0:01:20 > 0:01:26The war was four years old and still the Western Front remained,
0:01:26 > 0:01:34like a chronic disease that men had become accustomed to live with, but conveying a daily reminder of death.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39This ragged line etched into the broad surface of the earth
0:01:39 > 0:01:45was the focus of the largest effort ever generated by the human race.
0:01:45 > 0:01:51More than 1,000 million people were staking their lives, their treasure, and their happiness
0:01:51 > 0:01:56to upset the equilibrium of power traced out by the Western Front.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00The Western Front dominated the thoughts of generals.
0:02:00 > 0:02:05Only here, they were certain, could the issue of the war be decided.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig believed -
0:02:09 > 0:02:14"We cannot hope to win until we have defeated the German army."
0:02:14 > 0:02:18Defeat the enemy's army - Falkenhayn had tried.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29Joffre had tried.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37Nivelle had tried.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50Haig had tried.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03The human cost was appallingly evident.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08For the dead, the war was over.
0:03:08 > 0:03:14For the maimed, the shell-shocked of all the armies, the war would never be over.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19They had been through horrors whose memory would never fade -
0:03:19 > 0:03:22horrors that obliterated even the mind.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34MUSIC DROWNS SPEECH
0:04:01 > 0:04:04War had made soldiers into children.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12Children into soldiers.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26This was a new kind of war,
0:04:26 > 0:04:33whose scale dwarfed the traditional means to victory - victory by success on the battlefield.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36This was a conflict of armies and peoples -
0:04:36 > 0:04:41peoples armed with all the powers of modern industry and invention,
0:04:41 > 0:04:45and obsessed by a vision of total victory.
0:04:45 > 0:04:51They wished to stand triumphant over a smashed, crushed, humiliated and prostrate foe.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56Desire for total victory rode the human soul and spurred it on.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01The mainspring of the world's catastrophe was the mind of man.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04Victory lay with he who conquered it.
0:05:04 > 0:05:10Propaganda became the deadliest weapon and truth the first casualty.
0:05:10 > 0:05:15One got the impression, from reading the papers and hearing the talk,
0:05:15 > 0:05:22that the Germans, or the Huns, as we called them then, were a horde of barbarians descending upon Europe
0:05:22 > 0:05:27and were about to plunge Europe into the dark ages.
0:05:27 > 0:05:32I read about how they slaughtered women and children
0:05:32 > 0:05:37and threw babies up in the air and caught them on their bayonets.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40I didn't believe all that.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45In fact, I wondered, if the Germans were such barbarians,
0:05:45 > 0:05:49why we hadn't heard more about it before the war.
0:05:49 > 0:05:55Government censorship in every country made sure that all news was slanted or suppressed.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02Read all about it! Paper! Paper!
0:06:02 > 0:06:06Read all about it! Evening Standard! All the news!
0:06:06 > 0:06:10Paper! Standard! Standard! Read all about it!
0:06:10 > 0:06:12A British instruction laid down:
0:06:12 > 0:06:18"No suggestion of offensive actions by the captains of merchant ships should be made.
0:06:18 > 0:06:24"Statements in regard to the use of neutral flags by British merchantmen should not be published."
0:06:24 > 0:06:30"The press are requested to make no mention of the use of dogs
0:06:30 > 0:06:34"as messengers with armies in the field."
0:06:34 > 0:06:40Government propaganda machines disseminated mental poison by the newest inventions -
0:06:40 > 0:06:45the cinema film, wireless, telegraphy, faked photography.
0:06:45 > 0:06:52The unproven atrocity story was one means by which hatred was nourished among the home populations.
0:06:52 > 0:06:57The world was told that the Germans made candles and fats
0:06:57 > 0:07:00out of bodies taken from the battlefields.
0:07:00 > 0:07:05Such malicious inventions were widely believed.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17Relentlessly, the enemy was portrayed as a monster of savagery,
0:07:17 > 0:07:20worthy only of hate.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24The message never varied. Hate. Total hate.
