0:00:00 > 0:00:02EXPLOSIONS AND GUNFIRE
0:00:26 > 0:00:29This is a very unusual day. I've come to a...
0:00:31 > 0:00:34..secret location in the east of England.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36It's one of the few places in the country that you're allowed
0:00:36 > 0:00:37tofire heavy weaponry.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41I've come here because we're looking at one of the most revolutionary
0:00:41 > 0:00:44and important weapons of World War I.
0:00:44 > 0:00:45The machine gun.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58Machineguns have been tested at this weapons facility for generations,
0:00:58 > 0:01:00and it bears the scars.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04Machine guns rose to a position of such prominence in World War I
0:01:04 > 0:01:07that they came to symbolise the entire conflict.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09Thiswas a futuristic weapon,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12unimaginable just a couple of generations before.
0:01:32 > 0:01:33OK.So we close the top cover.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39Sight's alreadyup. Pull that one through.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41How many crew would these have had?
0:01:41 > 0:01:42Anything between four and eight.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44So it could have had an eight-man crew.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46There's people loading these belts,
0:01:46 > 0:01:48there's people carrying the equipment.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51A guy that pulled the sled on harnesses attached to his webbing.
0:01:52 > 0:01:53You had the guy that carried the gun.
0:01:53 > 0:01:55The guy that brought all the ammunition up.
0:01:55 > 0:01:56So we have here the trigger.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58Then we just depress the triggers and away it should go.
0:01:59 > 0:02:00OK, Dan.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05Andnow just depress this over to one side
0:02:05 > 0:02:08and you're now basically ready to fire.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22Thatis a feeling of extraordinary power.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24Given that it's the same as rifle ammunition,
0:02:24 > 0:02:26but it feels like it's a piece of artillery.
0:02:32 > 0:02:34Amazing.
0:02:34 > 0:02:35Really amazing.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39You certainly get the feeling of being on the end
0:02:39 > 0:02:42of an extraordinary explosive power here.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45You felt like you were projecting these bullets down the range.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47Unlike anything I'veever experienced before.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02One of theways to really get an appreciation
0:03:02 > 0:03:05for just how many bullets a machine gun is capable of firing
0:03:05 > 0:03:08is to load it, and that means putting all these individual bullets
0:03:08 > 0:03:11into an ammunition belt like this.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13Right, let's fire the Vickers,
0:03:13 > 0:03:14the British version.
0:03:27 > 0:03:28Imean, was this...
0:03:28 > 0:03:30Do you think it's better than the German version? What's your opinion?
0:03:30 > 0:03:33Yes, it was better, it was a lighter gun,
0:03:33 > 0:03:36it was a very reliable gun.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39Because there's that story aboutthe ten Vickers machine guns,
0:03:39 > 0:03:41the summer of 1916 at the Battle of the Somme?
0:03:41 > 0:03:44And they all fired continuously for12 hours.
0:03:44 > 0:03:45And in that case they managed to fire
0:03:45 > 0:03:47one million rounds in 12 hours, didn't they?
0:03:47 > 0:03:50DAVID: Yeah, and without any reported failures,
0:03:50 > 0:03:51which is even more phenomenal.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58Oursafety catch is these paddles, which we pull towards us.
0:03:58 > 0:03:59And this is now our trigger.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01Right.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05- Safety? - Safety. Bends over the top.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07- That's it. - Firing.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18Youcan really feel the shock waves coming off that one, can't you?
0:04:18 > 0:04:21You can. Basically, this is virtually identical to the German,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24but being more lightweight, you feel you're more exposed to it.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27The German one was much heavier, much larger.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29This one feels more like a sort of wild horse that's a bit skittish.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40It'sa strange thing to come here today and fire these machine guns
0:04:40 > 0:04:45because you're actually replicating some of the actions of that caused
0:04:45 > 0:04:48the deaths of hundredsof thousands of people during World War I.
0:04:49 > 0:04:50But unless you come here and understand these
0:04:50 > 0:04:52and work out what they can do,
0:04:52 > 0:04:55it's really impossible to understand that slaughter in its entirety.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08Right,in a way, it's the odd one out - theLewis gun.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10DAVID: It is the odd one out.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12But it actually outnumbered the Vickers three to one
0:05:12 > 0:05:14by the end of the war.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24Andthis was brought into service during the war.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26This is state of the art in World War I.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30It was. And it was the most mobile machine gun of World War I.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33Because obviously these ones are quite immobile, aren't they?
0:05:33 > 0:05:34You know, you think about these ones
0:05:34 > 0:05:36being used in the classicdefensivebattles
0:05:36 > 0:05:38and mowing down the oncoming infantry.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40This is actually designed to be taken forward. It's an offensive weapon.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43It is an assault weapon. Yeah, it certainly is.
0:05:43 > 0:05:44It is the very first machine gun
0:05:44 > 0:05:47that was designed really to be lightweight -
0:05:47 > 0:05:50carry it and take the fight to the enemy across no-man's-land.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53And the Germans hated it. Theydespised it.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55But they also admired it when they captured it,
0:05:55 > 0:05:56and they used them in great numbers.
0:05:56 > 0:05:57They used a lot of them, didn't they?
0:05:58 > 0:06:00- Yeah. - Right, let's give it a go.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41Theguys are just de-rigging the guns now,
0:06:41 > 0:06:44and it's been a shocking, but fascinating, demonstration
0:06:44 > 0:06:47of the sheer power of these machine guns.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50It's probably as close as I'm ever going to get to the sound
0:06:50 > 0:06:53and some of the smells of a First World War battlefield,
0:06:53 > 0:06:54thank goodness.
0:06:54 > 0:06:56And just looking at these weapons, experiencing the kick
0:06:56 > 0:07:00and seeingthe power that they throw out, it really is a scary thing
0:07:00 > 0:07:03to think about just how many deaths these guns have been responsible for.
0:07:06 > 0:07:07EXPLOSION
0:07:16 > 0:07:18SHOT
0:07:22 > 0:07:24SHOT
0:07:24 > 0:07:27Thedesign of a weapons system tells you a hugeamount
0:07:27 > 0:07:30about the culture of the society that produces them.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32SHOT
0:07:32 > 0:07:34In the case of the German Mauser rifle,
0:07:34 > 0:07:37this was a superbly engineered bit of kit,
0:07:37 > 0:07:40reflecting German engineering prowess.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43About a metre-and-a-half long with a bayonet on the end, a reminder
0:07:43 > 0:07:45that these rifles were also to be used in close combat.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50Itwas descended from a hunting rifle.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53It was extremely accurate at very long ranges.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56It's got a longer barrel than some of the other rifles at the time,
0:07:56 > 0:07:58which is what gave it that accuracy andthat range.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01It's made of walnut, which is a good, solid hardwood.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03Weighs just over four kilos.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17Right, I'm going to try and fire a few rounds off
0:08:17 > 0:08:19on the famous Gewehr achtundneunzig.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40Well,it's certainly got a lot of kick.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42More than I was expecting.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45And it feels like an extremely chunky, solid, reliable weapon.
0:08:48 > 0:08:49SHOT
0:08:50 > 0:08:52SHOTS
0:09:07 > 0:09:09TheBritish were armed with this...
0:09:14 > 0:09:15..Short Magazine Lee-Enfield.
0:09:15 > 0:09:20The No 1 Mk III was issued toBritish infantrymen in 1907,
0:09:20 > 0:09:24and variants of this rifle continued to be used
0:09:24 > 0:09:26way up into the late 20th century.
0:09:26 > 0:09:27In fact, there are still police forces around the world
0:09:28 > 0:09:29that use this to the present day.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32It'sabout the same weight as the German rifle,
0:09:32 > 0:09:34but it's differently distributed.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37It's a shorter weapon and already it feels far more wieldy.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41Really, the key difference is in this compartment here.
0:09:41 > 0:09:46First of all, you can fit ten rounds in this magazine.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50Not five, like the German gun.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53Soyou can shoot double the number of bullets before you have to reload.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56And secondly, this bolt action here is very different.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59SHOT
0:09:59 > 0:10:02It'smuch smoother, much easier to operate.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04Right, let's give it a go.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24It'sso noticeable. This... The bolt action is so much smoother.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27And the effort you've got to put into it is so much less.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30It's just a far shorter range that you've got to move the bolt through
0:10:30 > 0:10:32compared to the German Mauser.
0:10:32 > 0:10:33And when you are here ready to fire it,
0:10:34 > 0:10:36your finger's right here on the trigger.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40It's a small difference but I think it's a really important one.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42Also, it feels likea far lighter weapon almost.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44It's shorter, it's easier to use.
0:10:44 > 0:10:45It's much quicker to fire.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48In fact, the British Army in 1914 went to war
0:10:48 > 0:10:52knowingthat allof the infantrymen could fire 15 aimed shots
0:10:52 > 0:10:53every minute.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55Infact, one rifle instructor
0:10:55 > 0:10:58was able to fire off 38 aimedrounds in one minute.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07That'sa phenomenal rate of fire.
0:11:08 > 0:11:09The German army,
0:11:09 > 0:11:11when they met the British Army in the second half of 1914
0:11:11 > 0:11:13in the fields of France and Belgium,
0:11:13 > 0:11:15were often convinced they were attacking troops
0:11:15 > 0:11:17armed with machine guns,
0:11:17 > 0:11:19when, in fact, what they were doing was marching into
0:11:19 > 0:11:21the concentrated rifle fire
0:11:21 > 0:11:24ofBritish infantry armed with the Lee-Enfield.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39Let'sgo up here and have look at the target, see how I did.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41Well, not brilliant - not an expert marksman.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45But not bad for an inexperiencedrifleman.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47Few shots on the target there.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50Not great spacing, but it's only 500 metres.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52It just goes to show how good those rifles are, that you can give them
0:11:52 > 0:11:54to somebody pretty inexperienced like me.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57These rifles are capable of delivering the bullets onto
0:11:57 > 0:11:59the target as required.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03But ultimately the big difference between the two guns in World War I
0:12:03 > 0:12:05wasn'taccuracy,it was rapidity.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07Which rifle could fire the most rounds?
0:12:07 > 0:12:09And if you want to put it to the test, you don't want me,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12you need a professional marksmen, like Andy.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37Firingas many bullets as possible under the same conditions,
0:12:37 > 0:12:40the Lee-Enfield nearly always comes out on top.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42With its smoother loading system and ten-round magazine,
0:12:43 > 0:12:45thiswas the world's most effective rifle.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49SHOTS
0:12:51 > 0:12:54Themain point is that both of those rifles were
0:12:54 > 0:12:56brutally efficientat the job they were designed to do.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59The technological revolution, the firepower revolution
0:12:59 > 0:13:01thathad taken place before the First World War
0:13:01 > 0:13:04meant that individuals could shoot far more accurately
0:13:04 > 0:13:05far farther away.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08And that's why the area between the two armies, this no-man's-land,
0:13:08 > 0:13:10became atotal killing zone.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13This was like nothing else in the history of warfare.
0:13:19 > 0:13:20GUNFIRE
0:13:23 > 0:13:26SHELL WHISTLES
0:13:27 > 0:13:28EXPLOSION
0:13:28 > 0:13:31PLANE PASSES OVERHEAD
0:13:31 > 0:13:33GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS
0:13:37 > 0:13:39MILITARY DRUMS