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Harvest home. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:23 | |
In 1914, the nations of Europe had marched to war while the corn ripened. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:41 | |
Now it was 1918 and the harvest was being reaped. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:45 | |
For two months, the whole weight of the Alliance had pressed upon the German army on the Western Front. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:53 | |
July 18th, the Battle of the Marne. | 0:01:53 | 0:01:57 | |
August 8th, the Battle of Amiens. | 0:01:58 | 0:02:02 | |
August 21st, the Battle of Bapaume. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:11 | |
August 26th, the Battle of the Scarpe. | 0:02:14 | 0:02:18 | |
September 12th, the Battle of St Mihiel. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:29 | |
Now on September 26th, another massive blow fell on the German army. | 0:02:31 | 0:02:38 | |
Marshal Foch launched a series of offensives by all the Allies. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:44 | |
Field Marshal von Hindenburg wrote: | 0:03:26 | 0:03:30 | |
"For us another battle was raging side by side with those in the field. | 0:03:30 | 0:03:36 | |
"The other battlefield was in our hearts. On September 28th, this inward battle raged most fiercely." | 0:03:36 | 0:03:43 | |
On September 28th, the German high command | 0:03:43 | 0:03:47 | |
knew that its Bulgarian allies were on the point of surrender. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:52 | |
-General Ludendorff concluded: -"We must plainly sue for peace. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:57 | |
"I went down to the field marshal's room. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:03 | |
"I explained my views. The field marshal listened to me with emotion. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:08 | |
"He answered that he had intended to say the same to me. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:12 | |
"The field marshal and I parted with a firm handshake like men who have buried their dearest hopes." | 0:04:12 | 0:04:19 | |
The next day the surrender of Bulgaria became a fact - | 0:04:19 | 0:04:24 | |
the first rift in the front of the central powers. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:28 | |
The British Army burst through the Hindenburg Line. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:34 | |
GUNFIRE | 0:04:38 | 0:04:42 | |
The German government and high command held a conference at Spa in the Hotel Britannique. | 0:04:55 | 0:05:03 | |
The ministers told the generals of possible revolution in Germany. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:08 | |
The generals told the ministers that the army had reached the end of its strength. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:14 | |
Our anxieties for the army, said Hindenburg, were mingled with cares for the homeland. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:20 | |
"If the one did not stand firm, the other would collapse." | 0:05:20 | 0:05:24 | |
I went through the streets of Frankfurt and was not saluted. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:29 | |
I was a commissioned officer and in the army we had to be saluted. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:34 | |
That was not the only soldier I met who didn't salute. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:38 | |
Quite a number refused to salute. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
I realised that the discipline and mood of people was really bad. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:46 | |
We hadn't realised at the Front how bad it was at home. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:51 | |
People were fed up with war. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
They wanted it to end as soon as possible - victory or no victory. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:59 | |
"We placed our proposals for a peace step before his majesty. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:06 | |
"He approved our proposals with a strong and resolute heart." | 0:06:06 | 0:06:11 | |
"It had to be peace. Peace after 50 months of war." | 0:06:11 | 0:06:15 | |
There were children going to school who had never known peace. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:22 | |
Men had forgotten what peace was like. The very sense of the word had changed. What was peace? | 0:06:22 | 0:06:29 | |
Whatever else it might be, it was something very difficult to obtain. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:34 | |
The first stage towards peace must be an armistice. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:41 | |
Fire! | 0:06:41 | 0:06:42 | |
There could be no peace while guns thundered and the killing went on. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:47 | |
But in every country, soldiers and political leaders knew | 0:06:47 | 0:06:52 | |
that once the guns fell silent and the killing ceased, | 0:06:52 | 0:06:56 | |
it was inconceivable that the weary, blood-stained armies could ever be made to rise up and fight again. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:03 | |
And so before there could be an armistice there must be an assurance that it would lead to peace. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:10 | |
And after 50 months of hatred and suspicion, how could there be such assurance? | 0:07:10 | 0:07:16 | |
The clamour of the guns went on. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:19 | |
Despite losses, despite exhaustion, | 0:07:20 | 0:07:23 | |
the mood of the Allies in 1918 was implacable. | 0:07:23 | 0:07:27 | |
20% of the French nation had been taken into the armed forces since the war began. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:33 | |
Nearly eight million men. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:35 | |
3.5% of the French nation had been killed. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:41 | |
Over 1,300,000 men. | 0:07:41 | 0:07:44 | |
France had suffered and fought and bled as no other country had done. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:53 | |
Great Britain also had put forth a tremendous effort. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:59 | |
13% of her population had been drawn into the armed forces - over six million men. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:06 | |
Since 1916 the toll of British dead had mounted steeply. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:11 | |
Now they numbered 750,000 - more than half the French figure. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:16 | |
Britain had also lost something Continental nations never possessed. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:25 | |
A centuries-old sense of immunity. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:29 | |
Over 7.5 million tonnes of British shipping had been sunk by October 1918 - over 1,000 ships. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:35 | |
A blow at Britain's lifelines, which struck at every citizen. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:41 | |
And every large city now knew that it was a potential war target. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:47 | |
Only 1,413 people had actually been killed in air raids, | 0:08:47 | 0:08:52 | |
but the enemy in the sky had brought war home to British people as nothing else could do. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:59 | |
They didn't like it. | 0:09:03 | 0:09:06 | |
The British mood was sour. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
The clamour of the guns continued. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:17 | |
Now it was October. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:39 | |
On the 3rd, a new government was formed in Germany under the liberal Prince Max of Baden. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:45 | |
First he addressed himself to the President of the United States. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:50 | |
"To avoid further bloodshed, | 0:09:50 | 0:09:53 | |
"the German government requests the President to arrange the immediate conclusion of an armistice | 0:09:53 | 0:09:59 | |
"on land, by sea and in the air." | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
How would America react? | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
For Germany and Austria, this was the all-important question. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:10 | |
CHEERING | 0:10:10 | 0:10:12 | |
President Woodrow Wilson was the man of the hour. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:16 | |
His own views were simple and did not alter. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:20 | |
"If the Germans are beaten, they will accept any terms. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:25 | |
"If they are not beaten, I do not wish to make terms with them." | 0:10:25 | 0:10:30 | |
Wilson lost no time in putting German intentions to the test. | 0:10:30 | 0:10:35 | |
He asked whether the German and Austrian governments were prepared to accept the peace programme | 0:10:35 | 0:10:41 | |
which he had delivered to the US Congress in January, 1918, | 0:10:41 | 0:10:46 | |
known as the Fourteen Points. It was an unfortunate criterion. | 0:10:46 | 0:10:51 | |
Britain, depending on sea power, disliked the insistence | 0:10:51 | 0:10:55 | |
on "absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas in peace and in war". | 0:10:55 | 0:11:00 | |
Proposals for altering the frontiers of Europe, which seemed straightforward in Washington, | 0:11:00 | 0:11:06 | |
took on a different look when seen from Paris or Rome. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:11 | |
Wilson had not consulted the Allies before replying to Germany. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:16 | |
And now for the Allies, the war seemed a little less promising | 0:11:24 | 0:11:29 | |
than it had in October's early days. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:32 | |
In Flanders, drenching rain had halted the Belgian and British advance. | 0:11:32 | 0:11:38 | |
The Americans in the Argonne also faced insoluble transport problems. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:52 | |
The French army fought hard, | 0:12:05 | 0:12:08 | |
but the men of 1918 were not the dashing soldiers of 1914 and 1915. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:13 | |
And the memory of the mutinies of 1917 | 0:12:13 | 0:12:17 | |
was not likely to fade in the mind of their commander, General Petain. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:23 | |
He could not press them too hard. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
MACHINE GUNFIRE | 0:12:38 | 0:12:41 | |
The burden of the advance fell upon the British Army. | 0:12:41 | 0:12:46 | |
Against it, the Germans summoned up their last reserves of courage, skill and fortitude. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:52 | |
All of these they possessed in a rare degree. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:57 | |
The British had been within three miles of Cambrai on September 27th. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:39 | |
They didn't enter the burning city until October 9th. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:43 | |
Yet the British Army also possessed reserves of fortitude and courage. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:07 | |
On October 17th, they attacked again on the river Selle, | 0:14:07 | 0:14:11 | |
capturing 20,000 prisoners and 475 guns. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:16 | |
By the end of October their own losses in this offensive | 0:14:16 | 0:14:21 | |
had been as heavy as any they had sustained throughout the war. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:25 | |
The British Army, Haig told the Government on October 19th: | 0:14:25 | 0:14:30 | |
"..was never more efficient than it is today. But it has fought hard and lacks reinforcements. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:37 | |
"With diminishing effectives, morale is bound to suffer. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:41 | |
"The French and American armies are not capable of making a serious offensive now. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:47 | |
"The British alone might bring the enemy to his knees. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:51 | |
"But why expend more British lives and for what?" | 0:14:51 | 0:14:56 | |
Around the whole perimeter of the war, the central powers faced disaster. | 0:14:57 | 0:15:04 | |
In Syria, the city of Damascus had been taken on October 1st. | 0:15:10 | 0:15:15 | |
Aleppo was captured on the 26th. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:20 | |
On the 30th, Turkey asked for an armistice. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:25 | |
Allied forces advancing from Salonika now stood on the Danube. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:35 | |
On October 24th, the Italians had launched their final offensive against Austria. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:51 | |
By the end of the month, Austrian resistance had collapsed. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:10 | |
Austria surrendered on November 3rd. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
Now Germany stood quite alone | 0:16:22 | 0:16:25 | |
to face her agonising moment. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:29 | |
She had no choice. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:31 | |
She had to accept whatever terms she was offered. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:35 | |
A semi-official newspaper wrote: | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
"There will be a moment of rebellion against the terms. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:43 | |
"Then we shall have to say to ourselves that we have the right to die ourselves | 0:16:43 | 0:16:49 | |
"but not the right to let others die; | 0:16:49 | 0:16:52 | |
"that our business is to prevent useless bloodshed | 0:16:52 | 0:16:56 | |
"and that further bloodshed has become really and obviously useless." | 0:16:56 | 0:17:01 | |
A socialist leader summed it up: | 0:17:01 | 0:17:04 | |
"Better a terrible end than terror without end." | 0:17:04 | 0:17:09 | |
Germany faced the truth with wracking despair. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
November came and a Munich paper bitterly recalled the Kaiser's promise in August 1914, | 0:17:28 | 0:17:35 | |
that the army would be home "when the leaves fall". | 0:17:35 | 0:17:39 | |
"'When the leaves fall.' Many are now dead who thought that they would be home when the leaves fall. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:46 | |
"Who does not remember with pain those cheerful words of the Kaiser? | 0:17:46 | 0:17:51 | |
"The leaves are now falling for the fifth time. Now perhaps peace will come." | 0:17:51 | 0:17:57 | |
"The signs of internal commotion in Germany are growing more numerous and more serious. | 0:17:57 | 0:18:05 | |
"Want and the collapse of all the expectations of victory and plunder | 0:18:05 | 0:18:09 | |
"have evidently excited very dangerous passions among the masses. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:14 | |
"The people of Cologne are sick of the war. They say they've been grossly deceived. | 0:18:14 | 0:18:20 | |
"They were told it would bring them prosperity but it's brought misery." | 0:18:20 | 0:18:26 | |
By November 6th, there was revolution in all parts of Germany. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:31 | |
Mutinous sailors from the fleet at Kiel took over Hamburg and Bremen. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:37 | |
There were insurrections in Hanover, | 0:18:37 | 0:18:40 | |
Brunswick, Cologne and Munich. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:43 | |
Berlin was in ferment. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:47 | |
Ludendorff had resigned on October 27th. | 0:18:47 | 0:18:51 | |
-Now his successor told the Government: -"We shall have to cross the lines with a white flag. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:57 | |
"Even a week is too long to wait." | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
The next day, November 7th, the German Armistice Commission crossed the lines. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:07 | |
The last days of the war were at hand. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:11 | |
The last shells were being fired, the last attacks mounted, the last killing being done. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:17 | |
From first to last, the price of war was fearful. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:23 | |
The poet Wilfred Owen, who had written in his poems one of the sternest indictments of war, | 0:19:23 | 0:19:29 | |
was only one of the many who fell during these last days. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:34 | |
"If in some smothering dreams you too could pace | 0:19:34 | 0:19:38 | |
"Behind the wagon that we flung him in, | 0:19:38 | 0:19:43 | |
"And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
"His hanging face, like a devil's, sick of sin | 0:19:46 | 0:19:51 | |
"If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
"Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, | 0:19:54 | 0:19:58 | |
"Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud | 0:19:58 | 0:20:02 | |
"Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues - | 0:20:02 | 0:20:06 | |
"My friend, you would not tell with such high zest | 0:20:06 | 0:20:11 | |
"To children ardent for some desperate glory, | 0:20:11 | 0:20:15 | |
"The old lie: 'It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country.'" | 0:20:15 | 0:20:21 | |
100 days of savage fighting which had begun in August and which had never relaxed its pressure | 0:20:33 | 0:20:40 | |
had cost the British Army almost 400,000 men. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:44 | |
In that time, the British had taken 188,000 prisoners. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:51 | |
The other Allies together, French, Americans and Belgians had taken 196,000 prisoners. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:13 | |
Of these, the vast majority fell to the French. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:17 | |
No army in the world could stand this rate of loss. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:33 | |
A proud German army was breaking up in the field. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:37 | |
There could be no doubt about the outcome of the armistice negotiations. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:43 | |
-The London Times wrote: | 0:21:43 | 0:21:46 | |
"All the world awaits with eager desire the news that Germany has taken the next step towards peace. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:53 | |
"There is but one way, and every hour that she delays increases her losses and her dangers. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:59 | |
"The terms have been irrevocably fixed. They are to take or leave within a definite period." | 0:21:59 | 0:22:06 | |
At Compiegne, the drama was played out. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:12 | |
The German armistice delegation entered Foch's railway carriage. | 0:22:12 | 0:22:16 | |
"Foch invited them to be seated on one side of the table and sat down. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:21 | |
"'Do you request an armistice?' the marshal asked abruptly. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:26 | |
"'Yes. We are here to ask that an armistice be concluded,' they replied together." | 0:22:26 | 0:22:32 | |
The terms were read out in complete silence. One German delegate wept. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:37 | |
The Germans were given 72 hours in which to reach a decision. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:42 | |
They did not need so long. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:46 | |
Revolution was sweeping through the cities of Germany. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:51 | |
ANGRY SHOUTING | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
On November 9th, the Kaiser abdicated | 0:23:13 | 0:23:16 | |
and the next day he fled to Holland. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:20 | |
Hearing the news, Sir Douglas Haig wrote in his diary: | 0:23:21 | 0:23:25 | |
"If the war had gone against us, no doubt our king would have had to go. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:30 | |
"And probably our army would have become insubordinate like the German army. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:36 | |
"Compare John Bunyan's remark on seeing a man on his way to be hanged. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:41 | |
"But for the grace of God, John Bunyan would have been in that man's place." | 0:23:41 | 0:23:48 | |
At 5am on November 11th, the armistice was signed | 0:23:48 | 0:23:53 | |
and a signal went out from Marshal Foch's headquarters to all the Allied armies. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:59 | |
"Hostilities will cease at 1100 hours today, November 11th. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:04 | |
Now, at last, on the hundredth day of the fifth year, | 0:24:08 | 0:24:12 | |
the guns fell silent, the killings stopped. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:17 | |
No more Very lights going up with their greenish wavering flare. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:22 | |
No lilies of the dead in the night. | 0:24:23 | 0:24:27 | |
No flash of howitzers on the horizon. | 0:24:27 | 0:24:30 | |
No drowning with droning of the shells. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:34 | |
No machine guns. No patrols going out. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:39 | |
Just nothing. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:42 | |
Silence. | 0:24:42 | 0:24:44 | |
The Canadians were approaching Mons. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:02 | |
Then we carried on into Mons. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:05 | |
And got to the main street | 0:25:05 | 0:25:07 | |
which was filled with the inhabitants screaming their heads off and shouting. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:13 | |
They didn't seem to know what had happened to them. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:18 | |
And as I got to the town hall in the main street of Mons, the church clock chimed. It was 11 o'clock. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:25 | |
The war was over. This was the unbelievable moment. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:29 | |
And nowhere more unbelievable than at the front itself. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:34 | |
Slowly the news came in officially that an armistice had been signed. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:39 | |
But there was no show of emotion. No-one went berserk or anything. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:44 | |
We were too far gone. Our emotions were all killed long ago. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:49 | |
A French officer observed the reaction of his soldiers. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:54 | |
"They didn't show their joy by shouts or songs as one could have expected. | 0:25:54 | 0:26:00 | |
"They talked about it but remained remarkably composed and dignified. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:05 | |
"Peace came so suddenly that we were all rather stunned | 0:26:05 | 0:26:10 | |
"asking ourselves if it was possible or whether we were dreaming. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:15 | |
"Walking along the trenches several hours after the armistice, | 0:26:15 | 0:26:19 | |
"I was surprised to see all our soldiers at their listening posts | 0:26:19 | 0:26:24 | |
"or in their shelters, as if the war was still on." | 0:26:24 | 0:26:29 | |
The more boisterous Americans responded differently to it. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:34 | |
"In one unit, the men joined hands in one long line behind the gun. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:39 | |
"As the captain dropped his arm, they all pulled in unison | 0:26:39 | 0:26:44 | |
"so each could say he had fired the last shell." | 0:26:44 | 0:26:48 | |
EXPLOSION | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
In many British sectors, stern fighting went on until the very last minute. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:57 | |
There'd been one German machine gun unit | 0:26:57 | 0:27:01 | |
giving our troops a lot of trouble. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:04 | |
They kept on firing until almost 11 o'clock. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:07 | |
At 11 o'clock the officer stepped out of their position, | 0:27:07 | 0:27:12 | |
lifted his helmet and bowed to the British troops, | 0:27:12 | 0:27:16 | |
fell all his men in and marched them off. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:20 | |
CHEERING | 0:27:20 | 0:27:24 | |
British soldiers watched with astonishment as civilians in the liberated areas dug up in gardens | 0:27:24 | 0:27:31 | |
clothes, money and valuables which had been hidden for years. | 0:27:31 | 0:27:36 | |
For these people, November 11th, 1918, | 0:27:37 | 0:27:41 | |
meant the end of enemy rule, repression and fear. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:45 | |
"If there are endless miles of ruins, there are thousands of beaming faces. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:51 | |
"Wounded, filtering back from the front, | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
"old men and women and then grandchildren, | 0:27:54 | 0:27:58 | |
"huddled with the remains of their possessions on a creaking cart drawn by a lame old horse, | 0:27:58 | 0:28:05 | |
"returning perhaps to ruins which they may still fondly claim as home. | 0:28:05 | 0:28:10 | |
"One and all bear the stamp of trials bravely borne." | 0:28:10 | 0:28:14 | |
For some the armistice had another meaning. | 0:28:14 | 0:28:18 | |
An English officer heard stories of a different fear. | 0:28:18 | 0:28:22 | |
"Of how from want, because the children were hungry, | 0:28:22 | 0:28:26 | |
"to provide medicine for a sick baby or to save an invalid mother from starvation, | 0:28:26 | 0:28:32 | |
"the girl or the wife had lived with a German officer, | 0:28:32 | 0:28:36 | |
"with men their men were fighting. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 | |
"Sometimes there was a child by this stranger | 0:28:39 | 0:28:44 | |
"and you felt the unhappy mother did not dare say, | 0:28:44 | 0:28:48 | |
"could not explain that she loved this one also. | 0:28:48 | 0:28:52 | |
"And I, the Englishman, | 0:28:52 | 0:28:55 | |
"thank God that my country had not been invaded." | 0:28:55 | 0:28:59 | |
The November day wore on. | 0:28:59 | 0:29:02 | |
The truth, the wonderful, incredible truth, sank in. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:06 | |
The war really was over. | 0:29:06 | 0:29:09 | |
A British officer wrote: | 0:29:09 | 0:29:12 | |
"Throughout the night, the singing, the hooting of railway whistles | 0:29:12 | 0:29:17 | |
"and the blast of factory sirens might awaken the dead. | 0:29:17 | 0:29:22 | |
"At last I lay down. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:25 | |
"Tired and happy. But sleep is elusive. | 0:29:25 | 0:29:28 | |
"Incidents thrash through the memory. | 0:29:28 | 0:29:32 | |
"The battles of the first four months. | 0:29:32 | 0:29:37 | |
"The awful winters in waterlogged trenches, | 0:29:40 | 0:29:44 | |
"cold and miserable. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:47 | |
"The terrible trench assaults and shellfire of the next three years. | 0:29:47 | 0:29:52 | |
"Loss of friends. Exhaustion and wounds. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:05 | |
"Thank God. The end of a frightful four years at the Front. | 0:30:06 | 0:30:11 | |
"Company officers, rank and file | 0:30:11 | 0:30:14 | |
"together with other front-line units | 0:30:14 | 0:30:17 | |
"had suffered bravely, patiently and unselfishly | 0:30:17 | 0:30:22 | |
"hardships and perils beyond even the imagination of those, | 0:30:22 | 0:30:26 | |
"including soldiers, who had not shared them." | 0:30:26 | 0:30:31 | |
To all his soldiers, Marshal Foch addressed an order of the day. | 0:30:32 | 0:30:36 | |
"Officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the allied armies, | 0:30:36 | 0:30:41 | |
"You have won the greatest battle in history | 0:30:41 | 0:30:45 | |
"and rescued the most sacred of causes - the liberty of the world. | 0:30:45 | 0:30:50 | |
"You have full right to be proud. | 0:30:50 | 0:30:53 | |
"For you have crowned your standards with immortal glory | 0:30:53 | 0:30:57 | |
"and won the gratitude of posterity." | 0:30:57 | 0:31:01 | |
On the other side of the line, Field Marshal von Hindenburg | 0:31:01 | 0:31:06 | |
led the defeated German army home to a country bitterly divided. | 0:31:06 | 0:31:11 | |
Children were dying of hunger | 0:31:11 | 0:31:14 | |
and mobs attacked officers in the streets. | 0:31:14 | 0:31:17 | |
Even the soldiers were shot at | 0:31:17 | 0:31:20 | |
and all their achievements and courage, was set at naught. | 0:31:20 | 0:31:25 | |
Yet Hindenburg did not despair. | 0:31:25 | 0:31:27 | |
"I have witnessed the heroic struggle of my fatherland. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:32 | |
"and I shall never believe that it was its death struggle." | 0:31:32 | 0:31:36 | |
Germany reported 1,800,000 dead. | 0:31:36 | 0:31:40 | |
Austria-Hungary - 1,200,000. | 0:31:40 | 0:31:44 | |
Two great empires foundered in sorrow, in hunger, in ruin | 0:31:44 | 0:31:49 | |
to face a merciless future. | 0:31:49 | 0:31:53 | |
The day of reckoning had come. | 0:31:53 | 0:31:56 | |
The reckoning of victory was no less exorbitant. | 0:31:56 | 0:32:00 | |
Nearly five million French men were killed, wounded or taken prisoner during the war. | 0:32:00 | 0:32:06 | |
That was the price France paid for victory. | 0:32:06 | 0:32:10 | |
General de Gaulle wrote, | 0:32:10 | 0:32:13 | |
"The sacrifice was cruel as it was paid with the lives of her youth. | 0:32:13 | 0:32:18 | |
"A treasure in which France was poorer than other European countries. | 0:32:18 | 0:32:23 | |
"Here dead we lie | 0:32:23 | 0:32:26 | |
"Because we did not choose to live | 0:32:26 | 0:32:30 | |
"And shame the land from which we sprung | 0:32:30 | 0:32:33 | |
"Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose | 0:32:33 | 0:32:38 | |
"But young men think it is | 0:32:38 | 0:32:42 | |
"And we were young." | 0:32:42 | 0:32:45 | |
Now it was over. | 0:32:45 | 0:32:47 | |
Now the awful letting of blood was ended. | 0:32:47 | 0:32:51 | |
France could breathe again. | 0:32:51 | 0:32:53 | |
We had had so many years of suffering. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:57 | |
Four years. Four years of dull suffering. Acute suffering. | 0:32:57 | 0:33:02 | |
Pain everywhere. | 0:33:02 | 0:33:05 | |
It was dreadful. | 0:33:05 | 0:33:07 | |
Every day we heard about someone we loved being killed or wounded. | 0:33:07 | 0:33:12 | |
There was no relief anywhere | 0:33:12 | 0:33:15 | |
and we thought it would go on and on and on for ever. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:20 | |
But it didn't because armistice came. | 0:33:20 | 0:33:24 | |
We waited for it. We knew it was coming. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:28 | |
Although we weren't sure when. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:31 | |
We knew that one day it would come | 0:33:31 | 0:33:34 | |
and we waited and we waited, | 0:33:34 | 0:33:37 | |
with such tense feelings that everything around us seemed to wait. | 0:33:37 | 0:33:43 | |
The town waited. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:46 | |
Paris waited. The buildings waited. We were hushing everything. | 0:33:46 | 0:33:51 | |
We didn't want to talk because something was going to happen. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:56 | |
We waited and it came. | 0:33:56 | 0:33:59 | |
The day it came it was SO wonderful! | 0:33:59 | 0:34:02 | |
The news seemed too good to be true. | 0:34:02 | 0:34:04 | |
Even the excitable Parisians had to wait till it was confirmed. | 0:34:04 | 0:34:10 | |
Everyone knew that an armistice had been signed. | 0:34:10 | 0:34:13 | |
The war would surely end at eleven. | 0:34:13 | 0:34:16 | |
The great city remained calm until it had been announced officially. | 0:34:16 | 0:34:21 | |
Until the fighting ceased Parisians went about their affairs | 0:34:21 | 0:34:25 | |
and conducted themselves with good sense and restraint. | 0:34:25 | 0:34:29 | |
At 1100, the great fact established, Paris threw her chapeau into the air, | 0:34:29 | 0:34:35 | |
became alive with colour, began to sing and dance. | 0:34:35 | 0:34:40 | |
In America, most people were asleep when the news of the armistice came | 0:34:40 | 0:34:45 | |
They awoke to a joyful day. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:48 | |
America's war losses - 325,000 men - did not compare with Europe's. | 0:34:52 | 0:34:59 | |
But at least there would be no more young Americans sailing away to death and wounds on distant fields. | 0:34:59 | 0:35:05 | |
London's relief matched that of Paris. | 0:35:11 | 0:35:15 | |
Now the bells could ring and go on ringing, | 0:35:15 | 0:35:18 | |
announcing what all British people desired to hear. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:22 | |
"There was wild rejoicing and crowds went crazy with delight. | 0:35:22 | 0:35:26 | |
"But it seemed to me that behind the ringing of these peals of joy, | 0:35:26 | 0:35:31 | |
"there was the tolling of spectral bells for those who would not return. | 0:35:31 | 0:35:36 | |
For the British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, | 0:35:40 | 0:35:44 | |
it was a day for gratitude - and hope. | 0:35:44 | 0:35:47 | |
"In the House of Commons that afternoon, I rose and announced the signing of the armistice. | 0:35:47 | 0:35:55 | |
"I concluded by saying, 'Thus at eleven this morning came to an end | 0:35:55 | 0:36:02 | |
"'the cruellest and most terrible war that has scorched mankind.'" | 0:36:02 | 0:36:08 | |
In the cities of the allied nations | 0:36:09 | 0:36:12 | |
the armistice set loose a wave of exaltation and expectation like the breaking of a dam. | 0:36:12 | 0:36:19 | |
The very word was electrifying. | 0:36:19 | 0:36:22 | |
Clemenceau expressed the relief and happiness | 0:36:22 | 0:36:26 | |
of all those who greeted the armistice with cheers. | 0:36:26 | 0:36:30 | |
"A grand word. | 0:36:30 | 0:36:32 | |
"A great word to set down when after four years, | 0:36:32 | 0:36:36 | |
"lived through in anguished expectation of the worst, | 0:36:36 | 0:36:40 | |
"suddenly a voice is heard crying, 'It is finished.'" | 0:36:40 | 0:36:44 | |
"The armistice is the interval between the curtain's rise and fall. | 0:36:44 | 0:36:50 | |
"Hail to it! And welcome!" | 0:36:50 | 0:36:53 | |
Subtitles by Philippa Hanscombe and Vania Georgeson, BBC Broadcast - 2003 | 0:38:42 | 0:38:47 | |
E-mail us at [email protected] | 0:38:47 | 0:38:51 |