0:07:24 > 0:07:30It was total hate that sustained the demand for total victory.
0:07:30 > 0:07:37"What is the war itself but the outcome only of British cunning, lying, hypocrisy, cant and treachery?
0:07:37 > 0:07:42"No means can be too unholy to combat this hideous octopus,
0:07:42 > 0:07:47"whose tentacles have too long encircled the peoples of the world."
0:07:48 > 0:07:52"The Huns, vicious in victory, cowardly in defeat,
0:07:52 > 0:07:58"deserve no more consideration than a mad dog or a venomous snake.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03"It is our duty to take devastation into the heart of their country.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07"We're out for war. Let it be war to the death."
0:08:14 > 0:08:17"There are only two divisions in the world -
0:08:17 > 0:08:20"human beings and Germans."
0:08:34 > 0:08:39The conflict became, for both sides, a holy war to rescue civilisation.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46"I believe in the powers of right and the crusade of civilisation,
0:08:46 > 0:08:51"in the purity of our cause and the stainless glory of our flag."
0:08:51 > 0:08:54"Such a war is a heavy price to pay
0:08:54 > 0:09:00"for our progress towards the realisation of Christ's Christianity, but duty calls."
0:09:00 > 0:09:06"One thing is clear - God must stand on Germany's side."
0:09:06 > 0:09:12"We fight for truth, culture and civilisation, human progress and true Christianity."
0:09:12 > 0:09:17Few were immune from the contagion of this universal hysteria.
0:09:17 > 0:09:24Even the novelist Arnold Bennett wrote with sincere conviction after a visit to a war cemetery:
0:09:24 > 0:09:30"And then a tomb with a black cross. Very disconcerting, that black cross.
0:09:30 > 0:09:36"It is different both in colour and shape from the other crosses. Sinister.
0:09:36 > 0:09:43"The whole devilishness of the Prussian ideal is expressed in that black cross."
0:09:46 > 0:09:50Mercy, truth and love had died,
0:09:50 > 0:09:54along with respect for the ancient decencies of civilisation.
0:09:54 > 0:10:01People had obediently followed the leaders without questioning the harsh requirements of their cause -
0:10:01 > 0:10:04victory by any means.
0:10:04 > 0:10:11Now, for the first time, the starvation of whole nations became a weapon of victory.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14The Allied blockade of Germany was complete.
0:10:14 > 0:10:19Germans were eating less than half the daily food necessary for health.
0:10:19 > 0:10:24In four years of war, more than 700,000 Germans -
0:10:24 > 0:10:30men, women and children - died as a result of the Allied blockade.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33The young and the weak suffered most.
0:10:36 > 0:10:41Our diet consisted of turnips one day and barley and prunes the next.
0:10:41 > 0:10:46Then it started again - turnips and barley and prunes. There was no fat.
0:10:46 > 0:10:52Potatoes were roasted in a little water. Bread got worse and worse.
0:10:52 > 0:10:57German bread was made with grass, tree bark,
0:10:57 > 0:11:01turnips, or even a flour made from dried blood.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06Coffee was made from walnut shells, tea from raspberry or nettle leaves.
0:11:06 > 0:11:11There were 7,000 food substitutes in German shops.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20The food situation got worse. We were always very hungry,
0:11:20 > 0:11:24especially those who didn't get anything else.
0:11:24 > 0:11:31I remember my mother was so thin that I, a small child, could easily lift her up.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36A great nation was being ground down to soul-destroying poverty.
0:11:36 > 0:11:44A German soldier on the Western Front was being struck at through the sufferings of his family.
0:11:44 > 0:11:50In a forlorn attempt to break the ring of warships that were starving her industries,
0:11:50 > 0:11:56Germany built the first submarine merchant ship in the world - the unarmed Deutschland.
0:11:56 > 0:12:03Before America's entry into the war, the Deutschland made two successful voyages to US ports.
0:12:03 > 0:12:08Her crew were feted for the daring of their enterprise.
0:12:08 > 0:12:15She could carry some chemicals and metals, but she could not solve the problem of the blockade.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19Only ruthless counter-blockade of Britain could do that.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22The German government announced:
0:12:22 > 0:12:28"From 1st February 1917, sea traffic will be stopped with every available weapon
0:12:28 > 0:12:33"in the following blockade zones - around Great Britain, France, Italy,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36"and the eastern Mediterranean."
0:12:40 > 0:12:44Henceforth, any ship, even neutrals, in these waters,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47would be sunk by German submarines.
0:12:53 > 0:12:59The vessel that, in 1914, had been thought too frail to venture far from Germany,
0:12:59 > 0:13:02became their greatest hope of victory.
0:13:09 > 0:13:14The great battle fleets of Britain and Germany were impotent onlookers
0:13:14 > 0:13:17on this unforeseen struggle at sea.
0:13:33 > 0:13:38There were no stately deployments into line ahead,
0:13:38 > 0:13:44no thundering broadsides, no victory bells in this continuous, pitiless war of starvation.
0:13:44 > 0:13:51Two great nations had each other by the throat with a grip that tightened in convulsive desperation,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54and one must die.
0:14:02 > 0:14:07January 1917 - 150,000 tonnes of British shipping lost.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14February - 300,000 tonnes.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22March - 350,000 tonnes.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28April - nearly 550,000 tonnes.
0:14:47 > 0:14:49Then, slowly,
0:14:49 > 0:14:53month by month, the U-boat was mastered.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01Convoys, counterattacks
0:15:01 > 0:15:06by convoy escorts and by merchant ships now armed with guns,
0:15:06 > 0:15:13new hydrophone listening gear, depth charges - each step made the British counterattack more deadly.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30Aircraft searched the seas ready to bomb and machine-gun.
0:15:40 > 0:15:47Even apparently helpless victims were used to tempt U-boats to destruction.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54These were the famous Q-ships.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09Lloyd George wrote:
0:16:09 > 0:16:14"It was Britain's grandest struggle at sea,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17"in its magnitude, in its intensity,
0:16:17 > 0:16:20"in the issues that depended upon it.
0:16:20 > 0:16:25"The battle was fought in every ocean, and on every trade route.
0:16:25 > 0:16:31"Never were the skill, the daring, and the endurance of British sailors
0:16:31 > 0:16:34"put to so stern a test."
0:16:35 > 0:16:41The sea war went on. The submarines went still further afield for gain,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44refilling their tanks with captured oil
0:16:44 > 0:16:48and their galleys with captured eatables.
0:17:00 > 0:17:05British survival still depended on the courage of her merchant seamen.
0:17:05 > 0:17:11"I have heard of one man who has been in no less than seven vessels that have been torpedoed.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16"Many, last winter, experienced days of agony in open boats.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19"Many have had to have limbs amputated."
0:17:30 > 0:17:37Although the British had averted outright starvation, food became scarcer and scarcer.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41Compulsory rationing was hateful to British traditions.
0:17:41 > 0:17:47Instead, the nation rationed itself using a published weekly scale.
0:17:53 > 0:17:59"I know that in Government circles, deep anxiety prevails. Famine is feared.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03"Stocks of wheat are down to nine weeks' supply."
0:18:03 > 0:18:10On 25th February 1918, compulsory rationing was introduced in London and the Home Counties,
0:18:10 > 0:18:13and in April to the rest of Britain.
0:18:13 > 0:18:20"Meat - approximately 2lbs a week, sugar and fats - 0.5lbs each a week."
0:18:20 > 0:18:23Rationing did not put an end to shortages.
0:18:26 > 0:18:31I remember going into a shop after not having milk for several days,
0:18:31 > 0:18:36and they said, "If you can produce a baby, you can have some milk."
