0:00:21 > 0:00:26By summer, 1918, the war had been going for four terrible years
0:00:26 > 0:00:28and the end seemed nowhere in sight.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33Unless we can look ahead and plan for 1919,
0:00:33 > 0:00:38we shall be in the same melancholy position next year as we are this.
0:00:38 > 0:00:43Do the means of beating the German armies in 1919 exist?
0:00:43 > 0:00:45Have we the will power?
0:01:27 > 0:01:29Since spring 1918, the Allies on the Western Front
0:01:29 > 0:01:32had been battered by German offensives.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40But in August, the Allies secretly assembled a strike force
0:01:40 > 0:01:41in northern France.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44100,000 men of the Australian and Canadian Corps
0:01:44 > 0:01:46were backed by 400 tanks...
0:01:49 > 0:01:52..1,900 planes,
0:01:52 > 0:01:542,000 guns,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56three cavalry divisions.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01General Sir Henry Rawlinson,
0:02:01 > 0:02:06British commander at the Somme in 1916, had learnt from the past.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09He embraced new ideas.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11The close combination of men and machinery.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13The importance of achievable goals.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19My only difficulty will be to get enough divisions
0:02:19 > 0:02:21and to keep the thing secret.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28Rawlinson aimed his assault at a weak 12-mile sector
0:02:28 > 0:02:30of the German line, east of Amiens.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35He had the French in support to the south.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41General Erich Ludendorff, joint commander in chief of the German army,
0:02:41 > 0:02:44neither knew of an attack, nor feared one.
0:02:44 > 0:02:50We wish for nothing better than to see the enemy launch an offensive.
0:02:51 > 0:02:56100,000 infantry stand grimly, silently.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00All feel to make sure their bayonets are locked.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03The section officer counts the last seconds.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25The speed was terrific.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28Within a few moments of the Huns running from our tanks and infantry,
0:03:28 > 0:03:32our guns were coming up into new forward positions.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36It was glorious to be in the rush of an advance.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45The Allied attack sent the Germans reeling.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52By nightfall, Rawlinson's 4th Army had advanced eight miles.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00They killed and seriously wounded 9,000 Germans
0:04:00 > 0:04:02and captured 18,000 more.
0:04:07 > 0:04:13Ludendorff declared 8th August the "Black Day of the German Army".
0:04:13 > 0:04:15General Paul von Hindenburg steadied him,
0:04:15 > 0:04:20but both knew the Battle of Amiens was the beginning of the end.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25Mighty as Germany looked on the map,
0:04:25 > 0:04:29her armies on the Western Front were near the end of their tether,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32exhausted, hungry, fed up.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39Their generals had given them neither clear aims, nor adequate supplies.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42The Germans had lost nearly a million men since March.
0:04:48 > 0:04:54Ludendorff blamed the home front for spreading defeatism.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56I was told of behaviour, which I openly confess,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59I should not have thought possible in the German army.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04Whole bodies of men had surrendered to single soldiers.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07Germany's problems went beyond poor morale.
0:05:14 > 0:05:16She had lost a string of vital battles.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21The battle of the factories and technology.
0:05:22 > 0:05:28Germany had built just 20 tanks, the Allies, over 4,000.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33She had lost the battle of manpower.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36A quarter of a million Americans were pouring into France every month.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41She had lost the battle of command.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45The Allies worked together under the leadership by Marshal Ferdinand Foch.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51But Ludendorff's generals despaired of his lack of strategic plan,
0:05:51 > 0:05:54and some feared for his mental health.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59Great crisis this morning, very nerve-racking.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03Ludendorff is a bundle of nerves. It's never his fault.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05He looks everywhere for scapegoats.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16After Amiens, Foch orchestrated a series of attacks
0:06:16 > 0:06:18up and down the German lines -
0:06:18 > 0:06:23first French, then British, now American.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26The Germans fell back under the rain of blows.
0:06:31 > 0:06:36While the Allies pulled together, the Central Powers were tearing apart
0:06:36 > 0:06:40In Austria-Hungary, a third of a million soldiers had deserted.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44The people at home were starving.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47The multi-ethnic empire was splintering,
0:06:47 > 0:06:48its Poles, Czechs and Bosnians
0:06:48 > 0:06:52saw defeat as their chance to pursue independence.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00In mid-September, the Austrian Emperor Karl told the Kaiser
0:07:00 > 0:07:02he wanted to negotiate with the Allies.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04The Kaiser begged him not to.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10I cannot refrain from expressing astonishment and sorrow
0:07:10 > 0:07:12that you even think of this.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15You must know how destructive this course of action is.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22But Karl had already sent his proposal for talks to the Allies
0:07:22 > 0:07:24and they just threw it back in his face.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31Another great empire allied to Germany was dying.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35The 600-year-old Ottoman Empire was a spent force.
0:07:35 > 0:07:40Britain was driving the Turks out of Mesopotamia, Palestine and Syria.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44They were now fighting for their lives, not for Germany.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51Then the third link in Germany's alliance chain started to give way.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57Germany needed Bulgaria to hold the Balkan Front.
0:07:57 > 0:08:02But by September 1918, a huge Allied force had gathered in Macedonia.
0:08:02 > 0:08:07If the Bulgarians folded, the Allies' way would be clear to Austria-Hungary
0:08:15 > 0:08:19The Bulgarians were dug into these trenches, their morale cracking.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23Crown Prince Boris was almost attacked by his own soldiers
0:08:23 > 0:08:25when he visited the front.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31We are naked, barefoot and hungry.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35An empty knapsack does not guard a frontier.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43The First World War had begun in the Balkans,
0:08:43 > 0:08:45with Serbia as the tinderbox.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49Now, as part of the Allied force, she was in at the kill.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52And for the Serbs it was personal.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57In 1915, the Bulgarians had helped kick them out of their homeland.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00Here was the Serbs' chance for revenge.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10The heavy artillery made the Bulgarians crawl into shelters.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14Excitement made my hair stand on end, my blood was up.
0:09:24 > 0:09:29The Allies smashed through the Bulgarian lines and rolled north.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32On 28th September, Bulgaria sued for peace.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37When he heard this, Ludendorff suffered a fit,
0:09:37 > 0:09:40collapsing to the floor, foaming at the mouth.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47The next day, he learned the Allies had breached the Hindenburg line
0:09:47 > 0:09:49along the St Quentin Canal,
0:09:49 > 0:09:53Germany's last fixed line of defence on the Western Front.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07Two days later, on 1st October,
0:10:07 > 0:10:11Ludendorff summoned his senior staff to his headquarters in Spa.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13Among them, Colonel Albrecht von Thaer.
0:10:15 > 0:10:21Ludendorff stood up. His face was pale and full of deep worry.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23He said it was his duty to tell us
0:10:23 > 0:10:26our military condition was terribly serious.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30Bulgaria has already been lost.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34Austria and Turkey are both at the end of their strength.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37Any day now, our Western Front could be breached.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43Therefore, the Supreme Army Command demands
0:10:43 > 0:10:47that a proposal for bringing about peace be made without delay.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56Ludendorff's stark decision to ask for an armistice - or cease-fire - was a terrible shock.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Generals quietly sobbed.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05When Ludendorff left the room, Thaer followed him.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09I grabbed his right arm with both hands and said,
0:11:09 > 0:11:11"Your Excellency, can it be true?
0:11:11 > 0:11:14"Is that the last word? Am I awake or dreaming?"
0:11:14 > 0:11:16I was completely beside myself.
0:11:18 > 0:11:23He remained calm and gentle and said to me with a deeply sorrowful smile,
0:11:23 > 0:11:27"Unfortunately, that is how it is, and I see no other way out."
0:11:45 > 0:11:48To the German people in October 1918,
0:11:48 > 0:11:53the prospect of an armistice seemed heaven-sent.
0:11:53 > 0:11:58A great sigh of relief escapes from the lips of the tormented nation.
0:11:58 > 0:12:03"This means peace" you can hear at every corner of the streets,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07and "Peace" smiles in the eyes of every shop girl
0:12:07 > 0:12:09in the baker's or grocer's
0:12:13 > 0:12:16Germany's soldiers had kept her politicians in the dark
0:12:16 > 0:12:18about the string of military disasters.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27So the news that they wanted an armistice came as a bolt from the blue.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31The deputies were absolutely broken.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35Ebert turned white as a sheet and didn't utter a single word.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39Another looked as if he'd had an accident.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42The secretary is believed to have left the room, saying,
0:12:42 > 0:12:46"The only thing left to do is to shoot one's self in the head."
0:12:50 > 0:12:53But peace talks were still a way off.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58First, the terms of the cease-fire would have to be settled.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01Germany approached US President Woodrow Wilson,
0:13:01 > 0:13:04asking him to broker the armistice with the Allies.
0:13:04 > 0:13:09They chose him because he had already proposed a peace plan - the 14 Points.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14French PM Clemenceau was unimpressed.
0:13:14 > 0:13:1614 points?
0:13:16 > 0:13:18The good Lord has only ten.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26Wilson's points were an idealistic package of liberal principles,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29including rights to national self-determination
0:13:29 > 0:13:32and a League of Nations to watch over it all.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36Germany believed Wilson would secure a fair deal for them on this basis.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42We are ready to be just to the German people,
0:13:42 > 0:13:46to deal fairly with Germany, as with all others.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50To propose anything but justice to Germany would be to renounce
0:13:50 > 0:13:52and dishonour our own cause.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59But Wilson also insisted Germany had to admit defeat and democratise.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05Britain and France did not want to talk about a new world order
0:14:05 > 0:14:07until the war was over.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14While the politicians argued, the fighting raged on.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18Germany's U-boats continued to sink Allied ships in the Atlantic.
0:14:21 > 0:14:26And as her armies retreated across France, they looted and laid waste.
0:14:35 > 0:14:3914-year-old Yves Congar had kept a diary throughout the German
0:14:39 > 0:14:41occupation of his home town of Sedan.
0:14:44 > 0:14:45He longed for freedom,
0:14:45 > 0:14:48but dreaded the price the French would have to pay for it.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02So here it is,
0:15:02 > 0:15:08the great moment we've spent four years waiting, hoping, begging for.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12And yet it brings with it the horror of bombing,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15gas, fire, perhaps death.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18We may never see friends again,
0:15:18 > 0:15:22many might be killed, the town destroyed.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27Our one great hope is an armistice.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30The First World War did not go quietly.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40The final months were more lethal
0:15:40 > 0:15:43than the trench war of past years had been.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46Men now had to leave the safety of trenches and cross open ground,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49with little place to hide from sweeping machine-gun and shellfire.
0:15:57 > 0:16:03British casualties in autumn, 1918 were higher than those a year before,
0:16:03 > 0:16:05during the terrible battle of Passchendaele -
0:16:05 > 0:16:07the epitome of trench slaughter.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20And the closer to peace, the harder it was to bear the losses.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32It was a slaughterhouse,
0:16:32 > 0:16:34just a mass of mangled flesh and blood.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38Bob's head was hanging off.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41You couldn't tell which was Harris and which was Kempton.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44What was left of them was in pieces.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47We knew the enemy was beaten.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51After three years in France and the end so near,
0:16:51 > 0:16:54Bob, killed.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58Harris, who had left a young bride, killed.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03Jimmy Fooks, whose time was nearly up, killed.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Kempton, who also was due for leave, killed.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13General Haig had seemed careless with his men's lives
0:17:13 > 0:17:15at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20Now, he argued for stopping the war without a total defeat of the Germans
0:17:22 > 0:17:25The British alone might bring the enemy to his knees,
0:17:25 > 0:17:29but why expend more British lives, and for what?
0:17:31 > 0:17:35French General Charles Mangin insisted this would only store up
0:17:35 > 0:17:36trouble for the future.
0:17:38 > 0:17:43No, no, no! We must go right into the heart of Germany.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45The Germans will not admit they were beaten.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49It is a fatal error and France will pay for it.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54But, with winter setting in,
0:17:54 > 0:17:58any invasion of Germany would have to wait till spring 1919.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01By then, the Germans might have renewed their strength.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10Marshal Foch believed France would get what she wanted by negotiation.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12No need to battle on to Berlin.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16So the Allies set out to achieve on paper
0:18:16 > 0:18:19what their armies had not done in the field -
0:18:19 > 0:18:22obtain Germany's unconditional surrender.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30Foch chose to meet the Germans in Compiegne,
0:18:30 > 0:18:3245 miles north-east of Paris,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36in a secluded forest through which a railway line conveniently ran.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45In his train, on 8th November, Foch handed the armistice conditions
0:18:45 > 0:18:49to politician Mathias Erzberger, leader of the German delegation.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55Erzberger was visibly shaken by the terms Germany would have to accept
0:18:55 > 0:18:57just to obtain a cease-fire.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Germany would have to evacuate Belgium and France,
0:19:03 > 0:19:07surrender her fleet and pay compensation.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11The Allies would continue their blockade, disarm the Germans
0:19:11 > 0:19:13and occupy the left bank of the Rhine.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18Germany was being forced to capitulate.
0:19:22 > 0:19:27Meanwhile, the country Erzberger represented was falling apart,
0:19:27 > 0:19:28its cities swept by revolution.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31SHOUTING
0:19:34 > 0:19:37The German people, exhausted by war and hunger,
0:19:37 > 0:19:40wanted democracy in and the Kaiser out.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44CHEERING
0:19:51 > 0:19:54But it was the German army which forced the Kaiser to abdicate.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58He asked his generals to turn the army against the people,
0:19:58 > 0:20:00but the generals refused.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08The army will return home in good order under its generals,
0:20:08 > 0:20:12but not under the command of Your Majesty.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15It no longer stands behind Your Majesty.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22The Prussian dynasty of Frederick the Great was over.
0:20:28 > 0:20:33The next day, the Kaiser slipped into exile in Holland.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38He would live long enough to hear Germany had beaten France in 1940.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42He never accepted that, in 1918, his army had been defeated.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48For 30 years, the army was my pride.
0:20:48 > 0:20:53Now, after 4.5 brilliant years of war, with unprecedented victories,
0:20:53 > 0:20:55it was brought down
0:20:55 > 0:20:59by a stab in the back from the dagger of the revolutionaries
0:20:59 > 0:21:04at the very moment when peace was within reach.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07CHEERING
0:21:07 > 0:21:12Most Germans rejoiced at the news that the Kaiser had gone.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16I felt as if a heavy weight had suddenly been lifted from my heart.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19This definitely means the armistice will be signed.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26Back in the forest at Compiegne,
0:21:26 > 0:21:31Erzberger now represented the German Republic.
0:21:34 > 0:21:40At 5am on 11th of November, he signed the armistice.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54Hostilities temporarily cease 11:00 today
0:21:54 > 0:21:56when all offensive action will cease.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03Present outpost line to be maintained and no troops to pass
0:22:03 > 0:22:06east other than road etc reconnaissance and working parties.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12No conversation with enemy to be allowed.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35The most remarkable feature was the uncanny silence.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37The war was over.
0:22:40 > 0:22:46Peace and safety was a new thing. It could not be grasped in a moment.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55A dreadful blow. I was just beginning to enjoy it.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10No more slaughter.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12No more maiming.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14No more mud and blood.
0:23:15 > 0:23:20No more shovelling bits of men's bodies and dumping them in sandbags.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24No more writing dreadfully difficult letters to next of kin of the dead.
0:23:26 > 0:23:31A strange and unreal thought was running through my mind.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33I had a future.
0:23:48 > 0:23:53It was the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55CHEERING
0:23:57 > 0:24:00A great cheer arose all along the line.
0:24:00 > 0:24:05We could hear the men a thousand yards in front raising holy hell.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09The French, behind our position, were dancing, shouting
0:24:09 > 0:24:11and waving bottles of wine.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18We were stupefied to see crowds of Boches
0:24:18 > 0:24:21running over between the minefields,
0:24:21 > 0:24:23their hands up and yelling like mad.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26They were crazy for cigarettes and chocolate.
0:24:26 > 0:24:31We had burned rice our boys wouldn't eat and they fell on it like wolves.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50Our soldiers were choked with emotion.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52I thought about my family,
0:24:52 > 0:24:54about all the women of France...
0:24:55 > 0:24:58..except those who are alone and who cry.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02BELLS TOLL
0:25:06 > 0:25:08CHEERING
0:25:18 > 0:25:20One great wave of joy swept round the world
0:25:20 > 0:25:24and found its way to every nook and cranny.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27No-one was more delighted than our African soldiers,
0:25:27 > 0:25:29who cheered themselves hoarse.
0:25:33 > 0:25:38Everybody came out, disabled old men, old women in slippers
0:25:38 > 0:25:42and housewives, leaving lunch on the stove.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46I wept with joy. 5,000 Indian soldiers lit their torches.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51The hilltops burst into fire with scores of bonfires.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57I found myself arm in arm with soldiers I had never seen before.
0:25:57 > 0:26:02I forgot where we went, toured the streets, and sang and sang.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06The significance of what it means was overwhelming -
0:26:06 > 0:26:08peace.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20People whose lives were shaped by the war went home,
0:26:20 > 0:26:24people the world did not yet know.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27Ernest Hemingway, Bertolt Brecht,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30Harold Macmillan, Vera Brittain,
0:26:30 > 0:26:34Charles de Gaulle, Josef Tito, Benito Mussolini,
0:26:34 > 0:26:38David Ben-Gurion, Mustafa Kemal.
0:26:39 > 0:26:44And one of the most insignificant of them all, for now, Adolf Hitler.
0:26:55 > 0:27:00The German armies in France and Belgium headed home.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03How we had looked forward to this moment.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07We used to picture it as the most splendid event of our lives.
0:27:07 > 0:27:13And here we are now, humbled, our souls torn and bleeding.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17But we can be proud of our performance.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21Never before has a nation, a single army, had the world against it
0:27:21 > 0:27:24and stood its ground.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27We protected our homeland.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29They never got into Germany.
0:27:40 > 0:27:46In mid-December, 1918, the first German troops arrived in Berlin.
0:27:46 > 0:27:52The people welcomed them as an army with no cause to feel ashamed.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56The men wore green laurel wreaths over steel helmets.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00The machine-guns were garlanded with green branches.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02Many a soldier had a child or sweetheart
0:28:02 > 0:28:06on his flower-wreathed horse.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10A feeling of confidence, of fresh hope in the future
0:28:10 > 0:28:12seems to have returned with the troops.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18Germany's new Republican chancellor
0:28:18 > 0:28:21Friedrich Ebert reinforced the dangerous illusion
0:28:21 > 0:28:24they were not beaten in this war.
0:28:24 > 0:28:30I salute you who return unvanquished from the field of battle.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44The Allies were in no doubt who had beaten whom.
0:28:44 > 0:28:49Allied troops moved into Germany and began their watch on the Rhine.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52The German fleet was surrendered to Britain,
0:28:52 > 0:28:57and the Allies travelled to Paris to dictate the terms of the peace.
0:29:08 > 0:29:10US president Woodrow Wilson crossed the Atlantic
0:29:10 > 0:29:12to put his idealism to the test.
0:29:14 > 0:29:19We have used the great words "right" and "justice".
0:29:19 > 0:29:23Now we are to prove whether or not we understand them
0:29:23 > 0:29:25and how they are to be applied.
0:29:29 > 0:29:31But the world had not stood still
0:29:31 > 0:29:34between the end of the war and the start of the peace talks.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37CHEERING
0:29:39 > 0:29:42On 22nd November 1918,
0:29:42 > 0:29:46the Belgian King Albert came home in triumph to Brussels.
0:29:52 > 0:29:54Occupied lands had been won back.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08The French repossessed Alsace-Lorraine.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15What a moving welcome!
0:30:15 > 0:30:18The people were so happy and smiling.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21Some were pale and cried while they greeted us.
0:30:21 > 0:30:27They speak pure French. They really are French, all those locals.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31We were treated like victors, like saviours.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46These scenes confirmed that France and Belgium
0:30:46 > 0:30:49had been liberated from an evil grip,
0:30:49 > 0:30:51that this was a victory for the Allies.
0:31:01 > 0:31:07And in eastern Europe, new nations arose out of shattered empires.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10They didn't wait for the peace conference
0:31:10 > 0:31:12to bring self-determination.
0:31:12 > 0:31:17They tore down all signs of foreign rule and put up new frontiers.
0:31:20 > 0:31:25Poland carved a vast territory out of Germany and Russia.
0:31:25 > 0:31:30Czechoslovakia took land from Austria and Hungary.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33And Serbia realised the aim she had started the war over
0:31:33 > 0:31:36by founding her own Slav super-state.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41The peace talks would recognise these new nations -
0:31:41 > 0:31:42they did not create them.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48CHATTER
0:31:48 > 0:31:5427 countries met in Paris to divide the spoils and define the peace.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56The losers were not invited.
0:32:00 > 0:32:05We are going into these negotiations with our mouths full of fine phrases
0:32:05 > 0:32:08and our brains seething with dark thoughts.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13The big decisions were made by the Council of Four -
0:32:13 > 0:32:17Prime Ministers Orlando of Italy, Lloyd George of Britain,
0:32:17 > 0:32:21Clemenceau of France, and US President Wilson,
0:32:22 > 0:32:27All liberals, but with different agendas and forceful personalities.
0:32:28 > 0:32:33Arguments between Lloyd George and myself were so violent
0:32:33 > 0:32:36Wilson interposed between us with outstretched arms,
0:32:36 > 0:32:41saying pleasantly, "I have never come across such unreasonable men."
0:32:45 > 0:32:51Clemenceau wanted Germany restrained for the sake of French security.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55Orlando wanted more territory for Italy.
0:32:55 > 0:33:01Lloyd George looked beyond Europe to safeguard the British Empire.
0:33:01 > 0:33:06Wilson wanted his new world order, with justice and democracy for all.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10But, first, there was the little matter of settling the war
0:33:10 > 0:33:13and that would force Wilson to compromise his ideals.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21The Big Four did not go into the talks
0:33:21 > 0:33:25planning to pin guilt for the war on Germany.
0:33:25 > 0:33:27But when they realised how much the war had cost,
0:33:27 > 0:33:31they looked for someone to foot the bill.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35France owed billions to Britain and America for financing her war.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39Britain couldn't afford to waive the debt and America wouldn't,
0:33:39 > 0:33:43so the Allies turned to Germany.
0:33:43 > 0:33:47She could only be made to pay if she accepted blame for the war,
0:33:47 > 0:33:51so the Allies included a clause pinning guilt on Germany.
0:33:54 > 0:33:59German accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies
0:33:59 > 0:34:02for causing all the loss and damage to which the allied,
0:34:02 > 0:34:04and associated governemnts,
0:34:04 > 0:34:07and their nationals have been subjected
0:34:07 > 0:34:10as a consequence of the war imposed upon them...
0:34:10 > 0:34:13by the aggression of Germany and her allies.
0:34:19 > 0:34:24On 7th May, 1919, the German delegation came to collect the treaty
0:34:24 > 0:34:27expecting an even-handed settlement
0:34:27 > 0:34:29infused with Wilson's sense of fair play.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34They were horrified by what they read -
0:34:34 > 0:34:37440 articles beating Germany into submission.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43The Germans protested so vehemently,
0:34:43 > 0:34:45particularly against the requirement to admit war guilt,
0:34:45 > 0:34:49that Lloyd George worried the Allies had gone too far.
0:34:51 > 0:34:56A member of his own delegation, the economist John Maynard Keynes,
0:34:56 > 0:34:58was openly critical.
0:34:58 > 0:35:03Forcing Germany to pay could ruin Europe, politically and economically.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10The policy of reducing Germany to servitude for a generation,
0:35:10 > 0:35:16of degrading the lives of millions, should be abhorrent and detestable.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24But Clemenceau believed the terms were fully justified
0:35:24 > 0:35:25and Wilson's line had toughened.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30He had wanted to treat Germany fairly
0:35:30 > 0:35:33but, as a liberal, he was appalled by the way she'd waged war.
0:35:33 > 0:35:38And, as President of the US, he wanted America's loans repaid.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44It is a good thing the terms should be so hard
0:35:44 > 0:35:47so Germany may know what an unjust war means.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51If the Germans won't sign, then we must renew the war.
0:35:57 > 0:36:03Germany did sign, on 28th June 1919, in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles
0:36:03 > 0:36:06five years to the day after the Sarajevo assassination
0:36:06 > 0:36:08that had triggered war.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16The settlement was far from perfect.
0:36:16 > 0:36:22The much-touted principle that people should govern themselves
0:36:22 > 0:36:25was not applied outside Europe and imperialism was condoned.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29But Wilson achieved his goal,
0:36:29 > 0:36:32the creation of the first global forum, the League of Nations.
0:36:34 > 0:36:39In the event, the Allies wound up with the worst of both worlds.
0:36:39 > 0:36:41The Germans paid little in reparations
0:36:41 > 0:36:46and the League of Nations proved powerless to force them.
0:36:46 > 0:36:48The Versailles terms left some Germans,
0:36:48 > 0:36:52like future Nazi Rudolf Hess, smouldering with resentment,
0:36:52 > 0:36:54with disastrous consequences.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59The only thing that keeps me going is hope for the day of revenge,
0:36:59 > 0:37:01however far off it may be.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05I wonder whether it'll happen in my lifetime.
0:37:08 > 0:37:12Marshal Ferdinand Foch felt the Allies hadn't been tough enough
0:37:12 > 0:37:16and realised the world would have to go to war again.
0:37:16 > 0:37:22This is not peace, it is an armistice for 20 years.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25He got it wrong by just 65 days.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41Men were killed in the war's final hours,
0:37:41 > 0:37:44whose last letters did not reach home for weeks.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50Men like Marius Saucaz who wrote to his father in Morocco.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56Dear Dad,
0:37:56 > 0:38:01if I were to die in a future attack, don't cry. There's no point.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06I would only be doing my duty and would die, like many others,
0:38:06 > 0:38:09for a noble cause, a great ideal.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13I am proud to be your son and I want to tell you today,
0:38:13 > 0:38:18because who knows what the future holds.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22I love you more than I have ever shown you.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25Love and kisses, Marius.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38Around 10 million soldiers were killed in the war,
0:38:38 > 0:38:41prompting Lloyd George's sardonic comment.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44When I look at the appalling casualty lists,
0:38:44 > 0:38:49I sometimes wish it had not been necessary to win so many victories.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57The tidy rows of crosses sanitise the deaths.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02They often cover mass graves,
0:39:02 > 0:39:07with a man represented by the part that could be found and identified.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11Verdun in France has a huge vault full of bones...
0:39:15 > 0:39:18..some of the millions posted missing in the war,
0:39:18 > 0:39:21the place and circumstance of their death unknown.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27No-one is certain how many civilians died...
0:39:27 > 0:39:32women, children and elderly caught in the mayhem of the Eastern Front
0:39:32 > 0:39:36in the flight of the Serb nation in 1915,
0:39:36 > 0:39:39in the Armenian massacres...
0:39:39 > 0:39:42in occupied France and Belgium.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47Then, in 1918, influenza broke out,
0:39:47 > 0:39:48eventually killing 20 million
0:39:48 > 0:39:51soldiers and civilians around the world.
0:39:55 > 0:39:5720 million men were wounded by the war,
0:39:57 > 0:40:00of whom several million were badly mutilated.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10The French called one category the "gueules cassees" -
0:40:10 > 0:40:11the "broken faces".
0:40:16 > 0:40:19Some were given human masks to hide their wounds.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30New faces, new legs, new arms.
0:40:36 > 0:40:40New minds were more difficult.
0:40:40 > 0:40:45No-one really knew what to do with the victims of shell shock.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48Soldiers with a range of disorders were filmed,
0:40:48 > 0:40:52including 19-year-old Private Preston - his memory blank -
0:40:52 > 0:40:55responsive only to the word "bombs".
0:41:03 > 0:41:07Over the decades, the suffering and dying and the sense of futile waste -
0:41:07 > 0:41:10central themes in the war's poetry -
0:41:10 > 0:41:14came to dominate our perceptions.
0:41:14 > 0:41:15Come back, come back,
0:41:15 > 0:41:18you didn't want to die.
0:41:18 > 0:41:22And all this war's a sham, a stinking lie.
0:41:22 > 0:41:25And the glory that our fathers laud so well
0:41:25 > 0:41:30A crowd of corpses freed from pangs of hell.
0:41:30 > 0:41:32MUSIC: Brass Band plays "Abide With Me"
0:41:40 > 0:41:44But in its immediate aftermath, when memorials went up around the world,
0:41:44 > 0:41:46the First World War was not seen
0:41:46 > 0:41:49solely in terms of senseless slaughter.
0:41:52 > 0:41:57Their designs and inscriptions defined the war in positive terms,
0:41:57 > 0:42:00for defence against aggression,
0:42:00 > 0:42:02for love of one's country,
0:42:02 > 0:42:05for glory.
0:42:05 > 0:42:07So much hardship,
0:42:07 > 0:42:09so much heroism
0:42:09 > 0:42:12and now such overwhelming glory.
0:42:12 > 0:42:17Anything after this can be no more than an anticlimax.
0:42:19 > 0:42:24Germany too celebrated victory where she could.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27A gigantic monument was built in 1927 at Tannenberg
0:42:27 > 0:42:31to commemorate Germany's triumph over the Russians in 1914.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38It was inaugurated by Field Marshal Hindenburg.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43The war may have been lost, but the dead were proclaimed as heroes,
0:42:43 > 0:42:46the struggle itself honoured.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51Though the aim for which I fought was not to be achieved,
0:42:51 > 0:42:55we learnt once and for all to stand for a cause
0:42:55 > 0:42:58and, if necessary, to fall as befitted men.
0:43:03 > 0:43:06Many Allied memorials spelt out the values felt to be at stake
0:43:06 > 0:43:07during the war.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15In the stained-glass window in Canterbury University, New Zealand,
0:43:15 > 0:43:21the Central Powers are depicted as the dragon of brutality and ignorance
0:43:21 > 0:43:25The Allied troops have humanity and justice on their side
0:43:25 > 0:43:27and are naturally victorious.
0:43:36 > 0:43:38The years after the war were defined
0:43:38 > 0:43:42by the search for significance in the loss.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45National symbols, like the Cenotaph and the Unknown Warrior,
0:43:45 > 0:43:48helped answer the question in so many people's minds -
0:43:48 > 0:43:50what did all the suffering mean?
0:43:54 > 0:43:59In 1920, the body of an unidentified British soldier was exhumed in France
0:43:59 > 0:44:01and transported home.
0:44:04 > 0:44:07SEAGULLS SQUAWK
0:44:11 > 0:44:15On 11th November, the unknown warrior was brought to Whitehall.
0:44:20 > 0:44:23He did not seem an unknown warrior.
0:44:23 > 0:44:25He was known to us all.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28He was "one of our boys".
0:44:28 > 0:44:33To some women, he was their own boy who went missing.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40To many men wearing ribbons and badges,
0:44:40 > 0:44:43he was "one of their comrades".
0:44:56 > 0:45:00It was the steel helmet, the old tin hat,
0:45:00 > 0:45:06lying there on the crimson of the flag, which revealed him instantly.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13Herbert Thompson had lost his eyesight in the war.
0:45:13 > 0:45:16He could not see the proceedings, but he could feel them.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22There was ineffable sadness and melancholy,
0:45:22 > 0:45:25yet a message of inspiration and hope,
0:45:25 > 0:45:28as if the spirit of the unknown soldier
0:45:28 > 0:45:32had whispered "Courage, brother. Hope on."
0:45:32 > 0:45:36I felt with my comrades almost ashamed I had given so little,
0:45:36 > 0:45:39while he who was sleeping by us had given all.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55Vera Brittain had served in France as a nurse during the war.
0:45:55 > 0:46:01She lost her fiance, two close friends, her only brother.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03She went back in 1921.
0:46:10 > 0:46:15At Amiens, we stood in the dimness of the once threatened cathedral.
0:46:15 > 0:46:19We looked up with reminiscent melancholy
0:46:19 > 0:46:22at the still boarded stained-glass windows smashed by German shells,
0:46:22 > 0:46:25realising, with surprise, that in my mind,
0:46:25 > 0:46:29anger and resentment had died long ago,
0:46:29 > 0:46:35leaving only an everlasting sorrow and a passionate pity.
0:46:40 > 0:46:42The First World War had achieved its basic aim
0:46:42 > 0:46:47of containing German and Austrian militarism, at least for the moment.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52It moved Europe from the age of empires to the era of nation states.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55CHEERING
0:46:55 > 0:46:59It gave eastern European peoples independence.
0:46:59 > 0:47:05It gave a sense of national identity to Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08It helped Russia become the first communist state
0:47:08 > 0:47:12and launched America as a world power.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18The ideas for which men fought have proved lasting -
0:47:18 > 0:47:20democracy and liberalism, religious faith and nationalism.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26GUNFIRE
0:47:29 > 0:47:32But the First World War solved few of the grievances
0:47:32 > 0:47:33over which it was fought.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37We live with its unresolved consequences in the Middle East,
0:47:37 > 0:47:38the Balkans, Ireland.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42It wasn't the war to end all wars,
0:47:42 > 0:47:45not just because it left dangerous loose ends,
0:47:45 > 0:47:49but because it bequeathed the world a terrible message -
0:47:49 > 0:47:51that war can affect change,
0:47:51 > 0:47:55that war can fulfil ambitions, that war can work.
0:48:01 > 0:48:07The battlefields were tidied up, or ploughed over or just abandoned.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10But they held their grip on the soldiers who had fought on them,
0:48:10 > 0:48:12on those who dared go back.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20I saw again with a pang of anguish the trenches, damp and muddy,
0:48:20 > 0:48:25and was surprised to have lived there for four years.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28So moving because of the endless silence,
0:48:28 > 0:48:30the gloomy, barren, deserted look.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39Old churches pierced, chipped, ripped open,
0:48:39 > 0:48:42and barbed wire everywhere.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50Life resumes, things remain the same.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54We are the only ones who have changed.