0:00:02 > 0:00:04This programme contains some strong language
0:00:04 > 0:00:06The Battle of the Somme had begun in the high summer of 1916
0:00:06 > 0:00:10with the promise of a swift Anglo-French victory
0:00:10 > 0:00:14against an outnumbered and outgunned German army.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17But as autumn arrived,
0:00:17 > 0:00:21expectations had been dashed time after time by enemy resistance.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26The battlefield was now a killing zone,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29where the Allies traded lives for territory
0:00:29 > 0:00:33and their German enemy exchanged them for precious time.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41And with the passing of summer came the inescapable added miseries
0:00:41 > 0:00:44of rain, fog and mud.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52It was a universal adversary,
0:00:52 > 0:00:54smearing clothes and skin,
0:00:54 > 0:00:57tainting food, polluting drink, infecting wounds.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03The weather and the mud has for a century been used to explain
0:01:03 > 0:01:08why Allied progress was so slow during the closing months of 1916.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12Ground conditions certainly played a major role,
0:01:12 > 0:01:16but the fuller story is more complicated and surprising.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21My name is Peter Barton
0:01:21 > 0:01:24and I believe that to fully understand this battle
0:01:24 > 0:01:29we need to appreciate better how again and again the Germans
0:01:29 > 0:01:34on the defensive were able to defy British and French attacks.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39So in this series to commemorate the centenary of the battle,
0:01:39 > 0:01:44I've been creating a history from both sides of the wire.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49It's a narrative based upon some of the remarkable documents I've found
0:01:49 > 0:01:53in German archives and the many revelations they offer.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58In this programme, I'll tell the story
0:01:58 > 0:02:03of the final phase of the battle as autumn turned to winter,
0:02:03 > 0:02:07explain where and why the slaughter continued,
0:02:07 > 0:02:11and how the Germans would spring the biggest surprise of the entire war.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17I'll reveal how under new leadership the German army were able
0:02:17 > 0:02:20to repeatedly resist monstrous Allied onslaughts
0:02:20 > 0:02:22by the further development
0:02:22 > 0:02:26of innovative and far-reaching battlefield tactics.
0:02:28 > 0:02:33I'll also question the official closing date of the battle
0:02:33 > 0:02:35and I'll draw, what might be for some,
0:02:35 > 0:02:40an uncomfortable conclusion about the campaign itself.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08In the thin light of dawn on the 15th of September 1916,
0:03:08 > 0:03:13something unworldly began to creep across the fields here,
0:03:13 > 0:03:15close to Delville Wood on the Somme battlefield.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18It had a number, D1,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21a nickname, Daredevil,
0:03:21 > 0:03:24and it was taking part in the greatest British attack
0:03:24 > 0:03:28since the first day of fighting ten weeks earlier.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36Like the 47 others expected to go into battle that day,
0:03:36 > 0:03:40it was a cumbersome, belching, spitting,
0:03:40 > 0:03:44caterpillar track fortress painted in blotched reptilian colours.
0:03:45 > 0:03:51What the Germans called the Panzerwagen, the tank, had arrived.
0:03:59 > 0:04:04At first, there was terror and disbelief on the German side
0:04:04 > 0:04:09as recorded by Feldwebel Reinert, of the 211th Regiment.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13A man came running in from the left shouting,
0:04:13 > 0:04:16"There is a crocodile crawling into our lines!"
0:04:16 > 0:04:19The poor wretch was off his head.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21He had seen a tank for the first time
0:04:21 > 0:04:25and had imagined this giant of a machine rearing up
0:04:25 > 0:04:28and dipping down as it came to be a monster.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36Daredevil had been ordered to head straight across no-man's-land.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40Now every tank had a gender.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44Females carried machine guns,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47males were armed with quick-firing six-pound cannon.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54Following close behind were the infantry.
0:04:58 > 0:05:03Lance-Corporal Len Lovell of the 6th King's Own Yorkshire light infantry
0:05:03 > 0:05:06was thrilled to be joined by this mechanical comrade in arms.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12It was marvellous.
0:05:12 > 0:05:13That tank went on,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17rolling and bobbing and swaying in and out of shell holes,
0:05:17 > 0:05:20climbing over trees as easy as kiss your hand.
0:05:20 > 0:05:21We were awed.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23We were delighted that it was ours.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32The tank made its debut at this time for one reason only -
0:05:32 > 0:05:36to help British infantry finally break the German lines
0:05:36 > 0:05:38and German spirits.
0:05:38 > 0:05:43The decision had been taken by a man under ever-increasing pressure,
0:05:43 > 0:05:46Commander-in-Chief of British and Imperial forces,
0:05:46 > 0:05:47General Sir Douglas Haig.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52Consider this candid press photograph.
0:05:52 > 0:05:53On the left is Haig,
0:05:53 > 0:05:58on the right is Secretary of State for War David Lloyd George.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01The body language betrays mutual tension.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06Listening in and clearly enjoying the moment
0:06:06 > 0:06:09is Haig's French counterpart, General Joseph Joffre.
0:06:10 > 0:06:12In early September 1916,
0:06:12 > 0:06:18Lloyd George visited the front where he also met French commanders.
0:06:18 > 0:06:19He posed pointed questions
0:06:19 > 0:06:25about the competence of British military leadership,
0:06:25 > 0:06:27which were promptly reported to Haig.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32At his headquarters at the Chateau de Beaurepaire,
0:06:32 > 0:06:35he recorded his disgust in his diary.
0:06:35 > 0:06:40That a British minister could have been so ungentlemanly as to go to a
0:06:40 > 0:06:44foreigner and put such questions regarding his own subordinates.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49So for the 15th of September,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52the commander-in-chief had more than one point to prove.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57The attack would be, in the language of the time, a big show.
0:06:57 > 0:07:03A show that would, in Haig's words, crush the Germans to the last man.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09Sir Douglas Haig was assured by his chief of intelligence,
0:07:09 > 0:07:11Colonel John Charteris,
0:07:11 > 0:07:15that he had never before seen German morale so low.
0:07:15 > 0:07:20Therefore, enemy collapse and British breakthrough was possible.
0:07:20 > 0:07:26The British and the French still had an overwhelming superiority in guns,
0:07:26 > 0:07:30in aircraft, in munitions and, most importantly of all, in fresh troops.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37What did the British hope to achieve?
