0:00:02 > 0:00:08This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.
0:00:15 > 0:00:20In 1918, the people of Britain were weary from four years of war
0:00:20 > 0:00:23and grief and deprivation.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29The news from the front was bleak.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37One of Britain's allies, Russia, had already given up the fight.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43America had, at last, joined the Allied cause,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46but could the power it promised arrive in time?
0:00:47 > 0:00:51The German war machine was beginning to look unbeatable.
0:00:54 > 0:00:59The final year of the war would take Britain to the very brink of defeat.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04The British people needed hope.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08They needed inspiration.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13They needed Sherlock Holmes.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19There hadn't been a Sherlock Holmes story in ten years,
0:01:19 > 0:01:21but Britain was in trouble,
0:01:21 > 0:01:25so Holmes' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
0:01:25 > 0:01:29decided it was time to bring his hero out of retirement.
0:01:32 > 0:01:37In His Last Bow, Holmes defeats a German secret agent
0:01:37 > 0:01:39bent on wrecking the British war effort.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45To try to reassure his readers
0:01:45 > 0:01:48that all the sacrifice had been worthwhile,
0:01:48 > 0:01:51Conan Doyle ended the story by having his hero turn
0:01:51 > 0:01:55to his trusty companion and say this...
0:01:55 > 0:01:58"There's an east wind coming,
0:01:58 > 0:02:02"such a wind as never blew on England yet.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05"It will be cold and bitter, Watson,
0:02:05 > 0:02:08"and a good many of us may wither before its blast.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13"But it's God's own wind nonetheless,
0:02:13 > 0:02:17"and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine
0:02:17 > 0:02:20"when the storm has cleared."
0:02:20 > 0:02:22In fact, when the war ended,
0:02:22 > 0:02:24the Britain that emerged wasn't anything
0:02:24 > 0:02:27Conan Doyle could have imagined.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30What came out instead was modern Britain,
0:02:30 > 0:02:35a country any of us would recognise as the one in which we live.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16BIRDS TWEET
0:03:24 > 0:03:26Four years into the war,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29in quiet, respectable houses all over Britain,
0:03:29 > 0:03:31strange things were happening.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41This is the former home
0:03:41 > 0:03:44of the distinguished scientist Sir Oliver Lodge,
0:03:44 > 0:03:48a world authority on everything from atoms to X-rays.
0:03:48 > 0:03:53He moved here when he retired on the advice of his son, Raymond,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55which was extraordinary, really,
0:03:55 > 0:04:00because by that stage, Raymond had been dead for four years.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17In 1915, the Lodge family had received the news
0:04:17 > 0:04:20they'd been dreading.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22Their son, Raymond,
0:04:22 > 0:04:26had been mortally wounded by shrapnel in Flanders.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28His father was devastated.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32All hope for the future seemed to disappear.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36And then something very odd happened.
0:04:36 > 0:04:37A medium contacted the family
0:04:37 > 0:04:42to say that Raymond wanted to reach them from beyond the grave.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47They arranged a seance.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51Raymond appeared and told them he was living with his dead comrades
0:04:51 > 0:04:54in a place called Summerland,
0:04:54 > 0:04:58where they could still smoke cigars and drink whisky.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01But his father was a hard-headed scientist.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05He wanted proof that this really was his dead son speaking to him.
0:05:08 > 0:05:09It came at a session
0:05:09 > 0:05:13in which Raymond talked about a particular photograph.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15He described it.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17The family said they didn't know what he was talking about.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21He said, "Yes, the one where the officer behind me
0:05:21 > 0:05:23"is leaning on my shoulder."
0:05:23 > 0:05:25Now, as Sir Oliver told the story,
0:05:25 > 0:05:29four days later, an envelope arrived in the post.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31It contained this photo.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34In the front row, there is Raymond,
0:05:34 > 0:05:39and the officer behind him does seem to have his hand on his shoulder.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45For the Lodge family, this was all the evidence that was necessary
0:05:45 > 0:05:50to confirm that Raymond was indeed talking to them from the other side.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59In a country consumed by grief,
0:05:59 > 0:06:03the idea that the war dead were not dead at all,
0:06:03 > 0:06:06merely physically absent, proved hugely comforting.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13When Sir Oliver wrote a book about his experience called
0:06:13 > 0:06:17Raymond, Or Life And Death, it became an instant bestseller.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23Across Britain, the supernatural entered everyday life.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30People saw ghostly soldiers wandering the streets.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36The number of spiritualist organisations quadrupled.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40Some, at least, of the old certainties were crumbling.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51The war had left people desperate for reassurance.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55But, in early 1918, hope was in very short supply.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14Awful evidence of the war filled the streets of Britain.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19Men mutilated in battle were everywhere.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25Over 40,000 soldiers had lost a limb.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33Even more were coming back from the front blinded
0:07:33 > 0:07:35or with facial injuries.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46The trenches had been dug for protection.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49But the consequence of living in a hole in the ground
0:07:49 > 0:07:53was that when you tried to look and see what was happening elsewhere,
0:07:53 > 0:07:58you exposed your head and your face to new and terrible injury.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02If you were unlucky enough to have that happen to you,
0:08:02 > 0:08:04this was the best place you could hope to come.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18This country house became a refuge for those whose injuries
0:08:18 > 0:08:20had made them walking gargoyles.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29It was the creation of Sir Harold Gillies.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32The New Zealand-born surgeon had found his calling
0:08:32 > 0:08:34while treating wounded soldiers in France.
0:08:39 > 0:08:44He saw the need for a new kind of surgery to rebuild faces
0:08:44 > 0:08:48damaged beyond nightmare by the effects of modern weapons.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52He called his work a strange new art
0:08:52 > 0:08:55and, sick of amputating limbs,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59an alternative to what he called the surgery of destruction.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10The task of turning men who looked like monsters
0:09:10 > 0:09:13back into human beings seemed overwhelming.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16"Day after day," he wrote,
0:09:16 > 0:09:21"the tragic, grotesque procession disembarked from the hospital ships
0:09:21 > 0:09:24"and made its way towards us.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27"Men without half their faces,
0:09:27 > 0:09:32"men burned and maimed to the condition of animals."
0:09:37 > 0:09:41Dr Andrew Bamji is a former director of medical education
0:09:41 > 0:09:43at the hospital.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47In 1987, he discovered an extraordinary store
0:09:47 > 0:09:51of medical records associated with Harold Gillies' work.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57This is a chap called Stacey.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59He was in the Royal Naval division.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02He, basically, had a very simple repair.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05What Gillies has done is to use a technique
0:10:05 > 0:10:07that had been developed before by the French,
0:10:07 > 0:10:09which is to take a forehead flap
0:10:09 > 0:10:12and then slide it down over the nose.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15Here is a forehead flap that's been taken...
0:10:15 > 0:10:19- He's taken a flap of skin from up here...- From the forehead, mm.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21And rolled it up and laid it...
0:10:21 > 0:10:24- And laid it down to fill over the gap.- I see.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30What are the other ones you have here?
0:10:30 > 0:10:34- Stan Cohen was a tank officer. - Poor chap.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38Here is a man who is not only seriously burned
0:10:38 > 0:10:40but he can't close his eyes.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43One of the techniques that Gillies invented
0:10:43 > 0:10:47was a technique of eyelid reconstruction.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51- Stan Cohen stayed working at the hospital until he died.- Did he?- Mm.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53He was a porter, and,
0:10:53 > 0:10:56- more poignantly, he was a night porter.- Mm.
0:10:56 > 0:10:58He very rarely went out.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01He had no friends other than the nurses.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04Very interestingly, he ran a Sunday school class.
0:11:04 > 0:11:06He said he never minded being with children
0:11:06 > 0:11:10because children didn't show disgust, they only showed curiosity.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14I can't imagine how these men with some of these wounds
0:11:14 > 0:11:17could ever have beared to look at themselves in the mirror.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19Some of them couldn't.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Some of them, in fact,
0:11:22 > 0:11:25went on to hide themselves away from the world
0:11:25 > 0:11:27so that no-one would see them.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30One of the things they were trained in at Sidcup was cinema projection.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33- In a darkened room?- In a dark room.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36You arrived before the audience and you left after the audience.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40It's quite something to have to live with, though, isn't it?
0:11:40 > 0:11:42Even reconstructed, it still wasn't right.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45You didn't expect perfection in those days.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48In fact, you probably didn't expect to live with an injury like that.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51So, most of these people were utterly grateful
0:11:51 > 0:11:52for what had been done for them.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54They would cope with it in different ways.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56There were those who would joke.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01One chap had a skin graft from his backside onto his cheek.
0:12:01 > 0:12:03It always amused him, then,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07when his mother-in-law kissed him goodbye!
0:12:07 > 0:12:10Some of them were quite happy to flaunt themselves,
0:12:10 > 0:12:12but some of them, like Stan Cohen, hid themselves away.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15There was this whole spectrum of people
0:12:15 > 0:12:17who reacted in a different way.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19How intense was his experience?
0:12:21 > 0:12:24Quite extraordinary by modern standards.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26Nowadays, I suppose any surgeon
0:12:26 > 0:12:29who's done 100 facial reconstructions
0:12:29 > 0:12:31would be considered an expert.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35Gillies and his colleagues got through over 5,000 patients
0:12:35 > 0:12:38from World War I.
0:12:38 > 0:12:39So, it was a huge number.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52The sight of so many wounded was a dispiriting reminder
0:12:52 > 0:12:57of a war which seemed to have no end.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01Some wondered why we seemed incapable of victory.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05Might it somehow be our own fault?
0:13:05 > 0:13:07Could there be something rotten
0:13:07 > 0:13:10at the heart of the British ruling class?
0:13:12 > 0:13:18One man certainly thought so - the maverick MP Noel Pemberton Billing.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24Billing was a colourful self-publicist
0:13:24 > 0:13:27who believed Britain was being sabotaged
0:13:27 > 0:13:31by thousands of perverts in the pay of the Hun.
0:13:33 > 0:13:37He alleged that powerful figures in Britain had been corrupted
0:13:37 > 0:13:40by perverted German spies.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43They had used, he said,
0:13:43 > 0:13:47"Practices which all decent men thought had perished
0:13:47 > 0:13:49"in Sodom and Lesbia."
0:13:50 > 0:13:54His astonishing allegations found a ready audience among a people
0:13:54 > 0:13:58frustrated by their failure to win the war.
0:13:58 > 0:14:00They would also land him in court.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08On the morning of May the 29th, 1918,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11a great crowd gathered here outside the Old Bailey
0:14:11 > 0:14:15for what promised to be the most sensational court case
0:14:15 > 0:14:17in Britain for many years.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19It was a newspaperman's dream.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23It involved an exotic dancer, high politics, enemy spies
0:14:23 > 0:14:26and sexual deviancy.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30It threatened to blow the lid off the British establishment.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35According to Billing,
0:14:35 > 0:14:3947,000 prominent British people had been corrupted.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44Their names were written in a secret dossier
0:14:44 > 0:14:46which he called The Black Book.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53He claimed the book held the names of Cabinet ministers,
0:14:53 > 0:14:58Privy Councillors, poets, bankers, newspaper proprietors,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01even members of the King's household,
0:15:01 > 0:15:04and he said that the wives of senior public figures
0:15:04 > 0:15:07were in a special danger because,
0:15:07 > 0:15:10"In the throes of lesbian ecstasy,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13"the most sacred secrets of the state were betrayed."
0:15:16 > 0:15:20So, where were these degenerative traitors to be found?
0:15:20 > 0:15:22At the theatre.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25Specifically, at a private production
0:15:25 > 0:15:28of Oscar Wilde's banned play, Salome,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31starring the voluptuous actress Maud Allan.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36In an article entitled The Cult Of The Clitoris,
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Billing insinuated that the actress was having an affair
0:15:39 > 0:15:43with Margot Asquith, wife of the former Prime Minister.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48Billing was charged with criminal libel.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56Conducting his own defence, he used his trial as a platform
0:15:56 > 0:15:59to reveal to the nation how far the moral rot had spread.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06He called as a witness a woman who claimed to have seen the book
0:16:06 > 0:16:11listing all the people corrupted by the filthy German agents.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15"Is Mrs Asquith's name in the book?" he said.
0:16:15 > 0:16:17"Yes," she replied, "it is."
0:16:17 > 0:16:20"Is Mr Asquith's name in the book?"
0:16:20 > 0:16:23"It is." And he pointed at the judge.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25He said, "Is the judge's name in the book?"
0:16:25 > 0:16:28"It is!" she screamed. Complete chaos.
0:16:31 > 0:16:32It was nonsense, of course.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37But the judge, Mr Justice Darling, was out of his depth
0:16:37 > 0:16:40and rapidly lost control of proceedings.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45This absurd trial lasted six days.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52On June the 4th, the jury returned their verdict.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56Pemberton Billing was not guilty of libel.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59He left the court to thunderous applause
0:16:59 > 0:17:02and when he got onto the street here,
0:17:02 > 0:17:05his supporters threw flowers at his feet.
0:17:07 > 0:17:11Pemberton Billing's ridiculous rantings had struck a chord
0:17:11 > 0:17:14because people were worried
0:17:14 > 0:17:19and, at this stage of the war, there was much to be worried about.
0:17:24 > 0:17:25The balance of power at the front
0:17:25 > 0:17:28had shifted violently towards Germany.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35Having made a peace with Russia,
0:17:35 > 0:17:40Germany could now pour troops onto the Western Front.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44They now outnumbered the Allies by over 200,000 men
0:17:44 > 0:17:49and they were massing for an attack they believed would win the war.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58With British troops stretched to breaking point, their commander,
0:17:58 > 0:18:01Sir Douglas Haig, asked the Prime Minister for reinforcements.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06It would not be an easy meeting.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09The two men loathed each other.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13Lloyd George didn't trust Haig.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17He thought he was asking for more lives to be thrown away
0:18:17 > 0:18:19in another futile offensive.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24So, on March the 14th, 1918, Haig came here to beg for more troops.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27He was refused.
0:18:27 > 0:18:28Seven days later,
0:18:28 > 0:18:31the Germans unleashed the biggest offensive of the war.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41In the first five hours of the great spring attack,
0:18:41 > 0:18:44over a million shells were fired into British lines.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00In a conflict where success was measured in yards,
0:19:00 > 0:19:04the Germans advanced 40 miles in a single day.
0:19:06 > 0:19:11In his diary, the Secretary to the British War Cabinet wrote,
0:19:11 > 0:19:13"The Germans are fighting better than the Allies.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19"I cannot exclude the possibility of disaster."
0:19:21 > 0:19:25Haig made one last desperate rallying call.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32"Every position must be held to the last man.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34"There must be no retirement.
0:19:34 > 0:19:35"With our backs to the wall,
0:19:35 > 0:19:39"and believing in the justice of our cause,
0:19:39 > 0:19:42"we must all fight on to the end."
0:19:48 > 0:19:51The call to arms would be heard well beyond the trenches.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59The home front couldn't afford to buckle, either.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03The country's war machine had to be kept running.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13Lloyd George had once called the British workforce
0:20:13 > 0:20:16the least disciplined in Europe.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20Could they now be relied upon at this moment of crisis?
0:20:24 > 0:20:28Anyone searching for cracks in the nation's resolve
0:20:28 > 0:20:32might have come here, to the South Wales coalfield.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42In 1918, this place was considered
0:20:42 > 0:20:45the Wild West of industrial relations.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49The Welsh miners had been a thorn in the Government's side
0:20:49 > 0:20:54throughout the war, calling strike after strike.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59This, the finest steam coal in the world,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02was a vital part of the war effort.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06It drove the foundries, the forges, the explosives factories,
0:21:06 > 0:21:08it powered the warships,
0:21:08 > 0:21:12and it gave the men who extracted it tremendous power.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18It was a power they were prepared to use.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22Striking miners had almost crippled the mighty British Navy,
0:21:22 > 0:21:25leaving it with barely enough coal to keep the fleet at sea.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31By 1918, there'd already been trouble in the pits
0:21:31 > 0:21:34over the practice of combing out,
0:21:34 > 0:21:38that was, forcing men out of vital protected industries like this
0:21:38 > 0:21:41and into the Army.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44With the country now facing the real possibility of defeat,
0:21:44 > 0:21:49further industrial unrest could have been catastrophic.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55In fact, just the opposite happened.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59When it came to it, even the most bolshie miner
0:21:59 > 0:22:01wasn't prepared to see Britain lose the war.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07When asked to pull together for the sake of the troops,
0:22:07 > 0:22:11the response of the British workforce was emphatic.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14In all industries, strikes were suspended
0:22:14 > 0:22:18and people even turned out to work extra shifts.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22On the Clyde, thousands of shipbuilders gave up
0:22:22 > 0:22:24their Easter holiday to keep working.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31Recruiting offices saw a rush from men in protected jobs
0:22:31 > 0:22:33coming forward to enlist.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:22:36 > 0:22:39The Minister for Munitions, Winston Churchill,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42could scarcely believe his eyes.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45"The response to our appeal to work over the holiday," he said,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48"was excellent. Indeed, almost embarrassing."
0:22:58 > 0:23:01At the very worst point in the war,
0:23:01 > 0:23:03the home front had not only held,
0:23:03 > 0:23:06it had risen to the challenge.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08The forces didn't lack for supplies,
0:23:08 > 0:23:11for ammunition or for weapons.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14This was one time in the nation's history
0:23:14 > 0:23:17when we really were all in it together.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30In Germany, it was a very different story.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36With German ports blockaded by the British Navy,
0:23:36 > 0:23:40the country was being slowly starved out of the war.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47Angry crowds took to the streets, demanding peace.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53Anti-war strikes crippled German industry.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01When a horse dropped dead in a Berlin street,
0:24:01 > 0:24:04the locals fell on it for meat.
0:24:08 > 0:24:09On the battlefield,
0:24:09 > 0:24:13the huge German spring offensive had failed to break the Allies.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17If anything, it had broken the Germans.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24Their plan had devoured men and ammunition.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28Troops were left exhausted, demoralised and lacking supplies.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33And as the German war machine began to fail,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36Britain's was at full throttle.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48By the summer of 1918, weapons were rolling off the production lines
0:24:48 > 0:24:50in greater numbers than ever before.
0:24:53 > 0:24:54Shells...
0:24:56 > 0:24:57..tanks...
0:25:00 > 0:25:01..guns...
0:25:02 > 0:25:03..and aircraft.
0:25:19 > 0:25:26This was what constituted air power in 1914. It's a box kite.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28It could be used a bit for aerial reconnaissance
0:25:28 > 0:25:31and it was pretty good for scaring the German horses,
0:25:31 > 0:25:33but that was about it.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41In the early years of the war,
0:25:41 > 0:25:45the skies above France were dominated by German warplanes.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49They were built better and flew better.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54They even looked more frightening.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59It took a long while for Britain to catch up.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09This is a Bristol F2B.
0:26:09 > 0:26:14It's bigger, it's stronger and it's easier to fly.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16It could also be fitted with wireless,
0:26:16 > 0:26:19which meant that you could coordinate attacks
0:26:19 > 0:26:23between aircraft and artillery, tanks and infantry on the ground.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26By 1918, the Allies were producing
0:26:26 > 0:26:31four times as many aircraft like this as the Germans were.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39If you've got a faster aeroplane, you can run away.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42Dodge Bailey is one of the few pilots in Britain
0:26:42 > 0:26:45who regularly fly these antique planes.
0:26:45 > 0:26:47This aircraft was, if you like,
0:26:47 > 0:26:50the multi-role combat aeroplane of its day - a jack of all trades.
0:26:50 > 0:26:51It could do everything.
0:26:51 > 0:26:56It was used for bombing, artillery spotting,
0:26:56 > 0:26:58scaring off the enemy artillery spotters,
0:26:58 > 0:27:02which was very important, and just fighting other aeroplanes.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05It did everything well, the Bristol fighter.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07It was a jack of all trades.
0:27:07 > 0:27:08But, in the end, this is just...
0:27:08 > 0:27:12- What is it? Canvas, or linen, or...? - Irish linen.
0:27:12 > 0:27:13- Irish linen.- Yes.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15- But it's... These are machine guns?- Yes.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18This one has two Lewis guns for the gunner to operate.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21- But you're incredibly vulnerable inside it.- You are. Yes.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24If somebody can hit you, there's nothing between you and the bullets.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29- This is just fabric.- Yeah. What are they like to fly?
0:27:29 > 0:27:30Well, they're all a bit different
0:27:30 > 0:27:34because they hadn't really standardised things by this stage.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36But this aeroplane was nearly there
0:27:36 > 0:27:39and it's a really fantastic aeroplane to handle
0:27:39 > 0:27:43and it flies pretty much like a modern aeroplane.
0:27:52 > 0:27:53The danger and thrill of flying
0:27:53 > 0:27:57attracted a particular kind of person.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00The earliest military pilots came from the handful of aristocrats
0:28:00 > 0:28:04and playboys with planes of their own.
0:28:08 > 0:28:09Most were dead within weeks.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25But with better planes came better tactics.
0:28:29 > 0:28:31The romance of aerial dogfights
0:28:31 > 0:28:37gave way to a more hard-headed use of these new machines.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41As air cover for advancing troops,
0:28:41 > 0:28:43for filming enemy positions
0:28:43 > 0:28:45and guiding artillery strikes.
0:28:55 > 0:29:00After four years of war, the Allies now owned the skies.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19The point wasn't that new aircraft like this won the war,
0:29:19 > 0:29:22although they obviously helped.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25It was that Britain now had a tactically smarter,
0:29:25 > 0:29:27better organised Army
0:29:27 > 0:29:32capable of deploying men and machines to devastating effect
0:29:32 > 0:29:34and it had so reorganised industry
0:29:34 > 0:29:37that when one of these fell out of the sky,
0:29:37 > 0:29:39there was another one to replace it.
0:29:46 > 0:29:51By June 1918, the Allies knew that the tide was turning.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59The war was about to change beyond all recognition
0:29:59 > 0:30:01and at astonishing speed.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10Over a million American soldiers swelled the Allied armies.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15The agonising wait for reinforcement was over.
0:30:19 > 0:30:23On August the 8th, a huge force was unleashed on the Germans.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35The Allied advance proved irresistible.
0:30:36 > 0:30:40On that first day, around 30,000 Germans had surrendered
0:30:40 > 0:30:42or been killed or wounded.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54The German commander General Ludendorff called it
0:30:54 > 0:30:58the blackest day for the German Army in the entire war.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05With the outnumbered Germans in retreat,
0:31:05 > 0:31:08the stalemate of trench warfare was over.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17At last, after years of stagnation,
0:31:17 > 0:31:20the British soldiers were out of their trenches.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24They were now fighting a war of territory, of movement,
0:31:24 > 0:31:26of initiative, of opportunity,
0:31:26 > 0:31:29and they knew that victory was in sight.
0:31:37 > 0:31:41German forces did everything they could to slow the Allied advance,
0:31:41 > 0:31:46including blowing the bridges across the strategic St Quentin Canal.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54This was the last remaining bridge over the canal
0:31:54 > 0:31:58and, without the use of it, advancing British soldiers
0:31:58 > 0:32:03would have had to scramble down this incredibly steep bank,
0:32:03 > 0:32:06get to the canal edge, jump in,
0:32:06 > 0:32:09swim it and then climb up the other side,
0:32:09 > 0:32:13all the time under German machine-gun fire.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21Bullet holes on the bridge mark the moment on September the 8th
0:32:21 > 0:32:25when British troops stumbled on a German demolition squad.
0:32:30 > 0:32:32A lieutenant from the North Staffordshire Regiment
0:32:32 > 0:32:35and his men reached this end of the bridge.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39They looked across, they saw a group of Germans wiring explosives
0:32:39 > 0:32:41ready to blow the thing up.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44They charged them, firing every weapon they had
0:32:44 > 0:32:46and they saved the bridge.
0:32:53 > 0:32:55It was a very significant moment
0:32:55 > 0:32:58and, as their commander addressed the troops on the banks
0:32:58 > 0:33:02of the canal, the occasion for an astonishing photograph.
0:33:15 > 0:33:20Captain TH Westmacott gave some sense of the excitement
0:33:20 > 0:33:22in a letter he wrote home.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26"It is difficult to realise what wonderful times we live in.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30"I could not have believed it unless I had seen it
0:33:30 > 0:33:34"that the same men who were driven back by the Germans in the spring
0:33:34 > 0:33:39"could have so completely turned the tables in the autumn."
0:33:49 > 0:33:53After four years of war, the end came remarkably quickly.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01It took the Allies only 100 days from their first attack
0:34:01 > 0:34:04to rout the demoralised German forces.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10The Germans had no choice but to agree to an armistice -
0:34:10 > 0:34:14officially a cease-fire but, in effect, a humiliating surrender.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20They signed on the 11th of November, 1918.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30"It was the day we had dreamed of,"
0:34:30 > 0:34:33said a corporal in the Honourable Artillery Company.
0:34:33 > 0:34:35"We were stunned.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38"I should have been happy, but we were so dazed,
0:34:38 > 0:34:43"we didn't realise we could stand up without being shot."
0:34:57 > 0:35:01In London, expectant crowds gathered in Parliament Square
0:35:01 > 0:35:06and waited for the sound that would prove the war was finally over.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12Big Ben had been silenced at the outbreak of war.
0:35:13 > 0:35:18Now, at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month,
0:35:18 > 0:35:19it was about to strike again.
0:35:22 > 0:35:24BIG BEN PEALS
0:35:24 > 0:35:25CHEERING
0:35:33 > 0:35:38It was the signal for a roar of relief and joy
0:35:38 > 0:35:41and the start of celebrations which lasted three days.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55In the House of Commons, Prime Minister Lloyd George
0:35:55 > 0:35:59addressed the House, "I hope we may say that thus,
0:35:59 > 0:36:04"this fateful morning, came an end to all wars."
0:36:13 > 0:36:16In Trafalgar Square, revellers climbed on the lions
0:36:16 > 0:36:19and seized buses.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23Australians and Canadians led the way.
0:36:23 > 0:36:27They tore down the advertising hoardings in Trafalgar Square
0:36:27 > 0:36:28asking people to buy war bonds
0:36:28 > 0:36:34and they lit an enormous bonfire right here under Nelson's Column.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38The stones were left cracked and blackened as a consequence
0:36:38 > 0:36:42and you can see the damage still here today.
0:36:42 > 0:36:47The last physical reminder of that amazing day.
0:37:12 > 0:37:16Soldiers recovering in a country hospital were told the news.
0:37:16 > 0:37:18There, the reaction was rather different.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22One of the men said the announcement was met with silence.
0:37:25 > 0:37:27"Our world was gone," he said.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30"A bloody world, a world of suffering,
0:37:30 > 0:37:33"but also a world of laughter, excitement
0:37:33 > 0:37:35"and comradeship beyond description.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39"Now, we were just some of the wreckage left behind."
0:37:45 > 0:37:49A schoolgirl recalled happy children shrieking their way home
0:37:49 > 0:37:53and, as she left the school, she looked in on the geography room.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57There was the geography teacher who'd been widowed in the war,
0:37:57 > 0:37:59crying her eyes out.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11There could hardly have been a soul in Britain that day
0:38:11 > 0:38:15who wasn't torn by conflicting emotions.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18Relief, exhaustion and joy that it was over, of course,
0:38:18 > 0:38:23but tinged with a terrible sadness at the vast numbers of people
0:38:23 > 0:38:25who would never come home.
0:38:26 > 0:38:28The fighting might be over
0:38:28 > 0:38:30but the British people now faced the challenge
0:38:30 > 0:38:36of dealing with the tumultuous changes brought about by the war.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48Right, girls, off you go to your lessons.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56At Bournemouth High School For Girls, a senior mistress
0:38:56 > 0:39:00had gathered her pupils together to issue them with a solemn warning.
0:39:06 > 0:39:11"I have come to tell you," she began, "a terrible fact.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15"Only one out of ten of you girls can ever hope to marry.
0:39:15 > 0:39:21"This isn't a guess of mine, it's a statistical fact.
0:39:21 > 0:39:24"Nearly all the men you might have married have been killed."
0:39:30 > 0:39:33A horrifyingly large number of British soldiers
0:39:33 > 0:39:36had died during the war
0:39:36 > 0:39:39and it had started a national panic.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43The Daily Mail worried itself to a fever
0:39:43 > 0:39:45about the surplus of young women
0:39:45 > 0:39:49who'd be driven to become marriage wreckers or lesbians.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54It proposed exporting them to Australia or Canada
0:39:54 > 0:39:56where they could hunt down husbands.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03The senior mistress at Bournemouth urged her pupils
0:40:03 > 0:40:07to see the apparent shortage of men as an opportunity.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12"You will have to make your way in the world as best you can,"
0:40:12 > 0:40:13she said.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17"The war has made more openings for women,
0:40:17 > 0:40:19"but there will still be prejudice.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23"You'll have to fight, you'll have to struggle."
0:40:28 > 0:40:30But the panic was based on a myth.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33The myth of a lost generation.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39Nearly three quarters of a million men had been killed -
0:40:39 > 0:40:42a massive and terrible toll, for sure.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45But five and a half million came back.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48Nine in ten soldiers survived,
0:40:48 > 0:40:51not one in ten, as the teacher had claimed.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57Emotion had proved more powerful than fact.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06The point wasn't that they were women
0:41:06 > 0:41:10alone in the world without men, because many of them weren't.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12The point was that the war had enabled them
0:41:12 > 0:41:15to change how they thought about life.
0:41:15 > 0:41:20It had forced them into occupations previously reserved for men
0:41:20 > 0:41:23and, now the war was over, they could make their own decisions
0:41:23 > 0:41:26about what they wanted to do with their lives.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33Women's expectations had changed.
0:41:37 > 0:41:38There could be no going back.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59The war would have far-reaching consequences for millions of people,
0:41:59 > 0:42:03including some of the most privileged in the land.
0:42:09 > 0:42:14At the end of the war, this was the largest estate in Cornwall.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23The man who stood to inherit was the Honourable Tommy Agar-Robartes.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32His was a gilded, privileged start in life.
0:42:32 > 0:42:34First Eton, then Oxford,
0:42:34 > 0:42:37and membership of the elite Bullingdon club.
0:42:40 > 0:42:44He was a Member of Parliament before he was 30.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47His habit of sporting a buttonhole of violets
0:42:47 > 0:42:52earned the title of the best dressed man in Parliament.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55But when war was declared, he told his friends
0:42:55 > 0:42:59he was desperate "To do my little bit."
0:43:00 > 0:43:03He gave up his seat and joined the Army.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05In 1915, he was sent to France.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11This is the case he took with him when he was sent to the front.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15They didn't travel light. As you can see, it's extremely heavy.
0:43:15 > 0:43:20It's full of wooden containers, metal containers,
0:43:20 > 0:43:22tools for pulling your boots on,
0:43:22 > 0:43:25a trench periscope for looking up over the top of the trench
0:43:25 > 0:43:27into no-man's-land.
0:43:27 > 0:43:31And here, a container of what's thought to be rouge,
0:43:31 > 0:43:33which you could dab on your cheeks
0:43:33 > 0:43:37to make yourself look less deathly pale from fear
0:43:37 > 0:43:39as you went out on an attack.
0:43:40 > 0:43:41It's all that's left of him now.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51On September the 30th, 1915,
0:43:51 > 0:43:56Tommy had been killed at the Battle of Loos - shot by a sniper
0:43:56 > 0:43:59while trying to rescue a wounded soldier in no-man's-land.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06At his memorial service, it was said of him,
0:44:06 > 0:44:11"No man in this adventure of life weighed danger more cheaply
0:44:11 > 0:44:14"against what he called the fun of it.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17"He went gallantly off to France,
0:44:17 > 0:44:21"just as if he were taking a fence on a horse."
0:44:27 > 0:44:32The terrible thing is that men like Tommy Agar-Robartes are seen
0:44:32 > 0:44:36so much nowadays as figures of fun - upper-class twits
0:44:36 > 0:44:40who went off to war because it seemed a bit of a lark.
0:44:40 > 0:44:43They are so far from our experience of life
0:44:43 > 0:44:48that it is much easier to snigger at them than to admire them
0:44:48 > 0:44:52but they, too, felt horror and they felt fear...
0:44:52 > 0:44:54and they faced them both down.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04The war took a heavy toll on the upper classes.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08Many of their sons were quick to volunteer.
0:45:09 > 0:45:12As officers, they were expected to lead from the front.
0:45:12 > 0:45:18As a result, they were five times as likely to die as an ordinary Tommy.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24There were times in the war when the life expectancy of a lieutenant
0:45:24 > 0:45:26was said to be six weeks.
0:45:33 > 0:45:38The death of Tommy Agar-Robartes seemed to break the family's spirit.
0:45:39 > 0:45:41It signalled the end of this great estate,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44which shrank to a fraction of its former size.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49Ancient families crippled by death duties
0:45:49 > 0:45:53and with a son who might have inherited killed in the war
0:45:53 > 0:45:56found themselves forced to sell up.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00By the end of 1919, it was reckoned that over a million acres
0:46:00 > 0:46:03of England and Wales had gone under the hammer.
0:46:03 > 0:46:04It was a sort of revolution.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11The sell-off brought to an end
0:46:11 > 0:46:14the almost feudal power of the landed gentry.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21But if the war created some unexpected losers,
0:46:21 > 0:46:24there were also some unexpected winners.
0:46:27 > 0:46:30The people who did best were the poor.
0:46:30 > 0:46:32Especially the very poor.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40The writer Robert Roberts grew up in a corner shop
0:46:40 > 0:46:42in a typical Salford slum.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47He saw first-hand how the very poor lived, or tried to live.
0:46:49 > 0:46:55To eat - bread with a scrape of margarine or jam or dripping.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58If it was a special occasion, perhaps a pot of tea,
0:46:58 > 0:47:03but hardly ever any eggs, any milk or any meat.
0:47:03 > 0:47:08To live - three damp rooms for a family of eight
0:47:08 > 0:47:11with children sleeping four to a bed.
0:47:11 > 0:47:13Hardly surprising, then,
0:47:13 > 0:47:17that the mortality rate among children was one in four.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20That was twice what it was among soldiers at the front.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28No wonder so many of them failed their Army medical
0:47:28 > 0:47:30when they tried to join up.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34Those that did enlist were delighted to find it meant a full stomach.
0:47:36 > 0:47:37"Meat every day," they said,
0:47:37 > 0:47:40just as the recruiting sergeants had promised.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44When they came back from the war, they were fitter, broader
0:47:44 > 0:47:46and stronger than when they'd left.
0:47:49 > 0:47:53Robert Roberts called the Great War the Great Release
0:47:53 > 0:47:56because, quite apart from the demands of the Army,
0:47:56 > 0:48:00there was a need for masses of labour
0:48:00 > 0:48:02and that meant that those who had previously
0:48:02 > 0:48:06been part-timers or casual labourers or unemployed
0:48:06 > 0:48:10could suddenly earn good money and feed themselves.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21Across the counter of his parents' shop, Roberts noted that,
0:48:21 > 0:48:22for the first time ever,
0:48:22 > 0:48:25the customers had money in their pockets all week.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30His respectable shopkeeper parents were appalled
0:48:30 > 0:48:33at the new wealth these people were enjoying.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41Robert Roberts' father described how, just before Christmas,
0:48:41 > 0:48:45a well-paid young woman from one of the local munitions factories
0:48:45 > 0:48:49came into his corner shop and asked him why he hadn't got,
0:48:49 > 0:48:51"Summat worth chewin'?"
0:48:51 > 0:48:54He was pretty annoyed and he asked her what she meant, and she said,
0:48:54 > 0:49:00"Well, tins of lobster or some of them big jars of pickled gherkins."
0:49:07 > 0:49:11Britain was beginning to look like a different country.
0:49:11 > 0:49:17Full employment had pushed up living standards. Fewer babies were dying.
0:49:19 > 0:49:20Men and women lived longer.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25Curbs on drink had cut drunkenness and domestic violence.
0:49:27 > 0:49:31A third of all workers had joined a union.
0:49:31 > 0:49:33And to repay its debt to the people of Britain,
0:49:33 > 0:49:37the Government had given all men and some women the right to vote.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43The anti-war Labour MP Ramsay McDonald decided that
0:49:43 > 0:49:47the demands of the war had done more for social reform
0:49:47 > 0:49:50than all the political campaigns before it.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01LAST POST PLAYS
0:50:09 > 0:50:11This corner of a foreign field
0:50:11 > 0:50:14belongs to the oldest regiment in the British Army,
0:50:14 > 0:50:16the Honourable Artillery Company.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25The regiment lost 1,600 men in the war.
0:50:27 > 0:50:29Today, it's burying four of them.
0:50:33 > 0:50:37They were killed in battle at Boulancourt, a mile or so away,
0:50:37 > 0:50:40and their bodies had lain in the field where they fell
0:50:40 > 0:50:44until they were finally uncovered nearly 100 years later.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52The bodies were discovered by a French farmer.
0:50:52 > 0:50:54It's not an uncommon experience
0:50:54 > 0:50:58if you live and work on the former battlefields.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02Every year, a number of corpses are disinterred
0:51:02 > 0:51:04and then buried in military cemeteries.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13There's often no way to identify these bodies.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19Two of the men buried here today remain unknown.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23On their headstones is written,
0:51:23 > 0:51:26"A soldier of the Great War known unto God."
0:51:28 > 0:51:30But two bodies were identified.
0:51:37 > 0:51:4031-year-old Lieutenant John Harold Pritchard
0:51:40 > 0:51:45had taken the precaution of wearing an identity bracelet.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48Private Christopher Douglas Elphick was identified
0:51:48 > 0:51:51because one of the fingers of his skeleton
0:51:51 > 0:51:54was still wearing a signet ring engraved with his initials.
0:51:58 > 0:52:04Almighty God, protect all who serve in the Forces of the Queen...
0:52:06 > 0:52:08..strengthen us...
0:52:11 > 0:52:15Today, their relatives are guests of honour at the ceremony.
0:52:15 > 0:52:19..through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24Was he a sort of active absence, as it were, in your family?
0:52:24 > 0:52:27Yes, I think that's true, because we all...
0:52:27 > 0:52:29we had a photograph of him as a child
0:52:29 > 0:52:31from when he was at St Paul's Cathedral as a chorister
0:52:31 > 0:52:34and that was all the photographs that we knew we had,
0:52:34 > 0:52:37but my nan used to talk about him occasionally.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40It was very painful for her to talk about him. So, it wasn't...
0:52:40 > 0:52:43He wasn't very active, but he was there.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46- And he was what relation to your nan? He was...?- He was the brother.
0:52:46 > 0:52:48- Her brother.- Yes. He was her brother. He was her older brother.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51And did she know what had become of him?
0:52:51 > 0:52:53No, they knew he'd been killed in France.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55I'm not even sure they knew where he'd been killed,
0:52:55 > 0:52:59but we have subsequently found that out as a family.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03And the fact that, all that time, the best part of 100 years,
0:53:03 > 0:53:07there was no grave you could go to - what effect did that have?
0:53:07 > 0:53:12I think that it was a missing link, it wasn't a fully completed story,
0:53:12 > 0:53:13and I think what's happened today
0:53:13 > 0:53:16is that we have finally closed the circle
0:53:16 > 0:53:19and we've done it for my great-grandmother, who links us all,
0:53:19 > 0:53:22and, finally, everything has come to completion.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25I can't tell you how fulfilling that is, actually.
0:53:25 > 0:53:27And if people were to say to you,
0:53:27 > 0:53:29"Look, it's all just ancient history now..."?
0:53:29 > 0:53:31It's living history.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34It really is living history. It has brought history to life.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37For the generations that were here today, for those youngsters,
0:53:37 > 0:53:41they now have a real understanding of a person
0:53:41 > 0:53:45who fought for his country, he died for his country,
0:53:45 > 0:53:48and we now have somewhere that we can visit and remember
0:53:48 > 0:53:50and reflect upon that.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53LAST POST PLAYS
0:54:22 > 0:54:23GUNFIRE SALUTE
0:54:30 > 0:54:32Even before the war ended,
0:54:32 > 0:54:35cities, towns and villages all across Britain
0:54:35 > 0:54:38had begun to build memorials to the dead.
0:54:48 > 0:54:53Over 5,000 went up in the two years following the Armistice.
0:54:55 > 0:54:57Some, a few, celebrated victory.
0:55:05 > 0:55:07Most spoke of sacrifice.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11Men remembering their dead comrades,
0:55:11 > 0:55:15the ordinary soldier rather than the commander.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24In the village of Briantspuddle, Dorset,
0:55:24 > 0:55:27the war memorial was unveiled on November the 12th, 1918,
0:55:27 > 0:55:29the day after the war ended.
0:55:35 > 0:55:37At the dedication of this memorial,
0:55:37 > 0:55:41the Bishop of Salisbury wondered whether there was really any need
0:55:41 > 0:55:43for further reminders of the war,
0:55:43 > 0:55:46and he answered his own question, yes.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49Because there would be future generations
0:55:49 > 0:55:52who would lead lives crowded with happenings
0:55:52 > 0:55:56and they needed to be warned, lest they forget.
0:55:56 > 0:55:58Lest they forget.
0:56:13 > 0:56:18We haven't forgotten the horror or the grief of those terrible years.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22But there was another story too,
0:56:22 > 0:56:25of how the war changed the country we live in.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30It had forced Governments to take on responsibilities
0:56:30 > 0:56:34they would never have dreamed of before -
0:56:34 > 0:56:37for the conditions in which people lived,
0:56:37 > 0:56:43for the rents they paid and the food they ate, for the wages they earned.
0:56:45 > 0:56:50It left us a more equal country and a more democratic one.
0:56:55 > 0:56:59Later generations would contend it had been a futile war.
0:57:00 > 0:57:04The war was terrible, certainly, but hardly futile.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11It stopped the German conquest of much of Europe
0:57:11 > 0:57:14and perhaps even of villages like this.
0:57:22 > 0:57:24Never before in the nation's history
0:57:24 > 0:57:28had a war required the commitment and the sacrifice
0:57:28 > 0:57:29of the whole population
0:57:29 > 0:57:32and, by and large, for four years,
0:57:32 > 0:57:34the British people kept faith with it.
0:57:34 > 0:57:36It wasn't a war they had sought
0:57:36 > 0:57:38and, had they known how it would turn out,
0:57:38 > 0:57:42they doubtless wouldn't have joined in, but they hadn't known,
0:57:42 > 0:57:44they couldn't have known,
0:57:44 > 0:57:47any more than the politicians or the generals could have known
0:57:47 > 0:57:50and, once it had started, there was no way of stopping it
0:57:50 > 0:57:54any more than you could suddenly make the dead start to walk again.
0:57:54 > 0:58:01A century on, we should perhaps remember and respect that sacrifice
0:58:01 > 0:58:04and realise that, more than any other event,
0:58:04 > 0:58:07this was the one that made modern Britain.