0:18:36 > 0:18:43That was out. I went to a butcher's shop to get some meat because we were beginning to be rationed...
0:18:44 > 0:18:48..and I said, "That looks like cat." He said, "It is."
0:18:48 > 0:18:51The fight against food shortages
0:18:51 > 0:18:57fell upon a nation short of fertilizers, animal feed and labour.
0:18:57 > 0:19:02In 1917, the Women's Farm Labour Force -
0:19:02 > 0:19:07over 230,000 of them by 1918 - put on their uniforms
0:19:07 > 0:19:15and the fight for higher food production was carried into the fields by the Women's Land Army.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18The "lilac sun-bonnet brigade"
0:19:18 > 0:19:22overcame the scepticism of farmers
0:19:22 > 0:19:26and formed a vital replacement to farm workers
0:19:26 > 0:19:30drafted, by the inexorable demands of war, to the Front.
0:19:48 > 0:19:54Timber - a vital commodity in a war which demanded more and more for pit props,
0:19:54 > 0:20:00for ammunition boxes, for huts, duckboards, trench works, and for building -
0:20:00 > 0:20:03called for more and more labour.
0:20:03 > 0:20:10Again, women came to help and invaded a man's world with energy and unexpected skill.
0:20:10 > 0:20:16Nations came to accept the breaking down of traditions and firm beliefs,
0:20:16 > 0:20:20intrusions upon old ways, personal liberties.
0:20:24 > 0:20:29Motor vehicles, when requisitioned for Government purposes,
0:20:29 > 0:20:33rolled impressively into military depots.
0:20:40 > 0:20:47Compulsory rationing, requisition, national control of industry, shipping and railways,
0:20:47 > 0:20:53conscription, women in work normally done by men, national scientific research,
0:20:53 > 0:21:00now even Britain with her traditional dislike of large-scale organisation and state direction
0:21:00 > 0:21:07had yielded to the shrill imperatives of total war. Lloyd George wrote:
0:21:07 > 0:21:12"The scope of Government control widened steadily and ineluctably
0:21:12 > 0:21:17"until it covered practically the whole industrial life of the nation.
0:21:17 > 0:21:23"The nation concentrated all its great strength and skill on victory."
0:21:25 > 0:21:31In each country, the individual had become a cog in a huge war machine.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35Whole new industries had been created since 1914 -
0:21:35 > 0:21:41for making aero engines, for making all the instruments required by modern aircraft,
0:21:41 > 0:21:45a small chemical industry had become a national asset.
0:21:45 > 0:21:51Prefabricated ships slid down the slipways one after another.
0:21:51 > 0:21:57Steel for guns, or steel for shells. Steel for ships, or steel for tanks.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01There was not enough for all.
0:22:01 > 0:22:08Engines for tanks, or engines for lorries, or engines for aircraft. Not enough for all.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12Britain was now the war factory of the Allies.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38In France, the losses of four years had drained the land of fit men.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42Her farms needed labour as much as her factories.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47She worked and strove for victory to the limits of her strength.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13So did Germany.
0:23:24 > 0:23:30Endlessly, the trains rolled away from her factories loaded with war material.
0:23:32 > 0:23:37In every country, the worker was a cog in the machine,
0:23:37 > 0:23:45often better looked after as a cog than as a citizen in peacetime - a strange irony of total war.
0:23:45 > 0:23:51Factory canteens became commonplace instead of showpieces of a few progressive firms.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55National kitchens were set up in industrial areas.
0:24:05 > 0:24:10"The purpose of this movement organised by the Ministry of Food
0:24:10 > 0:24:15"is to instruct the poorer classes how food by proper cooking
0:24:15 > 0:24:21"can be made to yield the most nutrition with the least waste.
0:24:21 > 0:24:28"The food's distributed to the poor residents - women and children - who come in large numbers with dishes."
0:24:29 > 0:24:36Better working conditions, medical centres, housing for workers, high wages -
0:24:36 > 0:24:41these also were the fruits of war. Lloyd George told an audience:
0:24:41 > 0:24:47"It is a strange irony, but no small compensation,
0:24:47 > 0:24:53"that the making of weapons should afford the occasion to humanise industry,
0:24:53 > 0:24:55"yet such is the case.
0:24:55 > 0:25:00"Old prejudices have vanished, new ideas are abroad.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04"This opportunity must not be allowed to slip."
0:25:04 > 0:25:10It could not be allowed to slip. Victory depended on industry.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13The enemy knew this too.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16"His Majesty the Kaiser hopes
0:25:16 > 0:25:20"the air war against England will be carried out with energy.
0:25:20 > 0:25:25"He has designated as attack targets all war material, barracks,
0:25:25 > 0:25:29"oil and petroleum tanks, and the London docks."
0:25:29 > 0:25:35Scientists and engineers had created a new dimension in warfare - the air.
0:25:35 > 0:25:40The demands of total war changed the marvellous toy of 1914
0:25:40 > 0:25:45into an instrument to carry death to the enemy's unarmed civilians,
0:25:45 > 0:25:48and destruction to his war factories.
0:25:58 > 0:26:03In the autumn of 1916, as many as 14 zeppelins at a time
0:26:03 > 0:26:08set out for England. 200,000 cubic feet of hydrogen lifted them.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12The zeppelin crews were pioneers in the upper air.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15Each mission was an epic of danger.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20For the attacking aircraft, and also for the anti-aircraft guns,
0:26:20 > 0:26:25a zeppelin of that size was a sitting target.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29About, er...over 300 feet long,
0:26:30 > 0:26:3250 feet in diameter,
0:26:32 > 0:26:37and a speed of 60 miles per hour. That was all.
0:26:37 > 0:26:42It was a very cold affair to go across to England.
0:26:42 > 0:26:49It was so cold that, er...if you forgot that you didn't wear a glove,
0:26:49 > 0:26:54and you touched any part of the aluminium structure,
0:26:55 > 0:26:58you would burn your fingers.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03The sandwiches, which were kept in a container in the gondola,
0:27:03 > 0:27:05were absolutely frozen stiff.
0:27:05 > 0:27:11You had to melt part of it in your mouth until it could be bitten off.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15German science gave her airmen triumph over England.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19British science made that triumph brief.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23The incendiary bullet transformed a zeppelin
0:27:23 > 0:27:26into a blazing funeral pyre in the sky.
0:27:26 > 0:27:32The death of a great airship was terrible, even to the men who destroyed it.
0:27:32 > 0:27:36I approached it from the stern, 300 feet below,
0:27:36 > 0:27:40and fired four drums of explosive ammunition into its stern,
0:27:40 > 0:27:45which immediately started to light. At the same time,
0:27:45 > 0:27:50one of the other pilots was flying across the zeppelin from the top.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54And to his horror, he saw a man in the machine-gun pit
0:27:54 > 0:27:59at the top of the zeppelin run to the side and leap overboard.
0:27:59 > 0:28:04I saw that this zeppelin had been picked out by the searchlights.
0:28:06 > 0:28:12Then there was a small glow which gradually spread the whole length,
0:28:13 > 0:28:18and afterwards the whole thing burst into one big conflagration.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22There was a gasp of...
0:28:23 > 0:28:29I don't know if it was abhorrence or whatever it was from the...people.
0:28:29 > 0:28:34Very much like the sound you get when there's a big firework display.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39And as it came down, very very slowly,
0:28:39 > 0:28:44I heard my mother say, "Oh, those poor men up there."
0:28:45 > 0:28:49But there was an old Boer War veteran next door
0:28:49 > 0:28:52who said, "Let 'em frizzle."
0:28:53 > 0:28:56And so it came gradually down,
0:28:56 > 0:29:00but someone, I don't know whom,
0:29:00 > 0:29:04started to sing Land Of Hope And Glory,
0:29:04 > 0:29:08and it was taken up one after another
0:29:08 > 0:29:13by the people that were congregated there,
0:29:13 > 0:29:18until the whole place seemed to be resonant with this singing.
0:29:25 > 0:29:30However terrible his death, there was no pity now for the enemy.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42"Since an airship raid on London is impossible,
0:29:42 > 0:29:46"the air service is required to make a raid with Gotha bombers soon."
0:29:46 > 0:29:49On June 13th, 1917,
0:29:49 > 0:29:5414 Gothas went on the first daylight bomber raid on London,
0:29:54 > 0:29:58twin-engined aeroplanes, each carrying one tonne of bombs.
0:29:58 > 0:30:03Out of science and total war, strategic bombing had been born.
0:30:03 > 0:30:08Wherever an aircraft could fly was now part of the battlefield.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11Cities resounded to the roar of the barrage.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15Each raid left its tragic human litter.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19162 dead and 432 injured in London in June,
0:30:19 > 0:30:2254 killed in August.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26The British public was moved to deep anger,
0:30:26 > 0:30:31anger at a terrifying ordeal, and the feebleness of London's defences.
0:30:50 > 0:30:55The Government reorganised the defences at frantic speed.
0:30:55 > 0:30:58An air raid warning system began.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02Whistles and the firing of maroons heralded the coming of the Gothas.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15Bugles sounded the all clear.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19In the autumn of 1917, the Gothas flew by night.
0:31:22 > 0:31:27The terrifying noise of air raids frayed the nerve of a population
0:31:27 > 0:31:32born in the safe tranquillity of the Victorian and Edwardian age.
0:31:32 > 0:31:37War production began to suffer. General Robertson warned Haig:
0:31:37 > 0:31:42"Continuous air raids are interrupting munitions work
0:31:42 > 0:31:45"and having some effect on the public."
0:31:45 > 0:31:50At Woolwich Arsenal, production fell to one fifth after an air raid.
0:31:50 > 0:31:55The British and French air forces hit back at German industry.
0:31:55 > 0:32:00As Allied bombers ranged over industrial towns of the Rhineland,
0:32:00 > 0:32:05the Germans proved no more steady under bombardment than the British.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14Everybody was frightened.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17We had to go to the cellar,
0:32:17 > 0:32:21and we had no electric light in our flat.
0:32:21 > 0:32:26All clothes had to be put on a chair so that one could dress in no time
0:32:26 > 0:32:31and rush down to the cellar, where the whole house met.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35Air raids mainly occurred on cloudless nights.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39We heard the planes coming, we heard the anti-aircraft guns,
0:32:39 > 0:32:43and everybody got more and more frightened.
0:32:43 > 0:32:51The bombers turned cities into a battlefield strewn with dead or maimed civilians. Women, children.
0:32:51 > 0:32:56There were no non-combatants in a total war. Everyone was drawn in.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00Everyone was doing their bit.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05The war was insatiable.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08The men had marched and died in millions.
0:33:08 > 0:33:12Now, women had to don service uniform.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16"Today, we had a unique and inspiring war pageant.
0:33:16 > 0:33:18"A procession of 3,000 young women,
0:33:18 > 0:33:24"representing branches of war work in which female labour is employed,
0:33:24 > 0:33:28"each section distinguished by its own uniform."
0:33:28 > 0:33:33The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, the WAACs, serve as cooks, typists,
0:33:33 > 0:33:35telephonists and transport drivers.
0:33:35 > 0:33:40Some decode messages in every modern language.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44The Women's Royal Naval Service, the Wrens, clean torpedoes,
0:33:44 > 0:33:50signal, make mine nets, gas masks, depth charges, and sails.
0:33:52 > 0:33:57The Women's Royal Air Force, the WRAF, fit aircraft and airships.
0:33:59 > 0:34:04Women gained an importance in war they had never enjoyed previously.
0:34:04 > 0:34:09Total war, rather than Mrs Pankhurst and her suffragettes,
0:34:09 > 0:34:12gave women the right to vote.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16The Representation Of The People Act of 1918 went even further.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20Women could now stand for election to Parliament.
0:34:26 > 0:34:31Everywhere, the most ancient of privileges and prejudices
0:34:31 > 0:34:36were swept away by the ruthless struggle for victory.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40The needs of war, so simple in 1914, so demanding by 1918,
0:34:40 > 0:34:44had been met by the scientist and the engineer.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48The small of 1914 had become mighty.
0:34:49 > 0:34:54The few of 1914...had become many.
0:34:59 > 0:35:04The novelties of early days had become vital weapons of war.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07Modern war changed continuously.
0:35:07 > 0:35:09Refinements of invention multiplied.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12The most significant war innovation
0:35:12 > 0:35:15was achieved by man's most urgent need -
0:35:15 > 0:35:19to break the deadlock of the Western Front.
0:35:26 > 0:35:28The glowing hatred of the nations
0:35:28 > 0:35:33put no bounds to the ingenuity and horror of their inventions.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36Gas that choked was not good enough.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39In summer 1917, a new gas appeared.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42It smelled of garlic, some said, or mustard.
0:35:42 > 0:35:47It was an oily liquid, which evaporated very slowly.
0:35:47 > 0:35:52Because it had such a faint smell, troops tended not to notice it.
0:35:52 > 0:35:57When they did feel their eyes smarting, they were too late.
0:35:57 > 0:36:04It was a dreadful substance. If it got on the soles of their boots, it would penetrate and burn their feet.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08If they went with it on their boots into a dugout,
0:36:08 > 0:36:12and slept there, they would gas everyone in the dugout.
0:36:12 > 0:36:17A man could even go with some on his boots into a hut,
0:36:17 > 0:36:19and gas everyone in the hut.
0:36:19 > 0:36:25What total war demanded, scientists and engineers diligently provided.
0:36:29 > 0:36:34Paris, twenty past seven in the morning, 23rd March, 1918.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38EXPLOSION An explosion. And another.
0:36:38 > 0:36:42And another, at intervals of 15 minutes.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44Yet no German aircraft was nearby,
0:36:44 > 0:36:48and the nearest German lines were 75 miles away.
0:36:50 > 0:36:55A new fear came to a great city. What had caused these explosions?
0:36:55 > 0:37:00Rumours, speculations seethed through the streets of Paris.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03Then the French authorities announced:
0:37:03 > 0:37:08"The enemy has fired on Paris with a long-range gun.
0:37:08 > 0:37:12"There are about a dozen dead, and about 15 wounded."
0:37:12 > 0:37:16A gun with a range of 75 miles?
0:37:16 > 0:37:21Allied experts believed it beyond the scope of technology,
0:37:21 > 0:37:25but Germany had made it. She had made three.
0:37:25 > 0:37:31Each gun weighed 154 tonnes. It rested on a 26-tonne cradle,
0:37:31 > 0:37:34on a railway wagon of 210 tonnes.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37The most colossal gun ever made.
0:37:45 > 0:37:50When the French railway guns began to counter-bombard the Germans,
0:37:50 > 0:37:54the war of artillery and technology reached its fantastic climax.
0:37:54 > 0:38:00The city and the trenches shared the same conflict.
0:38:00 > 0:38:06Man cringed beneath the weight of the horrors he'd made for victory.
0:38:06 > 0:38:11Yet victory belonged to no-one, the horrors, to everyone.
0:38:51 > 0:38:56Subtitles by Annie Dodwell and Nitole Rahman, BBC Broadcast - 2003
0:38:56 > 0:38:59E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk