0:00:05 > 0:00:09Our history has been shaped by centuries of war.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12From the armies of the Romans...
0:00:12 > 0:00:15..to the modern, global conflicts of today.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21I'm Saul David and I'm a military historian
0:00:21 > 0:00:24and 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 > 0:00:40Today, military logistics dominates modern warfare
0:00:40 > 0:00:44with entire branches of specialists dedicated to feeding,
0:00:44 > 0:00:49moving and kitting out frontline soldiers ready for battle.
0:00:49 > 0:00:50This is the story
0:00:50 > 0:00:53of how this elaborate, high-tech world came to be.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56Because throughout history, the greatest challenges
0:00:56 > 0:01:00faced by any military commander have remained the same.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04If you don't keep your soldiers fed,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07they'll never even make it to the battlefield.
0:01:07 > 0:01:08Think about it this way,
0:01:08 > 0:01:13that you're slaughtering for 80,000 men a minimum of 300 animals a day.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15If you can't move your men and fast,
0:01:15 > 0:01:19you'll never steal a march on the enemy.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23US General George C Marshall once described the Jeep
0:01:23 > 0:01:26as America's greatest contribution to modern warfare.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30And, don't forget, America invented the atomic bomb.
0:01:30 > 0:01:35And any army that isn't equipped with the latest technology
0:01:35 > 0:01:37has, 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.
0:02:18 > 0:02:20Weapons...
0:02:24 > 0:02:26The cutting edge of battle.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34From longbows to cruise missiles, the supply of arms,
0:02:34 > 0:02:36the very tools soldiers need to fight,
0:02:36 > 0:02:40has always been an ultimate factor in deciding wars.
0:02:40 > 0:02:45History tells us that a general can move and feed an army
0:02:45 > 0:02:49as efficiently as he likes but the real litmus test is the battlefield.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53All that energy that he expends on getting his men to the front
0:02:53 > 0:02:58will count for nothing if they can't perform in action.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01What he needs is for his men to arrive disciplined,
0:03:01 > 0:03:04with the right kit and the training how to use it.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08Get it wrong and the consequences are almost always fatal.
0:03:08 > 0:03:13This film is about the arms race and how it's paid for.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18This projectile was effective at 1,000 yards.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22We'll see how new weapons brought new injuries
0:03:22 > 0:03:25to challenge battlefield surgeons.
0:03:25 > 0:03:27Remember, you've a live patient on the end of this.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30And why survival in World War I
0:03:30 > 0:03:34depended on new ways of feeding the guns.
0:03:35 > 0:03:41This gun fires 600 rounds a minute that's ten a second.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45This is the story of kit and how it changed the soldier's life.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49The uniforms he wore, how he lived and trained
0:03:49 > 0:03:51and, most of all, how he fought.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03All soldiers go through a rite of passage.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06- Afternoon, sir.- Afternoon.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10Their first trip to the quartermaster to get kitted out.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15But today's kit would baffle a soldier of even 50 years ago.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20This is state-of-the-art protection for the soldier.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23Major Chris Carling is responsible
0:04:23 > 0:04:27for kitting soldiers for duty in Afghanistan.
0:04:27 > 0:04:32A big ballistic plate in the front and a ballistic plate at the back
0:04:32 > 0:04:34which provides protection to your vital organs.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37So, Chris, what are all these pouches for?
0:04:37 > 0:04:43OK, the system comes with 23 pouches for your grenades, pistol,
0:04:43 > 0:04:47your small arms pouches and, if you just move round to the back,
0:04:47 > 0:04:51you'll notice that we have utility pouches and medical pouches.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53It's amazing, I mean, it's quite a weight
0:04:53 > 0:04:56but you can see how you can move in it and, slowly but surely,
0:04:56 > 0:04:58your body's getting used to it, isn't it?
0:05:02 > 0:05:07This is the stuff of modern war - ballistic sunglasses.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11Helmets with infrared ID to avoid friendly fire.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14Ballistic underwear to protect against IEDs.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20And finally, of course, his actual weapons.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22An SA80 rifle.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25And Sig Sauer pistol.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29Saul, what you're equipped with now is the cutting edge in technology
0:05:29 > 0:05:31that is available today.
0:05:31 > 0:05:36Over 100 items, in terms of capability, this is world-beating.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40So, this is what a frontline soldier looks like,
0:05:40 > 0:05:42ready for anything.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44Although, I have to say, I'm not sure I am.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48But it's a far cry from the ragtag armies through most of history.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51But, as kings and generals have always known,
0:05:51 > 0:05:54it's getting the right kit, kit at the cutting edge
0:05:54 > 0:05:57or at least better than your opponent's
0:05:57 > 0:05:59that's the key to winning battle and wars.
0:05:59 > 0:06:05Having better kit than the enemy has always been critical to success.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09And for English soldiers 700 years ago,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12that meant one thing in particular -
0:06:12 > 0:06:14the longbow.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18Tim Sutherland is an expert on mediaeval warfare.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21This is what they call a self yew bow,
0:06:21 > 0:06:23it's made from a single piece of yew
0:06:23 > 0:06:29which has got horn nocks on the end to hold the linen cord.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33This has probably got a draw weight of about 30 or 40 pounds.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35In England, it was a statute of law
0:06:35 > 0:06:38that you were forced to train to use the bow.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42And, of course, English archers were renowned across Europe
0:06:42 > 0:06:45for their efficiency on a battlefield with this implement.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47And, of course, what that meant was,
0:06:47 > 0:06:51if you could fill your army with archers instead of men-at-arms,
0:06:51 > 0:06:55you are gaining a large artillery advantage
0:06:55 > 0:06:58because, of course, you could loose arrows into your enemy
0:06:58 > 0:07:00before they're anywhere near you.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05Once an arrow like this goes through the air
0:07:05 > 0:07:08and lands in anything other than on a piece of metal,
0:07:08 > 0:07:09it will penetrate it.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13It'll go through leather, it'll go through horseflesh,
0:07:13 > 0:07:15it'll go through bone.
0:07:15 > 0:07:20And, of course, what that means is there were thousands of these raining down.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23What that introduces, more than anything else, is chaos.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36Even mediaeval commanders knew that experts held the key
0:07:36 > 0:07:38to supplying the best kit available.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43To stay at the very forefront, in 1414,
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Henry V set up a brand-new post
0:07:45 > 0:07:47called Master of the Ordnance.
0:07:49 > 0:07:50From the 16th century,
0:07:50 > 0:07:53the Board of Ordnance met here, in the Tower of London,
0:07:53 > 0:07:56to discuss the technological cutting edge of weapons.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59From bows to swords and from muskets to artillery pieces.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03And what I have here in front of me is quite an extraordinary document
0:08:03 > 0:08:05because it dates from that period
0:08:05 > 0:08:08and it's effectively a money ledger of the money paid out
0:08:08 > 0:08:12from the Board of Ordnance to the people supplying it with weapons.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15This page here is particularly revealing.
0:08:18 > 0:08:25It starts off by saying, "Paid to William Bucksted, King's bowyer."
0:08:25 > 0:08:27He makes bows for the King.
0:08:27 > 0:08:32And then down below him, "Paid to John Clark, King's fletcher."
0:08:32 > 0:08:34He makes the arrows.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37And then thirdly, "Paid to George..." someone,
0:08:37 > 0:08:41I can't quite make out his name, "King's bowstring maker".
0:08:41 > 0:08:44So, on this one page, you've got the three constituent elements
0:08:44 > 0:08:46of the longbow which, of course,
0:08:46 > 0:08:48is still being used in the 16th century.
0:08:48 > 0:08:54And yet, just a page later, we see the future of weapons technology.
0:08:54 > 0:09:01The entry reads, "Paid to Robert and John Owen, King's gun founders."
0:09:01 > 0:09:05And so, in just a page, we see the development of weapons
0:09:05 > 0:09:09from bows to cannon, the future, of course.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15Henry V's longbows were the end of an era.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18A new age was dawning of muskets and cannon.
0:09:20 > 0:09:26This was the beginning of greater complexity, specialisation and cost.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35Just like today, commanders knew that cutting edge kit
0:09:35 > 0:09:38had to be designed and specified...
0:09:38 > 0:09:44One, five rounds. In you own time, carry on.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50..that the soldiers using it had to be properly trained...
0:09:51 > 0:09:54..and, somehow, that it all had to be paid for.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05In the 1690s, after a series of wars against France and Spain,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08England had run out of money.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13And so, the government came up with a cunning plan.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16They called it the Bank of England.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19We might think of Threadneedle Street
0:10:19 > 0:10:20as the heart of commercial finance
0:10:20 > 0:10:24but 300 years ago it was all about military might.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27The Bank of England underpinned Britain's rise to greatness
0:10:27 > 0:10:30because sound finances enabled us to continue the fight
0:10:30 > 0:10:32for as long as it took.
0:10:33 > 0:10:38The Bank of England was a body set up not to lend money
0:10:38 > 0:10:43but to borrow it in the massive amounts it needed to fund a better army.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50In 1690, it was becoming more like the army we know today.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53A professional fighting force
0:10:53 > 0:10:58equipped with the very latest weapons of the highest quality.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04The first general to take advantage of this extra finance
0:11:04 > 0:11:08was the 18th century commander the Duke of Marlborough.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14John Spencer has studied the kit the Bank of England funded.
0:11:18 > 0:11:20The firelock here cost, on average,
0:11:20 > 0:11:2322 shillings - one pound two shillings
0:11:23 > 0:11:26that's more than a soldier would've earned in a month.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30The most expensive part, perhaps, as you might expect, was the barrel.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33This cost six shillings and sixpence.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36The lock, the working part cost three shillings and sixpence.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39And there was even a charge of four pence
0:11:39 > 0:11:42for engraving the maker's details and date on the lock here.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45To complete the stand of arms, as it was known,
0:11:45 > 0:11:50the bayonet and its scabbard were another two shillings.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53But, perhaps surprisingly, it was the soldier's uniform
0:11:53 > 0:11:58that formed the most expensive part of the outlay on an ordinary soldier.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02Each soldier received one of these coats, new, when he joined the army.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04The whole price of his kit and enlistment
0:12:04 > 0:12:06was something in the region of two pounds ten.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09Of which, the coat cost one pound five shillings,
0:12:09 > 0:12:13again a large sum of money in the early 18th century.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20The equipment that Marlborough was supplying to his soldiers
0:12:20 > 0:12:22was extraordinarily expensive.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34But by providing them with the very latest technology,
0:12:34 > 0:12:37he went on to secure stunning victories.
0:12:39 > 0:12:41Most famously at the Battle of Blenheim
0:12:41 > 0:12:43when he routed the French.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48Even though they're separated by 300 years,
0:12:48 > 0:12:50Henry V and the Duke of Marlborough
0:12:50 > 0:12:53had their fingers on a similar pulse.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57That to win at war, you needed armies that were properly organised.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03With secure finance coming from the Bank of England
0:13:03 > 0:13:06and the Board of Ordnance providing quality kit,
0:13:06 > 0:13:09the army was ready to enter a new era.
0:13:11 > 0:13:12After Marlborough,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15there was a realisation that technology was changing.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18Big improvements were being made in artillery,
0:13:18 > 0:13:22a weapon that had formally been on the periphery of warfare.
0:13:22 > 0:13:23Now, it was seen as the future.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25And to make effective use of it,
0:13:25 > 0:13:29armies had to become more professional.
0:13:30 > 0:13:35In 1741, right here at the Woolwich Dockyards,
0:13:35 > 0:13:39an academy was established to teach artillery officers.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43It was the beginning of an effort to make training more technical
0:13:43 > 0:13:45and professional.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49This was to have ramifications right through the 19th century
0:13:49 > 0:13:53with increasing specialisation, with the building of barracks
0:13:53 > 0:13:56that set soldiers apart from civilian life and, ultimately,
0:13:56 > 0:14:01with the legend of the highly-disciplined British Redcoat.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06The docks themselves had connections to ordnance
0:14:06 > 0:14:07since the time of Henry VIII,
0:14:07 > 0:14:13when a gun wharf had first been built on the banks of the Thames.
0:14:14 > 0:14:19But now, it was going to have a new role, not only for training,
0:14:19 > 0:14:21but a place where the latest arms technology
0:14:21 > 0:14:24could be designed and tested.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34Developments in artillery would shape modern warfare
0:14:34 > 0:14:38through World War I, World War II and beyond.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41Large guns firing barrages from distance
0:14:41 > 0:14:43would change the very nature of war.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50All this started in the 18th century.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55So, what we've got here is a typical gun of the late 18th century.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58It's a British 6-pounder made out of bronze and it incorporates
0:14:58 > 0:15:03a number of innovations that really increased the effectiveness of artillery on the battlefield.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09The first of those innovations is this elevating screw here.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12It doesn't look like much but what this did is hugely increased
0:15:12 > 0:15:16the speed and precision with which you could aim this gun.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18Before you would just have had wedges of wood
0:15:18 > 0:15:21pushed underneath the barrel to raise it up and down,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24not a very efficient or precise way of doing it.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26This changed all of that.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30You also had something known as a single trail.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33This is the trail at the back of the gun here.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36Formerly, you would have had two wooden trails to attach to a horse
0:15:36 > 0:15:37but they weren't very stable
0:15:37 > 0:15:40and it meant the gun was less accurate.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42This gives it a really stable platform
0:15:42 > 0:15:44and, at the end of it, you've got this hook.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46Now, this hook would have been attached to a limber.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49Limbers were new, they had two wheels and a box on the top.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52And in that box, would have been the ammunition supply.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54So, all of a sudden, for the first time,
0:15:54 > 0:15:56when you're moving this gun around, you've not only got the fire power
0:15:56 > 0:15:59but the ammunition supply right behind it.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02It's a much more effective, self-contained unit
0:16:02 > 0:16:03than it had been before.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06By 1800, the Royal Artillery had expanded
0:16:06 > 0:16:10from its original 200 men to over 6,000.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14The sum total of all these innovations
0:16:14 > 0:16:17was that artillery was becoming more effective than ever before.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20And that itself was producing something new,
0:16:20 > 0:16:24devastating injuries on a scale never seen before.
0:16:31 > 0:16:36These remarkable watercolours were sketched by a battlefield surgeon
0:16:36 > 0:16:38called Charles Bell.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43They depict just some of the injuries he witnessed from Waterloo.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45At battle of massed European armies
0:16:45 > 0:16:47equipped with the most devastating fire power
0:16:47 > 0:16:49they could lay their hands on.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54And it was the artillery which caused the most horrific injuries.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58This is a solid, iron cannonball known as a round shot
0:16:58 > 0:17:00and it was designed to be fired from a cannon
0:17:00 > 0:17:02at a relatively low trajectory
0:17:02 > 0:17:04And after bouncing once
0:17:04 > 0:17:06to then plough through whatever lay in front of it.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10It's an incredibly fearsome antipersonnel weapon.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13This is an original from the Napoleonic Wars.
0:17:13 > 0:17:15Nine pounds in weight.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18You would not want to be hit by a missile like this one.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26On Sunday 18th June 1815, a force of Allied European armies
0:17:26 > 0:17:29confronted Napoleon just south of Brussels
0:17:29 > 0:17:32near the Belgian village of Waterloo.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39So, down below me is the famous Waterloo battlefield
0:17:39 > 0:17:42and directly opposite is where Napoleon commanded
0:17:42 > 0:17:45on that side of the valley with the French armies coming this way.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47The Allied commander, Wellington,
0:17:47 > 0:17:51was just over there at the crossroads.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53And the French artillery, key to the battle,
0:17:53 > 0:17:55were in the base of the valley.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58And they'd have been firing their bouncing cannonballs
0:17:58 > 0:18:01up towards the ridge line, behind which most of the British troops
0:18:01 > 0:18:04and Allied troops were gathered to protect themselves from that fire.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11And yet, by forming defensive squares against French cavalry,
0:18:11 > 0:18:14they became an easy target for French artillery.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18One British square lost 400 out of 800 men
0:18:18 > 0:18:21and another British officer described his own square
0:18:21 > 0:18:27as a perfect hospital, full of dead, dying, mutilated soldiers.
0:18:28 > 0:18:30But in the end, Wellington triumphed
0:18:30 > 0:18:34and brought the final curtain down on Napoleon's imperial ambitions.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38But it came at a heavy cost.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42Nearly 50,000 men were killed or wounded that day.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45One in four of every man fighting.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49These fields would have been strewn with the dead
0:18:49 > 0:18:52and men with horrendous injuries.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57The most famous casualty of all was the Earl of Uxbridge,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00commander of the British cavalry,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03hit in the knee by grapeshot.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07And, yes, you've guessed it,
0:19:07 > 0:19:11this is the saw that was used to amputate the Earl's leg.
0:19:11 > 0:19:12It's rather beautiful, isn't it?
0:19:12 > 0:19:15Now, the Earl is said to have borne the operation very well
0:19:15 > 0:19:19and it's not surprising when you think about his actions that day.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23He personally leads one of the most successful cavalry charges
0:19:23 > 0:19:27during Waterloo, he's said to have had multiple horses shot under him
0:19:27 > 0:19:31and when he's finally hit in the knee, the wound, of course,
0:19:31 > 0:19:34that leads to the amputation, he turns the Duke of Wellington
0:19:34 > 0:19:36who's riding near him and he says,
0:19:36 > 0:19:38"By God, sir, I think I've lost my leg."
0:19:38 > 0:19:41And the Duke replies, "By God, sir, I think you have."
0:19:47 > 0:19:50Trauma surgeon Mick Crumplin has made a special study
0:19:50 > 0:19:55of battlefield surgery and knows just what the Earl of Uxbridge faced
0:19:55 > 0:19:58on a farmhouse table at Waterloo.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02If you take the knife and place it ready to start.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04Remember, as you come round,
0:20:04 > 0:20:06the pressure has got to be even and severe.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08So, mind my fingers and yours too.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12With no anaesthetic, patients could die of shock
0:20:12 > 0:20:14if operations took more than two minutes.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17Feel it tear through, even though it's very sharp.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21And surgeons prided themselves on their speed.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25Remember, you've a live patient on the end of this.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28- So, no time for hanging around.- No.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31A very sharp knife. I mean, this is an original, is it?
0:20:31 > 0:20:35It is. This is a 200-year-old shear steel knife with an ebony handle.
0:20:35 > 0:20:36I can feel the bone there.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39When you feel bone, desist from cutting hard
0:20:39 > 0:20:41and concentrate on the bits that feel soft.
0:20:41 > 0:20:47Once the flesh and tendons are severed, it's time for the bone.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51It's not an easy procedure. Don't go push, pull, push, pull.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54- It's push, push, push.- OK.
0:20:59 > 0:21:01Keep going.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06- Very sharp, isn't it?- Keep going. - You can feel...
0:21:06 > 0:21:09- Yes, a double row.- ..resistance. It's cutting beautifully.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17It's quite a painful bit of the operation.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21You think you're there, but it's just not...
0:21:21 > 0:21:23It's like green sapling wood, cutting bone.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30Roll it over a bit more, I think it's this last bit here. Yeah.
0:21:32 > 0:21:33There we are.
0:21:33 > 0:21:38The limb is removed and cast away into a heap with others.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42Unfortunately, I took so long
0:21:42 > 0:21:44that my patient would almost certainly have died.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48In the real world of Waterloo, that would have been a human body
0:21:48 > 0:21:51and the idea of actually cutting through bone
0:21:51 > 0:21:55which must have felt very like that with this kind of shuddering,
0:21:55 > 0:21:58flinching human who wasn't using anaesthetic,
0:21:58 > 0:22:00it felt quite chilling to me, I have to say
0:22:00 > 0:22:04and I didn't have any noise and any movement.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07And what it must be like under real conditions I can't even imagine.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09It's a pretty scary procedure.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20Modern soldiers still face an everyday risk of injury,
0:22:20 > 0:22:22or even death.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31All soldiers undergo training to administer life-saving first aid
0:22:31 > 0:22:33on the battlefield.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37Start getting the safe area around that casualty too.
0:22:37 > 0:22:42It's something alien to most of us in the civilian world.
0:22:44 > 0:22:46The modern soldier is a professional -
0:22:46 > 0:22:51a trained specialist who occupies an unique place in society...
0:22:51 > 0:22:55You're all right, you're going to be back in here in a minute.
0:22:55 > 0:23:00..ready to go into action as a last resort when diplomacy fails.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14But this idea of the soldier as someone apart from society
0:23:14 > 0:23:16only emerged in the 19th century.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23A striking example of this evolution was the building of barracks.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32One of the few early examples still standing
0:23:32 > 0:23:36was built in the 1840s above Pembroke Dock in west Wales.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41One of the things you can clearly see from this picture
0:23:41 > 0:23:44is the separation of the military who were very much kept
0:23:44 > 0:23:46within the boundaries of the barracks.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49And also, of course, the civilians who were there, beyond,
0:23:49 > 0:23:54on the fringes, kept well away from this forbidding military structure.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56And what's remarkable is that
0:23:56 > 0:23:59there are only two places like this left in the world -
0:23:59 > 0:24:01this one and Fort Worth in Texas.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10It's fascinating to look at this place
0:24:10 > 0:24:14because all the architecture is absolutely from the Victorian era.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16Now, the military moved out in the 1950s
0:24:16 > 0:24:19and it looks pretty much to me like nothing's been done since then.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21It's almost a time warp.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27It reminds me of other Victorian institutions -
0:24:27 > 0:24:33hospitals, lunatic asylums and even prisons.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38All places to keep certain people in and the rest of society out.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43Roger Thomas from English Heritage
0:24:43 > 0:24:46is an expert in the architecture of military buildings.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50The space each man had was actually quite small
0:24:50 > 0:24:54because if I, sort of, come here, this distance over to the wall
0:24:54 > 0:24:58and out to about here, that is the space each individual man had.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00And that really is quite tiny.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03That's smaller than a man in a prison would have had at the same time.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06Down here, we've got a soldier's box.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10Inside here, he kept all his personal belongings and clothing.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14The bed itself, here we have an example.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17And you've got a mattress but if you squeeze it
0:25:17 > 0:25:18you can hear it rustles.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20And that's actually full of straw.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24You would have also been issued with other kit and equipment
0:25:24 > 0:25:26and here we see what's known as the accoutrements
0:25:26 > 0:25:28on the accoutrement rack.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32And this is all the belts and bags that you carried on you
0:25:32 > 0:25:35when you are actually in your full uniform and equipped.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39So, all of this, all the issuing of new kit,
0:25:39 > 0:25:41improvement in the quality of equipment,
0:25:41 > 0:25:43the standard of keeping it clean,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47the soldiers' presentation, their health, the discipline,
0:25:47 > 0:25:49the petty rules which all seem absurd
0:25:49 > 0:25:54really were there to ensure that we got a better soldier.
0:25:54 > 0:25:55Shoulder!
0:25:55 > 0:25:58Arm!
0:26:02 > 0:26:06What came out of the barracks was the stuff of legends.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09The stiff-upper-lipped British officer
0:26:09 > 0:26:11and the bulldog of a regular soldier.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15The mid-19th century saw the appearance
0:26:15 > 0:26:16of the professional Redcoat
0:26:16 > 0:26:19who distinguished himself on the battlefield
0:26:19 > 0:26:23through his training, discipline and kit.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29That legend was cemented in the hills of the Crimea
0:26:29 > 0:26:31between 1854 and 1856.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35Because it was here that the 19th-century powers
0:26:35 > 0:26:39of Britain, France and Russia fought for control of the Near East.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43What was at stake was nothing less than the balance of power in Europe.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49The small peninsula of the Crimea was the setting
0:26:49 > 0:26:53for the ill-fated valour of the Charge of the Light Brigade.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56But, on the same day, another British action
0:26:56 > 0:27:01to protect the supply base of Balaklava also went down in history
0:27:01 > 0:27:03as the Thin Red Line.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08This time, it was the Russian cavalry
0:27:08 > 0:27:12charging at a small unit of British infantry.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14Normally in a situation like this,
0:27:14 > 0:27:17infantry would form a square to receive cavalry
0:27:17 > 0:27:18but if they'd done so,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22the Russians could have flown past on either side and taken this port.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24So, instead, Colin Campbell, the 93rd commander,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27ordered them to form two seemingly fragile lines,
0:27:27 > 0:27:29bellowing at the same time,
0:27:29 > 0:27:33"Men, there must be no retreat, you must die where you stand."
0:27:33 > 0:27:35Fortunately it never came to that
0:27:35 > 0:27:37because, having unleashed two volleys,
0:27:37 > 0:27:40the Russians were stopped in their tracks and forced to withdraw.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43Balaklava was saved.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47But successes in the Crimea
0:27:47 > 0:27:50were about more than discipline and training.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53They were also about technology
0:27:53 > 0:27:59as higher standards of manufacture were leading to ever better weapons.
0:28:00 > 0:28:06This is an original gauge set for an 1853 Pattern Enfield rifled musket.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10It's completely unique in the sense that it's the only one of its kind.
0:28:10 > 0:28:12Now, inside it...
0:28:12 > 0:28:16a huge number of instruments to measure every aspect of the weapon,
0:28:16 > 0:28:20down to a thousandth of an inch.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23If the individual part that corresponds to this measurement
0:28:23 > 0:28:27doesn't fit, it won't be assembled into the final weapon.
0:28:27 > 0:28:28Probably the best example I can give
0:28:28 > 0:28:31is something that's immediately familiar
0:28:31 > 0:28:33to anyone who's seen a rifle -
0:28:33 > 0:28:35is this, the trigger guard.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39Now, that's the piece would have come off the assembly line.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43If it doesn't fit into this measuring tool here, exactly,
0:28:43 > 0:28:45so the screw holes correspond,
0:28:45 > 0:28:47it's not going to be turned into the final weapon.
0:28:47 > 0:28:52This was Victorian engineering pushing the bounds of accuracy
0:28:52 > 0:28:54to greater lengths than ever before.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01And it wasn't only about precision guns but also precision bullets.
0:29:04 > 0:29:05Up till this point,
0:29:05 > 0:29:08all European armies had been using this, the musket ball.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11And, in fact, the Russians still were.
0:29:11 > 0:29:15The problem was as it was fired it bounced along the barrel
0:29:15 > 0:29:18and you'd be lucky to hit something at 100 yards.
0:29:18 > 0:29:19What you needed was rifling,
0:29:19 > 0:29:22that is little grooves on the inside the barrel
0:29:22 > 0:29:24to impart spin and accuracy.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27The problem was the rifling would only work
0:29:27 > 0:29:29if the projectile fitted snugly.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32And if fitted snugly, it was hard to load.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36The answer with the minie bullet
0:29:36 > 0:29:38which had a hollow base and an expanding rim.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42The genius of this little skirt is that, as the gun is fired,
0:29:42 > 0:29:45the gases force the skirt outwards
0:29:45 > 0:29:50and enables the rifling to grip, impart spin and accuracy,
0:29:50 > 0:29:55so that this projectile was effective at a thousand yards.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57It made all the difference.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00And you could go so far as to say
0:30:00 > 0:30:04this skirt married to the much larger skirt of the highlanders
0:30:04 > 0:30:06and of course, their discipline,
0:30:06 > 0:30:09proved the Russian's undoing at the Thin Red Line.
0:30:12 > 0:30:16Some historians would go even further and say the minie
0:30:16 > 0:30:20cost the Russians the whole of the Crimean War.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24What we have in the Crimea, a war that is a historical midpoint
0:30:24 > 0:30:27between Waterloo and the First World War,
0:30:27 > 0:30:31is a soldier who was also at something of a midpoint.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34He's dressed and used tactics that would've been familiar at Waterloo,
0:30:34 > 0:30:36but with new technology
0:30:36 > 0:30:39that would soon change the way wars were fought.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43He's a professional, housed in barracks apart from civilians,
0:30:43 > 0:30:44tightly disciplined
0:30:44 > 0:30:47and armed with the latest and most powerful weapons.
0:30:47 > 0:30:53He's rapidly becoming a cog in the great machine of war.
0:30:59 > 0:31:01By the middle of the 19th century,
0:31:01 > 0:31:05the industrial revolution was in full swing.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09Manufacturing was changing all aspects of life.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16It's effect on the military arms race was no different,
0:31:16 > 0:31:20as new machines could make weapons of ever greater power,
0:31:20 > 0:31:24as well as unprecedented accuracy.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27And the very best of Victorian machine tool engineering
0:31:27 > 0:31:31is this weapon here, the Whitworth, named after its inventor,
0:31:31 > 0:31:33and it's a very, very special weapon.
0:31:33 > 0:31:39Joseph Whitworth was a perfectionist with an obsession for measurement
0:31:39 > 0:31:44that made him one of the greatest engineers of the Victorian age.
0:31:44 > 0:31:47When the government asked him to design a rifle,
0:31:47 > 0:31:49Whitworth used precision tools
0:31:49 > 0:31:53to make the most accurate firearm the world had ever seen.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57The most extraordinary development of all was its bullet,
0:31:57 > 0:32:00which worked in a completely different way
0:32:00 > 0:32:04to the minie of the Crimean War.
0:32:04 > 0:32:09It's hexagonal and it's hard to believe this could fire through a barrel, but it can and why?
0:32:09 > 0:32:12Because the barrel is also hexagonal-shaped
0:32:12 > 0:32:15and I'll just show you here with this cut out.
0:32:15 > 0:32:17This is an example of a Whitworth that's been sectioned
0:32:17 > 0:32:21and you can actually see on the inside of the barrel,
0:32:21 > 0:32:24is this extraordinary hexagonal rifling,
0:32:24 > 0:32:25all the way along the barrel.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29That's deliberate to impart extra spin on the bullet
0:32:29 > 0:32:33so that it will fire further and more accurately than ever before
0:32:33 > 0:32:37and in that sense, this rifle was a huge success.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39GUNFIRE
0:32:39 > 0:32:45Bill Curtis owns one of only a handful of operational Whitworths still in existence.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48It's this hexagonal barrel and bullet
0:32:48 > 0:32:52that always strikes me as so unusual.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54What was it that made this gun so special?
0:32:54 > 0:33:00Whitworth designed around a series of really complicated experiments.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04The true relationship between the weight of a bullet,
0:33:04 > 0:33:07the diameter of the ball and the rate of spiral,
0:33:07 > 0:33:11and he revolutionised the rate of spiral
0:33:11 > 0:33:15by bringing it down from one turn in 78 inches to one turn in 20,
0:33:15 > 0:33:19and his design shot accurately twice as far as a government rifle.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22We know in theory it's accurate. This is 150 years old.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24Am I going to be able to hit that target?
0:33:24 > 0:33:28- I think you can frighten it very badly.- OK, let's have a look.
0:33:37 > 0:33:38GUNFIRE
0:33:38 > 0:33:41What a noise. What a sight too.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45The huge puff of smoke comes out at the end. I can't see a thing.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48How on earth do you know if you've hit anything, Bill?
0:33:48 > 0:33:50Well, in battlefield days, you didn't.
0:33:50 > 0:33:55Unbelievable, the amount of power being forced back into my shoulder.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57For the first time, you've got to hold it firmly
0:33:57 > 0:34:01- but not too tightly, haven't you? - Yes.- Amazing.
0:34:01 > 0:34:05That can't be it, can it, Bill? Look at that! That is amazing.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08I'm afraid it is, that's what you've managed to do. Well done.
0:34:08 > 0:34:09That is astonishing.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13I'm firing for the first time from 200 yards away,
0:34:13 > 0:34:15with a weapon that's 150 years old,
0:34:15 > 0:34:18and I can get that close to the bull.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21You know how to shoot, I know the rifle,
0:34:21 > 0:34:24we put the two together and that's what you can do.
0:34:24 > 0:34:26I do, but I'm hardly a trained marksmen.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30It's terrifying to think what it could've done in the hands of someone who was.
0:34:31 > 0:34:36The new Whitworth travelled all the way to America,
0:34:36 > 0:34:40and in May 1864, during the Civil War,
0:34:40 > 0:34:44a union general called John Sedgwick was seriously caught out by one.
0:34:44 > 0:34:45GUNFIRE
0:34:47 > 0:34:50The story goes something like this...
0:34:50 > 0:34:54During the charmingly-named Battle for Spotsylvania Courthouse,
0:34:54 > 0:34:57General Sedgwick is berating his men for cowering from fire
0:34:57 > 0:35:01that's coming from the distant Confederate trenches, at least half a mile away.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05So convinced is he they're under no danger, he shouts out,
0:35:05 > 0:35:07"They couldn't hit an elephant at that distance."
0:35:07 > 0:35:09GUNFIRE
0:35:12 > 0:35:15Just seconds later, he's shot just below the left eye
0:35:15 > 0:35:17and killed outright.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21What Sedgwick didn't know is the Confederate sharpshooters
0:35:21 > 0:35:23were armed with the Whitworth rifle.
0:35:23 > 0:35:24MACHINE GUN FIRE
0:35:28 > 0:35:31Precision, mass-produced weapons are a given in today's modern armies.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34But the accuracy of weapons
0:35:34 > 0:35:38that took such a leap forward in the 19th century
0:35:38 > 0:35:41was to utterly transform another part of the soldier's kit -
0:35:41 > 0:35:42his uniform.
0:35:44 > 0:35:49Because the days of the redcoats were very much numbered.
0:35:58 > 0:36:01To see why, I've come to Suffolk,
0:36:01 > 0:36:04where there's a remarkable private collection of kit,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06and some very special uniforms.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13This is an original British redcoat from the 1880s.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15This colour is not a coincidence.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18It's deliberate, it's designed to say, "We've arrived,
0:36:18 > 0:36:21"the British have arrived, be afraid, be very afraid."
0:36:21 > 0:36:25It's the coat that won victories at Blenheim, Waterloo,
0:36:25 > 0:36:28the Thin Red Line at Balaclava and yet, by the 1880s,
0:36:28 > 0:36:31this was becoming more of a liability
0:36:31 > 0:36:33than a help to the British soldier,
0:36:33 > 0:36:37because it was all very well if your enemy was armed,
0:36:37 > 0:36:40in Blackadder's words, "With nothing more than sharp fruit",
0:36:40 > 0:36:44but if he had the latest rifled weapons,
0:36:44 > 0:36:47THIS meant you were in big trouble.
0:36:47 > 0:36:49Now the best single example of this
0:36:49 > 0:36:52was the Battle of Bronkhorstspruit, in December 1880.
0:36:52 > 0:36:53DISTANT GUNFIRE
0:36:53 > 0:36:58Britain's desire to control the resources of southern Africa
0:36:58 > 0:37:00prompted the first Boer War.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07The Battle of Bronkhorstspruit was one of the earliest clashes,
0:37:07 > 0:37:09taking place just outside Pretoria,
0:37:09 > 0:37:14deep within territory occupied by Dutch Boer settlers.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18250 British soldiers, wearing this kit
0:37:18 > 0:37:22were marching to Pretoria to reinforce the garrison there.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26And in the hills around, unbeknownst to them, was a force of Boers.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30These farmers had been trained since childhood to fire weapons.
0:37:30 > 0:37:31They are expert marksman.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36Moreover, they are armed with the latest breech-loading carbines.
0:37:39 > 0:37:41And when they see the British soldiers
0:37:41 > 0:37:44set against the green of the veld,
0:37:44 > 0:37:47red against green, there can't be more of a contrast.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50They decimate them.
0:37:50 > 0:37:51GUNFIRE
0:37:51 > 0:37:57Within 15 minutes, more than 150 of those 250 soldiers are shot down.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01GUNFIRE
0:38:01 > 0:38:05And when they took on the Boers again almost 20 years later,
0:38:05 > 0:38:08this had been replaced...
0:38:09 > 0:38:12..by this, khaki.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21Khaki is an Indian word, meaning "ash coloured",
0:38:21 > 0:38:26and it was a British weaver called John Haller who discovered it
0:38:26 > 0:38:29after experimenting with dozens of different dyes.
0:38:29 > 0:38:36Khaki was just the right colour to blend in with dusty surroundings.
0:38:36 > 0:38:40This was the first camouflage uniform ever to be worn by an army.
0:38:42 > 0:38:43DISTANT BATTLE CRIES
0:38:45 > 0:38:50The Boer Wars were a wake-up call to Britain's commanders.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54Its army couldn't rely on easy victories anywhere, any longer.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58And with the possibility of greater conflicts in Europe
0:38:58 > 0:39:04always on the horizon, a whole new, very modern kit was needed.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08Taff Gillingham has one of the largest private collections
0:39:08 > 0:39:11of early 20th century kit in the country.
0:39:11 > 0:39:16The equipment itself was literally state-of-the-art for its time.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19Invented by an officer called Major Burrows,
0:39:19 > 0:39:22in a leather version originally,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25and the thing that separated this from anything that had come before
0:39:25 > 0:39:29was that for the first time somebody had designed a set of equipment
0:39:29 > 0:39:31which was the best for the soldier to do his job,
0:39:31 > 0:39:33not just as an adaptation of what had come before.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36Major Burrows was a Boer War veteran
0:39:36 > 0:39:40who was convinced kit could be improved.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44After years of campaigning for his own designs to be adopted,
0:39:44 > 0:39:46the War Office finally agreed.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48In 1908, the entire army was upgraded.
0:39:48 > 0:39:52Burrows' design featured this unique figure-of-eight design
0:39:52 > 0:39:55so the strap comes from the bottom of the belt,
0:39:55 > 0:39:58across the pack, across the shoulders and back the other way.
0:39:58 > 0:40:03What that meant was that it held it to you, so whatever you needed
0:40:03 > 0:40:06didn't keep sliding around on separate slings.
0:40:06 > 0:40:08You'd find the water bottle was where it should be,
0:40:08 > 0:40:10the bayonet, you'd be able to reach,
0:40:10 > 0:40:13and it was a very practical fighting set of equipment
0:40:13 > 0:40:16and the only other thing was the rifle itself.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19The short magazine of the Enfield rifle,
0:40:19 > 0:40:22another improvement after the South African War,
0:40:22 > 0:40:23it's a slightly shorter rifle
0:40:23 > 0:40:26and because of that, it wasn't quite as accurate
0:40:26 > 0:40:30over distance as the German Mauser but it came with enormous advantages.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34First of all, the thing carried 10 rounds instead of five,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37whereas the German Mauser only had a five round magazine.
0:40:37 > 0:40:41Even though the Mauser was more accurate because it was a longer rifle,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44the Mauser had a real disadvantage in that it has a straight bolt.
0:40:44 > 0:40:49And by that simple expedient, once you'd loaded it,
0:40:49 > 0:40:52and you'd found the target, you then have to move your head
0:40:52 > 0:40:55out of the way before you can then try and find the target again.
0:40:55 > 0:40:59The Enfield on the other hand, simply because it had this bent bolt,
0:40:59 > 0:41:02once the thing been loaded, with 10 rounds,
0:41:02 > 0:41:03and found a target,
0:41:03 > 0:41:07you then never need to take your eye off the target
0:41:07 > 0:41:09until you've knocked him over.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13A much better design and certainly a better battlefield rifle.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15GUNFIRE
0:41:17 > 0:41:20At the beginning of World War I in 1914,
0:41:20 > 0:41:23the new Lee Enfield was so effective
0:41:23 > 0:41:29that concentrated rifle fire was even mistaken for machine guns.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31But as the conflict wore on,
0:41:31 > 0:41:36artillery bombardment led to a key addition to Burrows' new kit.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40The final addition to the soldier's kit is the steel helmet.
0:41:40 > 0:41:45It looks pretty much like a helmet worn at Agincourt several hundred years earlier.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47Again, really for the same principle,
0:41:47 > 0:41:50that in those days it was about arrows dropping from above,
0:41:50 > 0:41:54and by this time, we're in trench warfare and we're talking massed artillery,
0:41:54 > 0:41:57with shrapnel, bullets, raining down from above.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00Up to this point, the fellas are wearing cloth caps
0:42:00 > 0:42:01with no protection whatsoever,
0:42:01 > 0:42:07the only surprising thing is it takes them so long to actually come up with this idea.
0:42:07 > 0:42:08GUNFIRE
0:42:10 > 0:42:14World War I changed everything.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17Modern, total, industrial war.
0:42:21 > 0:42:26And that meant that the very same concerns of manufacture
0:42:26 > 0:42:29that led to Henry V's Board of Ordnance
0:42:29 > 0:42:32and the 17th century concerns over funding
0:42:32 > 0:42:35that led to the creation of the Bank of England,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38were now writ larger than ever before,
0:42:38 > 0:42:43bringing even the economic superpower that was Britain to its knees.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47The key to winning this new, modern war was not tactics,
0:42:47 > 0:42:51they were literally stuck in the mud of Flanders,
0:42:51 > 0:42:53but manufacture, supply,
0:42:53 > 0:42:56and the end of the day, money.
0:42:57 > 0:43:01At its peak in the winter of 1917-18,
0:43:01 > 0:43:05the war was costing Britain the equivalent in today's money
0:43:05 > 0:43:07of more than £20 million an hour.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11That's over £3 billion every single week.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15Week, after week, after week.
0:43:17 > 0:43:24That money was going on transport, and supply and food and wages,
0:43:24 > 0:43:28but much of it was also literally going up in smoke.
0:43:28 > 0:43:30MACHINE GUN FIRE
0:43:42 > 0:43:43That's extraordinary.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47You really get a sense you've got a powerful killing machine in your hands here.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49It seems to be accurate too.
0:43:49 > 0:43:54The sandbag is literally obliterated in the exact spot I was aiming at.
0:43:54 > 0:43:55But here's the problem,
0:43:55 > 0:44:00because this gun fires 600 rounds a minute, that's 10 a second,
0:44:00 > 0:44:05and it literally is firing more bullets than could be made to supply it.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13Automatically feeding ammunition,
0:44:13 > 0:44:16the Vickers machine gun used up bullets
0:44:16 > 0:44:19at the same rate as 80 conventional rifles.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22And it wasn't just machine guns.
0:44:22 > 0:44:27As the warring sides dug in, more artillery pieces were used,
0:44:27 > 0:44:29with ever bigger calibres,
0:44:29 > 0:44:32in a desperate bid to break the deadlock.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS
0:44:41 > 0:44:46In March 1915, at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle,
0:44:46 > 0:44:49more shells were fired in the initial brief bombardment
0:44:49 > 0:44:53than during the entire Boer War.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56And the biggest problem
0:44:56 > 0:45:00was that munitions were being used faster than they could be made.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02Britain had enough guns,
0:45:02 > 0:45:05but it was fast running out of anything to actually fire.
0:45:05 > 0:45:10By the spring of 1915, so serious was the so-called shell crisis that
0:45:10 > 0:45:15most British guns had been reduced to firing just four shells a day.
0:45:15 > 0:45:17And it seemed as if the war might be lost
0:45:17 > 0:45:21not in the trenches of Flanders, but in the factories of Britain.
0:45:22 > 0:45:24It was nothing short of a scandal,
0:45:24 > 0:45:28resulting in the formation of a coalition government
0:45:28 > 0:45:32and the establishment of a new government department -
0:45:32 > 0:45:35the Ministry of Munitions.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38It was estimated that the Allies needed to produce
0:45:38 > 0:45:41nearly 2 million artillery shells a week.
0:45:41 > 0:45:47British factories were producing just 11,000.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51The new ministry set about building munitions factories,
0:45:51 > 0:45:58transforming a civilian economy to one completely geared towards war.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06Here at Holton Heath in Dorset
0:46:06 > 0:46:10are the remains of one of those factories.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14It was built in 1915 to make cordite,
0:46:14 > 0:46:18the explosive that propelled bullets and shells.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23So we're just here, on the edge of the service reservoir,
0:46:23 > 0:46:26and if you just get a look around us, this whole concreted area here
0:46:26 > 0:46:30is the service reservoir, and yet on the map it's just a tiny piece
0:46:30 > 0:46:34at the centre of this massive factory.
0:46:34 > 0:46:39It covered 500 acres and employed more than 5,000 people.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41And the reason it was sited here on Holton Heath
0:46:41 > 0:46:43was because of two key things -
0:46:43 > 0:46:44One, the rail link.
0:46:44 > 0:46:47The Southern Railway line ran directly through here,
0:46:47 > 0:46:49so you've got a spur into the factory.
0:46:49 > 0:46:50And two, the water links.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53You can see this channel coming out of Poole Harbour
0:46:53 > 0:46:57right to the doorstep - it had its own docks.
0:47:06 > 0:47:11Not much of the original factory remains, and this is the first sense
0:47:11 > 0:47:15I've got of the sheer magnitude of this operation and its importance.
0:47:15 > 0:47:18This is bricks and mortar, this was Britain's war effort.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21And this was just one small part of it.
0:47:21 > 0:47:23You can just imagine the reek of this place.
0:47:26 > 0:47:31A key constituent of cordite was a chemical called acetone.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34Before the war, Britain imported most of it from Germany,
0:47:34 > 0:47:38but this was now clearly impossible.
0:47:39 > 0:47:42Unable to produce acetone in any quantity,
0:47:42 > 0:47:46cordite production was crippled, and without cordite all British guns,
0:47:46 > 0:47:50from the Lee Enfield to the artillery, were mere metal pipes.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54It was potentially a fatal blow to the war effort.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57The newly created Ministry of Munitions
0:47:57 > 0:47:59needed to find a different source.
0:48:02 > 0:48:03Enter this man, Chaim Weizmann,
0:48:03 > 0:48:06a professor at the University of Manchester
0:48:06 > 0:48:08and a brilliant biochemist.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10Using grain and maize as raw materials,
0:48:10 > 0:48:14Weizmann found that he could produce acetone in large quantities.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18And this huge concrete vat behind me, almost 100 years old,
0:48:18 > 0:48:21is what he actually used in the fermentation process.
0:48:22 > 0:48:27But Weizmann's new way of producing acetone soon ran into problems.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31Grain and maize were also in short supply as they were needed
0:48:31 > 0:48:35to feed the civilian population.
0:48:35 > 0:48:37I suppose it's typically British,
0:48:37 > 0:48:40the solution to this second acetone crisis,
0:48:40 > 0:48:44because instead of turning to some wonderful chemical compound,
0:48:44 > 0:48:47they turned to this - the ordinary British conker.
0:48:47 > 0:48:51Now, tests had shown that this could be fermented into acetone
0:48:51 > 0:48:55and so the British Government asked schoolchildren across the country
0:48:55 > 0:48:56to go out and gather these,
0:48:56 > 0:48:59not for fun, not for playing conkers in the schoolyard,
0:48:59 > 0:49:02but for vital munitions work.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06And it's extraordinary to think that this...
0:49:06 > 0:49:08..powered this.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16Weizmann's solution to the acetone shortage was so successful
0:49:16 > 0:49:20that from 1917, the British Empire was able to supply
0:49:20 > 0:49:22more than 50 million shells a year
0:49:22 > 0:49:25and billions of bullets to the front line.
0:49:31 > 0:49:36A century later, many still lie in the fields of France and Belgium.
0:49:36 > 0:49:37It makes rich pickings
0:49:37 > 0:49:41for battlefield archaeologist, Tony Pollard.
0:49:41 > 0:49:46What keeps bringing you back to this place, the First World War?
0:49:46 > 0:49:49The Western front is very particular.
0:49:49 > 0:49:51It's weird in that it's so huge.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54We almost can't get our head around the numbers,
0:49:54 > 0:49:58but what archaeology allows us to do is to look at the intimate.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02It almost allows us to bring a microscope into play.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05I've always said archaeology's the closest we have to a time machine.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08You can read all the history books you want,
0:50:08 > 0:50:12but the words that aren't written, they're out here in the field.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14Tony, as a historian who spends his time
0:50:14 > 0:50:17poring over documents in libraries and archives,
0:50:17 > 0:50:20it's really interesting to get an insight into your world.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23And I got that yesterday when, hands on my knees,
0:50:23 > 0:50:25looking for an artefact but not thinking I'd find one,
0:50:25 > 0:50:29- I actually turned one up. And here it is.- Excellent.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32Nice to see a historian getting out every now and again, Saul.
0:50:32 > 0:50:37That's a 303 bullet, British rifle bullet. This is unfired.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40It's still got the head, which is the bit that kills you, on it.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43That has been lying around for 90-odd years,
0:50:43 > 0:50:46but it's still a very dangerous piece of kit.
0:50:48 > 0:50:51This is quite a nasty piece of work.
0:50:51 > 0:50:55This is a Mills bomb, a hand grenade to you and I.
0:50:55 > 0:51:00And these do pop up regularly. And they are not to be played with.
0:51:00 > 0:51:02I did an excavation on the Somme last year
0:51:02 > 0:51:05and it was a stretch of British front line.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08And behind that we found a small bunker, effectively,
0:51:08 > 0:51:13and it had boxes of grenades in it, dozens of them.
0:51:13 > 0:51:17And needless to say, we steered well clear of it after that.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20This one's safe because this is the fuse on the bottom,
0:51:20 > 0:51:22and it's been made safe.
0:51:22 > 0:51:24- Right, I see. - The charge has been removed.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27But these will quite often come up in a farmer's field.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30It's not unusual to drive past the corner of a field
0:51:30 > 0:51:35and find a huge pile of unexploded shells which the farmers collect up
0:51:35 > 0:51:40after they've ploughed the field and the French military come along,
0:51:40 > 0:51:43take them away, blow them up and make them safe.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47It's unfortunate that, almost every year, some poor soul will hit
0:51:47 > 0:51:50an unexploded shell the wrong way with his plough and, "Boom!"
0:51:50 > 0:51:54The First World War is still killing people, unfortunately.
0:52:02 > 0:52:04Ever since the First World War,
0:52:04 > 0:52:08superior force was no longer measured in terms of men or horses,
0:52:08 > 0:52:11but in the means to wreak destruction.
0:52:14 > 0:52:19In World War II, the Allies dropped 3.4 million tonnes of bombs
0:52:19 > 0:52:21across Europe and Asia.
0:52:21 > 0:52:26And during the Vietnam War, an incredible 7 million tonnes of bombs
0:52:26 > 0:52:30were dropped on Indo-China.
0:52:30 > 0:52:32Such a scale of destruction
0:52:32 > 0:52:35can never be matched by factory production.
0:52:35 > 0:52:39World War I invented the idea of stockpiling -
0:52:39 > 0:52:43continued production of munitions in times of peace,
0:52:43 > 0:52:46ready to be unleashed in times of war.
0:52:48 > 0:52:52But stockpiling can have sudden and unintended consequences.
0:52:53 > 0:52:58At eleven minutes past eleven on the 27th of November 1944,
0:52:58 > 0:53:03a routine maintenance blunder at the RAF munitions depot here at Fauld in Staffordshire
0:53:03 > 0:53:07trigged the largest non-nuclear explosion in history.
0:53:07 > 0:53:12It was so huge it registered as an earthquake
0:53:12 > 0:53:15as far away as Rome and Vienna.
0:53:15 > 0:53:20This is a picture that was taken almost directly after the explosion by the Air Ministry,
0:53:20 > 0:53:23and you just get a sense of the sheer scale here.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25Here's the main crater
0:53:25 > 0:53:28and all this area around looks like a lunar-scape.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34Buildings up to a mile from the crater were damaged,
0:53:34 > 0:53:38and more than 70 people were killed.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44It's just absolutely huge and you can see the way the ground
0:53:44 > 0:53:46completely falls away beneath me.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49It's said to be 50 metres deep, but it looks more to me.
0:53:49 > 0:53:51It's said to be 100 metres across.
0:53:51 > 0:53:554,000 tonnes of high-explosive went up here,
0:53:55 > 0:53:57sending the earth, of course,
0:53:57 > 0:54:00out of the crater, this huge pock mark.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03And all around the surrounding countryside
0:54:03 > 0:54:05the earth and the boulders had to fall,
0:54:05 > 0:54:08and in some places, the land is 15 or 20 feet higher
0:54:08 > 0:54:11than it would have been before the explosion.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18It's quite moving, coming to the crater,
0:54:18 > 0:54:22because although in some ways you can't see the devastation any more -
0:54:22 > 0:54:26the trees and brush have covered the crater floor -
0:54:26 > 0:54:30we know that amongst the roots of all this vegetation
0:54:30 > 0:54:33lie the bones of some of the dead who couldn't be recovered
0:54:33 > 0:54:38because also down there is another 4,000 tonnes of unexploded munitions.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49Those bombs that exploded were not, in World War II,
0:54:49 > 0:54:52destined for static howitzers but Bomber Command.
0:54:55 > 0:54:59Whereas World War I was a static war of attrition,
0:54:59 > 0:55:03World War II was fast-moving and mobile.
0:55:05 > 0:55:09And the fighting kit didn't just include rifles, machine guns or even artillery,
0:55:09 > 0:55:13but machines of quite staggering destructive power.
0:55:16 > 0:55:20The dominance of science and technology
0:55:20 > 0:55:22reached its height in 1945
0:55:22 > 0:55:24when 13 young men released a single bomb
0:55:24 > 0:55:28on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
0:55:32 > 0:55:37It was the culmination of a project that had involved 130,000 people...
0:55:39 > 0:55:43..and cost an estimated 2 billion.
0:55:46 > 0:55:50Today, it seems as if technology can do almost anything,
0:55:50 > 0:55:55as long as someone is able and willing to pay for it.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00In the second Gulf War,
0:56:00 > 0:56:03America launched its wave of shock and awe against Iraq
0:56:03 > 0:56:05by firing 800 Tomahawk missiles
0:56:05 > 0:56:08over a period of just 48 hours.
0:56:08 > 0:56:13Each one cost half a million dollars.
0:56:18 > 0:56:24Today, a single Eurofighter Typhoon costs around £50 million.
0:56:24 > 0:56:28And its planned replacement is likely to be twice as much.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36For entire campaigns, the scale of spending is staggering.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40It's estimated that Afghanistan
0:56:40 > 0:56:43has already cost the British taxpayer £18 billion.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48It seems the Bank of England is as crucial as ever.
0:56:56 > 0:56:58In this series,
0:56:58 > 0:57:02I've looked at how developments in military kit, in food
0:57:02 > 0:57:05and in the movement of troops have changed the course of wars.
0:57:07 > 0:57:09The story of the 20th century
0:57:09 > 0:57:12has been one of extraordinary and rapid changes,
0:57:12 > 0:57:15of technology and scale
0:57:15 > 0:57:18and, as we've seen, also cost.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21But just ten years into the 21st century,
0:57:21 > 0:57:25it's clear there are new challenges and ones very different
0:57:25 > 0:57:29from those of the two World Wars and the Cold War that followed.
0:57:29 > 0:57:35Today, we spend 2.7% of our GDP on defence -
0:57:35 > 0:57:39the latest weapons, battle tanks and fast jets.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42And yet our enemies, at least for now,
0:57:42 > 0:57:47are armed with little more than AK-47s and home-made bombs.
0:57:49 > 0:57:53Are we buying the right kit to defeat them?
0:57:53 > 0:57:57And how do we know a more sophisticated opponent isn't just round the corner?
0:57:57 > 0:57:59How that plays out over the coming decades
0:57:59 > 0:58:01is a challenge for the people over there -
0:58:01 > 0:58:04the politicians and the service chiefs
0:58:04 > 0:58:09who have to plan and budget and procure the kit required for the immediate future.
0:58:10 > 0:58:15But at any time, while you can plan for the immediate future,
0:58:15 > 0:58:18it's impossible to see what ultimately becomes important
0:58:18 > 0:58:20in the wider time-span of history,
0:58:20 > 0:58:24the great tipping points of military kit and logistics.
0:58:24 > 0:58:27As a historian, what I also know
0:58:27 > 0:58:30is that those tipping points are rarely seen for what they are
0:58:30 > 0:58:32until after the event.
0:58:32 > 0:58:34History is a discipline of hindsight
0:58:34 > 0:58:37and we can only wonder what the historians of the future
0:58:37 > 0:58:40will make of where we are today.
0:58:55 > 0:58:58Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd