0:01:20 > 0:01:23July 17th, 1918.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26The wheel had come full circle.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30Once again, as in 1914, all the war,
0:01:30 > 0:01:35all its potential, all its hopes and fears and deceitful promises,
0:01:35 > 0:01:38were centred on the River Marne.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42On the Marne, the war had reached a moment of equipoise.
0:01:55 > 0:02:01The last of the great German offensives on the Western Front had been launched three days before.
0:02:01 > 0:02:07By July 17th, it had been halted by French, British and American troops combined.
0:02:07 > 0:02:12General Ludendorff gave orders for the attack to cease.
0:02:12 > 0:02:18"A continuation of the offensive would have cost us too much."
0:02:18 > 0:02:23General Foch, commander-in-chief of the Allied armies, asked:
0:02:23 > 0:02:28"What had been the results of this Friedensturm which, it had been proclaimed,
0:02:28 > 0:02:32"was to bring peace by one victorious rush?
0:02:32 > 0:02:37"Nothing but bitterness and deception, forerunners of defeat."
0:02:37 > 0:02:44On July 17th, Ludendorff travelled north to the headquarters of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria
0:02:44 > 0:02:48to discuss the final offensive against the British Army,
0:02:48 > 0:02:51which had always been his main intention.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55For the few hours while the equipoise lasted,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58the Germans remained unsuspecting.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19Field Marshal von Hindenburg described their awakening:
0:03:19 > 0:03:22"Suddenly, a violent hail of shells descended on the back areas.
0:03:28 > 0:03:33"The enemy was undoubtedly attacking on the whole front, from the Aisne to the Marne."
0:03:44 > 0:03:47350 French tanks rolled into the attack.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54American divisions spearheaded the main French onset.
0:03:57 > 0:04:02Really, we started out recklessly, like a holiday, it was.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06We didn't know, we didn't see any dead people yet.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09We started out, followed the barrage,
0:04:09 > 0:04:13and the first Germans we saw dead were in the first line.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15We leapfrogged that line,
0:04:15 > 0:04:18the barrage continued, we followed it,
0:04:18 > 0:04:22to the second line of German trenches.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25There, a lot of Germans were killed by our barrage,
0:04:25 > 0:04:30and there wasn't much opposition the first half-hour or so.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34When the Germans recovered, resistance stiffened.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38It was never easy to defeat the German army.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39On July 29th, Mangin wrote:
0:05:39 > 0:05:43"The struggle is very hard. We've had some success,
0:05:43 > 0:05:47"but the Boche is holding on to the swing door I am trying to close."
0:06:21 > 0:06:26Steadily, reluctantly, fighting stern rearguard actions,
0:06:26 > 0:06:28the Germans were forced to withdraw.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56Once again, the tide had turned
0:06:56 > 0:07:00and the German army was retreating from the River Marne.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02Hindenburg wrote:
0:07:02 > 0:07:05"It was a grievous decision.
0:07:05 > 0:07:12"How the enemy would rejoice if the word Marne were to mean a revolution in a military situation again.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15"All France would breathe again.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19"What would be the effect of this news on the whole world?
0:07:19 > 0:07:26"We realised how many eyes and hearts would follow us with envy, hatred and hope."
0:07:26 > 0:07:28The Germans bowed to the inexorable.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31On August 2nd, they evacuated Soissons.
0:07:31 > 0:07:36By August 5th, the Second Battle of the Marne was over.
0:07:50 > 0:07:56The Allies had taken over 29,000 prisoners and nearly 800 guns.
0:07:56 > 0:08:02The German high command understood the significance of what had been done. In Ludendorff's words:
0:08:02 > 0:08:07"The attempt to make peace by means of German victories
0:08:07 > 0:08:11"before the arrival of American reinforcements, had failed.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16"The army's impetus had not sufficed to deal the enemy a decisive blow
0:08:16 > 0:08:21"before the Americans were on the spot in considerable force.
0:08:21 > 0:08:27"It was quite clear to me that our general situation had thus become very serious."
0:08:27 > 0:08:32What would be the effect of this news on the world? Asked Hindenburg.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35This indeed was a key question.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42In France, a surge of relief greeted the retreat of the Germans
0:08:42 > 0:08:45and the end of the threat to Paris.
0:08:55 > 0:09:01In America, there was pride in the young Army of the Republic.
0:09:01 > 0:09:07These July battles were America's first awakening to the harsh truths of the war.
0:09:07 > 0:09:14American losses had been heavy, as their high-spirited, inexperienced soldiers stormed into the attack.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18General Mangin, who commanded them, said:
0:09:18 > 0:09:21"You rushed into the fight as though to a fete.
0:09:21 > 0:09:28"American comrades, I am grateful to you for the blood so generously spilled on the soil of my country."
0:09:33 > 0:09:38In Britain, the news of victory, after months of anxious waiting,
0:09:38 > 0:09:41and awareness of German strength,
0:09:41 > 0:09:43was treated with care.
0:09:43 > 0:09:48On August 4th, as the battle was ending, Lord Rothermere wrote:
0:09:48 > 0:09:51"We are still very far from our goal.
0:09:51 > 0:09:57"And we ought soberly to confront the situation as it now exists."
0:09:59 > 0:10:04Germany in 1918 had displayed to the world such ruthless force
0:10:04 > 0:10:09that men might well doubt the possibility of its waning.
0:10:09 > 0:10:15Yet, in Germany, as the Battle of the Marne developed, and the news of it reached the people,
0:10:15 > 0:10:19uneasy voices were heard, and would not be stilled.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22The Cologne Gazette reported:
0:10:22 > 0:10:25"Reviewing events at home in the fourth year of the war,
0:10:25 > 0:10:30"the inference is that a true offensive spirit is lacking at home.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34"In this connection, there is no more instructive comparison
0:10:34 > 0:10:36"than that of our arch enemy - Great Britain."
0:10:36 > 0:10:41"For Britain's home front has no loopholes and no weak spots."
0:10:41 > 0:10:47The British government might ruefully smile to learn that Britain had "no weak spots".
0:10:47 > 0:10:54Munition workers in Coventry and Birmingham went on strike at the climax of the Battle of the Marne.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59There was a strike of women operating London buses and trams,
0:10:59 > 0:11:04followed by the threat of another by women workers on the Underground.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08There was a strike in the Yorkshire coalfields,
0:11:08 > 0:11:13coinciding with the disclosure of a serious Allied shortage of coal.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18There were searching queries by an ex-minister, Lord Landsdowne,
0:11:18 > 0:11:21about the object of the war itself.
0:11:21 > 0:11:26There were continuing shipping losses, in excess of new building.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31There were food shortages, and a frightening influenza epidemic.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35There was ferocious agitation against "enemy aliens" in Britain,
0:11:35 > 0:11:42a petition with 1.25 million signatures demanded the internment of every alien forthwith.
0:11:42 > 0:11:48The largest mass meeting in Trafalgar Square since the outbreak of war urged the same thing.
0:11:48 > 0:11:55This rage displayed the hysterical element in Britain's will to victory.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57A letter to the Times said:
0:11:57 > 0:12:01"At last, the view of Germany as she really is
0:12:01 > 0:12:03"is dawning on the British people.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07"They are beginning to think that with a nation so polluted,
0:12:07 > 0:12:14"whose ideals are so false, and whose human feeling is so dead,
0:12:14 > 0:12:18"no people acknowledging the morals of Christianity,
0:12:18 > 0:12:22"or even of civilisation ought, as it values its own soul,
0:12:22 > 0:12:27"to have truck, or dealing or even speech."
0:12:27 > 0:12:33On August 8th, the London Times reported an article in the Frankfurter Zeitung.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37"There is little sense in yielding to illusions about what is before us.
0:12:37 > 0:12:44"We shall have to go on fighting during the winter, and doubtless during next summer also.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48"The troops which are crossing the ocean from America must feed the war,
0:12:48 > 0:12:52"like fresh logs thrown upon a dying fire.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55"And this will not make the fighting easy."
0:12:55 > 0:13:01On this day, August 8th, fresh logs were, indeed, thrown on the fire.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06On July 17th, the eve of Foch's counterstroke on the Marne,
0:13:06 > 0:13:08the British commander-in-chief, Sir Douglas Haig,
0:13:08 > 0:13:12had suggested to him a joint French-British attack
0:13:12 > 0:13:16to relieve the important rail centre of Amiens.
0:13:16 > 0:13:22"This proposal," said Foch, "was perfectly in harmony with my way of looking at the matter."
0:13:22 > 0:13:24On July 20th, he wrote to Haig:
0:13:24 > 0:13:30"Having reached the point we now are, it is indispensable to seize the enemy and attack him,
0:13:30 > 0:13:32"wherever we can do so.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36"The combined attack should be carried out at once."
0:13:36 > 0:13:41Haig had been preparing this stroke for over two months.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44He entrusted it to General Rawlinson's Fourth Army.
0:13:46 > 0:13:51The British Army was now different from the one which emerged
0:13:51 > 0:13:54from the costly defensive battles of March and April.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58Haig recognised the transformation.
0:13:58 > 0:14:04"Two months of comparative quiet worked a great change in the condition of the British armies.
0:14:04 > 0:14:09"The draft sent out from England had been largely absorbed,
0:14:09 > 0:14:13"reinforcements from other fronts had arrived,
0:14:13 > 0:14:20"and the number of effective infantry divisions had risen from 45 to 52.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24"In artillery, we were stronger than we had ever been.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28"The British Army was ready to take the offensive."
0:14:31 > 0:14:39By 1918, British war production was truly organised on the scale of these tremendous needs.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43In March and April, under the German hammer blows,
0:14:43 > 0:14:48the British lost over 1,000 guns and vast amounts of war material.
0:14:48 > 0:14:55British production was able to replace these losses before the battles were over.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00In late April, the King addressed a message to munitions workers.
0:15:00 > 0:15:07"The King has learned that almost all the losses and expenditure of munitions during the battle
0:15:07 > 0:15:12"have been made good without any undue depletion of normal reserves,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15"out of the resources which have been held in readiness,
0:15:15 > 0:15:18and the additional effort which has been made.
0:15:18 > 0:15:25"There are now more serviceable guns, machine guns and aeroplanes with the British armies in the field
0:15:25 > 0:15:29"than on the eve of the German attack."
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Thus fortified, Haig completed his preparations to counterattack.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36But, as 1916 and 1917 had shown,
0:15:36 > 0:15:39something more was needed than
0:15:39 > 0:15:43filled ranks and vast stocks of war material -
0:15:43 > 0:15:45secrecy. By every trick in the book,
0:15:45 > 0:15:49the British 4th Army worked to achieve surprise.
0:15:49 > 0:15:55Every soldier had a notice pasted into his pay book. It said:
0:15:55 > 0:15:57"Keep your mouth shut.
0:15:57 > 0:16:02"The success of any operation we carry out depends on surprise.
0:16:02 > 0:16:07"Do not talk. When you know your unit is making preparations for an attack,
0:16:07 > 0:16:12"don't talk about them to men in other units, or to strangers.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16"And keep your mouth shut especially in public places.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20"Do not be inquisitive about what other units are doing.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24"If you hear or see anything, keep it to yourself.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28"The success of the operations, and the lives of your comrades,
0:16:28 > 0:16:30"depend on your silence."
0:16:34 > 0:16:42On July 28th, Foch placed the 1st French Army under Haig's command for the forthcoming battle.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46This was kept secret. Haig wrote to the French commander:
0:16:46 > 0:16:52"..to tell him I would not call at his headquarters until operations had started,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55"in order to not excite suspicion."
0:16:58 > 0:17:04Behind the Australians was massed another formidable fighting unit -
0:17:04 > 0:17:08the Canadian corps, nearly 100,000 strong.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11This, too, was kept secret.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16Behind them all, to exploit success, the cavalry corps was brought in
0:17:16 > 0:17:20with over 15,000 horses to hide on the empty Somme uplands.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33Over 2,000 guns were assembled, also in secrecy.
0:17:39 > 0:17:44And since this was 1918, and a different style of war,
0:17:44 > 0:17:50Rawlinson had under his command, silently gathered, 800 aircraft
0:17:50 > 0:17:53and 534 tanks.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56Of this, the Germans knew nothing.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00On August 4th, Ludendorff composed an order of the day.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05"I am under the impression that the possibility of an enemy offensive
0:18:05 > 0:18:08"is viewed with some apprehension.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11"There is nothing to justify this apprehension,
0:18:11 > 0:18:14"provided our troops are vigilant and do their duty."
0:18:18 > 0:18:24The battle of Amiens opened at 4.20am on August 8th.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30"We are the dead
0:18:30 > 0:18:33"Short days ago, we lived
0:18:33 > 0:18:36"Felt dawn, saw sunset glow
0:18:36 > 0:18:39"Loved and were loved
0:18:39 > 0:18:43"And now we lie in Flanders fields.
0:18:43 > 0:18:48"Take up our quarrel with the foe.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52"To you from failing hands we throw the torch
0:18:52 > 0:18:55"be yours to hold it high.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58"If ye break faith with us who die
0:18:58 > 0:19:01"we shall not sleep.
0:19:06 > 0:19:11"O guns, fall silent till the dead men hear
0:19:11 > 0:19:15"above their heads the legions pressing on
0:19:15 > 0:19:23"O flashing muzzles, pause, and let them see the coming dawn that streaks the sky afar
0:19:23 > 0:19:29"Then let your mighty chorus witness be to them, and Caesar, that we still make war.
0:19:29 > 0:19:34"Tell them, O guns, that we have heard their call,
0:19:34 > 0:19:39"That we have sworn, and will not turn aside,
0:19:39 > 0:19:42"That we will onward till we win or fall,
0:19:42 > 0:19:46"that we will keep the faith for which they died."
0:19:46 > 0:19:51"Hero hour, 8th of August. 400 tanks along the Amiens front.
0:19:51 > 0:19:55"Is there a man alive of us who forgets?
0:19:55 > 0:19:57"What a day.
0:19:57 > 0:20:02"400 tanks in line of battle. Good going, home ground.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06"The air grows electric. Two minutes to go.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10"Watches tick, hearts beat. One minute to go.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13"Then the whole world upheaves.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16"No words can describe it.
0:20:16 > 0:20:23"Just the whole world heaves, rocks, tumbles, turns upside down, ricochets.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26"We can see, hear and feel nothing.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30"The driver's on his seat, his hand on the clutch.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33"Soon she's humming, sweet and low.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37"I depress the pedal and she roars, magnificently,
0:20:37 > 0:20:40"like the great man-eater she is.
0:20:40 > 0:20:46"She gives a lurch and a roll, the gunners spread their feet for balance, and we're off."
0:21:00 > 0:21:02The going was marvellous.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06The grass was just like Cumberland turf, springy -
0:21:06 > 0:21:09you felt you were in for a joyride.
0:21:34 > 0:21:40"The whole plateau seen from the air was dotted with infantry, field artillery and tanks, moving forward.
0:21:40 > 0:21:45"Many staff officers were riding horses in battle for the first time.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48"No enemy guns appeared to be firing,
0:21:48 > 0:21:52"and no co-ordinated defence was apparent."
0:21:53 > 0:21:58Only the RAF lacked a sense of overwhelming victory that day.
0:21:58 > 0:22:04During the hours between the opening of the battle and the lifting of the morning mist,
0:22:04 > 0:22:09the Germans had time to summon air reinforcements.
0:22:09 > 0:22:15As the British planes took off to bomb bridges, communications and troop concentrations,
0:22:15 > 0:22:19German squadrons assembled against them.
0:22:19 > 0:22:21The Richthofen squadron appeared.
0:22:21 > 0:22:28Baron von Richthofen, the most famous air ace of the war, was dead now, but his squadron,
0:22:28 > 0:22:33led by Captain Hermann Goring, was still a fearsome opponent to meet.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57The RAF lost 44 machines in battle, and 52 more were wrecked.
0:23:40 > 0:23:46On the ground, the battle flowed towards its unmistakable meaning.
0:23:46 > 0:23:52The tanks were going forward, and taking position after position, the infantry following up behind,
0:23:52 > 0:23:56and though the Germans had brought their artillery out of their pits,
0:23:56 > 0:24:00it was of no avail - the Australians were all around them.
0:24:00 > 0:24:05While this took place, the horse artillery galloped into action.
