0:00:03 > 0:00:06Here on the Somme in 1916,
0:00:06 > 0:00:11this low ridge was the most dangerous place on the planet.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13Then, it was a wilderness,
0:00:13 > 0:00:17a ribbon of precision engineered mutual annihilation.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20And yet, on the plane beyond,
0:00:20 > 0:00:22the landscape looked much as we see it today.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26For the British, that was the promised land,
0:00:26 > 0:00:27the way to victory.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29For the Germans, it remained,
0:00:29 > 0:00:35and must remain, a part of a new and expanding empire, the Kaiserreich.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44And it was for the control of these fertile fields
0:00:44 > 0:00:47that the next bloody phase of the Battle of the Somme was fought.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49On the 14th of July,
0:00:49 > 0:00:51the British launched their greatest attack
0:00:51 > 0:00:53since the first day of fighting.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57It was designed to open a fresh new offensive chapter.
0:00:57 > 0:01:02But, as on the 1st of July, they again underestimated their enemy.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05The Germans were to resist so ferociously
0:01:05 > 0:01:09that the advances that British commanders expected to take hours
0:01:09 > 0:01:11would, in fact, take weeks.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13And within the ensuing wasteland,
0:01:13 > 0:01:16the Germans fashioned new tactics
0:01:16 > 0:01:19that would repeatedly shatter British hopes
0:01:19 > 0:01:20and produce yet more carnage.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28My name is Peter Barton,
0:01:28 > 0:01:32and over the years my work in German military archives has convinced me
0:01:32 > 0:01:35that this most symbolical of battles did not play out
0:01:35 > 0:01:37in the way that we've been led to believe.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42There is a better truth to be had about the Somme.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47What became instantly clear when I started looking in these archives
0:01:47 > 0:01:49was that there were two philosophies at work.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53The British and French had an offensive philosophy.
0:01:53 > 0:01:55The Germans had a defensive one.
0:01:55 > 0:02:00Remember, in 1916, they were standing stolidly on the defence,
0:02:00 > 0:02:01hoping to win through in Russia
0:02:01 > 0:02:03before they came to attack on the Western Front.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08That meant that the way they approached trench warfare
0:02:08 > 0:02:11was entirely different to the way their enemies approached it.
0:02:14 > 0:02:15Understand this,
0:02:15 > 0:02:20and we can better understand how the Battle of the Somme unfolded.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23So, in this programme, I'm going to continue the story
0:02:23 > 0:02:24of the Allied offensive
0:02:24 > 0:02:27but show how, in order to counter it,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30the German army underwent a tactical revolution
0:02:30 > 0:02:32that would frustrate Allied plans
0:02:32 > 0:02:38and contribute so much to the terrible suffering, misery and loss
0:02:38 > 0:02:41that still haunts us today, 100 years later.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03The first 13 days of battle, though costly,
0:03:03 > 0:03:06had brought the British within striking distance
0:03:06 > 0:03:08of the second German line of defence.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11Here, in front of Montauban,
0:03:11 > 0:03:14no-man's land was a suicidal mile wide.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16Risks had to be taken.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20Here, under cover of darkness,
0:03:20 > 0:03:23one of the more extraordinary ventures of the war took place.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28In silence, and guided only by white tapes,
0:03:28 > 0:03:3422,000 men assembled before the German trenches. Safe behind them,
0:03:34 > 0:03:38thousands of cavalry awaited the expected breakthrough.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44But there were grave doubts about the operation.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48British Commander-in-Chief Sir Douglas Haig had no faith
0:03:48 > 0:03:50in a night operation using inexperienced troops.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55His French allies called it an attack planned by amateurs
0:03:55 > 0:03:59to be carried out by an amateur army.
0:03:59 > 0:04:04For three days, the German trenches were pummelled by shellfire,
0:04:04 > 0:04:08and in the hope that they might be intercepted by German listeners,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11fake British telephone calls were made
0:04:11 > 0:04:14saying that all operations for the following day
0:04:14 > 0:04:15had been postponed.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20At 3:20am, the British artillery
0:04:20 > 0:04:24unleashed a bombardment of unprecedented fury.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34That super-concentrated shelling, known as a hurricane bombardment,
0:04:34 > 0:04:36lasted just five minutes.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38And then the troops rose for their assault.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Hans Gareis of the 16th Bavarian Regiment
0:04:46 > 0:04:48was watching and waiting.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53"The British are attacking. The platoon quickly deployed,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56"which was not easy in total darkness.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59"Then the first flare went up,
0:04:59 > 0:05:04"and at about 300 metres we saw the British advancing towards our wire.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09"And then, all hell broke loose."
0:05:15 > 0:05:18The British pierced the enemy line.
0:05:18 > 0:05:19For the Germans,
0:05:19 > 0:05:24the question now was what would their enemy do next?
0:05:24 > 0:05:25And when?
0:05:28 > 0:05:29The intention of the commander-in-chief
0:05:29 > 0:05:32of the British and imperial forces, Sir Douglas Haig,
0:05:32 > 0:05:35had been to surge over two key ridges,
0:05:35 > 0:05:37seizing villages and woods on the way.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42On the 14th July, the initial hurdle was a second German line
0:05:42 > 0:05:44along the Bazentin Ridge.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49Afterwards, he could strike north against Pozieres, and Mouquet Farm,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52and south-east to the important high ground
0:05:52 > 0:05:54beyond Ginchy and Guillemont.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57Haig's ambition was to provide his troops
0:05:57 > 0:06:03with a commanding launch pad for a final, decisive rout of the enemy.
0:06:06 > 0:06:07What the British troops needed,
0:06:07 > 0:06:11after their initial gains on the morning of the 14th July,
0:06:11 > 0:06:13was for the fog of battle to clear,
0:06:13 > 0:06:17and to receive explicit orders to press on -
0:06:17 > 0:06:19and, most importantly of all,
0:06:19 > 0:06:22for the cavalry to arrive and finish the job.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25It was here at the British headquarters
0:06:25 > 0:06:29at the Chateaux de Querrieu, some 12 miles from Bazentin Ridge,
0:06:29 > 0:06:34that the architect of the attack, General Sir Henry Rawlinson,
0:06:34 > 0:06:36awaited news from the front.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43Earlier reports were glorious.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46Sir Douglas Haig motored here to Querrieu,
0:06:46 > 0:06:49where he was congratulated by French commanders.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51Rawlinson had been vindicated.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56But, by noon, the picture had changed.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59The British attacks were clearly held up in several places,
0:06:59 > 0:07:03messages from the battlefield were erroneous or misleading,
0:07:03 > 0:07:06and procrastination followed.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10Now, Rawlinson had to push on -
0:07:10 > 0:07:13but dare he now risk sending forward
0:07:13 > 0:07:18thousands of cavalry and infantry into the unknown?
0:07:19 > 0:07:22Sir Douglas Haig, himself a cavalryman,
0:07:22 > 0:07:23longed to see mounted troops
0:07:23 > 0:07:26galloping through breaches in the German line.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29And as for the cavalry themselves,
0:07:29 > 0:07:33they had waited almost two years for such an opportunity.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35In the early evening,
0:07:35 > 0:07:38medieval and ultramodern military technology
0:07:38 > 0:07:40combined for the first time.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44A Royal Flying Corps aircraft swooped and soared over high woods,
0:07:44 > 0:07:46signalling to the waiting cavalry below
0:07:46 > 0:07:49that their moment had finally arrived.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53Then, Indian horsemen armed with rifles, machine guns and lances
0:07:53 > 0:07:56galloped down this valley into the attack.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00Royal Artillery signaller Leonard Ounsworth
0:08:00 > 0:08:02witnessed the stirring event.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08"I saw this Indian cavalry - the Deccan Horse, they called them -
0:08:08 > 0:08:11"and this plane diving down and up again.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14"Suddenly, the officer in charge of the cavalry cottoned on.
0:08:14 > 0:08:15"He stood up in his stirrups,
0:08:15 > 0:08:19"waved his sword above his head, and they just charged across that field
0:08:19 > 0:08:20"like a shot out of a gun.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22"Like bats out of hell."
0:08:28 > 0:08:33Banner front-page headlines throughout Britain and her empire
0:08:33 > 0:08:36heralded an historic incident on the Somme.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40The British offensive brilliantly continued,
0:08:40 > 0:08:4334 Germans killed with the lance,
0:08:43 > 0:08:45and the capture of over 200 prisoners.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52Surprised but buoyed by the results of the day,
0:08:52 > 0:08:57and now confident of further substantial, and imminent, success,
0:08:57 > 0:08:59Sir Douglas Haig wrote in his diary,
0:08:59 > 0:09:03"All the cavalry are heartened by this episode.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05"And I think their time is soon coming."
0:09:06 > 0:09:08It was, in fact,
0:09:08 > 0:09:12the only time that mounted troops would ride into action on the Somme.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19My research in Germany has uncovered remarkable eyewitness accounts,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22suggesting the battle didn't unfold in the way
0:09:22 > 0:09:24the British public were encouraged to believe.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30During the attack on the morning of the 14th of July,
0:09:30 > 0:09:31Lieutenant Colonel Kumme,
0:09:31 > 0:09:35the commanding officer of the 16th Bavarian infantry regiment,
0:09:35 > 0:09:38was captured here in Bazentin-le-Petit
0:09:38 > 0:09:42with all his headquarters staff and all their maps and documents.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44It was a tremendous coup for the British.
0:09:45 > 0:09:50They were led back, probably down this very track, interrogated,
0:09:50 > 0:09:54and eventually found themselves in a POW camp near Derby.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57From this tiny Somme hamlet,
0:09:57 > 0:10:01an illuminating chain of events was set in motion.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04Despite their incarceration,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07Lieutenant Colonel Kumme and at least two of his comrades
0:10:07 > 0:10:10managed to send back reports of the attack,
0:10:10 > 0:10:12and what happened after their capture.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14They were smuggled out of the camp by German doctors
0:10:14 > 0:10:17en route to a prisoner exchange in Switzerland.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20A very dangerous exercise, for which they could have been shot.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22Now, extraordinarily,
0:10:22 > 0:10:27those reports found their way back here to the Somme battlefield
0:10:27 > 0:10:30in a matter of weeks - and I found them in the German archives.
0:10:30 > 0:10:31Here they are.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33They make very interesting reading.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40What Kumme and his comrades recorded
0:10:40 > 0:10:44helps us to better understand what actually happened that day.
0:10:45 > 0:10:46On their way to captivity,
0:10:46 > 0:10:50they noted large numbers of idle British cavalry,
0:10:50 > 0:10:52unsaddled and feeding,
0:10:52 > 0:10:56but saw British artillery, lorries, motorbikes and ambulances
0:10:56 > 0:10:58driving almost to the front line itself.
0:11:00 > 0:11:02This contradicts British claims
0:11:02 > 0:11:05that the cavalry were unable to assault any earlier
0:11:05 > 0:11:08because of slippery, shell-shattered ground.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12Research also shows the Germans
0:11:12 > 0:11:15were fully aware that British cavalry were on their way,
0:11:15 > 0:11:18just minutes after they'd set off,
0:11:18 > 0:11:23through yet another intercepted British telephone call.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29What we do know is that the charge took place at seven in the evening,
0:11:29 > 0:11:31instead of noon,
0:11:31 > 0:11:35and it consisted of only 300 horsemen instead of thousands...
0:11:39 > 0:11:42..and that their casualties were more than one in three.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50This was not the good news story so widely reported -
0:11:50 > 0:11:52and there was another revealing insight.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56Kumme and his colleagues also spoke with British officers
0:11:56 > 0:11:59who expressed anxiety about the fighting
0:11:59 > 0:12:01they believed they now faced -
0:12:01 > 0:12:06mobile combat across open fields, instead of trench warfare.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12"Although I gained the impression that everything was well practised,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15"and that everyone knew what they had to do,
0:12:15 > 0:12:17"it was also apparent that this was only sufficient
0:12:17 > 0:12:19"for positional trench warfare,
0:12:19 > 0:12:23"where leadership qualities are less important
0:12:23 > 0:12:25"than in a war of movement."
0:12:27 > 0:12:29As the sun set on the 14th July,
0:12:29 > 0:12:34the British could certainly say the Bazentin Ridge was now theirs.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38But protracted and violent enemy resistance had withered momentum
0:12:38 > 0:12:42throughout the day, allowing vital hours to slip by.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45And there were over 9,000 casualties.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49The surge towards Haig's final objective
0:12:49 > 0:12:52stalled in an atmosphere of indecision and fear.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54The British had once again come up
0:12:54 > 0:12:57against the rock-like resolve of German high command.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02The principal ambition of this man,
0:13:02 > 0:13:06chief of the German General Staff, Field Marshal Erich von Falkenhayn,
0:13:06 > 0:13:10was to maintain an unbroken and unbreakable line
0:13:10 > 0:13:12on the Western Front -
0:13:12 > 0:13:17not a yard, not an inch of ground must be yielded to the enemy.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23It was, after all, the new border of the German imperial empire.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26Falkenhayn himself was a Prussian aristocrat,
0:13:26 > 0:13:28albeit an impoverished one,
0:13:28 > 0:13:33but he was militaristic and bellicose to his very core.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36If, for example, two officers fell into a dispute,
0:13:36 > 0:13:41he suggested settlement by duelling with sabres.
0:13:43 > 0:13:48Falkenhayn knew his Somme army, one fifth the size of the enemy's,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51was in danger of bleeding to death before his eyes.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56What happened next came as a surprise to everyone,
0:13:56 > 0:14:01for along the ridge the Germans were provided with an unexpected ally.
0:14:03 > 0:14:04Woodland.
0:14:12 > 0:14:16On the 14th of July, Trones Wood fell to the British,
0:14:16 > 0:14:19but Delville Wood remained in German hands.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22Further along the ridge sat High Wood.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26Machine gun crews had quickly nestled into its dense undergrowth,
0:14:26 > 0:14:30and on the slope behind lay a new German trench,
0:14:30 > 0:14:34known to the British as the Switch Line.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37It had only been installed in the last eight days,
0:14:37 > 0:14:39and, although primitive,
0:14:39 > 0:14:41it was to provide the lethal nucleus
0:14:41 > 0:14:45for a numbing period of German defensive resilience...
0:14:50 > 0:14:53..and no British soldier had received any training
0:14:53 > 0:14:55in woodland fighting.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57It had never been thought necessary.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01Woodland like this is a very difficult place to capture.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05The problem is this - it's very similar to trench warfare,
0:15:05 > 0:15:07except, whereas in trench warfare
0:15:07 > 0:15:10you know that your enemy is in those trenches,
0:15:10 > 0:15:12which are visible in the landscape,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15here in the woods, there is the wood, but where is the enemy?
0:15:16 > 0:15:19You can see out of a wood to see an attack coming,
0:15:19 > 0:15:21you cannot see into a wood,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24to detect how many enemy soldiers might be in there.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26And that was the greatest problem.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29It was very difficult to see anything from the air.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31You could have ten aircraft up there -
0:15:31 > 0:15:35all the soldiers had to do was stand against a tree trunk,
0:15:35 > 0:15:38under that canopy, or simply don't move.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42Simply keep still, and just wait for the enemy to appear.
0:15:42 > 0:15:47And that's why it took weeks, even months, sometimes,
0:15:47 > 0:15:50to capture small patches of woodland,
0:15:50 > 0:15:52which, on the map, look minuscule.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57Tens of thousands of lives were lost
0:15:57 > 0:16:01in trying to capture places like this.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05This benign, sylvan, beautiful landscape, now.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09You simply don't know what's beneath your feet.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16The British resorted to brutal firepower.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18Eliminate the woods, and everything within them.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24Massed artillery and mortars reduced them to splintered stumps
0:16:24 > 0:16:26and tangled mats of fallen boughs...
0:16:27 > 0:16:29..but even in ruination,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33they continued to provide cover for machine guns and snipers,
0:16:33 > 0:16:37and so the British infantry attacks, breasts against bullets,
0:16:37 > 0:16:39had to continue.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41The German 165th Division
0:16:41 > 0:16:44acknowledged the bravery of their enemy,
0:16:44 > 0:16:47but, all too often, the futility of their efforts.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54"Wave upon wave of khaki-clad forms advancing against shot-up trenches.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57"Red flares soared into the sky,
0:16:57 > 0:17:01"and all at once a deadly barrage descended in front of our positions,
0:17:01 > 0:17:04"cutting down the enemy by whole ranks.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07"But the British are persistent.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10"Again and again they attacked.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14"In some places as much as four or five times over.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16"Everywhere they failed...
0:17:16 > 0:17:20"and not a single one of the British reached our regimental positions."
0:17:27 > 0:17:30The British had no choice but to follow these tactics,
0:17:30 > 0:17:32and for as long as it took.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37Yet weeks of fighting led to advances so meagre and costly
0:17:37 > 0:17:38they hardly warranted the name.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42And, as a result, a new phrase now appeared
0:17:42 > 0:17:44in the British Army's lexicon.
0:17:46 > 0:17:47The wearing-out battle.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52Whenever Sir Douglas Haig needed to justify sluggish British progress
0:17:52 > 0:17:56he could always deploy the words "wearing-out battle".
0:17:56 > 0:17:58The phrase had a suitably military texture,
0:17:58 > 0:18:02and if accompanied by massaged German casualty figures
0:18:02 > 0:18:07it helped appease a growing groundswell of concern and criticism
0:18:07 > 0:18:11in British corridors of power.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13But Haig and his advisers were convinced
0:18:13 > 0:18:17that the Germans would eventually be broken
0:18:17 > 0:18:22by the irresistible force of Allied troops and artillery.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27It was simply a question of time and perseverance.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30What was making the biggest difference at this time
0:18:30 > 0:18:31was the Royal Flying Corps,
0:18:31 > 0:18:34who still patrolled the skies almost unmolested.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47During the early weeks of the Somme,
0:18:47 > 0:18:52British pilots and observers enjoyed almost complete command of the air.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56Taking aerial photographs, spotting targets for artillery,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59guiding the guns onto those targets,
0:18:59 > 0:19:04and themselves attacking troops, trenches, dugouts, transport -
0:19:04 > 0:19:07any hostile feature that they could see.
0:19:10 > 0:19:11For the first time in history,
0:19:11 > 0:19:15aircraft were being used as offensive weapons in themselves.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20And German troops complained bitterly about the lack of response
0:19:20 > 0:19:22and protection from their own air force.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31This 45th Reserve Division report is typical.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36"The enemy deployed a large number of aircraft
0:19:36 > 0:19:40"which cooperated extremely well with the artillery.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43"Fire was rapidly directed into identified targets
0:19:43 > 0:19:44"and quickly registered -
0:19:44 > 0:19:47"presumably via a wireless transmitter,
0:19:47 > 0:19:50"as no visible signalling was observed.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52"The enemy pilots flew astonishingly low,
0:19:52 > 0:19:56"raking the least movement in the trenches with their machine guns.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00"Dropping bombs on dugouts, strafing men making their way to the rear,
0:20:00 > 0:20:02"and even firing on individual runners."
0:20:11 > 0:20:14For the Germans, concealment and camouflage
0:20:14 > 0:20:16therefore became ever more critical.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21To resist, they must endure and survive,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24and that meant forsaking the once safe havens of the trenches
0:20:24 > 0:20:27for the most ubiquitous feature in the landscape.
0:20:29 > 0:20:30The shell hole.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43As a result of Allied air superiority,
0:20:43 > 0:20:45they could see everything from the skies.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49The Germans had to become a part of the earth itself
0:20:49 > 0:20:50in order to survive.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53Ideally, you'd go underground in a dugout,
0:20:53 > 0:20:55but, of course, they could be seen from the sky.
0:20:55 > 0:20:57The entrances could be seen from the sky as, well,
0:20:57 > 0:21:00and were bombed. Artillery was brought down upon them.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04So they resorted to very simple methods.
0:21:04 > 0:21:05This is one of them.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10Use the shell holes in the landscape - they are everywhere...
0:21:11 > 0:21:15..and form your line of defence in those shell holes.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18You just need a standard groundsheet...
0:21:20 > 0:21:22..in the shell hole, make yourself comfortable.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26This is all done at night, of course.
0:21:30 > 0:21:31And cover yourself up.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34And become a part of the shell hole.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43From ground level this just looked like a tarpaulin in a shell hole,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47but from 1,000 feet or 2,000 feet in the air, to Allied pilots,
0:21:47 > 0:21:51it was simply a hole in the ground.
0:21:51 > 0:21:52But it secreted soldiers -
0:21:52 > 0:21:56and not just soldiers, soldiers with their machine guns.
0:21:56 > 0:21:58The bigger the hole, the more men you could have down here.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02You could have an entire machine gun crew in a hole in the ground,
0:22:02 > 0:22:05invisible to the British.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07And that was the key.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20Improvisation of this kind had always been officially encouraged.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24On a battlefield that was disintegrating
0:22:24 > 0:22:26before their very eyes,
0:22:26 > 0:22:28German troops were expected to respond
0:22:28 > 0:22:32to the transforming landscape and, wherever possible,
0:22:32 > 0:22:36use it to further increase their defensive capabilities.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44It always amazes me to think that 100 years later
0:22:44 > 0:22:47we can still see the marks of the First World War in the landscape.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50Across the valley where you can see one, two,
0:22:50 > 0:22:54three white German lines of chalk in the ploughed field.
0:22:56 > 0:22:58These are today's scars of the old trenches -
0:22:58 > 0:23:01but 100 years ago, relentless Allied shelling
0:23:01 > 0:23:04was literally wiping them from the face of the earth.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10By the end of July and into August in 1916, all that had gone.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13We are into open warfare, of a kind,
0:23:13 > 0:23:16and the British don't actually know where the Germans are any more.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18The battlefield's become fuzzy.
0:23:24 > 0:23:25The mundane shell hole
0:23:25 > 0:23:28was about to become a foundation of German resistance.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30The principles were simple.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34Stay hidden to stay alive, be where you are not expected,
0:23:34 > 0:23:37move if you need to, and if ground is lost,
0:23:37 > 0:23:40strike back hard and fast to regain it.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49But this behaviour had been forced upon the Germans
0:23:49 > 0:23:52by the unremitting firepower of a British enemy
0:23:52 > 0:23:55apparently undeterred by monumental human loss.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58What was happening across the Somme
0:23:58 > 0:24:01was the birth of a new and flexible German approach
0:24:01 > 0:24:05designed to provide both defiance and survival.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08It was called Verteidigung in der Tiefe.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10Defence in depth.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19And in German documents
0:24:19 > 0:24:22we can actually see it appearing and evolving.
0:24:22 > 0:24:28After each action, every unit was required to produce an Erfahrungen,
0:24:28 > 0:24:30a report detailing their experiences,
0:24:30 > 0:24:33observations and lessons learned.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35There are thousands here in the archives.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40Now, the writers, usually officers,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43were not just encouraged to be critical of their own military,
0:24:43 > 0:24:46they were obliged to be so.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49For these reports had to be objective,
0:24:49 > 0:24:52accurate and comprehensive.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Any other approach was damaging to German prospects.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57Their candid and self-critical tone
0:24:57 > 0:25:01is something one seldom encounters in British military records.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03But this had long been standard German practice.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07For every soldier was trained to be aware that exaggeration,
0:25:07 > 0:25:12fabrication or omission could serve to shorten not only his own life,
0:25:12 > 0:25:15but those of his comrades.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18Erfahrungen were universally circulated
0:25:18 > 0:25:21so that others might learn, especially from mistakes,
0:25:21 > 0:25:24for both good and bad news carried equal significance.
0:25:26 > 0:25:27Here is an example.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30Listen to the tone of this extract
0:25:30 > 0:25:33by a major of the 29th Infantry Regiment.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38"Our artillery fire fell partly on our own trenches,
0:25:38 > 0:25:40"there were often large gaps.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44"One gun fired continually into our own trenches.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48"Our company sustained heavy casualties as a result.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52"Our rifle fire was too slow, instruction is needed.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56"Our front line was marked on our maps as being in British hands.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00"A position can only be held if the garrison are alive!"
0:26:03 > 0:26:07Forthright reports like this frequently confirmed the value
0:26:07 > 0:26:09of shell hole-based defences,
0:26:09 > 0:26:11and from these mundane beginnings,
0:26:11 > 0:26:14new and devastating defensive techniques began to emerge.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19By late July, as fighting to secure High Wood,
0:26:19 > 0:26:21the Switch Line and Delville Wood continued,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25another objective on the ridge came within British sights.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30This was the dominating fortress of Pozieres,
0:26:30 > 0:26:32whose landmark windmill
0:26:32 > 0:26:36occupied the highest point on the Somme battlefield.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40Spearheading the assault would be the Australian Imperial force.
0:26:40 > 0:26:42Part of Sir Hubert Gough's reserve army.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45It would be the Aussies' first action on the Somme.
0:26:45 > 0:26:50They were part of a seemingly endless stream of men
0:26:50 > 0:26:53that the nations of the British Empire could offer
0:26:53 > 0:26:55to the mother country.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58They'd come halfway around the world, via Gallipoli,
0:26:58 > 0:26:59onto the Western Front,
0:26:59 > 0:27:01and when they arrived here, into this maelstrom,
0:27:01 > 0:27:06what they said was, Gallipoli was like a firework display
0:27:06 > 0:27:10by comparison to what the Germans were capable of doing here.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13Sir Douglas Haig believed that Pozieres
0:27:13 > 0:27:15would not be too tough a nut to crack,
0:27:15 > 0:27:17and he actually said beforehand,
0:27:17 > 0:27:19give the Australians something easy to do.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23He expected this because of the weight of artillery he was able to
0:27:23 > 0:27:25produce, and the strength of Australians.
0:27:25 > 0:27:26They were all fresh troops,
0:27:26 > 0:27:28and he thought this would fall fairly quickly.
0:27:32 > 0:27:34In the eight days since the 14th July,
0:27:34 > 0:27:38Sir Douglas Haig's lofty expectations had been restricted
0:27:38 > 0:27:41to the capture of a few mangled fields.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45The first attack on Pozieres
0:27:45 > 0:27:48was timed for half-past midnight on the 23rd July.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53As massed Anglo-Australian guns prepared the way,
0:27:53 > 0:27:57the 1st Australian Division awaited their leap in the dark.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03As the earth and even the air shook with concussive force,
0:28:03 > 0:28:06German defenders, clustered in cellars and dugouts,
0:28:06 > 0:28:09waited for the alarm signal from observers on the surface.
0:28:11 > 0:28:12Unteroffizier Klufmann,
0:28:12 > 0:28:16of the 77th Reserve Infantry Regiment, was amongst them.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22"Around Pozieres, fire of the heaviest calibre
0:28:22 > 0:28:24"was falling on our trenches.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27"We sat huddled in our dugout, smoking pipes,
0:28:27 > 0:28:31"cigars and cigarettes by the feeble light of a candle,
0:28:31 > 0:28:36"to soothe our overstrained nerves because, with one hit,
0:28:36 > 0:28:37"we could all be killed.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42"The commander was buried three times in an hour and a half
0:28:42 > 0:28:46"and, on each occasion, he was dug out in the nick of time by his men."
0:28:54 > 0:28:57By the following morning, a wedge had been driven into Pozieres,
0:28:57 > 0:28:59but half the village, its windmill,
0:28:59 > 0:29:03and the critical defences on the crest of the ridge, held out.
0:29:11 > 0:29:16They are now firing some devastating, defensive barrages.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20So the very moment the Australians leave their position in these fields
0:29:20 > 0:29:23behind me to attack the second line,
0:29:23 > 0:29:26down comes this deluge of high explosive.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29Another deluge falls behind them to catch the second wave
0:29:29 > 0:29:30and the third wave.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35Private Archie Barwick of the 1st Australian Battalion
0:29:35 > 0:29:36was on the receiving end.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44"All day long, the ground rocked and swayed backwards and forwards
0:29:44 > 0:29:48"from the concussion, like a well-built haystack, swaying about.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50"Men were driven stark, staring mad
0:29:50 > 0:29:52"and more than one of them rushed out of the trench,
0:29:52 > 0:29:54"over towards the Germans.
0:29:54 > 0:29:59"Any amount of them could be seen crying and sobbing like children -
0:29:59 > 0:30:00"their nerves completely gone."
0:30:06 > 0:30:10Assault followed assault, now with British units in support.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13And with each one, the Germans counterattacked.
0:30:13 > 0:30:17On the 7th of August, after 16 days of fighting,
0:30:17 > 0:30:20the Pozieres fortress finally fell.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23Thousands lay dead, but Sir Hubert Gough's army
0:30:23 > 0:30:26had taken a critical bite out of the ridge.
0:30:28 > 0:30:30Charles Bean, the Australian historian,
0:30:30 > 0:30:35said that Aussie troops lay more thickly on this plateau
0:30:35 > 0:30:39than on any other battlefield on the Western Front.
0:30:39 > 0:30:40It was carnage.
0:30:40 > 0:30:46But they ousted the Germans from this most vital position.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50The survivors had every right to celebrate and to model their booty -
0:30:50 > 0:30:53German Picklehaube helmets.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57The original owners probably lay mingled in death with their enemies.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02But the Australian ordeal was far from over.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11With Pozieres, the windmill, and the defences around it finally secured,
0:31:11 > 0:31:13Gough now pushed further north
0:31:13 > 0:31:16to the next key objective, Mouquet Farm.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21Known as Moo Cow or Mucky Farm to the troops,
0:31:21 > 0:31:25it too had been recently integrated into the German defensive system.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30A warren of tunnels, dugouts and cellars lay underground,
0:31:30 > 0:31:34whilst on the surface it was protected by a complex of trenches.
0:31:34 > 0:31:36A Pozieres in miniature.
0:31:37 > 0:31:39It's here that we can see
0:31:39 > 0:31:42the fledgling German defence-in-depth tactics
0:31:42 > 0:31:43appearing in practice.
0:31:47 > 0:31:50This British aerial photograph
0:31:50 > 0:31:54from June 1916 shows the courtyard farmstead and its trench network.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00Over the coming weeks, it will be reduced to a wilderness of craters,
0:32:00 > 0:32:01in which one might imagine
0:32:01 > 0:32:04that nothing - and nobody - could survive.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08At the beginning of the battle,
0:32:08 > 0:32:10Mouquet Farm was well behind the German front line,
0:32:10 > 0:32:12it was used as a headquarters.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16By the 10th August, it WAS the front line,
0:32:16 > 0:32:20and it had been converted into a strong point, a redoubt.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22Here's a German plan of it then.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24Most of it is underground.
0:32:24 > 0:32:30There are tunnels and dugouts to accommodate men and weapons.
0:32:30 > 0:32:32So, in order for the Australians
0:32:32 > 0:32:36to make any advance onto the ridges and plateaus over there,
0:32:36 > 0:32:40they first had to take this strong point.
0:32:40 > 0:32:41There was no choice...
0:32:52 > 0:32:54..and there was no time to waste.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56Preparations quickly began.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00Fresh Australian and British troops were brought forward
0:33:00 > 0:33:02and massed artillery moved up and dug in.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08At the beginning of the battle,
0:33:08 > 0:33:10German commander-in-chief
0:33:10 > 0:33:14Field Marshal Erich von Falkenhayn's orders were unambiguous.
0:33:14 > 0:33:19Defend every position to the last man.
0:33:19 > 0:33:21But since the 1st of July,
0:33:21 > 0:33:24the British had gradually eaten into his territory.
0:33:25 > 0:33:31To understand how the Germans now began to employ
0:33:31 > 0:33:35this tortured landscape, created by the British artillery,
0:33:35 > 0:33:37to their own advantage,
0:33:37 > 0:33:40we have the account of a Leutnant Schulz
0:33:40 > 0:33:43of the 133rd Infantry Regiment.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45He was here, here.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49"There was no trace of a trench -
0:33:49 > 0:33:51"just a straggling line of shell holes,
0:33:51 > 0:33:53"which was actually much better.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57"We dig in in a large hole and cover ourselves with a groundsheet."
0:34:00 > 0:34:04What Schulz now did was to turn a problem for his men into a solution.
0:34:06 > 0:34:08"I need to deploy my company
0:34:08 > 0:34:11"so that it suffers as few casualties as possible.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15"I noticed this could best be done if I temporarily evacuated
0:34:15 > 0:34:17"the trench in front of the farm."
0:34:20 > 0:34:24The accuracy of the British shelling was so precise
0:34:24 > 0:34:29that a shift of just 100 yards took his troops out of harm's way.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37"We celebrated every British shell
0:34:37 > 0:34:40"that pitches into the empty positions before us.
0:34:40 > 0:34:42"They fired and fired and fired
0:34:42 > 0:34:46"until they had completely wrecked this delightful part
0:34:46 > 0:34:48"of the Somme countryside."
0:34:50 > 0:34:54Now, the challenge was to get back in to those wrecked positions,
0:34:54 > 0:34:57the moment the British shelling lifted.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00The goal could not have been simpler.
0:35:00 > 0:35:01Surprise.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06"The first enemy wave advances upon us.
0:35:06 > 0:35:08"Several attacking columns follow.
0:35:08 > 0:35:13"Where no resistance was expected, we give them a hot reception.
0:35:13 > 0:35:15"Now, the machine guns open up,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18"the infantry shoot like men possessed.
0:35:18 > 0:35:19"Grenades explode.
0:35:19 > 0:35:24"Finally, just in front of Mouquet Farm, the masses begin to stall.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27"After an hour, the attack is decisively repulsed."
0:35:29 > 0:35:32In other sectors, the Germans didn't retire
0:35:32 > 0:35:34from their battered front line
0:35:34 > 0:35:40but moved forward into a shell hole like this in no-man's land,
0:35:40 > 0:35:41ruining British tactics
0:35:41 > 0:35:44simply by being somewhere they were not expected.
0:35:44 > 0:35:50Now Falkenhayn's insistence on retention of ground still prevailed,
0:35:50 > 0:35:53but now his troops are no longer required
0:35:53 > 0:35:57to fight IN their front line but FOR their front line.
0:36:00 > 0:36:01As the weeks passed,
0:36:01 > 0:36:07the Germans further adapted these tactics to suit local circumstances.
0:36:07 > 0:36:12What was once a defensive line was about to become a defensive zone.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17Here, the simple German modifications worked all too well
0:36:17 > 0:36:19for British liking.
0:36:19 > 0:36:24Once more, what should have taken days, or even hours, took weeks...
0:36:24 > 0:36:26and the casualty count was grim.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37The fight for Mouquet, and indeed all other objectives,
0:36:37 > 0:36:39brought to the battlefield the perennial,
0:36:39 > 0:36:42and unavoidable by-product of summer combat.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48For both sides, the immense daily death toll
0:36:48 > 0:36:50posed a particular problem.
0:36:51 > 0:36:53In the midsummer heat,
0:36:53 > 0:36:56the battlefield simply swarmed with flies.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59Observation, and indeed experimentation,
0:36:59 > 0:37:04showed that they could strip a body to bleached bone in just nine days.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09Flies also carried the scourge of every army.
0:37:10 > 0:37:15Dysentery could empty a trench more effectively than any bombardment.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19The ideal solution, of course, was swift burial.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22But here, where action followed action without pause,
0:37:22 > 0:37:24that was impossible.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28All too often, the dead were simply devoured.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39By mid-August, Sir Douglas Haig was experiencing mounting concern
0:37:39 > 0:37:41about the sluggish rate of British progress.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46He was now in discussions about a massive and conclusive Anglo-French
0:37:46 > 0:37:48assault for mid-September
0:37:48 > 0:37:51that would take the Allies through the third German line
0:37:51 > 0:37:52and, indeed, far beyond.
0:37:54 > 0:37:55To ensure success,
0:37:55 > 0:37:59he told Rawlinson that all of the 14th of July objectives
0:37:59 > 0:38:02must be in British hands by then.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09The battle had slipped back into siege warfare -
0:38:09 > 0:38:11exactly what Sir Douglas Haig did not want.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14What the British wanted to do was to keep this thing mobile.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17What they did was they brought out all their old weapons -
0:38:17 > 0:38:20the mothballed weapons, seven two-tonne flame-throwers.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24They started mine warfare again, pure siege warfare technique,
0:38:24 > 0:38:27and they started using totally experimental weapons,
0:38:27 > 0:38:29whether the conditions were suitable or not.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36Artillery was the greatest killer of the war.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39The cause of 70% of all casualties.
0:38:39 > 0:38:44To it were now added flame-throwers, poison gas and aerial attacks -
0:38:44 > 0:38:49but, extraordinarily, it still wasn't enough to break the deadlock.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53A new weapon, invented on the Somme battlefield itself,
0:38:53 > 0:38:55was now introduced.
0:38:55 > 0:38:56The Livens Projector.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10In August, there were using it to try to oust the Germans
0:39:10 > 0:39:14from these little strong points, which they just would not give up.
0:39:14 > 0:39:15It might look almost medieval,
0:39:15 > 0:39:17but this was a purely modern killer
0:39:17 > 0:39:19with a singular and pitiless purpose.
0:39:21 > 0:39:23This is a projectile.
0:39:23 > 0:39:24This one has been fired.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27They held a mixture of petrol and diesel.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30What that would do would be to create a lake of fire.
0:39:32 > 0:39:34Later in the war, it delivered storms of high explosive,
0:39:34 > 0:39:38toxic gas, or thermite - an early form of napalm -
0:39:38 > 0:39:41to produce zones where survival was impossible.
0:39:42 > 0:39:46The Livens Projector was destined to become the cheapest,
0:39:46 > 0:39:50but by far the most effective killer of the war.
0:40:05 > 0:40:07Allied victory on the Somme
0:40:07 > 0:40:09depended not only on combat on land and in the air,
0:40:09 > 0:40:12but in their knowledge of the enemy,
0:40:12 > 0:40:15the battle of the intelligence services.
0:40:15 > 0:40:17Both sides needed information
0:40:17 > 0:40:21on garrison strengths, tactics, movements,
0:40:21 > 0:40:25reserves, weapons, casualties, mood and morale.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28And, of course, their enemy's intentions.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30But by the summer of 1916,
0:40:30 > 0:40:32British intelligence staff
0:40:32 > 0:40:35were already labouring under a serious impediment.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39When the Germans shattered the network of British agents
0:40:39 > 0:40:44working behind the lines in France and Belgium,
0:40:44 > 0:40:45almost 2,000 watchers,
0:40:45 > 0:40:50predominantly Dutch and Belgian peasants, farmers and tradesmen,
0:40:50 > 0:40:52were arrested.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01Watchers were vital because they noted the movements,
0:41:01 > 0:41:04numbers and identities of German units at rest behind the lines.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08And the passage and content of trains and trucks passing
0:41:08 > 0:41:09to and from the front.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15Their observations had been secretly smuggled across the Dutch border
0:41:15 > 0:41:19and passed to the British military attache in Rotterdam.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21The Germans sealed the border
0:41:21 > 0:41:25and, at a stroke, reduced what had once been a flood
0:41:25 > 0:41:29of the most critical military intelligence to a trickle.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33The amputation of this crucial source
0:41:33 > 0:41:36meant that the British became almost wholly dependent
0:41:36 > 0:41:39upon statements extracted from German prisoners.
0:41:41 > 0:41:43To encourage the prompt disclosure of information,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47Lieutenant General Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston had these guidelines
0:41:47 > 0:41:52translated into German for prisoners to mull over before questioning.
0:41:52 > 0:41:54"To prisoners, important warning.
0:41:54 > 0:41:59"One. Answer questions quickly, clearly, shortly and truthfully.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02"Two. Remember, we already know the correct answers
0:42:02 > 0:42:03"to many of the questions,
0:42:03 > 0:42:06"which are only put to test your good faith.
0:42:06 > 0:42:08"Three. True and satisfactory information
0:42:08 > 0:42:11"is remembered to the credit of prisoners.
0:42:11 > 0:42:16"Four. Those who give untruthful or unsatisfactory answers
0:42:16 > 0:42:18"will be dealt with specially."
0:42:21 > 0:42:24The German record suggests that British techniques
0:42:24 > 0:42:26could sometimes be brutal.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30From the archives, here is the testimony of Medical Officer Blass,
0:42:30 > 0:42:32captured by the British in September,
0:42:32 > 0:42:35revealing what he calls "inadmissible pressure"
0:42:35 > 0:42:37from his interrogators.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43"They tried to wear them down through bad treatment
0:42:43 > 0:42:45"and constant harassment.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47"In answer to a German officer's question
0:42:47 > 0:42:51"as to how long he would have to remain in such undignified position,
0:42:51 > 0:42:53"the English camp commander answered,
0:42:53 > 0:42:56" 'That depends entirely on the testimony you give.' "
0:43:05 > 0:43:07But how were British and French prisoners treated?
0:43:09 > 0:43:11It was here at the citadel in Cambrai,
0:43:11 > 0:43:14some 30 miles behind the Somme battle front,
0:43:14 > 0:43:16that Allied prisoners were processed.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27This is a site that was familiar to a lot of British soldiers.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30There is actually film archive of this.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33British prisoners streaming through this gate
0:43:33 > 0:43:35to the next stage of their captivity.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38They have been taken on the battlefield.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40They have been interrogated as soon after battle as possible,
0:43:40 > 0:43:42when they are still in a state of shock.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44The next stage of their journey is here.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47Through these gates, into the citadel,
0:43:47 > 0:43:49where a different form of interrogation took place.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52The Germans called it a conversation,
0:43:52 > 0:43:54because these men now felt safe -
0:43:54 > 0:43:56they have been reunited with their comrades,
0:43:56 > 0:43:58so the entire ambience had changed.
0:43:59 > 0:44:03When fear was removed, traumatised men relaxed,
0:44:03 > 0:44:06probably feeling a sense of gratitude at being spared.
0:44:06 > 0:44:09And it was in this altered post-battle state
0:44:09 > 0:44:12that extra intelligence could most easily be extracted.
0:44:14 > 0:44:16Because of what we know about the Second World War,
0:44:16 > 0:44:18the German approach in the First World War
0:44:18 > 0:44:20sounds a bit counterintuitive -
0:44:20 > 0:44:25but it was not based upon instilling fear, but removing it.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28Making prisoners more comfortable, less fearful
0:44:28 > 0:44:30and, therefore, more forthcoming,
0:44:30 > 0:44:33from the very moment of their capture.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36And we can find evidence for this in files
0:44:36 > 0:44:41from the National Archives in London. I've got an example here.
0:44:41 > 0:44:43August 1916.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45Hugh Jones.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47"I was wounded by liquid fire in the back
0:44:47 > 0:44:49"and a machine gun bullet in my left arm.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52"My left arm is amputated at the elbow.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55"Two bullets fractured two of my ribs on the left side.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58"I was very kindly treated at the field dressing station.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00"I was taken to some hospital in a motor car.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02"I was well treated by the military guard
0:45:02 > 0:45:05"and the behaviour of the German Red Cross was good.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09"The food was good, so also were the sanitary arrangements.
0:45:09 > 0:45:10"I was most kindly treated.
0:45:10 > 0:45:12"I have nothing to complain about."
0:45:12 > 0:45:18And that is quite a common feature of thousands of these testimonies.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34By early September, parts of the Pozieres Ridge
0:45:34 > 0:45:36were now in British hands.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39But key targets still held out, such as Guillemont,
0:45:39 > 0:45:41a serious obstruction.
0:45:42 > 0:45:44It had already been attacked five times.
0:45:45 > 0:45:49Sir Douglas Haig's patience was running thin.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52Neighbouring Ginchy and the ridge beyond
0:45:52 > 0:45:54must fall before the 15th of September.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01By that time, this sleepy little Somme hamlet
0:46:01 > 0:46:05was no more than a brick-coloured stain on the landscape.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11Dugouts beneath the ruins of Guillemont again provided protection
0:46:11 > 0:46:12for German troops.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17But because the British were never certain
0:46:17 > 0:46:19where their enemy and his machine guns lay,
0:46:19 > 0:46:23for weeks they poured torrents of high explosive into the sector.
0:46:26 > 0:46:28The Germans retaliated in kind,
0:46:28 > 0:46:32turning these pastures into true killing fields.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40Leutnant Ernst Junger of the 73rd Hanoverian Regiment served here.
0:46:42 > 0:46:47"The sunken road and the ground behind was full of German dead.
0:46:47 > 0:46:49"The ground in front of English.
0:46:51 > 0:46:57"Arms, legs and heads stuck out stark above the lips of the craters.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00"In front of our miserable defences,
0:47:00 > 0:47:03"there were torn-off limbs and corpses,
0:47:03 > 0:47:07"over many of which cloaks and growing sheets had been thrown,
0:47:07 > 0:47:11"to hide the fixed stare of their distorted features.
0:47:11 > 0:47:13"In spite of the heat,
0:47:13 > 0:47:16"no-one thought for a moment of covering them with soil."
0:47:19 > 0:47:23Even today, these fields are still strewn
0:47:23 > 0:47:25with the fragments of those who died.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29British military records later hailed the defence of Guillemont
0:47:29 > 0:47:32as the finest performance of the war by the German army.
0:47:35 > 0:47:37It became the stuff of legend...
0:47:38 > 0:47:42..because of the terrible human misery and loss.
0:47:44 > 0:47:46The troops on both sides of the wire
0:47:46 > 0:47:50had now become part of an industrial mincing machine.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52Commodities in flesh and blood.
0:47:53 > 0:47:57The Germans called it Materialschlacht -
0:47:57 > 0:48:00attrition in its basest and most pitiless form.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06In the six weeks between the 1st of July and mid-August,
0:48:06 > 0:48:09the German army suffered over 100,000 men
0:48:09 > 0:48:12killed, wounded or missing.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19Some of them lie in this German burial ground,
0:48:19 > 0:48:21one of only a handful on the Somme.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24Steel crosses mark their place.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28No white headstones here, as in the Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries,
0:48:28 > 0:48:34and each cross commemorates not one, but four German soldiers.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37Here at Fricourt, there are 17,000 dead.
0:48:40 > 0:48:45I can't visualise what that actually means in human terms,
0:48:45 > 0:48:48and what I would tend to do, and what I would invite you to do,
0:48:48 > 0:48:50is imagine four men buried beneath each cross
0:48:50 > 0:48:52standing there behind that cross,
0:48:52 > 0:48:54and then behind them, their families,
0:48:54 > 0:48:56and behind them their circle of friends.
0:48:56 > 0:48:58And then do the same
0:48:58 > 0:49:00for the 12,000 men in the mass graves here,
0:49:00 > 0:49:05and that helps me to perceptualise these...
0:49:05 > 0:49:08indescribable figures, indescribable statistics,
0:49:08 > 0:49:10because these men are men.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15They are not statistics, but all too often we look at them as statistics,
0:49:15 > 0:49:17so many thousand men died in this place.
0:49:17 > 0:49:19So many thousand casualties.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22They are all individuals with a family and a history.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28For the Germans, this endless haemorrhage of lives
0:49:28 > 0:49:29could not continue.
0:49:29 > 0:49:35Things had to change, and someone had to be held responsible.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37Whispers among high command were rife.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41Most fingers pointed towards Falkenhayn and his rigid mantra -
0:49:41 > 0:49:43retention of ground at all costs.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48On the 28th of August 1916,
0:49:48 > 0:49:52he was replaced by two heroes of the Eastern Front,
0:49:52 > 0:49:57Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14On the morning of the 8th of September,
0:50:14 > 0:50:17they joined the highest echelon of German command
0:50:17 > 0:50:21at this house in Cambrai to address the situation on the Somme.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25Now, in this very room,
0:50:25 > 0:50:29Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany,
0:50:29 > 0:50:33Hindenburg and Ludendorff listened to the grim assessments
0:50:33 > 0:50:36of their army commanders and chiefs of staff.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40September, they said, had started badly,
0:50:40 > 0:50:43and the crisis was growing worse by the day.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46The situation was approaching tipping point.
0:50:49 > 0:50:50One decision made on this day
0:50:50 > 0:50:54that would have far reaching and cruel consequences for the Allies
0:50:54 > 0:50:58was to be a closely guarded secret for the next seven months -
0:50:58 > 0:51:01the construction of a purpose-built defensive line
0:51:01 > 0:51:03behind the Somme battlefront.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06More immediately,
0:51:06 > 0:51:09it was officially agreed to study the radical tactical changes
0:51:09 > 0:51:14that were constantly evolving as a result of the Somme fighting.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18A team led by Ludendorff would filter and categorise experiences,
0:51:18 > 0:51:22observations and opinions, and consult with every unit.
0:51:24 > 0:51:26It is here that we see that German culture
0:51:26 > 0:51:30of self analysis and self-criticism come into play.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34Self-criticism to the point of self-mutilation, as Hindenburg said.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38What they decided to do unanimously
0:51:38 > 0:51:43was to have a root and branch reorganisation
0:51:43 > 0:51:48of the entire Somme battlefront in the middle of that battle.
0:51:53 > 0:51:57A system of defence in depth was to be universally applied,
0:51:57 > 0:52:01with initiative and independence as the core values.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04The key points in the new defensive guidelines were...
0:52:04 > 0:52:09One - reorganisation of sectors into narrow and deep zones of defence.
0:52:10 > 0:52:14Two - devolvement of command to the men on the spot.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17Three - a sparsely garrisoned front line,
0:52:17 > 0:52:21but with specialist troops in close support.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25And four - the approval of temporary tactical withdrawals,
0:52:25 > 0:52:28be they forwards, backwards or sideways.
0:52:31 > 0:52:33A sea change had taken place.
0:52:33 > 0:52:35Now, for the first time,
0:52:35 > 0:52:40flesh and blood was being looked upon as more valuable than terrain.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49In overall command of the German campaign on the Somme was an aristocratic Field Marshal,
0:52:49 > 0:52:53Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57In his diary, he noted how the new defence in depth tactics
0:52:57 > 0:53:00could also lead to an improvement in troop morale.
0:53:02 > 0:53:04"Reports from units speak unanimously
0:53:04 > 0:53:06"of the importance of deployment in depth.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10"The men returned repeatedly to familiar territory,
0:53:10 > 0:53:12"developing a proprietary interest,
0:53:12 > 0:53:15"knowing that they will serve there again.
0:53:15 > 0:53:16"The men get more rest.
0:53:16 > 0:53:18"It is easier to feed them well,
0:53:18 > 0:53:21"and they have to travel shorter distances during relief."
0:53:22 > 0:53:26The flexible methods forged here in the fires of the Somme
0:53:26 > 0:53:30became the foundation for German defensive tactics
0:53:30 > 0:53:31for the rest of the war.
0:53:41 > 0:53:43The day after the Cambrai summit,
0:53:43 > 0:53:47the British began another assault on the hamlet of Ginchy.
0:53:47 > 0:53:50A mile beyond was the crest of the low ridge
0:53:50 > 0:53:54that had been Haig and Rawlinson's objective for almost two months.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00The bombardment began early in the morning,
0:54:00 > 0:54:03but to try to prevent ravaging German counterattacks
0:54:03 > 0:54:05during daylight,
0:54:05 > 0:54:10the infantry attack took place at 4:45 in the afternoon.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16On September the 9th, the village fell,
0:54:16 > 0:54:19but it nevertheless required several more days
0:54:19 > 0:54:22to negotiate the open fields beyond.
0:54:26 > 0:54:28And what happened here
0:54:28 > 0:54:31reveals something which we see in every war.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34Both tragedy and irony.
0:54:34 > 0:54:38The 2nd Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters was attacked here,
0:54:38 > 0:54:40with this man,
0:54:40 > 0:54:42Lance Corporal John Duesbury.
0:54:43 > 0:54:45The attack was a failure.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48John Duesbury died on that day.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51He had last written to his family on the 3rd of September,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54and they would have thought that that latter was the last missive
0:54:54 > 0:54:56they would never receive from him.
0:54:56 > 0:54:57They were wrong.
0:54:59 > 0:55:00In this field...
0:55:02 > 0:55:05..alone, he wrote again to them.
0:55:06 > 0:55:08I've got a copy of that letter here.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13He scribbled something in his pocketbook as he died.
0:55:16 > 0:55:17This is what it said.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22"Dear Mother. I am writing these few lines severely wounded.
0:55:22 > 0:55:23"We've done well.
0:55:23 > 0:55:27"Our battalion advanced about three quarters of a mile.
0:55:27 > 0:55:28"I am laid in a shell hole
0:55:28 > 0:55:31"with two wounds in my hip and through my back.
0:55:31 > 0:55:33"I cannot move or crawl.
0:55:33 > 0:55:37"I've been here for 24 hours and never seen a living soul.
0:55:38 > 0:55:40"I hope you will receive these few lines
0:55:40 > 0:55:43"as I don't expect anyone will come to take me away.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47"But you know I've done my duty out here now
0:55:47 > 0:55:49"for one year and eight months,
0:55:49 > 0:55:52"and you will always have the consolation
0:55:52 > 0:55:55"that I died quite happy doing my duty.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59"Must give my best of love to all the cousins,
0:55:59 > 0:56:02"who have been so kind to me the time I've been out here.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07"And the best of luck to Mother and Harry and all at Swinefleet."
0:56:10 > 0:56:14It's probably the most extraordinary...
0:56:14 > 0:56:16document I've ever come across.
0:56:18 > 0:56:20In order to find this notebook,
0:56:20 > 0:56:23they must have found the body of John Duesbury.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28So, it seems that he was found in his shell hole -
0:56:28 > 0:56:32later action blew away all signs of that grave.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37His name, however, is engraved in the Portland stone panels
0:56:37 > 0:56:40of the Thiepval Memorial To The Missing.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44The family name wasn't always Duesbury.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48In fact, here it has been further anglicised.
0:56:48 > 0:56:55But, if I cover the Y, and ask you to imagine that as a G,
0:56:55 > 0:56:57that was their name.
0:56:57 > 0:56:58Duesburg.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03Like so many other soldiers serving in the British Army,
0:57:03 > 0:57:06John Duesbury was of German stock.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16The capture of the ridge in the Ginchy sector
0:57:16 > 0:57:20was finally completed just days before Haig's great offensive
0:57:20 > 0:57:21of the 15th of September.
0:57:23 > 0:57:25The attack of the 14th of July
0:57:25 > 0:57:28had been followed by eight weeks of the bitterest fighting,
0:57:28 > 0:57:31during which time the British evicted their enemy
0:57:31 > 0:57:32from the Bazentin Ridge,
0:57:32 > 0:57:37Pozieres, from Guillemont, and finally Ginchy.
0:57:37 > 0:57:41But the tasks Sir Douglas Haig had set was still incomplete.
0:57:41 > 0:57:44Parts of High Wood and the Switch Line remained in German hands.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50Nevertheless, he could still rely upon continued domination
0:57:50 > 0:57:54in men and aircraft and a monstrous array of firepower.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58The great battle must still go ahead as planned.
0:57:58 > 0:58:00And now there was hope
0:58:00 > 0:58:05that a revolutionary new weapon would help smash the German lines
0:58:05 > 0:58:07and shatter German spirits.
0:58:08 > 0:58:11The bulletproof cavalry was on its way.
0:58:14 > 0:58:18On the Somme, the festival of killing was far from over,
0:58:18 > 0:58:21for there was now a new German mantra.
0:58:21 > 0:58:25If recapturing lost ground was not worth the cost,
0:58:25 > 0:58:27let the British have it.
0:58:27 > 0:58:29But make them pay. And pay dearly.