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In the spring of 1918, | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
the empire of Austria-Hungary, sprawled across the heart of Europe, | 0:01:21 | 0:01:27 | |
faced the prospect of ruin. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:29 | |
This war had begun as Austria's quarrel, with gaiety and cheers | 0:01:29 | 0:01:34 | |
as the soldiers of the Hapsburg Empire marched to battle in 1914. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:39 | |
The first enemy was Serbia, | 0:01:47 | 0:01:49 | |
the impudent Slav kingdom over the border. | 0:01:49 | 0:01:53 | |
The crushing of Serbia would be a warning to all under Austrian rule | 0:01:53 | 0:01:57 | |
whose national ambitions were coming to the boil. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:02 | |
But war with Serbia meant war with Russia. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:05 | |
Harsh realities soon dispelled the Hapsburg dream. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:10 | |
In 1914, when the Austrian armies marched to aid their German allies | 0:02:13 | 0:02:18 | |
against Russian invasion, they met with disaster. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:22 | |
Counting the fearful Austrian losses in the battles of 1914, | 0:02:32 | 0:02:37 | |
cynical Germans said, "We are fettered to a corpse." | 0:02:37 | 0:02:42 | |
Yet somehow, the corpse revived. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:51 | |
Defending bitterly in the Carpathian Mountains | 0:03:07 | 0:03:11 | |
in the icy grip of winter, the Austrians held off the Russians. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:16 | |
In 1915, Austrians and Germans | 0:03:29 | 0:03:32 | |
hurled the Russians out of Galicia. | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
At last, with German and Bulgarian help, | 0:03:35 | 0:03:39 | |
the Austrians defeated the Serbs and overran their country. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:44 | |
HEAVY GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS | 0:03:47 | 0:03:50 | |
It was also in 1915 that Austria found herself with another enemy. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:13 | |
Italy, after long hesitation, | 0:04:13 | 0:04:16 | |
and tempted by promises of territorial gains after the war, | 0:04:16 | 0:04:21 | |
joined the Allies. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
The Italian prime minister | 0:04:24 | 0:04:26 | |
called this policy "Sacro Egoismo", sacred egoism. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:30 | |
For the first time in history, the outposts of two great armies | 0:04:30 | 0:04:36 | |
faced each other across the Alpine peaks. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:40 | |
WIND WHISTLES | 0:04:42 | 0:04:44 | |
Here, in a region of eternal ice and snow, | 0:05:07 | 0:05:11 | |
of fierce storms and avalanches, | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
the Austrians held the commanding heights. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:17 | |
TWO-WAY GUNFIRE | 0:05:17 | 0:05:19 | |
Food, munitions, everything the armies needed | 0:05:25 | 0:05:29 | |
had to be supplied by cable railway or by patient mules. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:33 | |
General Cadorna, the Italian chief of staff, threw his troops against the eastern frontier. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:41 | |
His objective was the port of Trieste. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:45 | |
The way to Trieste, across the River Isonzo, | 0:05:45 | 0:05:49 | |
was blocked by three high plateaus. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
Again and again, the Italians attacked these rocky hillsides, | 0:05:58 | 0:06:03 | |
where every shell burst flung out deadly fragments of stone as well as iron. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:09 | |
"It was a battlefield," wrote Hindenburg, | 0:06:15 | 0:06:19 | |
"equal in desolation and horror to the Western Front. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:23 | |
"Indeed, in many respects worse." | 0:06:23 | 0:06:26 | |
By 1916, Austria was gravely weakened. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:44 | |
In the summer of that year, | 0:06:44 | 0:06:47 | |
another Russian offensive, under General Brusilov, | 0:06:47 | 0:06:51 | |
smashed through the front in Galicia. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:55 | |
Over 400,000 Austrians were taken prisoner. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
Once again, it was only German help that stemmed the tide. | 0:07:00 | 0:07:05 | |
At the end of 1916, the emperor Franz Josef died. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:30 | |
There was great mourning in Vienna | 0:07:35 | 0:07:37 | |
all over the place, in all classes of the population. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:42 | |
Everybody felt a personal loss. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
When, a few days after, | 0:07:45 | 0:07:49 | |
