0:00:14 > 0:00:20In the autumn of 1916, two merciless years into the First World War,
0:00:20 > 0:00:22there was one topic on everybody's lips.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28It wasn't a military crisis or a political scandal.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30It was a film.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36A cinema documentary called The Battle Of The Somme.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43The movie was the latest piece of Government propaganda
0:00:43 > 0:00:47to try to rally the British people behind the war.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51But this film was different from the usual patriotic newsreels.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57Here, for the first time, were scenes of real fighting,
0:00:57 > 0:01:00real bloodshed and real death.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06Letting the British people see what was happening
0:01:06 > 0:01:10to their menfolk on the Western Front was a huge gamble.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12Would it swing opinion behind the war?
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Or would they find the spectacle of modern combat
0:01:15 > 0:01:18so horrible that they'd demand it was ended?
0:01:22 > 0:01:26The film was seen by over 20 million people
0:01:26 > 0:01:28in just six weeks.
0:01:30 > 0:01:32The effect on audiences was electrifying.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39Men cheered the start of each assault.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42Women wept at the sight of the wounded.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51But it was this scene in particular that had the most dramatic effect.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00At the Electric Cinema in Droylsden, Lancashire,
0:02:00 > 0:02:03a woman leapt to her feet, pointing at the screen and crying,
0:02:03 > 0:02:06"That's Jim! That's my husband!"
0:02:07 > 0:02:11She'd just been told he'd been killed in the Battle of the Somme,
0:02:11 > 0:02:14leaving her a widow with nine children.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21There were some who thought that seeing
0:02:21 > 0:02:24British soldiers' suffering was grotesque.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29But most people felt a surge of pride and sympathy.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35One woman who saw the film in London had lost her brother at the Somme.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40She had tried many times to imagine what his last hours
0:02:40 > 0:02:43must have been like, and then she saw the film.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47She said, "Now I know and I shall never forget."
0:02:49 > 0:02:54The gamble of showing people what was happening on the Western Front
0:02:54 > 0:02:55had paid off.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05The film would make people in Britain more committed
0:03:05 > 0:03:07to the war than ever.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12And they would need every ounce of optimism
0:03:12 > 0:03:14and resolve they could muster.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19They were about to enter the darkest hour the country had ever known.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11In February 1917,
0:04:11 > 0:04:13after more than two years of stalemate,
0:04:13 > 0:04:16the German High Command decided that
0:04:16 > 0:04:18if they couldn't defeat Britain's Army,
0:04:18 > 0:04:21they could crush her people.
0:04:25 > 0:04:30In the words of the German Kaiser, "We will starve the British people
0:04:30 > 0:04:36"who have refused peace until they kneel and plead for it."
0:04:36 > 0:04:40The plan was to sink the merchant shipping which brought the food
0:04:40 > 0:04:44and supplies on which the country lived.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47The weapon would be the submarine - U-boats.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58On a desolate mud bank in the salt marshes of Kent lies
0:04:58 > 0:05:02the metal carcass of a First World War German U-boat.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17British ships were blockading German ports,
0:05:17 > 0:05:21but the U-boat was a new and terrifying way to wage war,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24and it came close to defeating Britain.
0:05:28 > 0:05:33The Germans knew that Britain imported two-thirds of her food
0:05:33 > 0:05:35and they made a simple calculation.
0:05:35 > 0:05:40If they sank 600,000 tonnes of merchant shipping every month,
0:05:40 > 0:05:45they could starve Britain into submission in a mere five months.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52So, on 1st February 1917,
0:05:52 > 0:05:56the Germans sent their U-boats in for the kill,
0:05:56 > 0:06:00ordering them to attack all merchant shipping supplying Britain.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05The devastation in the shipping lanes was catastrophic.
0:06:16 > 0:06:23In 1917, 46,000 tonnes of meat were sent to the bottom of the sea.
0:06:23 > 0:06:29Between February and June, 85,000 tonnes of sugar were also sunk.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32Flour and wheat were soon in short supply,
0:06:32 > 0:06:36and a stunned House of Commons was told that very soon,
0:06:36 > 0:06:38Britain would not be able to feed herself.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47The U-boat stranglehold seemed unbreakable.
0:06:50 > 0:06:57Britain faced a stark choice - to grow much more food or to starve.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01But British farms were in crisis.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05Many farmhands were now at the Front, and so were the horses.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13So a new force was sent into the fields.
0:07:16 > 0:07:2284,000 disabled soldiers, 30,000 German prisoners of war
0:07:22 > 0:07:25and over a quarter of a million British women.
0:07:31 > 0:07:36By the following year, over seven million extra acres had been dug up
0:07:36 > 0:07:38to grow more food.
0:07:44 > 0:07:45Well, it helped,
0:07:45 > 0:07:49eventually yielding about a month's extra food each year.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52But that was still nothing like enough to make up
0:07:52 > 0:07:55for the thousands of tonnes being sent to the bottom of the sea
0:07:55 > 0:07:57by German U-boats.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00War was being waged on civilians,
0:08:00 > 0:08:03and it was up to civilians to save themselves.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17The order came to plough up Britain,
0:08:17 > 0:08:19to hand over land to the people
0:08:19 > 0:08:21so they could provide for themselves.
0:08:21 > 0:08:26This strip of land was waste ground until 1917.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30Then it was dug up to provide cabbages, potatoes
0:08:30 > 0:08:33and marrows for a hungry nation.
0:08:37 > 0:08:41Armies of women, children and the elderly set about transforming
0:08:41 > 0:08:44the landscape of Britain's towns and cities.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49The nation had a new craze which the press called "allotmentitis".
0:08:53 > 0:08:57Before the war, allotments had been a hobby for eccentrics.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02By the end of the war, there were over 1.5 million of them
0:09:02 > 0:09:06squeezed into any scrap of earth that could be dug up,
0:09:06 > 0:09:10from grass verges to village greens to railway embankments.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22Even the Royals were at it.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25Here, in the gardens of Buckingham Palace,
0:09:25 > 0:09:28the King turned his herbaceous border over to turnips
0:09:28 > 0:09:31and other delights, and the same thing happened
0:09:31 > 0:09:33in London's Royal Parks.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37If the daintiest fingers in the land could get earthy,
0:09:37 > 0:09:39well, so could anybody's.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45But however many turnips left the gates of Buckingham Palace,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48one desperate shortage remained.
0:09:48 > 0:09:53Eight out of every ten loaves were made from imported wheat.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57The poor depended on bread, few of them could afford much else.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07In May 1917, the King issued a Royal Proclamation.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11Being a Royal Proclamation, it takes a bit of time to get going.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14"We, out of Our resolve to leave nothing undone
0:10:14 > 0:10:19"have thought it fit to issue this, most earnestly exhorting
0:10:19 > 0:10:24"the men and women of Our realm to practise the greatest frugality
0:10:24 > 0:10:28"in the use of every species of grain."
0:10:28 > 0:10:32In other words, lay off the bread, the buns and the cake.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34The idea was that richer people,
0:10:34 > 0:10:37who could afford other kinds of food,
0:10:37 > 0:10:40should leave bread for the poor.
0:10:44 > 0:10:49The Government decided it was time to step into the nation's kitchens.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54The Win-The-War Cookery Book appealed to the middle classes
0:10:54 > 0:10:58to leave bread and other cheap ingredients to the less well-off.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06"To the women of Britain. The British struggle is not only
0:11:06 > 0:11:10"on land and sea. It is in YOUR larder, YOUR kitchen
0:11:10 > 0:11:12"and YOUR dining room.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16"Every meal you serve is now literally a battle."
0:11:22 > 0:11:24The chef Angela Hartnett has prepared
0:11:24 > 0:11:27some of the recipes from the Win-The-War Cook Book.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32- What's that, Angela?- It's a fish chowder with bacon, potatoes,
0:11:32 > 0:11:35a little barley flour, cos we weren't allowed to use proper wheat,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38cos that's what the poor ate - they made bread, they used wheat
0:11:38 > 0:11:40as their base for their food and their staple diet.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43So they made sure the middle classes and the rich
0:11:43 > 0:11:45- were using other ingredients. - It IS good.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49- It's not bad, is it?- It's a little bit like 1917 MasterChef, mind you.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52The cook book suggests you use oysters, lobster, turbot,
0:11:52 > 0:11:56all these luxury ingredients, so the working poor were left with
0:11:56 > 0:11:59the cheaper fish, but the rich had to use all this stuff.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03So this is fried mush, which doesn't sound delightful.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06- The old English way with menus, eh? - Yeah, I know.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10You can see why we were considered a culinary capital of the world(!)
0:12:10 > 0:12:12But essentially, this is maize flour,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15and it would be something that could be savoury or sweet,
0:12:15 > 0:12:17but used for breakfast or as a dessert,
0:12:17 > 0:12:21so I'm going to serve it to you with a little bit of golden syrup.
0:12:21 > 0:12:23- That sounds like a threat.- No!
0:12:23 > 0:12:26So, what did you make of it as a cook book?
0:12:26 > 0:12:29I thought it was actually very good, because one of the things
0:12:29 > 0:12:32I thought was brilliant about it, which you see all the way through,
0:12:32 > 0:12:35is there's very little waste. Like, they'd make a meat sauce,
0:12:35 > 0:12:38or roast meat, then they'd make soup out of it, a leftover pie.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41It was absolutely wasteless, which I thought was brilliant.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54But no amount of patriotic cook books could hide the fact
0:12:54 > 0:12:56that things were simply getting worse.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00The U-boat blockade was biting.
0:13:02 > 0:13:08In autumn 1917, shortages were so severe that huge queues formed
0:13:08 > 0:13:10outside butchers and grocers.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15In some cities, people looted the shops for food,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18breaking the windows and beating up the shop owners.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27Finally, the Food Controller had to think the unthinkable.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29"It may well be," he told a colleague,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32"that you and I are all that stands between this country
0:13:32 > 0:13:33"and revolution."
0:13:33 > 0:13:37People would HAVE to be told what they could and couldn't eat.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41And so, in January 1918, rationing was brought in.
0:13:41 > 0:13:46Now, this was one person's ration for a week - 15oz of meat,
0:13:46 > 0:13:515oz of bacon, 4oz of margarine and 8oz of sugar.
0:13:52 > 0:13:57# Keep the home fires burning
0:13:57 > 0:14:01# While your hearts are yearning... #
0:14:01 > 0:14:06This was the first time a British Government had ever rationed food.
0:14:06 > 0:14:07And it worked.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11The queues outside the shops disappeared.
0:14:11 > 0:14:16Rationing, allotments and a system of convoys to protect merchant ships
0:14:16 > 0:14:18kept starvation at bay.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26So this had become a war that was not just being fought
0:14:26 > 0:14:29on the battlefields, but on every street in the land.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32A new term entered the language - the Home Front.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36And just as on the Western Front, there were cowards and deserters,
0:14:36 > 0:14:38so the question began to be asked -
0:14:38 > 0:14:41was everyone on the Home Front doing their bit?
0:14:41 > 0:14:44Was the burden being shared equally?
0:14:53 > 0:14:59As the hardships of 1917 bit deeper, neighbour began to spy on neighbour.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04An unlikely hate figure was smoked out in that quintessentially
0:15:04 > 0:15:07English town, Stratford-upon-Avon.
0:15:09 > 0:15:14It was a hugely successful romantic novelist, Marie Corelli.
0:15:16 > 0:15:21In October 1917, Corelli's neighbours watched as a grocer's van
0:15:21 > 0:15:27delivered box after box of sugar and tea here at her home, Mason Croft.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33In a time of shortage, hoarding was a serious crime.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36Someone tipped off the police.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40Stashed away in Marie's kitchen,
0:15:40 > 0:15:46a constable found 183lb of sugar and 43lb of tea.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53Marie Corelli told the constable exactly what she thought of him.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56"I'm a patriot, I wouldn't dream of hoarding," she said.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59"It's a fine thing when a woman cannot live in her own home
0:15:59 > 0:16:03"without being interfered with by a policeman.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06"There'll be a revolution in England within a week."
0:16:12 > 0:16:14Well, the revolution never happened,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17and Marie Corelli was ordered to appear in court.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20She protested her innocence.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23The sugar, she said, was to make jam for the poor.
0:16:23 > 0:16:28It was no use. She was found guilty of hoarding.
0:16:28 > 0:16:30Her reputation was shredded.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34MUSIC: "Oh, It's A Lovely War" by The Jolly Old Fellows
0:16:39 > 0:16:43But some people really did seem to be having a lovely war.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50It was suspected that toffs were ignoring Government advice
0:16:50 > 0:16:52not to gorge themselves,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55and that restaurants were flouting restrictions
0:16:55 > 0:16:57on what they could serve.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07One evening, a reporter from the campaigning newspaper the Herald
0:17:07 > 0:17:09decided to put this to the test.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13He walked into one of London's leading hotels
0:17:13 > 0:17:15and ordered dinner.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22It was some feast - there were hors d'oeuvres,
0:17:22 > 0:17:26there was a rich soup, there was sole, there was lobster,
0:17:26 > 0:17:30there was chicken, there were three rashers of bacon and three tomatoes,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33fruit salad, coffee - each with lashings of cream -
0:17:33 > 0:17:36and the reporter managed to eat four bread rolls, though he said
0:17:36 > 0:17:39there were plenty more available had he wanted them,
0:17:39 > 0:17:42if he could've eaten any more.
0:17:42 > 0:17:47The next day, the Herald ran a full-page splash on the story.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49It caused a sensation.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51"There are whole circles of society,"
0:17:51 > 0:17:53said one disgusted commentator,
0:17:53 > 0:17:57"in which the spirit of sacrifice is unknown."
0:17:59 > 0:18:02The Government line was, "We're all in this together."
0:18:02 > 0:18:04It obviously wasn't true.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09As a good campaigning journalist, the reporter noticed on his way out,
0:18:09 > 0:18:14"Three old women, huddled in rags, sheltering beneath the arches
0:18:14 > 0:18:16"in front of the hotel."
0:18:22 > 0:18:26It's little wonder that soldiers began to resent the comfortable life
0:18:26 > 0:18:28of some civilians.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33They saw at first hand what was going on at home.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36The Western Front was close enough for soldiers to return
0:18:36 > 0:18:39to Britain on leave.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44Many found these visits uncomfortable and upsetting.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49These soldiers were often deeply distressed by the chasm
0:18:49 > 0:18:52between home and life on the Front.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56On a Monday, you might see your best friend blown to pieces.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00Home on leave on Thursday, you were having tea on the lawn.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Life at home just seemed to carry on regardless.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11The soldier and writer Herbert Read
0:19:11 > 0:19:14was shocked by people's indifference.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18"They simply have no conception whatever," he wrote,
0:19:18 > 0:19:20"of what war really is like
0:19:20 > 0:19:23"and they don't seem concerned about it at all."
0:19:25 > 0:19:28Increasingly, many men no longer felt at home
0:19:28 > 0:19:31in the homes they were fighting to save.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42But civilians carried their own burdens, too.
0:19:43 > 0:19:48By 1917, every family in the land knew somebody who'd been killed.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52Never before had such sorrow penetrated to
0:19:52 > 0:19:55the very heart of the nation.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07There was really no way you couldn't be aware of the toll
0:20:07 > 0:20:11that the war was taking because the deaths were published every morning
0:20:11 > 0:20:13in the Times newspaper.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17In this one, for example, there are two entire pages covered with
0:20:17 > 0:20:22very small type, giving the names of those who've died.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25143 officers
0:20:25 > 0:20:30and 5,770 privates, corporals and sergeants.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43Wives and mothers learned the news that would shatter their lives
0:20:43 > 0:20:46by opening a plain envelope like this.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56The envelope contained the form that every family learned to dread,
0:20:56 > 0:21:00Army Form B 104-82.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05"Dear Madam. It's my painful duty to inform you that a report
0:21:05 > 0:21:08"has this day been received from the War Office
0:21:08 > 0:21:11"notifying the death of..." - space for the number, space for the rank,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14space for the name and space for the regiment.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18"The cause of death was killed in action."
0:21:18 > 0:21:22A form is a horribly impersonal way to learn of anybody's death,
0:21:22 > 0:21:26but given the huge numbers of people who were being killed,
0:21:26 > 0:21:28there probably was no alternative.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36Soon after came a personal letter
0:21:36 > 0:21:38from the dead soldier's superior officer
0:21:38 > 0:21:40attempting to soften the blow.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47This is a letter written to the mother of John Enticknap,
0:21:47 > 0:21:49who was a village boy from Sussex.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51It's written by his company commander in pencil
0:21:51 > 0:21:53in the trenches.
0:21:54 > 0:21:59"Dear Mrs Enticknap. It is with the sincerest feelings of regret
0:21:59 > 0:22:03"that I write to tell you of the death of your son.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07"I am well aware that anything that I can say will do little to assuage
0:22:07 > 0:22:10"the pain that you must feel at your loss,
0:22:10 > 0:22:13"but I'm sure it will be some slight comfort for you to know
0:22:13 > 0:22:16"that your son died gamely."
0:22:16 > 0:22:20And he finishes, "He stood out among his comrades
0:22:20 > 0:22:25"as a man who was without fear. I cannot say more."
0:22:33 > 0:22:36The war was subjecting the British people to pressure
0:22:36 > 0:22:38they had never known before.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45They were increasingly governed by fear.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49Fear of loss, fear of hunger.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54Some even feared a collapse of moral values.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58For there was a new and hidden danger on the streets
0:22:58 > 0:23:00and in the parks of Britain.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03DOG BARKS
0:23:04 > 0:23:07The creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle,
0:23:07 > 0:23:10wrote to the Times to warn of vile women
0:23:10 > 0:23:14who preyed on soldiers home on leave, luring them to their rooms,
0:23:14 > 0:23:18plying them with drink, and leaving them with a dose of disease.
0:23:27 > 0:23:33By 1917, it was believed there were 60,000 prostitutes in London alone.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37They found willing clients in young soldiers desperate
0:23:37 > 0:23:40to lose their virginity before it was too late.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44The consequences were predictable.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50It was estimated that at least 55,000 British soldiers
0:23:50 > 0:23:53were hospitalised with venereal disease.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01The Government decided that something had to be done.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12Worry about the damage being done to the war effort
0:24:12 > 0:24:16chimed with a general moral concern about what the war was doing
0:24:16 > 0:24:21to behaviour. But with so many policemen away at the Front,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24who was to keep vice off the streets?
0:24:24 > 0:24:26The answer was women.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38The Government had already employed hosts of women to do vital war work.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43Now they invited them to join the police to safeguard
0:24:43 > 0:24:48the nation's morals, and keep young soldiers away from temptation.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57By 1917, there were over 2,000 women's patrols
0:24:57 > 0:24:59up and down the country.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06The streets of Grantham in Lincolnshire were the regular beat
0:25:06 > 0:25:08of Edith Smith...
0:25:09 > 0:25:11..the first woman to be sworn in
0:25:11 > 0:25:14as a member of the English police force.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19There was an enormous Army base just outside Grantham,
0:25:19 > 0:25:23which inevitably attracted loads of easy women.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27But Edith Smith was a formidable figure who worked seven days a week
0:25:27 > 0:25:31for two years, and her notebook is full of comments like
0:25:31 > 0:25:33"foolish girls warned"
0:25:33 > 0:25:36or "prostitutes driven out of Grantham".
0:25:36 > 0:25:40She even compiled a blacklist of girls who were not to be allowed
0:25:40 > 0:25:43into the cinema or theatre, because they were going to be more
0:25:43 > 0:25:47interested in their own performance than in anything happening on stage.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57But women like Edith Smith were also given powers to police
0:25:57 > 0:25:58behind closed doors.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03She wrote that a regular part of the job was,
0:26:03 > 0:26:07"Husbands placing their wives under observation during their absence."
0:26:10 > 0:26:14Another policewoman recorded visiting the house of a woman
0:26:14 > 0:26:18of suspected bad character - seven children, and a husband away
0:26:18 > 0:26:22at the Front - and finding there another soldier.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25The woman, she reported, was very obviously alarmed
0:26:25 > 0:26:28and promised to send the man away after supper.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30But the police officer reported that
0:26:30 > 0:26:34when she returned at 11pm, she found the man still in the house,
0:26:34 > 0:26:39so she drove him out, cautioning him not to return.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43The State was now effectively policing people's bedrooms.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51It was merely one aspect of official intrusion into
0:26:51 > 0:26:54almost every aspect of people's lives.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59In this new kind of war, the Government was having to find
0:26:59 > 0:27:03new ways to manage and control the civilian population.
0:27:04 > 0:27:09The British public had so far been overwhelmingly behind the war,
0:27:09 > 0:27:13but as things grew more desperate, there was a fear this resolve
0:27:13 > 0:27:17might crumble under the influence of the so-called enemy within -
0:27:17 > 0:27:21pacifists, socialists, trade unionists.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25Could they set Britain, like Russia that same year,
0:27:25 > 0:27:27on the road to revolution?
0:27:28 > 0:27:32By 1917, the Government held over 30,000 secret files
0:27:32 > 0:27:35on those they suspected.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41Official anxiety burst into the open
0:27:41 > 0:27:45when the nation found itself gripped by a sensational court case.
0:27:49 > 0:27:54It was a headline-writer's dream, involving spies, poison
0:27:54 > 0:27:56and conspiracy to murder.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02Alice Wheeldon, a working-class mother from Derby,
0:28:02 > 0:28:07was accused, along with her family, of plotting to assassinate
0:28:07 > 0:28:10the British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20It started here, on Derby's Pear Tree Road,
0:28:20 > 0:28:23where Alice Wheeldon ran a second-hand clothes shop,
0:28:23 > 0:28:26nowadays a travel agent.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30Alice Wheeldon and her family were a real cocktail of subversion.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33Her son Willie was a conscientious objector on the run.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37Her daughters Hettie and Winnie were both suffragettes.
0:28:37 > 0:28:43And all were passionate pacifists, socialists and atheists.
0:28:46 > 0:28:51The police had been tipped off that Alice used her shop as a safe house
0:28:51 > 0:28:54for conscientious objectors on the run.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57One night, a young man turned up here
0:28:57 > 0:29:00and introduced himself as an anarchist.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03His name, he said, was Alex Gordon.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07But Alex Gordon wasn't who he said he was.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11In fact, he was a secret agent for British Intelligence.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19A month later, Gordon went to his spymasters
0:29:19 > 0:29:22with an extraordinary story about the Wheeldons.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28Alice and her daughters were promptly arrested
0:29:28 > 0:29:31and brought here to the Guildhall in Derby.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39The Wheeldons were held in these cells,
0:29:39 > 0:29:42charged with conspiring to murder
0:29:42 > 0:29:44the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George.
0:29:44 > 0:29:49Alex Gordon had told his handlers they were plotting to creep up
0:29:49 > 0:29:55on him and fire a poison dart from a blowpipe while he was playing golf.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00The full force of the British Establishment
0:30:00 > 0:30:02came down on the Wheeldons.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08They were brought to the most famous court in Britain.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13The Attorney General himself led the prosecution.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18It was David against Goliath.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24The Attorney General began by describing what he called
0:30:24 > 0:30:28the "diseased moral condition" of the defendants.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31When Alice refused to swear on the Bible,
0:30:31 > 0:30:36the jury and the packed public gallery drew their own conclusions.
0:30:36 > 0:30:40She then freely admitted to helping young men evade conscription,
0:30:40 > 0:30:43and as to the Prime Minister, Lloyd George,
0:30:43 > 0:30:45she wouldn't mind if he was dead.
0:30:49 > 0:30:51It wasn't a good start.
0:30:51 > 0:30:53But the prosecution had
0:30:53 > 0:30:56an astonishing admission of their own.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59They weren't going to call their chief witness.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03The secret agent on whose word the whole case rested
0:31:03 > 0:31:05wasn't going to give evidence.
0:31:08 > 0:31:10What sort of a witness would he have made?
0:31:10 > 0:31:14Well, the jury might have learned that he'd got previous convictions
0:31:14 > 0:31:17for theft and blackmail, that he'd twice been declared
0:31:17 > 0:31:20criminally insane, and had done time in Broadmoor.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24They might also have learned he was an agent provocateur,
0:31:24 > 0:31:27offering bombs and poison all over the place.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30The Government did the sensible thing - they gave him
0:31:30 > 0:31:33a one-way ticket on a ship to South Africa.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41In spite of this gaping hole in the evidence,
0:31:41 > 0:31:45the Government pressed ahead with the prosecution.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49It took less than a week for the jury to find Alice guilty.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52She was sentenced to ten years' hard labour.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55One of her daughters got five years.
0:31:59 > 0:32:04Alice Wheeldon's great-granddaughter believes it was a show trial.
0:32:04 > 0:32:06I think no-one who knows what happened,
0:32:06 > 0:32:11and how the Government arranged the information for what happened,
0:32:11 > 0:32:15could ever believe that that was a fair trial that happened here.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19- You think she was framed? - I do. Not for who they were,
0:32:19 > 0:32:21but for what they stood for,
0:32:21 > 0:32:26because they stood for things that the Government wanted to demonise
0:32:26 > 0:32:32and suppress, and to hold up as a warning to other people,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35because, in fact, there were many people all over England
0:32:35 > 0:32:38who were concerned about the war and raising questions.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41What happened to your great-grandmother after conviction?
0:32:43 > 0:32:46Well, after conviction, she was sent to prison,
0:32:46 > 0:32:49and she became very ill in prison, and in fact
0:32:49 > 0:32:53there's documents to show that there was debate about the fear
0:32:53 > 0:32:56from the Home Office perspective that she would die in prison
0:32:56 > 0:33:00and she would become a martyr, and they didn't want that.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02And that was why they released her.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05But she was ill when she came out of prison
0:33:05 > 0:33:09and she died not all that long after. She died in 1919.
0:33:11 > 0:33:15We'll never know for sure whether Alice Wheeldon was innocent,
0:33:15 > 0:33:19but it's clear that the British Government knew all too well
0:33:19 > 0:33:23that she'd been framed by an unreliable secret agent.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29In truth, it wasn't the enemy within
0:33:29 > 0:33:31the British public needed to fear.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40At 11.30am on Wednesday 13th June 1917,
0:33:40 > 0:33:45people in the financial district of London heard a distant roar.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50In the sky, they saw more than 20 planes heading towards them.
0:33:52 > 0:33:56Many thought they were British... and rushed out to wave at them.
0:33:59 > 0:34:01And then the bombs began to fall.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04On the streets, there was terror,
0:34:04 > 0:34:07there was shock and there was disbelief.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11An Army sergeant at home on leave recalled that,
0:34:11 > 0:34:15"No thought of the planes being German had entered our heads.
0:34:15 > 0:34:20"It wasn't possible for them to raid London in daylight."
0:34:24 > 0:34:26Zeppelins, the great German airships,
0:34:26 > 0:34:31had attacked London before, but always at night.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35An attack by planes on the capital during daylight
0:34:35 > 0:34:37was something completely new.
0:34:41 > 0:34:4672 bombs were dropped on London that day, killing 162 civilians.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51It was the most destructive air raid of the war.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01But this new, brutal way of waging war
0:35:01 > 0:35:03was about to deliver one more shock.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12A stray 100 lb bomb fell here,
0:35:12 > 0:35:15the site of Upper North Street School in east London.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24The bomb smashed through the roof of the school.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27On the top floor, the girls were having a singing lesson.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30One of them, a 13-year-old, was killed outright.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33It then plunged through the middle floor, where the boys were
0:35:33 > 0:35:37having a maths lesson. There it killed a 12-year-old.
0:35:37 > 0:35:39And finally, it struck the bottom floor,
0:35:39 > 0:35:42where there were 54 5-year-olds gathered.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45It blew 16 of them to pieces.
0:35:51 > 0:35:55The events of that day were recorded in the school's logbook.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59- This is the headteacher's log, is it?- Yes.
0:35:59 > 0:36:01So from August 1913
0:36:01 > 0:36:03to April 1928.
0:36:03 > 0:36:08And what does it say about the terrible day when the bombs fell?
0:36:08 > 0:36:13"13th of the 6th, 1917. 11.40am. Air raid.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17"Bomb fell through roof of north-east corner of E room
0:36:17 > 0:36:19"and went through floor.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22"Rose Martin of 10 Annabelle Street killed.
0:36:22 > 0:36:27"Anne Pritchard - foot blown off, seriously ill in hospital.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31"Mrs Allen, teacher in E room, probably blown across room.
0:36:31 > 0:36:35"I saw her crouching in corner with A Pritchard in front later.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39"There was no panic, but children sobbed and wailed,
0:36:39 > 0:36:42"clinging and standing close to their teachers.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45"No school held 13/6/17 pm."
0:36:46 > 0:36:48So they stopped...
0:36:48 > 0:36:52- There was no school for the rest of the day, is that right?- Hmm.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55- And how soon after that does it reopen?- The next morning.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58What did you think when you found this?
0:36:58 > 0:37:03Well, I must admit, I did cry. I thought it was very poignant.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06And, you know, you hear about how stoic the British were,
0:37:06 > 0:37:09and I think this really shows that, you know,
0:37:09 > 0:37:12there was that real, "We'll just carry on and we'll get through this."
0:37:21 > 0:37:26A week after the raid, the funeral for the 18 dead children took place.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32It was one of most emotional moments in the history of the East End.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51The Bishop of London told the mourners that it was inconceivable
0:37:51 > 0:37:54that after 2,000 years of Christianity,
0:37:54 > 0:37:58war could now be made on women and children.
0:37:58 > 0:38:03But in this, the first modern war, technology was changing everything.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07Each side was trying to starve the other into surrender,
0:38:07 > 0:38:10U-boats were sinking passenger ships,
0:38:10 > 0:38:13and aircraft bombing civilians.
0:38:13 > 0:38:18The rules and conventions of war were casualties, too.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26But in November 1917 came a glimmer of hope.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31Another terrifying new weapon had entered the war.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34But this time...
0:38:35 > 0:38:37..it was British.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46The tank was a brand-new British invention
0:38:46 > 0:38:50developed with the enthusiastic support of Winston Churchill.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56He wanted a land ship which could smash through barbed wire
0:38:56 > 0:38:58and cross trenches.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02No-one had ever seen anything like it.
0:39:02 > 0:39:07The tank clanked its way straight out of the pages of science fiction.
0:39:07 > 0:39:12A giant, hideous mechanical toad.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15Many of the Germans were so terrified, they threw their hands
0:39:15 > 0:39:18in the air and begged for mercy.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26In November 1917, British tanks won a stunning victory.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32Nearly 400 of them snatched seven miles of ground at Cambrai
0:39:32 > 0:39:34in Northern France.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39The German line had never been so successfully penetrated.
0:39:48 > 0:39:51Across Britain, church bells rang out in celebration.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57Might this at last be the weapon to break the stalemate
0:39:57 > 0:39:59and beat the Germans?
0:40:00 > 0:40:02The British people went tank crazy.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05The Government saw an opportunity.
0:40:05 > 0:40:11They decided to deploy tanks at home to raise morale...and funds.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16Tank number 130 rumbled into Trafalgar Square
0:40:16 > 0:40:19not to fight the Germans, obviously,
0:40:19 > 0:40:22but to help raise money to fight the Germans
0:40:22 > 0:40:25through the sale of war bonds.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29The Trafalgar Square Tank Bank was aimed at the ordinary man
0:40:29 > 0:40:31or woman in the street, the sort of person who didn't have
0:40:31 > 0:40:35a stockbroker but who wanted to do their bit.
0:40:38 > 0:40:41Thousands queued to see the tank
0:40:41 > 0:40:44and to buy bonds from two women sitting inside.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52The stunt was so successful that tanks were sent around the country.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56Towns and cities competed with one another
0:40:56 > 0:40:58to see who could raise more money.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02The winner was Glasgow, with £16 million.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05There, a tank called Julian showed off its tricks
0:41:05 > 0:41:08on a specially prepared obstacle course.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15And everywhere the tanks went,
0:41:15 > 0:41:18ordinary people turned up to buy the bonds.
0:41:22 > 0:41:26In Birmingham, a cowherd arrived with £75-worth of sovereigns
0:41:26 > 0:41:31he'd previously had buried for 30 years in his cottage garden.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34In Preston, a woman arrived with about half a crown.
0:41:34 > 0:41:37It wasn't enough to buy a war bond,
0:41:37 > 0:41:39but she insisted on donating it anyway.
0:41:39 > 0:41:43And an old man came and gave £100...
0:41:44 > 0:41:47He said he'd happily give more if he had it,
0:41:47 > 0:41:51in memory of his four sons who'd already given their lives.
0:41:56 > 0:41:58The success of the Tank Bank
0:41:58 > 0:42:02came to symbolise British values of self-sacrifice and pluck.
0:42:03 > 0:42:05One Tank Bank customer
0:42:05 > 0:42:09declared the tank to be like the British character -
0:42:09 > 0:42:12rather slow to move, somewhat heavy, but sure.
0:42:16 > 0:42:21In total, the Tank Banks sold over £300 million-worth of war bonds,
0:42:21 > 0:42:26that's about £11 billion-worth at today's values.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29In the darkest hour, they had persuaded the British people
0:42:29 > 0:42:33to rally behind the war effort and reach deep into their
0:42:33 > 0:42:36increasingly empty pockets.
0:42:36 > 0:42:38It was an astonishing achievement.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46But as the third year of the war drew on,
0:42:46 > 0:42:50the situation on the Western Front had become bleaker than ever.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55Britain's Allies were tottering.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58There was mutiny in the French army.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02Fellow ally Russia, torn by revolution,
0:43:02 > 0:43:04was about to pull out of the war.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09And the killing didn't stop.
0:43:15 > 0:43:19More than half a million British dead since the start of the war.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25Even war heroes were now wondering what they'd risked their lives for.
0:43:28 > 0:43:33In 1917, one of them, the poet Siegfried Sassoon,
0:43:33 > 0:43:36went public with his doubts about the war.
0:43:37 > 0:43:42In the trenches, his men had known Lieutenant Sassoon as Mad Jack
0:43:42 > 0:43:44for his astonishing fearlessness,
0:43:44 > 0:43:47and he'd won a Military Cross for bravery.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50But now he was denouncing the whole thing.
0:43:50 > 0:43:55"The war upon which I embarked as one of defence and liberation,"
0:43:55 > 0:43:59he wrote, "has become a war of aggression and conquest.
0:43:59 > 0:44:03"I am protesting against the political errors for which the lives
0:44:03 > 0:44:06"of fighting men are being sacrificed,
0:44:06 > 0:44:10"and against the callous complacency with which those at home
0:44:10 > 0:44:13"regard agonies they do not share."
0:44:13 > 0:44:17From a decorated war hero, this was incendiary stuff.
0:44:21 > 0:44:26Sassoon risked court martial, imprisonment, even execution.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31But the generals were cleverer than that.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35They pronounced him mad and sent him here to a military hospital
0:44:35 > 0:44:37called Craiglockhart.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49Sassoon was surrounded by men suffering from
0:44:49 > 0:44:52the newly diagnosed condition of shell shock.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58This war wasn't only killing and maiming soldiers,
0:44:58 > 0:45:01it was unhinging their minds.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08At first, doctors thought it was a physical condition,
0:45:08 > 0:45:10concussion caused by exploding shells.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15Treatment was often brutal.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18Some doctors used solitary confinement
0:45:18 > 0:45:22and electric-shock treatment to try to snap their patients out of it.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37But then they began to understand something of the stress of life
0:45:37 > 0:45:40in the trenches - the lack of sleep, the shattering noise,
0:45:40 > 0:45:44the sight of so much death and mutilation.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47As one lieutenant put it, "Quite apart from the number of people
0:45:47 > 0:45:52"blown to bits, the explosions were so terrible
0:45:52 > 0:45:56"that anyone within 100 yards was liable to lose their reason."
0:46:04 > 0:46:08At Craiglockhart, doctors were pioneering a radical new approach
0:46:08 > 0:46:10to shell shock.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17Dr William Rivers believed that patients were repressing
0:46:17 > 0:46:20the terrifying experiences they'd had,
0:46:20 > 0:46:24and that in order to get better, they needed to talk about them.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29In 1917, Rivers' work was ground-breaking.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34His methods, his practices
0:46:34 > 0:46:37lie at the heart of trauma treatment even today.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39He was ahead of his time.
0:46:39 > 0:46:44He was using practices that none of his contemporaries were using.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48What was it he understood that others hadn't understood?
0:46:48 > 0:46:52I think he understood how trauma memories work.
0:46:52 > 0:46:57He... He understood that by repressing traumatic memory,
0:46:57 > 0:47:01all you do is you make it intrude even more.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04It doesn't work, suppressing it.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09And he advocated the opposite of that.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13He encouraged his patients to talk about their traumatic memories,
0:47:13 > 0:47:17and by doing so helped them to connect with the emotion
0:47:17 > 0:47:20of the memory and to process that.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22Would you have liked to have Rivers on your team?
0:47:22 > 0:47:25Very much so. In a flash. I would've employed him...
0:47:26 > 0:47:28..today, if he applied. Hmm.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34But Craiglockhart's most famous patient,
0:47:34 > 0:47:39the anti-war Lieutenant Sassoon, wasn't suffering from shell shock.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44And he realised that unless he gave up his protest
0:47:44 > 0:47:47and returned to the Front, he'd be stuck here forever.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53After three months, Sassoon was restless.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56He hadn't changed his anti-war views,
0:47:56 > 0:48:01but he chose solidarity with his soldiers over private principles.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05As he wrote when he returned to the Western Front,
0:48:05 > 0:48:07"I'm only here to look after some men."
0:48:12 > 0:48:15Sassoon's protesting voice had been silenced.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21But in the autumn of 1917, events on the Western Front would prove
0:48:21 > 0:48:25so terrible that a growing number of British people,
0:48:25 > 0:48:27soldier and civilian alike,
0:48:27 > 0:48:32would begin to voice doubts about the dreadful human cost of the war.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37One of them was a 32-year-old Army chaplain,
0:48:37 > 0:48:39the Rev Julian Bickersteth.
0:48:47 > 0:48:52In August 1917, Bickersteth had been posted to Poperinge in Flanders.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56His job - to minister to the British troops as they launched
0:48:56 > 0:48:59a new offensive to break the German lines.
0:49:02 > 0:49:07This battle would be so bloody, its name has come to sum up,
0:49:07 > 0:49:10more than any other, the horror of the First World War.
0:49:12 > 0:49:13Passchendaele.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23Julian Bickersteth was so passionately pro-war
0:49:23 > 0:49:26that he had travelled all the way from Australia
0:49:26 > 0:49:28to serve at the Front.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31For him, loving God and hating the enemy
0:49:31 > 0:49:33were one and the same thing.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35"We shall win this war," he said,
0:49:35 > 0:49:40"because God cannot allow such German scum to exist."
0:49:40 > 0:49:45That belief in a righteous crusade was about to be utterly destroyed.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53Bickersteth kept a diary recording his growing concerns about the war.
0:49:56 > 0:49:58It tells how, in August,
0:49:58 > 0:50:02he arrived here at an odd little place called Talbot House.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05MUSIC: "How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down On The Farm?" by Harry Fay
0:50:05 > 0:50:09# Reuben, Reuben, I've been thinking
0:50:09 > 0:50:13# Said his wifey dear... #
0:50:13 > 0:50:18This was a refuge, designed as a wholesome home-away-from-home
0:50:18 > 0:50:22for exhausted soldiers taking a few days out of the trenches,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25an alternative to beer and brothels.
0:50:29 > 0:50:36Here, they could relax, write letters, read books and drink tea.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48But Bickersteth was here for another reason.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57On the top floor of Talbot House, there was a small chapel
0:50:57 > 0:51:01decorated with ornaments saved from the ruins of other churches
0:51:01 > 0:51:02in the area.
0:51:05 > 0:51:07One afternoon, in this room,
0:51:07 > 0:51:11Julian Bickersteth witnessed 120 men being confirmed.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14"Many of them had come straight from the battle," he said,
0:51:14 > 0:51:17"and they were returning there that evening."
0:51:17 > 0:51:21They knew that this might be their last chance to make peace
0:51:21 > 0:51:23with their God.
0:51:32 > 0:51:35Bickersteth followed his men to the battlefield,
0:51:35 > 0:51:38a mere 12 miles from the comforts of Talbot House.
0:51:41 > 0:51:46The battle was marked by a horror all its own - mud.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49Mud that swamped you, mud that sucked at you,
0:51:49 > 0:51:51mud that could even drown you.
0:51:51 > 0:51:5530 days of incessant rain and shellfire had turned
0:51:55 > 0:51:59the whole battlefield into a foul-smelling quagmire,
0:51:59 > 0:52:04stripped of any living thing but men trying to kill each other.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15Bickersteth couldn't believe his eyes.
0:52:16 > 0:52:20"This is the most appalling country that it has ever been
0:52:20 > 0:52:22"my misfortune to see.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28"Swamp, shell holes, stench, water,
0:52:28 > 0:52:34"mud, broken-down tree stumps, destroyed dugouts and gun pits,
0:52:34 > 0:52:38"unburied bodies of horses and men all over the place."
0:52:45 > 0:52:49If you fell off a duckboard into a shell hole, God help you.
0:52:49 > 0:52:53A major in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment came across a soldier
0:52:53 > 0:52:55stuck up to his knees.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58His men tried to pull him out, but they couldn't do so.
0:52:58 > 0:53:01Two days later, the major returned.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04He said, "The wretched fellow was still there,
0:53:04 > 0:53:08"but now only his head was visible and he was raving mad."
0:53:15 > 0:53:18It's not known how many soldiers drowned here.
0:53:19 > 0:53:24Belgian farmers still dig up the bones of the dead to this day.
0:53:30 > 0:53:33One morning, Bickersteth found himself tending to the wounded
0:53:33 > 0:53:36at a dressing station behind the front line.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44He wrote that, "At least six men died in my arms.
0:53:46 > 0:53:51"The courage of these grievously wounded men moves me to tears."
0:53:54 > 0:53:57Julian Bickersteth's disillusionment was growing.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01The British press loyally banged on about great victories,
0:54:01 > 0:54:06but he said, "It's maddening to those of us who know the truth."
0:54:12 > 0:54:14The carnage continued until November,
0:54:14 > 0:54:18when British and Commonwealth troops finally captured the small
0:54:18 > 0:54:22and now devastated village of Passchendaele,
0:54:22 > 0:54:25the village that gave its name to the blood-letting.
0:54:28 > 0:54:34The British began their advance in July 1917 on the horizon over there.
0:54:34 > 0:54:40It took them four long months to advance five miles to Passchendaele,
0:54:40 > 0:54:44which is where the church is on the horizon over there.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46It came at enormous cost.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49The total number of British and Commonwealth casualties
0:54:49 > 0:54:53was 300,000 - 80,000 of them dead.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02For Julian Bickersteth, this was not what war should be.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09His nephew, Bishop John Bickersteth,
0:55:09 > 0:55:12has collected and published his diaries.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16Tell me about how he describes his feelings at Passchendaele.
0:55:17 > 0:55:22At Passchendaele, he says this...
0:55:22 > 0:55:23He says this.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26"When will this senseless murder end?
0:55:26 > 0:55:28"The country is being hoodwinked.
0:55:28 > 0:55:33"Facts are distorted, totally misrepresented by the press.
0:55:33 > 0:55:35"My nostrils are filled with the smell of blood.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38"My eyes are glutted with the sight of bleeding bodies
0:55:38 > 0:55:40"and shattered limbs,
0:55:40 > 0:55:43"my heart wrung with the agony of wounded and dying men."
0:55:44 > 0:55:48He was, if you like, he was disillusioned about the war.
0:55:48 > 0:55:50I think that most of them were.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53But this was a man who was, by no stretch of the imagination,
0:55:53 > 0:55:56- a conscientious objector. - Absolutely not, no.
0:55:56 > 0:55:58- He'd won the Military Cross. - He won a Military Cross.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01He was mentioned... Oh, no stretch of the imagination
0:56:01 > 0:56:03was he anywhere near being a conscientious objector, no.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07What do you think caused Julian to change his attitude?
0:56:07 > 0:56:09I think he was sick of war, yes, I...
0:56:09 > 0:56:13And he realised how stupid it was to go on with it.
0:56:13 > 0:56:17That was really the fact of the matter. He realised it was silly
0:56:17 > 0:56:21to go on with it, but how was anyone going to stop it?
0:56:27 > 0:56:3012,000 of the Passchendaele dead
0:56:30 > 0:56:33lie here on the site of the battle itself.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40This is the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world.
0:56:43 > 0:56:48The terrible sacrifice made by those buried here prompted further doubts
0:56:48 > 0:56:50about the point of it all.
0:56:51 > 0:56:55In November 1917, a former Minister for War broke ranks,
0:56:55 > 0:56:58calling on Britain to make peace.
0:56:59 > 0:57:02But the country had gone too far to turn back.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06And an awful realisation was dawning...
0:57:08 > 0:57:10..that many more might have to die.
0:57:12 > 0:57:16Long ago, way back in 1914, in that great recruiting poster,
0:57:16 > 0:57:20Lord Kitchener had said that the war would be won by
0:57:20 > 0:57:22the last million men.
0:57:22 > 0:57:27Was it really possible that it could go on until one side,
0:57:27 > 0:57:30exhausted, broken, bled white,
0:57:30 > 0:57:33had nothing more to give?
0:57:33 > 0:57:36And if so, when would that day come?
0:58:01 > 0:58:06Next time - Sherlock Holmes comes to the aid of a beleaguered nation.
0:58:08 > 0:58:12At the 11th hour, victory at last on the Western Front.
0:58:13 > 0:58:18And after the celebrations, Britain counts the cost of war.