0:00:13 > 0:00:18Fort Loncin - doomed Belgian obstacle in Germany's path.
0:00:21 > 0:00:28The Fort's guardians, among the first of the war's millions of casualties.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30In the opening months,
0:00:30 > 0:00:34the mould for a new kind of war was cast in the West -
0:00:34 > 0:00:37industrialised states locked in conflict,
0:00:37 > 0:00:42over 7 million men armed with the latest technology,
0:00:42 > 0:00:4711 million civilians under brutal occupation.
0:01:35 > 0:01:42A rare wartime recording of Kaiser Wilhelm II addressing the German people.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23Germany, with 3.8 million men,
0:02:23 > 0:02:27faced a similar-sized French army to her west
0:02:27 > 0:02:32but 3 million Russians were attacking in the east.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36Germany's resources were split between two fronts
0:02:36 > 0:02:43and she couldn't easily smash through France's forts along the border.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46But Belgium's defences were weaker.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53The idea of going through Belgium was General Schlieffen's,
0:02:53 > 0:02:58his way of storming into France and encircling the French army.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01But Schlieffen had retired in 1905.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04By 1914 his successors had no illusion
0:03:04 > 0:03:09that any swift victory was to be had in a two-front war.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11At the start of Germany's war,
0:03:11 > 0:03:16there was an air of pessimism, desperation, improvisation.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29General von Moltke, the German commander,
0:03:29 > 0:03:31acknowledged the uncertainties.
0:03:31 > 0:03:36I will do what I can. We are not superior to the French.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46Germany waged war less with a master plan
0:03:46 > 0:03:51than a recognition that they must take the war bit by bit.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53The first bit was Belgium.
0:03:54 > 0:03:59The Germans knew Britain had guaranteed Belgian neutrality
0:03:59 > 0:04:03but reckoned Britain would come into the war
0:04:03 > 0:04:06whichever route the Germans took into France.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19The Belgians put their faith in reinforced concrete forts,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22armed with German Krupp guns.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29The Germans brought massive siege guns - Big Berthas,
0:04:29 > 0:04:33named after Krupp's daughter - to smash them.
0:04:38 > 0:04:43The monster advanced in two parts pulled by 36 horses.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45The pavement trembled.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48Crows went mute with consternation
0:04:48 > 0:04:52at the appearance of this phenomenal apparatus.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Then came the frightful explosion,
0:04:59 > 0:05:04The crowd was flung back, the earth shook like an earthquake
0:05:04 > 0:05:08and all the windowpanes in the vicinity were shattered.
0:05:23 > 0:05:30Colonel Victor Naessens was in Fort Loncin, on the receiving end.
0:05:34 > 0:05:40Once the metal shutters were pulled down, the heavy metal doors shut,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43the fort and its fate were sealed.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51The ventilation system has failed.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54The chimney of the generator is blocked.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58The fort is filling with concrete dust.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02The men's chests heave to get air. They are suffocating.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05They don't look like humans any more,
0:06:05 > 0:06:09their features distorted with agony and hate.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16A German shell had hit the magazine,
0:06:17 > 0:06:21bringing down the 6ft-thick concrete roof,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24crushing 250 soldiers to death,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29The survivors were horrifically burnt.
0:06:34 > 0:06:39By the 16th August, all the forts around Liege had fallen.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42But Belgium's war was only beginning.
0:06:42 > 0:06:47The Germans claimed Belgian civilian snipers - franc-tireurs -
0:06:47 > 0:06:51were firing from garret windows and roof tops.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54In fact, most shots came from retreating units
0:06:54 > 0:06:57of French and Belgian soldiers
0:06:57 > 0:07:02or from nervous German troops shooting at each other.
0:07:04 > 0:07:10Nevertheless, General von Moltke issued a warning to the Belgians.
0:07:10 > 0:07:15Anybody who, in any form, participates without authorisation
0:07:15 > 0:07:21will be considered as franc-tireur and summarily shot on the spot.
0:07:25 > 0:07:30Rare German newsreel of suspected franc-tireurs being taken prisoner.
0:07:34 > 0:07:40Lurid stories filtered back to raw German troops leaving for the front,
0:07:40 > 0:07:43heightening their sense of paranoia.
0:07:44 > 0:07:49At training sessions, we are told about the nastiness of the French,
0:07:49 > 0:07:55that our wounded have their eyes gouged out, noses and ears cut off.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00We are given to understand we are to act without mercy.
0:08:06 > 0:08:14Pressure to maintain a speedy advance through a hostile population led to atrocities.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18Not just the impetuous actions of frightened troops,
0:08:18 > 0:08:23they became part of a plan to terrorise and demoralise the enemy.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27We've been ordered to kill everyone
0:08:27 > 0:08:32and wipe off the map part of the left bank of the Meuse.
0:08:32 > 0:08:37It's a tremendously honourable task and we'll be famous for ever.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44EXPLOSIONS
0:08:46 > 0:08:50The Belgian town of Tamines, on 22nd August 1914.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55French troops kept up a storm of fire at the advancing Germans
0:08:55 > 0:08:57from across the River Sambre.
0:09:00 > 0:09:05The Germans rounded up civilians, including Fernand Scohier,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08for a special task.
0:09:08 > 0:09:14We are forced to advance, acting as a shield for Germans who follow us,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17but they fall, mown down by French bullets.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20One charges at us like a man possessed,
0:09:20 > 0:09:25only stopping when his bayonet has gone through Materne,
0:09:25 > 0:09:28who leaves a widow and three orphans.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30After the French withdrew,
0:09:30 > 0:09:35the Germans were convinced that Belgian snipers were active
0:09:35 > 0:09:37so they torched the town.
0:09:39 > 0:09:44They held hostages, like Adolphe Seron, in the church overnight,
0:09:44 > 0:09:49then escorted them down the Rue de la Station in the morning.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53The soldiers, up on carts, beat us brutally.
0:09:53 > 0:09:58Priests in particular were badly treated - jokes, swearing, blows.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12Nearly 400 men, women and children,
0:10:12 > 0:10:15among them the priest, Father Donnet,
0:10:15 > 0:10:19were herded into the main square by the river bank.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23A German firing squad was waiting for them.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27A whistle blew and the shooting began.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31There was total chaos among the crowd.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34Some fell dead, others pushed blindly.
0:10:34 > 0:10:39I found myself on the ground, the tide moving above me.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43I was suffocating.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46I was hit by two bullets in the kidneys.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50I felt their holes drill into me.
0:10:52 > 0:10:57Arthur Fauvelle fell on top of me, dead.
0:10:57 > 0:11:03However hard I tried, I couldn't get out from under the pile of corpses.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07They cut the head off Achille Leroy, the coalman.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11I saw the head separated from the trunk.
0:11:15 > 0:11:21The ultimate cruelty was when the soldiers checked victims one by one.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24Any still alive they bayoneted violently,
0:11:24 > 0:11:27then threw them in the Sambre.
0:11:39 > 0:11:44Photographs of some of those who remarkably survived German bullets,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47and those who fell victim.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53A total of 6,500 French and Belgian civilians,
0:11:53 > 0:11:59including women and children, were killed in the first month of the war.
0:12:01 > 0:12:06180,000 Belgian refugees crossed the Channel to Britain.
0:12:06 > 0:12:11Stories of German atrocities against plucky little Belgium
0:12:11 > 0:12:16provided propaganda to rally Allied public opinion behind the war.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21The image of the murderous Hun, the barbaric Boche, was born.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32But what drove this nation,
0:12:32 > 0:12:37whose soldiers massacred women and children, razed towns to the ground,
0:12:37 > 0:12:39shot priests,
0:12:39 > 0:12:45yet engraved on their belt buckles, "Gott Mit Uns" - "God is with us"?
0:13:12 > 0:13:15The monument erected outside Leipzig
0:13:15 > 0:13:20to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Nations
0:13:20 > 0:13:22was dedicated yesterday.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26In the interior of the monument is a crypt
0:13:26 > 0:13:31to the honour of the heroes who fell in the fight with Napoleon.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33Amid uproarious cheering,
0:13:33 > 0:13:39the Emperor reached the broad flight of steps to the foot of the monument.
0:13:39 > 0:13:46The whole concourse sang the beautiful chorale, Now Thank We All Our God.
0:13:53 > 0:13:59In 1913, Kaiser Wilhelm II celebrated his silver jubilee.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02Germany had not known war for 40 years
0:14:02 > 0:14:06and was enjoying spectacular economic growth.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13The Kaiser depicted his country
0:14:13 > 0:14:17not as an aggressor with territorial ambitions,
0:14:17 > 0:14:21but as the custodian of international concord.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25- KAISER WILHELM:- Germany is guarding the peace of the earth,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28at the door of the temple of peace,
0:14:28 > 0:14:32not only of Europe but of the whole world.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35But Germany was only as old as that peace,
0:14:35 > 0:14:40welded just 40 years before out of 39 separate states.