the funeral of the emperor took place, the streets were filled. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:54 | |
The houses, the shops, even some lampposts were draped in black. | 0:07:55 | 0:08:01 | |
We looked at the funeral with a sort of personal grief. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:07 | |
The Kaiser came to pay his respects. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
The kings of Bulgaria, Bavaria and Saxony, the German crown prince, | 0:08:17 | 0:08:21 | |
the heir to the Turkish throne and the crown prince of Sweden | 0:08:21 | 0:08:27 | |
all escorted the dead emperor on his journey to the family tomb. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:31 | |
It was the end of an era. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
The new emperor, Karl, faced the ruin war had brought on his once great empire. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:46 | |
To preserve its crumbling facade from final collapse, | 0:08:46 | 0:08:50 | |
he entered into secret negotiations with the French, | 0:08:50 | 0:08:54 | |
which came to nothing. The German ambassador in Vienna reported: | 0:08:54 | 0:08:59 | |
"The longer the war lasts, the stronger the simple question, | 0:08:59 | 0:09:04 | |
"'Will Austria-Hungary be able to carry on the fight?' | 0:09:04 | 0:09:08 | |
"Her resources and troops are nearly exhausted. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:12 | |
"Depression is increased by the economic situation. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:16 | |
"The people of Vienna are starving, | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
"and are driven to despair by long queueing which brings no results. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:23 | |
"We are running the danger that the Hapsburg monarchy will sicken | 0:09:23 | 0:09:28 | |
"and Germany will share in its downfall." | 0:09:28 | 0:09:32 | |
The harsh realities of the war | 0:09:35 | 0:09:37 | |
had bound the Hapsburg empire to Germany. Ludendorff decided: | 0:09:37 | 0:09:42 | |
"The Austrian-Hungarian armies needed stiffening by German troops | 0:09:42 | 0:09:48 | |
"to prevent the collapse of Austria-Hungary. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:51 | |
"To send Germans for purely defensive purposes does not correspond to our serious situation. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:58 | |
"The Austrian command must know it's necessary to take the offensive." | 0:09:58 | 0:10:03 | |
Seven Austrian and eight German divisions, under a German general, | 0:10:03 | 0:10:08 | |
were assembled in the mountains | 0:10:08 | 0:10:11 | |
in the northern reaches of the Isonzo. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:14 | |
Their objective was to break out into the Venetian plain. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:19 | |
EXPLOSION BOOMS | 0:10:27 | 0:10:30 | |
On October 24th, 1917, | 0:10:30 | 0:10:33 | |
a heavy bombardment by gas and high explosive shell | 0:10:33 | 0:10:37 | |
drenched the Italian positions on the Isonzo. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:41 | |
The Italian trenches, dugouts and shelters were overwhelmed in a hurricane of fire. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:53 | |
All communications were destroyed. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:56 | |
In snow and sleet showers, | 0:11:06 | 0:11:08 | |
the Austro-German army advanced 14 miles through the mountains. | 0:11:08 | 0:11:13 | |
Many Italians were terrified when German troops appeared. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:18 | |
One glance at the Pickelhaube coming over the hill was enough. | 0:11:18 | 0:11:23 | |
By the end of the first day, the enemy had crossed the Isonzo, | 0:11:27 | 0:11:32 | |
captured the village of Caporetto and taken 30,000 prisoners. | 0:11:32 | 0:11:37 | |
The Italian second army was smashed and in headlong retreat. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:42 | |
It was impossible for us | 0:11:42 | 0:11:45 | |
even to think of abandoning these positions | 0:11:45 | 0:11:48 | |
that had cost hundreds of thousands of lives. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:52 | |
To leave our dead there... we just couldn't believe it. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:58 | |
Still, still we had to withdraw. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
An attempt was made to stand on the Tagliamento River, 30 miles back. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:07 | |
But the enemy crossed by a half-destroyed bridge. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:11 | |
The Italians went back again, | 0:12:13 | 0:12:16 | |
400,000 men along roads blocked by refugees. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:20 | |
One of the most tiresome things from a military point of view | 0:12:21 | 0:12:26 | |
was the Austrian motorcyclists and their sidecars with light machine guns | 0:12:26 | 0:12:33 | |
that used to appear from nowhere and disappear into nowhere | 0:12:33 | 0:12:37 | |
after machine-gunning a convoy or a crowd of refugees. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:42 | |