0:07:40 > 0:07:41The assault was to be concentrated
0:07:41 > 0:07:45on the centre and south of their battleground.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51Haig's goal was to smash the German third line of defence
0:07:51 > 0:07:55and open the door to mobile warfare for his massed cavalry.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02The battlefront stretched eight miles between the village of Combles
0:08:02 > 0:08:05on the right, through Flers in the centre,
0:08:05 > 0:08:07to beyond Courcelette on the left.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13In the last two weeks, Haig's French allies had made substantial gains.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15He was therefore also keen to demonstrate how
0:08:15 > 0:08:18his troops could cut the mustard too.
0:08:27 > 0:08:32Zero hour on the 15th September was set for 6:20 in the morning.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36When the whistle sounded, soldiers from Britain,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39Canada and New Zealand surged into no-man's-land.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49In the vanguard of the attack on the German held village of Flers
0:08:49 > 0:08:51was tank D17.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58Making its clanking, thundery entrance,
0:08:58 > 0:09:00it began by destroying machine-gun posts,
0:09:00 > 0:09:04then drove the length of the main street to signal victory,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07before returning unscathed to fight another day.
0:09:14 > 0:09:19The antics of D17, of course, had enormous propaganda value.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23Headlines in British newspapers breathlessly spoke of,
0:09:23 > 0:09:26"Prehistoric monsters that strike terror in the enemy."
0:09:26 > 0:09:29Tanks were, "Impervious to the hottest fire and
0:09:29 > 0:09:31"able to eat houses and woods."
0:09:31 > 0:09:35They were, "Our war of the worlds machines."
0:09:43 > 0:09:46A useful weapon, perhaps, as Flers had shown.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48But being entirely experimental,
0:09:48 > 0:09:51there were inevitable teething problems.
0:09:52 > 0:09:57Of 48 machines, only 36 crossed the British front line.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01On the battlefield, they were huge and obvious targets
0:10:01 > 0:10:03and, therefore, supremely vulnerable.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10Some broke down, some ditched...
0:10:10 > 0:10:12and several were disabled by enemy action.
0:10:14 > 0:10:1618 survived the day.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24And in the German archives, I found out how quickly and methodically
0:10:24 > 0:10:26the Germans responded to the Panzerwagen.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32Within a few days,
0:10:32 > 0:10:36every German unit on the Western front had received an initial report
0:10:36 > 0:10:40about the new threat. The first sketches, the captured diary,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43the, by now, ubiquitous British operations order -
0:10:43 > 0:10:45all here in the German archives -
0:10:45 > 0:10:49had been copied and circulated so that everybody knew
0:10:49 > 0:10:53how and when the tanks had first arrived in France,
0:10:53 > 0:10:57what they looked like, very roughly, what the British thought they were
0:10:57 > 0:11:02capable of and exactly how the British intended to deploy them.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07A talkative tank crew member had also been captured
0:11:07 > 0:11:10and this all led to a 5th of October document
0:11:10 > 0:11:14suggesting ways to combat the new menace.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Direct hits by artillery of small or heavy calibre
0:11:17 > 0:11:20are definitely effective. In addition,
0:11:20 > 0:11:23machine guns should attempt to penetrate the armour
0:11:23 > 0:11:27by focusing their fire upon a single point.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30The best prospects are the loopholes and observation slits.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34Success may be had by throwing grenades at the wheels.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38Experience on the Somme reveals that the heat and bad atmosphere inside
0:11:38 > 0:11:42the machine forces the crew to periodically open the doors.
0:11:42 > 0:11:47Such an opportunity was successfully employed to throw grenades inside.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54But with the tanks, Haig showed his resolve to use every available tool
0:11:54 > 0:11:57to kick-start sluggish British progress.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01And in the same spirit of enterprise,
0:12:01 > 0:12:03his gunners employed, across the battlefront,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07the most significant artillery development of the war so far,
0:12:07 > 0:12:09the Creeping Barrage.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19The Creeping Barrage was used in this sector,
0:12:19 > 0:12:20in front of Courcelette.
0:12:24 > 0:12:29What I have here is the artillery fire plan for this very place
0:12:29 > 0:12:32to help the Canadian infantry attack the village of Courcelette,
0:12:32 > 0:12:35just over there. If you follow me, I'll show you how it worked.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43I am now walking the exact route used by the Canadians
0:12:43 > 0:12:45on the 15th September.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47Before their assault,
0:12:47 > 0:12:51massed field artillery dropped a curtain of high explosive
0:12:51 > 0:12:55and shrapnel in a line across these very fields - no-man's-land.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05The Canadians formed up close behind those bursting shells.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09Then, at prearranged intervals,
0:13:09 > 0:13:12the guns simultaneously lifted their fire...
0:13:13 > 0:13:17..moving the curtain a further 50 or 100 yards forward.
0:13:19 > 0:13:20The troops followed.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24In this manner, they advanced ribbon by ribbon,
0:13:24 > 0:13:26over the German front line and beyond.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32The barrage creeping methodically across the landscape was designed
0:13:32 > 0:13:36to keep German heads low and Canadians alive.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43Of course, all new technology has its hazards.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48With a system as finely tuned as this,
0:13:48 > 0:13:50mistakes and accidents were unavoidable,
0:13:50 > 0:13:53so an acceptable loss to what we today call friendly fire
0:13:53 > 0:13:56was built into the fire plan.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00With the stakes being so very high on this day,
0:14:00 > 0:14:03normal procedures had to be set aside.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07And, as the operations orders for the 15th of September
0:14:07 > 0:14:08so chillingly revealed,
0:14:08 > 0:14:12risks may be taken but in less favourable circumstances
0:14:12 > 0:14:15may not be advisable.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22What then was achieved with the benefit of these
0:14:22 > 0:14:23new tactics and weapons?
0:14:27 > 0:14:30At his headquarters, the commander of the British 4th Army,
0:14:30 > 0:14:32General Sir Henry Rawlinson,
0:14:32 > 0:14:34reflected upon a day of mixed fortunes.
0:14:36 > 0:14:38The attacks had been successful around Flers.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43Here the third German line was breached,
0:14:43 > 0:14:45but elsewhere results were disappointing.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50The Canadians of Sir Hubert Gough's reserve army
0:14:50 > 0:14:52took Courcelette, but got no further.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55And near Combles, the story was the same.
0:14:57 > 0:15:02Also there was no sign of Haig's decisive breakthrough.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05And the casualty count was cruel, very cruel.
0:15:05 > 0:15:1129,376 killed, wounded or missing.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14But the stakes were far too high to change tack,
0:15:14 > 0:15:16for this was just the opening salvo
0:15:16 > 0:15:20of a titanic third phase of the battle on the Somme.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25Those stakes were just as high for the Germans
0:15:25 > 0:15:29enduring immense and ever-mounting Allied pressure.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34By September 1916, their military enterprise was under new management.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg was now commander-in-chief
0:15:38 > 0:15:41with General Erich Ludendorff his deputy.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47Directing their Somme campaign was Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52From his elegant villa in the city of Combles,
0:15:52 > 0:15:55Rupprecht could call upon the resources of four German armies.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01But it was all too clear that Allied pressure was beginning to tell.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04A September entry in his diary noted
0:16:04 > 0:16:08that subjected to relentless shelling, incessant attack
0:16:08 > 0:16:12and living in shell craters surrounded by decomposing dead,
0:16:12 > 0:16:16his troops could no longer endure more than 14 days in the line.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21The toll was unceasing,
0:16:21 > 0:16:26and many of Rupprecht's headquarters staff were close to breakdown.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29During September, the British drove the Germans from the villages of
0:16:29 > 0:16:34Ginchy, Guillemont, Gueudecourt, Lebouef,
0:16:34 > 0:16:37Morval, Combles, Thiepval, Flers
0:16:37 > 0:16:40and from Mouquet Farm.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43And as the month drew to a close,
0:16:43 > 0:16:46Rupprecht informed Hindenburg and Ludendorff
0:16:46 > 0:16:49that the Allies were able to field twice as many divisions
0:16:49 > 0:16:52as his own army group, fresh divisions,
0:16:52 > 0:16:56and that the Somme was exceeding all other battles in its violence.
0:17:01 > 0:17:02Faced with such superiority,
0:17:02 > 0:17:06how did the Germans continue to endure and resist?
0:17:06 > 0:17:09Answers can be found in their archives.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14Here I've discovered uncomfortable evidence of how they took advantage
0:17:14 > 0:17:18of the habitually careless and frequently foolhardy behaviour
0:17:18 > 0:17:19of their enemy.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24Learning from scores of top-secret documents found upon captured
0:17:24 > 0:17:27British officers, they devise new moves
0:17:27 > 0:17:29in the game of tactical cat and mouse.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33Here's a post-operation report written by
0:17:33 > 0:17:35Brigadier General HC Rees
0:17:35 > 0:17:37of the 11th Infantry Brigade.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39He could not have made the
0:17:39 > 0:17:42sensitivity of its content more plain.
0:17:42 > 0:17:47At the top here it says, "Secret, not to be taken into the front line,
0:17:47 > 0:17:50"copies to be destroyed after reading."
0:17:50 > 0:17:52But somehow this document has found
0:17:52 > 0:17:56its way across no-man's-land and into German hands.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00And here is an even more sensitive file.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03This one is from the reserve army commander himself,
0:18:03 > 0:18:07General Sir Hubert Gough, and it contains his observations on
0:18:07 > 0:18:09recent operations and his suggestions,
0:18:09 > 0:18:13which means orders, for future enterprises.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15Now, top level,
0:18:15 > 0:18:20top-secret intelligence like this was priceless to the Germans
0:18:20 > 0:18:24because it allowed them to further reconfigure and refine
0:18:24 > 0:18:27their own defensive tactics to counter those of their enemy.
0:18:32 > 0:18:34Some adjustments were simple, but deadly.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39To combat the British creeping barrage, for example,
0:18:39 > 0:18:44machine guns were sighted beyond the range of British field artillery.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48Here, unmolested by enemy shelling,
0:18:48 > 0:18:51multiple guns delivered long-range concentrated fire
0:18:51 > 0:18:53upon no-man's-land.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58Even unaimed and at a distance of up to three miles,
0:18:58 > 0:19:01that could still stop the enemy in his tracks.
0:19:18 > 0:19:19At the beginning of October,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22poor weather set in and continued for the rest of the month.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28For both sides, the autumn fog made the battlefield
0:19:28 > 0:19:31a bewildering place to navigate.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39It was something experienced by Gefreiter Fritscher
0:19:39 > 0:19:40of the 179th Regiment.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46We sank in the saturated morass,
0:19:46 > 0:19:49disappeared suddenly into unseen shell holes and forced our way
0:19:49 > 0:19:53up and out, only to tumble into another hole.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56There we would fall heavily on our faces and hands.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59It was impossible to see anything.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04We lost our way and wandered in confusion,
0:20:04 > 0:20:06not knowing the location of the front line.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13This shelling and the rain created a common,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16reviled and often lethal enemy.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23This is a track which was first used by German troops and later by
0:20:23 > 0:20:27British soldiers to reach the front line.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29And what impedes me today,
0:20:29 > 0:20:34and impeded Allied progress during the autumn of 1916, is Somme mud.
0:20:35 > 0:20:40It was a universal adversary, smearing clothes and skin,
0:20:40 > 0:20:43tainting food, polluting drink, infecting wounds
0:20:43 > 0:20:47and fouling rifle mechanisms. And there was no escape from it.
0:20:48 > 0:20:53One Australian soldier rather memorably summed up the battlefield
0:20:53 > 0:20:58when he said, "It's mile after mile of shit-coloured fuck all."
0:21:06 > 0:21:10In a foul alchemy cursed by every soldier,
0:21:10 > 0:21:13the Somme chalks and clays combine to produce a sticky,
0:21:13 > 0:21:16clinging bane on their lives.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23And it could claim life too.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26As Lieutenant Edgar Lord of the Lancashire Fusiliers remembered...
0:21:28 > 0:21:31The mud was so bad, ploughing our way to the front line,
0:21:31 > 0:21:36we found two English soldiers up to the armpits in mud, one dead,
0:21:36 > 0:21:40the other facing him was stark mad.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44We gave him food and got out as soon as we could and he died.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47They had been stuck there for 48 hours.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56Such was the nightmarish, man-made landscape in which men lived,
0:21:56 > 0:21:58worked, fought and died.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06The transport of guns, ammunition, supplies,
0:22:06 > 0:22:08food and water became ever more difficult,
0:22:08 > 0:22:10exhausting and time-consuming.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15The all-important British artillery
0:22:15 > 0:22:18was confronted with enormous challenges.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20To maintain attacking momentum,
0:22:20 > 0:22:25the light field guns had to follow close on the heels of the infantry
0:22:25 > 0:22:27they served and protected.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30Moving a gun normally required a small team of horses
0:22:30 > 0:22:32and half a dozen men.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34It now demanded many more.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39And stable gun positions became ever harder to construct.
0:22:39 > 0:22:45Without a solid foundation, it was impossible to deliver accurate fire.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53Many accounts of the battle explain the stuttering nature of British
0:22:53 > 0:22:57progress during the autumn of 1916 by blaming the weather,
0:22:57 > 0:23:00but this is only partially true.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02There are other compelling reasons.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10Slowly but surely, the Germans were moving towards parity,
0:23:10 > 0:23:14not only in troops and artillery, but also airpower.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21At the beginning of the battle and for weeks afterwards,
0:23:21 > 0:23:24the Allies enjoyed clear superiority in the skies.
0:23:26 > 0:23:27But now this was changing.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31With new German machines that could climb and fly faster
0:23:31 > 0:23:32than British aircraft.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39Soon they were able to protect their territory and their troops
0:23:39 > 0:23:42from prying British eyes.
0:23:47 > 0:23:48And back on the ground,
0:23:48 > 0:23:52the evolving defence in depth system was being constantly expanded,
0:23:52 > 0:23:54revised and refined.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02At this time, what the British perceived as German disarray,
0:24:02 > 0:24:06shabby trenches without dugouts, poorly protected by barbed wire,
0:24:06 > 0:24:10was in fact part of a wider, evolving defensive strategy.
0:24:10 > 0:24:15The old trench-based defensive system was now being replaced by
0:24:15 > 0:24:17deep defensive zones,
0:24:17 > 0:24:21and the Germans and their machine guns might lie anywhere
0:24:21 > 0:24:25within that zone, hidden and ready.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29At the front itself, empty trenches could be made to appear occupied
0:24:29 > 0:24:32simply by having a few men go from place to place at night
0:24:32 > 0:24:36firing their rifles and shooting rockets and flares.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40And that was guaranteed to draw down heavy British artillery fire,
0:24:40 > 0:24:42entirely useless fire.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49The Germans benefited not only from simple ploys like this,
0:24:49 > 0:24:53but also from an extraordinary new network of defences
0:24:53 > 0:24:55now spreading across the landscape.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58Constructed even as the battle raged,
0:24:58 > 0:25:01they were called the Regelstellung.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05The Regelstellung, literally blocking positions,
0:25:05 > 0:25:08run perpendicular to the original German front lines.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12Across this series of gentle ridges, here in front of me,
0:25:12 > 0:25:16they were built on the reverse slopes of those ridges so the
0:25:16 > 0:25:19trenches would remain invisible to British ground observers.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24And they ran in parallel lines right across this landscape.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28To carry out such a monumental task of engineering in the midst of the
0:25:28 > 0:25:32Battle of the Somme really was a triumph of human effort.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36But their purpose could not have been simpler, nor more vital.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43To understand this better, follow me across this field.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49I'm moving towards the blocking lines installed here,
0:25:49 > 0:25:53named after local places, so the Beaucourt, Thiepval
0:25:53 > 0:25:58and Mouquet Regelstellung.
0:25:58 > 0:26:03Construction had begun as early as the 5th of July.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08Woven into the defences of the still uncaptured stronghold of Thiepval.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10They both protected the village
0:26:10 > 0:26:14and blighted Hague's desire to break out northwards.
0:26:14 > 0:26:15Throughout the battle,
0:26:15 > 0:26:19they successfully slowed and boxed in the British.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24Constricting the Tommies to an ever narrowing corridor of action.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38To capture the German third line and threaten the town of Bapaume,
0:26:38 > 0:26:42the Allies had a number of key targets.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44One was a heavily fortified hillock
0:26:44 > 0:26:47believed to be an ancient burial mound.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50The positions around the Butte de Warlencourt
0:26:50 > 0:26:53were held by the 16th Bavarian regiment.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58On the morning of the 12th of October,
0:26:58 > 0:27:03the 9th Scottish division advanced barely 200 yards across these fields
0:27:03 > 0:27:06before being halted by a rain of lead and steel.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11In the weeks that followed, repeated attempts were made
0:27:11 > 0:27:15to capture the butte. On the 18th,
0:27:15 > 0:27:21the 23rd, the 28th and the 29th of October.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26It had become, as an officer of the Durham light infantry later noted,
0:27:26 > 0:27:29an obsession.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31But every assault failed.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36Why? Partly because by this time,
0:27:36 > 0:27:38every German regiment on the Somme
0:27:38 > 0:27:42was able to deploy at least twice as many machine guns
0:27:42 > 0:27:45than they had on the first day of fighting.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47But there was now another factor at work.
0:27:49 > 0:27:51Should the British have actually taken the stronghold,
0:27:51 > 0:27:52the Butte de Warlencourt,
0:27:52 > 0:27:55it's quite possible that their tenure would have been brief.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59Hundreds of assaults had ultimately failed in the face
0:27:59 > 0:28:01of German Gegenstosse,
0:28:01 > 0:28:05bitter, brutal, hand-to-hand, face-to-face counterattacks.
0:28:06 > 0:28:08In fact, by mid-October 1916,
0:28:08 > 0:28:10German High Command were able to
0:28:10 > 0:28:13report they were invariably successful
0:28:13 > 0:28:18when delivered as an immediate and instinctive counterpunch.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22But now the Allies were going to face an even greater challenge.
0:28:22 > 0:28:28For a dedicated, elite German counterattack unit had arrived.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32They were the notorious Sturmtruppen,
0:28:32 > 0:28:33the storm troopers.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43As masters of the counterattack, Sturmtruppen gradually
0:28:43 > 0:28:46became a vital element in defence in depth.
0:28:49 > 0:28:51They were highly motivated, highly trained troops,
0:28:51 > 0:28:56mainly volunteers with distinctive uniforms and specialist weapons like
0:28:56 > 0:29:01light machine guns, semi-automatic rifles and portable flame-throwers.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08Storm troopers were renowned for their teamwork and proficiency
0:29:08 > 0:29:11in ruthless, close combat fighting.
0:29:16 > 0:29:18And their appearance here on the Somme
0:29:18 > 0:29:21signalled the birth of a legendary status
0:29:21 > 0:29:25that soon came to define Teutonic martial ferocity.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37As the attrition and frustration continued unabated,
0:29:37 > 0:29:41doubts were being expressed not only from without,
0:29:41 > 0:29:44but within the British Army.
0:29:44 > 0:29:46On the 3rd of November,
0:29:46 > 0:29:50General Sir Henry Rawlinson received an unusually forthright evaluation
0:29:50 > 0:29:52from one of his own corps commanders.
0:29:54 > 0:30:00After a series of disastrous assaults, the commander of XIV Corp,
0:30:00 > 0:30:03Lord Cavan, wrote very frankly to Rawlinson here,
0:30:03 > 0:30:08expressing grave concerns over another venture proposed for the
0:30:08 > 0:30:115th of November in support of the French.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14Cavan did not mince his words.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19An advance from my present position with the troops at my disposal has
0:30:19 > 0:30:23practically no chance of success on account of the heavy fire
0:30:23 > 0:30:27of machine guns and artillery from the North.
0:30:27 > 0:30:29And the enormous distance we have to advance
0:30:29 > 0:30:31against a strongly prepared position.
0:30:31 > 0:30:36Owing to the failure to advance our line in the recent operations.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38Cavan actually refused to attack
0:30:38 > 0:30:41until Rawlinson had visited the front
0:30:41 > 0:30:43to see the conditions for himself.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47To his credit, Rawlinson did so and immediately agreed
0:30:47 > 0:30:49that the plan was unrealistic,
0:30:49 > 0:30:52only to be then overruled by Hague after a meeting
0:30:52 > 0:30:55here at the chateaux with French commanders.
0:30:55 > 0:30:57So regardless of the state of the ground and the
0:30:57 > 0:30:59condition of his troops,
0:30:59 > 0:31:02the commander-in-chief was determined
0:31:02 > 0:31:04to accommodate his senior ally.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12So it was that as part of a substantial
0:31:12 > 0:31:15Anglo-Australian operation, on the 5th of November,
0:31:15 > 0:31:19the Butte de Warlencourt was attacked once more.
0:31:19 > 0:31:20The enterprise included three
0:31:20 > 0:31:22battalions of the Durham light infantry.
0:31:25 > 0:31:28Amongst them was Lance-Corporal Harry Cruddas.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33Immediately the first wave mounted the trench and made off.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37They were met by terrific and annihilating fire and crumpled up
0:31:37 > 0:31:38like snow in summer.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43The second wave was by this time on its way.
0:31:43 > 0:31:45I was in that wave.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47The enemy barrage was doing enormous damage
0:31:47 > 0:31:49and our fighting strength was fast diminishing.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56Cruddas's ninth Durham's actually overran the Butte,
0:31:56 > 0:31:59only to be evicted by the inevitable counter attack.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03The other assaults floundered beneath shell,
0:32:03 > 0:32:06mortar and multiple machine gun fire.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11Casualties, as ever, were heavy.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19As autumn turned to winter, there was no escape from the cold,
0:32:19 > 0:32:22the damp and the deep discomfort.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28And now British morale was plunging too.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34The German archives provide fascinating evidence of this,
0:32:34 > 0:32:38especially in reports of conversations with Allied prisoners.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47Intelligence documents like these are very illuminating
0:32:47 > 0:32:51because they show a gradual shift in British Stimmung,
0:32:51 > 0:32:53that's mood and morale.
0:32:53 > 0:32:57After the early gung ho days of July,
0:32:57 > 0:33:02we can see a growing pessimism and even doubt as the battle slithers
0:33:02 > 0:33:05towards yet another winter without even a glimpse of Sir Douglas Haig's
0:33:05 > 0:33:09decisive victory. One man says,
0:33:09 > 0:33:13"The so-called walkover has turned into a steeplechase with an infinite
0:33:13 > 0:33:15"number of obstacles."
0:33:15 > 0:33:18And these files show that he was far from alone in harbouring
0:33:18 > 0:33:20such bleak thoughts.
0:33:20 > 0:33:24Having now spoken with many hundreds of British prisoners,
0:33:24 > 0:33:27German interrogators made a number of observations.
0:33:27 > 0:33:29Among the troops themselves,
0:33:29 > 0:33:32there is an undeniable mood of war weariness.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Which seems to have become even more widespread in recent months,
0:33:36 > 0:33:39perhaps due to the lack of success of the offensive as a whole.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44Even some officers have not been afraid to admit that they were
0:33:44 > 0:33:47pleased to have been taken prisoner.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51Every single man expresses his disgust at the
0:33:51 > 0:33:54unconscionable machinations of the British press
0:33:54 > 0:33:59and the lies that it constantly publishes in the guise of news.
0:33:59 > 0:34:02And in particular the so-called letters from the front
0:34:02 > 0:34:04that appear in the Daily Mail,
0:34:04 > 0:34:06which are evidently written by someone
0:34:06 > 0:34:08who has never set foot in France.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14And after their experiences at Pozieres,
0:34:14 > 0:34:17Delville Wood, Mouquet Farm and Courcelette,
0:34:17 > 0:34:19we can also hear Australians,
0:34:19 > 0:34:23South Africans and Canadians railing against British leadership.
0:34:24 > 0:34:27Among many soldiers from the colonies,
0:34:27 > 0:34:31the appetite for the war has sunk to zero and a consequence of the less
0:34:31 > 0:34:34favoured treatment that they feel they receive
0:34:34 > 0:34:36by comparison with British soldiers.
0:34:36 > 0:34:41And also because they believe they are simply being used by the
0:34:41 > 0:34:45British, especially when it comes to the frequency with which they are
0:34:45 > 0:34:47deployed in the toughest locations
0:34:47 > 0:34:50and are thrown into the bitterest fighting.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52One Australian described his comrades
0:34:52 > 0:34:55as, "The white slaves of the Somme."
0:34:58 > 0:35:01But it wasn't just the physical hardships of battle.
0:35:01 > 0:35:03In common with all the great offensives,
0:35:03 > 0:35:07the Somme saw an abrupt rise in mental illness,
0:35:07 > 0:35:10in particular it was the ever increasing intensity
0:35:10 > 0:35:13and duration of heavy shellfire
0:35:13 > 0:35:18that led to thousands on both sides suffering from shellshock.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22The condition could lead to self-mutilation, even suicide.
0:35:22 > 0:35:27And as always, it produced a sharp spike in desertion rates.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32Whilst some slipped across no-man's-land to the enemy,
0:35:32 > 0:35:36most disappeared into the calmer backwaters behind their own lines.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41For one man, it led to a prison cell here in the
0:35:41 > 0:35:44Belgian town of Poperinge.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48His name was Second Lieutenant Eric Skeffington Poole
0:35:48 > 0:35:51of the 11th Battalion the West Yorkshire Regiment.
0:35:54 > 0:35:56He was known to have a nervous disposition,
0:35:56 > 0:35:59and in fact he'd been hospitalised for shellshock,
0:35:59 > 0:36:03that's what we know today as post-traumatic stress disorder.
0:36:03 > 0:36:07But on the 5th of October 1916, here in the village of Flers,
0:36:07 > 0:36:08he'd gone missing.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13And was absent for two days before being arrested wearing a
0:36:13 > 0:36:15private's tunic.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19Now because Eric Poole was an officer,
0:36:19 > 0:36:22his case received special attention.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25But as it made its way up the chain of command
0:36:25 > 0:36:29towards the final arbiter, the commander-in-chief himself,
0:36:29 > 0:36:32there were recommendations that the penalty,
0:36:32 > 0:36:35because of his mental state, should be imprisonment.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41But despite exonerating evidence being presented
0:36:41 > 0:36:44at Eric Poole's court-martial,
0:36:44 > 0:36:48Sir Douglas Haig decided an example must be made.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52In his diary on 6 December, Haig wrote...
0:36:52 > 0:36:57"Such a crime is more serious in the case of an officer than of a man.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01"And also it is highly important that all ranks should realise the
0:37:01 > 0:37:04"law is the same for an officer as a private."
0:37:06 > 0:37:08Four days later, Eric Poole was
0:37:08 > 0:37:12escorted from his cell to this nearby courtyard,
0:37:12 > 0:37:17where he was blindfolded, tied to a post and executed by firing squad.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24He was the first British officer to suffer the ultimate penalty
0:37:24 > 0:37:25for desertion.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31And here he lives in a cemetery on the outskirts of Poperinge
0:37:31 > 0:37:34amongst the other fallen, but beneath a headstone
0:37:34 > 0:37:37that offers no clue to his fate.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47Poole was one of 284 British and Empire soldiers
0:37:47 > 0:37:50to face the firing squad for casting away arms,
0:37:50 > 0:37:53cowardice or desertion during the war.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58Many German soldiers also quit the battlefield,
0:37:58 > 0:38:02but the number of executions is strikingly fewer.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06Only 18 during the entire conflict.
0:38:08 > 0:38:10So what explains the disparity?
0:38:11 > 0:38:16The answer sheds revealing light on differences between the two sides.
0:38:19 > 0:38:21For generations, British high command had dealt
0:38:21 > 0:38:23with offenders as they saw fit,
0:38:23 > 0:38:27taking full military control of the judicial process.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31The records show that the tradition at court-martials was for both
0:38:31 > 0:38:33prosecution and defence to be
0:38:33 > 0:38:37conducted by serving officers untrained in the law.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42By 1916, and now with an army of millions,
0:38:42 > 0:38:46the reason for imposing the death penalty for desertion was primarily
0:38:46 > 0:38:51concerned not with justice, nor even punishment, but deterrence.
0:38:56 > 0:39:01On the Somme, it was vital to stop a disciplinary rot setting in.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05And this was clear from the way the executioners
0:39:05 > 0:39:07themselves were selected.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11Firing squads were often deliberately composed of men from
0:39:11 > 0:39:15the victim's own unit, so they were being ordered to shoot
0:39:15 > 0:39:17one of their own comrades.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21And officers were required to read out the latest list of executions to
0:39:21 > 0:39:24their men. Here is an example.
0:39:24 > 0:39:28It's another captured British document, so it is in German.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31There are four men listed, they are all deserters,
0:39:31 > 0:39:34Fahnenflucht im Deinster.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36Deserting his Majesty's forces.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40The sentence of the court, Tod Durch Erschiessen,
0:39:40 > 0:39:42death by shooting.
0:39:42 > 0:39:47And this one carried out on the 29th of October at 6.26 in the morning.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55German high command approached desertion differently.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58One might even call their methods more liberal.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01Every case could be subject to civilian law,
0:40:01 > 0:40:05dealt with by professional lawyers and heard in the presence of a jury.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11And the records indicate a much greater empathy for the awful plight
0:40:11 > 0:40:13of the common soldier.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16Also, the thorough training of the German army
0:40:16 > 0:40:19imbued their troops with an unmatched degree of duty,
0:40:19 > 0:40:21discipline and honour.
0:40:22 > 0:40:27But there was another factor keeping the number of executions so low.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31German officers were allowed to take the law into their own hands.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34They could strike offenders or enforce corporal punishment
0:40:34 > 0:40:37without the need for court-martial.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39It may seem a rough form of justice,
0:40:39 > 0:40:45but a public display of dishonour in front of comrades frequently acted
0:40:45 > 0:40:48more effectively than judicial decree.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52On the Somme, the sheer vigour of German resistance
0:40:52 > 0:40:56showed that morale was high and discipline good.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00So there was no need for executions at dawn.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10By early November, Sir Douglas Haig was determined
0:41:10 > 0:41:13to assure his French allies that British aggression
0:41:13 > 0:41:17would be maintained now and throughout the coming winter.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22So he ordered attacks on both banks of the River Ancre
0:41:22 > 0:41:26and in sectors where for months his line had not moved at all.
0:41:28 > 0:41:32These operations would be commanded by General Sir Hubert Gough
0:41:32 > 0:41:35of the newly renamed 5th Army,
0:41:35 > 0:41:39a man with a reputation for no holds barred aggression.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44One was planned for the morning of the 13th of November,
0:41:44 > 0:41:47here on the Hawthorn Ridge in front of Beaumont Hamel.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51Officer Cadet Pukal was on duty in the German trenches.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55Something was happening out there.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58I could hear repeated muffled sounds.
0:41:58 > 0:42:00It couldn't be digging or wire cutting.
0:42:03 > 0:42:05I staggered back.
0:42:05 > 0:42:06What was that?
0:42:06 > 0:42:11A huge pillar of flame and smoke was ascending skywards.
0:42:11 > 0:42:16The astonished Pukal had witnessed the detonation of a huge mine
0:42:16 > 0:42:20packed with 30,000lbs of explosive.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23It went up on almost exactly the same spot
0:42:23 > 0:42:27as the one blown on the very first day of fighting in July.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31But this time the waiting Scotsmen were able to grab
0:42:31 > 0:42:34and hold the initiative.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42The Highlanders of the 51st division surged towards the enemy trenches,
0:42:42 > 0:42:44breaking in at several places.
0:42:44 > 0:42:49Soon German prisoners streamed back across these fields.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53The supporting tanks stuck in the mud almost immediately
0:42:53 > 0:42:55but they weren't required.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59The artillery and a deluge of poison gas had done the trick.
0:43:06 > 0:43:08There was success at Beaumont Hamel,
0:43:08 > 0:43:11but as ever, it was a different story elsewhere.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15At nearby Serre, the British met the same uncut wire
0:43:15 > 0:43:17and annihilating machine guns
0:43:17 > 0:43:21that had confronted their predecessors on the 1st of July.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25But this time they also faced a no-man's-land of waist-deep mud.
0:43:29 > 0:43:35For the next five days, the Germans and the mud stifled British hopes.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39Considering the conditions, Gough's attacks made good ground,
0:43:39 > 0:43:44but on 50% of the battlefront, he failed to achieve his hopes.
0:43:45 > 0:43:51And it was on the following day, Sunday, the 19th of November 1916,
0:43:51 > 0:43:56that the Battle of the Somme is officially said to have concluded.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06As the troops prepared to endure the third Christmas of the war in
0:44:06 > 0:44:09freezing trenches and icy dugouts,
0:44:09 > 0:44:12they may have laughed had they been told the battle was over.
0:44:13 > 0:44:17For the fighting did not cease but continued well into the
0:44:17 > 0:44:19New Year of 1917.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24The closing date of the Somme campaign was
0:44:24 > 0:44:26actually decided four years
0:44:26 > 0:44:30later, in 1920, when the battle's Nomenclature Committee,
0:44:30 > 0:44:32a Whitehall body,
0:44:32 > 0:44:36was tasked to officially name and date every action of the war.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44The troops may also have raised a wry smile at the news that
0:44:44 > 0:44:48Sir Douglas Haig had ordered what he called winter sports,
0:44:48 > 0:44:53to keep the offensive spirit alive, harass and kill Germans
0:44:53 > 0:44:55and try to steal more ground.
0:44:58 > 0:45:03One such exercise took place on the 17th of February, 1917,
0:45:03 > 0:45:08when almost 9,000 men took up their positions on frozen ground
0:45:08 > 0:45:11in a sector called Boom Ravine.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15They were about to take part in what I consider to be the final
0:45:15 > 0:45:17major action of the Somme campaign.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29The British were shelled, even as they assembled in no-man's-land.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33The previous day, a thaw had set in, so when the attack got underway,
0:45:33 > 0:45:36the troops struggled in the melting ice and defrosting mud.
0:45:42 > 0:45:44To make matters much worse,
0:45:44 > 0:45:48the creeping barrage plan had been drawn up for dry, frosty conditions.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55So, the artillery's curtain of protective shells surged ahead of
0:45:55 > 0:45:58the slithering and now fatally exposed infantry.
0:46:04 > 0:46:09The result was over 2,000 casualty and only a limited number of
0:46:09 > 0:46:11objectives gained in and around Boom Ravine.
0:46:17 > 0:46:22The pinpoint accuracy and timing of the enemy shellfire before battle
0:46:22 > 0:46:24could hardly have been luck.
0:46:24 > 0:46:26So, there was suspicion.
0:46:27 > 0:46:29Was treachery involved?
0:46:36 > 0:46:39There were all too many uncomfortable indications
0:46:39 > 0:46:42from captured German officers that the day before the attack,
0:46:42 > 0:46:46British prisoners or deserters had spilled the beans,
0:46:46 > 0:46:50giving away the exact location here and the precise timing
0:46:50 > 0:46:52of the operation.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54They were noted in British war diaries
0:46:54 > 0:46:57and an official enquiry was launched, but whatever the truth,
0:46:57 > 0:47:00it provided the Germans with further evidence
0:47:00 > 0:47:04that their enemy intended to sustain the attrition
0:47:04 > 0:47:06until their next major offensive,
0:47:06 > 0:47:08believed to be in a few weeks' time.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12But German high command had other plans.
0:47:12 > 0:47:16They were about to inflict the greatest surprise of the war
0:47:16 > 0:47:21upon the entirely unsuspecting British and French.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28A few days after Boom Ravine,
0:47:28 > 0:47:31Allied troops reported a peculiar lack of German activity
0:47:31 > 0:47:34on the far side of no-man's-land.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39Patrols crept nervously out to investigate,
0:47:39 > 0:47:41not a German was to be seen.
0:47:43 > 0:47:45Where were they?
0:47:48 > 0:47:52In fact, they ended up here, miles from the Somme battleground.
0:47:53 > 0:47:57I'm standing on a steel reinforced concrete triple machine gun post,
0:47:57 > 0:48:00one of thousands of similar emplacements
0:48:00 > 0:48:03installed along the Siegfriedstellung.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10Known to the British as the Hindenburg Line,
0:48:10 > 0:48:13it was an extraordinary feat of military engineering,
0:48:13 > 0:48:1690 miles long and 10 miles broad.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23Since September 1916, engineers, recruits,
0:48:23 > 0:48:25imported and forced labour and
0:48:25 > 0:48:28prisoners of war had toiled to create this
0:48:28 > 0:48:31formidable defensive bulwark.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37The withdrawal was even kept secret from German troops
0:48:37 > 0:48:40until the last moment.
0:48:43 > 0:48:45And with that shocking move,
0:48:45 > 0:48:47the blood-soaked fields of the Somme
0:48:47 > 0:48:51instantly became still and redundant backwaters.
0:48:51 > 0:48:55And all the British reconstruction work during the winter
0:48:55 > 0:48:57was rendered null and void.
0:49:00 > 0:49:02Some argue that the move here to the Hindenburg Line
0:49:02 > 0:49:05was a sign of German weakness, and so it was.
0:49:05 > 0:49:09But the objective was to increase their strength.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12Around 90,000 troops and a great
0:49:12 > 0:49:15mass of artillery had now been released
0:49:15 > 0:49:17for service wherever they were required.
0:49:17 > 0:49:21And it had also allowed the Germans to further enhance
0:49:21 > 0:49:23their defence in depth -
0:49:23 > 0:49:28on tactically favourable ground of their own choosing.
0:49:28 > 0:49:33So, what the British press quite naturally described as a retreat
0:49:33 > 0:49:37was in fact a finely calculated strategic withdrawal.
0:49:37 > 0:49:42And, for me, this is the moment when the Battle of the Somme truly ended.
0:49:42 > 0:49:47In the early spring of 1917, not the late autumn of 1916.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56That operation, codenamed Alberich,
0:49:56 > 0:50:00was accompanied by a ruthless policy of destruction - scorched earth.
0:50:03 > 0:50:06In his memoir, Storm Of Steel,
0:50:06 > 0:50:09Leutnant Ernst Junger described what he saw.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12As far back as the Siegfriedstellung,
0:50:12 > 0:50:17every village was reduced to rubble, every tree chopped down,
0:50:17 > 0:50:21every road undermined, every well poisoned,
0:50:21 > 0:50:26every cellar blown up or booby-trapped, every rail unscrewed,
0:50:26 > 0:50:31every telephone wire rolled up, everything burnable, burnt.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36In a word, we were turning the country that our
0:50:36 > 0:50:40advancing opponents would occupy into a wasteland.
0:50:46 > 0:50:48At least now, the duty of finding and recovering
0:50:48 > 0:50:52the dead of a dozen nations, including Germans,
0:50:52 > 0:50:54could be carried out in safety.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00It had finally become possible to gather up the mortal remains of men
0:51:00 > 0:51:02who had lain on the Somme battlefield
0:51:02 > 0:51:07since the first days of fighting eight months before.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09A task that fell to Private Reg Glen
0:51:09 > 0:51:12of the Sheffield City Pals Battalion.
0:51:14 > 0:51:15The padre asked me if I would
0:51:15 > 0:51:17accompany him to visit our old front line
0:51:17 > 0:51:20and no-man's-land, which was littered with British dead.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25Ours were in lines when they had fallen.
0:51:25 > 0:51:28They were just skeletons in khaki rags and their equipment.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34We walked up to the old German wire.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37The padre had brought a friend with him and the three of us turned back
0:51:37 > 0:51:39to look towards our lines.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42Then the padre said a prayer for the dead and we sang the hymn
0:51:42 > 0:51:44For All The Saints.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58They, and tens of thousands of others,
0:51:58 > 0:52:01now lie across Picardy in cemeteries like this.
0:52:02 > 0:52:06Here, we may try to imagine the Battle of the Somme,
0:52:06 > 0:52:09but we will always fail,
0:52:09 > 0:52:13for our imaginations are, perhaps thankfully, ill-equipped.
0:52:16 > 0:52:21In truth, the Somme casualty figures also defy our perceptions.
0:52:22 > 0:52:29There were 419,654 men of Britain and her empire killed,
0:52:29 > 0:52:30wounded and missing...
0:52:31 > 0:52:35..and 204,253 French soldiers.
0:52:36 > 0:52:42That's an Allied total of just over 620,000 men.
0:52:44 > 0:52:48And on the other side of the wire, can those losses be quantified too?
0:52:50 > 0:52:54The official British history of the campaign, published in 1938,
0:52:54 > 0:52:59informs us that German losses were 680,000.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02But recent studies suggest that figure was massaged
0:53:02 > 0:53:06to cultivate the notion of unequivocal German defeat.
0:53:07 > 0:53:11Present estimates suggest around 430,000.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18But reducing the Somme to a battle of numbers,
0:53:18 > 0:53:21with each digit representing a life, a death,
0:53:21 > 0:53:26a maiming and haunting memories that would never fade...
0:53:27 > 0:53:31..this, I think, is a detestable exercise.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37There was an equality of suffering.
0:53:37 > 0:53:38Let us leave it at that.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53Protocol demanded that Sir Douglas Haig
0:53:53 > 0:53:55write a Somme dispatch -
0:53:55 > 0:53:59the commander-in-chief's own official account of the campaign,
0:53:59 > 0:54:01it was published in The London Gazette.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06Haig's dispatch is an important document,
0:54:06 > 0:54:10with even more important politico-military aims.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14In it, he states that Verdun has been relieved,
0:54:14 > 0:54:18that he main German forces on the Western Front have been held,
0:54:18 > 0:54:21and that the enemy's strength has been worn down.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23All perfectly accurate, of course.
0:54:23 > 0:54:25But not the whole truth.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32It's worth looking again at a map showing the Allied objectives
0:54:32 > 0:54:36before the fighting began on 1st of July, 1916.
0:54:37 > 0:54:42The intention was to overwhelm all three German defensive positions.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48But let us now trace a line across the Somme battlefield that shows
0:54:48 > 0:54:51actual gains made during those long months of combat.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56We can see that by the time the battle officially ended,
0:54:56 > 0:55:00the most advanced British troops lay just six miles
0:55:00 > 0:55:03from the original start line.
0:55:03 > 0:55:08And in the North, gains could be measured in yards, not miles.
0:55:12 > 0:55:15None of this was mentioned in Haig's dispatch,
0:55:15 > 0:55:18which spoke of considerable further progress,
0:55:18 > 0:55:22successes gained an undiminished confidence
0:55:22 > 0:55:25that a decisive victory would come.
0:55:31 > 0:55:33This is where I began our story of the Somme,
0:55:33 > 0:55:35at Serre, on the northern battlefront.
0:55:38 > 0:55:40The first day of filming was here during the summer
0:55:40 > 0:55:43and I've returned for our last in late winter.
0:55:45 > 0:55:49Walking again across no-man's-land, I'm left contemplating
0:55:49 > 0:55:51Sir Douglas Haig's claims for success.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56Some historians argue that the campaign provided the British Army
0:55:56 > 0:55:59with a bloody but critical testing ground,
0:55:59 > 0:56:01where vital lessons were learned,
0:56:01 > 0:56:05that helped speed the Armistice two long years later.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10There is no question that the battle seriously damaged
0:56:10 > 0:56:13German offensive capabilities,
0:56:13 > 0:56:15but they were far from defeated.
0:56:15 > 0:56:19There had not been the breakthrough that Haig predicted
0:56:19 > 0:56:21and so very many yearned for.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27And the Somme had certainly not hastened the end of the war,
0:56:27 > 0:56:28far from it.
0:56:31 > 0:56:33As I've argued throughout this series,
0:56:33 > 0:56:36it was what was happening on the other side of no-man's-land,
0:56:36 > 0:56:41the other side of the wire, that proved decisive here on the Somme.
0:56:41 > 0:56:42So, in my opinion,
0:56:42 > 0:56:47the battle should be classed as a German defensive victory.
0:56:47 > 0:56:49The fighting compelled them to forge
0:56:49 > 0:56:52ever more devastating and disruptive tactics.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56Tactics that the following year would be further enhanced
0:56:56 > 0:57:00and developed, so that defence in depth
0:57:00 > 0:57:03became elastic defence in depth, an extraordinary system,
0:57:03 > 0:57:08whereby an enemy was deliberately enticed deep into German territory
0:57:08 > 0:57:12before being withered and then wiped away by counterattack.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20This is what happened during the Allied defences during the most
0:57:20 > 0:57:23costly year of the war, 1917 -
0:57:23 > 0:57:28at Arras, in Champagne and at Passchendaele.
0:57:28 > 0:57:32The wretched results of those encounters came about
0:57:32 > 0:57:38as a direct consequence of German lessons learned in Picardy in 1916.
0:57:42 > 0:57:46This was the Somme's true and most dismal legacy.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50The great sacrifice had served to increase the
0:57:50 > 0:57:53blood-letting and extend the war.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57And when in the autumn of 1918, German downfall did come,
0:57:57 > 0:57:59it was under very different circumstances
0:57:59 > 0:58:01and for very different reasons.