
0:43:34 > 0:43:36There is a series of memoirs
0:43:36 > 0:43:38left by a man called Captain Stormont Gibbs,
0:43:38 > 0:43:40who was the adjutant of the 1st 4th Suffolks.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44- This is of this actual attack, is it? - Absolutely, yes.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48"We calculated that not more than half the battalion could be left
0:43:48 > 0:43:50"to hold two miles of trench."
0:43:52 > 0:43:54So they've lost...
0:43:54 > 0:43:56Well, they've lost that number of men, is that right?
0:43:56 > 0:44:01"Soon came the news that we had no-one left in the front trench.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05"All were wounded or madly trying to escape with the wounded.
0:44:05 > 0:44:06"Then came the report that our bombs,
0:44:06 > 0:44:08"which we kept hurling up to the front,
0:44:08 > 0:44:11were duds and so were useless.
0:44:11 > 0:44:13"When the enemy had driven us back
0:44:13 > 0:44:16"for a considerable distance along our front line,
0:44:16 > 0:44:19he was, of course, able to work down the communication trenches
0:44:19 > 0:44:21"and get in behind our men.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25"They tried to save themselves by bolting across the open,
0:44:25 > 0:44:27"but they ran into barbed wire
0:44:27 > 0:44:30"and were mopped up to a man by machine guns.
0:44:30 > 0:44:32Wow.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36- So they lost half of their men. - They lost half their men, yeah.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39And ended up, at the end of the day, exactly where they'd started.
0:44:42 > 0:44:47Of around 700 men who began the attack on the Hindenburg trenches,
0:44:47 > 0:44:51just 350, including Godfrey, survived.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55What an introduction to combat that is, really.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58It's very brutal. It's very brutal.
0:45:00 > 0:45:04It's almost impossible to imagine the noise and the horror
0:45:04 > 0:45:06of finding yourself in something like that.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10You're just fighting for your life
0:45:10 > 0:45:12and the way that you have to fight for your life
0:45:12 > 0:45:15is to kill lots of Germans as you go.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20It's impossible to imagine what the effect is, really.
0:45:22 > 0:45:24By the end of the battle of Arras,
0:45:24 > 0:45:27the Allies had taken hardly any ground,
0:45:27 > 0:45:30yet the cost to human life was immense.
0:45:31 > 0:45:36In five weeks, the Allies suffered nearly 160,000 casualties,
0:45:36 > 0:45:40an average of over 4,000 men a day.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51I hardly dare ask, but what happens to Godfrey after this then?
0:45:51 > 0:45:57The next major action is not too far from the Belgian city of Ypres,
0:45:57 > 0:46:00sort of between Ypres and the Passchendaele Ridge.
0:46:00 > 0:46:03So this is Passchendaele that's about to happen?
0:46:03 > 0:46:05That's right. That's right, yeah.
0:46:05 > 0:46:10This is like a series of really awful fixtures, isn't it?
0:46:10 > 0:46:14It's like, you go and have a rest and then you go and play the next one.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17- Absolutely. - A sort of horrific...fixture list.
0:46:23 > 0:46:28In July 1917, the Allies launched an attack on the German lines
0:46:28 > 0:46:32around the village of Passchendaele, east of the Belgian city of Ypres.
0:46:34 > 0:46:36Passchendaele would become
0:46:36 > 0:46:39one of the most brutal and chaotic battles of the war.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44Within a few months, the countryside had been completely destroyed
0:46:44 > 0:46:48and heavy rains had turned the battlefields into a quagmire.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53Tens of thousands of Allied soldiers were being killed
0:46:53 > 0:46:58trying to advance just a few miles into German-held territory.
0:47:02 > 0:47:06We're coming out of Ypres now and as we're going up this ridge here,
0:47:06 > 0:47:08you can see the ground rising in front of us
0:47:08 > 0:47:10and that was where the German lines ran up,
0:47:10 > 0:47:14running along the top of that rich, the British on the lower slope.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18It was from these positions that the British launched their offensive for
0:47:18 > 0:47:20the battle for Passchendaele.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22Is Passchendaele the other side of the ridge?
0:47:22 > 0:47:24Passchendaele is away to our left.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32On 26 September, Godfrey and the Suffolks
0:47:32 > 0:47:35were set to launch an attack on the German lines
0:47:35 > 0:47:37towards the Passchendaele Ridge.
0:47:38 > 0:47:40But their plan came to nothing.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44Before they could leave their starting positions,
0:47:44 > 0:47:47they came under intense German artillery bombardment.
0:47:49 > 0:47:54By the end of the encounter, they'd suffered over 250 casualties -
0:47:54 > 0:47:56a third of the battalion.
0:47:57 > 0:47:59Godfrey survived
0:47:59 > 0:48:02and he and his comrades were withdrawn from the front line
0:48:02 > 0:48:05and spent the winter in camps close to the town of Poperinge.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12The town of Poperinge, close to Ypres,
0:48:12 > 0:48:16was commandeered by the British Army during the war.
0:48:16 > 0:48:21Just off the town square was Talbot House, a club for British soldiers.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25- Today, it's a museum. - Hi, Hugh. Please come in.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29- Welcome to Talbot House. - The secretary is Jan Louagie.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33So this is my grandfather, Godfrey.
0:48:33 > 0:48:38- We've got this war diary. - That's really interesting.
0:48:38 > 0:48:41He was in Toronto Camp, which is just up the road here,
0:48:41 > 0:48:44so it's only about two miles from Poperinge.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47So he would have come to Talbot House.
0:48:47 > 0:48:49Well, there's a big chance he would have come.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53Talbot House was founded by a British Army chaplain,
0:48:53 > 0:48:55Philip "Tubby" Clayton.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58It was unique in offering soldiers the comforts of home
0:48:58 > 0:49:01in the heart of the battlefield.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04This is a picture taken in the other room.
0:49:04 > 0:49:07There was a piano, a nice painting on the wall.
0:49:09 > 0:49:11It also feels terribly British.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14Oh, yes. The ground floor was just chairs -
0:49:14 > 0:49:19armchairs, carpets, curtains, you know? It was a home from home.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22And there was also a concert hall, you know,
0:49:22 > 0:49:25because Talbot House had its own orchestra.
0:49:25 > 0:49:29A really important place in the lives of the soldiers who were...
0:49:29 > 0:49:31Definitely. Oh, yes, yes.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35Lots of British soldiers were very fond of the garden, you see,
0:49:35 > 0:49:37because Ypres was a sea of mud.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40Here there was a garden with green grass,
0:49:40 > 0:49:43with birds sitting in the treetops.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47Mm. Well, my grandfather was very keen on gardening.
0:49:47 > 0:49:52He treated the garden, when he got back from the war,
0:49:52 > 0:49:54- as his way of escaping, really.- Ah.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57Well, this was also considered as a sort of therapy
0:49:57 > 0:49:59by the chap who ran the place.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03He said, "If you do gardening, you forget all about the war."
0:50:03 > 0:50:05Maybe that's a lesson my grandfather learned here.
0:50:05 > 0:50:07- Possibly.- It could be, couldn't it?
0:50:09 > 0:50:13"Tubby" Clayton managed to get together a chapel
0:50:13 > 0:50:16and, again, one of the soldiers was a good painter.
0:50:16 > 0:50:20He painted this, what it looked like.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23- If you want to, we can go and have a look.- Is it still here, is it?
0:50:23 > 0:50:28- It's still here, yes.- I'd love to do that, yeah.- OK, let's go and see it.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40- It's incredibly simple, isn't it? - Yes.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47We found a very nice account by one soldier
0:50:47 > 0:50:52who was telling his wife all about Talbot House.