And...we, we felt the whole time | 0:12:42 | 0:12:47 | |
a kind of...shame | 0:12:47 | 0:12:50 | |
that we had been defeated. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
Through the exhausted and beaten army, word passed round. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:58 | |
"Andiamo a casa". "We're going home." | 0:12:58 | 0:13:02 | |
By 1917, the majority of Italian soldiers were weary of the war. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:08 | |
An English officer wrote: | 0:13:08 | 0:13:11 | |
"They were desperately tired, physically and spiritually. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:15 | |
"Their food was continually reduced. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:18 | |
"They had to march to the trenches and back heavily laden. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:23 | |
"They were at the mercy of brutal commanders who maintained discipline | 0:13:23 | 0:13:28 | |
"by means of bestial punishment. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:30 | |
"They got a few days' leave once a year, | 0:13:30 | 0:13:34 | |
"two postcards a week to write home, | 0:13:34 | 0:13:37 | |
"no amusements, no relaxation, no rest." | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
On the Piave River, a mere 15 miles from Venice, | 0:13:41 | 0:13:46 | |
Cadorna managed to rally his troops. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:50 | |
"We have taken the inflexible decision | 0:13:50 | 0:13:53 | |
"to defend here the honour of Italy. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
"The Italian nation commands us to die, | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
"and not to yield." | 0:13:59 | 0:14:02 | |
On the Piave, after a retreat of 70 miles, | 0:14:19 | 0:14:23 | |
the Italians held the enemy at bay. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:26 | |
In under three weeks, they had lost 400,000 men, | 0:14:26 | 0:14:32 | |
of whom 360,000 were either prisoners or deserters. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:36 | |
The approach of the war to within 15 miles of Venice | 0:14:46 | 0:14:50 | |
has produced inevitable changes. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:53 | |
The Ducal Palace is no more than a skeleton, boarded up and emptied. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:58 | |
Shops are selling off their goods. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
Venetians who have stayed hope for the best. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:05 | |
The Grand Canal, with its shuttered palaces, has a mournful, noble air. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:10 | |
Most of the gondolas are gone. | 0:15:10 | 0:15:13 | |
Five British and six French divisions were sent to Italy. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:22 | |
The arrival of the British was observed by historian GM Trevelyan: | 0:15:25 | 0:15:30 | |
"The anxiety overhanging that month seemed lifted as they marched by. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:35 | |
"I believe the Italians, civil and military, were as cheered as I was. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:40 | |
"Looking on such men, it seemed impossible that we could be beaten." | 0:15:40 | 0:15:45 | |
General Cadorna now gave way to the younger General Armando Diaz. | 0:15:48 | 0:15:53 | |
Under his command, the Italian army made an astonishing recovery. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:59 | |
The change in the heart of the country was no less remarkable. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:03 | |
Armchair defeatists were silenced, peacemongers put to shame. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:08 | |
In the face of a common danger, | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
the Italian people at last found unity. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:15 | |
To the Austrian army, Caporetto brought much-needed relief, | 0:16:15 | 0:16:20 | |
and the booty of huge food stores. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
It drew together its many races, | 0:16:23 | 0:16:26 | |
Austro, German, Magyars, Yugoslavs, | 0:16:26 | 0:16:29 | |
Czechs, Rumanians and Poles. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
BAND PLAYS | 0:16:32 | 0:16:34 | |
Morale improved. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
For a while, the troops could relax, on full stomachs. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:46 | |
But at home, there was no such unity. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:51 | |
In winter, 1917, mutual dislikes of different races in the empire | 0:16:51 | 0:16:56 | |
were intensified by unequal food distribution. | 0:16:56 | 0:17:00 | |
Vienna was starving, while Budapest had something to spare. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:05 | |
The harvest was a failure, the administration chaotic. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:09 | |
The rations became smaller and smaller as the war went on. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:15 | |
And the black market flourished, fairly officially. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:20 | |
The quality of the food was terrible. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:24 | |
Bread, for instance, gave many people some eczema. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:29 | |
Potatoes were very short too. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:32 | |
It was bitterly cold. The electricity was cut. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:36 | |
The gas was cut. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:39 | |
The children were really underfed, because they had very little milk. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:44 | |
We had to be very careful to have a drop for everyone. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:49 | |
In May 1918, the Emperor Karl was summoned by the Kaiser. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:57 | |
His secret peace moves had been made public by the French. | 0:17:57 | 0:18:02 | |
His duplicity towards his German ally stood revealed. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:06 | |
Now the Germans demanded that the Austrians attack again in Italy | 0:18:06 | 0:18:11 | |
in support of their own offensive in France. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:15 | |
This time, there would be no German help. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
Reluctantly, Karl had to agree. | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
The key to the whole Italian line on the Piave was the Monte Grappa, | 0:18:21 | 0:18:26 | |
5,000 feet high and dominating the plain below. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:31 | |
It had become a symbol of Italian resistance in the previous winter. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:36 | |
On 15th June, the whirlwind burst on the Grappa. | 0:18:36 | 0:18:40 | |
"Within five hours, our defences were smashed, | 0:19:01 | 0:19:05 | |
"three key positions were lost, | 0:19:05 | 0:19:07 | |
"the Austrians looked down on Bassano. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:11 | |
"But the soldiers at Grappa, worn out and decimated, | 0:19:11 | 0:19:15 | |
"dashed forward to the counterattack. | 0:19:15 | 0:19:18 | |
"In 24 hours, all was over, | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
"and we could think of the Piave as inviolate." | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
Elsewhere, Austrian attacks made some headway | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
against two British divisions in the Asiago Plateau. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:36 | |
Further east, they crossed the Piave on a 15-mile front. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:41 | |
But the attacks were spread over too wide a front. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:45 | |
The Austrians were short of ammunition, transport and food. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:50 | |
Worst of all, the Piave now rose in flood. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:53 | |
Within three days, counterattacks threw them back across the river with the loss of 150,000 men. | 0:19:53 | 0:20:01 | |
On the sea, too, Austria had suffered a grievous blow. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:08 | |
Two Italian boats on patrol in the Adriatic | 0:20:08 | 0:20:12 | |
torpedoed the dreadnought Szent Istvan, | 0:20:12 | 0:20:16 | |
one of the most powerful ships in the Austrian navy. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:20 | |
The disaster hastened the end of Austrian hopes. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:24 | |
In the Balkans, Germany's ally Bulgaria stood on the defensive. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:55 | |
Bulgaria had entered the war for territorial gain from Serbia. | 0:20:55 | 0:21:01 | |
In 1915, as the Germans and Austrians invaded Serbia, | 0:21:01 | 0:21:06 | |
Bulgaria struck at her flank. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:09 | |
The Serbs begged for Allied help, | 0:21:24 | 0:21:27 | |
but how could they help this landlocked, isolated country | 0:21:27 | 0:21:32 | |
in the heart of the Balkan mountains? | 0:21:32 | 0:21:35 | |
Only with the aid of Serbia's ally, Greece. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:39 | |
At the invitation of the Greek prime minister, Venizelos, | 0:21:39 | 0:21:43 | |
British and French troops landed at Salonika. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:47 | |
The force owed its existence more to diplomatic necessities | 0:21:49 | 0:21:54 | |
than to the foresight of the military. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:57 | |
The expedition was launched not to defeat the enemy, | 0:21:57 | 0:22:01 | |
but to rescue the remains of the Serbian army, | 0:22:01 | 0:22:05 | |
and prevent the whole of the Balkans from becoming an Austro-German area. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:11 | |
But on the very day the Allies landed, | 0:22:11 | 0:22:15 | |
