Blockade The First World War


Blockade

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This programme contains scenes that some viewers may find upsetting.

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In August 1914,

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the two greatest navies in the world made ready for war.

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Now the Royal Navy will settle the question of the German fleet,

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and if they do not come out and fight,

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they will be dug out like rats from a hole.

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But the two fleets rarely met.

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Instead, a new kind of war evolved, more stealthy, more cruel.

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A war not against battleships, but people.

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The world's capital ships in 1914 were the products of a cold war.

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Britain's HMS Dreadnought had set the benchmark -

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heavy armour, big guns, fast.

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Dreadnoughts were bargaining chips in a great naval poker game.

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Germany had 13, and seven building.

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Austria-Hungary, three, America, ten,

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Britain, 20.

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They kept the peace, but then the cold war turned hot.

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Britain and Germany were the main opponents,

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staring each other down across the North Sea.

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The longer they looked at the map, the more obvious their problems.

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Germany's ships couldn't get clear of the North Sea.

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To the south, the Channel, blocked by mines and the Dover Patrol.

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To the north, the British Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow.

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But Britain couldn't get at the German fleet

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unless it came out from its heavily protected bases.

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And if they actually met in the North Sea,

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the result could be catastrophic.

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The sight everyone feared.

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Austro-Hungarian battleship the Istvan,

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sunk late in the war by a tiny Italian torpedo boat.

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In 1914, the German navy believed torpedoes and submarines

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might tip the balance their way.

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A hit-and-run war with little history and no rules.

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Jackie Fisher, Britain's sharpest admiral, predicted radical change.

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The use of submarines has convinced us

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that in wartime, nothing can stand against them.

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The submarine is the coming war vessel for sea fighting.

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It means the whole foundation of our naval strategy has broken down.

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Two days into the war,

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Germany unleashed ten U-boats into the North Sea

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to hunt down the British fleet.

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One of them, U21, made her way to the Firth of Forth,

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where the British cruiser HMS Pathfinder

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was leaving Rosyth naval base.

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U21 sunk her with a single torpedo.

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Within a fortnight, the Germans had more good news.

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This 1927 film celebrates the voyage of Captain Weddigen and the U9.

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Through my prismatic glasses,

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I noticed a small masthead come into view near the Maas lightship.

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It looked like a mast of a warship.

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Could it be the first sight of the enemy we were to have in the war?

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The U9 had found the British cruisers Hogue, Aboukir and Cressy

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on patrol off the Dutch coast.

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Practically obsolete, they were nicknamed the Live-Bait Squadron.

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Captain Weddigen seized his chance.

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Fired torpedo at 500m.

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Target was middle ship in a three-ship formation.

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31 seconds later, the torpedo struck Aboukir.

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On board was Kit Musgrave.

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We were woken by a terrific crash.

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The ship shook and all the crockery in the pantry fell.

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Cressy and Hogue arrived and let down their boats.

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Then Aboukir went down and we slid down her side into the water.

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Musgrave jumped into the North Sea

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and became the only man in the war to be sunk on three ships

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within one hour.

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I swam to the Hogue and was going on board

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when she was struck and sank in three minutes.

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I then swam to the Cressy and was hauled up the side,

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but she was struck also and we sank.

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Georg von Muller was chief of Germany's Imperial Naval Cabinet.

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On our return from the morning ride,

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the first news of the successful torpedo attack by the U9

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on three English cruisers.

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We are all delighted and the Kaiser is in seventh heaven.

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The British were appalled.

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First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill got the blame.

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Over 1,400 men, many of them cadets,

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had died in a single submarine attack.

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Winston's War Babies, they were called.

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British submarine lieutenant Ronald Trevor wrote to his parents.

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The news tonight is sad,

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but what we submariners have been expecting for weeks.

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The commodore has repeatedly warned the Admiralty

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that those ships ought not to patrol the North Sea.

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What happened is what we predicted -

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ships standby to rescue the sinking one's crew,

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then the submarine gets two sitting shots.

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Commander-in-chief of the British Grand Fleet

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was Admiral John Jellicoe.

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He'd joined the navy in 1874 as a midshipman.

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ADMIRAL IS PIPED ABOARD

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Known as Silent Jack, he was experienced, capable and cautious.

