0:01:18 > 0:01:21In the spring of 1918,
0:01:21 > 0:01:27the empire of Austria-Hungary, sprawled across the heart of Europe,
0:01:27 > 0:01:29faced the prospect of ruin.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34This war had begun as Austria's quarrel, with gaiety and cheers
0:01:34 > 0:01:39as the soldiers of the Hapsburg Empire marched to battle in 1914.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49The first enemy was Serbia,
0:01:49 > 0:01:53the impudent Slav kingdom over the border.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57The crushing of Serbia would be a warning to all under Austrian rule
0:01:57 > 0:02:02whose national ambitions were coming to the boil.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05But war with Serbia meant war with Russia.
0:02:05 > 0:02:10Harsh realities soon dispelled the Hapsburg dream.
0:02:13 > 0:02:18In 1914, when the Austrian armies marched to aid their German allies
0:02:18 > 0:02:22against Russian invasion, they met with disaster.
0:02:32 > 0:02:37Counting the fearful Austrian losses in the battles of 1914,
0:02:37 > 0:02:42cynical Germans said, "We are fettered to a corpse."
0:02:48 > 0:02:51Yet somehow, the corpse revived.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11Defending bitterly in the Carpathian Mountains
0:03:11 > 0:03:16in the icy grip of winter, the Austrians held off the Russians.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32In 1915, Austrians and Germans
0:03:32 > 0:03:35hurled the Russians out of Galicia.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39At last, with German and Bulgarian help,
0:03:39 > 0:03:44the Austrians defeated the Serbs and overran their country.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50HEAVY GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS
0:04:07 > 0:04:13It was also in 1915 that Austria found herself with another enemy.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16Italy, after long hesitation,
0:04:16 > 0:04:21and tempted by promises of territorial gains after the war,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24joined the Allies.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26The Italian prime minister
0:04:26 > 0:04:30called this policy "Sacro Egoismo", sacred egoism.
0:04:30 > 0:04:36For the first time in history, the outposts of two great armies
0:04:36 > 0:04:40faced each other across the Alpine peaks.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44WIND WHISTLES
0:05:07 > 0:05:11Here, in a region of eternal ice and snow,
0:05:11 > 0:05:13of fierce storms and avalanches,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17the Austrians held the commanding heights.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19TWO-WAY GUNFIRE
0:05:25 > 0:05:29Food, munitions, everything the armies needed
0:05:29 > 0:05:33had to be supplied by cable railway or by patient mules.
0:05:33 > 0:05:41General Cadorna, the Italian chief of staff, threw his troops against the eastern frontier.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45His objective was the port of Trieste.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49The way to Trieste, across the River Isonzo,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52was blocked by three high plateaus.
0:05:58 > 0:06:03Again and again, the Italians attacked these rocky hillsides,
0:06:03 > 0:06:09where every shell burst flung out deadly fragments of stone as well as iron.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19"It was a battlefield," wrote Hindenburg,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23"equal in desolation and horror to the Western Front.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26"Indeed, in many respects worse."
0:06:40 > 0:06:44By 1916, Austria was gravely weakened.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47In the summer of that year,
0:06:47 > 0:06:51another Russian offensive, under General Brusilov,
0:06:51 > 0:06:55smashed through the front in Galicia.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00Over 400,000 Austrians were taken prisoner.
0:07:00 > 0:07:05Once again, it was only German help that stemmed the tide.
0:07:25 > 0:07:30At the end of 1916, the emperor Franz Josef died.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37There was great mourning in Vienna
0:07:37 > 0:07:42all over the place, in all classes of the population.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45Everybody felt a personal loss.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49When, a few days after,
0:07:49 > 0:07:54the funeral of the emperor took place, the streets were filled.
0:07:55 > 0:08:01The houses, the shops, even some lampposts were draped in black.
0:08:01 > 0:08:07We looked at the funeral with a sort of personal grief.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17The Kaiser came to pay his respects.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21The kings of Bulgaria, Bavaria and Saxony, the German crown prince,
0:08:21 > 0:08:27the heir to the Turkish throne and the crown prince of Sweden
0:08:27 > 0:08:31all escorted the dead emperor on his journey to the family tomb.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34It was the end of an era.
0:08:39 > 0:08:46The new emperor, Karl, faced the ruin war had brought on his once great empire.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50To preserve its crumbling facade from final collapse,
0:08:50 > 0:08:54he entered into secret negotiations with the French,
0:08:54 > 0:08:59which came to nothing. The German ambassador in Vienna reported:
0:08:59 > 0:09:04"The longer the war lasts, the stronger the simple question,
0:09:04 > 0:09:08"'Will Austria-Hungary be able to carry on the fight?'
0:09:08 > 0:09:12"Her resources and troops are nearly exhausted.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16"Depression is increased by the economic situation.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19"The people of Vienna are starving,
0:09:19 > 0:09:23"and are driven to despair by long queueing which brings no results.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28"We are running the danger that the Hapsburg monarchy will sicken
0:09:28 > 0:09:32"and Germany will share in its downfall."
0:09:35 > 0:09:37The harsh realities of the war
0:09:37 > 0:09:42had bound the Hapsburg empire to Germany. Ludendorff decided:
0:09:42 > 0:09:48"The Austrian-Hungarian armies needed stiffening by German troops
0:09:48 > 0:09:51"to prevent the collapse of Austria-Hungary.
0:09:51 > 0:09:58"To send Germans for purely defensive purposes does not correspond to our serious situation.
0:09:58 > 0:10:03"The Austrian command must know it's necessary to take the offensive."
0:10:03 > 0:10:08Seven Austrian and eight German divisions, under a German general,
0:10:08 > 0:10:11were assembled in the mountains
0:10:11 > 0:10:14in the northern reaches of the Isonzo.
0:10:14 > 0:10:19Their objective was to break out into the Venetian plain.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30EXPLOSION BOOMS
0:10:30 > 0:10:33On October 24th, 1917,
0:10:33 > 0:10:37a heavy bombardment by gas and high explosive shell
0:10:37 > 0:10:41drenched the Italian positions on the Isonzo.
0:10:47 > 0:10:53The Italian trenches, dugouts and shelters were overwhelmed in a hurricane of fire.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56All communications were destroyed.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08In snow and sleet showers,
0:11:08 > 0:11:13the Austro-German army advanced 14 miles through the mountains.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18Many Italians were terrified when German troops appeared.
0:11:18 > 0:11:23One glance at the Pickelhaube coming over the hill was enough.
0:11:27 > 0:11:32By the end of the first day, the enemy had crossed the Isonzo,
0:11:32 > 0:11:37captured the village of Caporetto and taken 30,000 prisoners.
0:11:37 > 0:11:42The Italian second army was smashed and in headlong retreat.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45It was impossible for us
0:11:45 > 0:11:48even to think of abandoning these positions
0:11:48 > 0:11:52that had cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
0:11:52 > 0:11:58To leave our dead there... we just couldn't believe it.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01Still, still we had to withdraw.
0:12:01 > 0:12:07An attempt was made to stand on the Tagliamento River, 30 miles back.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11But the enemy crossed by a half-destroyed bridge.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16The Italians went back again,
0:12:16 > 0:12:20400,000 men along roads blocked by refugees.
0:12:21 > 0:12:26One of the most tiresome things from a military point of view
0:12:26 > 0:12:33was the Austrian motorcyclists and their sidecars with light machine guns
0:12:33 > 0:12:37that used to appear from nowhere and disappear into nowhere
0:12:37 > 0:12:42after machine-gunning a convoy or a crowd of refugees.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47And...we, we felt the whole time
0:12:47 > 0:12:50a kind of...shame
0:12:50 > 0:12:53that we had been defeated.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58Through the exhausted and beaten army, word passed round.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02"Andiamo a casa". "We're going home."
0:13:02 > 0:13:08By 1917, the majority of Italian soldiers were weary of the war.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11An English officer wrote:
0:13:11 > 0:13:15"They were desperately tired, physically and spiritually.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18"Their food was continually reduced.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23"They had to march to the trenches and back heavily laden.
0:13:23 > 0:13:28"They were at the mercy of brutal commanders who maintained discipline
0:13:28 > 0:13:30"by means of bestial punishment.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34"They got a few days' leave once a year,
0:13:34 > 0:13:37"two postcards a week to write home,
0:13:37 > 0:13:41"no amusements, no relaxation, no rest."
0:13:41 > 0:13:46On the Piave River, a mere 15 miles from Venice,
0:13:46 > 0:13:50Cadorna managed to rally his troops.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53"We have taken the inflexible decision
0:13:53 > 0:13:56"to defend here the honour of Italy.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59"The Italian nation commands us to die,
0:13:59 > 0:14:02"and not to yield."
0:14:19 > 0:14:23On the Piave, after a retreat of 70 miles,
0:14:23 > 0:14:26the Italians held the enemy at bay.
0:14:26 > 0:14:32In under three weeks, they had lost 400,000 men,
0:14:32 > 0:14:36of whom 360,000 were either prisoners or deserters.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50The approach of the war to within 15 miles of Venice
0:14:50 > 0:14:53has produced inevitable changes.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58The Ducal Palace is no more than a skeleton, boarded up and emptied.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01Shops are selling off their goods.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05Venetians who have stayed hope for the best.
0:15:05 > 0:15:10The Grand Canal, with its shuttered palaces, has a mournful, noble air.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13Most of the gondolas are gone.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22Five British and six French divisions were sent to Italy.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30The arrival of the British was observed by historian GM Trevelyan:
0:15:30 > 0:15:35"The anxiety overhanging that month seemed lifted as they marched by.
0:15:35 > 0:15:40"I believe the Italians, civil and military, were as cheered as I was.
0:15:40 > 0:15:45"Looking on such men, it seemed impossible that we could be beaten."
0:15:48 > 0:15:53General Cadorna now gave way to the younger General Armando Diaz.
0:15:53 > 0:15:59Under his command, the Italian army made an astonishing recovery.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03The change in the heart of the country was no less remarkable.
0:16:03 > 0:16:08Armchair defeatists were silenced, peacemongers put to shame.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11In the face of a common danger,
0:16:11 > 0:16:15the Italian people at last found unity.
0:16:15 > 0:16:20To the Austrian army, Caporetto brought much-needed relief,
0:16:20 > 0:16:23and the booty of huge food stores.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26It drew together its many races,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29Austro, German, Magyars, Yugoslavs,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32Czechs, Rumanians and Poles.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34BAND PLAYS
0:16:39 > 0:16:42Morale improved.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46For a while, the troops could relax, on full stomachs.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51But at home, there was no such unity.
0:16:51 > 0:16:56In winter, 1917, mutual dislikes of different races in the empire
0:16:56 > 0:17:00were intensified by unequal food distribution.
0:17:00 > 0:17:05Vienna was starving, while Budapest had something to spare.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09The harvest was a failure, the administration chaotic.
0:17:09 > 0:17:15The rations became smaller and smaller as the war went on.
0:17:15 > 0:17:20And the black market flourished, fairly officially.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24The quality of the food was terrible.
0:17:24 > 0:17:29Bread, for instance, gave many people some eczema.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32Potatoes were very short too.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36It was bitterly cold. The electricity was cut.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39The gas was cut.
0:17:39 > 0:17:44The children were really underfed, because they had very little milk.
0:17:44 > 0:17:49We had to be very careful to have a drop for everyone.
0:17:52 > 0:17:57In May 1918, the Emperor Karl was summoned by the Kaiser.