Venizelos was dismissed by the pro-German King Constantine. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:20 | |
The king declared that Greece would stay neutral. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:24 | |
The Allies were too late to help Serbia. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:27 | |
They found themselves in a neutral country teeming with German spies. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:32 | |
In the bare hills north of Salonika, they entrenched in a vast camp, | 0:22:45 | 0:22:50 | |
known ironically as the "Birdcage". | 0:22:50 | 0:22:53 | |
Here they waited for the Bulgarians and Germans to advance. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:58 | |
But they did not come. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
All we prayed for and hoped for was, | 0:23:01 | 0:23:04 | |
"Let us have some fights. Let us get into there. Let us do something." | 0:23:04 | 0:23:10 | |
We joined the army to fight for the old country, | 0:23:10 | 0:23:15 | |
not to flounder about and dig trenches. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:19 | |
As the troops in the Birdcage made roads, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:23 | |
reinforcements poured into Salonika, | 0:23:23 | 0:23:25 | |
British, French, Italians, Russians, Serbians. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:29 | |
It was maybe the most crowded city in the world, and the most polyglot. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:34 | |
Sailors from half a dozen navies, Turks, Albanians and Greeks, | 0:23:34 | 0:23:39 | |
Balkan peasants in their rough frieze dresses, native soldiers, | 0:23:39 | 0:23:44 | |
Algerians, Indians, Ammonites and Senegalese. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:48 | |
Salonika's cafes, cabarets, cinemas and music halls did a roaring trade. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:54 | |
There were never enough for the many strangers within the city. | 0:23:54 | 0:23:59 | |
For nine months, the Allies waited. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
There was mistrust of Greek intentions, | 0:24:09 | 0:24:13 | |
mistrust between the Allies, | 0:24:13 | 0:24:15 | |
mistrust of the French commander, General Sarrail. | 0:24:15 | 0:24:19 | |
At last, in the early summer of 1916, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:28 | |
the armies advanced north towards the distant mountains. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:33 | |
HORSE NEIGHS | 0:24:35 | 0:24:37 | |
The Bulgarians and Germans had had time to prepare. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:41 | |
They held all heights in great strength. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
No matter where you were, you were under observation. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:49 | |
All they had to do was look down. We couldn't move by daylight at all. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:56 | |
In the heat, the trench lines spread across the Balkan peninsula | 0:24:56 | 0:25:01 | |
from the Aegean to Albania on the Adriatic. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:05 | |
The sun beat down on the stony, treeless heights | 0:25:05 | 0:25:10 | |
on the swampy plains. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:12 | |
The temperature rose to 114 degrees. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
The British troops had no sun helmets. | 0:25:15 | 0:25:19 | |
A director of medical services in Egypt thought they were unnecessary. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:24 | |
With the heat came the mosquitoes, but there were not enough mosquito nets, not enough quinine. | 0:25:24 | 0:25:31 | |
In summer 1916, in every battalion, men went down by the hundred. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:36 | |
Medical services were overwhelmed. | 0:25:36 | 0:25:39 | |
The difficulties of evacuating this flood of sick men were extreme. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:43 | |
In 1916, there were 30,000 cases of malaria. In 1917, 63,000. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:50 | |
In 1918, 67,000. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:53 | |
It was then when you had an attack of malaria | 0:25:54 | 0:25:58 | |
and you had, as a result, a chronic fit of depression, | 0:25:58 | 0:26:02 | |
that it was hardest to keep one's reason. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:06 | |
Long hours in the line, in one's lonely dugout, | 0:26:06 | 0:26:11 | |
as one sat there, and thought, | 0:26:11 | 0:26:15 | |
"Will I ever see home again, and the people I love?" | 0:26:15 | 0:26:21 | |
That was the most dangerous moment for any man to have to face, | 0:26:22 | 0:26:28 | |
and some poor chaps couldn't face it, and shot themselves. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:33 | |
The British army felt abandoned, forgotten. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
We are far out of the limelight. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:43 | |
People ask, "What is the Salonika army doing?" | 0:26:43 | 0:26:47 | |
Lloyd George wrote: | 0:26:47 | 0:26:49 | |
"Our Balkan force was a miserable Cinderella among the Allied armies. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:55 | |
"The British War Office never loved it. | 0:26:55 | 0:26:58 | |
"The campaign was a wretched story of neglect, delay, | 0:26:58 | 0:27:03 | |
"and official bungling of essential supplies." | 0:27:03 | 0:27:07 | |
Winter brought a new enemy - cold. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:10 | |
Day and night, armies on both sides | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
were exposed to the full blast of the blinding sleet, the icy wind. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:18 | |
The temperature fell to 35 degrees below freezing. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:22 | |
Men went down by the score with frostbite. | 0:27:23 | 0:27:27 | |
The German high commands remained on the defensive, | 0:27:27 | 0:27:31 | |
and let Bulgarians hold the line. | 0:27:31 | 0:27:33 | |
It was more advantageous to know that 300,000 of the enemy were being chained to that distant region | 0:27:33 | 0:27:39 | |
than to drive them from the Balkan peninsula and thence to the French theatre of war. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:46 | |
The Germans had other preoccupations in the Balkans. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:50 | |
In 1916, Rumania declared war on the central powers, | 0:27:50 | 0:27:54 | |
and Bulgaria found herself with an enemy on her northern frontier. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:59 | |
But Rumanian ambitions exceeded their powers. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:03 | |
"The trouble is, we are such babies, so unlearned in the art of war", | 0:28:03 | 0:28:08 | |
wrote the queen of Rumania. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
She set an example befitting a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, | 0:28:11 | 0:28:16 | |
distributing sweets, cigarettes, little crosses and holy pictures. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:22 | |
But crosses and holy pictures were not enough. | 0:28:26 | 0:28:30 | |
The Rumanian army was pitifully equipped and badly led. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:35 | |
In the north-west, German and Austrian alpine troops came through the mountains to the central plain. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:44 | |
Bucharest, the capital, fell without a struggle. | 0:28:44 | 0:28:48 | |
In the south, Field Marshal Mackensen, with a mixed force of Germans, Bulgarians and Turks, | 0:29:03 | 0:29:10 | |
had pushed up the Danube towards its mouth | 0:29:10 | 0:29:13 | |
and captured the Black Sea port of Constanza. | 0:29:13 | 0:29:17 | |
Three-quarters of the country had been overrun. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:41 | |
The following year, the Rumanians sued for peace. | 0:29:41 | 0:29:46 | |
The Rumanian catastrophe completed the tale of unrelieved failure | 0:29:55 | 0:30:00 | |
for the Allies in the Balkans. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:03 | |
They now resorted to political weapons. The majority of Greeks | 0:30:03 | 0:30:08 | |
weren't pro-Ally or pro-German. They just wanted to be left alone. | 0:30:08 | 0:30:13 | |
But it didn't suit the Allies for Greece to remain neutral. | 0:30:13 | 0:30:17 | |
By political and military pressure, | 0:30:17 | 0:30:20 | |
including a landing at Athens, King Constantine was forced to abdicate. | 0:30:20 | 0:30:26 | |
Venizelos was returned as premier | 0:30:26 | 0:30:28 | |
and Greece was induced to declare war on the Central Powers. | 0:30:28 | 0:30:33 | |
"The conversion of the Greek army from a source of danger to a powerful ally | 0:30:33 | 0:30:39 | |
"changed the aspect of things in the Balkans and made a renewed offensive possible." | 0:30:39 | 0:30:46 | |
From Corfu came other reinforcements - | 0:30:46 | 0:30:49 | |
100,000 Serbians who had escaped from their country in 1915. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:54 | |
They were dedicated to avenge that terrible defeat. | 0:30:54 | 0:30:59 | |
As Lloyd George put it, they were "ravening to be up and at the foe". | 0:30:59 | 0:31:04 | |
Now mighty events elsewhere impinged on the Macedonian front. | 0:31:18 | 0:31:24 | |
Germany's defeats in the west had weakened Bulgaria's will to resist. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:29 | |
Her peasant soldiers had lived for too long on garlic soup and maize bread. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:35 | |
They'd suffered too long in the mountains without boots or coats. | 0:31:35 | 0:31:40 | |
There was no longer a German army to stiffen their morale. | 0:31:40 | 0:31:45 | |
They began to slip away from the front to their neglected farms. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:50 | |
On 15 September 1918, the Allied bombardment roared out | 0:31:54 | 0:31:59 | |
and the mountains echoed with its thunder. | 0:31:59 | 0:32:03 | |
SHELL FIRE AND EXPLOSIONS | 0:32:03 | 0:32:07 | |
Fire of battle spread quickly from west to east as French, Serbians, | 0:32:16 | 0:32:21 | |
Italians, | 0:32:21 | 0:32:23 | |
Greeks and British attacked the walls of rock that faced them. | 0:32:23 | 0:32:28 | |
The main attack was made by the French and Serbians over mountains, in places, 7,000ft high. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:46 | |
Within a week, the Serbian army, inspired by the sight of their homeland, | 0:32:55 | 0:33:02 | |
had stormed through the mountains to the valleys beyond. | 0:33:02 | 0:33:07 | |
Now they were retracing the path of their bitter retreat three long years before. | 0:33:07 | 0:33:13 | |
Veles, Skopje, | 0:33:13 | 0:33:16 | |
Uskub, Nis - | 0:33:16 | 0:33:18 | |
the towns of Serbia returned, one after another, into their hands. | 0:33:18 | 0:33:22 | |
ACCORDION PLAYS FOLK TUNE | 0:33:22 | 0:33:25 | |
The Bulgarian commander in chief frantically called on the Germans | 0:33:28 | 0:33:34 | |
for reinforcements. | 0:33:34 | 0:33:37 | |
Hindenburg replied - | 0:33:37 | 0:33:39 | |
"As Your Excellency is aware, Germany is now engaged | 0:33:39 | 0:33:43 | |
"in a most terrific struggle on the Western Front. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:47 | |
"All our forces will be required for that." | 0:33:47 | 0:33:51 | |
Only a small nucleus of German troops remained in Bulgaria - not enough to rally the Bulgarians. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:57 | |
"It was impossible to stop their career, even though the pursuing enemy were weak. | 0:33:57 | 0:34:04 | |
"The moment the enemy approached, the Bulgarians fired a few rounds and then left their lines." | 0:34:04 | 0:34:11 | |
The Bulgarians fell back, leaving behind the debris of a broken army. | 0:34:11 | 0:34:16 | |
"The situation was fast becoming unbelievable. | 0:34:16 | 0:34:19 | |
"We were on the point of rolling up the whole line. Central Europe was before our eyes." | 0:34:19 | 0:34:26 | |
On 29 September, a fortnight after the first assault, | 0:34:26 | 0:34:30 | |
Bulgaria capitulated. | 0:34:30 | 0:34:33 | |
The first of Germany's allies had cracked. | 0:34:33 | 0:34:37 | |
"The iron thrones are falling," one Englishman wrote. | 0:34:37 | 0:34:41 | |
The way lay open to Constantinople in the east, | 0:34:41 | 0:34:45 | |
to the Hapsburg Empire in the north. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:48 | |
In Austria-Hungary, social discontent had reached a revolutionary pitch, | 0:34:48 | 0:34:54 | |
as it had done in Russia. | 0:34:54 | 0:34:57 | |
Mutinies had broken out among the Slovenes, Czechs, Hungarians, Bosnians and Slovakians. | 0:34:57 | 0:35:03 | |
Bad news from the Western Front fanned them. | 0:35:03 | 0:35:07 | |
-The Austrians asked - -"If Germany can't put up a defence, why don't they end the fighting?" | 0:35:07 | 0:35:13 | |
Austrian dependence on Germany | 0:35:13 | 0:35:17 | |
was coming full circle. | 0:35:17 | 0:35:20 | |
Endurance was near breaking point. One soldier wrote to his mother - | 0:35:28 | 0:35:33 | |
"The life is unworthy of any human being. | 0:35:33 | 0:35:36 | |
"I ask myself how the older men and young boys in their front positions endure this life. | 0:35:36 | 0:35:43 | |
"Insufficient food. Tattered uniforms. | 0:35:43 | 0:35:47 | |
"No possibility of keeping oneself clean. I feel convinced that we can't go on like this." | 0:35:47 | 0:35:53 | |
On 16 October, the troops learned that the emperor had proclaimed | 0:35:53 | 0:35:58 | |
a federal constitution giving full autonomy to the empire's nations. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:04 | |
It was too late. One by one, they cast off the Hapsburg yoke. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:08 | |
First the Czechoslovaks, then the Yugoslavs and Hungarians | 0:36:08 | 0:36:13 | |
proclaimed themselves as independent states - the empire was splitting asunder. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:19 | |
After four years, | 0:36:19 | 0:36:22 | |
the shot at Sarajevo had at last achieved its true purpose. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:26 | |
On 24 October, the anniversary of Caporetto, the Allies attacked | 0:36:28 | 0:36:33 | |
in Italy. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:36 | |
EXPLOSIONS OF SHELLS | 0:36:45 | 0:36:49 | |
For two days, the Austrians hung on tenaciously in the mountains | 0:37:05 | 0:37:10 | |
and along the line of the Piave. | 0:37:10 | 0:37:13 | |
But on the 27th, the Allies broke through the river front. | 0:37:13 | 0:37:18 | |
CONTINUOUS MACHINE-GUNFIRE | 0:37:18 | 0:37:23 | |
Three days later, cavalry and armoured cars | 0:37:27 | 0:37:31 | |
reached Vittorio Veneto, the Austrian headquarters. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:35 | |
The retreat had turned into a rout. | 0:37:35 | 0:37:38 | |
Now, at last, Austrian resistance was at an end. | 0:37:50 | 0:37:55 | |
Her dream of empire was in ruins. | 0:37:55 | 0:37:58 | |
Her imperial eagle was at the point of death. | 0:37:58 | 0:38:02 | |
Subtitles by Nitole Rahman and Janet Zimmermann BBC Broadcast - 2003 | 0:38:47 | 0:38:51 | |
E-mail us at [email protected] | 0:38:51 | 0:38:55 |