0:50:52 > 0:50:57"And pushing through the door I found myself at once in a different world.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59"During the preceding three weeks,
0:50:59 > 0:51:01"I've lived in the land of mud and death.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04"Many of my best friends had passed over,
0:51:04 > 0:51:08"others I'd seen mangled, wounded and in agony.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12"After some hesitation, I climbed the narrow stairway into the upper rooms"
0:51:12 > 0:51:14- so that's that staircase -
0:51:14 > 0:51:17"I've been to services often enough,
0:51:17 > 0:51:20"both in the Army and in those almost-forgotten civilian days
0:51:20 > 0:51:25"yet in that little upper room in company with a few dozen other men
0:51:25 > 0:51:29"who had been tried by fire as I had been tried,
0:51:29 > 0:51:33"I found for the first time, the courage and satisfaction
0:51:33 > 0:51:38"that men have agreed to call a piece of God which passeth understanding
0:51:38 > 0:51:42"and I came down the stairs ready and able to face again
0:51:42 > 0:51:45"the dangers and troubles of the morrow."
0:51:49 > 0:51:51You can see that, really.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54- It's a wonderful place, isn't it? - Very much so.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10I still don't know how his war ends.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13I also need to see if I can get to the bottom of this story
0:52:13 > 0:52:16where he is one of the last men standing on this hill,
0:52:16 > 0:52:19surrounded by Germans, and I don't think I've found that yet.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22Neither of the places we've been seem to be that.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24In the spring of 1918,
0:52:24 > 0:52:27having spent the winter away from the front line,
0:52:27 > 0:52:31Godfrey Hinnels found himself once again in the thick of the action.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37The German High Command launched a massive attack
0:52:37 > 0:52:40on the Allied forces on the Western front -
0:52:40 > 0:52:42The Spring Offensive.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45Godfrey and his new regiment, the Lincolnshires,
0:52:45 > 0:52:49were charged with defending the village of Wytschaete on the outskirts of Ypres.
0:52:57 > 0:53:01- This is Wytschaete.- This is the village of Wytschaete, that's right.
0:53:01 > 0:53:05Godfrey's unit were brought in to defend this area.
0:53:05 > 0:53:09So the Germans are there. Coming towards us.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12Coming across this way. It was a desperate time.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15So as Godfrey's sitting here,
0:53:15 > 0:53:18perfectly aware that they're going to be attacked -
0:53:18 > 0:53:20it's not IF they're going to be attacked,
0:53:20 > 0:53:22it's WHEN they're going to be attacked.
0:53:22 > 0:53:28So Douglas Haig, commanding the British expeditionary Force,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31the special order of the day. If you have a look at the date,
0:53:31 > 0:53:34it's just a few days before Godfrey was here.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38"To all ranks of the British Army in France and Flanders,
0:53:38 > 0:53:41"there is no other course open to us but to fight it out.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44"Every position must be held to the last man.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47"There must be no retirements. With our backs to the wall
0:53:47 > 0:53:50"and believing in the justice of our cause,
0:53:50 > 0:53:53"each one of us must fight on to the end.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56"The safety of our homes and the freedom of mankind alike
0:53:56 > 0:54:00"depend upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment."
0:54:01 > 0:54:03So this is where Godfrey finds himself -
0:54:03 > 0:54:05- right in the middle of it. - So it's this far, no further.
0:54:12 > 0:54:17On the morning of 16 April, 1918, the Germans launched their attack.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23Godfrey and his Lincolnshire battalion,
0:54:23 > 0:54:26consisting of around 400 men and vastly outnumbered,
0:54:26 > 0:54:28were directly in their path
0:54:28 > 0:54:30holding a section of the Allied front line
0:54:30 > 0:54:33on the edge of the village of Wytschaete.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35"So at 4:30 AM on the morning of the 16th
0:54:35 > 0:54:38"the enemy put down a terrific bombardment on our front line."
0:54:38 > 0:54:41- So that's coming this way, so they're firing...- They're firing...
0:54:41 > 0:54:46Well, we're on this line here, so they're coming this way.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48"Under cover of a dense fog,
0:54:48 > 0:54:50"the enemy attacked on the flanks of the battalion
0:54:50 > 0:54:52"and succeeded in breaking our line.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56"Strong parties of the enemy then wheeled inwards
0:54:56 > 0:54:59"and attacked both flanks of the battalion."