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He ended patrols off the German coast,

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confining his most valuable ships to Scapa Flow and Rosyth,

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the limits of the U-boats' range.

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He warned the Admiralty.

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The Germans rely to a great extent on submarines, mines and torpedoes,

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and they possess a superiority over us in these particular directions.

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Germany's forward submarine base was on the island of Heligoland.

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The U-boats were ordered to sweep the North Sea.

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But the British had gone.

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On 16th December 1914, hoping to lure the British out,

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five German warships steamed across the North Sea.

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At seven in the morning, they opened fire on Scarborough and Hartlepool.

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There was a terrific crash, we thought it must be thunder.

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When another crash came, we rushed to the window and saw smoke

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and cried "It's the Germans!"

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Two wee girls hung on to me and said "Are the Germans going to kill us?"

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122 people died in the attack.

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It was the first time enemy warships

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had killed anyone on the British mainland in over a century.

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Jellicoe, too, had thought about attacking the enemy's homeland,

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not with a hit-and-miss naval bombardment,

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but a blockade, tight as a drum, and lethal.

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What we have to do is starve and cripple Germany.

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The destruction of the German fleet is a means to an end,

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and not an end in itself.

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Here was a use for those huge battleships,

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as sentinels sealing the exits from the North Sea,

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stopping Germany's fleet getting out and food and war supplies getting in.

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The North Sea would become no-man's-land - a dead sea.

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Jellicoe was helped by an invention

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more important than Dreadnoughts or even submarines - wireless.

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MORSE-CODE SIGNAL

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Every day, every German ship radioed its position

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back to fleet headquarters at Wilhelmshaven.

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MORSE CODE SIGNAL CONTINUES

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Over the North Sea, in the coastguard station at Hunstanton, Norfolk,

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British Naval Intelligence was listening.

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The German messages were passed on to code breakers

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in one of Britain's most secret departments -

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Room 40, deep in the heart of the Admiralty Old Building.

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According to one of their officers, the men in Room 40 were a mixed bag.

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They knew literary German fluently and they could be relied on,

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but of cryptography, of naval German,

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of the habits of war vessels of any nationality, they knew not a jot.

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Some, like Dillwyn Knox,

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would help crack the German Enigma code in the Second World War.

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But in 1914, they desperately needed some clues.

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The break came in the Baltic Sea,

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where a German cruiser, the Magdeburg, was captured by Russians.

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On board, they found one of the war's most valuable documents

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and passed it on to their British allies.

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This is the Magdeburg's code book.

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It allowed the men in Room 40

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to read nearly everything the German navy was planning.

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"Oh, well," the Kaiser said, on learning of the Magdeburg's capture,

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"sparks are bound to fly at a time like this."

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But the Kaiser had no idea his enemies had his code book,

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no idea of the immense advantage they now possessed.

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Britain's sea strategy in the First World War was simple -

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to isolate and starve her enemies.

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At Scapa Flow and Rosyth to the north,

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at Dover and Harwich to the south,

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the Royal Navy closed the North Sea to German ships.

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The blockade was a brutal vision,

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brainchild of Maurice Hankey of the Committee of Imperial Defence.

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My belief in sea power amounted almost to a religion.

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The Germans, like Napoleon, might overrun the Continent.

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This might prolong the war,

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but the final issue would be decided by economic pressure.

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The Director of Naval Intelligence agreed.

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Grass would sooner or later grow in the streets of Hamburg

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and widespread death and ruin would soon be inflicted.

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Germany began the war with a merchant fleet of nearly four million tons.

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Within months, she lost a quarter of her ships,

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seized in harbours or caught making a dash

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into the no-man's-land of the North Sea.

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Lloyd's of London kept a log of every vessel sunk.

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Their records show that on one day alone, 8th August 1914,

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Germany lost 41 ships.

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Neutral countries - Holland, Denmark, Sweden - were not spared.

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Germany depended on ports like Rotterdam for grain and raw materials

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so Britain forced neutral ships to submit to the blockade.

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Starting with Holland, the British pressured companies to declare goods.

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In every country, she built up a network of agents.

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They tracked ships coming and going, who was sending what, where.

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Any ship could be stopped.

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Any found with banned supplies for Germany had its cargo seized.

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Within weeks, the German government started to ration food.