0:17:57 > 0:18:02His secret peace moves had been made public by the French.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06His duplicity towards his German ally stood revealed.
0:18:06 > 0:18:11Now the Germans demanded that the Austrians attack again in Italy
0:18:11 > 0:18:15in support of their own offensive in France.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18This time, there would be no German help.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21Reluctantly, Karl had to agree.
0:18:21 > 0:18:26The key to the whole Italian line on the Piave was the Monte Grappa,
0:18:26 > 0:18:315,000 feet high and dominating the plain below.
0:18:31 > 0:18:36It had become a symbol of Italian resistance in the previous winter.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40On 15th June, the whirlwind burst on the Grappa.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05"Within five hours, our defences were smashed,
0:19:05 > 0:19:07"three key positions were lost,
0:19:07 > 0:19:11"the Austrians looked down on Bassano.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15"But the soldiers at Grappa, worn out and decimated,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18"dashed forward to the counterattack.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25"In 24 hours, all was over,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29"and we could think of the Piave as inviolate."
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Elsewhere, Austrian attacks made some headway
0:19:32 > 0:19:36against two British divisions in the Asiago Plateau.
0:19:36 > 0:19:41Further east, they crossed the Piave on a 15-mile front.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45But the attacks were spread over too wide a front.
0:19:45 > 0:19:50The Austrians were short of ammunition, transport and food.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53Worst of all, the Piave now rose in flood.
0:19:53 > 0:20:01Within three days, counterattacks threw them back across the river with the loss of 150,000 men.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08On the sea, too, Austria had suffered a grievous blow.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12Two Italian boats on patrol in the Adriatic
0:20:12 > 0:20:16torpedoed the dreadnought Szent Istvan,
0:20:16 > 0:20:20one of the most powerful ships in the Austrian navy.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24The disaster hastened the end of Austrian hopes.
0:20:49 > 0:20:55In the Balkans, Germany's ally Bulgaria stood on the defensive.
0:20:55 > 0:21:01Bulgaria had entered the war for territorial gain from Serbia.
0:21:01 > 0:21:06In 1915, as the Germans and Austrians invaded Serbia,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09Bulgaria struck at her flank.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27The Serbs begged for Allied help,
0:21:27 > 0:21:32but how could they help this landlocked, isolated country
0:21:32 > 0:21:35in the heart of the Balkan mountains?
0:21:35 > 0:21:39Only with the aid of Serbia's ally, Greece.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43At the invitation of the Greek prime minister, Venizelos,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47British and French troops landed at Salonika.
0:21:49 > 0:21:54The force owed its existence more to diplomatic necessities
0:21:54 > 0:21:57than to the foresight of the military.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01The expedition was launched not to defeat the enemy,
0:22:01 > 0:22:05but to rescue the remains of the Serbian army,
0:22:05 > 0:22:11and prevent the whole of the Balkans from becoming an Austro-German area.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15But on the very day the Allies landed,
0:22:15 > 0:22:20Venizelos was dismissed by the pro-German King Constantine.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24The king declared that Greece would stay neutral.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27The Allies were too late to help Serbia.
0:22:27 > 0:22:32They found themselves in a neutral country teeming with German spies.
0:22:45 > 0:22:50In the bare hills north of Salonika, they entrenched in a vast camp,
0:22:50 > 0:22:53known ironically as the "Birdcage".
0:22:53 > 0:22:58Here they waited for the Bulgarians and Germans to advance.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01But they did not come.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04All we prayed for and hoped for was,
0:23:04 > 0:23:10"Let us have some fights. Let us get into there. Let us do something."
0:23:10 > 0:23:15We joined the army to fight for the old country,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19not to flounder about and dig trenches.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23As the troops in the Birdcage made roads,
0:23:23 > 0:23:25reinforcements poured into Salonika,
0:23:25 > 0:23:29British, French, Italians, Russians, Serbians.
0:23:29 > 0:23:34It was maybe the most crowded city in the world, and the most polyglot.
0:23:34 > 0:23:39Sailors from half a dozen navies, Turks, Albanians and Greeks,
0:23:39 > 0:23:44Balkan peasants in their rough frieze dresses, native soldiers,
0:23:44 > 0:23:48Algerians, Indians, Ammonites and Senegalese.
0:23:48 > 0:23:54Salonika's cafes, cabarets, cinemas and music halls did a roaring trade.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59There were never enough for the many strangers within the city.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09For nine months, the Allies waited.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13There was mistrust of Greek intentions,
0:24:13 > 0:24:15mistrust between the Allies,
0:24:15 > 0:24:19mistrust of the French commander, General Sarrail.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28At last, in the early summer of 1916,
0:24:28 > 0:24:33the armies advanced north towards the distant mountains.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37HORSE NEIGHS
0:24:37 > 0:24:41The Bulgarians and Germans had had time to prepare.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44They held all heights in great strength.
0:24:44 > 0:24:49No matter where you were, you were under observation.
0:24:51 > 0:24:56All they had to do was look down. We couldn't move by daylight at all.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01In the heat, the trench lines spread across the Balkan peninsula
0:25:01 > 0:25:05from the Aegean to Albania on the Adriatic.
0:25:05 > 0:25:10The sun beat down on the stony, treeless heights
0:25:10 > 0:25:12on the swampy plains.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15The temperature rose to 114 degrees.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19The British troops had no sun helmets.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24A director of medical services in Egypt thought they were unnecessary.
0:25:24 > 0:25:31With the heat came the mosquitoes, but there were not enough mosquito nets, not enough quinine.
0:25:31 > 0:25:36In summer 1916, in every battalion, men went down by the hundred.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39Medical services were overwhelmed.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43The difficulties of evacuating this flood of sick men were extreme.
0:25:43 > 0:25:50In 1916, there were 30,000 cases of malaria. In 1917, 63,000.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53In 1918, 67,000.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58It was then when you had an attack of malaria
0:25:58 > 0:26:02and you had, as a result, a chronic fit of depression,
0:26:02 > 0:26:06that it was hardest to keep one's reason.
0:26:06 > 0:26:11Long hours in the line, in one's lonely dugout,
0:26:11 > 0:26:15as one sat there, and thought,
0:26:15 > 0:26:21"Will I ever see home again, and the people I love?"
0:26:22 > 0:26:28That was the most dangerous moment for any man to have to face,
0:26:28 > 0:26:33and some poor chaps couldn't face it, and shot themselves.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40The British army felt abandoned, forgotten.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43We are far out of the limelight.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47People ask, "What is the Salonika army doing?"
0:26:47 > 0:26:49Lloyd George wrote:
0:26:49 > 0:26:55"Our Balkan force was a miserable Cinderella among the Allied armies.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58"The British War Office never loved it.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03"The campaign was a wretched story of neglect, delay,
0:27:03 > 0:27:07"and official bungling of essential supplies."
0:27:07 > 0:27:10Winter brought a new enemy - cold.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13Day and night, armies on both sides
0:27:13 > 0:27:18were exposed to the full blast of the blinding sleet, the icy wind.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22The temperature fell to 35 degrees below freezing.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27Men went down by the score with frostbite.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31The German high commands remained on the defensive,
0:27:31 > 0:27:33and let Bulgarians hold the line.
0:27:33 > 0:27:39It was more advantageous to know that 300,000 of the enemy were being chained to that distant region
0:27:39 > 0:27:46than to drive them from the Balkan peninsula and thence to the French theatre of war.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50The Germans had other preoccupations in the Balkans.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54In 1916, Rumania declared war on the central powers,
0:27:54 > 0:27:59and Bulgaria found herself with an enemy on her northern frontier.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03But Rumanian ambitions exceeded their powers.
0:28:03 > 0:28:08"The trouble is, we are such babies, so unlearned in the art of war",
0:28:08 > 0:28:11wrote the queen of Rumania.
0:28:11 > 0:28:16She set an example befitting a granddaughter of Queen Victoria,
0:28:16 > 0:28:22distributing sweets, cigarettes, little crosses and holy pictures.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30But crosses and holy pictures were not enough.
0:28:30 > 0:28:35The Rumanian army was pitifully equipped and badly led.
0:28:36 > 0:28:44In the north-west, German and Austrian alpine troops came through the mountains to the central plain.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48Bucharest, the capital, fell without a struggle.
0:29:03 > 0:29:10In the south, Field Marshal Mackensen, with a mixed force of Germans, Bulgarians and Turks,
0:29:10 > 0:29:13had pushed up the Danube towards its mouth
0:29:13 > 0:29:17and captured the Black Sea port of Constanza.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41Three-quarters of the country had been overrun.
0:29:41 > 0:29:46The following year, the Rumanians sued for peace.
0:29:55 > 0:30:00The Rumanian catastrophe completed the tale of unrelieved failure
0:30:00 > 0:30:03for the Allies in the Balkans.
0:30:03 > 0:30:08They now resorted to political weapons. The majority of Greeks
0:30:08 > 0:30:13weren't pro-Ally or pro-German. They just wanted to be left alone.
0:30:13 > 0:30:17But it didn't suit the Allies for Greece to remain neutral.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20By political and military pressure,
0:30:20 > 0:30:26including a landing at Athens, King Constantine was forced to abdicate.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28Venizelos was returned as premier
0:30:28 > 0:30:33and Greece was induced to declare war on the Central Powers.
0:30:33 > 0:30:39"The conversion of the Greek army from a source of danger to a powerful ally
0:30:39 > 0:30:46"changed the aspect of things in the Balkans and made a renewed offensive possible."
0:30:46 > 0:30:49From Corfu came other reinforcements -
0:30:49 > 0:30:54100,000 Serbians who had escaped from their country in 1915.
0:30:54 > 0:30:59They were dedicated to avenge that terrible defeat.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04As Lloyd George put it, they were "ravening to be up and at the foe".
0:31:18 > 0:31:24Now mighty events elsewhere impinged on the Macedonian front.
0:31:24 > 0:31:29Germany's defeats in the west had weakened Bulgaria's will to resist.
0:31:29 > 0:31:35Her peasant soldiers had lived for too long on garlic soup and maize bread.
0:31:35 > 0:31:40They'd suffered too long in the mountains without boots or coats.
0:31:40 > 0:31:45There was no longer a German army to stiffen their morale.
0:31:45 > 0:31:50They began to slip away from the front to their neglected farms.
0:31:54 > 0:31:59On 15 September 1918, the Allied bombardment roared out
0:31:59 > 0:32:03and the mountains echoed with its thunder.
0:32:03 > 0:32:07SHELL FIRE AND EXPLOSIONS
0:32:16 > 0:32:21Fire of battle spread quickly from west to east as French, Serbians,
0:32:21 > 0:32:23Italians,
0:32:23 > 0:32:28Greeks and British attacked the walls of rock that faced them.
0:32:39 > 0:32:46The main attack was made by the French and Serbians over mountains, in places, 7,000ft high.
0:32:55 > 0:33:02Within a week, the Serbian army, inspired by the sight of their homeland,
0:33:02 > 0:33:07had stormed through the mountains to the valleys beyond.
0:33:07 > 0:33:13Now they were retracing the path of their bitter retreat three long years before.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16Veles, Skopje,
0:33:16 > 0:33:18Uskub, Nis -
0:33:18 > 0:33:22the towns of Serbia returned, one after another, into their hands.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25ACCORDION PLAYS FOLK TUNE
0:33:28 > 0:33:34The Bulgarian commander in chief frantically called on the Germans
0:33:34 > 0:33:37for reinforcements.
