0:00:34 > 0:00:37All over France, you can find statues
0:00:37 > 0:00:41honouring the sacrifices of French soldiers in World War I.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47What's unusual about this statue
0:00:47 > 0:00:50is that the soldiers it commemorates are Africans.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53Men brought over from the French colonies in North Africa
0:00:53 > 0:00:56and West Africa to fight and to die for France,
0:00:56 > 0:01:00the nation that had taken over their own countries
0:01:00 > 0:01:02by military force in the 19th century.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05They were part of what was called La Force Noire,
0:01:05 > 0:01:07the black army, and their story
0:01:07 > 0:01:11is one of the least known in the whole of the First World War.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17Amadou Sar was one of over 120,000 West Africans
0:01:17 > 0:01:20recruited by France during the war.
0:01:22 > 0:01:27One of the country's great enthusiasts for African recruitment
0:01:27 > 0:01:29was General Charles Mangin.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36In 1910, Charles Mangin published this book, La Force Noire,
0:01:36 > 0:01:38the black army.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41It's basically a manifesto calling for the mass recruitment
0:01:41 > 0:01:44of Africans into the French Army.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49Mangin didn't just believe that France's African colonies
0:01:49 > 0:01:52offered a vast source of fighting men.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55He believed Africans had primitive natures
0:01:55 > 0:01:58and under-developed nervous systems.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02He thought they didn't feel pain as intensely as white Europeans
0:02:02 > 0:02:05and so would make excellent soldiers.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11He also believed that some African tribes
0:02:11 > 0:02:14were naturally more aggressive than others.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18This is a photograph of Amadou Sar
0:02:18 > 0:02:22and one of the reasons that he in particular is here
0:02:22 > 0:02:24on the Western front is because his people,
0:02:24 > 0:02:26the Wolof tribe of West Africa,
0:02:26 > 0:02:29were one of those peoples that French colonial theorists
0:02:29 > 0:02:33had decided were a naturally warrior type people, la race guerriere.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37Troops who should lead an assault and that was their great skill,
0:02:37 > 0:02:40that is how they should be used. Of course, what that means
0:02:40 > 0:02:43is that Wolofs were about three times more likely
0:02:43 > 0:02:47to die in combat than white soldiers fighting in the same campaigns.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52This mosque, here in the south of France,
0:02:52 > 0:02:56commemorates the West Africans who fought and died for France.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07But not all of the men who found themselves fighting
0:03:07 > 0:03:10for France had much choice in the matter.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13Recruitment in West Africa was outsourced to agents,
0:03:13 > 0:03:17to intermediaries, to men who worked to a quota system
0:03:17 > 0:03:21and were paid by results. What this meant in practice
0:03:21 > 0:03:25was that men were forced, coerced into the French Army,
0:03:25 > 0:03:27were, in effect, slaves.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31Now, to me, it's really difficult to think of a more bitter,
0:03:31 > 0:03:34more uncomfortable irony than that,
0:03:34 > 0:03:37that men were taken from their homes, bound in chains
0:03:37 > 0:03:41and sent to Europe to fight for liberty and civilisation.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52The monument of Le Constellation de la Douleur,
0:03:52 > 0:03:56the Constellation of Suffering, was constructed in memory
0:03:56 > 0:04:00of the West African riflemen, known as Tirailleurs Senegalais,
0:04:00 > 0:04:02who experienced catastrophic losses
0:04:02 > 0:04:05fighting for this ridge at the height of the war.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11In April 1917, 20 battalions of Tirailleurs Senegalais were
0:04:11 > 0:04:17assembled here, 15,000 men on the battlefield of Chemin des Dames on the Western Front.
0:04:17 > 0:04:19They were deployed as shock troops
0:04:19 > 0:04:22in full accordance with the theories of General Mangin.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26This is where the idea that some Africans were natural warriors,
0:04:26 > 0:04:29naturally suited to the attack, reached its conclusion,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32with African soldiers being used as cannon fodder.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38But there was still another 18 months of hard fighting left
0:04:38 > 0:04:41until the war was finally over. Did Amadou make it?
0:04:41 > 0:04:43I'd like to think so.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46But because of who he was and where he came from,
0:04:46 > 0:04:50because of his tribe and his race, the odds were stacked against him.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14The new weapons and tactics of the First World War
0:05:14 > 0:05:17created an industrialised killing machine.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23And it sucked in men from around the globe.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28The world had never seen such a diverse population
0:05:28 > 0:05:30in such a concentrated area.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44And the small Belgian community of Dikkebus
0:05:44 > 0:05:49was right at the heart of this extraordinary global phenomenon.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56Just a few miles away from the town of Dikkebus
0:05:56 > 0:06:00lay the Western Front, and almost overnight, this town was transformed
0:06:00 > 0:06:04from a provincial backwater to being one of the most diverse
0:06:04 > 0:06:06and multicultural places on the planet.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10Men from all over the earth came here to fight and to labour,
0:06:10 > 0:06:13and watching over the whole thing was the young parish priest
0:06:13 > 0:06:16of this church, Father Achiel Van Walleghem,
0:06:16 > 0:06:20and he kept a remarkable diary of the war years.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27Historian and curator Dominiek Dendooven
0:06:27 > 0:06:32has studied Father Van Walleghem's impressions of those strange times.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35What you seem to get from him
0:06:35 > 0:06:38is a view of the First World war from behind net curtains.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42We actually have through him first-hand accounts,
0:06:42 > 0:06:46but first-hand accounts not from one of the parties involved
0:06:46 > 0:06:52but from a bystander, which is very nice because that's information,
0:06:52 > 0:06:55that first of all you would never think about,
0:06:55 > 0:07:00and secondly you would never, ever encounter in official reports.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06We've got the entry for the 6th June, a Sunday.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11"Several Indian troops have arrived in the parish,
0:07:11 > 0:07:16"black of skin, dressed as English soldiers,
0:07:16 > 0:07:18"with the exception of the hat,
0:07:18 > 0:07:22"which is draped artfully in a towel."
0:07:22 > 0:07:23- Artfully. - Artfully.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26So that's a turban.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30"They speak English and some a bit of French.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33"In general, they are very friendly and polite.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37"Though their curiosity has the upper hand
0:07:37 > 0:07:42"and they especially like to see through the windows of our houses.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45"They bake a kind of pancake
0:07:45 > 0:07:48"and they eat a kind of seed, which has a very strong taste."
0:07:49 > 0:07:51So this is going to be chapatis?
0:07:51 > 0:07:53Yeah, they're eating chapatis.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55And flavoured with a very strong tasting spice.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58Yeah, yeah, he says they are eating a kind of seed which is very strong
0:07:58 > 0:07:59so he must have tasted it,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02because otherwise he wouldn't have known that it has a strong taste.
0:08:02 > 0:08:06So he's one of the first people in rural Belgium to try Indian food.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09That's very much so, because local people normally tend
0:08:09 > 0:08:11to be chauvinistic regarding food,
0:08:11 > 0:08:17but he is definitely someone who is open to taste other things.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23Father Walleghem made careful observations of all
0:08:23 > 0:08:26the different nationalities who passed through his parish.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32But one group in particular caught his attention.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34They'd travelled from the other side of the world
0:08:34 > 0:08:36to play their part in the war.
0:08:36 > 0:08:41"In the area now, many Chinese have arrived and they are employed
0:08:41 > 0:08:46"by the English, the British Army to work.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51"So it happens that I pass them shortly before noon
0:08:51 > 0:08:55"and constantly they were saying, 'Watch! Watch!'
0:08:55 > 0:08:58"because they wanted to know how late it was.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02"And I believe they were getting hungry because when I showed them
0:09:02 > 0:09:07"it was only five minutes to 12, they were nodding contently."
0:09:07 > 0:09:09Because they know they are going to get their dinner.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11And he writes, indeed, he writes,
0:09:11 > 0:09:15"It was nearly time to fill their bellies with their beloved rice."
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Their beloved rice.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19Their beloved rice.
0:09:22 > 0:09:24More than 50 different nationalities
0:09:24 > 0:09:28ended up living and working together in this small pocket of Europe.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33When you look at that world behind the lines,
0:09:33 > 0:09:36it looks more like Europe of the 21st century -
0:09:36 > 0:09:38diverse, multicultural, multi-faith -
0:09:38 > 0:09:40than the Europe of 1914-18.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43Yeah, and that makes it very interesting for us historians,
0:09:43 > 0:09:50because it points out the relevance that history can have
0:09:50 > 0:09:52for today's societies.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55Which means if you study how these groups
0:09:55 > 0:09:59got along during the First World War, it's kind of a mirror
0:09:59 > 0:10:04to the problems we face today in our multicultural society.
0:10:25 > 0:10:30In April 1917, the United States declared war on Germany.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35By the end of the year, tens of thousands of fresh troops
0:10:35 > 0:10:40were arriving in France to reinforce the weary Allied ranks.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46This is the grave of Freddie Stowers,
0:10:46 > 0:10:49an American corporal who was killed in action
0:10:49 > 0:10:52in September 1918, taking part in the Meuse-Argonne offensive,
0:10:52 > 0:10:56one of the key turning points in the whole of the First World War.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59What's different about Corporal Stowers from most of the men
0:10:59 > 0:11:01buried in this American cemetery
0:11:01 > 0:11:04was that he fought his war in a French helmet.
0:11:04 > 0:11:09He carried a French rifle, he took orders from officers who were French,
0:11:09 > 0:11:13and the reason for that - Freddie Stowers was an African-American.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18The commander of the American Expeditionary Force,
0:11:18 > 0:11:24General John Pershing, had refused to lead black soldiers into battle.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26Most of the third of a million African-Americans
0:11:26 > 0:11:29drafted into the US Army
0:11:29 > 0:11:31had been sent to work behind the lines
0:11:31 > 0:11:34in segregated labour battalions.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39There were a handful of black combat units,
0:11:39 > 0:11:41and General Pershing's refusal to lead them
0:11:41 > 0:11:43turned them into an orphaned army.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47The French called them les enfants perdus - the lost children.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49First, the British were asked to train them
0:11:49 > 0:11:51in the art of trench warfare, but they said no.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54But the French Army welcomed them into their ranks,
0:11:54 > 0:11:59ranks that after all were full already of black soldiers from the French empire.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04Many of the black American soldiers who came to France
0:12:04 > 0:12:07in the First World War were from the American South.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09And what they encountered here was a society
0:12:09 > 0:12:13that had its own prejudices, but that was radically more tolerant
0:12:13 > 0:12:15and integrated than America.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22In 1914, 54 black men had been lynched in the States,
0:12:22 > 0:12:26and in the south, black people lived under a set of racial laws
0:12:26 > 0:12:29that were really not that dissimilar from the laws
0:12:29 > 0:12:31of apartheid era south Africa.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34What astonished the black troops when they got here
0:12:34 > 0:12:37was the simple things. That they could go out to the cafes,
0:12:37 > 0:12:40that they could travel in the same railway carriages as whites.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42That they could talk to white women on the street,
0:12:42 > 0:12:46and that's something that could get you killed in the American South.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48One soldier wrote home to his mother saying the only time
0:12:48 > 0:12:51he was ever reminded in France that he was black,
0:12:51 > 0:12:54was when he looked at his own face in the mirror.
0:12:56 > 0:13:02Something of a love affair developed between France and black America.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06The African-American troops were seen as sophisticated,
0:13:06 > 0:13:10urbane and as irresistible as their new style of music.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15Behind the lines parties sowed the seeds
0:13:15 > 0:13:19for the post-war passion in France for ragtime and jazz.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26The American military viewed this love affair
0:13:26 > 0:13:29with mounting horror.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33French acceptance of black Americans as equals
0:13:33 > 0:13:36threatened to undermine the foundations of segregated America.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41The music had to stop.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47This is a copy of The Crisis, which was the magazine
0:13:47 > 0:13:52of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55but on page 16, there is a section called documents of the war,
0:13:55 > 0:13:58and the most important document
0:13:58 > 0:14:03is this one. "Secret information concerning black American troops."
0:14:03 > 0:14:05This was written by the French Military Mission
0:14:05 > 0:14:08on the orders of the Americans,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11and what this is is a list of instructions,
0:14:11 > 0:14:14of demands placed on the French by the Americans
0:14:14 > 0:14:18on how they were expected to treat black American soldiers.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22It begins, "Although a citizen of the United States,
0:14:22 > 0:14:27"the black man is regarded by white Americans as an inferior being.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31"We must prevent," it says, "the rise of any pronounced degree
0:14:31 > 0:14:35"of intimacy between French officers and black officers.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37"We must not eat with them, must not shake hands,
0:14:37 > 0:14:39"or seek to meet or talk with them
0:14:39 > 0:14:43"outside of the requirements of military service.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48"We must not commend too highly the black American troops
0:14:48 > 0:14:52"particularly in the presence of white Americans.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56"We must make the point of keeping the native population,"
0:14:56 > 0:14:58they mean the white French population,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02"from spoiling the negroes. White Americans become greatly incensed
0:15:02 > 0:15:08"by any expression of intimacy between white women and black men."
0:15:11 > 0:15:15But French officers had more pressing concerns,
0:15:15 > 0:15:18and the so-called French directive was suppressed.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24In September 1918, Freddie Stowers and his regiment were involved in
0:15:24 > 0:15:28what became known as the Hundred Days Offensive,
0:15:28 > 0:15:33the final bloody push to drive the Germans out of France.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37Early on the morning of the 26th September,
0:15:37 > 0:15:40Corporal Stowers and his men received orders
0:15:40 > 0:15:42to capture a heavily defended hill.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49When the German troops appeared to surrender,
0:15:49 > 0:15:52Stowers led his men forward but it was a trap.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55The machine guns opened up and he was hit twice.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59But somehow, he managed to lead his men and take the German positions.
0:16:01 > 0:16:02He died on the battlefield,
0:16:02 > 0:16:05an American soldier in a French helmet.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12Stowers was recommended for the highest US military accolade
0:16:12 > 0:16:15- the Medal of Honor.
0:16:15 > 0:16:17But it would be more than 70 years
0:16:17 > 0:16:20before the recommendation was processed.
0:16:20 > 0:16:25His sisters finally received the medal on his behalf in 1991.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44Above the blood and the mud of the Western Front,
0:16:44 > 0:16:49the First World War saw the debut of a new form of warfare.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54The Royal Flying Corps - which became the Royal Air Force in 1918 -
0:16:54 > 0:16:57played an increasingly critical role in the fighting.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01And a new type of hero was born - the air ace.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06In the summer of 1918,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10a RAF pilot flying one of these, an SE5a fighter,
0:17:10 > 0:17:15shot down ten enemy aircraft in the space of just 13 days.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18Now, that's a kill rate that compares with that
0:17:18 > 0:17:22of any of the great fighter aces of the First World War.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25But this pilot wasn't British or French or German,
0:17:25 > 0:17:29he was a 19-year-old Indian called Indra Lal Roy.
0:17:32 > 0:17:38Indra Lal Roy was born in Calcutta in 1898 into an upper class family.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42He moved to London as a boy where he excelled at St Paul's school.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47Oxford and a career in the Indian civil service beckoned.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50But Indra had other plans.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53He dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot
0:17:53 > 0:17:55in the fledgling Royal Flying Corps.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03But joining up would not be as simple as Indra hoped
0:18:03 > 0:18:07as Peter Levitt from the Royal Air Force Museum explains.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11The problem was if anybody was Asian or Black
0:18:11 > 0:18:15and interested in joining the flying services before the First World War,
0:18:15 > 0:18:17there was a strong colour bar.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20They did not encourage people to join.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23There was also a very strict rule against anybody who was
0:18:23 > 0:18:26not of pure European stock becoming an officer,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30which meant no matter who the Indian was,
0:18:30 > 0:18:32or the African or the Caribbean,
0:18:32 > 0:18:34he simply could not be a British officer.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36And this was a military regulation.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38It was enshrined in military and naval law.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43But in times of war, the rules change.
0:18:44 > 0:18:49The casualty rates of the Royal Flying Corps in 1915 and 1916
0:18:49 > 0:18:52mean there is great demand for more planes like this
0:18:52 > 0:18:54but there's also a shortage of officers.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56This is a very critical and fluid moment.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58This is exactly right.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01The casualties in the air are as nothing compared to those
0:19:01 > 0:19:04on the ground but they are very, very severe.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13Critically short of men, the Royal Flying Corps was prepared to relax
0:19:13 > 0:19:15its strict racial policy.
0:19:17 > 0:19:18If there had been no war,
0:19:18 > 0:19:21Indra Lal Roy would not have been an officer in the Royal Flying Corps,
0:19:21 > 0:19:22we can say that with certainty.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24If he hadn't been a public school boy,
0:19:24 > 0:19:28he wouldn't have been an officer in the Royal Flying Corps.
0:19:28 > 0:19:29On this occasion,
0:19:29 > 0:19:33it seemed that class was more important to the British than race.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37But Lal Roy still needed to prove that he had what it took
0:19:37 > 0:19:40to join the exclusive club of fighter pilots.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44Once he had his commission in July 1917,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47he was assessed by the Royal Flying Corps
0:19:47 > 0:19:50and he was sent for training. His hand-eye coordination was good,
0:19:50 > 0:19:54he was a good sportsman, he knew how to fly an aircraft.
0:19:54 > 0:19:59He was assessed as good enough to be a scout or fighter pilot.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01They are the elite,
0:20:01 > 0:20:03they can handle their aircraft
0:20:03 > 0:20:07and they are also deemed to have the emotional strength,
0:20:07 > 0:20:09perhaps the ruthlessness, to kill other men.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15In June 1918,
0:20:15 > 0:20:20Flight Lieutenant Lal Roy was posted to the front line in France.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24He and his SE5a were thrown into the frantic fight
0:20:24 > 0:20:28to drive back the massive German offensive.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32So by his skill, he put himself very quickly from being a trainee pilot
0:20:32 > 0:20:35to being in the absolute forefront of one of the most
0:20:35 > 0:20:38dangerous jobs in the most dangerous moments in the First World War.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41Absolutely right, and in a sustained period, only 13 days,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45between the 6th of July 1918 and the 19th July 1918,
0:20:45 > 0:20:48he shoots down ten German aircraft.
0:20:48 > 0:20:53He only flew for 170 hours and 15 minutes to do that,
0:20:53 > 0:20:55that's quite exceptional.
0:20:55 > 0:21:00And his rate of scoring was such that had he survived,
0:21:00 > 0:21:02then he would be up there with the greats.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04So what happened to him?
0:21:04 > 0:21:07Only three days after his last victory,
0:21:07 > 0:21:11he took off at 8 o'clock in the morning on the 22nd July 1918.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16He took off with three other officers,
0:21:16 > 0:21:19a fight broke out at 16,000ft with Fokker DVIIs,
0:21:19 > 0:21:22two of those German aircraft were shot down
0:21:22 > 0:21:25and an SE5a was seen to fall in flames.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32He didn't return.
0:21:35 > 0:21:3919-year-old Indra Lal Roy was buried by the Germans
0:21:39 > 0:21:41with full military honours
0:21:41 > 0:21:45in the cemetery of the French village of Estevelles.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49After the war, his mother went to France and it was suggested
0:21:49 > 0:21:51that he be buried elsewhere but she wouldn't have it.
0:21:51 > 0:21:53This is where, she said,
0:21:53 > 0:21:56he had fallen in a cause that he believed in.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00Indra Lal Roy was posthumously awarded
0:22:00 > 0:22:02the Distinguished Flying Cross.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07Indra Lal Roy's short life reminds us
0:22:07 > 0:22:10that this thing we call the First World War
0:22:10 > 0:22:13is really the story of millions of individual experiences,
0:22:13 > 0:22:15each one of them different.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18Here was a young man who went looking for the war,
0:22:18 > 0:22:22who fought it on his own terms, who emulated his heroes,
0:22:22 > 0:22:23who broke through the colour bar
0:22:23 > 0:22:26and who became one of the most deadly air aces
0:22:26 > 0:22:28on the Western Front.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31And he did this at s time when it was widely believed
0:22:31 > 0:22:36that Indians weren't capable of even running their own country.
0:22:36 > 0:22:41"Dear Mrs Roy, I am writing just a short note to try to explain just
0:22:41 > 0:22:45"the sort of real hero your son was.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49"I was in the same squadron and I had the great pleasure and honour
0:22:49 > 0:22:53"to be your son's friend and admirer for the short time I knew him.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57"He was just wonderful.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00"He wasn't a fierce fighter by any means,
0:23:00 > 0:23:04"he simply fought with amazing courage
0:23:04 > 0:23:07"and half his thoughts were with the enemy pilot I am sure.
0:23:07 > 0:23:12"He stands alone for pureness, nobleness, courage
0:23:12 > 0:23:15"and most of all modesty."
0:23:44 > 0:23:48World War I drew men from all over the globe to the Western Front.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55But one of the most telling meetings between different races and cultures
0:23:55 > 0:23:57came not in the trenches
0:23:57 > 0:24:01but in the South of France far from the bullets and the artillery.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05Frejus with its warm climate
0:24:05 > 0:24:08was one of those places where black soldiers,
0:24:08 > 0:24:11Africans recruited in the French colonies of West Africa,
0:24:11 > 0:24:14were sent to rest and recuperate during the winter.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18The French Army was convinced that Africans simply couldn't survive
0:24:18 > 0:24:21the cold winters of Northern France.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25Frejus was also home to a young French artist who met the Africans,
0:24:25 > 0:24:29who got to know some of these men who had come from so far away
0:24:29 > 0:24:31to try and save France.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33Her name was Lucie Cousturier.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40Lucie Cousturier was a Paris-based painter
0:24:40 > 0:24:43who had moved to Frejus to escape the war.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50She found a town going through a period of remarkable change.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55Historian Alison Fell explains.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00Frejus was a very small town in the First World War,
0:25:00 > 0:25:04about 8,000 people and there's about 40,000 French-African soldiers
0:25:04 > 0:25:06who spent the winters here.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08And so this small town on the Cote d'Azur
0:25:08 > 0:25:13suddenly has an army camp four, five times the size of it
0:25:13 > 0:25:15with men from Africa.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17Absolutely, it must have been absolutely transformed
0:25:17 > 0:25:19and the vast majority of the population
0:25:19 > 0:25:23would never have seen a black man before.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27The population of Frejus reflected the prejudices of the time.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33So, Alison, what stereotypes about Africans and African soldiers
0:25:33 > 0:25:35were common at the time in France?
0:25:35 > 0:25:40Before the First World War, the common stereotypes were of savage,
0:25:40 > 0:25:44cannibalistic, highly sexed, certainly for African men.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47And there was a lot of nervousness about the presence
0:25:47 > 0:25:52of black African troops on French soil in the First World War.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58The West African soldiers were known as the Tirailleurs Senegalais.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01Senegalese Riflemen.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04And the French authorities set out to reassure their citizens
0:26:04 > 0:26:07that they had nothing to fear from them.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12They presented them as loyal, simple children.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17One of the main ways that they propagated this image
0:26:17 > 0:26:20was through an advert for a drink called Banania.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23There's a very famous advertisement with a grinning Tirailleur
0:26:23 > 0:26:26and the slogan is "Y'a bon."
0:26:26 > 0:26:28Which was the slogan that was most associated with
0:26:28 > 0:26:30the Tirailleurs Senegalais.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35And that's part of the language, the simple version of pidgin French
0:26:35 > 0:26:37that the Tirailleurs were taught by the French army?
0:26:37 > 0:26:40Absolutely, they were taught a form of pidgin French
0:26:40 > 0:26:44so "Y'a bon" in standard French would be "C'est bon" so, "It's good."
0:26:44 > 0:26:47- So, it's like baby talk. - It's like baby talk. Absolutely,
0:26:47 > 0:26:51and they were taught a very, very limited set of set phrases.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55So it also really limited their ability to express themselves
0:26:55 > 0:26:57beyond the most basic daily needs.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03When the black soldiers came to Lucie Cousturier's house
0:27:03 > 0:27:06looking for odd jobs and scrounging for cigarettes,
0:27:06 > 0:27:08she struck up what, for the times,
0:27:08 > 0:27:11was an unlikely friendship with them.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15They asked her perhaps for a glass of water or something like that
0:27:15 > 0:27:20and she invited them in and gradually she realised
0:27:20 > 0:27:23that all they could speak was a kind of military jargon
0:27:23 > 0:27:25which had been imposed on them
0:27:25 > 0:27:30for reasons of understanding military orders.
0:27:30 > 0:27:35The military were producing people who could not communicate
0:27:35 > 0:27:39with the people for whom they were fighting.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42She taught them French, she taught them writing and reading,
0:27:42 > 0:27:45and it was through her work with them in a way that some of these
0:27:45 > 0:27:49stereotypes then were unmasked as the racist assumptions they were.
0:27:51 > 0:27:56"If I had been swayed by the opinion commonly held
0:27:56 > 0:28:01"that the intelligence of negroes develops only until the age of 13
0:28:01 > 0:28:03"and decreases after that,
0:28:03 > 0:28:08"I would never have set out to teach a 28-year-old to read and write
0:28:08 > 0:28:11"and one who had practised for seven years
0:28:11 > 0:28:16"the muddled jargon of the Tirailleurs."
0:28:16 > 0:28:18She really befriended them
0:28:18 > 0:28:21and found that underneath the different colour of skin,
0:28:21 > 0:28:23underneath the ignorance of the French language,
0:28:23 > 0:28:26they were human beings, they had the same feelings,
0:28:26 > 0:28:29they had the same family attachments.
0:28:29 > 0:28:33They had the same total bewilderment
0:28:33 > 0:28:36at being in a totally alien environment.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42She's an extraordinary woman. Really quite extraordinary for her period.
0:29:04 > 0:29:06When we think of the First World War,
0:29:06 > 0:29:09we tend to picture white men in the trenches.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13But more than four million black, Asian and North African men
0:29:13 > 0:29:16also fought in the conflict.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19Many of these men were unable to write
0:29:19 > 0:29:23so if we want to unlock some of their experiences of the war,
0:29:23 > 0:29:26we need look to look beyond the written word.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31I've come to this building in Berlin,
0:29:31 > 0:29:34to a place that used to be called the museum of voices.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37What's inside here are hundreds of recordings
0:29:37 > 0:29:41of the voices of men who fought in the First World War.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44They came not just from Europe, but from right across the world
0:29:44 > 0:29:48and one of them was a young Indian soldier called Mall Singh.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00Here, in these meticulously ordered cabinets,
0:30:00 > 0:30:03are hundreds of ghosts from the war.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22RECORDING:
0:30:42 > 0:30:44That's beautiful.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46A voice from another world.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01- You can hear when he makes mistakes, you can hear his stumbles.- Yeah.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17The haunting voice belongs to a 24-year-old Indian soldier
0:31:17 > 0:31:23from the Punjab called Mall Singh. He's telling his own story.
0:31:24 > 0:31:29He was part of the India Corps that arrived in France in 1914
0:31:29 > 0:31:30to fight for the British...
0:31:31 > 0:31:34..and he'd been taken prisoner by the Germans.
0:31:36 > 0:31:40At 4pm on 11th December 1916,
0:31:40 > 0:31:43Mall Singh was put in front of a horn microphone
0:31:43 > 0:31:46and told to recite his poem.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55The recording brings to life the story of a man transported
0:31:55 > 0:32:00across continents and oceans to fight in someone else's war.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04The German scientists who made it had no interest in any of that.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09They just wanted a sample of Punjabi dialect
0:32:09 > 0:32:12to further their research into different racial types.
0:32:15 > 0:32:17But it's only thanks to their obsession
0:32:17 > 0:32:20that a century later we have a sound archive filled
0:32:20 > 0:32:25with the voices of Mall Singh and hundreds of other colonial soldiers,
0:32:25 > 0:32:30offering a rare glimpse into their experience of the war.
0:32:33 > 0:32:38Most of these colonial soldiers were non-literate or semi-literate
0:32:38 > 0:32:42and they have not left us the super-abundance of diaries or poems
0:32:42 > 0:32:45or letters that form the cornerstone
0:32:45 > 0:32:48of European memory of the First World War.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51So it's necessarily a history of fragments,
0:32:51 > 0:32:54it's a history of fugitive moments
0:32:54 > 0:32:59that has to be very carefully recovered, analysed
0:32:59 > 0:33:02and put pressure on, and because there are so few,
0:33:02 > 0:33:04they are all the more precious.
0:33:07 > 0:33:09RECORDING:
0:33:47 > 0:33:52In late summer 1914, the empires of Europe went to war.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57Within weeks, thousands of soldiers from British India
0:33:57 > 0:34:01started arriving here in Marseille, in southern France.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10The Indian Army was made up of men from all over India
0:34:10 > 0:34:12and was led by white British officers.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19Established to guard the British Raj,
0:34:19 > 0:34:22the India Corps, still in their tropical uniforms,
0:34:22 > 0:34:25were ill-equipped to fight a war in Northern Europe.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30But as the German armies marched across the continent,
0:34:30 > 0:34:34the British needed every soldier they could get their hands on.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42The Indians' first stop was Marseille's racecourse
0:34:42 > 0:34:44just outside the city.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50Among the thousands of soldiers who were camped out here
0:34:50 > 0:34:52on the racecourse at Marseilles
0:34:52 > 0:34:55was a young Sikh soldier called Manta Singh.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58This was the first place that he and the other Indian troops
0:34:58 > 0:35:01had a chance to get used to their new surroundings,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04to try to make sense of this strange world
0:35:04 > 0:35:07into which they had been thrown by the British Empire.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10They had a lot to get used to, including learning how to operate
0:35:10 > 0:35:12the new rifle they had been given
0:35:12 > 0:35:14with which they were going off to fight a war
0:35:14 > 0:35:16thousands of miles away from home.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25We are usually used to thinking of it as a military clash of empires,
0:35:25 > 0:35:29but what happens when the different empires go to war?
0:35:29 > 0:35:33Of course, they fight and people get killed,
0:35:33 > 0:35:36but that also means that hundreds of thousands of people
0:35:36 > 0:35:40are travelling all across the globe in different directions.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44They're meeting, interacting, forming bridges,
0:35:44 > 0:35:47at the same time splintering apart.
0:35:48 > 0:35:50Often it's such moments,
0:35:50 > 0:35:55such granular moments, that give us insights into the global war.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00By the end of October, Manta Singh and the rest of the India Corps
0:36:00 > 0:36:03had been rushed to Northern France in a frantic attempt
0:36:03 > 0:36:05to halt the German advance.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12The Indian troops now made up a third of the British Army.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18Manta Singh was thrown into battle near the French village
0:36:18 > 0:36:23of Neuve Chapelle and ordered to hold the line at all costs.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29One of the white officers fighting alongside Manta Singh
0:36:29 > 0:36:32was Captain George Henderson, an old India hand.
0:36:34 > 0:36:37The two men had become firm friends.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44There was fighting going on in the region north of Neuve Chapelle.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48Captain Henderson went out on patrol.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52Part of the patrol was going off-course.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54He signalled to that patrol to come back.
0:36:54 > 0:36:55They didn't hear him.
0:36:57 > 0:36:58He went after that patrol
0:36:58 > 0:37:01and was shot through both thighs and seriously wounded.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09Manta Singh saw the incident and rescued his friend,
0:37:09 > 0:37:13the story goes, with a wheelbarrow and took him to safety.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16As his friend recovered in hospital,
0:37:16 > 0:37:19Manta Singh returned to the front line
0:37:19 > 0:37:22where a new, terrible form of combat had developed...
0:37:24 > 0:37:26..trench warfare.
0:37:29 > 0:37:33The India Corps were among the first to experience the mud and misery
0:37:33 > 0:37:38of the trenches - a world ruled by machine guns, high explosives
0:37:38 > 0:37:39and poison gas.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44"This is not war," one of them wrote.
0:37:45 > 0:37:47"This is the end of the world."
0:37:52 > 0:37:53In March 1915,
0:37:53 > 0:37:56the British launched their first major offensive of the war.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01The India Corps were in the thick of it,
0:38:01 > 0:38:04making up almost half the attacking force.
0:38:06 > 0:38:07Among them was Manta Singh.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15The British advance faltered and then collapsed.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24More than 4,000 Indian soldiers were killed or wounded
0:38:24 > 0:38:26in three days of fighting.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33Manta Singh himself was shot through the thigh.
0:38:33 > 0:38:35We don't know precisely the circumstances,
0:38:35 > 0:38:38but we do know it was a very, very serious injury indeed.
0:38:38 > 0:38:40Probably more so than his friend Captain Henderson,
0:38:40 > 0:38:43who unfortunately was shot through both thighs.
0:38:43 > 0:38:45Manta Singh was brought back to England.
0:38:45 > 0:38:50The injury was sufficiently serious that they had to amputate his leg
0:38:50 > 0:38:52and unfortunately gangrene set in
0:38:52 > 0:38:54and a few days later, Manta Singh died.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01Manta Singh's body was taken here to the South Downs
0:39:01 > 0:39:05and cremated in accordance with his religious beliefs.
0:39:08 > 0:39:10The Chattri Monument marks the spot
0:39:10 > 0:39:13where more than 50 other Indian soldiers were cremated
0:39:13 > 0:39:16before their ashes were scattered on the English Channel.
0:39:18 > 0:39:20On hearing of the death of his friend,
0:39:20 > 0:39:24Captain Henderson made sure that Manta Singh's son
0:39:24 > 0:39:25was cared for and supported.
0:39:29 > 0:39:35Remarkably, their sons also served together during the Second World War
0:39:35 > 0:39:39and 100 years after Manta Singh saved Captain Henderson's life,
0:39:39 > 0:39:43their grandsons carry on this family friendship
0:39:43 > 0:39:45forged in World War I.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09The millions of people drawn into World War I
0:40:09 > 0:40:13are often seen as passive victims caught up in global events.
0:40:15 > 0:40:17But some stories remind us
0:40:17 > 0:40:21that the men who fought in the conflict often had their own agenda
0:40:21 > 0:40:24and were determined to take control of their own fate.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30In March 1915, the British were preparing
0:40:30 > 0:40:32for their first major offensive on the Western Front,
0:40:32 > 0:40:36here near the village of Neuve Chapelle in France.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39Half the attacking soldiers were to be Indians,
0:40:39 > 0:40:42but one of those soldiers, Jemadar Mir Mast, an officer,
0:40:42 > 0:40:43had plans of his own.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46He was about to begin an epic journey that would take him
0:40:46 > 0:40:48all the way home to India,
0:40:48 > 0:40:52but it began with a night-time journey across no-man's-land
0:40:52 > 0:40:54in which Mir Mast took 20 of his comrades
0:40:54 > 0:40:57over to the German lines and deserted to the enemy.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02Mir Mast was a Muslim from a small mountain village
0:41:02 > 0:41:05on the border of Afghanistan and India.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09He was a jemadar, a platoon commander,
0:41:09 > 0:41:11in the 58th Vaughan's Rifles,
0:41:11 > 0:41:14part of the India Corp who had been sent to France
0:41:14 > 0:41:16at the start of the war.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20By the spring of 1915,
0:41:20 > 0:41:25Mir Mast had already endured a bitter winter in the trenches.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28He'd seen fierce fighting and had been awarded
0:41:28 > 0:41:30the Indian Distinguished Service Medal
0:41:30 > 0:41:32for "gallantry and devotion to duty".
0:41:34 > 0:41:38What I've got here arranged in front of me is the paper trail,
0:41:38 > 0:41:42the documents left behind by Mir Mast in archives in London
0:41:42 > 0:41:44and Delhi and Berlin.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49In the London Gazette is the formal announcement of Mir Mast's
0:41:49 > 0:41:51Indian Distinguished Service Medal.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56But by the time his award was announced,
0:41:56 > 0:42:00this "gallant officer" was already being debriefed by German officials.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06These are the notes from the interrogation of Mir Mast
0:42:06 > 0:42:12by a German official on 7th March 1915 in Lille in France,
0:42:12 > 0:42:16just a few days after he'd defected and brought other soldiers with him
0:42:16 > 0:42:18over to the German lines at Neuve Chapelle.
0:42:20 > 0:42:22The most important page is this one -
0:42:22 > 0:42:27this is a map of the Khyber Pass, perhaps drawn by Mir Mast himself.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29It certainly comes out of his interrogation
0:42:29 > 0:42:32and it lists the numbers and the locations,
0:42:32 > 0:42:36the dispositions of the British and Indian troops on the Khyber Pass,
0:42:36 > 0:42:40the critical route between Afghanistan and British India.
0:42:40 > 0:42:42So, clearly, having deserted to the Germans,
0:42:42 > 0:42:46Mir Mast was determined to prove to them just how useful he could be.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52Mir Mast's next stop was a prisoner of war camp
0:42:52 > 0:42:54for colonial soldiers outside Berlin.
0:42:57 > 0:43:00There the Germans were on the lookout for volunteers
0:43:00 > 0:43:03for one of the most audacious and dangerous missions
0:43:03 > 0:43:06of the whole war -
0:43:06 > 0:43:10an expedition to Kabul to persuade the Emir of Afghanistan
0:43:10 > 0:43:15to switch sides and join a "holy war" against British India.
0:43:17 > 0:43:20The mission was made up of diplomats from Germany
0:43:20 > 0:43:24and her new ally, Turkey, Indian nationalists and the volunteers
0:43:24 > 0:43:28from the prisoner of war camp whose local knowledge would be invaluable.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37They would set off from Istanbul,
0:43:37 > 0:43:39heading first towards Baghdad.
0:43:42 > 0:43:47From there, they'd cross the salt deserts and mountains of Persia
0:43:47 > 0:43:51before dropping down onto the dusty plains of Afghanistan
0:43:51 > 0:43:54and their final destination,
0:43:54 > 0:43:55Kabul.
0:44:00 > 0:44:05The most intriguing piece of evidence in this whole story
0:44:05 > 0:44:08is this photograph. We know that it was taken by the Germans
0:44:08 > 0:44:10and it shows six Indian soldiers
0:44:10 > 0:44:15along with four Indian names, one of which was Mir Mast.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17He's the guy on the far left,
0:44:17 > 0:44:20a guy who has set himself slightly away from the others,
0:44:20 > 0:44:24but it's his face - this guy has the face of a man
0:44:24 > 0:44:28who's lived the life of Mir Mast, who's lived between empires,
0:44:28 > 0:44:33who has lived a life of intrigue. It's the face of a born survivor.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44The mission set off in May 1915.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47Dodging Russian and British patrols, running short of water
0:44:47 > 0:44:52and supplies, more than half of the expedition was lost to
0:44:52 > 0:44:54exhaustion, disease and defection.
0:44:56 > 0:44:59But a core group did reach Kabul.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03They were eventually granted official audiences with the Emir.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07He weighed up his options,
0:45:07 > 0:45:11calculating which imperial power was likely to come out on top.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16But the British were past masters of the dark arts
0:45:16 > 0:45:18of diplomacy in this part of the world,
0:45:18 > 0:45:24and they were able to undermine all the expedition's talk of holy war.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30In the end, the Emir decided to stick with the British -
0:45:30 > 0:45:35and the German schemes unravelled in the cold Afghan winter.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42Mir Mast found himself on a global battlefield,
0:45:42 > 0:45:46fighting first for the British and then for German ambitions.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52But he fought the war on his own terms - and it looks like he won.
0:45:58 > 0:46:02This document is the final piece in the jigsaw in the remarkable
0:46:02 > 0:46:03life of Mir Mast.
0:46:03 > 0:46:07This is a secret British report into the nominal role of
0:46:07 > 0:46:11Indian prisoners of war suspected of having deserted to the enemy.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14It's from October 1918, near the end of the war.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18As well as giving the regiments and the names
0:46:18 > 0:46:22of these soldiers, this document critically also gives us the latest
0:46:22 > 0:46:26information that the British have received on what happened to them.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29And for Mir Mast and two of his colleagues, what it says is
0:46:29 > 0:46:33these three accompanied the Turco-German mission to Afghanistan
0:46:33 > 0:46:38and are reported to have returned to their homes in June 1915.
0:46:38 > 0:46:39So there you have it -
0:46:39 > 0:46:42evidence that the British at least are convinced that
0:46:42 > 0:46:46Mir Mast made it all the way from the Western Front back to his home.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14A few miles outside the village of Noyelles-sur-Mer,
0:47:14 > 0:47:19not far from the French coast, is a well-tended World War I cemetery.
0:47:22 > 0:47:28What's surprising is that the men buried here were Chinese civilians.
0:47:32 > 0:47:36One of them was Doh Jing Shan,
0:47:36 > 0:47:43or as he was known to the British - 105669.
0:47:43 > 0:47:47He's buried alongside more than 800 of his fellow countrymen.
0:47:49 > 0:47:50So what are they doing here
0:47:50 > 0:47:53in a military graveyard in northern France?
0:47:53 > 0:47:55Well, their story, the story of the
0:47:55 > 0:47:58Chinese Labour Corps is one of the most forgotten
0:47:58 > 0:48:00in all of the First World War, but it was their muscle and
0:48:00 > 0:48:04their ingenuity that kept the wheels of industrial warfare turning.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10As the war went on, the armies on the Western Front developed
0:48:10 > 0:48:13a more and more sophisticated killing machine,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16capable of industrial-scale slaughter.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22All it needed was an infinite number of men to feed it.
0:48:28 > 0:48:33In October 1916, the British started recruiting Chinese labourers in
0:48:33 > 0:48:37their thousands to replace the men killed in two years of slaughter.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45Initially, the men from China were given the most menial of tasks -
0:48:45 > 0:48:49digging trenches, lugging ammo and burying bodies.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58But as the fighting intensified,
0:48:58 > 0:49:02many found themselves propelled into roles as skilled mechanics
0:49:02 > 0:49:07on a new military technology making its debut in the war.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22This is "Deborah", a British D51 tank.
0:49:25 > 0:49:30In the winter of 1917, she was one of more than 300 of these strange
0:49:30 > 0:49:34new beasts that lumbered towards the German lines.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40Deborah was dug up and recovered 80 years later by her
0:49:40 > 0:49:43present owner, Philippe Gorczynski.
0:49:45 > 0:49:47For him, the story of the tank
0:49:47 > 0:49:51and the story of the Chinese Labour Corps are inseparable.
0:49:51 > 0:49:53So in the First World War,
0:49:53 > 0:49:56this is the most hi tech weapon on the battlefield.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00Yes. It was like Formula One.
0:50:00 > 0:50:04It was a new design, modern equipment with an engine,
0:50:04 > 0:50:10it was the new technology of the beginning of the century.
0:50:13 > 0:50:17The tanks were submitted to very hard conditions of driving,
0:50:17 > 0:50:21but also of fighting, so when the tank went into the action,
0:50:21 > 0:50:24you have to imagine that those inside
0:50:24 > 0:50:29asked the maximum of their engine, of their tank.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31So as soon as the action was finished,
0:50:31 > 0:50:34the tank has to be completely repaired,
0:50:34 > 0:50:37re-put into fighting condition.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40So for most of its time, a tank wasn't in the hands of soldiers
0:50:40 > 0:50:42and tank crews, it was with engineers
0:50:42 > 0:50:45behind the line being repaired and rebuilt.
0:50:45 > 0:50:51Yes, because I think that every tank went into the Chinese hands.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54In fact, they were crucial in the involvement of the tank
0:50:54 > 0:50:56into the First World War.
0:50:58 > 0:51:00This was hard work and it was dangerous work,
0:51:00 > 0:51:02but it was also skilled mechanical work.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06Yes, because it need very careful attention just for the engine,
0:51:06 > 0:51:09just for the gearbox of the tanks,
0:51:09 > 0:51:12just for all this kind of adjustments.
0:51:12 > 0:51:16It needed people who are very careful and very meticulous.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20And that was also surprising - they have to work on both sides,
0:51:20 > 0:51:25very heavy and difficult task and also very meticulous work.
0:51:28 > 0:51:33They have to work a seven-day week and sometimes more than ten hours,
0:51:33 > 0:51:38and many of them suffered from wounds and some were killed.
0:51:39 > 0:51:45So it was really hard treatment, always in the middle of the mud,
0:51:45 > 0:51:50always in the middle of the grease - it was also a kind of hell.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04The story of the Chinese Labour Corps did not end with
0:52:04 > 0:52:05the end of the war.
0:52:06 > 0:52:12Many, like labourer Doh Jing Shan, stayed on to clear up the mess.
0:52:13 > 0:52:18They filled in trenches, recovered bodies, dug cemeteries
0:52:18 > 0:52:19and carved headstones.
0:52:26 > 0:52:31Doh Jing Shan's grave records his death on the 27th of April 1919,
0:52:31 > 0:52:36more than five months after the shooting stopped.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41He was probably a victim of the Spanish flu epidemic
0:52:41 > 0:52:43that raged after the war.
0:52:45 > 0:52:50There is, I think, something specially tragic about this place,
0:52:50 > 0:52:53a Chinese cemetery in the middle of a French farm.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57Most of these men were themselves just farmers, from tiny villages.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00All they wanted to do was to earn some money,
0:53:00 > 0:53:02and see a little bit of the world.
0:53:06 > 0:53:11It was their blood, sweat and tears which fed the machine of war.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17But all of that, everything they had done,
0:53:17 > 0:53:21everything they had been through, quickly slipped from memory.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24Of all the many peoples who came to the Western Front
0:53:24 > 0:53:28in the First World War, the Chinese labourers are probably the most
0:53:28 > 0:53:30forgotten of the forgotten.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12We think that we know the First World War -
0:54:12 > 0:54:16the trenches, the barbed wire, the shell holes, the machine guns,
0:54:16 > 0:54:19the gas, the high explosives, the mud
0:54:19 > 0:54:21and the blood of the Western Front.
0:54:23 > 0:54:27GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS
0:54:36 > 0:54:39But the first shot fired by a soldier in the British Army
0:54:39 > 0:54:44was fired here in Africa, by an African,
0:54:44 > 0:54:47just three days after war was declared.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50That soldier's name was Alhaji Grunshi.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53He'd been born in the British colony of the Gold Coast,
0:54:53 > 0:54:56modern-day Ghana, and in 1914 he was
0:54:56 > 0:54:58in the British West African Frontier Force.
0:54:58 > 0:55:04In 1914, they were attacking the Germans in their colony of Togoland.
0:55:04 > 0:55:07Now, from the moment that Grunshi fired that first shot,
0:55:07 > 0:55:10the Great War became the World's War.
0:55:14 > 0:55:16More than four million non-white people
0:55:16 > 0:55:19from the various colonial empires
0:55:19 > 0:55:21fought in the First World War,
0:55:21 > 0:55:28yet the colour of First World War memory still remains largely white.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31It was an extraordinarily diverse war, because
0:55:31 > 0:55:37we have one and a half million Indians, two million Africans,
0:55:37 > 0:55:41400,000 African Americans,
0:55:41 > 0:55:45100,000 Chinese labourers,
0:55:45 > 0:55:50and yet more seems to have been written on the four British
0:55:50 > 0:55:55First World War poets than this four million people taken together.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00When the colonies of Germany, Britain and Belgium
0:56:00 > 0:56:04went to war in German East Africa, present-day Tanzania,
0:56:04 > 0:56:07millions of Africans paid the price...
0:56:10 > 0:56:13..as soldiers drawn into an imperial fight...
0:56:15 > 0:56:18..and as civilians caught in its terrible wake.
0:56:20 > 0:56:22Unlike in Europe, the war here
0:56:22 > 0:56:25wasn't restricted to a narrow killing zone...
0:56:26 > 0:56:29..it roamed over vast areas.
0:56:31 > 0:56:35Millions of men were press ganged as porters by both sides
0:56:35 > 0:56:38to carry equipment, food and ammunition.
0:56:39 > 0:56:44They were overworked and underfed and about 20% of them died.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47Now that's a casualty rate that compares to
0:56:47 > 0:56:49anything on the Western Front.
0:56:49 > 0:56:52One British official had no doubt that their treatment would
0:56:52 > 0:56:56have been considered a scandal, had they not been merely Africans.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59"After all," he said "Who cares about native carriers?"
0:57:02 > 0:57:06With broken supply chains, the armies descended on villages
0:57:06 > 0:57:08like plagues of locusts,
0:57:08 > 0:57:11plundering corn, cattle and supplies.
0:57:15 > 0:57:19Up to a third of a million African civilians are believed to have
0:57:19 > 0:57:21perished in the famines that followed.
0:57:24 > 0:57:29A war that began as a war between Europeans thousands of miles away,
0:57:29 > 0:57:33pulled in Africans from all over the continent to
0:57:33 > 0:57:35fight against other Africans.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39One of those men was Alhaji Grunshi.
0:57:42 > 0:57:46Against all the odds, the veteran of four years of conflict
0:57:46 > 0:57:47survived the war.
0:57:49 > 0:57:51But a history was constructed which
0:57:51 > 0:57:54quietly eclipsed his and the millions of other
0:57:54 > 0:57:57colonial soldiers' contributions,
0:57:57 > 0:57:59and left a collective memory
0:57:59 > 0:58:02of a war fought in Europe between white men.
0:58:05 > 0:58:06It's a very exciting history,
0:58:06 > 0:58:11but it's also a difficult one, it's a painful one -
0:58:11 > 0:58:13it's a history of discrimination.
0:58:13 > 0:58:17But only when we walk through these difficulties
0:58:17 > 0:58:22can we understand the fullness of the imperial character of the war.
0:58:32 > 0:58:37One way to understand the truly global nature of the war
0:58:37 > 0:58:40is to travel to a place in present-day Zambia,
0:58:40 > 0:58:42deep in the bush, near the Chambeshi River.
0:58:47 > 0:58:50It was here, in the middle of Africa,
0:58:50 > 0:58:54that three days after the last shot was fired in Europe
0:58:54 > 0:58:58that African soldiers put down their weapons...
0:59:02 > 0:59:05..and the World's War ended.