0:24:05 > 0:24:11In the meantime, German prisoners were coming up - it was a morning of victory.
0:24:11 > 0:24:17You could feel the excitement, because we knew that would be the end of the war.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42By 1.30pm, the Australians were on all their objectives.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47They'd captured over 7,800 prisoners, and 173 guns.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50The Canadians made the deepest advance,
0:24:50 > 0:24:55nearly eight miles, and took nearly 5,000 prisoners.
0:24:55 > 0:25:02Altogether, the British and French armies captured some 15,000 Germans that day.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06Was this the reward at last of patient years of endeavour?
0:25:06 > 0:25:14Was this what Vimy might have been, what Messine should have been, what Cambrai could have been?
0:25:14 > 0:25:16Field Marshal Haig wrote:
0:25:16 > 0:25:21"The situation has developed more favourably for us than I,
0:25:21 > 0:25:25"optimist though I am, had dared to hope."
0:25:25 > 0:25:27Ludendorff wrote:
0:25:27 > 0:25:31"August 8th was the black day of the German army in this war.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35"This was the worst experience that I had to go through."
0:25:40 > 0:25:43The battle of Amiens was a new beginning,
0:25:43 > 0:25:46the glint of a new hope.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50The advance slowed, but the feel of a great occasion did not diminish.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57German resistance stiffened, and each mile gained
0:25:57 > 0:26:05brought the British nearer to the devastated wilderness of the Somme battlefields of 1916.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07But Amiens, on August 8th,
0:26:07 > 0:26:13struck such a blow at German morale as it had never sustained before.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20As the German support divisions moved up, they met men who shouted:
0:26:20 > 0:26:25"You want to prolong the war? If the enemy were over the Rhine, the war would be over!
0:26:25 > 0:26:27"We thought we'd set the thing going.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30"Now you fools are corking up the hole again!"
0:26:30 > 0:26:34Ludendorff was appalled at the reports which reached him.
0:26:34 > 0:26:39"Everything I had feared had here, in one place, become a reality.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43"Our war machine was no longer efficient.
0:26:43 > 0:26:49"The 8th August put the decline of our fighting power beyond all doubt.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52"The war must be ended."
0:26:54 > 0:26:59More slowly now, but steadily, the Allies pressed forward.
0:26:59 > 0:27:05On August 11th, the German Supreme Command met. Ludendorff offered his resignation,
0:27:05 > 0:27:07but it was not accepted.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10The truth could not be disguised.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12The Kaiser told his generals:
0:27:12 > 0:27:15"I see that we must strike a balance.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19"We have nearly reached the limit of our powers of endurance.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21"The war must be ended."
0:27:21 > 0:27:26"The war must be ended." At last, the realisation came home.
0:27:26 > 0:27:32The leaders of the German army, the mightiest instrument of power the world had seen,
0:27:32 > 0:27:35knew they could not win.
0:27:35 > 0:27:37The London Times wrote:
0:27:37 > 0:27:42"The new Franco-British offensive, initiated by Sir Douglas Haig,
0:27:42 > 0:27:46"is one of the most gratifying surprises of the war.
0:27:46 > 0:27:51"It surprised the British public just as much as the enemy,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55"for never has a secret been better-kept."
0:27:56 > 0:28:00Daunted by the collapse of so many false hopes in years past,
0:28:00 > 0:28:05the British public hesitatingly comprehended what had been achieved.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09In Germany, and among her weakened and wearied allies,
0:28:09 > 0:28:12realisation came more swiftly.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14A Vienna paper wrote:
0:28:14 > 0:28:20"The German retreat on the Marne concerns us just as much as if our own troops had been fighting there.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25"And the beating hearts with which we followed the battle at Amiens
0:28:25 > 0:28:32"are inspired by a comprehension of the extent to which our destiny is interwoven with these events."
0:28:32 > 0:28:34Austria needed peace.
0:28:34 > 0:28:38Bulgaria needed peace. Turkey needed peace.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42Now Germany was learning that she, too, needed peace.
0:28:42 > 0:28:44But what sort of peace?
0:28:44 > 0:28:47The voice of the Junke insisted:
0:28:47 > 0:28:53"I should like to say to our people: do not lose your nerves or become sentimental.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55"Show a hard face to your enemies,
0:28:55 > 0:28:59"and say plainly to them that you need this, and that.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02"and therefore will keep that much of what you have taken from them,
0:29:02 > 0:29:04"because YOU are the conquerors."
0:29:08 > 0:29:14Germany realised there could be no negotiating of peace, or compromise.
0:29:14 > 0:29:20The righteous wrath of the American people, embodied in President Wilson,
0:29:20 > 0:29:28the determination of Britain, asserted by Lloyd George, would not contemplate such a thing.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31And Clemenceau had spoken for France:
0:29:31 > 0:29:36"I, gentlemen, I wage war.
0:29:36 > 0:29:41"In domestic policies, I wage war. In foreign policies, I wage war.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44"Always, everywhere, I wage war.
0:29:44 > 0:29:47"And I shall continue to wage war
0:29:47 > 0:29:50"until the last quarter of an hour.
0:29:50 > 0:29:57"How long, oh, Lord, how long before the flood of crimson welling carnage shall abate?
0:29:59 > 0:30:02"From sodden plains in west and east,
0:30:02 > 0:30:07"the blood of kindly men streams up in mists of hate,
0:30:07 > 0:30:10"polluting thy clean air.
0:30:10 > 0:30:16"And nations great in reputation of the arts that bind the world with hopes of heaven,
0:30:16 > 0:30:20"sink to the state of brute barbarians
0:30:20 > 0:30:25"whose ferocious mind gloats o'er the bloody havoc of their kind,
0:30:25 > 0:30:29"not knowing love, or mercy.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33"Lord, how long shall Satan in high places
0:30:33 > 0:30:38"lead the blind to battle for the passions of the strong?"
0:30:43 > 0:30:46Peace was still a distant vision in August 1918.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49In the mood of all the warring nations,
0:30:49 > 0:30:55there was still a debt to be paid, in blood and destruction.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59The fight went on.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02Foch - who became marshal of France on August 6th -
0:31:02 > 0:31:05widened the battle front southward,
0:31:05 > 0:31:08drawing in new French armies.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12Now Haig widened the British front of attack also.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16On August 21st, his 3rd army opened the battle of Bapaume.
0:31:25 > 0:31:30Bapaume fell to the New Zealanders on August 30th.
0:31:30 > 0:31:35In this battle, the British captured 34,000 men and 270 guns.
0:31:35 > 0:31:42Before it ended, Haig flung in his 1st Army, attacking still further to the north,
0:31:42 > 0:31:44along the River Scarpe.
0:31:49 > 0:31:54Their fight produced 16,000 prisoners and 200 guns.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56And so into September,
0:31:56 > 0:31:59and yet another battle by the 4th and 3rd Armies.
0:31:59 > 0:32:0212,000 prisoners and 100 guns.
0:32:03 > 0:32:09It was a majestic progress, after long years of waiting and enduring.
0:32:09 > 0:32:14But the cost was high for men who had fought so long.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19At home, the British people began to have the sense of victory.
0:32:19 > 0:32:24One by one, the headlines stilled their doubts.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27"August 23rd. New British advance."
0:32:27 > 0:32:31"August 24th. British front ablaze."
0:32:32 > 0:32:35"August 26th. Pressing the advance."
0:32:37 > 0:32:41"August 27th. Battle front spreading."
0:32:41 > 0:32:45"August 28th. Allies sweep forward."
0:32:45 > 0:32:48"August 30th. The flowing tide."
0:32:48 > 0:32:51The Times commented:
0:32:51 > 0:32:56"The arrival of our forces at Bapaume set the seal on a wonderful weekend.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00"and brought into view possibilities not in sight a week ago.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03"The Germans are retreating so fast
0:33:03 > 0:33:09"people are beginning to ask whether they'll be able to stand on the Hindenburg line!"
0:33:09 > 0:33:14The sense of victory gripped the Allies. Haig told his generals:
0:33:14 > 0:33:19"Risks which a month ago would have been criminal to incur
0:33:19 > 0:33:22"ought now to be incurred as a duty."
0:33:22 > 0:33:29Yet there remained between the Allies and the growing vision of victory a formidable obstacle -
0:33:29 > 0:33:33the Hindenburg line.
0:33:33 > 0:33:39Here, the Germans, dispirited, tired, weakened in numbers, might be expected to make a stand
0:33:39 > 0:33:42and display that courage in adversity,
0:33:42 > 0:33:46which had sustained them so often before.
0:33:46 > 0:33:52By the end of September, it became clear that only the whole strength of the Allies on the Western Front
0:33:52 > 0:33:55could guarantee Germany's overthrow.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57Marshal Foch coined a slogan:
0:33:57 > 0:34:01"Tout le monde a la bataille" - everyone go to it.
0:34:05 > 0:34:10The Americans joined in, fighting as an army in their own right.
0:34:10 > 0:34:16Already on September 12th, they'd cleared the St Mihiel salient near the fortress of Verdun,
0:34:16 > 0:34:19taking 15,000 prisoners and 450 guns.
0:34:19 > 0:34:24It was a fine achievement in their first great offensive,
0:34:24 > 0:34:26but now, for the whole alliance,
0:34:26 > 0:34:30the direction of the American effort had to be changed.
0:34:30 > 0:34:34By a tremendous feat of organisation and administration,
0:34:34 > 0:34:38the American army was shifted to the Argonne
0:34:38 > 0:34:43to strike northward while the French and British marched east.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51And in the north, the Belgian army also would attack
0:34:51 > 0:34:53beside the British 2nd Army,
0:34:53 > 0:34:58fighting under the orders of King Albert of the Belgians.
0:34:58 > 0:35:00By September 26th, all was ready.
0:35:15 > 0:35:22The French and Americans struck hard. Then, the haste of the attack told against them.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25The Americans suffered heavy casualties,
0:35:25 > 0:35:29they could have borne these due to the enthusiasm that impelled them,
0:35:29 > 0:35:33but their transport broke down.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36Supplies could not be got to the troops in action.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44The wounded could not be removed.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48The American onslaught slowed, and stopped. It didn't matter.
0:35:48 > 0:35:55On September 27th, the British 3rd and 1st Armies struck at the Hindenburg line itself,
0:35:55 > 0:35:59and made a breach 12 miles wide and six miles deep.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20When we got to the wire, it was terrific.
0:36:20 > 0:36:26It was about four foot high, and I would say about 15 yards wide.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29But the tanks who'd gone in front of us
0:36:29 > 0:36:33had ploughed through it like a ship in the sea
0:36:33 > 0:36:39and we had no difficulty in walking in their tracks through the wire.
0:36:39 > 0:36:43We also got over the Hindenburg front line.
0:36:45 > 0:36:50On the 28th, the 2nd Army and the Belgians took up the tale at Ypres
0:36:50 > 0:36:54and crossed the entire battleground of Passchendaele,
0:36:54 > 0:37:00where the British had fought for three bloody months in 1917, in one day.
0:37:05 > 0:37:10And on that day, too, the 4th Army, with Americans fighting with Australians,
0:37:10 > 0:37:12joined in to the south.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19In obstinate rearguards and heroic groups,
0:37:19 > 0:37:25parts of the German army battled on, by virtue of soldierly instinct and tradition.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29But others, chalked on the railway wagons that took them to the front,
0:37:29 > 0:37:33slaughter cattle for Wilhelm & Sons.
0:37:33 > 0:37:35Hindenburg wrote:
0:37:35 > 0:37:39"What terrible demands were made in these few weeks
0:37:39 > 0:37:44"on the strength and resolution of the officers and men of all the staffs and formations.
0:37:44 > 0:37:51"The only order issued was often: 'Hold out to the last, hold out'.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55"What a renunciation after so many glorious victories.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59"I was faced with the worst of all questions -
0:37:59 > 0:38:02"when must the end be?"
0:38:05 > 0:38:10The end of slaughter, the end of lunatic damage, the end of hate.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14The end must be now, at once.
0:38:14 > 0:38:16But how could it be achieved?
0:38:16 > 0:38:21Victors and defeated alike met the problem with bewildered stares.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24War is easy to declare,
0:38:24 > 0:38:26but peace -
0:38:26 > 0:38:29peace in 1918 was an elusive prize.