0:00:05 > 0:00:09In the early 1960s, the BBC broadcast a documentary series
0:00:09 > 0:00:12that was unparalleled in its ambition and scope.
0:00:12 > 0:00:17Over 26 episodes, the series told the story of a conflict
0:00:17 > 0:00:21that affected virtually every family in Britain, and most of the world.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32Those who'd lived through the war remembered it as vividly as ever.
0:00:35 > 0:00:41I'd never seen so many dead men clumped together as what I saw then.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44And I thought to myself, all the world's dead,
0:00:44 > 0:00:46they're all dead.
0:00:46 > 0:00:47They're all dead.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52The first idea that sort of flitted through my mind
0:00:52 > 0:00:55was that the end of the world had come,
0:00:55 > 0:00:58and that this was the day of judgment.
0:01:01 > 0:01:0550 years after they were filmed, this programme presents a selection
0:01:05 > 0:01:08of the very best of the Great War interviews.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14This is the closest we'll ever get
0:01:14 > 0:01:17to what it was really like for those who were there.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19When the war was not very active,
0:01:19 > 0:01:23it was really rather fun to be in the front line.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26I thought to myself,
0:01:26 > 0:01:30"Well, if this is death, it's not so bad."
0:01:31 > 0:01:35What was it that we soldiers stabbed each other,
0:01:35 > 0:01:41strangled each other, went for each other like mad dogs?
0:02:06 > 0:02:11I was a young soldier of 17 just before the war.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16I joined a territorial regiment for the sport,
0:02:16 > 0:02:18and the boxing and swimming.
0:02:19 > 0:02:27And when on the 3rd August 1914, mobilisation orders came out,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30we were all very excited, and apprehensive.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35Because the whole feeling in the air was one of anxiety,
0:02:35 > 0:02:38at the same time great endeavour...
0:02:39 > 0:02:45..and most of us wanted to be out in France
0:02:45 > 0:02:48before the war was over by Christmas.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01By 1914, technological progress had created a new kind of war.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05To protect themselves against the increased fire power
0:03:05 > 0:03:07of artillery and machine guns,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10infantry soldiers had to dig elaborate trench systems.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23To Henry and his comrades,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26trench warfare seemed to be a big adventure.
0:03:26 > 0:03:31We enjoyed our first visit to the trenches.
0:03:31 > 0:03:32The weather was dry,
0:03:32 > 0:03:37and the whole feeling was one of tremendous comradeship.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45And I can honestly say there was no fear at all.
0:03:45 > 0:03:46It...it was a picnic.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54Henry's picnic didn't last.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59It started raining, and the rain wouldn't stop.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05We walked about a lot.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07We moved very slowly, in a mire,
0:04:07 > 0:04:12a pug of yellow, watery clay.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17When the evening came, we could get out.
0:04:17 > 0:04:19It took about an hour to get out.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22Some of our chaps slipped in and were drowned
0:04:22 > 0:04:26and weren't seen until we trod on them, perhaps, later.
0:04:26 > 0:04:31It was 60 yards to the Germans and they could snipe right down it,
0:04:31 > 0:04:33and so we had a lot of men sniped.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36I had my friend standing beside me.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38We were trying to work a pump which we'd carried in at night.
0:04:38 > 0:04:39It wouldn't work.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44And suddenly there was a tremendous crack, going like that.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50The bullet hit my friend in the front of the head
0:04:50 > 0:04:55and took away the back of his head, and he fell down, just slipped down.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15Winter came, and the Christmas of 1914
0:05:15 > 0:05:18was one Henry would remember all his life.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24On Christmas Eve, we had a job to do in no-man's-land,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27which put the wind up everybody.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31That is to say, we were all quiet among ourselves.
0:05:31 > 0:05:37The job was to knock in these posts, 18 inches into this frozen soil,
0:05:37 > 0:05:42and we were 50 yards away from the Germans and we crept out,
0:05:42 > 0:05:48trying to avoid our boots ringing on the frozen ground,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51and expecting any moment to fall flat
0:05:51 > 0:05:54with the machine guns opening up. And nothing happened.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58And within two hours, we were walking about and laughing
0:05:58 > 0:06:01and talking and there was nothing from the German lines.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15And then about 11 o'clock,
0:06:15 > 0:06:20I saw a Christmas tree going up from the German trenches.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22And there was a light.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26And we stood still and we watched this and we talked.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30And then a German voice began to sing a song -
0:06:30 > 0:06:32"Heilige Nacht".
0:06:33 > 0:06:38And after that, somebody, "Come over, Tommy, come over."
0:06:39 > 0:06:44And I still thought it was a trap, but some of us went over at once,
0:06:44 > 0:06:47and they came to this barbed-wire fence between us,
0:06:47 > 0:06:51which was five strands of wire hung by...
0:06:51 > 0:06:55hung with empty bully beef tins to make a rattle if they came.
0:06:55 > 0:06:57And very soon we were exchanging gifts.
0:06:57 > 0:07:02MUSIC: "Silent Night"
0:07:12 > 0:07:16The Germans started burying their dead, which were frozen,
0:07:16 > 0:07:20and we...we picked up ours and buried them.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24And little crosses of ration box wood were nailed together,
0:07:24 > 0:07:28quite small ones, and in indelible pencil they would put,
0:07:28 > 0:07:32the Germans, "fur Vaterland und Freiheit".
0:07:33 > 0:07:35"For Fatherland and Freedom."
0:07:35 > 0:07:38And I said to a German,
0:07:38 > 0:07:43"Excuse me, but how can you be fighting for freedom?
0:07:43 > 0:07:48"You started the war, and WE'RE fighting for freedom."
0:07:48 > 0:07:54And he said, "Excuse me, English comrade - Kamerad -
0:07:54 > 0:07:58"but we are fighting for freedom, for our country."
0:08:06 > 0:08:09And as they also put
0:08:09 > 0:08:12here rests in God an "unbekannter Held" -
0:08:12 > 0:08:16"here rests in God an unknown hero, in God."
0:08:16 > 0:08:18"Oh, yes, God is on our side."
0:08:18 > 0:08:20"But," I said, "he's on our side."
0:08:20 > 0:08:23And that was a tremendous shock.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27One began to think that these chaps, who were like ourselves,
0:08:27 > 0:08:32whom we liked and who felt about the war as we did, and who said,
0:08:32 > 0:08:36"It'll be over soon, because we will win the war."
0:08:36 > 0:08:37And we said, "No."
0:08:37 > 0:08:41"Well, English comrade, do not let us quarrel on Christmas Day."
0:08:52 > 0:08:53After the Great War,
0:08:53 > 0:08:56Henry Williamson became an acclaimed writer.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58His most famous novel is Tarka The Otter.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18Unlike Britain in 1914, Germany had conscription.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24Stefan Westmann was a young German medical student.
0:09:24 > 0:09:26In April 1914,
0:09:26 > 0:09:29he was called up for national service in the German army.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36In December 1914, his unit was ordered to attack British troops
0:09:36 > 0:09:38defending a French brickworks.
0:09:40 > 0:09:45We cut zigzag lines through our barbed-wire entanglements,
0:09:45 > 0:09:50and at noon we went over the top.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59We ran approximately 100 yards,
0:09:59 > 0:10:04and we came under machine gun fire which was so terrific,
0:10:04 > 0:10:08that...the losses were so staggering,
0:10:08 > 0:10:12that we got orders to lie down and to seek shelter.
0:10:14 > 0:10:15Nobody dared to lift his head
0:10:15 > 0:10:20because the very moment the machine gunners saw any movement,
0:10:20 > 0:10:22they let fly.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27And then the British artillery opened up.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30And the corpses and the heads,
0:10:30 > 0:10:35and the arms and the legs flew about and we were cut to pieces.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43All of a sudden, the enemy fire ceased.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48Complete silence came over the battlefield,
0:10:49 > 0:10:52and one of the chaps in my shell hole asked me,
0:10:52 > 0:10:55"I wonder what they're up to."
0:10:56 > 0:11:00Another one answered, "Perhaps they are getting tea."
0:11:00 > 0:11:04A third one says, "Don't be a fool. Do you see what I see?"
0:11:06 > 0:11:09And we looked over the brim of our shell hole
0:11:09 > 0:11:13and there, between the brick heaps,
0:11:13 > 0:11:19out there came a British soldier with a Red Cross flag which he waved,
0:11:19 > 0:11:22and he was followed by a stretcher-bearer
0:11:22 > 0:11:27who came slowly towards us and collected our wounded.
0:11:27 > 0:11:33We got up, still completely dumb from fear of death,
0:11:33 > 0:11:37and helped them to bring our wounded into our trenches.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50But such acts of generosity remained an exception.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54This was war, and ordinary men like Stefan had to learn to kill.
0:11:57 > 0:12:03I was confronted by a French corporal,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07he with his bayonet at the ready, and I with my bayonet at the ready.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13For a moment, I felt the fear of death.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17And in a fraction of a second,
0:12:17 > 0:12:23I realised that he was after my life exactly as I was after his.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26I was quicker than he was.
0:12:27 > 0:12:34I tossed his rifle away and I ran my bayonet through his chest.
0:12:34 > 0:12:40He fell, put his hand on the place where I had hit him,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42and then I thrust again.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46Blood came out of his mouth and he died.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59I suddenly felt physically ill.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01I nearly vomited.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03My knees were shaking,
0:13:03 > 0:13:07and I was, quite frankly, ashamed of myself.
0:13:09 > 0:13:15My comrades were absolutely undisturbed by what had happened.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19One of them boasted that he had killed a French soldier
0:13:19 > 0:13:21with the butt of his rifle,
0:13:21 > 0:13:24another one had strangled a captain,
0:13:24 > 0:13:29a third one had hit somebody over the head with his spade.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36And they were ordinary men like me.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45What was it, that we soldiers...
0:13:47 > 0:13:51..stabbed each other, strangled each other,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55went for each other like mad dogs?
0:13:55 > 0:14:00What was it that we, who had nothing against them personally,
0:14:00 > 0:14:05fought to them...fought with them to the very end in death?
0:14:05 > 0:14:08We were civilised people, after all.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22After the war, Stefan completed his medical training
0:14:22 > 0:14:23and became a surgeon.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28But in the 1930s, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party took control,
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Stefan felt compelled to leave his homeland.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33Remembering the incident in 1914
0:14:33 > 0:14:35when British soldiers stopped fighting
0:14:35 > 0:14:38to let his comrades collect their dead and wounded,
0:14:38 > 0:14:40he chose to settle in England.
0:14:42 > 0:14:47Stefan Westmann set up a medical practice in London's Harley Street.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05When Britain went to war in 1914,
0:15:05 > 0:15:09it had less than 250,000 battle-ready troops.
0:15:09 > 0:15:14It desperately needed volunteers to build a whole new fighting force.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18One man willing to sign up was Katie Morter's husband.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22We was very happily married, very, very happy.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24Because we was very much in love,
0:15:24 > 0:15:28and he thought the world of me and I thought the world of him.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33And then it came to be that the war started.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37We had a friend over in Canada that had enlisted over there,
0:15:37 > 0:15:41and he came over here, and he came one night and asked us,
0:15:41 > 0:15:43would we go to the Palace?
0:15:43 > 0:15:46He'd booked seats for the Palace, and would we go?
0:15:46 > 0:15:48We didn't know what was on, of course,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51and it was a great treat for us, so we went.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55When we got there at the Palace, everything was lovely.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58And Vesta Tilley was recruiting,
0:15:58 > 0:16:00which we never knew till we got there.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02I wouldn't have gone if I'd have known, of course.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05She was dressed on the stage beautifully.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08She also had a big Union Jack wrapped round her.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10And she introduced that song,
0:16:10 > 0:16:12We Don't Want To Lose You, But We Think You Ought To Go.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16# We don't want to lose you
0:16:16 > 0:16:20# But we think you ought to go
0:16:20 > 0:16:23# For your king and your country
0:16:23 > 0:16:26# Both need you so... #
0:16:26 > 0:16:29We were sat at the front, and she walked down
0:16:29 > 0:16:33and she hesitated a bit and she put her hand on my husband's shoulder.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35He got up and he went with her.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39# We shall cheer you, thank you
0:16:39 > 0:16:45# Kiss you when you come back again... #
0:16:45 > 0:16:49And I was terribly upset, and I said I didn't want him to go
0:16:49 > 0:16:53and be a soldier, because I didn't want to lose him.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55I didn't want him to go at all.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58But he said, "We have to go."
0:16:58 > 0:17:01He said, "There has to be men to go and fight for the women.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03"Otherwise," he said, "where should we be?"
0:17:07 > 0:17:12Private Percy Morter was posted to France in September 1915.
0:17:20 > 0:17:25During the time that he was away, I was very, very lonely.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28All the thoughts I had was for my husband.
0:17:31 > 0:17:32I used to try to do a bit of reading,
0:17:32 > 0:17:38or a bit of sewing with my hands, to pass the time away like that.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41But it was very, very hard,
0:17:41 > 0:17:43and my times would wander,
0:17:43 > 0:17:47and wonder what he was doing and if he was thinking about me.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51And wondering how he was going on, and when I should see him again.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56By the start of 1916, Katie was living back at her mother's
0:17:56 > 0:17:59and working in a local leather factory.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02One January morning, as she was getting ready for work,
0:18:02 > 0:18:04she had a surprise visitor.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09There was loud knocking on the door, such a big knocking on the door,
0:18:09 > 0:18:14and this voice shouted, "Open the door, the Jerries are here."
0:18:14 > 0:18:15See?
0:18:15 > 0:18:20So my mother said, "Oh," she said, "it's Percy, I can tell his voice."
0:18:20 > 0:18:24And in he came, you know, all mucky and what have you,
0:18:24 > 0:18:26right from France.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36And he only got six days' leave,
0:18:36 > 0:18:39and he'd two days travelling out of that,
0:18:39 > 0:18:42had to be taken off the six days.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44So he didn't have very long.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46And he said, "Now," he says, "now, Kitty..."
0:18:46 > 0:18:49He called me Kitty. He says, "Now, Kitty,"
0:18:49 > 0:18:51he says, "what would you like for a present?
0:18:51 > 0:18:54"I'm going to buy you a present while I'm home."
0:18:54 > 0:18:56I said, "Oh, I don't know," I said.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00But I was... I'm afraid I was rather vain in those days
0:19:00 > 0:19:02and I was a rather attractive girl and I said,
0:19:02 > 0:19:05"Do you know, I've seen a beautiful hat down the street.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09"Oh, it is a lovely hat." I said, "I would like it."
0:19:09 > 0:19:12And it was in a shop window and I'd looked at this hat several times.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15But it was such a terrible dear hat.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17And he said, "Well, come on,"
0:19:17 > 0:19:19he said, "We'll go down and have a look at it."
0:19:19 > 0:19:20And I'll never forget that hat.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23It was white felt, and it turned up all around,
0:19:23 > 0:19:27and with me being dark, and it had a mauve...big mauve feather
0:19:27 > 0:19:30all the way in the brim and it hung over. Oh, it was gorgeous.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38We got dressed up after I got this hat, he bought it me.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42And I took him to Noblett's leather works, where I worked,
0:19:42 > 0:19:44and I introduced him to Mr Noblett himself,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47and they all shook hands with him.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50And how pleased and proud I was when he went in the leather works
0:19:50 > 0:19:52and everybody could see him.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55# Brother Bertie went away
0:19:55 > 0:19:59# To do his bit the other day... #
0:19:59 > 0:20:03He went back about the Thursday night, I should think.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07I didn't go with him to the tram.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10One of my brothers went with him.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12And a friend of his.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15And he told his friend, it seems, afterwards, he told me,
0:20:15 > 0:20:18he said, "I'm afraid I shall never come back again."
0:20:18 > 0:20:23Anyway, he went, and...and then I found out that I was pregnant.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26Katie continued to work in Noblett's.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28Then, in July 1916,
0:20:28 > 0:20:32there was another early morning knock at her door.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37I heard the postman come and I knew that it would be a letter for me,
0:20:37 > 0:20:41so I ran down in my nightdress and opened the door
0:20:41 > 0:20:46and snatched the letter off the postman and run in, shut the door.
0:20:46 > 0:20:48In my nightdress and my bare feet.
0:20:48 > 0:20:54And I opened the letter and it was from his sergeant,
0:20:54 > 0:20:56and it was...it just said, "Dear Mrs Morter,
0:20:56 > 0:21:00"I'm very sorry to tell you of the death of your husband."
0:21:00 > 0:21:02Well, that was as far as I could read.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05You see, I couldn't read anything else.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09So I...I didn't know just for a few minutes what happened,
0:21:09 > 0:21:13but I ran out, I ran out of the house as I was, my bare feet,
0:21:13 > 0:21:17and I banged on the next door, the next-door neighbour.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20And it was a Mr and Mrs Hirst.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24And they let me in and, "Whatever's to do?" she said.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27And I said, "Will you read this letter, Mrs Hirst? Read this letter."
0:21:27 > 0:21:30And she said, "Oh," she said, "you poor child."
0:21:40 > 0:21:43Lance Corporal Percy Morter was killed on the Somme
0:21:43 > 0:21:46on 7th July 1916.
0:21:50 > 0:21:56Eventually the baby became to be born. It was born at home.
0:21:56 > 0:22:01But, er...I don't remember it being born at all.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03I had a very bad time.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07I had two doctors and I don't remember the baby being born.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09And I felt I didn't want to live.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11I'd no wish to live at all.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14Because the world had come to an end, and for me,
0:22:14 > 0:22:16because I'd lost all that I'd loved.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20Katie named her son Percy Edward.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27He too christened his son Percy Edward,
0:22:27 > 0:22:29after the father he'd never met.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33Katie married three more times.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36She survived all of her four husbands.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55During the Great War, soldiers from Britain and her dominions
0:22:55 > 0:22:58didn't only fight in France and Belgium.
0:22:58 > 0:23:04In 1915, they were launching a naval attack on Germany's ally, Turkey.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07Frank Brent took part in this ambitious operation.
0:23:08 > 0:23:14Well, I was one of about 2,000 blokes stuck in the Galeka.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19The crew brought us some hot tucker to get on with,
0:23:19 > 0:23:23but I don't think any of us felt like eating.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26And then somebody said, "Well, you'd better have a snore off,
0:23:26 > 0:23:28"you've got a job to do in the morning."
0:23:28 > 0:23:30But we couldn't sleep,
0:23:30 > 0:23:34but we just talked about anything but the job we were going to do.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44The old boatswain of the Galeka came along and said,
0:23:44 > 0:23:49"Anybody got any of those dirty postcards that you bought in Cairo?
0:23:49 > 0:23:52"If you have, you'd better put them down on the deck
0:23:52 > 0:23:55"because if you get knocked, they send them to your next of kin."
0:23:56 > 0:23:59Well, by this time I was feeling
0:23:59 > 0:24:02just about as brave as a ring-tailed possum,
0:24:02 > 0:24:07and I wished that I was anywhere but on the Galeka.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14Frank Brent joined the British Army Service Corps when he was just 14.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18He was discharged as medically unfit when he turned 18.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22Frank emigrated and became a soldier in Australia.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27Now serving with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps,
0:24:27 > 0:24:29or Anzacs, Frank and his antipodean comrades
0:24:29 > 0:24:33were to spearhead the assault on Turkey's Gallipoli peninsula.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41As the pinnace hit the shore somebody said, "Out you get,"
0:24:41 > 0:24:42and out we got.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45There were dead and wounded all around.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48And we scampered as hard as we could
0:24:48 > 0:24:50till we had a little bit of shelter,
0:24:50 > 0:24:54dumped our packs, and then somebody said, "Well, up you go,"
0:24:54 > 0:24:56and away we went up the slope.
0:24:59 > 0:25:04It wasn't too bad, but just halfway up somebody shouted out to me,
0:25:04 > 0:25:06"Alan Gordon has stopped one."
0:25:06 > 0:25:10Well, Alan was one of my best pals.
0:25:10 > 0:25:11That made me feel a bit better,
0:25:11 > 0:25:15because if they'd got him, I felt I'm going to get them.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Eventually we came to a post where...
0:25:29 > 0:25:32obviously one of the strong points that he'd put up,
0:25:32 > 0:25:37and I suppose there were about 20 of us in my group.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40Er... Nobody in charge.
0:25:40 > 0:25:45The bloke with the loudest voice seemed to take charge in the setting.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47And three or four blokes got knocked.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52And then I heard somebody say, "Well, this is no good to us.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55"Come on, heads down, arses up and get stuck into it."
0:25:55 > 0:25:58And we went into it.
0:25:58 > 0:26:03And we cleared them, bayoneted them, shot them, and the others ran.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06And we sort of dug in on that post for a little while.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17There was no coordinated effort about it.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21We were just a crowd of diggers working with each other,
0:26:21 > 0:26:23trusting each other blind.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29A little while afterwards, a bloke out of the Eighth Battalion said,
0:26:29 > 0:26:32"Here, look at that bloody bush, it's moving."
0:26:32 > 0:26:36And we looked at it, and it was obviously a sniper.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42He was a sniper and he was done up like a Christmas tree.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46He'd got branches out of his head, out of his shoulders,
0:26:46 > 0:26:50and he was for all the world like a bush.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53But he didn't look like a bush when we'd finished with him.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03The bloke next to me was Robbie Robinson,
0:27:03 > 0:27:06a corporal in my battalion.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11And I can see him now, grinning all over his face,
0:27:11 > 0:27:15and next thing I remember was his head fell on my shoulder
0:27:15 > 0:27:18and a sniper had got him through the jugular vein.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21And I really think that that was my baptism,
0:27:21 > 0:27:26because Robbie's blood... spent all over my tunic.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33After three days, Frank and his surviving comrades
0:27:33 > 0:27:35were shipped further up the Turkish coast
0:27:35 > 0:27:37to fight in one of the bloodiest battles
0:27:37 > 0:27:40of the whole disastrous Gallipoli campaign.
0:27:44 > 0:27:46The barrage had been so heavy that we thought,
0:27:46 > 0:27:48"Well, this is going to be a cakewalk.
0:27:48 > 0:27:50"There's nothing to stop us."
0:27:50 > 0:27:53But the mistake we made was that
0:27:53 > 0:27:56after we got out of our hop-out trenches,
0:27:56 > 0:28:01our own artillery began to put down a barrage just in front of us.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03Some of it was firing short.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06You could see your mates going down right and left.
0:28:06 > 0:28:12And...you were face-to-face with the stark realisation
0:28:12 > 0:28:14that this was the end of it.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23Despite the fact that we couldn't see a Turk,
0:28:23 > 0:28:27he was pelting us with everything he'd got from all corners.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31And the marvel to me is how the dickens he was able to do it
0:28:31 > 0:28:34after the barrage that had fallen on him.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36And sure enough,
0:28:36 > 0:28:40we'd got to within about a mile of Krithia village
0:28:40 > 0:28:43when I copped my packet.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46And as I lay down, I said, "Thank Christ for that."
0:28:50 > 0:28:52Seriously wounded, Frank was evacuated.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55He spent nearly a year in hospital.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03The Gallipoli campaign never achieved its objective,
0:29:03 > 0:29:05but for the Australians and New Zealanders,
0:29:05 > 0:29:08it marked the birth of national consciousness.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11The date of the Gallipoli landing, 25th April,
0:29:11 > 0:29:13is known as Anzac Day,
0:29:13 > 0:29:16and is the most important day of commemoration of war
0:29:16 > 0:29:18in Australia and New Zealand.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35Technological progress not only created trench warfare,
0:29:35 > 0:29:37it also opened up a new battlefield.
0:29:41 > 0:29:42The air.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48Aeroplanes were crucial for reconnaissance of enemy positions,
0:29:48 > 0:29:50and the British Royal Flying Corps
0:29:50 > 0:29:53fought to gain air supremacy from the German Air Service.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03Cecil Arthur Lewis joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1915.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07He was barely 17 years old and he lied about his age.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10He had his baptism of fire at the Battle of the Somme
0:30:10 > 0:30:12in the summer of 1916.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21The British prepared for the battle with a massive bombardment
0:30:21 > 0:30:24of the German lines, which lasted a whole week.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34Reconnaissance planes had to report on the effect of the bombardment.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39When they began to build up towards the main bombardment,
0:30:39 > 0:30:41we used to go out and photograph.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45And these jobs were among the most terrifying that I ever did in the whole war.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49When you had to go right over the lines, you see,
0:30:49 > 0:30:52you were midway between our guns firing
0:30:52 > 0:30:54and where the shells were falling.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00They had orders. We were told - you know, the artillery -
0:31:00 > 0:31:03not to fire when an aeroplane was in their sights.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07They cut it pretty fine, you know, because, really,
0:31:07 > 0:31:09one used to fly along the front on those patrols,
0:31:09 > 0:31:11and that lasted for two or three days,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14and the aeroplane would fly up, you know, with the shell
0:31:14 > 0:31:17which had just gone underneath and missed you by two or three feet.
0:31:17 > 0:31:19Or flung down when it had gone over the top.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22And this was continuous, so the machine was continually bucketed
0:31:22 > 0:31:24and jumping as if it was in a gale.
0:31:24 > 0:31:26But, in fact, it was shells.
0:31:26 > 0:31:28You didn't see those - they were going much too fast -
0:31:28 > 0:31:30but this was really terrifying.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38One had the sort of feeling, "They're firing at us. "It's us they want to get," you know.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42So many of the boys - my best observer and many of my friends -
0:31:42 > 0:31:44were just hit by this barrage
0:31:44 > 0:31:48and destroyed by a direct hit from a passing shell.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56Young Lewis was awarded the Military Cross
0:31:56 > 0:31:58for his actions over the Somme.
0:31:58 > 0:31:59He was moved to 56 Squadron
0:31:59 > 0:32:02and joined the ranks of the elite fighter pilots.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05It was their job to shoot down enemy planes.
0:32:10 > 0:32:12Our eyes were continually focusing, looking,
0:32:12 > 0:32:15craning our heads round, looking for those black specks
0:32:15 > 0:32:18which would mean enemy aircraft at a great distance away.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22Clinging close together, about 20, 30 yards between each machine,
0:32:22 > 0:32:25swaying, looking at our neighbours, keeping our throttle,
0:32:25 > 0:32:29setting ourselves just right so that we were all in position, as it were.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32And then, sooner or later, we would find the enemy.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39The whole squadron would enter the fight in good formation,
0:32:39 > 0:32:41but within half a minute the whole formation had gone to hell.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44Nothing left except just chaps wheeling and zooming and diving
0:32:44 > 0:32:47and on each other's tails, perhaps all four in a row even, you know.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49A German going down, one of our chaps on his tail,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52another German on his tail, another Hun behind that.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56Extraordinary glimpses one got of people approaching head-on,
0:32:56 > 0:32:57firing at each other as they came
0:32:57 > 0:33:00and then just at the last moment turning and slipping away.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03The fight would come down from 15,000 feet
0:33:03 > 0:33:04right down to almost ground level.
0:33:13 > 0:33:14You had to fight as if...
0:33:14 > 0:33:16There was nothing but you and your guns.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19You had nobody at your side, nobody who was cheering with you,
0:33:19 > 0:33:23nobody who would look after you if you were hit. You were alone.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27And you fought alone and died alone.
0:33:27 > 0:33:29But those who died...
0:33:29 > 0:33:31weren't there when we came back.
0:33:38 > 0:33:43After the war, Cecil Lewis became one of the four founders of the BBC,
0:33:43 > 0:33:46and he wrote a memoir of his wartime experiences,
0:33:46 > 0:33:51Sagittarius Rising, a best-seller that was turned into a movie.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11If only other girls would do as I do,
0:34:11 > 0:34:13I believe that we could manage it alone...
0:34:13 > 0:34:15As the Great War dragged on
0:34:15 > 0:34:18and more and more men were sent overseas,
0:34:18 > 0:34:20women had to take on men's jobs.
0:34:24 > 0:34:30Mabel Lethbridge started to work in Hayes Munitions Factory at the age of 17.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34I was put on to a job in bomb stores,
0:34:34 > 0:34:37which was really cleaning detonators.
0:34:39 > 0:34:44It was very dull work but the workers were gay and charming and I liked it.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48But the day came when I got the job that I think perhaps subconsciously
0:34:48 > 0:34:50I'd always been looking for.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53They asked for volunteers for the danger zone.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01The danger zone was at the heart of Hayes Munitions.
0:35:01 > 0:35:02Set in open countryside,
0:35:02 > 0:35:06shed after shed marched along nearly two miles of railway track.
0:35:06 > 0:35:11Working in each was a team of women or boys packing heavy shell cases
0:35:11 > 0:35:13with high explosive and detonators.
0:35:19 > 0:35:23The machines that we were put on that morning were
0:35:23 > 0:35:26Heath Robinson sort of machines,
0:35:26 > 0:35:29and so difficult to describe to you.
0:35:29 > 0:35:33But they were operated not by machinery, really,
0:35:33 > 0:35:37but by a great weight lifted up on ropes
0:35:37 > 0:35:41by girls behind a pile of wooden boxes.
0:35:41 > 0:35:43They had no other protection.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47And they had to drop the weight down on top of the shell,
0:35:47 > 0:35:50and you were only allowed, say, 12 blows.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53You'd call to the girls, "Steady, girls,"
0:35:53 > 0:35:56and they'd drop that weight very slowly
0:35:56 > 0:35:58and bring a lever out to stop it.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03Only that first morning I was there...
0:36:05 > 0:36:10..some girl didn't call, "Steady, girls," but she put her head forward.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15The weight came on her head and that was...
0:36:15 > 0:36:17goodbye to her, anyway.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20It was a very unhappy feeling for us all.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30All the time there were people walking to and fro,
0:36:30 > 0:36:33emphasising the great danger.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37And we were continually searched. Cigarettes, matches -
0:36:37 > 0:36:40anything that you might have of metal was taken from you.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42And this went on, sort of, hour after hour -
0:36:42 > 0:36:44you were pulled out for a search.
0:36:47 > 0:36:51And there was a great feeling, all the time, of tension.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00A woman came up to me and she said, "How are you getting on?"
0:37:00 > 0:37:04And I said, "Well, not very well - it's taking a lot of blows."
0:37:04 > 0:37:06And the pullers, who had to pull that great weight up,
0:37:06 > 0:37:09were getting very angry with me.
0:37:09 > 0:37:10And, er, my...
0:37:10 > 0:37:13my carrier - that's the girl who carries the shells to you
0:37:13 > 0:37:16and carries them away from you,
0:37:16 > 0:37:18she's a stacker and a carrier -
0:37:18 > 0:37:22she said, "I think the mixture's too cold. It should be hot."
0:37:22 > 0:37:25And the overlookers told her to shut up and told me
0:37:25 > 0:37:27to scrape a little out.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31And...to try again.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41I said, "All right," and my carrier -
0:37:41 > 0:37:44the girl who was helping me to carry the shell -
0:37:44 > 0:37:46she said, "I don't like that.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49"I don't like any scraping out."
0:37:49 > 0:37:53Well, the whistle blew and we went to the canteen lunch.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57Mabel had only been filling shells for three days.
0:37:57 > 0:37:59She was still learning the ropes.
0:37:59 > 0:38:03But after lunch, she volunteered to do an extra shift.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08At three o'clock in the afternoon, each afternoon,
0:38:08 > 0:38:11they brought us milk to drink.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14A trolley came round and we went and we drank this milk.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17And I, sort of being curious, asked why.
0:38:17 > 0:38:23"Really it is to save you from getting the TNT poisoning -
0:38:23 > 0:38:25"it acts as a neutraliser."
0:38:26 > 0:38:29And TNT poisoning was really a yellow poisoning.
0:38:29 > 0:38:31You went completely yellow.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34And your clothes came off you yellow.
0:38:34 > 0:38:36It even affected your clothes.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39I don't know what it was - what it was caused by.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41It was very unpleasant.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44You got it very quickly and you carried it.
0:38:44 > 0:38:48You never got rid of it. Just stayed there.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50You got more and more yellow and people looked at you.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54When you got into a bus or a Tube or anything like that,
0:38:54 > 0:38:58they sort of looked at you. They wondered what was wrong with you.
0:38:58 > 0:39:00We felt like lepers going home.
0:39:00 > 0:39:02But on that day...
0:39:04 > 0:39:08Well, I'd just had my milk and, on that day,
0:39:08 > 0:39:12we didn't go home like that, because...
0:39:16 > 0:39:18..my shell exploded.
0:39:27 > 0:39:29Mabel lost her left leg in the explosion.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32For her courage, she was awarded the medal of
0:39:32 > 0:39:35the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
0:39:53 > 0:39:58# It's a long way to Tipperary
0:39:58 > 0:40:02# It's a long way to go... #
0:40:02 > 0:40:05The Great War had transformed the role of women in society.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10But women had no idea of what it was really like
0:40:10 > 0:40:12for the men at the front.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16# Goodbye, Piccadilly
0:40:16 > 0:40:19# Farewell, Leicester Square... #
0:40:19 > 0:40:24This world of the trenches which had built itself up for so long a time,
0:40:24 > 0:40:29which seemed to be going on for ever, was the real world
0:40:29 > 0:40:31and it was entirely a man's world.
0:40:31 > 0:40:33Women had no part in it.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39Charles Carrington was just 17 when he enlisted in 1914.
0:40:39 > 0:40:41By 1917, the long years of war
0:40:41 > 0:40:44had changed him and his country profoundly.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50And when one went on leave,
0:40:50 > 0:40:52what one did was to escape out of the man's world
0:40:52 > 0:40:54into the woman's world.
0:40:54 > 0:41:00And one found that however pleased one was to see one's girlfriend -
0:41:00 > 0:41:03and I'm speaking only of the light emotions of a boy,
0:41:03 > 0:41:09not of the deeper feelings of a happily married man -
0:41:09 > 0:41:12one could never somehow quite get through.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15However nice and sympathetic they were,
0:41:15 > 0:41:19the girl didn't quite say the right thing.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23And one was curiously upset, annoyed,
0:41:23 > 0:41:28by attempts of well-meaning people to sympathise,
0:41:28 > 0:41:30which only reflected the fact
0:41:30 > 0:41:32that they didn't really understand at all.
0:41:32 > 0:41:37And there was even a kind of last sense of relief
0:41:37 > 0:41:40in which you returned to the boys.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44When one went back into the man's world,
0:41:44 > 0:41:47which seemed the realest thing that could be imagined.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51# And when they ask us
0:41:51 > 0:41:55# How dangerous it was
0:41:55 > 0:41:58# Oh, we'll never tell them
0:41:58 > 0:42:02# No, we'll never tell them
0:42:02 > 0:42:05# We spent our pay in some cafe
0:42:05 > 0:42:09# And fought wild women night and day
0:42:09 > 0:42:12# 'Twas the cushiest job
0:42:12 > 0:42:16# We ever had. #
0:42:16 > 0:42:21In 1917, British and Allied forces launched an attack in Belgium.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25The plan was to reach the coast held by the Germans.
0:42:25 > 0:42:26The attack lasted for months
0:42:26 > 0:42:29and became known as the Battle of Passchendaele.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38Lieutenant Carrington commanded a company at Passchendaele.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41We advanced, just like those battles, under, er,
0:42:41 > 0:42:47an enormous barrage - a much heavier barrage than I'd ever heard before.
0:42:47 > 0:42:48We ran into a lot of Germans
0:42:48 > 0:42:52and we had a lot of very severe fighting in the first five minutes,
0:42:52 > 0:42:58in which I myself got mixed up in a really awkward shooting-out affair,
0:42:58 > 0:43:02rather like gangsters shooting it out on a Western film.
0:43:02 > 0:43:04However, we shot it out and we won that little battle
0:43:04 > 0:43:06and we got through.
0:43:06 > 0:43:08By the time we got to our objective,
0:43:08 > 0:43:11I found that my company was completely scattered.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14Both my officers, all my sergeants,
0:43:14 > 0:43:17and three quarters of my men were killed or wounded.
0:43:17 > 0:43:20And there was me and the Sergeant Major
0:43:20 > 0:43:24and a scattered handful of men which we had to get together somehow.
0:43:24 > 0:43:29Well, we got them together somehow and we settled down on our objective
0:43:29 > 0:43:32in a group of shell holes, and there we sat for three days.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40On the second and third days we just sat in the mud,
0:43:40 > 0:43:45being very heavily and very systematically shelled
0:43:45 > 0:43:47with pretty heavy stuff.
0:43:52 > 0:43:56You'd hear in the distance quite a mild pop
0:43:56 > 0:43:59as the gun fired five miles away.
0:43:59 > 0:44:05And then a humming sound as it approached you through the air,
0:44:05 > 0:44:06growing louder and louder
0:44:06 > 0:44:11until it was like the roar of an aeroplane coming in to land on the tarmac.
0:44:14 > 0:44:16There comes the moment when a shell is right on top of you,
0:44:16 > 0:44:19and your nerve would break and you'd throw yourself down in the mud
0:44:19 > 0:44:22and cringe in the mud till it was past.
0:44:32 > 0:44:37There were ways in which you could maintain your self-control,
0:44:37 > 0:44:40and there is some strange connection
0:44:40 > 0:44:42between small physical actions...
0:44:42 > 0:44:45If you, er,
0:44:45 > 0:44:48hum a little tune to yourself
0:44:48 > 0:44:52and feel that you can quietly get through this tune
0:44:52 > 0:44:53before the next explosion,
0:44:53 > 0:44:56it gives you a sort of curious feeling of safety.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00Or you'd start drumming with your fingers on your knee,
0:45:00 > 0:45:03and have a-a-a...
0:45:04 > 0:45:08..quite irrational desire to complete this little ritual.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11These minute things
0:45:11 > 0:45:15protect you from the...
0:45:16 > 0:45:19..nervous collapse which may come at any moment.
0:45:21 > 0:45:23On the third night, under the cover of darkness,
0:45:23 > 0:45:26Lieutenant Carrington and his exhausted men
0:45:26 > 0:45:29managed to get out of their shell hole.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31They scrambled through the mud
0:45:31 > 0:45:34to the relative safety of a makeshift camp.
0:45:34 > 0:45:36To begin with, I was in a state of complete
0:45:36 > 0:45:39physical and mental prostration.
0:45:39 > 0:45:41And I think for a few days after the battle,
0:45:41 > 0:45:45I was getting near having a nervous breakdown.
0:45:45 > 0:45:47But when one is young,
0:45:47 > 0:45:51physical rest very quickly puts that right,
0:45:51 > 0:45:54and in quite a few days I was almost as good as ever.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59Here I was - I was 20 years old,
0:45:59 > 0:46:04a young acting Captain, and I had to form a new company.
0:46:05 > 0:46:10I had to begin by actually collecting and organising the men,
0:46:10 > 0:46:13and finding out what had happened to those who'd been killed
0:46:13 > 0:46:16and those who'd been wounded. I had to write 22 personal letters
0:46:16 > 0:46:20to the wives and mothers of men in my company who'd been killed.
0:46:25 > 0:46:29Then we got a draft of 100 very good men up from the base
0:46:29 > 0:46:32and we started all over again and had a new company.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35And at the end of a month, we were ready to do it again.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39And this seems to me the strangest thing of all when I look back on it.
0:46:39 > 0:46:44# We're here because We're here because
0:46:44 > 0:46:48# We're here because we're here... #
0:46:49 > 0:46:52Charles Carrington was awarded the Military Cross.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55After the war, he became an academic and writer.
0:46:55 > 0:46:57His book A Subaltern's War
0:46:57 > 0:46:59is one of the best-known war memoirs.
0:46:59 > 0:47:03He re-enlisted at the outbreak of the Second World War,
0:47:03 > 0:47:05in his own words, like an old fool.
0:47:22 > 0:47:27There were no times of duty regarding mending telephone wires.
0:47:27 > 0:47:29Nobody knew when a wire would go.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32But we knew it had to be mended.
0:47:32 > 0:47:36The infantrymen's lives depended on these wires working.
0:47:36 > 0:47:38And it didn't matter whether we'd had sleep
0:47:38 > 0:47:43or whether we hadn't had sleep - we just had to keep those wires through.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48John Palmer had one of the loneliest jobs on the battlefield -
0:47:48 > 0:47:50keeping the field telephones working.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54These linked the troops on the front line
0:47:54 > 0:47:58with the command posts and the heavy artillery further back.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01I'd been out on the wires all day, all night.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05I hadn't had any sleep, it seemed, for weeks, and no rest.
0:48:05 > 0:48:09And it was very, very difficult to mend a telephone wire in this mud.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11You'd find one end
0:48:11 > 0:48:14and then you'd try and trudge through the mud to find the other end.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18And as you got one foot out, the other one would go down.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21I was tired of all the carnage,
0:48:21 > 0:48:25all the sacrifice that we had there just to gain about 25 yards.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28I think I'd reached my lowest ebb.
0:48:32 > 0:48:37And then, in the distance, I heard the rattle of harness.
0:48:38 > 0:48:39I didn't hear much of the wheels
0:48:39 > 0:48:43but I knew there were ammunition wagons coming up.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46And I thought to myself, "Well, here's a way out.
0:48:46 > 0:48:48"When they get level with me,
0:48:48 > 0:48:52"I'll ease out and put my leg under the wheel.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56"I shall be bound to get away, and I can plead it was an accident."
0:49:07 > 0:49:12Eventually I saw the leading horses' heads in front of me,
0:49:12 > 0:49:14and I thought, "This is it."
0:49:14 > 0:49:17And I began to ease my way out.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20And eventually, the first wagon reached me.
0:49:20 > 0:49:24And, you know, I never even had the guts to do that.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28I found myself wishing to do it,
0:49:28 > 0:49:30but hadn't got the guts to do it.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33Well, I went on.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35I finished my wire, I found the other end and mended it.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39I was out twice more that night. I was out next day.
0:49:39 > 0:49:41And the next night,
0:49:41 > 0:49:42my pal came out with me.
0:49:42 > 0:49:45He wasn't busy on the other wires.
0:49:45 > 0:49:49And after the Germans had stopped shelling a little while,
0:49:49 > 0:49:53we heard one of their big ones coming over.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56And normally, within reason, you could tell
0:49:56 > 0:49:59if one was going to land anywhere near or not.
0:49:59 > 0:50:04If it was, the normal procedure was to throw yourself down
0:50:04 > 0:50:06and avoid the shell fragments.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09This one we knew was going to drop near.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12My pal shouted and threw himself down.
0:50:12 > 0:50:17I was too damned tired even to fall down.
0:50:17 > 0:50:18I stood there.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22Next, I had a terrific pain in the back and the chest
0:50:22 > 0:50:26and I found myself face downwards in the mud.
0:50:26 > 0:50:28My pal came to me.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31He tried to lift me up, and I said to him,
0:50:31 > 0:50:36"Don't touch me, leave me, I've had enough, just leave me."
0:50:36 > 0:50:41The next thing, I found myself sinking down in the mud,
0:50:41 > 0:50:45and this time I didn't worry about the mud.
0:50:45 > 0:50:47I didn't hate it any more.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50It seemed like a protective blanket covering me.
0:50:50 > 0:50:55And I thought to myself, "Well, if this is death, it's not so bad."
0:51:05 > 0:51:09I found myself being bumped about and I realised that
0:51:09 > 0:51:14I was on a stretcher, and I thought, "Poor devils these stretcher bearers,
0:51:14 > 0:51:17"I wouldn't be a stretcher bearer for anything."
0:51:17 > 0:51:23And then something else happened. I suddenly realised I wasn't dead.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26I realised that I was alive.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30I realised that if these wounds didn't prove fatal,
0:51:30 > 0:51:33that I should get back to my parents,
0:51:33 > 0:51:37to my sister, to the girl that I was going to marry.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40The girl that had sent me
0:51:40 > 0:51:43a letter every day, practically, from the beginning of the war.
0:51:45 > 0:51:50And I must then have had that sleep that I so badly needed,
0:51:50 > 0:51:55for I didn't recollect any more until I found myself in a bed
0:51:55 > 0:51:58with white sheets, and I heard
0:51:58 > 0:52:02the lovely, wonderful voices of our nurses -
0:52:02 > 0:52:09English, Scotch and Irish, and I think then I completely broke down.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16Next, the padre was sitting beside the bedside.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19He was trying to comfort me.
0:52:19 > 0:52:21He told me I'd had an operation.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24And he told me that he had some relatives out there
0:52:24 > 0:52:28that had been out there right from the beginning,
0:52:28 > 0:52:31and by God's grace they hadn't had a scratch.
0:52:31 > 0:52:36He said, "They've been lucky, haven't they?"
0:52:36 > 0:52:40I thought to myself, "Lucky? Poor devils."
0:52:55 > 0:52:57Over the course of the Great War,
0:52:57 > 0:53:00the British Army developed new tactics and new weapons that
0:53:00 > 0:53:04would eventually enable Britain and her allies to defeat the Germans.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07The most important new weapon was a machine
0:53:07 > 0:53:11that was initially called His Majesty's Landship.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20The tank was designed to withstand machine gun fire
0:53:20 > 0:53:22and break through trench defences.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25Horace Leslie Birks was put in charge
0:53:25 > 0:53:28of one of these early tanks at Passchendaele.
0:53:30 > 0:53:34This was the first time I'd actually commanded a tank in action,
0:53:34 > 0:53:37and I was petrified. I hoped the whole way up
0:53:37 > 0:53:42that I should sprain my ankle or something like that,
0:53:42 > 0:53:46that we should never get there or the whole thing would be called off.
0:53:46 > 0:53:48We had no luck at all.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51And the ghastly hour got nearer and nearer,
0:53:51 > 0:53:53and the worst moment of all,
0:53:53 > 0:53:58when we started up our engines, and they would backfire
0:53:58 > 0:54:01and you got a sheet of flame out of the exhaust, everybody calling
0:54:01 > 0:54:06each other a bloody fool and waiting to know what was going to happen.
0:54:06 > 0:54:10However, nothing did happen, and we climbed into the tank.
0:54:10 > 0:54:12We had to close down.
0:54:12 > 0:54:17Because the... We were in very comfortable machine gun range,
0:54:17 > 0:54:22and once you were shut down, you were completely isolated from the world.
0:54:22 > 0:54:24We had no means of communication at all.
0:54:30 > 0:54:32The thing got hotter and hotter and hotter.
0:54:32 > 0:54:34The only ventilation was concerned with the engine,
0:54:34 > 0:54:36and not with the crew.
0:54:36 > 0:54:42You could only see forward through a little slit in the front visor, and
0:54:42 > 0:54:47if you wanted to see out of the side you looked through steel periscopes,
0:54:47 > 0:54:55which gave you a sort of translucent outside light, all distorted.
0:54:55 > 0:54:59The noise inside was such that you could hear nothing outside at all.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03And people made little gestures to you, rude or otherwise.
0:55:03 > 0:55:07That was all you could do, your sole means of communicating.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11We went off line ahead, and my own tank was the fourth.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15And we'd only got about another ten minutes along the road,
0:55:15 > 0:55:18when I thought the world had come to an end.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21We ran straight into the counter-barrage of the Boche.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23He'd evidently seen our leading tank,
0:55:23 > 0:55:26which was some way ahead, and we caught it.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33I've never been so frightened in my life. I think everybody was.
0:55:33 > 0:55:39Blues and reds and yellows, all the pyrotechnic colours in the world.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42And then there was the most almighty crash
0:55:42 > 0:55:46and a sheet of flame came up from the starboard side.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48And we'd had a direct hit.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53The shelling was still going on.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56If anything, more intense than we'd been machine gunned.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59I had three men wounded.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02One had got his leg blown off and he died later on that night.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06And we got the whole lot out with the tank between us
0:56:06 > 0:56:10and the Germans, and then sat down to take stock.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13Didn't know what to do exactly.
0:56:18 > 0:56:21Ten tanks were written off, none were recovered.
0:56:21 > 0:56:22And nothing was achieved at all.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29Appalled by the debacle at Passchendaele,
0:56:29 > 0:56:31the British High Command was on the point
0:56:31 > 0:56:33of abandoning these clumsy contraptions.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37But the tanks were given a last chance to prove themselves
0:56:37 > 0:56:41at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917.
0:56:48 > 0:56:49Here there was no mud,
0:56:49 > 0:56:52and tanks were deployed in much larger numbers.
0:56:52 > 0:56:55Almost 500 tanks took part in the battle.
0:56:58 > 0:57:03We got in, shut down our tanks, and we set course for the enemy line.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06And then we got into this belt of wire.
0:57:06 > 0:57:10It was quite terrifying because it was about seven feet high,
0:57:10 > 0:57:14very, very thick wire, and it was over 120 yards deep in places.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18And of course, if we'd have stopped in that or got our tracks
0:57:18 > 0:57:21ripped off, then we should have been for it.
0:57:21 > 0:57:25Instead of that, the tanks made great swathes in the wire, and
0:57:25 > 0:57:30Jocks who were playing with us, they came through the gaps we'd made.
0:57:32 > 0:57:34The Germans had just finished breakfast.
0:57:34 > 0:57:36They were completely taken by surprise.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39They were running about with their hands up,
0:57:39 > 0:57:40hands down, hands everywhere.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51My crew got out for a smoke and to have a look around,
0:57:51 > 0:57:55and when the time came to go on, I found I had no crew at all.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58They were all looting. However, we got them back.
0:57:58 > 0:58:02I had two men from Scotland in the crew,
0:58:02 > 0:58:05they came back with pistols, binoculars and all sorts of things.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08I was furious with rage, so they presented the best pair to me,
0:58:08 > 0:58:10and off we went again.
0:58:15 > 0:58:19Cambrai was the first battle where tanks took on a decisive role.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23Tanks and new tactics involving tanks would eventually
0:58:23 > 0:58:26play their part in winning the Great War.
0:58:29 > 0:58:31Horace Birks stayed in the Army.
0:58:31 > 0:58:34He spent all his military career with his beloved tanks.
0:58:34 > 0:58:39In the Second World War, he commanded an entire tank corps
0:58:39 > 0:58:41and retired with the rank of Major General.