0:54:59 > 0:55:01So he's facing this way,
0:55:01 > 0:55:05but now he's got Germans have come that way and that way.
0:55:06 > 0:55:10The Germans had broken through the British line on both sides of the village,
0:55:10 > 0:55:14circling back to attack Godfrey's battalion on both flanks.
0:55:16 > 0:55:20It says, "Owing to the dense fog and bombardment
0:55:20 > 0:55:23"it's impossible to get a clear idea of the situation
0:55:23 > 0:55:26"and the companies didn't know they were attacked
0:55:26 > 0:55:29"until the enemy appeared at close quarters."
0:55:29 > 0:55:32Godfrey and his comrades would have been unable to see
0:55:32 > 0:55:35the Germans breaking in, so the Germans appearing at you
0:55:35 > 0:55:38out of the fog from probably just a few yards away,
0:55:38 > 0:55:41so it's terrifying hand-to-hand fighting.
0:55:41 > 0:55:46Within hours, Godfrey's battalion had been almost wiped out.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48Small pockets of soldiers were left to defend
0:55:48 > 0:55:51the rising ground on the edge of the village,
0:55:51 > 0:55:55while the Germans closed in steadily from both sides.
0:55:59 > 0:56:03Well, the story was that he, I think, is on the top of a hill
0:56:03 > 0:56:06with nine other men and surrounded
0:56:06 > 0:56:10and manages then to retreat or escape, somehow.
0:56:10 > 0:56:12According to my Aunt Margaret,
0:56:12 > 0:56:16he said that they had to use the bodies of their dead colleagues
0:56:16 > 0:56:19as a, kind of, a walkway.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22I'm sure you couldn't ever really verify that.
0:56:22 > 0:56:24That would never be in here, would it?
0:56:24 > 0:56:28I think it's 86 men, 87 made it out of this action
0:56:28 > 0:56:31so the account of there being nine men,
0:56:31 > 0:56:34that might be nine men from his platoon.
0:56:34 > 0:56:39- So how many would have started the action?- Perhaps 400.- OK.
0:56:39 > 0:56:44So you've lost three quarters of the company.
0:56:44 > 0:56:46Of the entire battalion.
0:56:46 > 0:56:51So you think this is probably where that story of nine men at...
0:56:51 > 0:56:53It ties in. It ties in very well.
0:56:53 > 0:56:58There's no other action within Godfrey's service
0:56:58 > 0:57:00that would tie in with this.
0:57:00 > 0:57:06Well, I'm glad I know where it is. I'm glad I wasn't there, at the time.
0:57:12 > 0:57:17The defence of Wytschaete marked the end of Godfrey's front-line service.
0:57:18 > 0:57:22After the war, he returned to his home town of Bury St Edmunds,
0:57:22 > 0:57:26where he got married and spent the rest of his life.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28He died in 1974.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36It's been a very interesting journey.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39One of the aspects of it which it's really, kind of,
0:57:39 > 0:57:45rammed home was that this was a war fought in farmland.
0:57:48 > 0:57:55It was just a sort of muddy, bloody, horrifying mess.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58And I'm glad I now understand the landscape.
0:57:58 > 0:58:04I have a better feeling for what it was like and how awful it was.
0:58:05 > 0:58:10I understand entirely why neither of my grandfathers
0:58:10 > 0:58:12really wanted to talk about the war,
0:58:12 > 0:58:15because why would you want to talk about the war?
0:58:16 > 0:58:21It's so unremitting in its awfulness, that you...
0:58:21 > 0:58:24I imagine you wouldn't really want to inflict it on anyone else.
0:58:25 > 0:58:29In the end, they might not have talked about it,
0:58:29 > 0:58:36but I am delighted that they had the choice not to talk about it.
0:58:38 > 0:58:41In other words, that they got home.
0:59:05 > 0:59:08Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd