0:00:02 > 0:00:04EXPLOSION
0:00:10 > 0:00:12They were as young as 14.
0:00:12 > 0:00:13Nearly a quarter of a million
0:00:13 > 0:00:16answered the call to arms in the First World War.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20But on leaving these shores,
0:00:20 > 0:00:24the boys were expected to fight and suffer like men,
0:00:24 > 0:00:27engulfed by the horror of the greatest conflict
0:00:27 > 0:00:28the world had ever known.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34This is the story of five teenage tommies.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38There was a tin miner's son from Cornwall.
0:00:40 > 0:00:41The son of a Lancashire vicar.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46A blacksmith's apprentice from across the border in Yorkshire.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50A Jewish boy from London's East End.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53And the shy son of a factory owner,
0:00:53 > 0:00:55who gave up his chance to escape the war.
0:00:58 > 0:01:04They had in common their youth and their innocence of war.
0:01:04 > 0:01:05GUNSHOTS
0:01:06 > 0:01:10More than 20,000 teenage tommies were killed.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12Many more were badly wounded.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14And for others who came home,
0:01:14 > 0:01:18the horror of war would live with them until the end of their lives.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23My father told me all sorts of stories.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26In the hour or two before he died,
0:01:26 > 0:01:28he was on the Western Front,
0:01:28 > 0:01:33yelling, "The Bosch are coming. We're going over the top now."
0:01:35 > 0:01:38Right down deep on the ground floor of his memory
0:01:38 > 0:01:40was the Western Front.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05When war was declared on August 4th 1914,
0:02:05 > 0:02:09Britain had a standing army of quarter of a million men
0:02:09 > 0:02:12facing a German army three times that size.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19The Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener,
0:02:19 > 0:02:21needs a new civilian army.
0:02:21 > 0:02:27So he immediately sets out to say, "I need 100,000 men straightaway."
0:02:27 > 0:02:30And he puts out his appeal in August 1914,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34and he is immediately swamped, not by 100,000,
0:02:34 > 0:02:36but with 1.1 million volunteers.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47Amid the patriotic fervour, rules were ignored.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50Soldiers were supposed to be 19 to fight,
0:02:50 > 0:02:52but many younger boys wanted to join up.
0:02:56 > 0:02:58Such was the need for volunteers
0:02:58 > 0:03:00that recruitment officers were often willing to sign up
0:03:00 > 0:03:02even the most fresh-faced boys.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07It was obvious they weren't 19,
0:03:07 > 0:03:09but you'd have a queue of men going down the road,
0:03:09 > 0:03:12you're getting a bounty for every one who joins up...
0:03:12 > 0:03:14Are you really going to argue the toss
0:03:14 > 0:03:18with a young lad who's enthusiastic, who's keen as mustard to go,
0:03:18 > 0:03:20who looks maybe pretty fit, pretty well?
0:03:20 > 0:03:21Let's take him.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31One of the volunteers was 14-year-old St John Battersby.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37St John Battersby was born in 1900.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40He was brought up here in Holy Trinity parish in Blackley,
0:03:40 > 0:03:42on the outskirts of Manchester.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45In fact, his father was the first vicar of this parish.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50He ran away from home just after
0:03:50 > 0:03:51the outbreak of the war,
0:03:51 > 0:03:55because his mother had died and he wanted to go into the army.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59His father was horrified -
0:03:59 > 0:04:00not that he had joined the army,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03but that he had joined it as an ordinary soldier.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05His father clearly felt
0:04:05 > 0:04:09his son should be in the army as a leader.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12- Commensurate with his father's social position.- Yes.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15And his father, of course, intervenes.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19And we know that because there is a reference here,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22seeking support from the Mayor of Manchester.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25And the headmaster of Middleton Grammar School.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28And they both say this boy would make an excellent officer.
0:04:28 > 0:04:30Little white lie along the way.
0:04:33 > 0:04:34It succeeded.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37The 14-year-old was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant
0:04:37 > 0:04:39in one of the new Pals battalions,
0:04:39 > 0:04:43designed to boost recruitment by keeping it local.
0:04:44 > 0:04:50"Remember, if you can get 15, 30 or 60 of your comrades to join,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53"you can all enlist together, train and fight together."
0:04:58 > 0:05:01It must have seemed the jolliest of ideas
0:05:01 > 0:05:06to combine patriotism and friendship on a big adventure in Europe.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10A boy did what his mates did - he joined up.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14One such boy was a 14-year-old blacksmith's apprentice
0:05:14 > 0:05:18who came here to Woodhouse Moor in Leeds to enlist.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26One of the reasons why he joined
0:05:26 > 0:05:32was that he was handed a white feather on the tram,
0:05:32 > 0:05:35which was quite a prevalent practice,
0:05:35 > 0:05:40particularly from mothers and grandmothers of children,
0:05:40 > 0:05:41boys that had joined up.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44So it was suggesting he was a coward?
0:05:44 > 0:05:45That was the suggestion.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47- I mean, he was only 14. - Yeah.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50What do you say? "I'm too young, I couldn't fight."?
0:05:52 > 0:05:55- A minute later, he's up here on the moor, joining up.- Yes.
0:05:58 > 0:06:00Horace and his fellow Leeds Pals
0:06:00 > 0:06:03were sent for battle training to Costerdale,
0:06:03 > 0:06:06a camp on the Yorkshire Dales.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08For men working in the factories,
0:06:08 > 0:06:10it would have been quite an idyllic experience.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13Three square meals, lots of fresh air and exercise.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19To improve their physical fitness,
0:06:19 > 0:06:21they would have started with route marches and drills,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24and eventually, they would have started training
0:06:24 > 0:06:25with the various weapons.
0:06:27 > 0:06:28It wasn't all training,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31because I can see here we have a photograph of a rugby match
0:06:31 > 0:06:33that took place up here.
0:06:33 > 0:06:39- And here is your great-granduncle. - Really?- There he is.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42- Wow!- I think he looks like you.
0:06:44 > 0:06:45He looks a lot more grown up
0:06:45 > 0:06:48than he does with his uniform on.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51He does look like a fully grown man, there.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53This is your first time visiting this place,
0:06:53 > 0:06:55and I'm just wondering what you make of it.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58It would be quite similar to one of my cadet camps,
0:06:58 > 0:07:02with orders and training and things going wrong all the time!
0:07:02 > 0:07:05For me, it's just fun, but for him,
0:07:05 > 0:07:08it would have just been preparation for war.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12There would have been a sense of danger looming ahead.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20Recruiters were sent to all corners of the British Isles
0:07:20 > 0:07:22in a great national campaign.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25In the shadow of the redundant Cornish tin mines,
0:07:25 > 0:07:30one 15-year-old found the promise of adventure overseas hard to resist.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Cyril Jose, the son of an out-of-work miner,
0:07:36 > 0:07:38followed the call to arms.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47No certainty of work any more, and poverty in this area,
0:07:47 > 0:07:50war might have seemed like an escape to him.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52Well, he was very young,
0:07:52 > 0:07:54so I don't know if he'd have thought about it quite in the same way.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57It was certainly an adventure, you can read that in his letters.
0:08:00 > 0:08:02"Dearest Ivy, stand back!!
0:08:02 > 0:08:05"I've got my own rifle and bayonet.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08"The bayonet's about two feet long from hilt to end of point.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12"Must feel a bit rummy to run into one of them in a charge. Not 'arf!
0:08:13 > 0:08:17"Goodbye and God bless you, from your affec brother, Cyril."
0:08:17 > 0:08:19Going to war at the age of 16.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22He had quite a bit of responsibility, didn't he?
0:08:22 > 0:08:24I think that's right. But there's also a lot of childhood
0:08:24 > 0:08:26still in a lot of the letters from Grampa.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28He's asking for copies of the Magnet.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33And he was clearly still playing tricks and acting like a child.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35So it's a bit of a mixture of both, I think.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41"It would take a lot to put a British Tommy off his football.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44"Here, a German shell exploded right on the field of play.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47"To show their contempt for the enemy's fire,
0:08:47 > 0:08:49"they continued their game."
0:08:56 > 0:08:58But you didn't have to be native-born British
0:08:58 > 0:09:01to feel the powerful pull of patriotism
0:09:01 > 0:09:03during the First World War.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07Here in London's East End, a haven for migrants back then,
0:09:07 > 0:09:11as it is now, a 15-year-old boy was longing to join up.
0:09:14 > 0:09:20Aby Bevistein was born in Russian-occupied Poland in 1898
0:09:20 > 0:09:23and came to London with his parents when he was three.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30The whole street, everybody, knew each other,
0:09:30 > 0:09:34and just surrounded by our own kind, which were all Jewish people.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36The grocer, the baker,
0:09:36 > 0:09:40everybody within walking distance of the house, all Jewish.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46From what you know, did Aby have a strong desire to assimilate?
0:09:46 > 0:09:49Whether he wanted to or not, at this board school,
0:09:49 > 0:09:51he would have been taught in English.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54He probably belonged to a Jewish club,
0:09:54 > 0:09:57and there, the emphasis was not so much on Jewishness
0:09:57 > 0:10:00but on a sort of military form of Englishness -
0:10:00 > 0:10:04discipline, hard physical exercise,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07and being proudly British.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10And joining up in 1914 is part of this process.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12It's going a step further,
0:10:12 > 0:10:14but it's actually showing your loyalty
0:10:14 > 0:10:17by potentially giving your life for your new country.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23In September 1914, Aby Bevistein volunteered,
0:10:23 > 0:10:26changing his name to the British "Harris."
0:10:29 > 0:10:34"Dear Mother, I did not like to leave you on Tuesday.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36"I was very sorry to see you cry.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40"But never mind, I will come home one day.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43"From your loving son, Aby."
0:10:43 > 0:10:47I'm sure he regretted joining up in the army
0:10:47 > 0:10:48without their knowledge.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52They were heartbroken.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Because of the religion, because they were Orthodox,
0:10:56 > 0:11:00it's something the only son would not do.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04They would want him to become - I don't know, whatever -
0:11:04 > 0:11:05but certainly...
0:11:05 > 0:11:07A soldier was not a thing you did if you were an Orthodox Jew.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09Not the thing that you would do.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13Just a mile from where Aby lived,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16another boy from a very different background
0:11:16 > 0:11:18was also preparing for war.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28Ernest Steele was a child of the new middle classes.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31His father had built up a thriving box-making business in Hackney,
0:11:31 > 0:11:35where Ernest went to work, aged 15.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37It wouldn't have been unusual for a 15-year-old boy
0:11:37 > 0:11:39to be working in a factory here then?
0:11:39 > 0:11:40No, not at all.
0:11:40 > 0:11:45I mean, it's very typical of the middle classes that he...
0:11:45 > 0:11:49He had a very decent education, but then left when he was 15
0:11:49 > 0:11:51and started working in his father's business.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55I knew that there were cardboard boxes, but I've never seen
0:11:55 > 0:11:59these sort of pictures. So I'm quite surprised. And...
0:11:59 > 0:12:01I never got a sense of the scale
0:12:01 > 0:12:04or that they were actually doing quite well for themselves.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06Probably the most remarkable...
0:12:06 > 0:12:08Military collector David Empson
0:12:08 > 0:12:11has found a trove of material on Ernest's life.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15I've been a custodian of part of your family's history.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19This is him leaving school as a 14- or 15-year-old.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22This is the house he was born and grew up in
0:12:22 > 0:12:25and from which he entered the army in 1914.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27That's fantastic.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31There he is as a young teenager, obviously just joined the army.
0:12:31 > 0:12:32- So young.- So young.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38And this is actually Ernest's own little photograph album.
0:12:38 > 0:12:39His father Edwin, here.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55That is...his past and his history,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58even his handwriting.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04His beau is in here.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09- His...fiancee. - The girl he was engaged to, yes.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. EC Steele.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18Why on earth you would have this
0:13:18 > 0:13:21in the trenches in the First World War, I...
0:13:23 > 0:13:25"Scholars have nothing to teach you.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29"From the soft touch of the eyelashes of a woman,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32"you will know all there is to know about happiness."
0:13:37 > 0:13:39On August 17th 1915,
0:13:39 > 0:13:42Ernest Steele was sent with his regiment,
0:13:42 > 0:13:45the Queen's Westminster Rifles, to Le Havre in France,
0:13:45 > 0:13:47and then on to Ypres in Belgium.
0:13:49 > 0:13:51"Dear Mater and Pater,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54"since I last wrote, lots of things have happened."
0:13:55 > 0:13:58EXPLOSION
0:13:58 > 0:14:01"Left England for France, arrived Havre 12 midnight.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04"Rose at 7, parade in afternoon."
0:14:06 > 0:14:08In Ernest's own diary,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11he reveals how he was given an extraordinary chance
0:14:11 > 0:14:13to escape the war.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18"August 17th 1915. Light duty.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22"Sergeant Clifford told all under 19 years of age
0:14:22 > 0:14:24"could go back to England if they wished.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28"After long discussion, we decided to stay."
0:14:31 > 0:14:34That shows a real commitment to his comrades
0:14:34 > 0:14:35and to the people he was out there with.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39He was given a kind of opt-out, wasn't he?
