0:00:05 > 0:00:09'Our history has been shaped by centuries of war.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11'From the armies of the Romans...
0:00:12 > 0:00:15'..to the modern, global conflicts of today.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21'I'm Saul David and I'm a military historian.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24'What history tells us again and again is that'
0:00:24 > 0:00:26beyond the derring-do of military commanders,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29it's the nuts and bolts of how you house and feed your army,
0:00:29 > 0:00:32how you move it and how you kit it ready for battle,
0:00:32 > 0:00:35that's the real key to winning wars.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39'Today, military logistics dominates modern warfare
0:00:39 > 0:00:44'with entire branches of specialists dedicated to feeding, moving,
0:00:44 > 0:00:49'and kitting out frontline soldiers ready for battle.'
0:00:49 > 0:00:53This is the story of how this elaborate, high-tech world came to be,
0:00:53 > 0:00:57because throughout history, the greatest challenges
0:00:57 > 0:01:00faced by any military commander have remained the same.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02'If you don't keep your soldiers fed,
0:01:02 > 0:01:06'they'll never even make it to the battlefield.'
0:01:06 > 0:01:08Think about it this way,
0:01:08 > 0:01:13you're slaughtering for 80,000 men a minimum of 300 animals per day.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15'If you can't move your men, and fast,
0:01:15 > 0:01:19'you'll never steal a march on the enemy.'
0:01:19 > 0:01:22US General George C Marshall once described
0:01:22 > 0:01:26the Jeep as America's greatest contribution to modern warfare.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30And don't forget, America invented the atomic bomb.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35'Any army that isn't equipped with the latest technology
0:01:35 > 0:01:37'has literally been cut to shreds.'
0:01:42 > 0:01:45Some of the greatest failures and victories in history
0:01:45 > 0:01:48have come down to the detail of military logistics -
0:01:48 > 0:01:52the real story of how wars are won and lost.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20Throughout history, armies have faced certain constant and highly-destructive enemies
0:02:20 > 0:02:23but I'm not talking about physical opponents,
0:02:23 > 0:02:26rather hunger, thirst and disease.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32Even today, a general's main task is to house his men,
0:02:32 > 0:02:34feed them and keep them fit for combat,
0:02:34 > 0:02:39because if he gets that wrong, he's sunk even before a shot is fired.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44'This film is about health, housing and food,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48'and the kit armies have used to stay alive throughout history.
0:02:49 > 0:02:54'We'll see how Wellington had to take an entire herd of cows with him on campaign...
0:02:56 > 0:02:58'..how a supply disaster in the Crimea
0:02:58 > 0:03:01'led to a turning point in military history...
0:03:02 > 0:03:04'..and how the humble tin can
0:03:04 > 0:03:08'made possible the entrenched warfare of World War One...
0:03:10 > 0:03:14'..because any general's primary challenge is that of basic survival.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19'Quite simply of keeping your men alive and well enough to fight.'
0:03:32 > 0:03:34'Camp Bastion,
0:03:34 > 0:03:39'the logistics hub for operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45'This is Britain's largest overseas military camp since World War Two,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48'home to over 30,000 soldiers and contractors.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52'Fresh food is flown in.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56'Four tonnes of fruit and salad are eaten every single day.
0:03:57 > 0:04:03'Water comes from the ground, a million litres a week of it.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07'In this heart of a bleak desert,
0:04:07 > 0:04:09'a base has been created from nothing.
0:04:10 > 0:04:15'But setting up giant camps on this massive scale is far from new.'
0:04:23 > 0:04:30'2,000 years ago, the Roman Empire was built and sustained by a vast army.
0:04:30 > 0:04:35'At its peak, 450,000 men patrolled Pax Romana
0:04:35 > 0:04:37'from Egypt all the way to Britain.'
0:04:39 > 0:04:43In AD 122, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian,
0:04:43 > 0:04:45the construction of this wall began,
0:04:45 > 0:04:47to separate the Romans from the barbarians.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56'This marked the very limit of the vast Roman Empire.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00'And the 10,000 soldiers stationed on this bleak, northern frontier
0:05:00 > 0:05:03'had to be kept housed, fed and healthy
0:05:03 > 0:05:07'just like today's troops in Afghanistan.
0:05:08 > 0:05:13'Vindolanda is one of the best preserved of all the forts the Romans created,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17'home to over 2,000 soldiers and families.'
0:05:17 > 0:05:21So here we are at the barrack blocks where the soldiers actually lived.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24If you come inside, you'll get a sense of space.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27This was state-of-the-art. You would have had insulated walls.
0:05:27 > 0:05:32At the front of each block, was a fireplace to keep them warm in winter
0:05:32 > 0:05:35and crucially and most extraordinary, I think,
0:05:35 > 0:05:37there would have been glass in the windows.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41Civilian houses here didn't have glass for another 1,000 years
0:05:41 > 0:05:43and then only people who could afford it.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48It's astonishing to think of the level of detail the Romans were prepared to go to.
0:05:50 > 0:05:55'Excavations here are still revealing the life and kit of Roman soldiers.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59'The site's director is Andrew Birley.'
0:05:59 > 0:06:03When on the move, they put a modern camping expedition to total shame.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06The sheer volume of kit these guys take with them.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09The sort of things they may carry over their shoulders
0:06:09 > 0:06:12are their dolabras, their trenching tools, extra weapons,
0:06:12 > 0:06:16a few wooden stakes to put in the ground for their camp at night time,
0:06:16 > 0:06:19a water can, or something like that.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22The other things that they carry are intensely personal.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26You've got your wooden combs to keep yourself looking neat and tidy,
0:06:26 > 0:06:29your spatula, palettes and things to make medicine.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32The thing that every Roman soldier would carry bar none
0:06:32 > 0:06:34are these lovely little knives.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37They can double up as weapons but essentially they're for eating.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40No knives and forks, they use knives for everything.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43Every Roman soldier would have one of these slung on his belt.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46Beautiful things. Wickedly sharp after all those years.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48This would be standard issue, would it?
0:06:48 > 0:06:52Every soldier has one of those and is expected to keep it in good order
0:06:52 > 0:06:54and replace it if it breaks.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58What they don't carry are things like this, huge millstones.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01They don't carry them on their backs but they take them with them.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04The worst case scenario is you get out into the field,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08you run out of grain that's processed and you have to get some more.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13There are always farmers around who you can pinch things from or buy them from if they're friendly
0:07:13 > 0:07:16but you've got to process foodstuffs into things you can eat.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19That's why this big millstone is the sort of thing you carry on your mule
0:07:19 > 0:07:22at the back of the wagon train.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25Perhaps an ox wagon would carry these travelling with the army.
0:07:27 > 0:07:28'As a permanent camp,
0:07:28 > 0:07:33'Vindolanda had to provide for the welfare of soldiers all year round.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37'At the very heart of its supply operation was the granary.'
0:07:37 > 0:07:40The floor level would have been here
0:07:40 > 0:07:44and I'm walking along a duct which enabled air to circulate,
0:07:44 > 0:07:47which of course prevents the grain from going off.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50The whole building would have held a year's supply of grain
0:07:50 > 0:07:53and this was crucial because it meant harvest to harvest
0:07:53 > 0:07:57the fort could have held out even if it was besieged.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01'While the grain came from local British farms,
0:08:01 > 0:08:04'other rations had to be brought from much further afield.'
0:08:07 > 0:08:11This fragment of pottery was actually from a Roman amphora.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15It doesn't look like much in its current state,
0:08:15 > 0:08:19but if you can imagine, it would have been a huge bulbous container
0:08:19 > 0:08:20filled with olive oil.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24The most revealing thing about the amphora is this inscription here.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27It's the names of the proprietors of the farm
0:08:27 > 0:08:31that actually produced this amphora and the olive oil.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33It says Aemiliae and casae.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37That doesn't mean much in itself until you realise that this farm
0:08:37 > 0:08:39was in Seville in Spain.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43The quartermaster in the camp would have ordered this olive oil
0:08:43 > 0:08:47and had it transported 1,000 miles across the Empire
0:08:47 > 0:08:50for the consumption of the troops at Vindolanda.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56'Staying well-housed and fed is one thing,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59'but it's also vital to stay healthy.
0:08:59 > 0:09:04'No army can survive long without being able to wash.'
0:09:06 > 0:09:10Now, why would they have used a hot room like this?
0:09:10 > 0:09:13It's partly recreational, of course, to chill out.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16But more importantly than that it was for hygiene.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20As all great generals know, to get a soldier able to fight,
0:09:20 > 0:09:23you have to keep him healthy and the caldarium did that.
0:09:25 > 0:09:27'Hot air would have come through ducts,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30'heating a floor of stone flags topped with concrete.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35'Ladles of cold water would have been poured onto it
0:09:35 > 0:09:38'to fill the room with steam like a modern sauna.'
0:09:40 > 0:09:45What's great about coming to Vindolanda for a military historian like me
0:09:45 > 0:09:49is that previously I'd only really looked at the Roman army at war
0:09:49 > 0:09:53but when you come here you begin to understand how the Roman soldier actually lived
0:09:53 > 0:09:55and what's astonishing about this site
0:09:55 > 0:09:59is its attention to detail in all aspects of daily life.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03You get a sense of the lengths the Roman army was prepared to go
0:10:03 > 0:10:06to keep its troops not only healthy but also happy.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24'Soldiers arriving in a new theatre of war such as Afghanistan
0:10:24 > 0:10:28'have to have their basic needs met before they can do anything else.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32'It's the most fundamental duty of any commander.'
0:10:32 > 0:10:34Without keeping soldiers fed and watered,
0:10:34 > 0:10:37without keeping them housed and dry,
0:10:37 > 0:10:41and without keeping them clean and healthy, you're in trouble.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44All of these things are hard enough to manage in fixed bases,
0:10:44 > 0:10:48but when an army is on campaign, often in foreign and distant lands,
0:10:48 > 0:10:52the challenge becomes even tougher.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58'And when it goes wrong the price is high,
0:10:58 > 0:11:01'for kingdoms as well as men.
0:11:03 > 0:11:09'In 1415, the English King, Henry V, set off to invade France
0:11:09 > 0:11:13'with over 10,000 men in a bid to take the French throne.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21'Tim Sutherland is an expert in medieval warfare
0:11:21 > 0:11:27'and has studied the type of kit Henry V's men would have taken on the campaign.'
0:11:28 > 0:11:30People at the lower scale
0:11:30 > 0:11:33would have walked onto the battlefield
0:11:33 > 0:11:35with minimal amounts of equipment.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39Mostly they would have been wearing very thick protective clothing,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42anything that was based on linen and wool.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44The more layers a jacket like this has,
0:11:44 > 0:11:48the more protected it is against weapon blows.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52Also it's warmer. The problem with this is when it gets wet
0:11:52 > 0:11:54it becomes like a sponge and it becomes incredibly heavy.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58It weighs you down enough to drown you, even in shallow water.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00You had to be able to feed yourself,
0:12:00 > 0:12:03because nobody else would have fed you.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06You picked berries, found rabbits,
0:12:06 > 0:12:10you'd be hunting things with a bow and arrow or trapping them.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13What they also need to do is cook.
0:12:13 > 0:12:18So maybe they would have had between five, 10, 15 people, a cooking pot.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22This is an iron one, which is probably a later design,
0:12:22 > 0:12:26but the bronze cauldrons of the time would have been very similar
0:12:26 > 0:12:28and round about this size.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32Everybody needs to drink, so you need something to drink from,
0:12:32 > 0:12:36whether it's a bowl, such as a wooden bowl like this to scoop water up,
0:12:36 > 0:12:38or whether it's something like a pottery mug.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43What happens is you get small numbers of people who can look after themselves
0:12:43 > 0:12:48and this is the sort of kit they would have used as a small, cohesive group.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53'Henry's lightly-equipped force sailed to Normandy
0:12:53 > 0:12:58'and his first objective was the strategic port of Harfleur,
0:12:58 > 0:13:02'but he was stopped in his tracks by the town's huge defensive walls.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07'Henry settled in for a lengthy siege,
0:13:07 > 0:13:14'the worst-case scenario for any army reliant on foraging and fresh water to survive.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19'The French were well aware of the English vulnerability
0:13:19 > 0:13:23'and had a plan - to wreak havoc on the British camp
0:13:23 > 0:13:26'and leave it wide open to the spread of disease.'
0:13:26 > 0:13:32The French opened the locks to the river so this whole area was filled with stagnant water.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34You can only imagine what this meant for Henry
0:13:34 > 0:13:38and his army of 10,000 soldiers and 20,000 horses.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42With nowhere to bury human or animal waste, with the weather unseasonably hot,
0:13:42 > 0:13:45this area became a perfect breeding ground for disease.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51'Sharing kit, living in what was to become an open sewer,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55'led to a contagious wave of vomiting and diarrhoea.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04'The National Archives in London contains evidence
0:14:04 > 0:14:06'of how serious the problem became.'
0:14:08 > 0:14:12I feel very privileged because it's not often as an historian
0:14:12 > 0:14:15you get to look at, hold and read
0:14:15 > 0:14:20an original hand-written 600-year-old document like this one.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24It's a list of the people who came back from Harfleur in 1415
0:14:24 > 0:14:27and the outset of Henry V's campaign to retake Normandy.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30It's written in French but it actually explains to us
0:14:30 > 0:14:33the reason why most of these people had left the army.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37The explanation is here at the top and it reads:
0:14:37 > 0:14:41"The sick people of the retinue of the Duke of Clarence,"
0:14:41 > 0:14:43who was the King's brother,
0:14:43 > 0:14:48"and also the people of the retinues of the captains and lords
0:14:48 > 0:14:52"who were serving with the King at the siege of Harfleur."
0:14:52 > 0:14:57In other words, it's the sick list, the casualties who had returned home from the campaign.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00This roll and the other five rolls in the bag
0:15:00 > 0:15:05contain 1,300 names and each name is individually recorded.
0:15:05 > 0:15:10Most of these men suffered from something known as the bloody flux.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13In other words, they were afflicted with dysentery.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16'Harfleur was eventually taken,
0:15:16 > 0:15:19'but by failing to provide for his troops' welfare,
0:15:19 > 0:15:23'Henry's army was by now exhausted and malnourished.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26'He was forced to head not further south,
0:15:26 > 0:15:30'but north to Calais, an English-controlled port.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36'The French, though, intercepted his army on the way - at Agincourt.'
0:15:36 > 0:15:41BATTLE CRIES, SCREAMS AND HORSES NEIGHING
0:15:43 > 0:15:45Henry's subsequent success at Agincourt
0:15:45 > 0:15:50was as much to do with the failures of the French knights getting bogged down in the mud
0:15:50 > 0:15:52as it was due to the excellence of his archers,
0:15:52 > 0:15:58but thanks to Shakespeare that campaign has gone down in national folklore as a great victory.
0:15:59 > 0:16:05'And of course, Henry's was only one of a long history of campaigns
0:16:05 > 0:16:09'when English and British forces made forays onto mainland Europe.'
0:16:11 > 0:16:14Over time, as armies grew in size,
0:16:14 > 0:16:18these overseas expeditions created ever-greater challenges.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22If Henry had faced difficulties managing the needs of 10,000 men,
0:16:22 > 0:16:26imagine if that army grew to 50,000 or even 100,000,
0:16:26 > 0:16:28entire cities on the move.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33'From sword-wielding leaders like Henry V,
0:16:33 > 0:16:37'by the 18th and 19th centuries, generals had to become masters
0:16:37 > 0:16:41'not only of men but supply.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46'How do you go about feeding tens of thousands of men on campaign
0:16:46 > 0:16:51'overseas, always on the move, and thousands of miles from home?'
0:17:02 > 0:17:08'In 1808, a British general, Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington
0:17:08 > 0:17:12'sailed for Portugal to help oppose Napoleon's expanding French empire.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23'After stops to make arrangements for the supply of oxen and mules,
0:17:23 > 0:17:27'he finally landed his army at Mondego Bay, north of Lisbon.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32'But as he marched inland to Leiria, heading for Lisbon itself,
0:17:32 > 0:17:36'the challenge of feeding his vast army was formidable.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45'Andy Robertshaw is an expert in military rations,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48'including the supply of an army's daily bread.'
0:17:49 > 0:17:52- Shall we?- Do you think it's ready? - Let's have a look.
0:17:52 > 0:17:57So I shall use my trusty peel here and see what happens.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00- Well, they look convincing, don't they?- Ah, excellent.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02I'm happy with that.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06If you feel that, it's baked through.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09- I wouldn't mind eating that. - That's good!
0:18:09 > 0:18:12That's a ration recipe for ration bread
0:18:12 > 0:18:15and it's got the fat content replaced by treacle.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18So it's flour, yeast, salt and treacle.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20That's one man's ration for one day.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23So you bake your bread, your soldiers are fed and happy,
0:18:23 > 0:18:26you're moving on to the next location,
0:18:26 > 0:18:29- you've got to take your oven with you.- Absolutely.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32Either as it's cooled or as it's cooling,
0:18:32 > 0:18:35you've got to knock it all to bits, try not to break the bricks,
0:18:35 > 0:18:41lay them all out, because obviously you don't want to put it on a wagon, you'll set fire to it otherwise,
0:18:41 > 0:18:45pile them all on the wagon, move to your next location and build it all over again.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48Perhaps twice a week you're building these things.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52'During Wellington's early campaign, it's thought the British travelled
0:18:52 > 0:18:57'with 80,000 bricks for 400 portable ovens.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01'And bread was only a part of what was needed.'
0:19:03 > 0:19:07What I've got here is a little pamphlet from the Napoleonic Wars.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10It tells you that the daily ration to each officer,
0:19:10 > 0:19:14non-commissioned officer or private, is one pound of bread or biscuit,
0:19:14 > 0:19:16one pound of meat, either fresh or salt,
0:19:16 > 0:19:21one pint of wine or one third of a pint of spirits. That's it.
0:19:21 > 0:19:22At one stage Wellington has
0:19:22 > 0:19:2680,000 men under his command in the peninsular. How does he feed them?
0:19:26 > 0:19:31Well, he's going to give them meat and that means a pound of meat per man per day.
0:19:33 > 0:19:38You're slaughtering, for 80,000 men, a minimum of 300 animals a day.
0:19:38 > 0:19:43The funny thing is that soldiers often refer to the battlefield looking like a shambles.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47A shambles is a medieval word which describes a butcher's yard.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50Every time they go to get their meat rations they would see
0:19:50 > 0:19:54all these slaughtered animals. They were awfully familiar with it.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57I mean, it's a huge logistical effort, isn't it?
0:19:57 > 0:20:01We think of soldiers in an army but they've got this massive tail,
0:20:01 > 0:20:06bakers and butchers and just about everyone else who has to look after this.
0:20:06 > 0:20:13There's a massive army with a massive train of animals and butchers and wagons and forage
0:20:13 > 0:20:16just to keep it going even without fighting a single battle.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19Every single day. You can't stop it.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26The scale of the effort needed to sustain Wellington's army
0:20:26 > 0:20:33was simply staggering - 300 cows a day, an entire herd to feed his men.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37When you think about it, that doesn't just involve the cowherds and the regimental butchers,
0:20:37 > 0:20:44you've got the livestock experts who have to go out into the local markets to replenish that herd,
0:20:44 > 0:20:49then the accountants and the quartermasters paying out the cash and keeping up the books.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54Whichever way you look at it, and particularly when you delve deep into it,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58this conceptually simple problem about feeding your army
0:20:58 > 0:21:03becomes a huge logistical, indeed a huge management exercise.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09'Once they had received their rations,
0:21:09 > 0:21:13'it was up to the soldiers to cook it themselves.'
0:21:13 > 0:21:15So you can just imagine the scene,
0:21:15 > 0:21:1880,000 men spread over a hillside like this one,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21all cooking their individual pots on fires like this
0:21:21 > 0:21:24with their rations of meat and maybe the odd pilfered onion.
0:21:24 > 0:21:29'But while the soldiers were tucking in to their hard-earned meals,
0:21:29 > 0:21:33'they would have been unaware that what was going on behind the scenes
0:21:33 > 0:21:38'was heading towards a watershed in how armies were fed and kept healthy.'
0:21:39 > 0:21:43What's actually happening at this stage is a major shift in military history
0:21:43 > 0:21:47because before this point, supply and transport
0:21:47 > 0:21:51had always been provided on an ad hoc basis during wartime by civilians.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55As armies became increasingly huge in size,
0:21:55 > 0:21:59the business of supply became increasingly specialist.
0:22:01 > 0:22:07'In these new mega-armies, men were needed to take care of the camps and of food,
0:22:07 > 0:22:11'and without them an army would be doomed as a fighting force.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15'From the early 19th century, success in waging war
0:22:15 > 0:22:19'shifts from the front line to the back room,
0:22:19 > 0:22:21'to the masters of the supply chain.
0:22:22 > 0:22:28'But the question was who were the real back-room masters going to be?'
0:22:38 > 0:22:43'A modern army today, supplies and transports its own food and equipment.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48'But in Wellington's time, while the army transported provisions,
0:22:48 > 0:22:53'it didn't have complete control of all aspects of supply.
0:22:56 > 0:23:02'The responsibility for purchasing goods fell to a civilian body called the commissariat.'
0:23:04 > 0:23:07The reason the commissariat remains in civilian hands
0:23:07 > 0:23:12is that the Government, fearful of the power of the generals and their ever-larger armies,
0:23:12 > 0:23:15doesn't want them to operate independently.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20'On top of all this, to save money the Government also took over complete control
0:23:20 > 0:23:24'of transport as well as purchasing.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28'It was a decision that was to lead to the biggest supply disaster
0:23:28 > 0:23:30'in British military history.
0:23:31 > 0:23:36'The consequences were to transform how the entire army was run.
0:23:40 > 0:23:46'That logistical catastrophe happened here, 1,600 miles from London,
0:23:46 > 0:23:52'in the Russian port of Balaklava, in 1854 during the Crimean War.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59'The Crimea is a peninsula in the south of modern-day Ukraine,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03'Fearful of Russia's growing influence in the region,
0:24:03 > 0:24:05'Britain went to war,
0:24:05 > 0:24:08'relying on the port of Balaklava as a vital supply line.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17'The British Army stationed 25,000 soldiers on a bleak plateau,
0:24:17 > 0:24:19'high above the port.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24'But the Government, having taken charge of supplies,
0:24:24 > 0:24:27'failed to equip the men properly.
0:24:28 > 0:24:33'With winter closing in, poor clothing and flimsy tents
0:24:33 > 0:24:36'offered little protection against the deteriorating conditions.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41'And what was being delivered into port
0:24:41 > 0:24:44'wasn't exactly what the men needed most.'
0:24:46 > 0:24:48This is an example of the sort of supply
0:24:48 > 0:24:51that was being sent out to the Crimea during the war.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54It's an extraordinary artefact. It's a marmalade pot
0:24:54 > 0:24:57Beautifully made. You can see the detail in it,
0:24:57 > 0:25:00not just in its construction but in this hand-painted picture
0:25:00 > 0:25:03of the allied commanders on the front
0:25:03 > 0:25:05with Lord Raglan in the centre position.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08You can tell it's him because of his empty arm,
0:25:08 > 0:25:10the arm he lost at Waterloo.
0:25:12 > 0:25:17'Although the Government did deliver more than decorative jars of marmalade,
0:25:17 > 0:25:19'they had forgotten one crucial thing.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23'No carts had been provided to transport the provisions
0:25:23 > 0:25:26'from the port up to the inland bases.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31'Many of the supplies were left on the quayside, the food rotting,
0:25:31 > 0:25:36'while the soldiers, unable to leave the battlefield, starved.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41'The person who brought this logistical catastrophe to light
0:25:41 > 0:25:46'wasn't a soldier or a politician, but a journalist.'
0:25:47 > 0:25:50This is a picture of WH Russell of the Times
0:25:50 > 0:25:53sitting on his rather natty campaign chair.
0:25:53 > 0:25:55Russell became famous during the Crimean War
0:25:55 > 0:25:57because he covered it from start to finish,
0:25:57 > 0:26:00living for much of his time with the men here on the plateau.
0:26:02 > 0:26:07'Russell was one of the world's very first embedded war correspondents.'
0:26:09 > 0:26:12What particularly struck me when I first read Russell's reports
0:26:12 > 0:26:15was the vividness of the language he uses,
0:26:15 > 0:26:17the beauty of the metaphor and the similes.
0:26:17 > 0:26:22In one particular report he describes the pouring rain,
0:26:22 > 0:26:23the night as black as ink,
0:26:23 > 0:26:28the tents bowing, staggering under the howling wind,
0:26:28 > 0:26:32and the trenches, which surrounded Sevastopol in front of me,
0:26:32 > 0:26:34filling with water like dykes.
0:26:36 > 0:26:41'Living with the men, Russell was directly exposed to their suffering.
0:26:41 > 0:26:46'Back home in London, his reports caused a national scandal.'
0:26:47 > 0:26:50The Government was forced to resign
0:26:50 > 0:26:53and the new administration had to act fast.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57It realised that supply was a specialist area of logistics
0:26:57 > 0:26:59and that it couldn't do it efficiently itself.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03So it transferred control of the commissariat away from the Treasury
0:27:03 > 0:27:06and formed a new transport corps within the Army.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12'Giving control to the military was a huge leap of faith,
0:27:12 > 0:27:17'a trust that the Army wouldn't use that extra power to turn on the Government.'
0:27:17 > 0:27:20But it paid off. Supplies to the Crimea improved,
0:27:20 > 0:27:23and that improvement was aided by a new technology.
0:27:29 > 0:27:34'Previously communications between the commanders in the field and London had been chiefly by letter.
0:27:34 > 0:27:39'Hardly the fastest way to exchange information about supply problems or anything else.'
0:27:39 > 0:27:42But now the Government decided that the generals needed
0:27:42 > 0:27:46a state-of-the-art piece of communications equipment - the electric telegraph.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59An underwater cable was laid across 300 miles of the Black Sea,
0:27:59 > 0:28:02from Varna in modern-day Bulgaria over there
0:28:02 > 0:28:05to a point close to here, a few miles west of Balaklava.
0:28:06 > 0:28:12'For the first time, London was connected directly to the front line of a war zone.'
0:28:21 > 0:28:24This is St George's Monastery. I've seen it many times on a map
0:28:24 > 0:28:26but it's great finally to see it in person
0:28:26 > 0:28:30because this was the location of the original British Telegraph Office.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35'From this slightly unorthodox communications hub,
0:28:35 > 0:28:39'generals were linked by wire all the way to London.'
0:28:42 > 0:28:45The first thing that strikes me is how thin it is.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49Right there in the centre you can see a tiny copper cable
0:28:49 > 0:28:51that would have carried the signal.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54Around it there's this protective wrapping of hemp.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58It would only have been like this close to the shoreline when it came out of the water
0:28:58 > 0:29:01to protect it from being snagged against ships' anchors.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04For most of the 300 miles here,
0:29:04 > 0:29:07the protection would have just been a thin layer of rubber.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12'The telegraph was transforming communication
0:29:12 > 0:29:15'and the ability to keep men fed and healthy.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18'But at the same time,
0:29:18 > 0:29:22'smaller innovations were just as important to men at the front.'
0:29:24 > 0:29:29This is the Soyer stove, designed by a French chef, Alexis Soyer,
0:29:29 > 0:29:32who happened to be working in London during the Crimean War
0:29:32 > 0:29:36when he was approached by the authorities to advise on mass catering in the Army.
0:29:36 > 0:29:38And this was his solution.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42Very clever design with lots of interesting features.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46Here at the bottom is a little aperture to take away the burnt ash.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50But more importantly this little air hole here,
0:29:50 > 0:29:52which enabled you to control temperature.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56On an open fire, which the Army would have cooked on before, you couldn't do that.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59In the centre, that's where you put the fuel,
0:29:59 > 0:30:01wood being the most obvious thing,
0:30:01 > 0:30:03but any fuel that burned could have gone in there
0:30:03 > 0:30:07and at the top you had the bowl.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10You either use it to boil water or use it to cook.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14Now the great advantage of the Soyer Stove in a military sense
0:30:14 > 0:30:17is that it didn't produce a naked flame or much smoke
0:30:17 > 0:30:20so the enemy couldn't see you at a distance
0:30:20 > 0:30:22and you couldn't count the number of camp fires.
0:30:22 > 0:30:28But it also made huge savings in terms of both fuel and manpower.
0:30:28 > 0:30:33For a battalion cooking over an open fire, which is what they would have done before this stove,
0:30:33 > 0:30:36it would have required about 1,700lbs of firewood a day
0:30:36 > 0:30:38and up to 80 cooks.
0:30:38 > 0:30:44The Soyer Stove required just a tenth of the fuel and just 16 chefs.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47And in the Crimea, where firewood was hard to come by,
0:30:47 > 0:30:49that was a vital saving.
0:30:49 > 0:30:50So clever was this design,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53that it was still being used by the British Army
0:30:53 > 0:30:56as recently as the Gulf War of 1991.
0:30:58 > 0:31:03'The Crimean War was a huge turning point in British military history.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07'The telegraph changed the way armies could be supplied and controlled.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11'The Soyer Stove transformed the way it ate on the ground.
0:31:11 > 0:31:16'And Russell's reports heightened public interest in armies overseas.'
0:31:17 > 0:31:19But the most far-reaching change
0:31:19 > 0:31:22was a move towards a specialist department of the Army,
0:31:22 > 0:31:26concerned solely with procurement, transport and supply.
0:31:26 > 0:31:30It was the birth of what was to become the Royal Logistics Corps,
0:31:30 > 0:31:33a unit that still lies at the centre of military operations today.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41'The sophistication of modern operations in Afghanistan
0:31:41 > 0:31:45'has its roots in the Crimea triggered by a catastrophe -
0:31:45 > 0:31:50'the failure to meet soldiers' most basic needs.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52'Communications,
0:31:52 > 0:31:53'health and medicine,
0:31:53 > 0:31:58'and catering are now all separate, specialist branches of the Army.
0:32:00 > 0:32:05'Today, 16,000 soldiers are engaged directly in logistics,
0:32:05 > 0:32:09'about a sixth of the entire British Army.'
0:32:18 > 0:32:20'During the 19th century,
0:32:20 > 0:32:25'the logistics of supplying military kit had undergone a watershed.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29'But one thing had remained largely unchanged.
0:32:29 > 0:32:31'Food.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35'Ever since the days of the Romans,
0:32:35 > 0:32:38'right through the time of medieval knights,
0:32:38 > 0:32:40'and the campaigns of Wellington,
0:32:40 > 0:32:43'waging war was very much a seasonal activity.'
0:32:48 > 0:32:51The problems of supply were so great for early armies
0:32:51 > 0:32:54that most campaigns took place in the summer months
0:32:54 > 0:32:57when the fields were ripe with corn and food was in abundance.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01It's no coincidence that the festival of Mars,
0:33:01 > 0:33:02the Roman god of war,
0:33:02 > 0:33:06was in March and October, because these dates mark
0:33:06 > 0:33:09the beginning and the end of the campaigning season.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13'War had been a summer activity
0:33:13 > 0:33:15'because until the 19th century,
0:33:15 > 0:33:18'there was no effective way of preserving food.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22'But that was all about to change.'
0:33:30 > 0:33:34'The Science Museum in London contains the very earliest examples
0:33:34 > 0:33:36'of an invention so groundbreaking
0:33:36 > 0:33:40'that it completely changed how armies could be fed.
0:33:41 > 0:33:43'And how wars would be waged.'
0:33:45 > 0:33:47This is an extraordinary artefact.
0:33:47 > 0:33:51It's actually one of the earliest tin cans, dating from 1812,
0:33:51 > 0:33:54made by a British firm, Donkin, Hall and Gamble
0:33:54 > 0:33:56and look at the beautiful design.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58You can see that it's been handmade,
0:33:58 > 0:34:00sealed shut here,
0:34:00 > 0:34:02soldered shut, in fact,
0:34:02 > 0:34:04which meant 40 years before the tin opener was invented,
0:34:04 > 0:34:08you would have had to use a bayonet to get into this. It's incredibly light.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12It doesn't contain the original foodstuffs that would have been in it,
0:34:12 > 0:34:14but you can see the quality of workmanship here.
0:34:14 > 0:34:19And they were still using tin cans by the end of the 19th century.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23And you can see this one here would have been an emergency ration pack.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26It's actually quite heavy but a much simpler design,
0:34:26 > 0:34:28and also a much easier way of getting into it.
0:34:28 > 0:34:30You see this little tag.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32It would have been rolled back and the soldier
0:34:32 > 0:34:36could have quite easily got into the food it would have contained there.
0:34:36 > 0:34:41'Cans like this were used by soldiers in the American Civil War
0:34:41 > 0:34:42'and the Franco-Prussian War.
0:34:42 > 0:34:47'But it was the mass production of canned food during World War One
0:34:47 > 0:34:50'that changed war forever.
0:34:52 > 0:34:58'In 1918, nearly 180 million cans were transported to the Western front by ship and train,
0:34:58 > 0:35:05'feeding over two million men through summer AND winter.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09'For the first time, war was no longer limited by the seasons.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16'Many of the cans were filled with what became known as bully beef
0:35:16 > 0:35:20'after the French word "bouilli" meaning boiled.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24'And much of the beef came all the way from South America.
0:35:24 > 0:35:29'One brand, Fray Bentos, was named after a town in Uruguay.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33'It was all a far cry from Wellington's herd of cattle
0:35:33 > 0:35:35'just a century before.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42'The Imperial War Museum in London contains records
0:35:42 > 0:35:45'of how soldiers reacted to the new food.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50'Social historian, Rachel Duffett, has studied them in detail.'
0:35:50 > 0:35:53The two tins here are meat and vegetables
0:35:53 > 0:35:55made by Maconochies, on of the most famous
0:35:55 > 0:35:58suppliers for the Army in the First World War,
0:35:58 > 0:35:59and here, at least,
0:35:59 > 0:36:02the processed meat, the beef, is mixed with some vegetables
0:36:02 > 0:36:04so, for many soldiers, a good tin,
0:36:04 > 0:36:07if you got one that wasn't too fatty, too gristly,
0:36:07 > 0:36:10a good "M and V", as they called it, meat and vegetables,
0:36:10 > 0:36:13was quite pleasant, particularly if you could heat it up.
0:36:13 > 0:36:16Often they had to eat it cold, straight from the tin.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20You're painting a picture of a British Army determined
0:36:20 > 0:36:24to give them enough calories but was this food good for them? Was it nutritious?
0:36:24 > 0:36:28I think if the British Army now looked at it, it would say no
0:36:28 > 0:36:33because all that the nutritional science could offer any army at that point in time,
0:36:33 > 0:36:36at the beginning of the 20th century,
0:36:36 > 0:36:38was calories, the importance of calories.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41They did not understand the role of vitamins.
0:36:41 > 0:36:42Vitamin C, in particular.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45We see that from the minor medical problems,
0:36:45 > 0:36:47the bleeding gums, the boils,
0:36:47 > 0:36:50the wounds that didn't go gangrenous,
0:36:50 > 0:36:52but took a long while to heal
0:36:52 > 0:36:56because their immune systems were perhaps not what they should be.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59'And while the food might have kept men alive,
0:36:59 > 0:37:03'its industrial uniformity was never going to win any awards.'
0:37:05 > 0:37:08It's often in the memoirs and also the diaries
0:37:08 > 0:37:11that you find the real angry comments about food.
0:37:11 > 0:37:16And I have here a transcript of a diary for the 16th August 1916.
0:37:16 > 0:37:21He actually says he's heard "a good deal about German atrocities
0:37:21 > 0:37:24"but certainly in some respect the British are quite as bad.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28"And for weeks together we have not had a second vegetable, often none at all."
0:37:28 > 0:37:31A feeling that these men had given their lives,
0:37:31 > 0:37:34or might potentially give their lives for their country,
0:37:34 > 0:37:38and the very least the country could do would be to feed them adequately
0:37:38 > 0:37:41and that's something that comes through
0:37:41 > 0:37:43because it didn't always happen.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50'World War One reinforced some sharp social divides
0:37:50 > 0:37:52'between the cannon fodder of the trenches,
0:37:52 > 0:37:56'and the generals, who had to manage ever-more complex logistics
0:37:56 > 0:37:58'of keeping their men alive.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03'And while enlisted soldiers were eating bully beef,
0:38:03 > 0:38:08'many senior officers enjoyed a rather more comfortable life.'
0:38:13 > 0:38:16Pretty impressive. Four storeys high,
0:38:16 > 0:38:20loads of room to relax in, not bad for temporary accommodation.
0:38:21 > 0:38:26'But the choice of chateaux like this one as accommodation
0:38:26 > 0:38:29'for British generals was down to more than their wine cellars.'
0:38:31 > 0:38:36Here we are just two kilometres from the front line so the generals could keep in close touch with their men.
0:38:36 > 0:38:40The land around is flat as a pancake so you can see for miles,
0:38:40 > 0:38:42and, vitally, there's also a moat
0:38:42 > 0:38:45in case of emergencies for last ditch defence.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52'World War One generals were no longer swash-bucking leaders
0:38:52 > 0:38:59'on the charge, but managers calling the shots from a boardroom of war.'
0:38:59 > 0:39:02And it was a room like this that would have given them the space
0:39:02 > 0:39:04for all the staff to gather together to dine,
0:39:04 > 0:39:07a time for bonding, I suppose you could say,
0:39:07 > 0:39:11but also the more serious business of planning operations.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15They would all have fitted in this room and would have discussed things that mattered.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20'And the Chateaux owner, Baroness de la Grange,
0:39:20 > 0:39:24'was able to pass on precious local knowledge of the area.'
0:39:28 > 0:39:31Clearly, the ability to know the exact location of the enemy is vital
0:39:31 > 0:39:36and it's no coincidence that maps were originally invented by the military.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40The term "ordnance survey" derives from the Board of Ordnance,
0:39:40 > 0:39:42which had the task of mapping Britain
0:39:42 > 0:39:45when there was a danger of French invasion during the Napoleonic Wars.
0:39:45 > 0:39:50The generals would have used maps like this one to plot the course of their battles
0:39:50 > 0:39:52and this particular one was used
0:39:52 > 0:39:56by a British officer in the battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00Up in this corner you can see where he's marked out the British trench system
0:40:00 > 0:40:05and named those trenches Tipperary, Wellington, Gabion Avenue.
0:40:07 > 0:40:09'To plan at night,
0:40:09 > 0:40:12'paraffin lamps provided better lighting than candles.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16'And to time attacks precisely, a style of watch
0:40:16 > 0:40:20'previously considered feminine became a military necessity.,
0:40:22 > 0:40:25Now before the war, most men would have carried pocket watches
0:40:25 > 0:40:28but these weren't a lot of use in battle when you needed
0:40:28 > 0:40:31to get them out, open them up to tell the time.
0:40:31 > 0:40:36How much more useful to have something on your wrist that you could immediately refer to the time.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39This one in particular has been protected by a grille
0:40:39 > 0:40:42to stop it being broken in the trenches.
0:40:42 > 0:40:46So at a time when war is becoming increasingly technical,
0:40:46 > 0:40:49it's becoming more and more important to be able to accurately time
0:40:49 > 0:40:52a barrage to the movement of men over the trenches.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56And what would have happened before an offensive, is a central staff officer
0:40:56 > 0:40:58would have gathered up all the officers' watches,
0:40:58 > 0:40:59synchronised them
0:40:59 > 0:41:02and then distributed them back to the officers
0:41:02 > 0:41:03just before the battle.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12'World War One was the first industrial war
0:41:12 > 0:41:14'in the scale of its capacity for destruction
0:41:14 > 0:41:19'and the complexity of its modern management and logistics.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23'But it's striking how civilian innovations in kit and supply
0:41:23 > 0:41:27'transformed war just as much as the guns.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30'How wristwatches could time co-ordinated attacks like never before.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36'How canning technology enabled the continuous entrenchment of the front line
0:41:36 > 0:41:41'through winter as well as summer for four long, grim years.'
0:41:51 > 0:41:54'For all its new industrial technology,
0:41:54 > 0:41:58'World War One, as ever, consumed men.
0:41:58 > 0:42:02'Between 1914 and 1918,
0:42:02 > 0:42:07'the British Army was supporting over five million soldiers on the front
0:42:07 > 0:42:11'in living conditions that were almost medieval.
0:42:11 > 0:42:16'Keeping men alive and fit was critical in this static,
0:42:16 > 0:42:19'attritional confrontation.
0:42:19 > 0:42:21'Health and welfare were as vital as ever,
0:42:21 > 0:42:26'but now with industrial bombardment came a new threat -
0:42:26 > 0:42:29'death on a scale that had never been seen before.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35'Over the course of World War One,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38'three million British soldiers were killed or injured.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41'But new medical technology was able to combat death
0:42:41 > 0:42:45'more effectively than in any previous war.
0:42:45 > 0:42:50'And some of the most important advances were surprisingly simple.'
0:42:52 > 0:42:55The problem for most of the combatants in the First World War
0:42:55 > 0:42:58was that the shells that made shell holes like these
0:42:58 > 0:43:02also caused terrible compound fractures to the arms and legs.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05The danger of those fractures is that they tended to haemorrhage
0:43:05 > 0:43:08as the soldiers were moved back for treatment.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11The trick is somehow to immobilise the limb
0:43:11 > 0:43:13and that is exactly what this did.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17You can see clearly how the leg would have gone through the top,
0:43:17 > 0:43:19rested on these pads all the way down
0:43:19 > 0:43:23and then be secured, so it was completely immobilised
0:43:23 > 0:43:26during the transport back to hospital.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30It's incredible to think that such a basic design had such far-reaching consequences
0:43:30 > 0:43:33and that after its introduction in 1916,
0:43:33 > 0:43:39the mortality rate for compound fractures fell from 87% to just 8%.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44'The system of getting food and kit to the front line
0:43:44 > 0:43:49'now had to work in reverse so that injured men could be kept alive
0:43:49 > 0:43:53'by getting them back to safety away from the front line.'
0:43:54 > 0:43:58This is a diagram of the organisation of medical services from the First World War
0:43:58 > 0:44:02and it explains in detail exactly how you would have moved back
0:44:02 > 0:44:04depending on the seriousness of your wound.
0:44:04 > 0:44:08First, from the regimental aid post, by field ambulance and stretcher bearers
0:44:08 > 0:44:10to the field ambulance transport.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13From there, to the casualty clearing station.
0:44:13 > 0:44:17There, some pretty hard-nosed decisions would be taken by the surgeons.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20Do we operate, do we try and save this man or do we leave him
0:44:20 > 0:44:22so we can work on others because he's already too far gone?
0:44:22 > 0:44:26If the wounds are very bad, you're going to go back further down the chain,
0:44:26 > 0:44:28taken in trains to the base hospital,
0:44:28 > 0:44:31usually on the coast, and if your wound was bad enough
0:44:31 > 0:44:36and long-term enough, you'd have gone back on hospital ships to Britain.
0:44:39 > 0:44:45'In 1914, there were fewer than 10,000 medical staff on the Western Front.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47'By summer of 1916,
0:44:47 > 0:44:50'there were more than 100,000.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52'Ten times as many.
0:44:52 > 0:44:57'And of the half million men hospitalised, only 36,000 died.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02'But for all the new innovations in treating the injured,
0:45:02 > 0:45:07'living conditions in the trenches of 1915 were arguably worse
0:45:07 > 0:45:10'than those of 1415 in Harfleur,
0:45:10 > 0:45:13'and the days of the bloody flux,
0:45:13 > 0:45:15'500 years before.'
0:45:17 > 0:45:19So, how do we do this?
0:45:19 > 0:45:20Simplest thing.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24Reach across and you'll see there's two bars half way down.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27'David Kenyon is a battlefield archaeologist
0:45:27 > 0:45:29'who has spent seven years excavating
0:45:29 > 0:45:32'the trenches of Thiepval on the Somme.'
0:45:34 > 0:45:37Get a bit of a feel for what it's like in the trench itself.
0:45:37 > 0:45:39It's pretty narrow. Is that deliberate?
0:45:39 > 0:45:40It IS deliberate.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43It protects you from overhead explosions.
0:45:43 > 0:45:45Shrapnel, that kind of thing.
0:45:45 > 0:45:47If it was wider, you'd be more vulnerable.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50And a little bit of duckboard here to keep the feet dry.
0:45:50 > 0:45:52How significant was that?
0:45:52 > 0:45:54That actually covers a sump in the floor,
0:45:54 > 0:45:57there's a square hole, about that deep.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00Goes down with a duckboard over the top.
0:46:00 > 0:46:01That would act as a drain.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04Water flowing down the trench would collect in there.
0:46:05 > 0:46:07'Just as in Henry V's day,
0:46:07 > 0:46:11'dysentery was once more a major problem.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14'But there was another ubiquitous condition,
0:46:14 > 0:46:19'trench foot, that could lead to gangrene and amputation.'
0:46:19 > 0:46:23Ideally, every 24 hours, men are getting fresh socks.
0:46:23 > 0:46:24And you don't get a choice.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27It's compulsory to get your boots off, look at your feet,
0:46:27 > 0:46:30dry them thoroughly and you get some clean socks on.
0:46:30 > 0:46:34And if you and I were in a trench together, they had a pairing system
0:46:34 > 0:46:38where we'd be matched into pairs and I'd be responsible for your feet
0:46:38 > 0:46:43and you'd be responsible for mine, because if you're cold and wet
0:46:43 > 0:46:47and tired, taking your puttees and boots off is a bit of a palaver
0:46:47 > 0:46:49and you might not feel like it
0:46:49 > 0:46:53so you'll go, "I'll do it tomorrow." But if I'm responsible for your feet
0:46:53 > 0:46:55I'm going to make you do it, and vice versa.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02'The risk of losing men to disease, possibly even the entire war,
0:47:02 > 0:47:08'prompted the Army to take hygiene more seriously than ever before.'
0:47:08 > 0:47:12This here is the 1912 Manual of Elementary Military Hygiene
0:47:12 > 0:47:14and this is a pre-war publication.
0:47:14 > 0:47:17This is them getting ready for the next war
0:47:17 > 0:47:23and you can see it's really detailed. We've got causes of disease, lots of diseases listed,
0:47:23 > 0:47:26cholera, dysentery, malaria, and how to deal with it, essentially.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29- Yeah, prevention.- Sorting out your water supply,
0:47:29 > 0:47:32how to handle the food, physical training.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34It's gone from being
0:47:34 > 0:47:37not quite optional but something that's done ad hoc
0:47:37 > 0:47:40to something that's absolutely embedded within the system
0:47:40 > 0:47:43and it's enforced by military law and military discipline.
0:47:45 > 0:47:49'Living in stagnant, rat-infested trenches,
0:47:49 > 0:47:55'each man's personal wash kit was as essential to his survival as his rifle.'
0:47:56 > 0:48:01We found a groundsheet and wrapped up inside that groundsheet was a soldier's wash kit.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05Everything he needed in the trench. Some of these you'll recognise.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08That's his toothbrush.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11- Minus its bristles. But it's pretty clear isn't it?- Then...
0:48:11 > 0:48:14another everyday activity.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18- That's a...- Shaving brush. A few bristles still intact.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22I think the way it works is you take that bit off there, plug it on the bottom,
0:48:22 > 0:48:24and it becomes the handle.
0:48:24 > 0:48:30- Oh, I see.- And to go with it we have shaving soap.
0:48:30 > 0:48:32Complete with the name.
0:48:32 > 0:48:34- You can still read it. - Maker's name, yes.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38'Finlay's shaving soap, established Belfast, Ireland.'
0:48:38 > 0:48:41It's quite possible that this survived in the trench here
0:48:41 > 0:48:45because its owner... Some misfortune befell him and he never came back for it.
0:48:45 > 0:48:47And then the other daily necessity.
0:48:49 > 0:48:51Reading matter?
0:48:51 > 0:48:53Um...not necessarily.
0:48:53 > 0:48:57It's actually a religious tract with hymns and things like that on it.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00- I don't think he was planning to read it.- Toilet paper?
0:49:00 > 0:49:02Toilet paper, yes.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06- So he's going to take it from where he can get it, is he? - Oh, yes, absolutely.
0:49:06 > 0:49:11Anything suitable was carefully rounded up and stored.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13Thin enough and absorbent enough!
0:49:13 > 0:49:17If some religious type was in the rear issuing pamphlets out
0:49:17 > 0:49:19he would have had a ready audience for them
0:49:19 > 0:49:23but probably not for what he intended them for.
0:49:23 > 0:49:28So does this find change the way we think about hygiene in the trenches in the First World War?
0:49:28 > 0:49:30What it does is it confirms what was going on.
0:49:30 > 0:49:32Because we know he have official pamphlets
0:49:32 > 0:49:34that say this is what the Army wanted to do
0:49:34 > 0:49:37and instructions saying what should be done.
0:49:37 > 0:49:39But finding something like this bang in the front line
0:49:39 > 0:49:41shows it really was being done.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44It's proof that the soldiers really were carrying out
0:49:44 > 0:49:47their instructions, which you wouldn't get from other sources,
0:49:47 > 0:49:49so it is pretty important, yeah.
0:49:51 > 0:49:53'For all the squalor of the trenches,
0:49:53 > 0:49:58'some of the biggest medical dangers lay very much off-duty.'
0:50:01 > 0:50:05Over a quarter of the diseases for which British soldiers were hospitalised
0:50:05 > 0:50:09were venereal, particularly syphilis and gonorrhoea,
0:50:09 > 0:50:11caught when off-duty in towns.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14To try and combat this, the British Army experimented
0:50:14 > 0:50:18with brothels inspected by doctors with some success.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22One in Rouen had 171,000 clients in the first year
0:50:22 > 0:50:26and just 248 reported cases of VD.
0:50:26 > 0:50:28But many soldiers didn't admit to these ailments,
0:50:28 > 0:50:31partly because the treatment was painful
0:50:31 > 0:50:35and partly hospitalisation for VD meant a stoppage of pay
0:50:35 > 0:50:40and your wife or girlfriend would be sure to know the reason why.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43'The hugely expanded Royal Army Medical Corps
0:50:43 > 0:50:48'might have transformed health and welfare in the trenches of World War One,
0:50:48 > 0:50:52'but they never got to grips with sexually transmitted disease.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56'In fact, even throughout most of World War Two,
0:50:56 > 0:51:00'the Army relied heavily on simple scare tactics.'
0:51:00 > 0:51:03These posters are a classic illustration of that.
0:51:03 > 0:51:08The first one is a skull's head in a hat, obviously, the prostitute,
0:51:08 > 0:51:10and it lays the blame on the woman. It says:
0:51:21 > 0:51:26Clearly, soldiers catching VD was a huge logistical problem for the Army
0:51:26 > 0:51:29and it wasn't until the mass introduction of penicillin in 1944,
0:51:29 > 0:51:34an antibiotic that was highly effective against both syphilis and gonorrhoea,
0:51:34 > 0:51:35that they found a solution.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39It managed to reduce the treatment time from 40 to 50 days
0:51:39 > 0:51:41to under ten days
0:51:41 > 0:51:44so that soldiers could be quickly returned to the front line.
0:51:51 > 0:51:55'In the 80 years between the Crimea and World War Two,
0:51:55 > 0:51:57'the logistics of keeping men housed,
0:51:57 > 0:52:02'fed, and healthy had been transformed.
0:52:02 > 0:52:06'But after World War Two, in just a couple of decades,
0:52:06 > 0:52:11'science and technology created another seismic shift
0:52:11 > 0:52:13'in the way armies were kept alive.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17'The space race,
0:52:17 > 0:52:19'nuclear weapons, and the first computers
0:52:19 > 0:52:23'characterised the second half of the 20th century.
0:52:25 > 0:52:28'At the same time, a consumer boom discovered
0:52:28 > 0:52:31'an age of automation, and convenience foods.
0:52:31 > 0:52:36'All this changed how soldiers lived, how they were supplied,
0:52:36 > 0:52:37'and even what they ate.'
0:52:42 > 0:52:45Just looking through these modern racks of uniforms,
0:52:45 > 0:52:48all ready to go onto the bodies of today's soldiers,
0:52:48 > 0:52:50you can't help thinking about the past.
0:52:50 > 0:52:55This type of supply depot would have looked very similar 100 years ago.
0:52:55 > 0:52:59But beyond the trousers and uniforms, the continuity and tradition of soldiering,
0:52:59 > 0:53:02EVERYTHING has changed in the last 50 years.
0:53:02 > 0:53:04And at the heart of it
0:53:04 > 0:53:06has been the technological revolution
0:53:06 > 0:53:08of the second half of the 20th century.
0:53:13 > 0:53:14'Just one example
0:53:14 > 0:53:20'is the rapid escalation of America's war in Vietnam in the mid-1960s.
0:53:20 > 0:53:21'The Huey was developed
0:53:21 > 0:53:26'to meet the army's need for a powerful utility helicopter.
0:53:26 > 0:53:30''This kind of speed and flexibility in the supply line
0:53:30 > 0:53:32'was unprecedented.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35'Today, it's almost impossible to imagine ground wars
0:53:35 > 0:53:37'without helicopter support.
0:53:39 > 0:53:40'Then there's medicine.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44'MASH units operating at the very cutting edge of surgery,
0:53:44 > 0:53:47'maintaining a tradition that continues today
0:53:47 > 0:53:51'as battlefield surgery feeds into civilian medicine.
0:53:54 > 0:53:56'And, finally, food.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59'If the tin can had changed soldiering 100 years ago,
0:53:59 > 0:54:03'the revolution in the 1960s was dehydrated food,
0:54:03 > 0:54:05'replacing the cans
0:54:05 > 0:54:09'that were too heavy and noisy for operational use in the jungle,
0:54:09 > 0:54:13'and laying the foundation for today's modern ration packs.'
0:54:15 > 0:54:16This is the 12-hour ration pack
0:54:16 > 0:54:19that's being sent out to troops in Afghanistan
0:54:19 > 0:54:21and it's really state-of-the-art kit
0:54:21 > 0:54:25and shows just how far preserved foods have come, in military terms.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28It's designed specifically for soldiers on the move
0:54:28 > 0:54:31and would be taken by soldiers when they're out on patrol
0:54:31 > 0:54:33and also when they're in their forward operating bases.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36So, what exactly does it contain? Well, let's have a look.
0:54:39 > 0:54:43There's the main meal, "chicken yellow curry rice",
0:54:43 > 0:54:46300 grams of it. Just a little taste of home for the soldiers
0:54:46 > 0:54:49and, apparently, very popular that particular dish.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52And here's the really clever thing. A heater.
0:54:52 > 0:54:54Just this little plastic pouch.
0:54:54 > 0:54:55Tear off the top,
0:54:55 > 0:54:57you put the main meal inside the pouch,
0:54:57 > 0:54:58also with water,
0:54:58 > 0:55:03and these magnesium strips would heat the food in just 12 minutes.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06So you'd have a hot meal wherever you were, on the go.
0:55:07 > 0:55:09But when you're out in Afghanistan, in the desert,
0:55:09 > 0:55:11you need an awful lot of water,
0:55:11 > 0:55:15and to make that water palatable, there's things like this.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18Electrolyte drink powder. This one's cherry flavoured.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22You've also got energy drink, there, also to mix with water.
0:55:22 > 0:55:24And lots and lots of snacks,
0:55:24 > 0:55:27and biscuits and nuts and preserved fruits
0:55:27 > 0:55:30and sweets to keep the soldiers going when they're on the move.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34And also this. That's quite a nice touch. Beef jerky.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37Also very popular and the sort of thing British soldiers
0:55:37 > 0:55:40would have been eating in South Africa 100 years earlier.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43But the piece de resistance, I suppose, is this -
0:55:43 > 0:55:45the long-life sandwich -
0:55:45 > 0:55:48designed to last for up to two years, apparently.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51This is honey barbecued beef, not my favourite flavour,
0:55:51 > 0:55:53I must admit, but I'm going to give it a go anyway.
0:56:00 > 0:56:02Looks more like a wrap than a sandwich.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08Not bad.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12Quite tasty but you wouldn't want to be eating this every day of your life.
0:56:15 > 0:56:18'But even the preservation of food is not new.
0:56:18 > 0:56:21'Back on the Roman wall, it's extraordinary to think that,
0:56:21 > 0:56:25'2,000 years ago, as well as housing, feeding,
0:56:25 > 0:56:27'and keeping their men clean,
0:56:27 > 0:56:30'the Romans had their own version of long-life rations.'
0:56:31 > 0:56:34Remember this, the amphora?
0:56:34 > 0:56:37It was full of olive oil and came from Spain.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41It's just one tiny example of what the Romans were doing in terms of preserved food.
0:56:41 > 0:56:42They pickled, dried,
0:56:42 > 0:56:46salted and smoked their meat and also their fish.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50And they even had an example of the long-life sandwich - fish in brine.
0:56:50 > 0:56:54Now, remember that these foods came from all the far-flung corners of Empire
0:56:54 > 0:56:57to give their soldiers a little taste from home.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07'The basic needs of a modern soldier in Camp Bastion
0:57:07 > 0:57:11'are no different from the Romans' at Hadrian's Wall.
0:57:11 > 0:57:12'To be fed and housed,
0:57:12 > 0:57:16'and, most importantly of all, to stay healthy.
0:57:17 > 0:57:22'But as we've seen, it's achieving all this, for thousands of men,
0:57:22 > 0:57:27'when it really matters, THAT'S the real challenge.'
0:57:27 > 0:57:31Getting a soldier's kit right is hardly the most glamorous side of war.
0:57:31 > 0:57:33And the logistics men are not going to win any prizes,
0:57:33 > 0:57:35but if they do their job well,
0:57:35 > 0:57:39their men are kept fit, healthy and ready for battle.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44'Next time, how to move an army.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48'As generals through history have tried to literally steal a march.'
0:57:48 > 0:57:52This little model here represents a revolution in warfare.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57'How trains transformed the way armies could be mobilised.'
0:57:57 > 0:58:01While France was still preparing her army,
0:58:01 > 0:58:05Prussia had 85,000 men concentrated and ready for action.
0:58:06 > 0:58:11'And how, in the end, success so often comes back to men...'
0:58:11 > 0:58:13Already, Saul, you're bent over.
0:58:13 > 0:58:15It's unbelievable.
0:58:16 > 0:58:17'..and boots.'
0:58:31 > 0:58:34Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:34 > 0:58:38E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk