0:00:08 > 0:00:10SHELL APPROACHES
0:00:10 > 0:00:12EXPLOSION
0:00:16 > 0:00:19DAN SNOW: It's late 1914
0:00:19 > 0:00:23and the combination of lethal firepower and barbed wire
0:00:23 > 0:00:26has led to both sides literally digging in.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30So, we're in these trenches. Every time I try and get out of one,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33every time I pop my head up there, it gets shot off.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35DAN: 'Yeah.'
0:00:35 > 0:00:36Agh! Agh!
0:00:36 > 0:00:39And the trenches got more and more sophisticated, so now...
0:00:39 > 0:00:40They'd got quite comfortable,
0:00:40 > 0:00:42they're digging deep bunkers,
0:00:42 > 0:00:45some of them have got electricity in them and carpets on the floor.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47These are basically cities, these trenches on the front line.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49They don't want to live in these things.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52Presumably, they want to get out. How do you get out?
0:00:52 > 0:00:54Every time you over there, you get killed.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56That's true and, basically, for three long years,
0:00:56 > 0:01:00the Brits and the Allies try little things.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02They try new things, they try ways of getting across no-man's-land.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05And they don't work. There's terrible bloodshed.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07But the silver lining is, in each attack,
0:01:07 > 0:01:09they learn a little bit more about trench warfare.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11They slowly start to crack it
0:01:11 > 0:01:14and by 1918, they work out how to get out of these trenches,
0:01:14 > 0:01:16over the top and successfully defeat the Germans.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20How do they do that? How do they break the deadlock?
0:01:20 > 0:01:21I'll show you.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30They turn to machines. They think about a technological solution,
0:01:30 > 0:01:33a vehicle that can cross this broken ground,
0:01:33 > 0:01:35crush barbed wire, bridge German trenches -
0:01:35 > 0:01:37the tank!
0:01:37 > 0:01:39Wow! Look at that!
0:01:39 > 0:01:40It's amazing, isn't it?
0:01:47 > 0:01:49It looks even futuristic now.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52I mean, if you saw that in 1916, coming at you,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55I mean, it looks like it's from outer space.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57It does. It's like science fiction,
0:01:57 > 0:02:00the way it floats across ground. It's eerie, isn't it?
0:02:00 > 0:02:03It's weirdly intimidating, that, isn't it?
0:02:09 > 0:02:10What about the guns?
0:02:10 > 0:02:13You've got, what, two guns on either side?
0:02:13 > 0:02:15Big six-pound guns, and also machine guns all round.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17- Really? - There are also little holes.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19If enemy jumped on the tank, you could open little holes
0:02:19 > 0:02:20and stick your pistol out, as well.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30One of the legendary barriers on no-man's-land
0:02:30 > 0:02:32was obviously barbed wire.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35It sort of came to haunt the nightmares of British infantrymen.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39I'll show you what the tank does to a bit of barbed wire.
0:02:44 > 0:02:45That's what happens.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47Sometimes, it would actually drag it off, rip it to bits,
0:02:47 > 0:02:50it would often clear it completely.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55So the foot soldiers, the infantry, can be walking along behind it.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58There were big columns of them behind it
0:02:58 > 0:03:01and just following the path that it crushed and made in the barbed wire.
0:03:01 > 0:03:03Can you imagine the sense of excitement,
0:03:03 > 0:03:06having spent years being machine-gunned out in the open
0:03:06 > 0:03:08and now having something like this protecting you?
0:03:08 > 0:03:10It's incredible.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12And is this it at full speed, do you reckon?
0:03:12 > 0:03:14That is the alarming truth.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16It does about four miles an hour.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18- Crikey! - You spotted the problem there!
0:03:18 > 0:03:21Another problem is, it was rushed into production so fast
0:03:21 > 0:03:23they used what they had, they used an old tractor engine,
0:03:23 > 0:03:25so there were lots of problems with breakdowns.
0:03:25 > 0:03:27- It wasn't all of the answer... - No, no.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29..but it was a long way down the road.
0:03:29 > 0:03:30I tell you, it's one of
0:03:30 > 0:03:33the most impressive things I've seen on two wheels.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36Four wheels? However many wheels it's got!
0:03:36 > 0:03:37It's amazing.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49So, tanks didn't win us the war, exactly, did they? Or did they?
0:03:49 > 0:03:52No. Tanks, basically, they were one of the dominant factors of warfare
0:03:52 > 0:03:54in the 20th century,
0:03:54 > 0:03:56but in the First World War, there were still big problems with them -
0:03:56 > 0:03:58they weren't reliable, they broke down, they were slow...
0:03:58 > 0:04:01What is it, then, if it's not the tank that breaks the deadlock?
0:04:01 > 0:04:02Tanks are really good.
0:04:02 > 0:04:04It's tanks in combination with lots of other things,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07and one of the most important of them - aircraft.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13If there is one piece of machinery
0:04:13 > 0:04:16that gets completely revolutionised by World War I, it's aircraft.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19At the start, there's little scout planes held together by
0:04:19 > 0:04:21bits of string, and they were so primitive
0:04:21 > 0:04:23that if you wanted to get an enemy out of the sky,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26they sometimes used grappling hooks. They threw out anchors
0:04:26 > 0:04:27- trying to drag you down. - Really?
0:04:27 > 0:04:30It's unbelievable, but, basically, the speed of aircraft
0:04:30 > 0:04:32pretty much doubled in World War I,
0:04:32 > 0:04:34the height at which they could fly pretty much tripled.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36Could you drop bombs and things from these planes?
0:04:36 > 0:04:37Initially, in 1914,
0:04:37 > 0:04:41you'd just carry a bomb in the plane and just drop it over the side.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44By the end of the war, it's far more scientific,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47and they're conducting air raids deep behind enemy lines.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51So, if you've got planes, you don't have to worry about no-man's-land.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53You can just drop bombs - pff! - win the war.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56Well, not quite. It's not that simple. They do need...
0:04:56 > 0:04:58what I think is probably the most important
0:04:58 > 0:05:03last element of winning the war on the Western Front, and that is guns.
0:05:03 > 0:05:05They already had lots of guns, didn't they?
0:05:05 > 0:05:07They needed more. Check this out.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15Now, that...is fired out of a gun towards the enemy.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17This is a World War I shell. Have a go at that.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19Ohh!
0:05:19 > 0:05:21Crikey O'Reilly! That's a big gun, innit?
0:05:21 > 0:05:23That's actually a medium-sized shell.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26Some of the shells the British fired in World War I
0:05:26 > 0:05:28went up to nearly 30kg in weight
0:05:28 > 0:05:30and were about 20cm in diameter.
0:05:30 > 0:05:31They were absolutely massive.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35This one here is packed from there to there with high explosives.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38The first thing you've got to do, because before the war,
0:05:38 > 0:05:39Britain doesn't have many guns,
0:05:39 > 0:05:41doesn't have many factories producing guns or shells,
0:05:41 > 0:05:42so you've got to build all of those.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45You've got to perfect them, get the design right
0:05:45 > 0:05:48and then you've got to fire vast quantities towards the enemy.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53So now you've got missiles like these,
0:05:53 > 0:05:56you can fire them straight out the trenches, drop them from planes,
0:05:56 > 0:05:57war is over, yeah?
0:05:57 > 0:06:00Not quite. A lot of people hoped you could just win the war
0:06:00 > 0:06:02by chucking enough of this stuff at the enemy,
0:06:02 > 0:06:05but there's still, unfortunately, no substitute for young men
0:06:05 > 0:06:06walking across the battlefield.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08MAN SHOUTS ORDER
0:06:13 > 0:06:16But it's putting them all together,
0:06:16 > 0:06:18that's the invention of modern warfare.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26So, I get it, right. It's a mixture of things - tanks on the ground,
0:06:26 > 0:06:28planes in the air
0:06:28 > 0:06:30and cannons firing these massive shells over, yeah?
0:06:30 > 0:06:33But it's all very carefully coordinated,
0:06:33 > 0:06:35so those shells, for example, are being fired
0:06:35 > 0:06:39just beyond the tank, just beyond the infantry walking forwards,
0:06:39 > 0:06:43it's a creeping barrage, a whole line of exploding shells
0:06:43 > 0:06:47and poisonous gas, and all that kind of stuff.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50Reconnaissance aircraft helped to coordinate
0:06:50 > 0:06:53all the elements that provide vital information on the enemy.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55It's all married together,
0:06:55 > 0:06:56that's how complicated it is.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59If we are a soldier, then right in front of us,
0:06:59 > 0:07:01RIGHT in front of us,
0:07:01 > 0:07:03there is just masses of rainfall of bullets...
0:07:03 > 0:07:05- Yeah. - ..and explosions.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07Presumably loads of us die?
0:07:07 > 0:07:10Yes. The Australians believe if you're not taking casualties
0:07:10 > 0:07:13from your own artillery bombardment, you aren't close enough to it.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20It's so horribly dangerous, isn't it?
0:07:20 > 0:07:24It was incredibly dangerous and incredibly complicated,
0:07:24 > 0:07:27but it's less dangerous than walking by yourself with a rifle
0:07:27 > 0:07:30across no-man's-land towards enemy machine guns,
0:07:30 > 0:07:34and THAT is how they break the stalemate of the First World War.
0:07:34 > 0:07:35Wow.
0:07:42 > 0:07:43SHELL WHISTLES
0:07:43 > 0:07:45EXPLOSION
0:07:49 > 0:07:52Tanks. Invented by the British in World War I,
0:07:52 > 0:07:54they were a source of fascination
0:07:54 > 0:07:56for the soldiers who fought alongside them.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58The public were just as mesmerised.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00These were among the first images
0:08:00 > 0:08:03people had ever seen of these lumbering metal monsters.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07And when The Battle Of The Ancre film was released in early 1917,
0:08:07 > 0:08:11millions of Britons rushed to see it.
0:08:11 > 0:08:12And who can blame them?
0:08:13 > 0:08:15Tanks were like nothing else seen before,
0:08:15 > 0:08:19but looking back now at those early years of the tank,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22it's astonishing how rapidly it evolved.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25On 30th June, 1915,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28right here on Wormwood Scrubs in west London,
0:08:28 > 0:08:30Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George
0:08:30 > 0:08:32first saw this -
0:08:32 > 0:08:35an armoured vehicle that could cut through barbed wire.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39Just three months later, it had become this...
0:08:41 > 0:08:44This is Little Willie, it's the oldest tank in the world.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48This one wasn't thought to be long enough
0:08:48 > 0:08:51to get across the German trenches so subsequent models were stretched out.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54Little Willie was replaced by Big Willie,
0:08:54 > 0:08:56also known as Mother.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01This was the first tank to hit the battlefield - the Mark I.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13Its first engagement wasn't a resounding success.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19But it showed its potential.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27Independently, the French had come up with their very own tank designs.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47But they were unreliable and frequently got stuck.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49The real game-changer was this.
0:09:52 > 0:09:53The Mark IV.
0:10:07 > 0:10:12Into the Mark IV tank, and this was the real workhorse
0:10:12 > 0:10:14of the middle years of the First World War.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17It's bristling with armour. You've got the 6-pound gun here.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21This would have been a Lewis gun or a light machine gun here.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23And then you enter the main body of the tank.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26Quite...tight for space.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29There would have been eight people in here, eight crew required,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32four of them just required to drive the thing.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35Right in the middle, dominating the whole space, is the engine.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37It's an old pre-war tractor engine.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40As you can see, there's no partition here
0:10:41 > 0:10:43between the engine compartment and the crew compartment,
0:10:43 > 0:10:45and that meant that people had huge problems.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47The crews often had to be hospitalised
0:10:47 > 0:10:49after a day or two in the tank with...
0:10:49 > 0:10:52They'd become asphyxiated by the fumes coming off this engine.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55Also, incredibly hot. These exhaust pipes here
0:10:55 > 0:10:57would have been glowing red hot,
0:10:57 > 0:10:59and with all the bodies in here,
0:10:59 > 0:11:01it would have been absolutely baking.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09Even so, they were held in affection
0:11:09 > 0:11:11and often named by their crews.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22I'll clamber up here to the commander's seat.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25The first thing about this is that they would have these windows
0:11:25 > 0:11:28to see through, but if they were taking incoming fire,
0:11:28 > 0:11:32they had to close these and look through little glass periscopes here.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34More slots. A machine gun here.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36More holes to put your pistol through
0:11:37 > 0:11:39and shoot people off the outside of the tank.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42It was a very, very heavily armoured vehicle,
0:11:42 > 0:11:46but also one capable of really taking the fight to the enemy, as well.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48They made 1,000 of these during World War I
0:11:48 > 0:11:51and it went on to serve with great success
0:11:51 > 0:11:52in battles like Cambrai.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01The tank was becoming an integral part of the Allied strategy.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08As armoured warfare evolved,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11the number of different types of tank multiplied.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13This was a so-called Whippet tank.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16It was designed to follow the heavy tanks into battle,
0:12:16 > 0:12:18then when they'd made the penetration,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21these could spread out, speeding behind the German lines,
0:12:21 > 0:12:22sowing absolute chaos.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25The French had had a similar idea
0:12:25 > 0:12:28and only a few months earlier, in 1917,
0:12:28 > 0:12:30had launched the popular Renault FT17.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35This was a light tank
0:12:35 > 0:12:38and the first with a fully rotating turret.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48But it wasn't as quick as the Whippet.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53This can do eight miles an hour,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55a dizzying speed,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58around double what other tanks could do at the time.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05The Germans were slow to pick up on the whole tank thing.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10Initially, their High Command thought it was pretty unmanly
0:13:10 > 0:13:13driving around the battlefield in a steel container.
0:13:13 > 0:13:14Good old walking was good enough.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16Quite rapidly, though, they realised their mistake,
0:13:16 > 0:13:19and they produced this, the Sturmpanzerwagen.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32The Germans were slow to produce them, though,
0:13:32 > 0:13:34partly because of the lack of that top-down drive
0:13:34 > 0:13:36and also, the lack of materials,
0:13:36 > 0:13:39thanks to Britain's blockade of Germany.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42Very few were built and they didn't really go into service
0:13:42 > 0:13:44until the last days of the war.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46In fact, the Germans probably used more captured British tanks
0:13:46 > 0:13:49than their own home-produced models.
0:13:49 > 0:13:51The Germans even set up special workshops
0:13:52 > 0:13:55where they brought and repaired captured tanks.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05Meanwhile, the British design just kept evolving.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09After the Mark IV tank came - surprise, surprise -
0:14:09 > 0:14:11the Mark V.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19Now, this was the vehicle
0:14:19 > 0:14:22that played its part in the titanic British victories
0:14:22 > 0:14:25of the summer and autumn of 1918.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29It spearheaded British attacks, like the one at the Battle of Amiens
0:14:29 > 0:14:32on August 8th, which saw British and Allied infantry
0:14:32 > 0:14:34advance further into German lines
0:14:34 > 0:14:38than any other battle on the Western Front in World War I.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48These Mark Vs were faster, more reliable
0:14:48 > 0:14:49than the Mark IVs.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51They are also able to be steered by one person,
0:14:51 > 0:14:55unlike the four people required to steer this tank's predecessor.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58Britain's massive industrial base and innovative culture
0:14:58 > 0:15:01was producing tanks which, every year,
0:15:01 > 0:15:04were becoming better and better by orders of magnitude.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12In less than three years, tanks had gone from the drawing board
0:15:12 > 0:15:14to becoming integral to Allied war plans.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16They were no longer just a novelty,
0:15:16 > 0:15:19but another part of the machinery of war,
0:15:19 > 0:15:21one that was critical to the final Allied victory.