0:14:39 > 0:14:44To come back to being a cardboard box manufacturer's son and...and living,
0:14:44 > 0:14:47but decided that he couldn't desert the other people
0:14:47 > 0:14:49who were already out there.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57In 1915 and 1916,
0:14:57 > 0:15:01nearly 600,000 volunteers joined the war.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Among them were our five teenage tommies.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11While Ernest Steele was engaged in Ypres,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15Aby Bevistein, the Jewish East Ender, was further south,
0:15:15 > 0:15:17where the battle for Loos was raging.
0:15:18 > 0:15:20That too was the destination
0:15:20 > 0:15:22for the Cornish miner's son, Cyril Jose.
0:15:24 > 0:15:2715-year-old officer St John Battersby from Manchester
0:15:27 > 0:15:30and Horace Iles, the Leeds blacksmith's apprentice,
0:15:30 > 0:15:33arrived near Serre in the Somme region.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43Some of the trenches where Horace Iles was stationed
0:15:43 > 0:15:44have been preserved.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50It's so hard to visualise what it would have been like
0:15:50 > 0:15:53for a 16-year-old to arrive into these trenches
0:15:53 > 0:15:54in the middle of the carnage.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56Even before you arrive
0:15:56 > 0:15:59in this front line trench, you are going to be passing behind you
0:15:59 > 0:16:02the cemeteries in their great numbers.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07The dead, stacked behind this trench ready to be taken away.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11And you may look out into no-man's-land
0:16:11 > 0:16:13and see the dead men already out there.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16The stench of these trenches,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19the smell of the cordite,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21the rumbling guns.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25The whole of your body would move with that rumbling,
0:16:25 > 0:16:27even though you're not on the receiving end of it.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29Suddenly, it'll be your turn.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46What would the attitude have been to the more seasoned soldiers,
0:16:46 > 0:16:50the veterans, to a youngster like Horace arriving in this trench?
0:16:50 > 0:16:54Poor Horace - you were going to have to earn your spurs.
0:16:54 > 0:16:55You will be tested.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58If we were in this trench now, for instance, going over the top,
0:16:58 > 0:17:02who's going be back over that trench first towards the enemy?
0:17:02 > 0:17:03Do you think it'd be the old soldier,
0:17:03 > 0:17:06or do think it's going to be the young soldier?
0:17:06 > 0:17:07Which one would you send?
0:17:09 > 0:17:14As a tactical point of view, I'd send the young soldier.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17Purely because you don't want to waste your best men.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20In fact, it's going to be the old soldier.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22The old soldier will say to the youngster,
0:17:22 > 0:17:25"Follow me, my lad, I'll see you through it."
0:17:25 > 0:17:27If I'm the first up that assault ladder,
0:17:27 > 0:17:30the machine gun hasn't yet started to strafe the trench.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33If I'm going up, the third or fourth men out of that trench,
0:17:33 > 0:17:35the machine guns are now tapping into these sandbags.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37And I could cop it in the chest or the head.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39MACHINE GUN FIRE
0:17:42 > 0:17:45- And you know who's going to go and get it, don't you?- Yeah.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47- The 16-year-old, isn't it? - The 16-year-old.
0:17:51 > 0:17:52On May 22nd,
0:17:52 > 0:17:56Horace Iles had his first taste of the terror of warfare
0:17:56 > 0:17:58when the Germans raided his trench.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04The Germans were very, very keen on trench raiding,
0:18:04 > 0:18:07which meant sending small groups of men out
0:18:07 > 0:18:10to get into the front line trenches.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12Using a rifle in a...in a trench would be very difficult,
0:18:12 > 0:18:15so that's why they were using knives and clubs
0:18:15 > 0:18:18to bludgeon the enemy there.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22It's at that point you realise - "Can I do this?
0:18:22 > 0:18:25"Can I kill another man?" And you are facing that man.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29It was either kill or be killed.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32After fierce fighting,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36the Leeds Pals repelled the invaders, but at a cost -
0:18:36 > 0:18:4115 dead, 34 wounded, an officer shellshocked.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45Horace was lightly wounded.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51After being patched up, he was sent back to the front line.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57"Dear Florrie, I was discharged from hospital two days ago.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59"It's three weeks since I've had a letter.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02"Hope you and the nipper are in the pink.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04"Your loving brother, Horace."
0:19:06 > 0:19:08By the spring of 1915,
0:19:08 > 0:19:12the teenage tommies knew the kind of war they were facing.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14In one major battle around Ypres in Belgium,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17there were 60,000 British casualties.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23In August, the 16-year-old tin miner's son from Cornwall,
0:19:23 > 0:19:27Cyril Jose, was sent here to Fromelles, near Lille.
0:19:33 > 0:19:34Now, he and the other men
0:19:34 > 0:19:37of the Second Battalion Devonshire Regiment
0:19:37 > 0:19:38were preparing to go into battle.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46You've never been to where Cyril served on the Western Front?
0:19:46 > 0:19:48I've never had any idea where it was.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51You're about to find out exactly where.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54Because this technology takes the old trench maps
0:19:54 > 0:20:00and, using GPS, takes us to where Cyril and his comrades were serving.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03And you can see, here are the British lines.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05This area in between here is no-man's-land,
0:20:05 > 0:20:07and there you have the German lines.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12Cyril is already taking part in attacks in no-man's-land at night.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20The trenches come alive at night.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23Men would be working to repair the trenches
0:20:23 > 0:20:25that had been destroyed by shellfire.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30So they may actually go on working parties
0:20:30 > 0:20:32out into no-man's-land to improve the wire.
0:20:36 > 0:20:38"I've been quite adventurous for the past two nights,
0:20:38 > 0:20:41"having been out in front with a covering party
0:20:41 > 0:20:43"while some others fixed up some barbed wire.
0:20:46 > 0:20:47"The first night was quite exciting
0:20:47 > 0:20:50"as the Gs must have spotted something once or twice,
0:20:50 > 0:20:52"as they sent over a lot of rapid fire."
0:20:52 > 0:20:55MACHINE GUN FIRE, SHELLS WHIZZING
0:20:58 > 0:21:01"They continually sent up star shells
0:21:01 > 0:21:03"so that we had to keep our nappers down low."
0:21:06 > 0:21:10Star shells would linger in the air and illuminate as it fell.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13They had to remain stock still.
0:21:13 > 0:21:14If there was any movement,
0:21:14 > 0:21:17the snipers on the other side would pick them off.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25"I then rejoined my section, and on sentry,
0:21:25 > 0:21:28"I didn't half send some ammunition over to our old friend Fritzy."
0:21:31 > 0:21:33One of the things about Cyril's letters
0:21:33 > 0:21:36is he says how exciting it is to go over the top.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39Others, with a sense of self-preservation,
0:21:39 > 0:21:41would stay back.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47This arrow is taking us in the direction
0:21:47 > 0:21:49of where there was a listening post.
0:21:49 > 0:21:54It's as far forward as you're going to put your own men.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58And they listened, literally, for any movement of the enemy.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05"I had a rotten experience next to last night in the trenches
0:22:05 > 0:22:07"when I went out into a listening post
0:22:07 > 0:22:09"about 75 yards out.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12"They must have known something was there.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17"The Gs had a rifle fixed so as to hit the listening post.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23"It was a bit quiet, one chap bobbed up."
0:22:23 > 0:22:24GUNSHOT
0:22:26 > 0:22:30"Got it through the napper. He died soon after.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33"I guess I didn't bob up so much after that."
0:22:37 > 0:22:39- You can imagine how he must have felt.- Yes.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42And he's...he's just seen a man shot through the head.
0:22:44 > 0:22:46It must have been very close to him too.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55How he survived, I shall never understand.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57It's one of those things in war, that...
0:22:59 > 0:23:02You can be an incredibly experienced soldier
0:23:02 > 0:23:04and get shot in the head.
0:23:06 > 0:23:07And you can be a 16-year-old
0:23:07 > 0:23:10on your first trip to an observation post,
0:23:10 > 0:23:11- and you can survive.- Yeah.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13It's chance, a lot of the time.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18But maybe he was a lucky boy, Cyril.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22I think that's probably a fair...fair assessment
0:23:22 > 0:23:24of my grandfather, actually.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34"Although one hears much about the flooded trenches of Belgium,
0:23:34 > 0:23:37"knee-deep mud is not always the case.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40"Our cheerful tommies manage to construct these cosy shelters
0:23:40 > 0:23:42"for a well-earned rest.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49"Our artist depicts a typical scene."
0:23:49 > 0:23:53In fact, trench warfare had become stalemated.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55New tactics were needed.
0:23:55 > 0:23:56One of the most frightening
0:23:56 > 0:23:59was tunnelling under the trenches and planting mines.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05What it meant to the infantry was they were constantly fearful
0:24:05 > 0:24:08that there was going to be an explosion under their feet,
0:24:08 > 0:24:11and particularly in the region around Loos,
0:24:11 > 0:24:14where there was a lot of tunnelling activity on both sides.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22The 16-year-old East Ender Aby Bevistein
0:24:22 > 0:24:25faced the threat of mines in the fighting around Loos.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31"Dear Mother, I've been in the trenches four times
0:24:31 > 0:24:32"and come out safe.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34"We go in the trenches for six days
0:24:34 > 0:24:37"and then we get relieved for six days' rest.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39"Dear Mother, I do not like the trenches.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43"We're going in again this week."
0:24:46 > 0:24:49On December 29th 1915,
0:24:49 > 0:24:52the Germans in their lines over there had tunnelled here,
0:24:52 > 0:24:54under Princes Street Trench,
0:24:54 > 0:24:56where Aby Harris and his comrades were stationed.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59EXPLOSION
0:25:01 > 0:25:05Two men were killed and Aby was wounded.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11"Dear Mother, I was taken ill and I was sent to the hospital.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13"but don't get upset about it.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15"I will be all right."
0:25:19 > 0:25:24"Sir, I regret to inform you that Private Abraham Harris is ill
0:25:24 > 0:25:26"suffering from wounds and shock."
0:25:26 > 0:25:29What they mean by shock is that he's suffering
0:25:29 > 0:25:33from damage that cannot be accounted for
0:25:33 > 0:25:36by physical impacts on his body.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40Shellshock was the term that was used for soldiers
0:25:40 > 0:25:43who had become, in effect, militarily worthless.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47They might understand it in common terms
0:25:47 > 0:25:49as "temporary madness".
0:25:51 > 0:25:55"Dear Mother, you don't know how I was longing for a letter from you.
0:25:55 > 0:25:56"I would like to know
0:25:56 > 0:25:59"what the War Office said was the matter with me."
0:26:00 > 0:26:04Most doctors thought that it was a collapse of morale,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06or a character defect.
0:26:08 > 0:26:09You're damaged goods.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13Early in the New Year of 1916,
0:26:13 > 0:26:16Private Aby Harris was still on the Western Front,
0:26:16 > 0:26:19billeted in this farmhouse at Le Flandry.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23He'd been injured and shellshocked, but he was passed fit for duty.
0:26:23 > 0:26:2816-year-old Aby Harris was about to go into action once more.
0:26:33 > 0:26:35Very few people's nerves would stand
0:26:35 > 0:26:37even the prospect of a second big explosion.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42If one wants to look at it like drawing a cheque
0:26:42 > 0:26:46on the account of courage or of fortitude that Aby had got...
0:26:47 > 0:26:50..that would have been a mighty big cheque.
0:26:50 > 0:26:52That would really empty the account.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00Aby arrived back in the trenches here near Vermelles
0:27:00 > 0:27:02on February 12th 1916.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07Within a matter of hours, fighting had broken out.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10Grenades exploded around him.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12He was deafened and suffering from shock.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21Aby Harris left his trench
0:27:21 > 0:27:24and found his way to the company headquarters.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27After examination by a medical officer,
0:27:27 > 0:27:29he was pronounced fit for duty
0:27:29 > 0:27:31and ordered to return to the front line.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41Aby set off in the opposite direction.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53Further north, in Belgium, the other London boy, Ernest Steele,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56the factory owner's son from Hackney,
0:27:56 > 0:27:59was among the thousands of men brought in to reinforce units
0:27:59 > 0:28:01that had suffered severe casualties.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06Ernest arrived at the front in August 1915.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13By then, any optimism about a swift victory had vanished.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15The swelling casualty lists
0:28:15 > 0:28:19brought home the awful reality of modern warfare.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24For Ernest, any movement out of his trench could mean death.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29"Tuesday, December 14th 1915.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32"In the evening, went up to firing line.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34"Got over near Hooge when mine went up
0:28:34 > 0:28:37"and then over came umpteen shells and rapid fire.
0:28:39 > 0:28:41"I fell over a dead man.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46"I got hit slightly. I'm feeling rocky.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49"Wrist hurting slightly and nerves going.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52"Iodine for wrist and rum for nerves."
0:28:55 > 0:28:58He's being shot at and people are falling around him.
0:28:58 > 0:29:00And he's only a young boy, isn't he?
0:29:00 > 0:29:04It's... I think it's quite shocking.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08We also know war is taking a deep strain on him
0:29:08 > 0:29:11from a letter that he sends back to his brother.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16"Dear Harry, I heard from Mater last night
0:29:16 > 0:29:18"and she said you wanted to join up.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21"Now, I'm going to talk to you seriously, so look out!
0:29:21 > 0:29:24"You may feel old and strong, but you're only 15.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27"Therefore you're too young to stand the strain
0:29:27 > 0:29:28"of anything approaching this.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30"I'm over three years older than you
0:29:30 > 0:29:34"and even I'm beginning to think I'm not much use out here.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37"Love to all from your elder brother, who knows."
0:29:39 > 0:29:41He wants him to be alive when he goes back.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44Maybe that's something that he's looking forward to,
0:29:44 > 0:29:46going back and seeing his family and his brother.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51You have to have that hope and optimism when you're in war
0:29:51 > 0:29:53that you are going to go home.
0:29:56 > 0:30:0030 miles to the south, near Bethune in northern France,
0:30:00 > 0:30:02the other young Londoner, Aby Bevistein,
0:30:02 > 0:30:04now known as Private Harris,
0:30:04 > 0:30:08had wandered, shellshocked, away from the front line.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11He went back to the farmhouse where he'd been earlier billeted.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14In the army's eyes, he was now a deserter.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19"Dear Mother, we were in the trenches
0:30:19 > 0:30:22"and I was ill, so I went out,
0:30:22 > 0:30:24"and they took me to the prison
0:30:24 > 0:30:26"and I'm in a bit of trouble now."
0:30:30 > 0:30:33Aby was brought before a court martial.
0:30:33 > 0:30:35He wasn't a worldly-wise boy.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38Despite facing senior military officers,
0:30:38 > 0:30:40he decided to defend himself.
0:30:42 > 0:30:44Aby comes in, he's faced with four officers.
0:30:44 > 0:30:49So he's in a room full of people who he's been educated to defer to,
0:30:49 > 0:30:50and he's undefended.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03Desertion means not being in your appointed place.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10If you've left when an enemy attack is in progress,
0:31:10 > 0:31:12wow - you've got some explaining to do.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16If you don't run very far, you're a coward.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19If you run a fair distance, you're a deserter.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27In cases of desertion, you have to prove intent.
0:31:27 > 0:31:29The court, as far as it's concerned,
0:31:29 > 0:31:32once they've heard Cordionne, the Frenchwoman,
0:31:32 > 0:31:34her evidence is absolutely crucial.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39"I recognised him as he had been billeted at the farm
0:31:39 > 0:31:41"for three weeks.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44"He said the Germans had been bombing our trench
0:31:44 > 0:31:46"and he had left them
0:31:46 > 0:31:48"and was going to England."
0:31:51 > 0:31:53The moment that she says he wants to get back to England,
0:31:53 > 0:31:55that's it, that's intent.
0:31:55 > 0:31:57There is no corroboration for it,
0:31:57 > 0:31:59it wouldn't stand up in a regular civil court.
0:32:02 > 0:32:03The court makes its decision -
0:32:03 > 0:32:07guilty, sentenced to death.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10It's over, done and dusted, within 15 minutes,
0:32:10 > 0:32:12half an hour, tops.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21Army law's not about justice. Army law's about discipline.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28GUNSHOTS
0:32:29 > 0:32:32This was sent to your grandparents.
0:32:32 > 0:32:34Would you mind just reading it to me?
0:32:35 > 0:32:41"Private Harris was sentenced after trial by a court martial
0:32:41 > 0:32:45"to suffer death by being shot for desertion
0:32:45 > 0:32:51"and the sentence was duly executed on 20th March, 1916.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55"I am, Sir, your obedient servant, PG Hendley."
0:32:55 > 0:33:00I can't imagine what my grandparents and my mother must have felt
0:33:00 > 0:33:03on receiving something like this.
0:33:03 > 0:33:08Just to be told that your son has been shot for desertion.
0:33:09 > 0:33:11It must have bewildered them.
0:33:18 > 0:33:19That wasn't justice.
0:33:19 > 0:33:23Had it been an officer with shellshock,
0:33:23 > 0:33:27I'm quite sure they would have sent him back to England
0:33:27 > 0:33:28to go to hospital.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Of the 306 soldiers executed during World War I
0:33:36 > 0:33:40for military offences, only two were officers.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43But young officers made up a disproportionate share
0:33:43 > 0:33:45of battle casualties.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48They were often the first to be targeted by the enemy.
0:33:51 > 0:33:55We have very little understanding of what it was like to be an officer
0:33:55 > 0:33:56and particularly a junior officer.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00These were men who had to lead from the front.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03They were men who were distinguishable by dress.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07So every time an officer went out, they would be in danger.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11Therefore, the casualty rates amongst junior officers was the highest.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16These men were difficult to replace,
0:34:16 > 0:34:18and so you have this incredible situation
0:34:18 > 0:34:19where you might have a 16-year-old
0:34:19 > 0:34:23in charge of men in their thirties, even forties.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28One such 16-year-old leading his men
0:34:28 > 0:34:31was the Manchester vicar's son St John Battersby.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35He arrived in France with his locally recruited battalion,
0:34:35 > 0:34:39the Accrington Pals, in the spring of 1916.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46The Pals were joining in a massive build-up of troops
0:34:46 > 0:34:49along a 15-mile stretch of the British line
0:34:49 > 0:34:50in the area of the Somme.
0:34:53 > 0:34:57So they were put on a train, and he describes how this train
0:34:57 > 0:35:03eventually came to the end of the line in the middle of a field,
0:35:03 > 0:35:07surrounded by ammunition boxes.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11There's my dad, 16 years old, really in the war.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16He is responsible for 30-odd men.
0:35:16 > 0:35:21His decisions may result in them dying or not dying.
0:35:23 > 0:35:27St John Battersby was now among 600,000 British troops
0:35:27 > 0:35:32gathering for the biggest, and hopefully decisive, offensive of the war.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36In fact, all four surviving teenage tommies
0:35:36 > 0:35:38were converging on the Somme.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42Londoner Ernest Steele was in Gommecourt.
0:35:42 > 0:35:46The Cornish miner's son, Cyril Jose, was sent to La Boisselle.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48And joining St John Battersby at Serre
0:35:48 > 0:35:52was blacksmith's apprentice Horace Iles of the Leeds Pals.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58We've now arrived at the exact position
0:35:58 > 0:35:59of the Leeds Pals.
0:36:00 > 0:36:02What would it have looked like
0:36:02 > 0:36:04on the morning of July 1st, their position?
0:36:04 > 0:36:06Well, as you said, we're on the exact position
0:36:06 > 0:36:08and the line's going straight in line with my arm
0:36:08 > 0:36:10towards the top of that coppice,
0:36:10 > 0:36:12cos they're going to be heading in this direction,
0:36:12 > 0:36:14looking towards those German positions.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17And there's been seven days of continuous bombardment,
0:36:17 > 0:36:19leading up to this.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22Seven days - the greatest barrage the world had ever seen.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25And this was to kill, concuss and cave in the German trenches
0:36:25 > 0:36:28and to render them incapable of any form of resistance.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32- But for Horace, for your relative, it's good news, this pounding.- Yeah.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36No-one would have believed that anything could have survived.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39I mean, he was hit by a barrage himself and wounded,
0:36:39 > 0:36:42so he knew the damage it could do.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50"The illustration depicts one of our batteries in action.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54"The range of the enemy is found by means of wonderful calculations."
0:36:54 > 0:36:56What they'd been told by their officers
0:36:56 > 0:37:00that those Germans out there have actually been sent senseless
0:37:00 > 0:37:02by this seven-day barrage.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05They'll be no Germans out there ready to fight against you.
0:37:05 > 0:37:07We're going to walk all the way to Berlin.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23The advance was planned for July 1st.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32The day began with mist
0:37:32 > 0:37:36and the final Allied bombardment got under way.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38A British officer wrote of how the air vibrated
0:37:38 > 0:37:40and the earth shook.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44Across a 16-mile front,
0:37:44 > 0:37:49120,000 men got ready to go over the top.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57What happened next would become the bloodiest story
0:37:57 > 0:37:59in the British Army's history.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13There are photographs of men
0:38:13 > 0:38:15who rose out of the trenches in the battle of the Somme
0:38:15 > 0:38:19and who were felled by this very rapid rate of fire,
0:38:19 > 0:38:22knocked down by a barrage of machine gun bullets.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27The intention at the Somme was that those machine guns wouldn't be there.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29They'd be destroyed by the artillery.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36But the Germans survived by digging deep.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39The British suffered almost 60,000 casualties
0:38:39 > 0:38:41amid the constant machine gun fire.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49Waiting to face the machine guns
0:38:49 > 0:38:51was the youngest officer at the Somme,
0:38:51 > 0:38:5416-year-old St John Battersby.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58My father said that he came out of the trench
0:38:58 > 0:39:01and was advancing down the hill
0:39:01 > 0:39:06with machine gun fire coming from his right.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09He said he could see the fire sweeping the field
0:39:09 > 0:39:13and he could see men falling before him.
0:39:13 > 0:39:17And just as the machine gun arrived and hit him,
0:39:17 > 0:39:20it jammed and stopped firing.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24He took a number of bullets in the hip
0:39:24 > 0:39:27and one that went straight through the forearm.
0:39:27 > 0:39:33This 16-year-old....can see the machine gun fire coming towards him
0:39:33 > 0:39:35- and he keeps walking towards it. - Yeah.
0:39:35 > 0:39:37That's...
0:39:37 > 0:39:39It's hard to conceive of that.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55When you look at the figures for the wounded and the casualties,
0:39:55 > 0:40:00out of the battalion, 87 confirmed killed,
0:40:00 > 0:40:03but then 335 "missing".
0:40:04 > 0:40:11And you realise that the vast majority of the...the battalion
0:40:11 > 0:40:13just simply disappeared.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21This land is just full...
0:40:22 > 0:40:24..of dead people, to this day.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34At the same time on that fateful day,
0:40:34 > 0:40:3720 miles away, the tin miner's son, Cyril Jose,
0:40:37 > 0:40:39was preparing for battle.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44All across the line, men were clambering out of their trenches
0:40:44 > 0:40:47into the withering fire of the Germans.
0:40:47 > 0:40:5116-year-old Cyril Jose from Cornwall was with the Devonshire Regiment,
0:40:51 > 0:40:54attacking the village of Ovillers-la-Boisselle.
0:40:55 > 0:40:57They had to cross quarter of a mile of no-man's-land,
0:40:57 > 0:41:01ground that sloped upwards towards the German positions.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06"Men went down like corn before a scythe.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10"Down went Second Lieutenant Gould.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13"Across him fell his batman, Harry Hamlyn.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15"Both were killed instantly.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19"A bullet thumped through my left shoulder and chest,
0:41:19 > 0:41:20"knocking me down.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23"I panicked and yelled, 'I'm hit!'
0:41:28 > 0:41:33"Not until 7am on July 2nd, stiff and in pain,
0:41:33 > 0:41:35"did I feel it safe to move.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38"Slowly, I began the long crawl back.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41"It seemed that I was alone in a field of dead men."
0:41:43 > 0:41:45It was only when we read the letters
0:41:45 > 0:41:48that we really began to understand what it must have been like for him.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51Because after he's wounded, it takes him two days
0:41:51 > 0:41:56to crawl through no-man's-land back, all the way back
0:41:56 > 0:41:58to the British lines
0:41:58 > 0:42:02and he describes himself, his uniform, "purple with blood".
0:42:02 > 0:42:04And it took a lot of strength to do that.
0:42:04 > 0:42:07And I think, also, he talks, I think, about drinking water
0:42:07 > 0:42:10out of the...bottles from dead men's bodies
0:42:10 > 0:42:14and for a 17-year-old to do that is just truly scary.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16I mean, you just can't imagine how...
0:42:16 > 0:42:19The emotions he must have been going through
0:42:19 > 0:42:22as he was trying to get back to...to his trench.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29"Some big bug thought it a great idea
0:42:29 > 0:42:31"to go over in broad daylight
0:42:31 > 0:42:34"instead of crawling up as near their parapet in the night.
0:42:34 > 0:42:36"Of course, Johnny wouldn't expect us then so much.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42"What brains old Douglas must have.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46- "Made me laugh when I read his dispatch -- 'I- attacked.'"
0:42:48 > 0:42:50"Old women in England picturing Sir Doug
0:42:50 > 0:42:52"in front of the British waves,
0:42:52 > 0:42:54"brandishing his sword at Johnny in the trenches?"
0:42:58 > 0:43:00"Attack Johnny from 100 miles back.
0:43:01 > 0:43:03"I'll get a job like that in the next war."
0:43:07 > 0:43:09That is so much my grandfather.
0:43:10 > 0:43:14It's exactly the way he used to talk about the generals
0:43:14 > 0:43:17and the way in which he felt that they'd just been thrown
0:43:17 > 0:43:20like lambs to the slaughter without any kind of thought
0:43:20 > 0:43:23about what it must be like for the men on the front line.
0:43:25 > 0:43:26This is a boy who...
0:43:26 > 0:43:3018 months earlier, had enlisted at the age of 15,
0:43:30 > 0:43:34presumably very enthusiastic about what he was going in for.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37And then to come to that sort of reaction.
0:43:38 > 0:43:42- Sorry, that letter always makes me...choke up.- Absolutely...
0:43:46 > 0:43:48Among the few to reach the German trenches
0:43:48 > 0:43:52was Ernest Steele's regiment - but success was short-lived.
0:43:53 > 0:43:55"Regiment reached the German line.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58"But owing to division on the right failing,
0:43:58 > 0:44:00"we had to retire with enormous casualties.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05"Out of 3,000, only 600 got back.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09"Division covered in glory... and gore."
0:44:18 > 0:44:21The slaughter on the Somme marked a critical moment
0:44:21 > 0:44:23in the story of the boy soldiers.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26As news of casualties emerged, parents began to question
0:44:26 > 0:44:29why their children were at the front.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34They began to campaign, lobbying the press and politicians
0:44:34 > 0:44:35to bring the boys home.
0:44:37 > 0:44:38Horace Iles' family in Leeds
0:44:38 > 0:44:42was now deeply concerned about their 16-year-old boy.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46Horace's sister Florrie writes him a letter.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48- You actually have a copy of that letter.- Yeah.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52"My dear Horace.
0:44:52 > 0:44:54"I'm so glad you are all right so far,
0:44:54 > 0:44:57"but I need not tell you what an anxious time
0:44:57 > 0:44:59"I am having on your account."
0:45:00 > 0:45:05"We did hear that they were fetching all back from France under 19.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09"For goodness' sake, Horace, tell them how old you are.
0:45:09 > 0:45:12"I'm sure they will send you back if they know you are only 16.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16"If you don't do it now, you'll come back in bits
0:45:16 > 0:45:18"and we want the whole of you.
0:45:18 > 0:45:21"Just remember, I am always thinking of you
0:45:21 > 0:45:23"and hoping for your safe return."
0:45:26 > 0:45:27"Your loving sister, Florrie."
0:45:32 > 0:45:35The problem with it, though, is by the time it got sent over there,
0:45:35 > 0:45:37he was already dead.
0:45:37 > 0:45:42So she was returned...she was sent back the unopened letter
0:45:42 > 0:45:47with just "Killed in Action" written at the top.
0:45:50 > 0:45:55My great-great-uncle Horace is somewhere in that field.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00I mean, I've read somewhere that he was left out there for a year.
0:46:20 > 0:46:22Under growing public pressure,
0:46:22 > 0:46:25the army withdrew the underage soldiers from the battlefield
0:46:25 > 0:46:29to special camps until they reached their 19th birthdays.
0:46:31 > 0:46:33But not all were happy with this.
0:46:34 > 0:46:38"They rioted. Every window in the place was shattered.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41"Everything breakable was smashed into small bits.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46"One of the guards fled to a small room and locked himself in."
0:46:48 > 0:46:52These lads, they'd been in action, a lot of them had military medals.
0:46:52 > 0:46:53As far as they're concerned,
0:46:53 > 0:46:57they are bigger than these chaps who have authority over them.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00They're not going to be chivvied to go and clean their barrack rooms.
0:47:00 > 0:47:01They're not going to run 20 miles.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04They're going to do exactly what they want to do.
0:47:04 > 0:47:06Cyril Jose from Cornwall
0:47:06 > 0:47:09was recovering from wounds at his camp.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13How did Cyril acclimatise to life in the camps himself?
0:47:13 > 0:47:15By the time he was wounded on July 1st,
0:47:15 > 0:47:17I think he was probably pretty glad to get out of it,
0:47:17 > 0:47:18at least for a while.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21He would have known that, while the war continued,
0:47:21 > 0:47:24his age was getting to the point when he'd have to go back overseas,
0:47:24 > 0:47:26so that may have been of some concern to him,
0:47:26 > 0:47:28having seen the action he had.
0:47:28 > 0:47:30But he was willing to go and he went back.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33There must have been guys dreading their birthday.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36There are cases where young lads have slit their own throats.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39I think his name's McConnell of the 16th Highland Light Infantry,
0:47:39 > 0:47:41cuts his own throat because he's hit 19
0:47:41 > 0:47:43and he just cannot face it again.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46And that's the tragedy, that's the great tragedy.
0:47:46 > 0:47:47But then that's one small tragedy
0:47:47 > 0:47:50when there were thousands happening just, you know, 30 miles away.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56But not all underage soldiers were sent to the camps.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02The shortage of experienced leaders caused by the high casualty rate
0:48:02 > 0:48:06meant that teenaged officers could stay and fight,
0:48:06 > 0:48:09if they and their parents agreed.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12Three months after he was shot on the Somme,
0:48:12 > 0:48:1616-year-old St John Battersby was back on the front line.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20He was barely two miles from where he'd been wounded.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26He's under a bridge across the trench
0:48:26 > 0:48:28and a shell landed on top of it.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30EXPLOSION
0:48:30 > 0:48:34One was killed outright, one had both his legs blown off.
0:48:35 > 0:48:41My father had his left leg seriously damaged.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44Probably by something like that.
0:48:46 > 0:48:48That, on its own, would sever a leg.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53Four weeks later, he had the leg amputated.
0:48:55 > 0:48:57"To Secretary War Office.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59"Sir, I am in receipt of your letter
0:48:59 > 0:49:02"informing me that there is no alternative
0:49:02 > 0:49:05"but to relinquish my commission, owing to ill health.
0:49:05 > 0:49:07"As I am only an amputation case,
0:49:07 > 0:49:10"I could do almost any home service duties.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14"I would wish to remain in until the end of the war, if possible.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17"Your obedient servant, R St John Battersby."
0:49:18 > 0:49:21He stayed in until September 1920.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26By September 1918,
0:49:26 > 0:49:29only two of our teenage tommies were still at war
0:49:29 > 0:49:32and both were converging on the battlefield of Epehy
0:49:32 > 0:49:34in northern France.
0:49:36 > 0:49:38Cyril Jose from Cornwall, now 19,
0:49:38 > 0:49:41was back in the trenches from his camp
0:49:41 > 0:49:44and getting ready for the final Allied push.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48Ernest Steele, the son of the London factory owner,
0:49:48 > 0:49:51was now a lieutenant in one of the mobile machine gun units,
0:49:51 > 0:49:52coming into their own
0:49:52 > 0:49:55as the stalemate in the trenches was broken.
0:49:57 > 0:50:01The boy who'd been offered a ticket home back in 1915
0:50:01 > 0:50:04had seen the war through to its final phase.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09Ernest knows the Allies now have the momentum.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11After three years here,
0:50:11 > 0:50:14after turning down the chance to leave,
0:50:14 > 0:50:17after becoming a leader and a man,
0:50:17 > 0:50:21Ernest can glimpse the end - the promise of home.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24On the 17th, Ernest is here,
0:50:24 > 0:50:28and these are the Allied trenches right next to the railway line,
0:50:28 > 0:50:31and as he's looking out across the fields,
0:50:31 > 0:50:32he can see the German line
0:50:32 > 0:50:35which they're going to assault the following day.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40And on that evening, Ernest writes a letter home.
0:50:42 > 0:50:44"Dear Mater and Pater.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46"As I don't suppose I shall have a chance
0:50:46 > 0:50:48"of writing you again for a few days,
0:50:48 > 0:50:51"I thought I'd take the chance of letting you know
0:50:51 > 0:50:52"so that you shouldn't worry.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55"I think we're winning the war hand over fist now
0:50:55 > 0:50:57"and I hope to be home for good in less than a year.
0:50:59 > 0:51:01"While I'm out here, I realise more than ever
0:51:01 > 0:51:03"all that you have done for me
0:51:03 > 0:51:07"and wish I could have a chance to repay you at least a part.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10"The best of love from your affectionate son, Ernest."
0:51:20 > 0:51:22Early on the morning of September 18th,
0:51:22 > 0:51:25Ernest and his machine gunners move forward
0:51:25 > 0:51:28ahead of the main group of troops.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32The German lines are all across here,
0:51:32 > 0:51:36and Ernest and his men are setting up their machine gun positions
0:51:36 > 0:51:39so that they'll be able to lay down fire for the infantry
0:51:39 > 0:51:40as they move forward.
0:51:45 > 0:51:47Covered by machine gun fire,
0:51:47 > 0:51:51Cornish boy Cyril Jose was emerging from the trenches.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57"We advanced 3,000 yards to put the pincers round St Quentin.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06"We took plenty of prisoners.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09"Quite a change for me to be in such an easy stunt.
0:52:10 > 0:52:12"Jerry put up good resistance.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18"I got hit.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22"Still, must be thankful for small mercies."
0:52:24 > 0:52:26Although Cyril Jose was once again wounded,
0:52:26 > 0:52:29the battle of Epehy was a success.
0:52:29 > 0:52:33The two-mile advance yielded thousands of prisoners.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36But the Allies suffered over 1,200 casualties.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41Ernest and his men come into the view of the German troops.
0:52:41 > 0:52:45Just as they reached this point here,
0:52:45 > 0:52:46at the top of the hill...
0:52:48 > 0:52:49..here, at this point,
0:52:49 > 0:52:53Ernest is hit by a German sniper.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55And he's killed instantly.
0:53:17 > 0:53:19It's a sad ending,
0:53:19 > 0:53:22but I guess a lot of the men who came out had this ending.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26And not...not the returning home
0:53:26 > 0:53:29and telling Mater and Pater all about it that he'd hoped.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35Ernest's father Edwin, the box maker from Hackney,
0:53:35 > 0:53:37created his own memorial to his son.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48Edwin never got over the death of his son.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52He was heartbroken at the loss
0:53:52 > 0:53:54of the bright shining light in the family
0:53:54 > 0:53:57he had all these hopes and dreams for.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01I don't think he ever looked at the world in the same way again.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05# Here we are, here we are
0:54:05 > 0:54:06# Here we are again... #
0:54:06 > 0:54:10The battle of Epehy saw the end of Cyril Jose's war.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13His wound gave him a ticket home to England.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21But his war experiences led him to mistrust authority
0:54:21 > 0:54:23for the rest of his life.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27It explains an awful lot of his attitude
0:54:27 > 0:54:29towards the establishment, towards authority.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33He never really wanted to be part of that establishment.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38- So there he is.- That's him.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42He was a jolly person. He was always laughing.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46He lived in a caravan in Epping Forest for a long time.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48He'd just do whatever he had to do for money, and that was it.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52As long as he had money for his books, that was all he cared about.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01The vicar's son, St John Battersby, who lost his leg in the war,
0:55:01 > 0:55:05himself became a vicar of a small rural parish.
0:55:06 > 0:55:08He was a very thoughtful man.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13Playful. He didn't drive.
0:55:13 > 0:55:17He walked up and down this hill to visit the people in the village.
0:55:17 > 0:55:21He wanted to have somewhere
0:55:21 > 0:55:27that was...safe and calm and assured.
0:55:28 > 0:55:30If you've spent three years of not knowing
0:55:30 > 0:55:33whether you would be alive in the next 15 seconds or not,
0:55:33 > 0:55:36being assured that that was going to be the case here
0:55:36 > 0:55:39would be...would be good news.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45The war haunted the families of the dead,
0:55:45 > 0:55:49like 17-year-old Jewish boy Aby Bevistein,
0:55:49 > 0:55:50executed for desertion.
0:55:52 > 0:55:55My mother never spoke about him.
0:55:55 > 0:55:56But I do recall, though,
0:55:56 > 0:56:01when November 11th used to come around each year,
0:56:01 > 0:56:04that she would go into the dining room,
0:56:04 > 0:56:08close the doors and have a really good sob.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13I regret, I regret very much
0:56:13 > 0:56:17not having gone in and asked her why.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23It brought back memories of... of the brother that she lost.
0:56:25 > 0:56:27Lost to the world.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41Horace Iles' great grandnephew - just 16 himself -
0:56:41 > 0:56:44has come to visit his grave for the first time.
0:56:55 > 0:56:57"For Horace and all the Leeds Pals.
0:56:57 > 0:56:59"May you all rest in peace,
0:56:59 > 0:57:00"knowing you're not forgotten
0:57:00 > 0:57:02"and have our gratitude.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05"From four Leeds Pals -
0:57:05 > 0:57:08"Phil, Dave, Steve, Rick."
0:57:09 > 0:57:10(Rest in peace.)
0:57:20 > 0:57:24The thing that set me off was the...
0:57:27 > 0:57:30..the wreath of poppies.
0:57:32 > 0:57:36There was a...there was a letter
0:57:36 > 0:57:39written on it from four servicemen.
0:57:39 > 0:57:43They'd just written "To all who died here...
0:57:44 > 0:57:49"..with our friends, that you have our ever-serving gratitude."
0:57:51 > 0:57:54Just...just...sorry...
0:57:57 > 0:57:59HE SIGHS
0:58:02 > 0:58:05I'm happy for...who he was...
0:58:07 > 0:58:09..and grateful for what he did.
0:58:10 > 0:58:14And that's all I really can do.
0:58:18 > 0:58:19OK.
0:58:25 > 0:58:26The horror of total war
0:58:26 > 0:58:29changed the lives of thousands of teenage soldiers.
0:58:31 > 0:58:36For the dead, and the survivors, what was lost here was youth
0:58:36 > 0:58:37and all its hopes.