0:00:22 > 0:00:24From the start of the First World War,
0:00:24 > 0:00:28Germany seized on Britain's greatest weakness - a vast empire,
0:00:28 > 0:00:31hard to defend, fatal to lose.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35The gamble was that Britain might risk everything to protect it,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38even victory on the Western Front.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47War for Europe meant war for the world.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31It was Germany's idea to take the war beyond Europe,
0:01:31 > 0:01:35but it wasn't a bid for expansion, let alone world domination.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40The aim was to take the pressure off her armies in Europe
0:01:40 > 0:01:44by attacking the British Empire,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47hoping to divert Britain's troops, ships and resources
0:01:47 > 0:01:49to defend distant colonies.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54Britain also had no thought of a bigger Empire.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57She just didn't want to lose the one she had.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01So while Germany wanted to open the war up around the globe,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04Britain was desperate to close it down.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12Maurice Hankey, secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence,
0:02:12 > 0:02:15realised the Empire was Britain's Achilles heel,
0:02:15 > 0:02:17and warned against Germany using it
0:02:17 > 0:02:19to distract Britain from her war effort.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25Forces must not be diverted to minor operations
0:02:25 > 0:02:29to the prejudice of the concentration in the main theatre
0:02:29 > 0:02:31and the safety of the trade routes.
0:02:36 > 0:02:3715 years before,
0:02:37 > 0:02:41Germany had proclaimed herself an empire-builder.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44The Kaiser had taken his country into the 20th century
0:02:44 > 0:02:48as a German admiral creating a global German navy.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55Weltpolitik was the big idea.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57a policy of overseas imperialism,
0:02:57 > 0:03:01the brainchild of his Foreign Secretary Bernhard von Bulow.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07VON BULOW: The days when the Germans left the earth to one neighbour,
0:03:07 > 0:03:13the sea to another and kept only the heavens for themselves, are over.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16We don't want to put anyone in the shade.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19But we, too, demand our place in the sun.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24Germany had come late to the game of Empires,
0:03:24 > 0:03:29but by 1900 she had Togoland, Cameroon, German Southwest Africa,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33now Namibia, and German East Africa, now Tanzania.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39Her flag flew over patches in the Pacific - New Guinea,
0:03:39 > 0:03:42Samoa and Micronesia.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47She had a toe-hold in China at Tsingtao,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50where she re-coaled her ships and brewed beer.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz saw this as just the start.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01We are now standing only at the beginning of a new division
0:04:01 > 0:04:02of the globe.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10Germany alarmed the world with her imperial tub-thumping.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13She eyed up Puerto Rico, and considered pouncing on
0:04:13 > 0:04:16the Panama Canal the minute it was completed.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25But the boldest of all the Kaiser's schemes was Operational Plan III.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29The East Coast is the heart of the US
0:04:29 > 0:04:32and this is where she is most vulnerable.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35New York will panic at the prospect of bombardment.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38By hitting her here we can force America to negotiate.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50Germany's secret plans from 1903 - to attack the Eastern seaboard
0:04:50 > 0:04:53with 60 ships and 100,000 men,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56to shell Manhattan and capture Boston.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06The outlandish scheme was driven by the Kaiser's resentment
0:05:06 > 0:05:09of America's growing power in the Pacific.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13He believed in a militarist state
0:05:13 > 0:05:15and increasingly hated what the West stood for.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23Service to Mammon, greed, self-indulgence, land-grabbing,
0:05:23 > 0:05:27lying, treachery and not least murder.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31The Kaiser thought capitalism was vulnerable,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34that a strong enough attack on its international systems of trade,
0:05:34 > 0:05:38credit and insurance could bring the edifice tumbling down.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42Operational Plan III was dropped,
0:05:42 > 0:05:45but not the hostility towards capitalist empires.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59By 1912, Germany had traded in Weltpolitik
0:05:59 > 0:06:01for a more realistic policy.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06Now her military machine prepared for a European, not a global war,
0:06:06 > 0:06:09and the army got the budget increase, not the navy.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16The first day of war found Germany's High Seas Fleet trapped
0:06:16 > 0:06:18by the mighty British Navy in the North Sea.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25And all the German Navy had to threaten the entire British Empire
0:06:25 > 0:06:27was a scattered force of 17 cruisers
0:06:27 > 0:06:30linked by a wireless network to Berlin.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39There was the Koenigsberg off East Africa,
0:06:39 > 0:06:41the Goeben and the Breslau in the Mediterranean,
0:06:43 > 0:06:46the Dresden and Karlsruhe in the West Indies,
0:06:47 > 0:06:51the Leipzig off the west coast of America,
0:06:52 > 0:06:55but the greatest concentration of cruisers
0:06:55 > 0:06:58was Admiral Graf von Spee's powerful East Asiatic Squadron,
0:06:58 > 0:07:00based at Tsingtao in China.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11Tsingtao gave Germany a huge area of operations,
0:07:11 > 0:07:14across the South China Sea, and into the Pacific.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18Seizing it would cut the Squadron's lifeline.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23Britain saw the urgency, but lacked the resources.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27So, two days into the war, she turned to her ally Japan.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35Japan was a growing power,
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Britain's call for naval help suited her ambitions perfectly.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45Together, Britain and Japan would capture Tsingtao,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48vital German base, and the Kaiser's pride and joy.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55It would shame me more to surrender Tsingtao to the Japanese
0:07:55 > 0:07:57than Berlin to the Russians.
0:07:59 > 0:08:05On 2nd September 1914, 60,000 Japanese troops landed up the coast,
0:08:05 > 0:08:07violating China's neutrality.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11They met up with 2,000 British,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14and closed in on the German garrison of 4,500.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19It's unbearable.
0:08:19 > 0:08:24All we can do is sit and wait for this bunch of monkeys to arrive.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26Every day, they get a bit closer.
0:08:26 > 0:08:32No-one expects to get home in one piece. No hope of reinforcements.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35The noose around our necks is getting tighter and tighter.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47For a solid week, the Japanese battered Tsingtao.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54On 7th November, they entered the town in triumph.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Some Germans sneered at the token British force,
0:09:02 > 0:09:05for getting the Japanese to do their dirty work.
0:09:05 > 0:09:06The brave British!
0:09:07 > 0:09:10They played no part in the capture of Tsingtao
0:09:10 > 0:09:14but they joined in the victory parade.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18As they went by, we Germans were ordered to turn our backs on them.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21The English complained to the Japanese commander
0:09:21 > 0:09:26but he said, "We can't repeat the procession just because of that."
0:09:32 > 0:09:34The capture of Tsingtao gave Japan a launch pad
0:09:34 > 0:09:37to pursue her empire building.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41Within weeks she demanded territory and trading rights from China.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46Japan also seized all German possessions north of the Equator.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51Australia and New Zealand were quick to steal those to the south.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57Much to America's frustration,
0:09:57 > 0:10:00Britain had empowered Japan in the Pacific.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04Key stage in a process
0:10:04 > 0:10:07that would lead, a quarter of a century later, to Pearl Harbor.
0:10:14 > 0:10:19Germany's loss of Tsingtao, far from neutralising Spee's squadron,
0:10:19 > 0:10:22ensured its destructive power would be felt around the globe.
0:10:25 > 0:10:30The best German cruiser commanders, like Spee, were fearless mavericks
0:10:30 > 0:10:32whom the war turned into heroes.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35Superb sailors, with the instincts of pirates.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39The Kaiser had given them full authority
0:10:39 > 0:10:42to make their own decisions in wartime.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46The heavy responsibility of the officer in command will be increased
0:10:46 > 0:10:49by the isolated position of his ship.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52But he must never show one moment of weakness.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Above all, the officer must bear in mind that his chief duty
0:10:56 > 0:11:00is to damage the enemy as severely as possible.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06Spee now split his squadron.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10The light cruiser Emden, under Captain Karl von Mueller,
0:11:10 > 0:11:12made for the Bay of Bengal.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16Spee, in the Scharnhorst, led his other ships across the Pacific.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24I'm quite homeless, I cannot reach Germany.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28I must plough the seas of the world doing as much mischief as I can.
0:11:32 > 0:11:33At the Admiralty in London,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36Winston Churchill fretted about where Spee would show up next.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42The vastness of the Pacific and its multitude of islands
0:11:42 > 0:11:44offered him their shelter
0:11:44 > 0:11:48And once he had vanished, who should say where he would reappear?
0:11:49 > 0:11:52He was a cut flower in a vase,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55fair to see, yet bound to die.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59But, so long as he lived, all our enterprises lay under the shadow
0:11:59 > 0:12:02of a serious potential danger.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09Spee had a constant worry.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13Cruisers needed coal every eight or nine days
0:12:13 > 0:12:14or they'd be dead in the water.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20He made for neutral Chile where he had coal waiting for him.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30On 1st November 1914, he ran into a British fleet off Coronel.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40The battle which followed inspired a post-war feature film.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47The British commander was Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock,
0:12:47 > 0:12:48under orders from London.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54It appears that Gneisenau and Scharnhorst are working across
0:12:54 > 0:12:57to South America. Be prepared to meet them in company.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03Cradock had one ship that could outgun Spee's fleet,
0:13:03 > 0:13:05but she was slow and had been left behind.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11Now Cradock raced towards enemy ships better armed than his.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13He had ignored his own rule of thumb.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21CRADOCK: A naval officer should never let his boat
0:13:21 > 0:13:23go faster than his brain.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27- SPEE:- I immediately ordered Scharnhorst and Gneisenau
0:13:27 > 0:13:29to go full steam ahead, and within 15 minutes
0:13:29 > 0:13:33I was racing against heavy seas at 20 knots
0:13:33 > 0:13:35and came to lie parallel with him.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Cradock's ships were no match for Spee's.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48Good Hope and Monmouth were obviously in distress.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51Monmouth yawed off to starboard, burning furiously.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54There was a terrible explosion on Good Hope
0:13:54 > 0:13:57between her main mast and after funnel.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00The gust of flames reached a height of over 200 feet,
0:14:00 > 0:14:03lighting up a cloud of debris that was flung still higher in the air.
0:14:13 > 0:14:151,600 British sailors were lost.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18It was Britain's worst naval defeat for 250 years.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23The global war was going Germany's way.
0:14:29 > 0:14:34It is only when you get to see and realise what India is,
0:14:34 > 0:14:38that she is the strength and the greatness of England,
0:14:38 > 0:14:43it is only then that you feel that every nerve a man may strain,
0:14:43 > 0:14:45every energy he may put forward,
0:14:45 > 0:14:48cannot be devoted to a nobler purpose
0:14:48 > 0:14:54than keeping tight the cords that hold India to ourselves.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58Britain's Empire and trading network
0:14:58 > 0:15:01was the single biggest resource she brought to the war.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05And India was at the heart of it.
0:15:08 > 0:15:10The cords were never tighter.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13All the more reason for Germany to want them cut.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22These slender lines on the map were now the focus of intense study
0:15:22 > 0:15:24in the British and German admiralties
0:15:24 > 0:15:26and chartrooms of warships.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30Fingers traced shipping lanes - through the Suez Canal,
0:15:30 > 0:15:32around South Africa's Cape.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37Minds pondered how to protect them, how to sever them.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44One of the sharpest minds was on the bridge of the German cruiser Emden.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47A month after she left Admiral Spee's squadron,
0:15:47 > 0:15:50Captain Karl von Mueller steered her into the Bay of Bengal.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57In 1932, the Germans made a feature film about his odyssey.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07He had an indescribable power over the entire crew.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11He never gave orders, he just expressed a wish.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15From the moment he took command of the ship, he never left the bridge.
0:16:15 > 0:16:20This is where he stood, slept, sat, studied the maps.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24This is where he wanted to be - stand or fall.
0:16:28 > 0:16:30The Emden sometimes rigged a dummy funnel
0:16:30 > 0:16:32to look like a British cruiser.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40A large steamer appeared dead ahead
0:16:40 > 0:16:42and, thinking we were an English man-of-war,
0:16:42 > 0:16:47was so overjoyed at our presence, that she hoisted a huge British flag.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51I'd like to have seen her captain's face when we hoisted our flag
0:16:51 > 0:16:54and invited him most graciously to tarry with us awhile.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00Captain Mueller became famous for taking crew and passengers
0:17:00 > 0:17:04safely onto the Emden, before sinking their ship.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06BELL RINGS
0:17:06 > 0:17:09We always allowed them time to collect and take with them
0:17:09 > 0:17:11their personal possessions.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15They usually devoted most of this time to making certain
0:17:15 > 0:17:19that their precious supply of whisky was not wasted on the fishes.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23Mueller regularly released his grateful captives.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31Such was the Emden's impact, that the British Admiralty later drew up
0:17:31 > 0:17:33this chart to track her movements.
0:17:38 > 0:17:39Mueller even had the audacity
0:17:39 > 0:17:42to steam into the Indian port of Madras,
0:17:42 > 0:17:44as a crew member recorded in his diary.
0:17:47 > 0:17:4922nd September 1914.
0:17:49 > 0:17:529.30pm.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56The Emden sneaks closer, then fires 125 shots.
0:17:56 > 0:17:58Some hit boats in the harbour.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02Huge columns of fire rise above the oil tanks.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05The coastal defences open fire, but they all fall short.
0:18:08 > 0:18:1023rd September.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12We are now 100 miles away.
0:18:12 > 0:18:14We can still see the fires at Madras.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25In the City of London, freight rates and shipping insurance rocketed.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30At one point, the whole British trade fleet in the Bay of Bengal
0:18:30 > 0:18:32was kept in harbour,
0:18:32 > 0:18:34rather than fall prey to dashing Captain Mueller.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40Germany's rogue cruisers
0:18:40 > 0:18:42were starting to harm Britain's war effort
0:18:44 > 0:18:49Three transports are delayed in Calcutta through fear of Emden.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53This involves delaying transport of artillery and cavalry.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55The Cabinet took a strong view.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59The extirpation of these pests is a most important subject.
0:19:02 > 0:19:03While the Emden ran the British ragged
0:19:03 > 0:19:05at one end of the Indian Ocean,
0:19:05 > 0:19:0825 Royal Navy warships hunted the cruiser Koenigsberg
0:19:08 > 0:19:11at the other, off the coast of Germany's East African colony.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16She had raided Zanzibar and sunk a British light cruiser
0:19:16 > 0:19:18from her secret hideout in the Rufiji delta.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24The frustrated British decided to strangle all her possible bases,
0:19:24 > 0:19:25starting with the port of Tanga.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38On 2nd November 1914, the British steamed into this bay.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44In the global war, Imperial Powers got others to do their fighting.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46Most of the British troops were Indian.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54Their arrival was closely watched by Thomas Plantan,
0:19:54 > 0:19:57a 16-year-old African fighting for the Germans.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03The approaching British ships had all their lights blazing
0:20:03 > 0:20:06and seemed to be making no attempt to conceal their presence.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10We were in position with machine guns, waiting in ambush for them,
0:20:10 > 0:20:14and many of them were killed when they started to come ashore.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17A lot of them were killed before they even got out of the water.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26Thomas Plantan was one of 2,500 men under German commander
0:20:26 > 0:20:28Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33The British thought taking Tanga would be a pushover,
0:20:33 > 0:20:35but they reckoned without Lettow.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41He was a professional Prussian soldier, hard as nails, charismatic.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47He was a remarkable soldier, but stubborn and single-minded
0:20:47 > 0:20:49to a degree I have fortunately never experienced before.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52His most remarkable quality was the reckless energy
0:20:52 > 0:20:54with which he pursued goals.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58This was often covered up by his persuasive charm,
0:20:58 > 0:21:00which he could switch on if he wanted to.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07On the ship to Africa, von Lettow had met Karen Blixen,
0:21:07 > 0:21:09who later wrote Out of Africa.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11He clearly turned on the charm for her.
0:21:12 > 0:21:18A German officer, who belongs to a very old Mecklenburger family,
0:21:18 > 0:21:20has been such a friend to me.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23You should hear how they talk about him out here.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25As the greatest genius of the age.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31Despite losing men during the landing,
0:21:31 > 0:21:33the British now threatened Tanga.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37Governor Schnee ordered Lettow to evacuate the town
0:21:37 > 0:21:39rather than see it destroyed,
0:21:39 > 0:21:42but Lettow had come to Africa to fight.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47LETTOW: It was crucial to prevent the enemy from gaining a foothold
0:21:47 > 0:21:51in Tanga, thus giving him a base from which to advance north.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54I couldn't let the Governor's order to spare Tanga
0:21:54 > 0:21:56take precedence over this priority.
0:22:00 > 0:22:05Lettow recced the British positions himself on his bicycle.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11He also called in reinforcements.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17Three companies of German troops came by rail to Tanga.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21Here, on 4th November 1914,
0:22:21 > 0:22:25they met the British Indian soldiers, raw and poorly trained.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33British intelligence officer Richard Meinertzhagen
0:22:33 > 0:22:35watched the ensuing rout.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39Half the 13th Rajputs turned at once, broke into a rabble and bolted.
0:22:39 > 0:22:41I could not believe my eyes.
0:22:41 > 0:22:43They were all jabbering like terrified monkeys
0:22:43 > 0:22:46and were clearly not for it at any price.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53Everyone in the dense forest, friend and foe, was mixed up together,
0:22:53 > 0:22:55shouting in all sorts of languages.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58The enemy ran off in wild disorder
0:22:58 > 0:23:02and our machine guns mowed down whole companies to the last man.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08von Lettow was based here at the German hospital.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16After two days of heavy fighting,
0:23:16 > 0:23:17the British sent Richard Meinertzhagen
0:23:17 > 0:23:20to the German HQ to negotiate a surrender.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25The Germans were kindness itself
0:23:25 > 0:23:28and gave me an excellent breakfast, which I sorely needed.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32We discussed the fight freely as though it had been a football match.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37It seemed odd that I should be having a meal today
0:23:37 > 0:23:41with people whom I was trying to kill yesterday.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45It seemed so wrong and made me wonder whether this really was war
0:23:45 > 0:23:48or whether we'd all made a ghastly mistake.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55The German officers were all hard-looking, keen and fit.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57They treated this war as some new form of sport.
0:24:02 > 0:24:07The British failed to take Tanga and suffered 700 casualties.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09Lettow lost just 65.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12Germany hailed him as a hero.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16A German David is fighting alone
0:24:16 > 0:24:19against the British Goliath in Africa.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22If we cannot fight by his side,
0:24:22 > 0:24:25at least we must make sure that he is well supplied
0:24:25 > 0:24:27with shot for his sling.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31But the British blockade of Germany
0:24:31 > 0:24:33prevented reinforcements reaching Lettow.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40Further east, across the Indian Ocean,
0:24:40 > 0:24:42Mueller was still causing havoc.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47He'd sunk two warships and captured 23 merchant ships.
0:24:50 > 0:24:55On 9th November 1914, the Emden anchored at the Cocos Islands
0:24:55 > 0:24:57to destroy the British wireless station.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03But the radio operator spotted the Emden's bogus fourth funnel
0:25:03 > 0:25:04and put out a call for help.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09The Australian cruiser Sydney picked up the message
0:25:09 > 0:25:11and ended the Emden's maverick career.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23Captain Mueller was taken prisoner.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26He and the other survivors were well looked after.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31Dear loved ones, I'm well and healthy.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33The British were very friendly.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36They took loads of photos of us
0:25:36 > 0:25:39and asked for our addresses to send us the snaps.
0:25:39 > 0:25:40Yours, Walter.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49Now Admiral Graf von Spee's luck also ran out.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54Britain took the risk of detaching two of her latest battle cruisers
0:25:54 > 0:25:57from the crucial North Sea blockade of Germany to deal with him.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02On 8th December 1914,
0:26:02 > 0:26:06German Commander Hans Pochhammer sighted their huge masts
0:26:06 > 0:26:09as they re-coaled in Port Stanley on the Falkland Islands.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15He realised the Germans were out-gunned and out-paced.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20We choked a little at the neck, our throats contracted and stiffened,
0:26:20 > 0:26:23for that meant a life and death grapple,
0:26:23 > 0:26:25or rather a fight ending in honourable death.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30The German fleet tried to get away,
0:26:30 > 0:26:32but the British battle-cruisers were too fast.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37At 1.25pm Spee turned to face them.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42But the British were careful to stay out of range of his guns,
0:26:42 > 0:26:45firing their own from 16,000 yards.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58Lieutenant Harry Bennett on HMS Canopus watched what happened
0:26:58 > 0:27:00and painted these watercolours.
0:27:03 > 0:27:08At 4.17pm, the Scharnhorst went down with Admiral von Spee and all hands.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16At 6.02pm, the Gneisenau sank with most of its crew,
0:27:16 > 0:27:19including Spee's younger son Heinrich.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24His other son Otto was on the doomed Nurnberg.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30The sight was one of fearful awe.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33She turned over and sank with a graceful gliding motion,
0:27:33 > 0:27:37as would a tumbler pressed over in a bowl of water.
0:27:37 > 0:27:39Those who went down were game to the end,
0:27:39 > 0:27:42for we saw a party of her men standing on the quarterdeck
0:27:42 > 0:27:45waving the German ensign as she sank,
0:27:45 > 0:27:49and so they went down into their watery grave.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55The Battle of the Falklands
0:27:55 > 0:27:58heralded the end of Germany's cruiser campaign.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02Her global war would increasingly have to be fought on land.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05Again, her commanders would stretch slim resources
0:28:05 > 0:28:07to lead the British Empire a dance.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27The Suez Canal presented a rare opportunity
0:28:27 > 0:28:30for Germany to harass the British Empire,
0:28:30 > 0:28:34a crucial British sea-lane vulnerable to attack by land forces.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40But Germany couldn't spare any men from the Western Front,
0:28:40 > 0:28:45so Berlin turned to Ottoman Turkey, her ally since November 1914.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59The Turkish 4th Army was stationed in Palestine,
0:28:59 > 0:29:02just 150 miles from the Suez Canal.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12The Turks agreed to help capture Suez, assigning these 19,000 troops.
0:29:14 > 0:29:17They saw it as the first stage in their re-conquest
0:29:17 > 0:29:19of Egypt and Libya.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27We marched at night and only by moonlight.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30My heart was filled with a deep melancholy,
0:29:30 > 0:29:33mingled with great hope of success,
0:29:33 > 0:29:37at the sound of the song, The Red Flag Flies Over Cairo
0:29:37 > 0:29:40to the accompaniment of which the advancing battalions forged ahead
0:29:40 > 0:29:43over the endless waste of desert,
0:29:43 > 0:29:47feebly illuminated by the pale gleam of the waxing moon.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54The Turks had to transport howitzers, floating pontoons,
0:29:54 > 0:29:57food and water across the Sinai Desert,
0:29:57 > 0:29:59and didn't lose a single man.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07In the early hours of 3rd February 1915 they reached the Suez Canal.
0:30:09 > 0:30:11The German colonel who had planned the operation
0:30:11 > 0:30:13now watched it go horribly wrong.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19A sentry noticed our attack and fired.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21The shots created panic.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24The English then blasted the banks with machine-gun fire.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37The Turks found the Canal defended by nine British warships
0:30:37 > 0:30:41and 30,000 Indian troops, dug in to defensive positions.
0:30:42 > 0:30:46The Ottoman troops suffered 1,200 casualties.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49The survivors retreated across the desert.
0:30:54 > 0:30:55The attack had failed,
0:30:55 > 0:30:59but Africa was now a battleground in Germany's global war.
0:31:01 > 0:31:06She had three bases of operations - the Cameroons, German East Africa,
0:31:06 > 0:31:08where Lettow was still at large,
0:31:08 > 0:31:11and German Southwest Africa, with its ports and wireless stations.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17Luckily for Britain, she had a colony right next door.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20Unluckily, it was the one whose loyalty she could least rely on.
0:31:25 > 0:31:29The Union of South Africa was racially diverse -
0:31:29 > 0:31:33blacks, Boers and British settlers.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35Just 15 years before,
0:31:35 > 0:31:39Britain had fought a long, bloody war against the Boers.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42Many still had little love for Britain.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45Their loyalty could not be counted on.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49As one commander told South Africa's Prime Minister, Louis Botha...
0:31:49 > 0:31:53My men are ready, whom do we fight - the English or the Germans?
0:31:56 > 0:31:58But South Africa was ideally situated
0:31:58 > 0:32:01to launch an attack on German Southwest Africa.
0:32:03 > 0:32:07British Colonial Secretary Lewis Harcourt took the gamble.
0:32:09 > 0:32:11If your ministers desire
0:32:11 > 0:32:15and feel themselves able to seize such part of German Southwest Africa
0:32:15 > 0:32:19as will give them the command of the wireless stations there,
0:32:19 > 0:32:22we should feel this was a great and urgent Imperial service.
0:32:24 > 0:32:26South Africa's government readily agreed
0:32:26 > 0:32:30because it had mini-imperial ambitions of its own.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33It wanted to seize German Southwest for itself.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41On 14th September 1914,
0:32:41 > 0:32:45South African forces crossed the Orange river into German Southwest.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53But the Germans were one jump ahead, as the South Africans found out
0:32:53 > 0:32:56when they paused at the watering hole of Sandfontein.
0:33:05 > 0:33:07MACHINE GUN FIRE
0:33:07 > 0:33:09SHELLS EXPLODE
0:33:21 > 0:33:25The South Africans were beaten, but there was worse to come.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41Part of South Africa now rose up in armed rebellion.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45Commanding the forces in the Northern Cape was Manie Maritz.
0:33:46 > 0:33:48Fearless and uncompromising,
0:33:48 > 0:33:51Maritz had fought a vicious guerrilla campaign
0:33:51 > 0:33:52against Britain in the Boer War.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59His sympathies lay entirely with Germany.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03MARITZ: I received a telegram ordering me to take a large commando
0:34:03 > 0:34:05into German Southwest Africa.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09I was determined not to fight on behalf of the British Empire,
0:34:09 > 0:34:12and my officers and troops were in full accord with me.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17In October 1914, Manie Maritz crossed the Orange River
0:34:17 > 0:34:21into German territory at Schuit Drift to enlist German support.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42Two days later, Maritz addressed his troops under this tree.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47Now, men, we don't want to be ruled by the Jews
0:34:47 > 0:34:51and the financiers of England.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54General Beyers, General de Wet and myself have decided
0:34:54 > 0:34:57to form an independent South African Republic,
0:34:57 > 0:34:59and have entered into an agreement
0:34:59 > 0:35:02with the Governor of German Southwest Africa.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07They will provide us with arms and ammunition, guns.
0:35:09 > 0:35:14On this step depends the freedom of the masses of the country.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22Britain's request for help had brought her dominion
0:35:22 > 0:35:24to the brink of civil war.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29In London, the Colonial Secretary Lewis Harcourt feared
0:35:29 > 0:35:31the break-up of the Union of South Africa.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35He secretly ordered 30,000 Australian soldiers
0:35:35 > 0:35:37diverted to the Cape to smother the rebellion.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44Safety of the Union is first and paramount consideration.
0:35:44 > 0:35:49We attach no importance to German Southwest Africa in comparison.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54The Australians weren't needed.
0:35:54 > 0:35:59In the winter of 1914, loyal South Africans defeated the Boer rebels.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04This is rare film of 50 of them being led to trial in Cape Town.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06But they never caught Manie Maritz.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13By July 1915, South Africa cornered the Germans,
0:36:13 > 0:36:17forced their surrender, and annexed their colony.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23And Britain had more work for South Africa,
0:36:23 > 0:36:26north this time, to deal once and for all with von Lettow.
0:36:29 > 0:36:32London turned to South Africa's Defence Minister
0:36:32 > 0:36:34to lead the campaign - Jannie Smuts.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39Smuts, too, had fought in the Boer War,
0:36:39 > 0:36:41but was now passionately pro-British.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44More a statesman than a soldier,
0:36:44 > 0:36:48Smuts made an indifferent general of conventional forces.
0:36:48 > 0:36:50And he was up against Lettow.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56British officer Richard Meinertzhagen
0:36:56 > 0:36:59was now Smuts's intelligence officer.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03Smuts is quite determined to avoid a stand-up fight.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06He told me he could not go back to South Africa with the nickname
0:37:06 > 0:37:07"Butcher Smuts".
0:37:08 > 0:37:11If von Lettow is clever and Smuts not clever enough,
0:37:11 > 0:37:13there's going to be trouble.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19Lettow was clever.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22Here, at his headquarters at Moshi railway station,
0:37:22 > 0:37:25he thought through the idea of depriving Britain of manpower
0:37:25 > 0:37:29in Europe, by opening up the war in Africa.
0:37:29 > 0:37:33The question was, could we, with our small forces, prevent
0:37:33 > 0:37:37considerable numbers of the enemy from intervening in Europe,
0:37:37 > 0:37:41or inflict substantial damage on their armaments and troops?
0:37:41 > 0:37:44I strongly believed that we could.
0:37:55 > 0:38:00By August 1916, Lettow had become expert at his cat-and-mouse game.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04Von Lettow is slippery and is not going to be caught by a manoeuvre.
0:38:04 > 0:38:06He knows the country better than we do.
0:38:06 > 0:38:10I think we're in for an expensive hide-and-seek,
0:38:10 > 0:38:12and von Lettow will still be cuckooing
0:38:12 > 0:38:15somewhere in tropical Africa when the cease-fire goes.
0:38:16 > 0:38:21Smuts has cost Britain many hundreds of lives and many millions of pounds.
0:38:27 > 0:38:32Lettow ran his force of up to 15,000 soldiers, mostly black,
0:38:32 > 0:38:35on scrounging and improvisation.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38No supplies from Germany reached him after March 1916,
0:38:38 > 0:38:40but he made a little go a long way,
0:38:40 > 0:38:44as Ludwig Deppe, one of his medical officers, noted.
0:38:46 > 0:38:48When there was no ammunition,
0:38:48 > 0:38:51Lettow would try to produce his own cartridges.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54If the men asked the commander for weapons or clothes
0:38:54 > 0:38:57they were told, "Take it from the enemy".
0:38:57 > 0:39:01Lettow made war at cost price.
0:39:01 > 0:39:02He would have been justified
0:39:02 > 0:39:06in displaying this war at a country fair with a for-sale sign,
0:39:06 > 0:39:08"Cheapest War in the World."
0:39:15 > 0:39:19Jannie Smuts had five times Lettow's force, and resources to match.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24But the further he went into German East Africa,
0:39:24 > 0:39:26the more stretched his supply lines.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31And he reckoned without the killer tsetse fly.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35The life expectancy for his 50,000 horses was just four weeks.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44Torrential rain, mud, dust and boiling heat
0:39:44 > 0:39:46further slowed his progress.
0:39:48 > 0:39:51Intelligence was sketchy, maps inadequate.
0:39:53 > 0:39:56Telephone cable often had to be raised to eight metres
0:39:56 > 0:39:58to avoid damage by giraffes.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03This is like warfare of bygone days.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08We come along where no road had ever been,
0:40:08 > 0:40:11where probably white man had never trod before.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14The river is in flood and we can't get across.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20On the other side the German patrols are watching us,
0:40:20 > 0:40:23but the crocodile hold the peace between us very successfully.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33Lettow played with Smuts, refusing to fight, slipping away,
0:40:33 > 0:40:35luring him deeper into Africa.
0:40:39 > 0:40:42As they went, they spread the war's grief and destruction,
0:40:42 > 0:40:45dragging in more and more of the people of Africa.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57This war was being carried on the backs of black Africans.
0:41:02 > 0:41:04For the Lettow campaign alone,
0:41:04 > 0:41:07the British recruited over a million black porters.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15One in five died, from malnutrition and disease,
0:41:15 > 0:41:19Death rates comparable with those on the Western Front.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24They endured their ordeal quietly.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27They only had duties and hardly any rights.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30They tumbled into the splashing mud with their heavy loads
0:41:30 > 0:41:34and were then ruthlessly forced to move on and catch up.
0:41:39 > 0:41:41Oh the Lindi Road was dusty
0:41:41 > 0:41:43And the Lindi Road was long
0:41:43 > 0:41:45But the chap what did the hardest graft
0:41:45 > 0:41:47Who could not do but wrong
0:41:47 > 0:41:49Was the Kavirondo Porter
0:41:49 > 0:41:51with 'is Kavirondo song
0:41:51 > 0:41:53It was, "Come here, Porter!"
0:41:53 > 0:41:56It was, "Omera, hya! Git!"
0:41:56 > 0:41:58And Omera didn't grumble
0:41:58 > 0:41:59He simply did his bit.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14What Smuts saves on the battlefield he loses in hospital
0:42:14 > 0:42:17for it is Africa and the climate we're really fighting,
0:42:17 > 0:42:18not the Germans.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24Out of 20,000 South Africans,
0:42:24 > 0:42:28over half were invalided home by the beginning of 1917.
0:42:30 > 0:42:35They were replaced by black troops from Nigeria and Ghana.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38Recruitment of blacks soared in East Africa as well.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41Over the course of the war,
0:42:41 > 0:42:45the King's African Rifles rose from 3,000 men to 35,000.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52Fololiyani Longwe spoke for many black soldiers.
0:42:53 > 0:42:55Think of yourself buried in a hole
0:42:55 > 0:42:58with only your head and hands outside,
0:42:58 > 0:43:03holding a gun, death smelling all over the place.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07Listen to the sound of exploding bombs and machine guns,
0:43:07 > 0:43:13smoke all over and the vegetation burnt and, of course, deforested.
0:43:13 > 0:43:18Watch your relatives getting killed, crying, finally dead.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22These things we did, experienced and saw.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26Lettow survived undefeated to the very end,
0:43:26 > 0:43:29marching triumphantly through Berlin in 1919.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34The British never caught him,
0:43:34 > 0:43:36even though they turned it into an African war,
0:43:36 > 0:43:38and set an army on his tail.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46But Britain and France had such reserves of manpower
0:43:46 > 0:43:49in their colonies, that from 1914 they shipped them to Europe.
0:43:54 > 0:43:56Remarkable French colour photographs
0:43:56 > 0:43:58of the world that came to serve on the Western Front.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10French General Charles Mangin had calculated
0:44:10 > 0:44:14that France could raise up to 300,000 from her empire for Europe.
0:44:14 > 0:44:15No-one believed him.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21But in fact they mobilised double that number.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30Black troops have precisely those qualities which are demanded
0:44:30 > 0:44:34in the long struggles of modern war - endurance, tenacity,
0:44:34 > 0:44:38the instinct for combat, the absence of nervousness
0:44:38 > 0:44:40and an incomparable power of shock.
0:44:41 > 0:44:46Not only do they enjoy danger, a life of adventure,
0:44:46 > 0:44:48but they are also essentially disciplinable.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57People started hiding and running away from the camp.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01There were all kinds of illnesses, even psychological illness.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03People didn't know where they were going
0:45:03 > 0:45:05or even why they were fighting.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08There were rumours that we would never come back,
0:45:08 > 0:45:10that we are going to be sold as slaves.
0:45:16 > 0:45:21India provided Britain with 1.75 million men in the war.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25They'd been thrown into some of the toughest fighting from the start.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35One Indian wrote to a friend...
0:45:35 > 0:45:38The war is a calamity on three worlds,
0:45:38 > 0:45:42and has caused me to cross the seas and live here.
0:45:42 > 0:45:46The cold is so great that it cannot be described.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49We have not seen the sun for four months.
0:45:49 > 0:45:51Thus we are sacrificed.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55I have neither sleep by night nor ease by day.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59There can never have been such a war before,
0:45:59 > 0:46:01nor will there ever be again.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09Some men, like Jason Jingo,
0:46:09 > 0:46:12used to the habitual racism of colonial rule,
0:46:12 > 0:46:15returned home with greater self-esteem.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25We had liked our time in France.
0:46:25 > 0:46:30It was our first experience of living in a society without a colour bar.
0:46:30 > 0:46:32We were different from the other people at home.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35Our behaviour, as we showed the South Africans,
0:46:35 > 0:46:39was something more than they'd expected from a native.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42We had copied the manners and customs of the Europeans,
0:46:42 > 0:46:45and not only copied, we lived them.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55But it wasn't the same Africa Jason Jingo and the other survivors
0:46:55 > 0:46:57came back to after the war.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04The empires which once carved it up
0:47:04 > 0:47:06had now turned parts of it into a wasteland,
0:47:07 > 0:47:10as German medic Ludwig Deppe realised.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16Behind us we leave destroyed fields,
0:47:16 > 0:47:20and, for the immediate future, starvation.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22We are no longer the agents of civilisation.
0:47:22 > 0:47:28Our path is marked by death, plundering and deserted villages.
0:47:36 > 0:47:40It would be years before African Nationalism took off,
0:47:40 > 0:47:42but a few had begun the journey.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48In 1914 John Chilembwe challenged the basis of the war,
0:47:48 > 0:47:49and Africa's place in it...
0:47:51 > 0:47:55..and his words would haunt colonial officials for years to come.
0:47:59 > 0:48:03Let the rich men, bankers, titled men, storekeepers,
0:48:03 > 0:48:07farmers and landlords go to war and get shot.
0:48:07 > 0:48:12Instead, the poor Africans who have nothing to own in this present world,
0:48:12 > 0:48:16who in death leave only a long line of widows and orphans
0:48:16 > 0:48:18in utter want and dire distress,
0:48:18 > 0:48:22are invited to die for a cause which is not theirs.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35Germany had fought a remarkable global war,
0:48:37 > 0:48:39but it cost her her cruisers,
0:48:39 > 0:48:42her wireless network and all her colonies.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48Yet Germany had forced Britain and France to call on their Empires
0:48:48 > 0:48:50and lean on their allies.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54In the process these flexed their muscles
0:48:54 > 0:48:56and formed empires of their own.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05The First World War saw the last scramble for Africa.
0:49:08 > 0:49:12And the ideas the Kaiser had so hated - land-grabbing,
0:49:12 > 0:49:15avarice and capitalism had, in fact, been spread wider.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20For the moment, imperialism looked more successful
0:49:20 > 0:49:21than it had ever been.
0:49:32 > 0:49:35In the next episode of The First World War,
0:49:35 > 0:49:39the call goes out for jihad, holy war in the Middle East,
0:49:39 > 0:49:43the nightmare of Gallipoli and the agony of the Armenian people.