0:14:41 > 0:14:47The Leipzig memorial was a building block for German nationalism,
0:14:47 > 0:14:52harking back to a time when German states had joined Britain and Russia
0:14:52 > 0:14:56to defeat Bonaparte's France.
0:14:56 > 0:15:02Its monumental architecture sought to embed the nation's roots in a shared past.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09But the Kaiser, in 1913, realised
0:15:09 > 0:15:14that the unification process was not complete, and that spelt weakness.
0:15:14 > 0:15:19- KAISER WILHELM:- Whereas England forms a political unit,
0:15:19 > 0:15:21Germany resembles a mosaic
0:15:21 > 0:15:26in which the individual pieces are still clearly distinguishable.
0:15:26 > 0:15:32This is shown by the army still made up of contingents from German states
0:15:32 > 0:15:35all wearing different uniforms.
0:15:35 > 0:15:40The young German Reich needs institutions clearly German.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44Beneath one flag, Germany remained extremely diverse -
0:15:44 > 0:15:49Catholic South, Protestant North, rural East
0:15:50 > 0:15:53and industrialised West.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59Germany seemed ultraconservative
0:15:59 > 0:16:05but boasted a modern welfare state, which inspired Britain's pre-1914 reforms.
0:16:05 > 0:16:10I have been shown round one of the new labour exchanges
0:16:10 > 0:16:12by the mayor of Strasbourg.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15I saw some of Germany's poorest fellows
0:16:15 > 0:16:19but they all had an insurance card entitling them
0:16:19 > 0:16:24to benefit in sickness, invalidity, infirmity and old age.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29There is no doubt that these labour exchanges are tremendous.
0:16:29 > 0:16:35The honour of introducing them into England would be a rich reward.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41Men would die for Britain in the First World War who had no vote,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45perhaps half failed to meet the qualifications.
0:16:45 > 0:16:50But in Germany, there was suffrage for all men over 21.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55The largest party in the Reichstag, or parliament, was socialist,
0:16:55 > 0:16:58yet none of this added up to democracy.
0:16:58 > 0:17:04Germany's government was accountable not to her people, via the Reichstag,
0:17:04 > 0:17:06but to her emperor.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10The call for political reform was growing loud
0:17:10 > 0:17:15but Germany entered the First World War governed by an autocrat.
0:17:15 > 0:17:20His character was as burdened by paradox as his country was.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25One day the Kaiser is a soldier-king,
0:17:25 > 0:17:27rigid, traditional.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30Suddenly, he is the reform king,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33embracing the worker as a brother.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35Next, the modern king,
0:17:35 > 0:17:37treating the past with contempt,
0:17:37 > 0:17:44regarding the factory as a temple, with electricity powering all of Germany.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51Kaiser Wilhelm II was Queen Victoria's oldest grandson,
0:17:51 > 0:17:56cousin to both Britain's George V and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
0:17:56 > 0:18:02Wilhelm was born with a withered arm for which he compensated with sports -
0:18:02 > 0:18:05sailing, riding and hunting.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10He had an immature streak, dressing up and playing cruel practical jokes.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19Wilhelm's right arm was incredibly powerful.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21With rings turned inwards,
0:18:21 > 0:18:26he squeezed the hands of dignitaries so hard they would cry out.
0:18:30 > 0:18:35A king's insecurities matter little if he has no power,
0:18:35 > 0:18:41but the Kaiser was Germany's commander in chief, its supreme warlord.
0:18:41 > 0:18:47In no area has the Kaiser views of his own. He doesn't know what to do.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51Sadly, he is putty in the hands of clever people
0:18:51 > 0:18:55and makes surprising leaps of judgment everywhere.
0:18:55 > 0:19:00Everything he decides is motivated by his desire to be popular!
0:19:03 > 0:19:08The Kaiser was most comfortable in the company of his officers.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12He was obsessed with uniforms and militarism.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23His army's ethos was rigidly professional,
0:19:23 > 0:19:27though even in peacetime half were conscripts.
0:19:27 > 0:19:32Highly disciplined, they were guardians of the German state.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34The French were old enemies.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37The last time they'd fought, in 1870,
0:19:37 > 0:19:43the French had used civilian snipers, franc-tireurs, against them.
0:19:43 > 0:19:48The German Chief of Staff's own uncle led that campaign
0:19:48 > 0:19:53and passed on a crucial lesson to the German soldiers of 1914.
0:19:53 > 0:19:59International rules do not work when soldiers are in fear for their lives
0:19:59 > 0:20:04worried that a civilian may pick up a rifle and shoot them.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06It must also be remembered
0:20:06 > 0:20:11that the greatest deed in war is the speedy ending of the war
0:20:11 > 0:20:16and every means to that end must remain open.
0:20:16 > 0:20:22German troops going into Belgium and France used terror from the start.
0:20:22 > 0:20:29Civilians, caught between the weight of historic fears and current military necessities,
0:20:29 > 0:20:33were not going to get the benefit of any doubt.
0:20:38 > 0:20:43Belgian and French forces bore the brunt of the German onslaught.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47They were soon joined by British troops.
0:20:55 > 0:21:00100,000 British Expeditionary Force men crossed the Channel
0:21:00 > 0:21:02in the early weeks of the war.
0:21:02 > 0:21:08On 21st August, British troops moved into position, with the French army,
0:21:08 > 0:21:13near the Belgian town of Mons close to the French border.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25Two days later, the British, with 70,000 men,
0:21:25 > 0:21:30were hit by a German force four times the size.
0:21:32 > 0:21:37I focused the telescope and saw a number of little grey figures.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40More and more were appearing.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55Women started to wail and rushed for home,
0:21:55 > 0:21:58followed by the men,
0:21:58 > 0:22:04while children, torn by curiosity, lagged behind, turning to see.
0:22:06 > 0:22:12In a few seconds, all the civilians were fleeing along the roads.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21The Allies started an epic retreat south,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24just ahead of the German tidal wave.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32The war on the western front did not begin in the trenches.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36The early months were mobile, fast, dangerous.
0:22:36 > 0:22:42In the first four weeks, the German army lost over a quarter of a million men,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45killed, wounded and missing.
0:22:50 > 0:22:55The front was constantly shifting, giving men no time to dig in.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58There was nowhere to hide
0:22:58 > 0:23:03in fields swept by machine guns and rapid-firing artillery.
0:23:08 > 0:23:15British soldier Edward Dwyer won the Victoria Cross on hill 60 in Belgium.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17He was just 19.
0:23:19 > 0:23:24He recalled the retreat from Mons on a sound recording made in 1915.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27He was killed a year later.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31I was already in the army when the war broke out
0:23:31 > 0:23:34and went to France on August 13th, 1914.
0:23:34 > 0:23:39You people over here don't realise what our boys went through then.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42The march from Mons was a nightmare.
0:23:42 > 0:23:47Unless you were there, you can't imagine how agonizing it was.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51We did from 20 to 25 miles a day.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55Only one thing could cheer us up on the march - singing.
0:23:55 > 0:24:00- TUNE OF AULD LANG SYNE: - # We're here because we're here because
0:24:00 > 0:24:04# We're here because we're here
0:24:04 > 0:24:08# We're here because we're here because
0:24:08 > 0:24:11# We're here because we're here. #
0:24:18 > 0:24:24France has just been the object of a violent and premeditated attack.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28She will be heroically defended by all her sons.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32Nothing will break their sacred union.
0:24:32 > 0:24:39Once again, she stands before the universe for liberty, justice and reason.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41Vive la France!
0:24:45 > 0:24:51At the war's start, Poincare had appealed to France for national unity
0:24:51 > 0:24:57By 2nd September 1914, the Germans were just 30 miles from Paris
0:24:57 > 0:25:01and the "sacred union" was starting to crack.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05Trenches were dug, sandbags filled,
0:25:05 > 0:25:08barricades erected.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15The Government left the capital for Bordeaux, triggering a general exodus
0:25:15 > 0:25:21A million Parisians - a third of its inhabitants - fled the city.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31The fate of Paris and France would be decided on the River Marne.
0:25:34 > 0:25:39Fought along a 300-mile front, it was a battle France had to win.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53But although the Germans had their enemy's capital almost in sight,
0:25:53 > 0:25:57their advance was outstripping supply lines.
0:25:57 > 0:26:02There were few lorries in 1914, horses pulled the guns and wagons.
0:26:02 > 0:26:07General von Moltke, the German commander, grew alarmed.
0:26:11 > 0:26:17We have hardly any horses left in the army which can take another step.
0:26:17 > 0:26:19We don't want to fool ourselves.
0:26:19 > 0:26:24We have had successes but we are not victorious yet.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28Victory means annihilation of the enemy's resistance.
0:26:28 > 0:26:33But where are the French prisoners and guns we should have captured?
0:26:33 > 0:26:39The French have retreated in a disciplined way according to a plan.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42The most difficult time lies ahead of us!
0:26:45 > 0:26:49The German right wing was sweeping down towards Paris.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53The French had detached troops from the east,
0:26:53 > 0:26:58moving them by rail to Paris to attack the Germans in their flank.
0:26:58 > 0:27:04The Allies now outnumbered Germans and chose their moment to strike.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06As the Germans neared Paris,
0:27:06 > 0:27:11a dangerous gap opened up between their 1st and 2nd Armies.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15The British Expeditionary Force would be driven in like a wedge.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23To the French, it is their own home, but it makes them mad.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26We somehow fight on with no increased animosity,
0:27:26 > 0:27:30but the French really are giving everything.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33It makes one wonder if people in England realise what the advance
0:27:33 > 0:27:36of an invading army over a country means.
0:27:38 > 0:27:39On the eve of battle,
0:27:39 > 0:27:45the French Commander in Chief, Marshal Joffre, addressed his officers...
0:27:45 > 0:27:51When a battle begins upon which our salvation depends, we cannot look back.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55We must make every effort to repel the enemy.
0:27:55 > 0:28:01Troops who can no longer advance must hold the captured ground
0:28:01 > 0:28:04and die rather than retreat.
0:28:04 > 0:28:11The Marne would consign the battle, fought on a single field in a day, to history.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15It was on the cusp between old warfare and new.
0:28:15 > 0:28:21Around Paris, armies wheeled and manoeuvred as they had for centuries.
0:28:21 > 0:28:27But to the east, the French dug trenches to defend their positions.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31Here the battle lines would become static.
0:28:35 > 0:28:41The Battle of the Marne began on 5th September 1914.
0:28:58 > 0:29:00The fighting has begun.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04French shells explode incessantly in front of us.
0:29:04 > 0:29:06We seek shelter in a sunken lane.
0:29:06 > 0:29:10Stomachs loudly remind us of our hunger.
0:29:10 > 0:29:15Constant shelling makes it impossible to reach up for apples.
0:29:15 > 0:29:17Some block theirs ears
0:29:17 > 0:29:22so as not to lose their nerve with the incessant machine-gun fire.
0:29:22 > 0:29:28Our ranks decimated, we cannot hold this position much longer.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33Pieces of shrapnel whistle past me.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35I felt I had been hit.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38My knee was giving way as I walked.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40I wasn't sure what had happened.
0:29:40 > 0:29:45I stopped and pushed my finger through a hole in my trousers.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48My finger kept on going into my leg.
0:29:48 > 0:29:54We turned towards gunfire rattling out on our right, beyond Barcy,
0:29:54 > 0:29:57where the shrapnel still rains down.
0:29:57 > 0:29:59The houses are burning.
0:30:02 > 0:30:07I hear from both sides. It's our own guns shooting at us!
0:30:07 > 0:30:11I stick very close to the ground, face against the earth.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39For all its modernity,
0:30:39 > 0:30:43there were elements of the battle Napoleon would have recognised.
0:30:45 > 0:30:50Cavalry, armed with lances, played an active role.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53No-one wore tin helmets.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58And, as these original colour photographs of the Marne show,
0:30:58 > 0:31:03some soldiers' uniforms owed more to the parade ground
0:31:03 > 0:31:05than the needs of camouflage.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11There were easy targets in the early months.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14My rifle went to my shoulder.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17Two Frenchmen fell.
0:31:17 > 0:31:19I fired again. Nothing.
0:31:19 > 0:31:21My magazine was empty.
0:31:21 > 0:31:27I reached for my bayonet. I expected to be killed by a bullet any second.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31Then the rest of my men burst through the undergrowth
0:31:31 > 0:31:33and the enemy vanished.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38The Germans were in a shade of field grey.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42The British were even more difficult to spot,
0:31:42 > 0:31:44as another German enviously noted.