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Caroline Ethel Cooper was an Australian stranded in Leipzig.

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Every week, she wrote to her sister in Adelaide.

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Dear Emmie, the government's seized the bread, flour and meal supply.

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We're allowed four pounds of bread and one pound of flour at a time.

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Now the war against neutral ships and food supply has begun,

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prices rise every week.

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Sailors like Richard Stumpf were stuck in harbour,

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frustrated and hungry.

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2nd April 1916.

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We spend our time worrying about our bellies.

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Even the officers are embittered and dissatisfied.

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To end Germany's isolation, her navy came up with a revolutionary plan -

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an unarmed submarine over 200 feet long,

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that could carry a cargo of 1,000 tons.

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In June 1916, the Deutschland set out for America,

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the first time a submarine had tried to cross the Atlantic.

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Because of wet weather and high seas,

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the hatches were closed

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and diesel engines pumped hot, humid air through the boat.

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Sweat ran down the bulkheads and water leaked around loose rivets.

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Drinking water tasted like diesel

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and every meal the cook cooked had a layer of oil across the top.

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Approaching the American coast,

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Captain Koenig ordered us to say nothing of the strain we'd undergone

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and to avoid mentioning our seasickness.

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Now, after two world wars, it's taken for granted

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that America and Britain are close allies, naturally on the same side...

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..but in the First World War, it wasn't so clear.

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Eight million Americans had German parents or grandparents.

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Four and a half million were of Irish descent.

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Many of them had little love for England.

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At the outbreak of war,

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thousands of US citizens had tried to enlist in the German army...

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..and America was enjoying a massive economic boom.

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Half Britain's war budget was spent in the States.

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Companies like Bethlehem Steel were swamped with orders.

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They hauled in six times the profits they'd made before the war.

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The Deutschland was just another good customer.

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Her brave Atlantic crossing, dodging Royal Navy warships,

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was a rallying point for anyone who'd suffered from the British blockade.

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Our crossing became a triumph.

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All the neutral steamers, American or not, greeted us with sirens.

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Only an English steamer sailed past in deadly silence,

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while we were proudly raising the black, white and red flag.

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The Deutschland's crew received a hero's welcome.

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There were dinners in their honour, Captain Koenig met the President.

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The three weeks spent in the United States were a non-stop party.

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Everywhere we went, people gathered round us,

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they all wanted a souvenir of some kind.

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I sold the buttons off my shirt and the stripes off my tunic.

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Germans introduced their daughters and we never had to pay for beer.

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The Deutschland returned to Germany with vital nickel and rubber.

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The help to the economy was nothing compared with the boost to morale,

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as even Caroline Ethel Cooper had to admit.

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The town is flagged because the Deutschland got safely back.

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Those red, white and black flags always makes me sick,

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but I'm glad she got across all the same. It was a sporting run.

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But the Deutschland was too small to break the blockade.

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In Germany and Austria, there were not enough people to work the land

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and too many officials trying to ration what food there was.

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The situation with the hunger and queues is turning nasty.

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People wait for potatoes in their hundreds, four deep,

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from four in the morning until the afternoon.

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Every morning, there are queues of armchairs and cushions,

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upon which people sit and sleep.

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The shortages worsened after the terrible harvest of 1916.

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Germans called it the Turnip Winter.

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Many had nothing to eat but cattle fodder.

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There were 50 food riots that year.

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Oh, what days of terror, everything's in turmoil!

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There was havoc in town last night.

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The window panes were smashed in at Cafe Kaiserhof.

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Angry crowds were shouting outside bakeries and inns.

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Up at the castle, they cursed the major in words I shan't repeat.

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The army appeared at 11.

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It's horribly cold

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and because the rolling stock has all been taken for the war effort,

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there is an extreme shortage of coal.

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We are learning how to be freezing

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which isn't the most pleasant feeling.

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Schools, theatres and cinemas have all been closed until further notice

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because of the lack of coal.

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The German navy did nothing to help.

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Even if large parts of our battle fleet lay at the bottom of the sea,

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it would accomplish more than now, lying well-preserved in our ports.

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At Wilhelmshaven, people wrote graffiti on the walls.

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Dear Fatherland, you may rest assured.

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The fleet's in harbour, safely moored.

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Admiral Reinhard Scheer had been ordered

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not to risk his ships against the full British fleet,

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but by mid-1916, the pressure to do something was intense.

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On 31st May, Germany's High Seas Fleet steamed out of Wilhelmshaven,

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hoping to engage the Royal Navy's battle cruisers.

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But the British were one jump ahead.

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MORSE-CODE SIGNAL

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The men in Room 40 had already decoded Scheer's orders.

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Three hours before the Germans even left harbour,

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the entire British Grand Fleet was on its way to intercept them.

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Now, the world would get the great sea battle it had waited for -

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Jutland.

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It was a titanic clash - 250 warships, 100,000 men.

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Britain's first great fleet action since Trafalgar.

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It was a fight they had to win.

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If Germany ended up masters of the North Sea,

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the blockade would be finished, the British Army in Europe cut off,

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Britain open to invasion.

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Admiral John Jellicoe was, Winston Churchill said,

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the only man who could lose the war in an afternoon.

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Less well-armoured than Germany's

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Britain's ships preferred to fight at very long range,

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but at Jutland, the range was just five miles.

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We fired very slowly with deliberation,

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while the Kaiser-class ships in front of us shot like mad.

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Now, the English were in an unfavourable position.

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A shot hit the bridge of a German destroyer and blew it to hell.

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Shells fell all around us, and what with ships sinking and dying bodies,

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it made one shiver at the sight of it.

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At 4.30pm, the battle cruiser Queen Mary was hit by a shell

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which exploded in the ship's magazine.

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A horrible sight, it was.

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An enormous height of red flame,

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followed by a mass of black smoke

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amongst which was the wreckage, thrown in all directions.

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The blast was tremendous!

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Admiral Beatty watched from HMS Lion.

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There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today!

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About seven o'clock we passed the wreck of a large ship,

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which we hoped was a German but later learned was one of ours.

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She was broken right in two,

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the bow and stern was sticking up about 50 feet and quite independent.

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But the British had the Germans outgunned and outnumbered.

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As evening fell, the German fleet broke off the action.

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We were in a regular deathtrap.

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The only way to escape the unfavourable tactical situation

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was to turn about and withdraw on the opposite course

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and get out of this dangerous enemy envelopment.

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To "Silent Jack" Jellicoe, peering through the fog of battle,

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it looked as though the Germans were lulling the British into a trap.

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If the enemy battle fleet turned away from an advancing fleet,

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I should assume the intention was to lead us over mines and submarines.

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So Jellicoe ordered the British to turn, as well,

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away from their vulnerable foe.

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As night fell on 31st May 1916,

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the men in Room 40 tracked the retreating German fleet.

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They passed its positions to the Navy,

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giving Jellicoe a last chance to finish the Germans off.

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But the Navy failed to catch them and the German fleet made it home.

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During the night, telegrams gave estimated losses of the English

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as two to three in our favour.

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The Kaiser announced at breakfast,

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"We have won a great victory in the North Sea!"

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Based on the maths alone, the Kaiser was right.

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Germany had lost 11 ships and 2,500 men,

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Britain, 14 ships and 6,000 men.

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But that wasn't the point.

0:27:280:27:30

The Kaiser's battleships stayed in harbour until the end of the war.

0:27:300:27:35

The British fleet still ruled the North Sea, tightening the blockade.

0:27:350:27:40

Germany had replied to the British blockade with her own economic war.

0:27:500:27:55

She, too, tried to cripple the enemy by cutting off supplies.

0:27:550:28:00

This light raider, the Mowe,

0:28:020:28:04

was one of the few surface ships Germany sent into the North Sea.

0:28:040:28:08

Her target - not warships, but cargo boats.

0:28:080:28:12

She sunk 20,000 tons, building a large collection of captured crews.

0:28:120:28:17

The English say we're in league with the devil

0:28:220:28:25

and have acquired the Flying Dutchman.

0:28:250:28:28

The captain of the Mowe said,

0:28:280:28:30

"What a great moment when I had eight English captains before me

0:28:300:28:35

and I could tell them all 'This is the work of the German fleet!'"

0:28:350:28:40

Germany's U-boats joined in the war against Allied trade.

0:28:480:28:52

One British admiral was horrified.

0:28:590:29:01

Submarines are underhand, unfair and damned un-English!

0:29:030:29:08

As for U-boats attacking civilian ships,

0:29:080:29:11

it is impossible and unthinkable.

0:29:110:29:14

If they do, their captured crews should be hanged as pirates.

0:29:140:29:18

The U-boat blockade of Britain would have to be ruthless.

0:29:200:29:24

Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg realised the effect of this on world opinion,

0:29:240:29:30

as he told Georg von Muller.

0:29:300:29:32

Spent the afternoon with the Chancellor,

0:29:320:29:35

who wished once more to discuss the U-boat question.

0:29:350:29:39

Bethmann envisaged the remaining neutrals united against us

0:29:390:29:43

as the "mad dog" among the peoples of the world.

0:29:430:29:46

That would mean the end of Germany.

0:29:460:29:49

Germany's admirals were furious at having their hands tied,

0:29:500:29:54

but submarines were ordered to stick to the old rules of war.

0:29:540:29:58

They gave warning of their attacks, they did not attack underwater,

0:29:580:30:02

they gave merchant crews time to escape.

0:30:020:30:06

German submarines sank a quarter of a million tons in 1914,

0:30:110:30:15

but Britain built new ships faster than the U-boats could sink them.

0:30:150:30:21

Far from being choked by a blockade, the British economy flourished.

0:30:210:30:26

The British firm Vickers, with a workforce of 78,000,

0:30:290:30:33

turned out guns, aeroplanes, battleships - and record profits.

0:30:330:30:38

If Germany was trying to play fair, Britain wasn't.

0:30:410:30:45

Q-ships looked like unarmed traders, but carried hidden guns.

0:30:460:30:50

They looked like easy prey, but when submarines came close,

0:30:500:30:54

the Q-ships uncovered their guns and attacked.

0:30:540:30:58

To add to the deception, they often sailed under foreign flags.

0:30:580:31:02

Lieutenant Heinrich Crompton, on the U41, was caught by just such a trick.

0:31:050:31:11

As the two ships came within 300m of each other,

0:31:110:31:15

the steamer opened a heavy accurate fire from along the railing,

0:31:150:31:19

immediately joined by large-calibre guns, hidden fore and aft.

0:31:190:31:24

The U41 returned three rounds from a forward gun, all hits to the hull.

0:31:260:31:32

Throughout the action, the steamer continued to fly the American flag.

0:31:320:31:36

On 1st February 1915,

0:31:420:31:44

in response to the British blockade, the Kaiser stepped up his campaign.

0:31:440:31:49

He declared all waters around Britain a war zone,

0:31:490:31:53

in which any ships, including neutrals, might be sunk.

0:31:530:31:56

This decision set Germany on a collision course with America.

0:31:580:32:02

The pride of the Cunard line, the Lusitania,

0:32:090:32:12

was the world's largest, most luxurious liner.

0:32:120:32:15

She could carry over 2,000 passengers.

0:32:150:32:18

HORN BLARES

0:32:180:32:20

There was a ragtime dance written in her honour.

0:32:210:32:25

LIVELY TWO STEP MUSIC PLAYS

0:32:250:32:27

On 1st May 1915,

0:32:300:32:33

Cunard posted a list of her departures in the New York Times.

0:32:330:32:37

Next to it was an advertisement placed by the German ambassador.

0:32:410:32:45

Those sailing to Britain, it said, did so at their own risk.

0:32:450:32:50

At 11.30 that morning,

0:32:570:32:59

the Lusitania left New York for Liverpool.

0:32:590:33:03

Her captain made light of the submarine threat.

0:33:030:33:06

It's the best joke I've heard,

0:33:060:33:09

this talk of torpedoing the Lusitania!

0:33:090:33:13

This is the last picture of her ever taken.

0:33:170:33:21

The Lusitania sighted the Irish coast on 7th May.

0:33:230:33:26

The lighthouse on the Old Head of Kinsale,

0:33:260:33:29

was traditionally used by ships on the Atlantic run

0:33:290:33:32

to get their bearings.

0:33:320:33:34

At 2:10, the Lusitania was hit by a single torpedo.

0:33:410:33:46

As I watched, one funnel went, then the other, then the other,

0:33:480:33:53

until the ship had gone and the sea was calm,

0:33:530:33:56

and all you could see was bodies and wreckage of furniture,

0:33:560:34:00

and everything that had been in the ship, floating in the water.

0:34:000:34:05

My husband and I got in a lifeboat, the ropes of which had to be cut,

0:34:050:34:09

since when I have not seen or heard of my husband.

0:34:090:34:13

I've lost all I ever possessed

0:34:150:34:17

and my dead boys, ages 11 years and eight.

0:34:170:34:21

I was rescued by a trawler.

0:34:250:34:27

My dear husband was lost, but I had the satisfaction of finding him

0:34:270:34:32

and seeing him laid to rest in the cemetery in Queenstown.

0:34:320:34:37

Police reports were sent to relatives to identify the bodies.

0:34:440:34:49

1,200 people died on the Lusitania, including 128 Americans.

0:34:500:34:56

At the battle fronts in Europe, tens of thousands were dying every day,

0:34:590:35:04

but the fate of the Cunard liner overshadowed them.

0:35:040:35:07

It led to the most widespread anti-German riots of the war.

0:35:120:35:16

In Liverpool, an American joined the mob outside a German-owned shop.

0:35:190:35:24

The crowd was growling and the shop was dark,

0:35:240:35:28

but there were people upstairs.

0:35:280:35:30

I picked up a brick and heaved it through a window.

0:35:300:35:34

Then everyone took to shying them and in a few minutes,

0:35:340:35:37

the place was a wreck.

0:35:370:35:40

There were several policemen at the corner and they just grinned.

0:35:400:35:43

With the sinking of the Lusitania, Germany had crossed a line.

0:35:470:35:51

The world hates us as we are conducting a war in a brutal manner,

0:35:510:35:56

and the brutality is increasing.

0:35:560:35:58

I was at a party when a report of the Lusitania arrived.

0:35:580:36:03

Two officers' wives, mad with joy, started to dance about the room.

0:36:030:36:08

"Don't forget," I said, "there were women and children aboard."

0:36:080:36:13

"That doesn't matter," they said, and danced on.

0:36:130:36:16

"The more who go to the bottom, the better."

0:36:160:36:19

The Lusitania came to stand for German barbarity.

0:36:250:36:29

Britain stirred the indignation with propaganda -

0:36:320:36:35

posters and even posed photographs rammed home what had happened.

0:36:350:36:40

The German embassy in Washington received bomb threats.

0:36:440:36:47

President Wilson began to see Germany as the "mad dog of the world".

0:36:490:36:54

In God's name, how could any nation calling itself civilised

0:36:560:37:01

do so horrible a thing?

0:37:010:37:03

It seemed America might clamber down off the fence.

0:37:070:37:11

But outrage soon gave way to caution.

0:37:110:37:14

Wilson reassured the nation that America would not go to war.

0:37:140:37:18

There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight.

0:37:180:37:23

There is such a thing as a nation being so right

0:37:230:37:26

that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.

0:37:260:37:31

And anyway, war would be very bad for business.

0:37:310:37:35

Wilson kept the United States prepared but neutral for two more years.

0:37:360:37:41

The sinking of the Lusitania was terrible,

0:37:470:37:50

but it was not reason enough to throw away more lives, and profits,

0:37:500:37:55

by joining in a distant war.

0:37:550:37:57

Germany's policy in America after sinking the Lusitania was complex.

0:38:040:38:09

She kept her U-boats in check, but not her spies.

0:38:120:38:16

In 1916, German agents blew up Black Tom Island,

0:38:200:38:25

a loading depot in New York harbour.

0:38:250:38:27

It held 900 tons of ammunition destined for the Allies.

0:38:340:38:37

Several thousand persons lined the sea wall and acquired a real picture

0:38:390:38:44

of what the firing line in the European war looks like.

0:38:440:38:48

The water line was one mass of red glare.

0:38:480:38:51

The explosions were so strong,

0:38:580:39:00

they were felt in Philadelphia, 90 miles away.

0:39:000:39:03

German agents slipped bombs onto ships in US ports.

0:39:070:39:10

There were assassination attempts

0:39:100:39:12

and even a bomb planted in the US Capitol.

0:39:120:39:16

German agents are everywhere.

0:39:190:39:21

Extraordinary precautions are now necessary

0:39:210:39:24

in the arms factories, at the docks and on board vessels,

0:39:240:39:28

even vessels of the United States Navy.

0:39:280:39:31

Hard evidence tying Germany to espionage against America

0:39:380:39:42

came from one of the spies himself.

0:39:420:39:45

Heinrich Albert left his briefcase on New York's elevated railway.

0:39:450:39:50

It held documents proving the German embassy was bankrolling the sabotage.

0:39:500:39:54

Two diplomats, including Franz von Papen,

0:39:550:39:59

Hitler's future vice-chancellor, were expelled.

0:39:590:40:02

But nothing got in the way of business on the New York stock exchange.

0:40:090:40:13

When Germany won a battle, Allied stocks fell.

0:40:150:40:18

When Britain won, her shares rose.

0:40:180:40:21

American investors were betting on the war.

0:40:210:40:25

For Cabinet minister David Lloyd George,

0:40:250:40:28

there was a direct connection between battle and bank.

0:40:280:40:32

Success means credit.

0:40:330:40:36

Financiers never hesitate to lend to a prosperous concern.

0:40:360:40:40

France and Russia paid for the war by borrowing from Britain.

0:40:420:40:46

Britain raised money on the American stock market

0:40:460:40:50

through her Wall Street bankers, JP Morgan.

0:40:500:40:53

It was spent buying American armaments, American supplies.

0:40:530:40:57

Of all the money raised in America to pay for the war,

0:40:590:41:03

99% went to Britain and the Allies.

0:41:030:41:06

It was something that made Germans wonder

0:41:060:41:09

just how neutral America really was.

0:41:090:41:12

30th January 1916.

0:41:120:41:15

In financial circles, it is said England has won the war already

0:41:150:41:19

and every day it goes on after March makes the ruin of Germany completer,

0:41:190:41:24

no matter what her military successes may be.

0:41:240:41:28

America lent so much that by the end of 1916,

0:41:290:41:32

the central bank warned that people were betting too heavily on Britain.

0:41:320:41:36

If the Allies lost, they might never get their money back.

0:41:360:41:40

The thought that American cash might be backing the wrong side

0:41:430:41:47

wiped a billion dollars off Allied stocks in a week.

0:41:470:41:51

Germany's generals felt the odds were stacking up against them.

0:41:530:41:56

They grew impatient at hesitant politicians tying their hands.

0:41:560:42:01

In view of the military situation,

0:42:020:42:05

we must lose no time in adopting the measure

0:42:050:42:08

of torpedoing armed enemy merchantmen without notice.

0:42:080:42:12

The Entente continue the war with all the resources at their disposal.

0:42:120:42:17

Our ambassador prophesies war with America

0:42:230:42:26

if we persist in torpedoing armed merchantmen without warning.

0:42:260:42:32

The Kaiser wrote in the margin of the report "I do not care!"

0:42:320:42:36

The Kaiser didn't care because of some key German calculations.

0:42:390:42:44

His generals gambled that if America joined the Allies,

0:42:460:42:49

she would not have a decisive impact on the fighting in Europe until 1919.

0:42:490:42:54

Long before then,

0:42:550:42:57

the U-boat campaign would bring Britain and France to their knees.

0:42:570:43:01

One thing stayed Germany's hand.

0:43:090:43:12

In December 1916, she put out a peace feeler to the Allies,

0:43:130:43:17

believing she could hold on to her gains.

0:43:170:43:21

The French and British leaders met in Paris and rejected the offer.

0:43:210:43:25

Germany now staked everything on a new submarine campaign.

0:43:340:43:38

U-boats would sink all ships on sight, without warning.

0:43:380:43:42

February 2nd is a special and uplifting day for us Germans,

0:43:460:43:51

the beginning of the all-out submarine war.

0:43:510:43:54

We're holding our breaths and hoping with this radical medicine,

0:43:540:43:58

we will finally cure England of her arrogance and secure a quick peace,

0:43:580:44:02

the terms of which we will dictate.

0:44:020:44:05

In April 1917, Germany sunk over 800,000 tons,

0:44:070:44:11

causing panic at the British Admiralty.

0:44:110:44:15

But Germany didn't have enough U-boats to sustain the success,

0:44:150:44:19

and Allied ships were getting better at protecting themselves.

0:44:190:44:22

Merchant ships now travelled not singly, but in convoy,

0:44:240:44:28

with more destroyers to protect them.

0:44:280:44:30

Airships and aeroplanes scouted overhead,

0:44:320:44:34

looking for the telltale signs of submarines.

0:44:340:44:39

63 U-boats were sunk in 1917 -

0:44:390:44:42

three times the losses of the previous year.

0:44:420:44:45

One captured U-boat was put on display in London.

0:44:520:44:55

13,000 people paid to view it on the first day.

0:44:550:44:59

Its German sailors couldn't believe the contrast

0:44:590:45:02

between the Allied home front and their own.

0:45:020:45:06

We remained in Dover for two and a half days

0:45:080:45:11

and were plentifully supplied with food, drink and smokes,

0:45:110:45:14

for you notice nothing of the war.

0:45:140:45:17

There are no wooden soles or bicycles with wooden tyres

0:45:170:45:21

and the butchers' shops have rows and rows of pigs hanging up.

0:45:210:45:25

There is no prospect of starving England.

0:45:250:45:28

I am glad, for the war is over for me.

0:45:280:45:32

The second U-boat campaign was a double failure.

0:45:350:45:38

It didn't deliver militarily -

0:45:380:45:41

German submarines could not sink enough Allied ships -

0:45:410:45:44

and it was a diplomatic disaster, pushing America to the brink of war.

0:45:440:45:50

The final shove came from the men in Room 40.

0:45:560:45:59

On 16th January 1917,

0:46:010:46:03

Britain intercepted a telegram from German Foreign Secretary Zimmerman

0:46:030:46:07

to his ambassador in Mexico City.

0:46:070:46:10

The Zimmerman telegram was made up of a thousand numerical code groups.

0:46:130:46:18

It took two weeks to decipher.

0:46:180:46:20

As the meaning emerged, the men in Room 40 realised

0:46:200:46:24

they held the most extraordinary intelligence of the war.

0:46:240:46:28

Destined for the Mexican Government,

0:46:280:46:30

it outlined Germany's plan for Mexico to invade the United States.

0:46:300:46:36

We make Mexico a proposal of alliance

0:46:360:46:39

with an understanding on our part

0:46:390:46:41

that Mexico is to reconquer Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

0:46:410:46:45

The settlement in detail is left to you.

0:46:450:46:49

Zimmerman's scheme was harebrained.

0:46:540:46:57

Mexico was in the midst of revolution,

0:46:570:47:00

US troops were already fighting bandits on the border.

0:47:000:47:03

There was no way the Mexican Government wanted more trouble.

0:47:030:47:07

But Germany's proposal was a godsend to Britain.

0:47:100:47:13

It was just what she needed to end America's neutrality.

0:47:130:47:16

Two weeks into the U-boat campaign,

0:47:200:47:23

Britain called the US ambassador to the Foreign Office

0:47:230:47:26

and passed over the telegram.

0:47:260:47:29

It was, said Britain's Foreign Secretary,

0:47:290:47:32

"as dramatic a moment as I remember in all my life."

0:47:320:47:35

On 2nd April, President Wilson went to the Capitol.

0:47:390:47:43

The United States had not declared war when the Lusitania went down,

0:47:430:47:48

it had not declared war when spies blew up its shipyards,

0:47:480:47:52

but Germany urging Mexico to attack America was in a different league.

0:47:520:47:57

On 6th April 1917, the United States declared war against Germany.

0:48:000:48:05

For three years, the country had played the war's banker and supplier.

0:48:410:48:45

Now, as far as Wilson was concerned,

0:48:470:48:50

America was fighting a crusade for international justice and democracy.

0:48:500:48:55

The North Sea would remain dead until the very end.

0:48:580:49:02

The Germans now set themselves a desperate task -

0:49:070:49:10

to win the war before American troops arrived in force.

0:49:100:49:15

President Wilson's liberal crusade would be up against new ideas,

0:49:150:49:19

of socialism and revolution.

0:49:190:49:22

In the next episode of The First World War,

0:49:280:49:30

German spies sow rebellion in Ireland and Russia

0:49:300:49:34

and French troops mutiny on the Western front -

0:49:340:49:37

a war against war itself.

0:49:370:49:39

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