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France, 1918. For four years
cameramen from around the world,

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risk with their lives to film these images.

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Sometimes they re-created scenes afterwards,
in order to preserve them in our memory.

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We have enhanced their
images with color and sound.

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November 11, 1918, 11 in the morning;

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suddenly silence,
the armistice has been signed.

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Bugles and church bells
sounds cease-fire.

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Moments before, Private George
Lawrence Price, a Canadian, is killed.

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He is the wars last fallen soldier.

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APOCALYPSE

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World War I

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From 1914 to 1918, nearly 80 million
people were plunged into the war.

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10 million soldiers died; mowed down
by bullets, blown to pieces by bombs,

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incinerated, starved,
devoured by rats and lice,

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and killed by the epidemics
that thrive on misery.

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20 million more were wounded.

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What lunacy took hold of the Austrians, Serbs,

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Russians, Germans, the French,
with their colonies,

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the British with their empire,

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the Italians, the Japanese,
the Turks, and the Americans?

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The survivors can count themselves lucky.

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But they have lost their youth

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or their face

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or their sanity.

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How did the world unleash this fury?

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1914, who are the men of this period,

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so carefree yet so close to war?

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Many of them are peasants,
attached to their land,

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their traditions, and the religions.

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They feel safe.
It’s been almost half a century

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since the last large
European conflict.

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The well-to-do enjoyed
a fine summer of 1914.

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René Ferrari, 34,
from a line of Italian immigrants,

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who made their fortune in heating,
is one of the first home-movie enthusiasts.

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He believes the film will preserve
the image of his happiness,

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not realizing how fragile it is.

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René is married to Jacqueline.
They have three children,

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Pierre, Claude, and Alain,

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and a faithful maid Alphonsine.

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They live a short distance
from the railroad.

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Trains are so modern and practical,
they go everywhere now.

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Soon they will transport armies.

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The train takes them to the French Alps

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where they go ice climbing with only
a cane and the dress shoes,

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and a sense of balance.

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Vienna, 1914.

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The great writer Stefan Zweig recalls the
capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire:

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“New theaters, libraries,
and museums were springing up everywhere.

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There was progress everywhere”.

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“What could interrupt this rapid ascent;
dampen the élan,

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which constantly drew new
force from his own soaring?”

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"A wondrous carefree spirit
brings the world over".

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"Never has Europe been stronger,
richer, more beautiful,

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or more confident of an even better future".

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It is still “la Belle époque” of
the early 1900s but not for all.

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Workers, putting twice the hours as
those of today, yet earn half as much.

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Women earn a mere half
of the slave wages.

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In theory,
children under 12 do not work in mines.

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In France, Jean Jaures is the
great leader of the working class.

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He is worried.

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He knows that among Europe's elite,
many captains of industry speak openly of war

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that will end the movement
for workers’ demands.

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Jaures writes: “Your violent and chaotic
society, even when it pretends to seek peace,

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carries within it war,
just as rain clouds carry the storm”.

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“The arms race is very good for business,

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the great European powers prepare for war,

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for endless military service
trains men for war”.

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“War and death hover over the planet”.

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For centuries the rival empires have been
divvying up the world with their swords.

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Britain's conquest reaches’ as
far as Australia, and Canada;

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Frances from Indochina to Africa.

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Germany also has colonies but
wants a larger slice of the pie.

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Prior to 1871, Prussia was a divided state.

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By crushing France and annexing the
French provinces d'Alsace and Lorraine,

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it has become the German Empire.

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The Emperor of Germany, Wilhelm II, 55,
surrounds himself with his military leaders.

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He orders the building of a Navy
that will surpass England’s fleet.

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He wants to give Germany
its place in the Sun.

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June 15, 1914.

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Wilhelm II celebrates the
25th anniversary of his reign.

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He loves to parade but can mount his horse
only from a stool because of his handicap.

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An accident of birth left them with a withered
left arm that he usually poses a tapas sword.

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After years of failed treatments,
he has developed an unstable character

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and is prone to violent outbursts of anger.

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He is married to his
cousin Augusta Victoria.

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They have the same grandmother,
the British sovereign Queen Victoria.

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She characterized Wilhelm as a hotheaded,
conceited, and wrongheaded young man.

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Wilhelm has a conflicted relationship
with his English Royal family,

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so powerful and dominating.

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One day, while hunting,
he hurts himself and screams revealingly:

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“This damned English blood”.

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For Wilhelm II the United
Kingdom has been a threat,

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ever since it formed the triple
alliance with France and Russia.

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As a result, Germany feels
surrounded and thus vulnerable.

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Its only true ally is the
Austro-Hungarian Empire,

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an amalgam of smaller nations,
which is been rained over for 60 years

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by Franz Joseph I, 84.

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His long life is been punctuated by tragedy;
the suicide of his son,

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and the assassination of his wife,
Empress Elizabeth,

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CC, as she was known,
as the sweetheart of his youth.

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He is now an old Emperor,
many of whose subjects demanded independence,

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he rules a tinderbox,
but Franz Joseph and his arrogant officers,

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and politicians oppose reform of any kind.

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His empire is referred to
as the joyful Apocalypse.

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The waltzing and festivities continue
unabated as at the marriage of the Zita,

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lovely Princess to Karl,
to Emperor’s grandnephew.

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But it is his nephew; Franz Ferdinand,

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he was the heir,
presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne.

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Franz Ferdinand is married to
the Countess Sophie Chotek,

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an aristocrat but not of royal blood.

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Franz Joseph does not approve, nor does he
approve of the reformist ideas of his heir.

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June 28, 1914, the infernal
war machine is set in motion.

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It’s Sunday and Kaiser Franz Joseph
travels to his country estate to hunt.

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There he learns that the heir to the throne,

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his nephew Franz Ferdinand and his wife
have been assassinated in Sarajevo.

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Showing no trace of emotion,
the Kaiser coldly announces:

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“A higher power has reestablished the
order which I alas cannot preserve”.

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Sarajevo, the name echoes
like a scream across history.

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It is in Sarajevo that the
world's destiny changes forever.

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In Bosnia which Austria-Hungary
has annexed recently.

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But Serbia had opposed this move,
it wants to expand

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by uniting the Slavic peoples of the Balkans.

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June 28, 1914, Sarajevo.

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Franz Ferdinand,
the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Crown,

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together with his wife, has just escaped
the first assassination attempt.

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They stop at City Hall
to protest vehemently.

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These are the last images of the couple.

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When they leave the building a little
later, they are shot dead with a pistol.

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The assassin, Gavrilo Princip,
is a 19-year-old Bosnian nationalist.

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It was the Serbians who
provided his pistol.

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This assassination in Sarajevo will
have unimaginable consequences

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though it first it is covered
as a minor news story.

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Along the Thames,
the future Queen of the mystery novel,

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Agatha Christie, then 24, notes:

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“When in far-off Serbia an
Archduke was assassinated,

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it seems such a faraway incident".

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"In those countries people
always being assassinated”.

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The British paid scant attention
to the black hole of Europe,

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known as The "Balkan powder keg".

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In 1912,
two Balkan wars had left 200,000 dead.

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By 1914, in Great Britain,
those distant tragedies have been forgotten.

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The English monarch George V, 49,

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is also the King of Ireland
and the Emperor of India.

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His realm is huge but his powers limited.

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His foremost preoccupation is Ireland,
struggled for independence.

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On June 28, 1914, he writes:
“The assassination in Sarajevo

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is one more shock for the
old Emperor of Austria”.

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George V has no sense of
what is about to explode.

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Any more than the president
of France who has come to London

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on an official visit to reaffirm
“The Entente cordiale”,

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the new friendship which after
centuries of a deadly rivalry

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now links Great Britain and France.

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Poincaré, 54, may be a moderate
but he comes from the Lorraine region,

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that Germany annexed and that
all France now dreams of re-conquering.

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July 3, 1914, with the funerals of
Franz Ferdinand and Sophie Chotek,

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the countdown to war begins.

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Austria's generals have long sought of
the excuse to subjugate Serbia.

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They cannot prove the country's responsibility
for the Sarajevo assassinations

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but they managed to convince their Emperor.

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The Austrian Chief of Staff declares:
“We must rid ourselves of the Serbs,

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for they are forever biting the
heel of the Empire, like snakes”.

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But such a stance overlooks Russia;
protector of the Slavs.

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St. Petersburg,
the capital of the Russian Empire,

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is the seat of Czar Nicholas II, 47,

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who was rained over his
170 million subjects for 30 years.

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He celebrates the Tri-Centennial
of the Russian Dynasty

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amid the pomp of the Orthodox Church.

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Parading alongside him Czarina Alexandra
and their son, czarevich Alexey.

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And close behind their four daughters,
the Grand Duchesses Olga,

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Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia.

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In 1905 Russia lost the war against Japan
and experienced its first revolution.

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Since then the country's economy has improved,

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despite the burden of high
military expenditures.

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In early July 1914,
amid Europe's looming misfortunes,

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the Czar takes a cruise on the
Baltic Sea aboard his yacht.

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Despite these images of carefree gaiety,
the Czar feels a deep sense of insecurity.

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Peace is under threat
and so is his dynasty.

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His heir, the sole son, the 10-year-old
czarevich Alexey is a hemophiliac.

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His blood does not clot;
the slightest injury may be fatal.

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To ward off the yield fortune that
is plunged her into depression,

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his mother, the czarina,
seeks help from a faith healing monk Rasputin,

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whose influence is on the rise.

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Rasputin may help the czarevich but he
also metals in the affairs of the Czar.

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Czarevich Alexey on whom is parents' doubt,
as to convince them

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by throwing another tantrum,
to allow him to go for a row

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but he is not allowed to swim.

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The faithful seaman Derevenko,
so strong and reassuring,

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has protected the czarevich
as he took his first steps.

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He is constantly on guard but like so many
sick children the czarevich is unruly.

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00:20:12,151 --> 00:20:14,651
Will he ever be allowed to play?

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Believe and get the chance to grow up.

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00:20:23,151 --> 00:20:28,740
His hereditary illness comes from his English
maternal great-grandmother Queen Victoria,

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00:20:28,804 --> 00:20:31,304
who carried the fatal gene.

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00:20:35,090 --> 00:20:40,128
At her death, Queen Victoria's descendants
occupied many of Europe's thrones.

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00:20:44,478 --> 00:20:48,174
The Europe of kings and
emperors is one big family.

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00:20:48,914 --> 00:20:53,169
The British sovereign, George V,
and Czar Nicholas II are cousins

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00:20:53,233 --> 00:20:55,733
and could be taken for twins.

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00:20:58,761 --> 00:21:03,871
The German Kaiser is also their cousin
and the czarevitch's’ Godfather.

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00:21:05,556 --> 00:21:08,056
Peace should rein in the family.

200
00:21:09,275 --> 00:21:14,211
But in each country, strong nationalist
factions see war as the opportunity

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00:21:14,275 --> 00:21:16,687
to finish off a dangerous rival.

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00:21:16,751 --> 00:21:21,130
And the assassination of Franz Ferdinand,
the heir to the Austrian throne,

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00:21:21,194 --> 00:21:25,177
is for Wilhelm II the most
serious threat of all;

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00:21:25,241 --> 00:21:28,431
an attack on the divine right of Kings.

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00:21:33,547 --> 00:21:36,906
Wilhelm II had often hunted
with Franz Ferdinand.

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00:21:37,241 --> 00:21:42,299
The Archduke was part of his world and for
the Kaiser, a naive and even impulsive man;

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00:21:42,363 --> 00:21:45,456
the assassination is
nothing short of sacrilege.

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00:21:47,252 --> 00:21:52,223
Wilhelm II, his generals, and the German
Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg,

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00:21:52,287 --> 00:21:56,939
all agree; Germany must not waver,
but must seize the opportunity

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of the assassination in Sarajevo,
to demonstrate Germany's will.

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00:22:02,390 --> 00:22:07,962
Together they decide to support their
ally Austria in its plan to invade Serbia.

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00:22:10,654 --> 00:22:15,995
The threat of war doesn't keep
Wilhelm II from leaving on July 6, 1914,

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00:22:16,059 --> 00:22:22,616
for a summer cruise on his yacht,
an 8,000 ton, 130-yard long Leviathan.

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00:22:42,076 --> 00:22:45,428
Wilhelm is confident that
the conflict will not spread.

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00:22:47,778 --> 00:22:50,794
He says: “It will be all over in a week".

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00:22:50,858 --> 00:22:54,270
"The Czar won't enter the war,
because Russia is unprepared

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00:22:54,421 --> 00:22:57,848
and its ally, France, has no heavy artillery”.

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00:23:03,721 --> 00:23:06,221
July 20, 1914.

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00:23:06,432 --> 00:23:10,351
The president of the French Republic,
Raymond Poincaré, arrives in Russia.

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00:23:13,541 --> 00:23:18,647
Poincaré, a secular Republican, has no
qualms about supporting an absolute monarch

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00:23:18,711 --> 00:23:22,172
and profoundly religious
man, like Nicholas II.

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00:23:22,321 --> 00:23:27,578
The visit has been planned long ago.
For the crisis, the timing is perfect.

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00:23:28,119 --> 00:23:33,018
Poincaré wants to assess the solidity of the
alliance and the readiness of Russia's Army.

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00:23:44,980 --> 00:23:47,944
The French president issues
a cautious statement:

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00:23:48,876 --> 00:23:52,603
“The current crisis must
remain limited to Serbia”.

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00:23:56,799 --> 00:24:00,009
But as France's leaders
prepare to return to Paris,

227
00:24:00,195 --> 00:24:03,726
the government cancels all
leave for military personnel

228
00:24:04,120 --> 00:24:06,850
and calls all generals back from holiday.

229
00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:28,126
While the wealthy enjoy their Seaside
vacations and ignore concerns about Sarajevo,

230
00:24:28,190 --> 00:24:32,182
the continent continues its
inexorable descent into the war.

231
00:24:43,497 --> 00:24:45,997
The Austrians prepare.

232
00:24:46,464 --> 00:24:49,121
July 23, 1914.

233
00:24:49,632 --> 00:24:53,612
The government in Vienna send’s
Belgrade an ultimatum with a provision

234
00:24:53,676 --> 00:24:58,082
that its Imperial police be allowed
to investigate on Serbian territory.

235
00:24:58,533 --> 00:25:03,446
The Belgrade answers back: “Serbia is not
a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire”.

236
00:25:10,544 --> 00:25:15,167
Austria's ultimatum to Serbia
means war for the entire world.

237
00:25:21,078 --> 00:25:26,086
The president of the United States,
the Democrat Woodrow Wilson, 58,

238
00:25:26,150 --> 00:25:31,225
is an intellectual and a pacifist. He
wants to preserve America's neutrality.

239
00:25:33,930 --> 00:25:38,940
He says: “I want to keep the United
States out of the European war”.

240
00:25:40,928 --> 00:25:44,302
In Canada, fear of war is headline news.

241
00:25:50,891 --> 00:25:53,432
Herbert Asquith, the British Prime Minister,

242
00:25:53,496 --> 00:25:57,137
fears an escalation of
unforeseeable dimensions.

243
00:25:57,201 --> 00:26:00,677
He says:
“We are on the brink of the apocalypse”.

244
00:26:02,838 --> 00:26:08,170
Its ultimatum having been rejected.
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.

245
00:26:13,158 --> 00:26:17,825
July 28, 1914,
the Austrian artilleries "Skoda" cannons

246
00:26:17,889 --> 00:26:20,389
enter into action against the Belgrade.

247
00:26:25,606 --> 00:26:28,646
Then Russia, given its alliance with Serbia,

248
00:26:28,710 --> 00:26:31,650
sends his troops to the
Austro-Hungarian border.

249
00:26:39,102 --> 00:26:44,244
July 30, 1914,
Wilhelm II cut short his cruise.

250
00:26:44,792 --> 00:26:48,831
The Kaiser comes ashore with his
dachshund who proceeds to them everywhere.

251
00:26:49,210 --> 00:26:54,542
Given his alliance with Austria, he issues
an ultimatum to his cousin Nicholas II,

252
00:26:54,606 --> 00:26:57,732
ordering him to withdraw his
troops from the Austrian border.

253
00:26:59,770 --> 00:27:02,491
Nicholas on the contrary mobilizes.

254
00:27:02,555 --> 00:27:06,596
He writes to his cousin and
allies George V of England:

255
00:27:06,893 --> 00:27:11,681
“I do not know what may happen;
Austria has gone off upon a reckless war

256
00:27:11,745 --> 00:27:15,183
which can easily end
in a general conflagration”.

257
00:27:19,761 --> 00:27:24,798
Wilhelm II, not having received a
response to his ultimatum, hesitates.

258
00:27:25,955 --> 00:27:29,597
He speaks of "saving the peace",
but around him,

259
00:27:29,661 --> 00:27:33,706
military leaders and industrialists
urge them to declare war,

260
00:27:33,770 --> 00:27:36,594
blaming Russia for expanding the conflict.

261
00:27:41,296 --> 00:27:47,486
August 1, 1914, Germany mobilizes
and declares war on Russia.

262
00:27:49,985 --> 00:27:53,697
Young German recruits examine the
contents of their infantry kits,

263
00:27:54,659 --> 00:27:58,400
which included the indispensable
extra pairs of socks.

264
00:28:05,729 --> 00:28:09,652
Barely out of boyhood,
they have issued razor-sharp bayonets,

265
00:28:09,716 --> 00:28:14,118
and the symbol of the German army -
the odd spiked helmet,

266
00:28:14,182 --> 00:28:16,682
meant to deflect saber blows.

267
00:28:19,219 --> 00:28:22,262
Most are eager to defend
our threaten homeland.

268
00:28:25,113 --> 00:28:27,746
As the future writer Ernst Jünger notes:

269
00:28:28,286 --> 00:28:31,634
“We had come from classrooms
and factory workbenches

270
00:28:31,698 --> 00:28:37,152
and a few brief weeks of training had bonded
us into one large and enthusiastic group”.

271
00:28:49,296 --> 00:28:52,436
In St. Petersburg, Russians, now at war,

272
00:28:52,500 --> 00:28:56,832
sing the Imperial anthem that begins:
“God protect the Czar”.

273
00:29:05,472 --> 00:29:08,453
The French ambassador is present; he writes:

274
00:29:09,286 --> 00:29:14,139
“The Czar is overcome with emotion, his people
have invested them with a divine mission,

275
00:29:14,203 --> 00:29:18,337
he is the absolute master
of their bodies and souls”.

276
00:29:26,010 --> 00:29:29,645
The czarina, appears of German descent,
she is worried;

277
00:29:29,709 --> 00:29:33,021
her brother will no doubt be
fighting in the enemy's ranks.

278
00:29:38,202 --> 00:29:43,874
Rasputin cables Nicholas II:
“With war will come the end of Russia

279
00:29:43,938 --> 00:29:47,353
and yourselves and you will
lose to the last man”.

280
00:29:50,761 --> 00:29:54,321
The moment of parting is nigh,

281
00:29:56,281 --> 00:30:00,121
You look into my eyes with alarm,

282
00:30:01,521 --> 00:30:05,041
And I sense your dear breath.

283
00:30:16,348 --> 00:30:21,533
In a final carefree moment, for reasons
await the arrival of the Tour de France.

284
00:30:23,202 --> 00:30:27,092
The race begins on the same day,
as the assassination in Sarajevo,

285
00:30:27,156 --> 00:30:31,188
as the cycling champions cover
3,400 miles in one month,

286
00:30:31,252 --> 00:30:35,779
finishing just before the war scuttles
the tour for the next four years.

287
00:30:42,803 --> 00:30:48,124
The winner is the Belgian great
Philippe Thys of the Peugeot team.

288
00:30:51,501 --> 00:30:56,288
August 1, 1914, Les Halles,
the legendary food market,

289
00:30:56,352 --> 00:31:00,446
the heart and soul of the French capital,
wakes up in morning.

290
00:31:00,891 --> 00:31:04,240
They murdered Jaures!
They murdered Jaures!

291
00:31:08,275 --> 00:31:11,963
Not far from here,
Jean Jaures has just been assassinated

292
00:31:12,027 --> 00:31:15,000
by an ultranationalist supporter of the war.

293
00:31:18,559 --> 00:31:21,192
Pacifism’s leading spokesman, Jaures,

294
00:31:21,256 --> 00:31:24,429
had tried to convince German
workers to refuse to fight.

295
00:31:25,832 --> 00:31:30,695
He had predicted: “At a time when we are
threatened with murder and butchery,

296
00:31:30,759 --> 00:31:33,406
there is but one hope of saving the peace,

297
00:31:33,470 --> 00:31:36,411
and that is for the
proletarians to join ranks”.

298
00:31:36,498 --> 00:31:40,354
“Workers of France, England,
Germany, Italy, Russia,

299
00:31:40,418 --> 00:31:45,019
let us implore these millions of men to unite,
to dispel this horrible nightmare”.

300
00:31:51,258 --> 00:31:57,893
August 2, 1914, the order for general
mobilization is posted across all of France.

301
00:32:03,335 --> 00:32:06,784
On holiday in Brittany,
Louis Maufrais, a medical student,

302
00:32:06,848 --> 00:32:09,348
describes the moment:

303
00:32:09,990 --> 00:32:14,910
“It is a fine late summer afternoon”.
“I hear the tiny bell of the cathedral,

304
00:32:15,266 --> 00:32:20,283
ringing insistently. Everyone stops.
We have understood.

305
00:32:22,060 --> 00:32:28,178
The women weep, the men frozen, look at the
cathedral spire, dazed and speechless”.

306
00:32:29,250 --> 00:32:31,750
“Its war”.

307
00:32:35,574 --> 00:32:39,295
“In the distance,
we can hear the bells of Vivier,

308
00:32:40,456 --> 00:32:46,420
Mont-Dol, Carfantin, and Baguer-Morvan. 
It is heart-wrenching”.

309
00:32:49,941 --> 00:32:55,444
On August 3, 1914, Paris learns that
Germany has declared war on France

310
00:32:55,508 --> 00:32:58,239
because France is an ally of Russia.

311
00:33:01,416 --> 00:33:07,908
That same day Jaures is buried,
in with him all hope for peace.

312
00:33:08,281 --> 00:33:13,231
In France, Germany, and Russia workers
rallied, to defend their homelands.

313
00:33:14,201 --> 00:33:19,790
In France Poincaré baptizes this triumph of
the nationalist forces, "Union sacrée".

314
00:33:31,244 --> 00:33:36,253
3 million Frenchmen are mobilized,
following 5 million Russians,

315
00:33:36,807 --> 00:33:40,803
4 million Germans, and 2 million Austrians.

316
00:33:43,849 --> 00:33:47,634
“About all these men called up”,
Stefan Zweig writes,

317
00:33:48,457 --> 00:33:54,450
“In 1914 what did they know of war,
after nearly half a century of peace?”

318
00:33:54,550 --> 00:33:57,645
“It had become heroic and romantic legend;

319
00:33:57,897 --> 00:34:02,680
people saw it through the perspective of the
schoolbooks and the paintings in museums”.

320
00:34:03,005 --> 00:34:06,406
“Brilliant cavalry attacks
and glittering uniforms,

321
00:34:06,740 --> 00:34:13,129
a resounding march of victory with nary
a victim, a wild, manly adventure,

322
00:34:13,246 --> 00:34:15,965
a wonderful and exciting experience”.

323
00:34:17,965 --> 00:34:22,176
“That is why they shouted and sang in the
trains, carrying them to the slaughter”.

324
00:34:37,794 --> 00:34:41,025
If they are not happy,
they prefer not to show it.

325
00:34:41,089 --> 00:34:45,367
In Toulouse,
a young farmer Henri Desperrieres writes:

326
00:34:45,431 --> 00:34:50,644
“Any sign of sadness was banished;
we swaggered before our fellow countrymen”.

327
00:34:55,497 --> 00:35:00,040
From the French colonial empire,
those then known as the natives,

328
00:35:00,104 --> 00:35:04,060
and the Foreign Legion,
embark in Algiers or Dakar.

329
00:35:09,524 --> 00:35:14,429
On boats, almost as crowded as the
slave-ships of the past, resigned,

330
00:35:15,136 --> 00:35:19,326
dancing for the camera,
they sailed toward a world of the unknown.

331
00:35:36,190 --> 00:35:42,298
In the villa outside Paris, the Ferrari family
comes face-to-face with the reality of war.

332
00:35:44,453 --> 00:35:49,861
The men have been mobilized, as have all
Frenchmen between the ages of 20 to 48,

333
00:35:50,474 --> 00:35:55,331
but in her rose garden, Jacqueline is
confident that René will soon be back.

334
00:35:55,475 --> 00:35:59,410
That before the roses have withered,
the war will be over.

335
00:36:05,184 --> 00:36:11,291
These farmers, off to defend their country,
expect to return before the harvest is over.

336
00:36:15,478 --> 00:36:20,773
August 3, 1914, the Germans attack.

337
00:36:22,452 --> 00:36:25,682
They count on a rapid
victory in a brief war.

338
00:36:27,333 --> 00:36:32,665
Their plan, known as the Schlieffen Plan,
after the German general who devised it,

339
00:36:32,729 --> 00:36:37,196
consists of crossing Luxembourg and Belgium,
before the Russians attacked from the east

340
00:36:37,260 --> 00:36:40,073
and forced the Germans to fight on two fronts.

341
00:36:43,007 --> 00:36:46,685
Belgian neutrality had been instituted
after the defeat of Napoleon

342
00:36:46,749 --> 00:36:50,324
to create a buffer between Britain,
France, and Germany.

343
00:36:50,674 --> 00:36:54,399
Its violation now provokes an
immediate reaction from London.

344
00:36:59,562 --> 00:37:02,290
England declares war on Germany.

345
00:37:04,413 --> 00:37:06,913
August 4, 1914,

346
00:37:08,068 --> 00:37:12,812
in London on the balcony at Buckingham Palace,
King George V says:

347
00:37:13,180 --> 00:37:19,675
“It is a terrible catastrophe, but it is not
our fault, please God it may soon be over”.

348
00:37:22,692 --> 00:37:25,412
The German high command
calculates that the British

349
00:37:25,476 --> 00:37:27,976
won't have time to reach the continent;

350
00:37:28,170 --> 00:37:31,317
the Belgian campaign will
be over very quickly.

351
00:37:36,133 --> 00:37:38,633
But the Belgian stands firm.

352
00:37:39,397 --> 00:37:42,697
Albert I, their valiant king,
tells to his people:

353
00:37:42,761 --> 00:37:46,052
“A country that defends itself cannot perish”.

354
00:37:46,965 --> 00:37:51,314
The Belgians have armored trains and
strong defenses protecting their cities.

355
00:38:05,333 --> 00:38:08,533
For the Germans,
it is an unpleasant surprise.

356
00:38:08,755 --> 00:38:11,696
They fall several days
behind on their battle plan.

357
00:38:15,609 --> 00:38:19,696
To crush the fortresses,
they must bring in their huge crop cannons

358
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:22,373
that fire one ton shells.

359
00:38:35,350 --> 00:38:38,116
So the Belgians destroy their train tracks

360
00:38:38,180 --> 00:38:41,280
by crashing their own
locomotives into each other,

361
00:38:47,532 --> 00:38:51,141
forcing the Germans to lose
time on lengthy repairs.

362
00:39:03,161 --> 00:39:07,795
While the Germans marked time in Belgium
and the Russians prepare their offensive,

363
00:39:07,859 --> 00:39:12,984
the Austro-Hungarian's,
who expected to punish the Serbs in a week,

364
00:39:13,048 --> 00:39:15,548
are stopped in their tracks.

365
00:39:16,662 --> 00:39:19,422
The Serbs proved to be
fearsome combatants.

366
00:39:20,791 --> 00:39:26,499
After two weeks, the Austrian death
toll has already reached 25,000,

367
00:39:26,563 --> 00:39:29,828
and the Serbs celebrate
their victory, for now.

368
00:39:35,234 --> 00:39:38,544
All this gives the British
Empire time to mobilize.

369
00:39:40,261 --> 00:39:43,228
The world's largest
Navy goes into action.

370
00:39:44,127 --> 00:39:48,264
At its head, a young cabinet
minister named Winston Churchill.

371
00:39:52,023 --> 00:39:57,510
Great Britain does not have an obligatory
military service and needs volunteers.

372
00:39:58,557 --> 00:40:04,311
This poster of Field Marshal Kitchener,
the hero of Khartoum, proclaims:

373
00:40:04,375 --> 00:40:09,714
“Your country needs you”. A cry echoed
by the country's recruiting officers.

374
00:40:16,588 --> 00:40:19,184
The modest British Army of
the hundred thousand men

375
00:40:19,248 --> 00:40:23,426
expands into an expeditionary
force of 1 million soldiers,

376
00:40:23,490 --> 00:40:26,465
drawn from the Empire's huge reserves.

377
00:40:28,068 --> 00:40:31,973
In Québec recruits kiss the
Scriptures and say their prayers,

378
00:40:32,329 --> 00:40:35,385
thinking about the long sea
crossing that lies ahead.

379
00:40:44,150 --> 00:40:46,721
These departures will become the inspiration

380
00:40:46,785 --> 00:40:51,326
for the heart-rending novel
“War Horse” by Michael Morpurgo.

381
00:40:51,561 --> 00:40:55,240
It recounts the battlefield
Odyssey of Joey, the farm horse.

382
00:40:59,450 --> 00:41:02,362
Joey, who can speak, says; he was chosen

383
00:41:02,426 --> 00:41:09,125
because he was judged “sound and about”,
fit for anything - cavalry or artillery.

384
00:41:17,925 --> 00:41:21,726
10 million horses from as far away
as Australia and New Zealand,

385
00:41:21,790 --> 00:41:26,693
will serve in the British Imperial forces,
to suffer and die like the troops,

386
00:41:31,433 --> 00:41:34,288
without ever suspecting what awaits them.

387
00:41:44,104 --> 00:41:47,230
Many of the horses are
not even „saddle broken".

388
00:42:01,743 --> 00:42:04,663
Joey, the warhorse, declares confidently:

389
00:42:06,104 --> 00:42:08,347
"The soldiers are buoyant with optimism,

390
00:42:08,411 --> 00:42:12,052
as if they were embarking on
some great military picnic”.

391
00:42:27,195 --> 00:42:31,851
Joey and his cavalrymen quickly
discover the reality of war.

392
00:42:32,956 --> 00:42:35,456
The first casualties.

393
00:42:39,289 --> 00:42:41,789
The first German prisoners.

394
00:42:44,743 --> 00:42:48,170
And the Belgians,
so courageous to the end.

395
00:43:09,767 --> 00:43:14,507
The French also have a resolutely
offensive plan, known as plan 17.

396
00:43:16,185 --> 00:43:20,052
Takeback Alsace-Lorraine, march on Berlin,

397
00:43:20,477 --> 00:43:23,704
their first objective - Mulhouse in Alsace.

398
00:43:28,084 --> 00:43:32,061
August 7, 1914, the French take Mulhouse.

399
00:43:33,931 --> 00:43:37,437
This triumphant parade
is staged for the newsreels.

400
00:43:38,033 --> 00:43:40,986
It features schoolchildren
who carry the flowers

401
00:43:41,050 --> 00:43:45,433
and patriotic outworns for people
traditional Alsacean guard.

402
00:43:48,934 --> 00:43:51,729
The French Army of August 1914.

403
00:43:52,941 --> 00:43:58,240
The infantry is made up mostly of large
battalions, as in the time of Napoleon,

404
00:43:58,304 --> 00:44:04,875
with uniforms unsuited for modern warfare,
with conspicuous red trousers, and no helmet.

405
00:44:08,539 --> 00:44:13,421
They swelter under thick wool and great
coats in the stifling August heat.

406
00:44:16,308 --> 00:44:22,375
They must log a heavy haversack; in the
famous Labelle rifle, weighing 11 pounds.

407
00:44:22,907 --> 00:44:26,501
But the Labelle, like the German Mauser,
and the British Lee–Enfield,

408
00:44:26,565 --> 00:44:29,117
has a firepower never before seen.

409
00:44:29,639 --> 00:44:34,296
These repeating rifles, with a range
of over 1,200 feet, render archaic,

410
00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:37,615
and criminal,
the bayonet charges in closed ranks.

411
00:44:40,178 --> 00:44:44,231
With these outdated tactics,
taught in military academies, continues

412
00:44:45,130 --> 00:44:48,563
and end up costing hundreds
of thousands of human lives.

413
00:44:55,926 --> 00:44:58,195
Three days after the filming of these scenes,

414
00:44:58,259 --> 00:45:02,160
the French troops are driven out
of Mulhouse by a counteroffensive.

415
00:45:02,707 --> 00:45:06,476
The Germans then turn their machine
guns on the local populace,

416
00:45:06,540 --> 00:45:11,606
whom they accuse of “committing hostile
acts towards the Kaiser's troops”.

417
00:45:13,106 --> 00:45:17,228
In Belgium too, the Germans have
launched their strategy of uprisals.

418
00:45:23,834 --> 00:45:26,601
The Germans are afraid of
the civilian marksmen.

419
00:45:29,385 --> 00:45:31,885
Their atrocities escalate.

420
00:45:33,676 --> 00:45:37,859
Anyone captured,
who was believed to be a sniper, is shot.

421
00:45:47,448 --> 00:45:51,002
As with the soldiers everywhere,
alcohol assuages the horror

422
00:45:51,066 --> 00:45:55,311
and helps spread tall tales, including
the one about the German infantryman,

423
00:45:55,375 --> 00:45:57,875
stabbed by the Belgian priest.

424
00:46:03,856 --> 00:46:08,427
Fear of reprisals sends hundreds of
thousands of civilians into flight.

425
00:46:10,842 --> 00:46:15,054
Belgians, French, and British accuse the Hans,
as they call their enemies,

426
00:46:15,118 --> 00:46:19,006
of rape, of cutting off women's breasts,
and children's hands.

427
00:46:34,045 --> 00:46:38,969
August 20, 1914,
general Von Moltke captures Brussels.

428
00:46:40,197 --> 00:46:44,168
He explains:
“Our advance in Belgium is certainly brutal,

429
00:46:44,232 --> 00:46:47,777
but we are fighting for our lives,
and all who get in the way,

430
00:46:47,841 --> 00:46:50,341
must suffer the consequences”.

431
00:46:56,408 --> 00:47:00,609
The Germans destroy historical monuments,
lay waste to Louvain,

432
00:47:01,669 --> 00:47:06,271
the city known as the Belgian Oxford,
and burns its medieval University

433
00:47:06,335 --> 00:47:08,835
and irreplaceable library.

434
00:47:17,624 --> 00:47:20,810
After only three weeks of the war,
all the adversaries

435
00:47:20,874 --> 00:47:23,536
are in the
grips of indescribable hatred.

436
00:47:23,600 --> 00:47:27,141
In Belgium, a French cavalryman writes:

437
00:47:27,606 --> 00:47:31,033
“I enter a house,
climbed the stairs, and discover -

438
00:47:31,097 --> 00:47:35,817
a German pig relieving himself in a drawer,
full of delicate lace”.

439
00:47:36,325 --> 00:47:42,114
“I shoot him, he dies in his own filth,
everything is been ransacked,

440
00:47:42,378 --> 00:47:47,475
the lowest instincts have awoken in
these Germans, these music lovers”.

441
00:47:52,145 --> 00:47:54,775
In the East, contrary to German plans,

442
00:47:54,839 --> 00:47:58,168
the Russians have crossed the
border and entered East Prussia.

443
00:48:02,078 --> 00:48:06,982
And now it is the Germans who begin to flee
what they call the Russian steamroller.

444
00:48:09,749 --> 00:48:12,488
August 22, 1914.

445
00:48:14,625 --> 00:48:19,905
Panic sets in, these German refugees
also tells of destruction and pillaging.

446
00:48:32,979 --> 00:48:36,524
People are afraid, uncertainty rains.

447
00:48:40,698 --> 00:48:47,004
Kaiser Wilhelm II vacillates between
despondency and martial enthusiasm.

448
00:48:47,704 --> 00:48:53,455
His paranoia worsens, he insists:
“England, France, and Russia

449
00:48:53,519 --> 00:48:58,139
have agreed among themselves to wage
a war of extermination against us”.

450
00:49:13,673 --> 00:49:17,647
But the Germans are confident;
they have just won two major victories

451
00:49:17,711 --> 00:49:21,551
at Mons and Charleroi,
capturing thousands of prisoners.

452
00:49:23,192 --> 00:49:28,370
On August 22 alone 27,000
French soldiers were killed.

453
00:49:28,463 --> 00:49:32,785
It is the single deadliest day in
all the French military history.

454
00:49:39,643 --> 00:49:43,011
Wilhelm II addresses his subjects,
he says:

455
00:49:43,075 --> 00:49:46,869
"We will defend ourselves
to the last breath

456
00:49:46,933 --> 00:49:49,599
of man and horse".

457
00:49:50,068 --> 00:49:53,732
"And we shall emerge victorious
from this battle,

458
00:49:53,818 --> 00:49:57,155
even against a world of enemies".

459
00:49:58,112 --> 00:50:04,157
"A united Germany
has never been defeated!".

460
00:50:07,268 --> 00:50:09,768
The German army marches on Paris.

461
00:50:12,909 --> 00:50:16,388
Despite delays,
the Schlieffen Plan is succeeding.

462
00:50:20,092 --> 00:50:22,592
The French government
has fled the capital.

463
00:50:25,715 --> 00:50:29,202
The Germans are now only 30 miles from Paris,

464
00:50:30,671 --> 00:50:33,171
victory is near.