0:31:44 > 0:31:50The colour of English clothing is more suited to the terrain than ours
0:31:50 > 0:31:54It's a sort of browny-green, a really dirty colour.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58This is an advantage, although we shall still win.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04With men dug in along so vast a front,
0:32:04 > 0:32:07aerial observation became vital.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11Balloons and planes gathered crucial information.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15They also began to take on a more active role.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22A French plane suddenly appears.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25It turns and drops something.
0:32:25 > 0:32:30The air fills with a whistling, followed by a violent explosion.
0:32:33 > 0:32:35It's dropped a bomb!
0:32:37 > 0:32:41Seven horses killed, three men lost.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44For us, this is something new.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47None of us knows how to defend ourselves
0:32:47 > 0:32:51from this monster of the skies.
0:32:51 > 0:32:56German reconnaissance planes monitored the worsening situation
0:32:56 > 0:32:58at the Marne.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05Pilots' reports went to Count von Bulow's 2nd Army HQ, at Montmort.
0:33:07 > 0:33:13Handwritten reports, like this one, revealed the Allies' steady advance
0:33:13 > 0:33:17into the lethal gap between his men and the 1st Army.
0:33:17 > 0:33:22On 8th September 1914, von Bulow ordered his forces to retreat.
0:33:31 > 0:33:37We continued to fall back, passing through French villages.
0:33:37 > 0:33:42In the faces of every inhabitant, we saw scorn and derision.
0:33:43 > 0:33:49Women leaned out of their windows and thumbed their noses and sneered.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52To them, we were the defeated army.
0:33:56 > 0:34:01The French referred to the battle as "the miracle on the Marne".
0:34:01 > 0:34:07France had been saved but at a cost of a quarter of million casualties,
0:34:07 > 0:34:10the same losses as the Germans.
0:34:10 > 0:34:14No future battle on the western front would average
0:34:14 > 0:34:17so many casualties per day.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21Louis de la Grandiere, a French ambulance driver,
0:34:21 > 0:34:26was based at St Sophie farm, in the thick of the battle.
0:34:33 > 0:34:38We are surrounded by dead bodies, thousands piled one on another.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42We are used to the shelling. We don't even look up.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48The whole area has been devastated,
0:34:48 > 0:34:50the local people gone.
0:35:00 > 0:35:0533 German generals were quietly sacked.
0:35:05 > 0:35:10Moltke was replaced by Erich von Falkenhayn, after a tactful pause.
0:35:10 > 0:35:15The German people were never told the truth about the Marne.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18The myth at the war's end would be
0:35:18 > 0:35:22that the German army was undefeated in the field.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25But, in a sense, they lost the First World War here,
0:35:25 > 0:35:29never having again the chance they had at the Marne
0:35:29 > 0:35:33to win a resounding victory against the Allies.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39Germany was now committed to a long war,
0:35:39 > 0:35:42and she didn't have the resources for it.
0:35:42 > 0:35:46In November 1914, Falkenhayn ordered his troops
0:35:46 > 0:35:51to fall back to high ground and dig in.
0:35:53 > 0:36:00Unable to break through, the Allies had few options but to dig in as well
0:36:04 > 0:36:07The pattern for the western front was now set,
0:36:07 > 0:36:13with its line of trenches stretching from the Channel to Switzerland.
0:36:13 > 0:36:16500 miles of mud and horror
0:36:16 > 0:36:23that would be home to the living and the dead for over three years.
0:36:23 > 0:36:2827-year-old Bernard Montgomery, the future victor of Alamein,
0:36:28 > 0:36:30wrote home to his mother.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33The situation is strange here.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37I eat peppermints with a dead man beside me in the trench.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41German trenches are only 700 yards away.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45The weather is vile, wet, and it's starting to get cold.
0:36:45 > 0:36:51My clothes are soaked and muddy but it is too cold to take them off.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54Any warm things you send will be appreciated.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09Beyond no-man's-land, beyond the German lines,
0:37:09 > 0:37:1411 million French and Belgian men, women and children were learning
0:37:14 > 0:37:20to adapt to their changed lives as civilians under German occupation.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28PIANO PLAYS
0:37:50 > 0:37:53- BOY:- Tuesday, cruel Tuesday.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56The German troops ride past my window.
0:37:56 > 0:38:01I hear a guttural order - aarrarrnchar!
0:38:01 > 0:38:04Soon the town is filled with Boche,
0:38:04 > 0:38:06the beasts, the swines.
0:38:06 > 0:38:08They confiscate all weapons
0:38:08 > 0:38:11and demand a quarter of a million francs in gold.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17The extraordinary diary of a ten-year-old French schoolboy
0:38:17 > 0:38:21titled Journal Of The Franco-Boche war.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29Yves Congar lived with his family
0:38:29 > 0:38:33here, in Sedan, eastern France.
0:38:33 > 0:38:38Yves' mother encouraged him to write a diary during the summer holidays.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41It became a unique record of the Occupation.
0:38:41 > 0:38:46What Yves had seen when the Germans marched into Sedan
0:38:46 > 0:38:48was forced requisitioning.
0:38:57 > 0:38:59At the outset,
0:38:59 > 0:39:04Germany adopted a policy of state intervention for war production.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07In peacetime, Germany imported raw materials
0:39:07 > 0:39:11but she knew that the Allies would impose a blockade.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15So German industrialist Walter Rathenau drew up plans
0:39:15 > 0:39:20to ensure the most effective use of what materials Germany had.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25But after a few weeks of war,
0:39:25 > 0:39:31Germany had most of France and Belgium's industrial and mineral resources
0:39:31 > 0:39:34at its disposal.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37These were now taken back to Germany -
0:39:37 > 0:39:43millions of tons of raw materials, plant and foodstuffs.
0:39:48 > 0:39:52But the asset-stripping wasn't limited to government.
0:39:52 > 0:39:58The German army was ordered to live off the occupied territories.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01What the soldiers wanted, they took.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06Moved on towards Fromelles.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10The inhabitants were pensioners.
0:40:10 > 0:40:15Our boys found a stash of wine and eggs... We helped ourselves.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22In the meantime, the church was shot to bits.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25Not a single house was spared.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29They have taken, rather stolen, from us -
0:40:29 > 0:40:35straw, copper, oats and the belongings of over 8 million people.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38They have looted cellars, empty houses,
0:40:38 > 0:40:44the walnut trees, the telegraph poles and the livestock.
0:40:48 > 0:40:53One doctor in Lille pleaded with the German authorities.
0:40:53 > 0:40:58My patient, Mme Lefebre, is 86 years old.
0:40:58 > 0:41:03She is in a state of great weakness and serious malnutrition
0:41:03 > 0:41:08which makes it absolutely necessary for her to keep her mattress.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17It wasn't just material loss.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21The Germans rounded up thousands of teenage boys and girls
0:41:21 > 0:41:24for forced labour.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28- WOMAN:- The last three weeks we have spent
0:41:28 > 0:41:33in terrible anguish and moral torture possible for a mother.
0:41:33 > 0:41:38At 3am, these German heroes go out with a military band,
0:41:38 > 0:41:40machine guns and bayonets fixed,
0:41:40 > 0:41:45to hunt down women and children to take them away.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47God knows where or why.
0:41:53 > 0:41:57Yves's brother got a job at the railway station.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01Robert is unloading wagons of animal carcasses,
0:42:01 > 0:42:07already green, covered with rotten pieces of flesh crawling with vermin
0:42:07 > 0:42:13He has to touch these stinking dead animals with his bare hands.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23Occupied France was run like a military state
0:42:23 > 0:42:28as this film of the German military police in Lille shows.
0:42:28 > 0:42:33Clocks were set to German time, new identity papers issued.
0:42:36 > 0:42:40The Germans generally made us parade at 5am.
0:42:40 > 0:42:45One night, however, the whole commune was called out at 1am.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49An old man of 92 asked to be allowed to stay in bed
0:42:49 > 0:42:54but the troops made fun of him, pushed him out of the house
0:42:54 > 0:42:58and said that "fresh air was good for the dying".
0:43:00 > 0:43:04Ordinary people had stark choices to make
0:43:04 > 0:43:07about how to deal with the occupation.
0:43:08 > 0:43:14There was some resistance against the Germans, mostly passive.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21Belgian opposition was spurred on
0:43:21 > 0:43:25by the head of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Mercier.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29His letter, Patriotism and Endurance, was read out
0:43:29 > 0:43:32in every church in February 1915.
0:43:32 > 0:43:37God will save Belgium, my brethren, you cannot doubt it.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39Nay, rather, He is saving her.
0:43:39 > 0:43:44Across the smoke of conflagration, across the stream of blood,
0:43:44 > 0:43:48have you not glimpses of His love for us?
0:43:48 > 0:43:53There is no perfect Christian who is not also a perfect patriot.
0:43:53 > 0:43:57Whence, in truth, comes this irresistible impulse,
0:43:57 > 0:44:00which carries the will of the whole nation
0:44:00 > 0:44:06in a single effort of resistance in the face of the hostile menace?
0:44:07 > 0:44:09Mercier kept up his resistance,
0:44:09 > 0:44:14calling the Germans "an army of evil" and "Lucifer's own".
0:44:14 > 0:44:19This embarrassed not just the Germans but the Vatican.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22Like Pope Pius XII during the Second World War,
0:44:22 > 0:44:27Pope Benedict XV refused to condemn German atrocities.
0:44:27 > 0:44:33The Germans placed Mercier under house arrest in a bid to silence him
0:44:33 > 0:44:36but it only increased his popularity.
0:44:36 > 0:44:40The Germans also unwittingly created another martyr.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48Edith Cavell was the British matron of a hospital in Brussels.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52After Belgium was overrun,
0:44:52 > 0:44:57she helped Allied soldiers escape into neutral Holland.
0:44:58 > 0:45:03In August 1915, she was caught, tried and condemned to death.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07The night before her execution by firing squad,
0:45:07 > 0:45:09she told the prison chaplain...
0:45:09 > 0:45:12I have no fear or shrinking.
0:45:12 > 0:45:17I have seen death so often that it is not fearful or strange to me.
0:45:17 > 0:45:23This I would say, standing as I do, in view of God and eternity -
0:45:23 > 0:45:25patriotism is not enough.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29I must have no hatred or bitterness against anyone.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33The British exploited to the hilt
0:45:33 > 0:45:36stories of German atrocities against women,
0:45:36 > 0:45:39especially the shooting of Edith Cavell.
0:45:39 > 0:45:44Films like this one were made to show in neutral countries,
0:45:44 > 0:45:47particularly America.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00I closed her eyes and placed her body in the coffin.
0:46:00 > 0:46:03She was the bravest woman I ever met,
0:46:03 > 0:46:07going to her death with poise and bearing.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11She had, however, acted as a man towards the Germans,
0:46:11 > 0:46:14and deserved to be punished as a man.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23The Germans rounded up underground leaders,
0:46:23 > 0:46:26then posted notices of their execution.
0:46:26 > 0:46:32They used another method to ensure civil obedience. They took hostages,
0:46:32 > 0:46:36including Yves Congar's father.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39The hour is near.
0:46:39 > 0:46:44The last meal together, the goodbyes, the hugs.
0:46:44 > 0:46:46I want to cry.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50Father walks to the station with us boys.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53I bite my lip and feel my eyes tightening.
0:46:53 > 0:46:58Father says, "I love you. Farewell. Remember me",
0:46:58 > 0:47:01then he kissed us.
0:47:01 > 0:47:07Every night I'll say a prayer for my father and the other hostages.
0:47:07 > 0:47:12Civilian men, women and children were packed into cattle trucks,
0:47:12 > 0:47:17sent to concentration camps as hostages and forced labourers.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21Several thousand French and 58,000 Belgians.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27The rounding up of civilians by the enemy has been tragic.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31The weaker, because they were the most harmless, were detained
0:47:31 > 0:47:33without understanding the reason for their arrest
0:47:33 > 0:47:40without time to collect belongings, considered as criminals,
0:47:40 > 0:47:43taken to camps to assure security in occupied areas.
0:47:43 > 0:47:49These civilians became simple pawns in the hands of their captors.
0:47:49 > 0:47:51A doctor's daughter from Lille
0:47:51 > 0:47:54learned what her father was suffering.
0:47:54 > 0:47:58Papa was locked up for five days for refusing to assist an operation
0:47:58 > 0:48:00carried out by a Bosch.
0:48:00 > 0:48:03All food packages are opened and classified.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06The prisoners come each day to collect their provisions,
0:48:06 > 0:48:08but there is only one container.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12Milk, fish, fruit, all tipped into one bucket,
0:48:12 > 0:48:15because the Germans use the tins to make grenades.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42Far from being broken by the German occupation,
0:48:42 > 0:48:46Yves Congar, a prisoner in the Second World War, was politicised by it.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53There's hardly any bread.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56The swines will leave us to die of hunger.
0:48:56 > 0:49:02Too bad. After all, we are French and if we have to die,
0:49:02 > 0:49:06we shall die, but France will be victorious.