0:33:37 > 0:33:39Hindenburg replied -
0:33:39 > 0:33:43"As Your Excellency is aware, Germany is now engaged
0:33:43 > 0:33:47"in a most terrific struggle on the Western Front.
0:33:47 > 0:33:51"All our forces will be required for that."
0:33:51 > 0:33:57Only a small nucleus of German troops remained in Bulgaria - not enough to rally the Bulgarians.
0:33:57 > 0:34:04"It was impossible to stop their career, even though the pursuing enemy were weak.
0:34:04 > 0:34:11"The moment the enemy approached, the Bulgarians fired a few rounds and then left their lines."
0:34:11 > 0:34:16The Bulgarians fell back, leaving behind the debris of a broken army.
0:34:16 > 0:34:19"The situation was fast becoming unbelievable.
0:34:19 > 0:34:26"We were on the point of rolling up the whole line. Central Europe was before our eyes."
0:34:26 > 0:34:30On 29 September, a fortnight after the first assault,
0:34:30 > 0:34:33Bulgaria capitulated.
0:34:33 > 0:34:37The first of Germany's allies had cracked.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41"The iron thrones are falling," one Englishman wrote.
0:34:41 > 0:34:45The way lay open to Constantinople in the east,
0:34:45 > 0:34:48to the Hapsburg Empire in the north.
0:34:48 > 0:34:54In Austria-Hungary, social discontent had reached a revolutionary pitch,
0:34:54 > 0:34:57as it had done in Russia.
0:34:57 > 0:35:03Mutinies had broken out among the Slovenes, Czechs, Hungarians, Bosnians and Slovakians.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07Bad news from the Western Front fanned them.
0:35:07 > 0:35:13- The Austrians asked - - "If Germany can't put up a defence, why don't they end the fighting?"
0:35:13 > 0:35:17Austrian dependence on Germany
0:35:17 > 0:35:20was coming full circle.
0:35:28 > 0:35:33Endurance was near breaking point. One soldier wrote to his mother -
0:35:33 > 0:35:36"The life is unworthy of any human being.
0:35:36 > 0:35:43"I ask myself how the older men and young boys in their front positions endure this life.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47"Insufficient food. Tattered uniforms.
0:35:47 > 0:35:53"No possibility of keeping oneself clean. I feel convinced that we can't go on like this."
0:35:53 > 0:35:58On 16 October, the troops learned that the emperor had proclaimed
0:35:58 > 0:36:04a federal constitution giving full autonomy to the empire's nations.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08It was too late. One by one, they cast off the Hapsburg yoke.
0:36:08 > 0:36:13First the Czechoslovaks, then the Yugoslavs and Hungarians
0:36:13 > 0:36:19proclaimed themselves as independent states - the empire was splitting asunder.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22After four years,
0:36:22 > 0:36:26the shot at Sarajevo had at last achieved its true purpose.
0:36:28 > 0:36:33On 24 October, the anniversary of Caporetto, the Allies attacked
0:36:33 > 0:36:36in Italy.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49EXPLOSIONS OF SHELLS
0:37:05 > 0:37:10For two days, the Austrians hung on tenaciously in the mountains
0:37:10 > 0:37:13and along the line of the Piave.
0:37:13 > 0:37:18But on the 27th, the Allies broke through the river front.
0:37:18 > 0:37:23CONTINUOUS MACHINE-GUNFIRE
0:37:27 > 0:37:31Three days later, cavalry and armoured cars
0:37:31 > 0:37:35reached Vittorio Veneto, the Austrian headquarters.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38The retreat had turned into a rout.
0:37:50 > 0:37:55Now, at last, Austrian resistance was at an end.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58Her dream of empire was in ruins.
0:37:58 > 0:38:02Her imperial eagle was at the point of death.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51Subtitles by Nitole Rahman and Janet Zimmermann BBC Broadcast - 2003
0:38:51 > 0:38:55E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk