1 00:00:17,047 --> 00:00:21,394 August 27, 1933, East-Prussia. 2 00:00:24,692 --> 00:00:28,819 Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering, both veterans of the World War I, 3 00:00:28,883 --> 00:00:31,624 pay tribute to field marshal Von Hindenburg 4 00:00:31,688 --> 00:00:36,198 in the awe-inspiring setting of the monument to the battle of Tannenberg. 5 00:00:39,778 --> 00:00:43,398 Hitler declares: “Tannenberg is a symbol; 6 00:00:43,907 --> 00:00:48,435 it was here in 1914, that Germany's destiny was determined”. 7 00:00:50,020 --> 00:00:53,635 For Hindenburg, 20 years earlier, the battle of Tannenberg 8 00:00:53,699 --> 00:00:58,116 had been the defining event of his life and of the First World War. 9 00:00:58,559 --> 00:01:05,010 APOCALYPSE World War I 10 00:01:22,512 --> 00:01:27,860 Millions of men are caught in the machinery of the war, that will be short and glorious, 11 00:01:28,144 --> 00:01:30,860 or so the generals and heads of a state promise. 12 00:01:34,423 --> 00:01:38,144 Instead, the war becomes one of deadlock in fear. 13 00:01:38,208 --> 00:01:41,851 2/5 FEAR 14 00:01:43,101 --> 00:01:45,601 Fear on the home front. 15 00:01:48,269 --> 00:01:53,508 As the Germans advance on Paris, there's a run on the banks to empty personal accounts. 16 00:01:56,136 --> 00:01:59,581 Many flee, storming train stations. 17 00:02:03,335 --> 00:02:08,329 But the Ferrari family remains home, in L'Étang-la-Ville, near Paris. 18 00:02:09,132 --> 00:02:13,429 The first images of daily life in the wars early weeks. 19 00:02:17,817 --> 00:02:22,477 The grandfather gives a military salute, he is confident in the French Army. 20 00:02:27,651 --> 00:02:30,251 The children prepare for the new school year. 21 00:02:33,388 --> 00:02:39,270 A directive from the French Ministry of education, dated August 7th, 1914, states: 22 00:02:40,570 --> 00:02:43,078 “Lessons must cover the causes of the war”. 23 00:02:43,142 --> 00:02:45,572 “The unwarranted aggression that provoked it, 24 00:02:45,636 --> 00:02:49,163 and how France, eternal champion of progress in law, 25 00:02:49,227 --> 00:02:55,135 was forced to again rise up with his valiant allies to repel a barbarian attack”. 26 00:03:06,181 --> 00:03:09,456 Thousands of refugees from Belgium, northern France, 27 00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:13,285 and the Champagne region, fled the advancing Germans. 28 00:03:19,245 --> 00:03:23,056 The war forces families from their homes, from their lives. 29 00:03:32,913 --> 00:03:38,414 The same panic strikes East Prussia in northern Germany, where the Russians attack. 30 00:03:40,488 --> 00:03:44,224 Rumors spread: “They plunder and rape”. 31 00:03:47,140 --> 00:03:51,842 In movie theaters, German propaganda features a villain, the Russian rapist, 32 00:03:51,906 --> 00:03:56,127 and film after film, terrorizing audiences.  33 00:04:05,281 --> 00:04:07,710 But the Russian advances orderly. 34 00:04:07,774 --> 00:04:12,153 The generals execute the strategic plan - opening a new front 35 00:04:12,217 --> 00:04:14,875 which eases the pressure on the French ally. 36 00:04:18,198 --> 00:04:22,646 The Russian steamroller, as it is called, made up of two Imperial armies, 37 00:04:22,710 --> 00:04:26,770 totaling 400,000 men, threatens Berlin. 38 00:04:29,282 --> 00:04:35,121 Russian soldiers, oppressed by czarism and religion, sing farewell to their country. 39 00:04:36,422 --> 00:04:42,187 My beloved country, I shall never see you again... 40 00:04:44,046 --> 00:04:49,180 But the Russian soldiers do not understand why they must march hundreds of miles 41 00:04:49,244 --> 00:04:52,293 and cross the border to defend their homeland. 42 00:04:53,990 --> 00:04:58,634 Peasants, for the most part, many can neither read nor write 43 00:05:00,436 --> 00:05:02,936 and left no journals or letters. 44 00:05:03,872 --> 00:05:06,420 In his novel, “August 1914”, 45 00:05:06,484 --> 00:05:10,838 the famous Russian writer Solzhenitsyn describes the buoyant mood: 46 00:05:11,060 --> 00:05:14,878 „The regiment is a sort of village, the officers’ sort of squire, 47 00:05:14,942 --> 00:05:20,205 and so long as meals, mass and vodka are offered, bullets hold no terror”. 48 00:05:25,758 --> 00:05:28,023 On August 20th, 1914, 49 00:05:28,087 --> 00:05:32,441 the Russian army advances to East Prussia, seemingly invincible. 50 00:05:42,965 --> 00:05:47,229 Along with thousands of civilians, the German 8th Army retreats. 51 00:05:49,798 --> 00:05:54,001 General Von Hindenburg, 67, takes over command. 52 00:05:54,280 --> 00:06:00,149 To reassure the public, the general is filmed in conversation with Kaiser Wilhelm II. 53 00:06:01,599 --> 00:06:05,841 Hindenburg is seconded by General Ludendorff, 47, 54 00:06:05,905 --> 00:06:09,108 who has earned praise for the Belgian campaign. 55 00:06:15,562 --> 00:06:20,941 Hindenburg and Ludendorff appear unconcerned; they make a formidable team. 56 00:06:22,351 --> 00:06:26,585 As Hindenburg puts it: "It is a happy marriage". 57 00:06:34,865 --> 00:06:37,763 Hindenburg and Ludendorff know that they are outnumbered. 58 00:06:37,827 --> 00:06:43,243 They have only 200,000 men under their command, half as many as the Russians, 59 00:06:43,307 --> 00:06:46,768 but they are better armed and can move their troops more efficiently 60 00:06:46,832 --> 00:06:49,332 through strategic rail transport. 61 00:06:56,848 --> 00:07:00,997 Morale among the troops is high, many of them come from East Prussia, 62 00:07:01,372 --> 00:07:03,872 they are defending their homeland. 63 00:07:07,045 --> 00:07:10,333 Ludendorff deploys the dirigibles of Count Zeppelin; 64 00:07:12,055 --> 00:07:16,925 huge hydrogen-filled airships that enabled him to observe enemy movements. 65 00:07:22,141 --> 00:07:25,388 The Germans are able to transmit vital information. 66 00:07:26,488 --> 00:07:30,656 The two Russian armies are too far apart to come to each other's aid. 67 00:07:31,529 --> 00:07:36,767 The time is right for a German attack, starting with General Samsonov's army 68 00:07:37,587 --> 00:07:40,087 which is nearing Tannenberg.  69 00:07:49,175 --> 00:07:53,201 In three days the Germans take 90,000 prisoners, 70 00:07:53,265 --> 00:07:56,736 30,000 Russians were killed or wounded. 71 00:07:56,982 --> 00:08:00,971 General Samsonov tells his officers: “The czar trusted me, 72 00:08:01,570 --> 00:08:06,885 how can I face him after such a disaster”, and he puts a bullet through his head. 73 00:08:11,540 --> 00:08:14,347 The second Russian army is decimated in turn. 74 00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:18,815 The defeat is a terrible blow to Russia's, French, and British allies, 75 00:08:18,879 --> 00:08:21,379 who seek to cover it up. 76 00:08:24,435 --> 00:08:30,159 German refugees from East Prussia returned to their villages but rarely their homes. 77 00:08:44,840 --> 00:08:47,449 Their fate has shaken the nation's morale. 78 00:08:47,629 --> 00:08:53,245 To boost spirits, the Germans film the surviving troops, who receive triple rations, 79 00:08:53,309 --> 00:08:57,202 10,000 of their fellow comrades have fallen in battle. 80 00:09:03,968 --> 00:09:08,334 Hindenburg is named field marshal, he becomes a national hero. 81 00:09:08,428 --> 00:09:12,513 Ludendorff, the real architect of the victory, is overlooked. 82 00:09:14,808 --> 00:09:19,217 But Hindenburg says: “If things it turned out differently, 83 00:09:19,281 --> 00:09:22,510 mine would be the most hated name in all Germany”. 84 00:09:29,764 --> 00:09:34,804 At Russian headquarters, Czar Nicholas II, in his special train, 85 00:09:34,868 --> 00:09:38,580 sitting camouflaged in the Birch Forest, meets his uncle, 86 00:09:38,644 --> 00:09:42,608 the Commander-in-Chief of his armies, Grand Duke Nicholas. 87 00:09:49,688 --> 00:09:54,492 In an authoritarian giant, he plays down the disaster at Tannenberg. 88 00:09:55,602 --> 00:09:59,533 For him, the real enemy is the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  89 00:09:59,919 --> 00:10:03,499 He says: “The War started in Austria”. 90 00:10:04,488 --> 00:10:07,492 “The way to Berlin lies to Austria-Hungary”. 91 00:10:10,663 --> 00:10:15,664 The Russians are able to conquer Galicia, at the time an Austrian province, 92 00:10:15,739 --> 00:10:18,239 and its main city Lemberg. 93 00:10:19,332 --> 00:10:22,613 The Cossack cavalry advances 120 miles. 94 00:10:26,461 --> 00:10:33,055 Austria loses 400,000 men, killed, wounded, were taken prisoner. 95 00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:38,638 The POWs are a cross-section of the Slavic peoples of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 96 00:10:38,702 --> 00:10:42,723 including Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, and Bosniaks. 97 00:10:49,236 --> 00:10:53,408 A Russian propaganda film shows an Austro-Hungarian prisoner, 98 00:10:53,472 --> 00:10:58,753 fraternizing with a Russian soldier, two Slavs in opposing uniforms. 99 00:11:04,900 --> 00:11:09,643 They are filmed as symbols of Russia's desire to unite all Slaves in its empire. 100 00:11:16,733 --> 00:11:21,887 Nicholas II smile of satisfaction, after this initial victory against the Austrians 101 00:11:21,951 --> 00:11:26,810 masks the loss of 200,000 Russian soldiers in three weeks of the war. 102 00:11:26,874 --> 00:11:30,279 My beloved country, 103 00:11:31,166 --> 00:11:37,173 I shall never see you again... 104 00:11:41,481 --> 00:11:45,271 To the west - on front 370 miles long, 105 00:11:45,335 --> 00:11:49,826 seven German armies, two million men in all, invade France. 106 00:11:49,890 --> 00:11:53,920 The first Army of General Von Kluck crosses the Somme River, 107 00:11:53,984 --> 00:11:56,970 the last natural line of defense before the capital. 108 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:07,373 The German officers rally their troops, saying: “Victory is close; 109 00:12:07,437 --> 00:12:10,320 the triumphant entry into Paris, awaits you”. 110 00:12:12,531 --> 00:12:16,537 The German infantrymen have marched 250 miles 111 00:12:16,601 --> 00:12:20,833 since the heavy fighting in Belgium of early August 1914. 112 00:12:26,103 --> 00:12:28,951 The commander of the Brandenburg Regiment tells them: 113 00:12:29,015 --> 00:12:34,368 “We must allow the enemy no rest, sweat saves blood”. 114 00:12:40,944 --> 00:12:44,150 Even as they retreat, the French continue the fight; 115 00:12:44,398 --> 00:12:47,153 they are at the limits of their endurance. 116 00:12:52,107 --> 00:12:57,000 The heat is unbearable. It is the hottest summer of the century. 117 00:12:57,708 --> 00:13:01,870 Few men have washed, were taken off their boots for a month. 118 00:13:08,534 --> 00:13:12,817 Blood oozes from the backs of the horses that are seldom unsaddled. 119 00:13:14,157 --> 00:13:17,283 But it is not an orderly retreat by the French and British. 120 00:13:19,297 --> 00:13:21,997 The first Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment 121 00:13:22,061 --> 00:13:27,518 which arrived in France on August 13, has marched 185 miles, 122 00:13:28,673 --> 00:13:33,167 before assembling to hear the Commander-in- Chief of the British expeditionary force, 123 00:13:33,231 --> 00:13:37,937 Field Marshal Sir John French, tell them that the situation is grave. 124 00:13:41,602 --> 00:13:44,106 All of France say’s its prayers. 125 00:13:46,463 --> 00:13:48,963 Every side invokes God's name. 126 00:13:53,510 --> 00:13:56,010 My God protects France. 127 00:13:58,571 --> 00:14:01,491 Will France's colonial troops save the country? 128 00:14:03,159 --> 00:14:05,441 Ever since they landed in the south of France, 129 00:14:05,505 --> 00:14:08,086 the African troops have been marching northward. 130 00:14:08,612 --> 00:14:13,282 Many prefer to go barefoot, rather than wear their heavy army boots. 131 00:14:14,421 --> 00:14:17,766 Before their arrival, French senator says with concern: 132 00:14:17,830 --> 00:14:21,112 “Neither the climate nor the food of France is suited to them”. 133 00:14:21,739 --> 00:14:24,442 The generals reassure him: “They are disciplined, 134 00:14:24,506 --> 00:14:27,037 strong, and devoted to their leaders”. 135 00:14:32,346 --> 00:14:36,839 One of these Senegalese infantrymen is carrying his captain's deckchair. 136 00:14:47,650 --> 00:14:52,874 All around Paris the defense forces organize, using any and every means. 137 00:15:04,203 --> 00:15:06,507 But on September 2, 1914, 138 00:15:06,571 --> 00:15:11,140 two French aviators returned from a reconnaissance flight over enemy lines. 139 00:15:14,923 --> 00:15:17,423 The German forces are changing direction. 140 00:15:18,967 --> 00:15:22,635 Rather than carry on to Paris, the German armies swerve, 141 00:15:22,699 --> 00:15:25,199 in an attempt to encircle the French army 142 00:15:25,277 --> 00:15:29,587 thus opening themselves to an attack by the French and British along the Marne River. 143 00:15:34,251 --> 00:15:38,076 The commander of the forces defending Paris, general Gallieni, 144 00:15:38,140 --> 00:15:41,945 order’s a swift transport of 6,000 men to the Marne 145 00:15:43,305 --> 00:15:45,805 in Parisian taxicabs. 146 00:15:48,027 --> 00:15:53,537 A huge propaganda operation which the government is filmed to boost French morale. 147 00:15:53,601 --> 00:15:57,744 The Marne River taxis are hailed as the savior's of Paris, 148 00:15:57,808 --> 00:16:00,818 though to the contribution to the battle is minimal. 149 00:16:17,306 --> 00:16:21,417 They carry only a fraction of the million Frenchmen, preparing for battle. 150 00:16:28,573 --> 00:16:33,288 The French Commander-in-Chief is General Joffre, age 62. 151 00:16:35,833 --> 00:16:38,302 On September 6th, 1914, 152 00:16:38,366 --> 00:16:41,128 he has his officers read the day's orders to the soldiers, 153 00:16:41,192 --> 00:16:43,692 advancing to the front. 154 00:16:48,007 --> 00:16:53,286 At the moment when the battle is about to begin, upon which hangs the fate of France, 155 00:16:53,350 --> 00:16:58,469 the troop that cannot advance, must at any cost hold on to the Concord ground, 156 00:16:58,533 --> 00:17:03,708 and be killed there, rather than retreat, no weakness can be tolerated. 157 00:17:12,125 --> 00:17:14,369 The soldiers are afraid; 158 00:17:14,433 --> 00:17:16,704 they know the court-martial await those who waiver. 159 00:17:16,768 --> 00:17:20,065 If they retreat, they will be executed by their own, 160 00:17:20,884 --> 00:17:24,213 if they advance, they will be killed by the enemy. 161 00:17:27,193 --> 00:17:32,099 Among them is one of France's greatest poets Charles Péguy, 162 00:17:32,163 --> 00:17:36,211 the 41-year-old lieutenant is killed by a bullet to his forehead. 163 00:17:38,158 --> 00:17:42,488 A Christian socialist and patriot, he had written these verses: 164 00:17:44,085 --> 00:17:49,033 “Blessed are those who died in the just-war, blessed the ripe wheat, 165 00:17:49,097 --> 00:17:51,463 the wheat gathered in sheaves”. 166 00:17:51,527 --> 00:17:53,978 “Blessed are those who died in great battles, 167 00:17:54,042 --> 00:17:57,080 stretched down on the ground in the face of God”. 168 00:18:02,692 --> 00:18:06,150 French artillery units proved to be extremely effective, 169 00:18:06,455 --> 00:18:11,642 thanks to the 75 mm cannon which can fire 20 rounds of a minute. 170 00:18:17,653 --> 00:18:23,531 It consumes an astronomical number of shells - some hundred thousand shells a day, 171 00:18:24,258 --> 00:18:27,133 200 million shells for the entire war. 172 00:18:27,539 --> 00:18:31,940 They are manufactured by women who work in miserable conditions. 173 00:18:47,466 --> 00:18:50,571 On September 9th, after three days of fighting, 174 00:18:50,635 --> 00:18:56,381 the French and British are victorious but only after human carnage on a terrible scale. 175 00:18:56,566 --> 00:19:00,853 The French historian Marc Bloch the Sergeant at the time, writes: 176 00:19:00,917 --> 00:19:05,604 “Severed leg lies on the ground almost ridiculous in its horror”.  177 00:19:07,500 --> 00:19:10,401 “The revolting stench turns the stomach”. 178 00:19:13,870 --> 00:19:19,997 The fighting has left 200,000 dead and wounded on the French side and just as many Germans. 179 00:19:23,380 --> 00:19:27,247 Young women from comfortable families sign up as nurses. 180 00:19:27,862 --> 00:19:32,280 Known as “Angels of Mercy”, they are wrested from sheltered adolescents 181 00:19:32,344 --> 00:19:36,733 and must learn to endure the terrible screams of mutilated young men 182 00:19:36,797 --> 00:19:41,870 and the constant, unbearable odor of blood, ether, and gangrene. 183 00:19:50,274 --> 00:19:55,887 The unimaginable number of wounded and dead does not deter military and political leaders. 184 00:20:01,828 --> 00:20:06,171 General Joffre, decorating colonial troops, proclaims: 185 00:20:07,102 --> 00:20:10,362 “As their cruel but glorious losses testify, 186 00:20:10,518 --> 00:20:14,738 the native infantrymen have admirably carried out their duty”. 187 00:20:22,011 --> 00:20:26,294 Curiously, patriotism among the troops also remains high, 188 00:20:26,484 --> 00:20:30,113 despite the slaughter; they think the war will end soon. 189 00:20:31,692 --> 00:20:34,780 Private Pierre Bringuier writes to his wife: 190 00:20:36,544 --> 00:20:40,049 “I have not given up hope of returning this November”. 191 00:20:40,113 --> 00:20:43,083 “I cannot imagine that the nations involved, 192 00:20:43,147 --> 00:20:46,203 can keep up their incredible effort much longer”. 193 00:20:52,624 --> 00:20:56,427 The French have taken 25,000 German prisoners 194 00:20:56,963 --> 00:21:01,543 and like all the belligerents, filmed them as a tangible sign of victory. 195 00:21:14,375 --> 00:21:19,356 Troops view their captives with curiosity, mixed with hatred. 196 00:21:22,820 --> 00:21:27,874 Henri Desperrier, a 21-year-old soldier from the south of France says: 197 00:21:30,463 --> 00:21:32,944 “It's the first time I see them up close”. 198 00:21:33,008 --> 00:21:35,590 “My cartridges, way heavy in my pockets, 199 00:21:35,659 --> 00:21:38,861 I longed to plug a few Prussian bellies with them”. 200 00:21:40,738 --> 00:21:44,549 Altogether the POWs are treated rather well on both sides. 201 00:21:45,595 --> 00:21:50,492 The International Committee of the Red Cross creates the prisoners of war agency. 202 00:21:50,708 --> 00:21:55,139 It will deliver 10 billion letters and parcels over the course of the conflict. 203 00:22:01,770 --> 00:22:04,905 The French are permitted a brief period of the rest. 204 00:22:09,194 --> 00:22:14,643 The Colonel, the father to his Regiment, expresses his concern for the survivors. 205 00:22:15,981 --> 00:22:19,692 “How is this do soldier? ” is the standard phrase. 206 00:22:27,495 --> 00:22:29,995 They have saved Paris. 207 00:22:31,404 --> 00:22:35,272 But a young cavalry officer René Chambe writes: 208 00:22:35,742 --> 00:22:40,142 “The battle of the Marne; we won the battle and lost the victory”. 209 00:22:44,304 --> 00:22:48,247 The French and the British allow the Germans to flee towards the north of France, 210 00:22:48,311 --> 00:22:53,325 in a series of outflanking maneuvers known as “the race to the sea”. 211 00:22:54,120 --> 00:22:56,416 During those three months of battle, 212 00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:59,743 other German units complete their conquest of Belgium. 213 00:23:05,899 --> 00:23:09,818 The German military seeks to win over the local inhabitants. 214 00:23:11,578 --> 00:23:14,313 But the plundering and requisitions to feed the soldiers, 215 00:23:14,377 --> 00:23:17,812 quickly spell starvation for Belgian citizens. 216 00:23:19,676 --> 00:23:23,697 Among these German soldiers is an obscure Austrian painter, 217 00:23:23,761 --> 00:23:29,156 who has enlisted in the German army, Adolf Hitler, then 25 years old, 218 00:23:29,955 --> 00:23:33,782 will remain marked by the hell, he experienced in Flanders. 219 00:23:35,774 --> 00:23:38,274 In his book “Mein Kampf” Hitler writes: 220 00:23:38,943 --> 00:23:41,979 “The pride of the fighting soon turned into a nightmare; 221 00:23:42,659 --> 00:23:48,020 for four years the British refused to abandon the area around the Belgian town Ypres”. 222 00:23:48,636 --> 00:23:52,556 This small strip of Belgium must remain in Allied hands. 223 00:23:52,772 --> 00:23:56,380 That is the wish of the Belgian King Albert I, 224 00:23:56,444 --> 00:23:59,789 to whom King George V pays a visit of support. 225 00:24:11,387 --> 00:24:15,932 A Belgian military doctor, Major Max Deauville, says: 226 00:24:16,084 --> 00:24:20,754 “Holding our position is God's command, even if death awaits us all”. 227 00:24:25,919 --> 00:24:29,481 Ypres, the last British stronghold in the North. 228 00:24:32,063 --> 00:24:36,527 Ypres, which will become the tomb of thousands of Canadians in the Battle of Passchendaele. 229 00:24:55,435 --> 00:25:00,587 To fill the ranks, in the south of England, the British train ever more fighting men. 230 00:25:00,934 --> 00:25:05,051 Canadians, English, and French-speaking, all volunteers, 231 00:25:05,115 --> 00:25:09,637 all wearing the same uniform in all subjects of his Majesty. 232 00:25:13,248 --> 00:25:17,523 With his piercing blue eyes, King George V inspects the troops. 233 00:25:22,090 --> 00:25:26,914 They are the same age as his oldest son who is serving in the Royal Navy, 234 00:25:26,981 --> 00:25:32,097 this worries the king and queen Mary, seen here smiling bravely for the occasion. 235 00:25:35,938 --> 00:25:40,454 After disembarking in the ports of France, the Canadians marched to the front. 236 00:25:42,428 --> 00:25:44,928 But are they really ready to wage war? 237 00:25:58,052 --> 00:26:01,608 Claudius Corneloup, a private from Québec, writes: 238 00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:05,844 “Our soldiers anticipate long hardship, without questioning, 239 00:26:06,033 --> 00:26:10,700 without even grasping that on each face they witness pain and anguish”. 240 00:26:12,302 --> 00:26:16,274 "They will suddenly be transported into the darkness of a great calamity". 241 00:26:29,110 --> 00:26:34,198 In October, the Germans, determined to hold on to the regions they have conquered, 242 00:26:34,345 --> 00:26:38,017 begin to dig, for four civilians to dig for them, 243 00:26:38,081 --> 00:26:43,254 a veritable network of fortifications in the oozing clay of Flanders. 244 00:26:52,652 --> 00:26:56,906 The heavy soil is waterlogged because the Belgians deliberately open their dikes 245 00:26:56,970 --> 00:26:59,470 to flood the region. 246 00:27:01,333 --> 00:27:04,699 The Germans work hard to make these termite colonies livable. 247 00:27:05,609 --> 00:27:08,906 But winter will transform them into freezing crypts. 248 00:27:35,194 --> 00:27:38,840 Across from them the British dig in too. 249 00:27:39,730 --> 00:27:44,087 They prepared to hold the front in Flanders which is now at a stalemate. 250 00:27:46,656 --> 00:27:50,077 War of movement is replaced by a war of position. 251 00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:58,173 Private Corneloup is not happy, he says: 252 00:27:58,801 --> 00:28:01,624 “What's the point of having trained to sprint across fields, 253 00:28:01,688 --> 00:28:04,188 when what they want are miners?” 254 00:28:36,243 --> 00:28:41,217 Farther south, the French make do with more or less interconnected foxholes. 255 00:28:54,756 --> 00:28:57,841 The French high command refuses to condone the troops 256 00:28:57,905 --> 00:29:01,319 installing themselves in trenches organized for defense. 257 00:29:01,968 --> 00:29:05,593 The soldiers know that their officers think only of attack. 258 00:29:06,957 --> 00:29:10,982 The Germans must be driven out of the French provinces they occupying, 259 00:29:11,046 --> 00:29:15,478 behind what is now a line of trenches 435 miles long 260 00:29:15,909 --> 00:29:18,751 that stretches from the North Sea to the Swiss border. 261 00:29:22,236 --> 00:29:25,666 The French observe the enemy trenches by means of devices 262 00:29:25,730 --> 00:29:29,431 that sometimes prove paralysis for the brave artillery spotters. 263 00:29:53,740 --> 00:29:58,153 In the winter of 1914, General Joffre launches best defensives 264 00:29:58,217 --> 00:30:00,981 that stuck dead by German machine-guns. 265 00:30:08,952 --> 00:30:12,516 Offensives, that are meant to take pressure off the Russian front, 266 00:30:12,950 --> 00:30:16,370 but leave 100,000 men dead or wounded. 267 00:30:20,085 --> 00:30:25,180 20,000 die, merely to capture the lonely peak of a forgotten mountain. 268 00:30:32,005 --> 00:30:35,128 Already there are so many widows. 269 00:30:41,350 --> 00:30:44,718 Inconsolable, at the loss of a 20-year-old husband, 270 00:30:45,161 --> 00:30:48,122 when one his mother to a 20-month-old child. 271 00:30:52,095 --> 00:30:56,515 On All Saints Day, Pope Benedict XV addresses the world. 272 00:30:56,730 --> 00:31:00,941 He says: “This war is the suicide of Europe”. 273 00:31:01,835 --> 00:31:04,908 “There appears no limit to the destruction and carnage, 274 00:31:05,986 --> 00:31:09,303 day after day fresh blood is spilled on the Earth”. 275 00:31:09,578 --> 00:31:12,819 “In the view of the senseless crime, I repeat on to you, 276 00:31:13,404 --> 00:31:15,948 peace on Earth to men of goodwill”. 277 00:31:18,701 --> 00:31:21,201 Will the Pope's words be heard? 278 00:31:22,866 --> 00:31:26,156 There are moments of spontaneous fraternization on the front 279 00:31:26,220 --> 00:31:28,720 as these rare images show. 280 00:31:30,669 --> 00:31:33,519 All these men risk being shot for treason. 281 00:31:35,859 --> 00:31:41,067 No one knows what became of them and their celebrations were quickly stifled. 282 00:31:47,836 --> 00:31:50,336 The generals remain deaf and blind. 283 00:31:50,991 --> 00:31:54,825 The military, already very powerful at the beginning of the war, 284 00:31:55,475 --> 00:31:59,656 is starting to dominate politics and politicians. 285 00:32:17,136 --> 00:32:23,365 Despite the hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded, the conflict spreads. 286 00:32:29,672 --> 00:32:34,980 In Africa, the French, British, and Belgians attacked the German colonies of Togo, 287 00:32:35,578 --> 00:32:39,589 Cameroon, Tanganyika, Rwanda, and Namibia. 288 00:32:42,054 --> 00:32:44,679 Their goals - enlarge the colonial empires 289 00:32:44,743 --> 00:32:48,215 and obtain the raw materials, needed for the war industry. 290 00:32:54,848 --> 00:32:58,878 Rare images of peoples that are largely been left to themselves 291 00:33:01,295 --> 00:33:04,168 and are now conscripted, sometimes under the lash, 292 00:33:04,232 --> 00:33:06,842 as here, in the German colony of Zanzibar. 293 00:33:14,511 --> 00:33:18,666 Many Africans are lured by the soldiers’ proud uniform and good pay. 294 00:33:19,038 --> 00:33:23,104 These troops will fight with loyalty and encourage in the unspeakable conditions 295 00:33:23,168 --> 00:33:25,668 that all combatants face. 296 00:33:35,753 --> 00:33:41,577 Hundred thousand Africans and 30,000 Europeans will lose their lives in Africa; 297 00:33:41,641 --> 00:33:46,351 victims of ferocious fighting and diseases, such as dysentery, 298 00:33:46,415 --> 00:33:49,051 typhoid, and especially malaria. 299 00:33:57,594 --> 00:34:01,348 In Asia, to honor its treaty of alliance with Great Britain, 300 00:34:02,025 --> 00:34:05,476 Japan has fought the war against Germany from the beginning. 301 00:34:07,676 --> 00:34:12,810 The Japanese take the opportunity to help themselves to the German enclave in China, 302 00:34:12,897 --> 00:34:18,051 the port of Qingdao, with a German brewery that produces a beer, 303 00:34:18,115 --> 00:34:20,615 known to this day. 304 00:34:21,395 --> 00:34:26,401 Japan, on the rise economically and militarily, demonstrates superiority 305 00:34:26,465 --> 00:34:31,487 by shelling for seven straight days the German defenses, which collapse. 306 00:34:39,547 --> 00:34:42,212 Qingdao and its beer are now in their hands, 307 00:34:42,663 --> 00:34:45,706 the Japanese turn their attention to the rest of China. 308 00:34:51,744 --> 00:34:57,062 While in Europe the fighting box down, the conflict spreads to the Middle East. 309 00:35:02,894 --> 00:35:09,240 On November 23, 1914, in the Jerusalem, then part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, 310 00:35:09,821 --> 00:35:15,119 allied with the Germans, the Muslims call for a Holy War to rally Muslim combatants, 311 00:35:15,183 --> 00:35:18,114 against the French, British, and Russians. 312 00:35:25,658 --> 00:35:28,848 The Ottoman Empire occupies a strategic position, 313 00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:33,652 its capital Constantinople, now Istanbul in Turkey; 314 00:35:33,716 --> 00:35:38,018 it is the home of the Hagia Sophia Basilica which has been turned into a mosque. 315 00:35:39,007 --> 00:35:43,971 Constantinople commands the passage between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. 316 00:35:45,054 --> 00:35:48,668 The Ottoman Empire reaches as far as the Persian Gulf 317 00:35:48,732 --> 00:35:52,304 and threatens the Suez Canal, a vital artery for the British, 318 00:35:52,368 --> 00:35:55,818 and a major shipping root for supplies to the Western front. 319 00:36:00,031 --> 00:36:04,350 The Ottoman sovereign is Sultan Mehmed V, 72, 320 00:36:04,414 --> 00:36:08,882 here seen receiving the German monarch Kaiser Wilhelm II. 321 00:36:11,499 --> 00:36:15,356 Wilhelm II is worried about diplomatic maneuvering by the British 322 00:36:15,420 --> 00:36:19,807 who tried to buy Turkey's allegiance but the Germans outbid them. 323 00:36:26,836 --> 00:36:29,411 The Sultan is the ruler in name only, 324 00:36:29,903 --> 00:36:34,558 the real power lies with a nationalist organization “the young Turks”. 325 00:36:34,622 --> 00:36:39,924 Its leader Enver Pasha, 33, is the country’s strongman. 326 00:36:41,981 --> 00:36:46,764 Educated in Germany, Enver Pasha leads an army of one million men, 327 00:36:46,865 --> 00:36:51,834 trained and supervised by Germans. The Germans are counting on Enver Pasha's armies 328 00:36:51,898 --> 00:36:54,655 to provide relief in the fight against Russia. 329 00:36:57,849 --> 00:37:03,314 Enver Pasha decides to attack Russia, Turkey’s hereditary enemy, in the Caucasus, 330 00:37:03,378 --> 00:37:06,088 the border region inhabited by Muslims. 331 00:37:06,269 --> 00:37:11,622 The Ottomans hope these Muslims will rise up against the czar if the holy war is declared. 332 00:37:18,903 --> 00:37:22,805 The Turks, fearsome warriors, have already fought the Russians, 333 00:37:22,869 --> 00:37:26,042 who hold the passages, and have deployed their troops in the mountains 334 00:37:26,106 --> 00:37:28,606 to draw the enemy toward the summits. 335 00:37:43,104 --> 00:37:47,139 During the previous war against the Turks, a Russian general said: 336 00:37:47,206 --> 00:37:52,250 “The Caucasus is a fortress and only a madman would attempt to scale it”. 337 00:37:53,785 --> 00:37:56,285 Is Enver Pasha mad? 338 00:37:57,094 --> 00:38:01,066 On December 22, 1914, in the middle of winter, 339 00:38:01,130 --> 00:38:05,414 he launches an attack in the mountains, near Sarikamish. 340 00:38:17,862 --> 00:38:22,899 The attack fails; defeated 70,000 soldiers of the Turkish 3.Army 341 00:38:22,963 --> 00:38:26,338 die of the cold or are finished off as they retreat. 342 00:38:28,186 --> 00:38:33,637 Not a single Muslim, either in Russia or among its allies, rose up for the holy war. 343 00:38:46,566 --> 00:38:51,716 The party in power, “the young Turks”, and Enver Pasha need a scapegoat. 344 00:38:54,495 --> 00:38:58,556 They settle on Turkey's Armenian community who are Christians. 345 00:38:59,421 --> 00:39:03,287 The Turkish interior minister issues an order for genocide. 346 00:39:04,523 --> 00:39:09,135 The government has decided to destroy all the Armenians, living in Turkey. 347 00:39:09,378 --> 00:39:15,861 No regard must be paid to either age or sex, no allowances will be made. 348 00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:26,139 The Turks hang the intellectuals and community leaders and appropriate their positions. 349 00:39:31,217 --> 00:39:34,929 Their wives and daughters are raped, then murdered. 350 00:39:39,272 --> 00:39:44,112 The Armenians, who survived the first massacres, are herded by the Turks to camps, 351 00:39:44,176 --> 00:39:47,648 in the Syrian Desert, hundreds of miles away. 352 00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:53,277 Exhausted, beaten, denied food and water, they die along the way. 353 00:40:04,852 --> 00:40:07,581 Over one million Armenians were killed. 354 00:40:13,632 --> 00:40:16,132 For the Turks, the war goes on. 355 00:40:26,487 --> 00:40:31,234 On March 15th, 1915, the joint British and French fleet 356 00:40:31,298 --> 00:40:33,798 tries to force the Dardanelles straight, 357 00:40:35,070 --> 00:40:39,337 to take Constantinople, and prevent Bulgaria from entering the war, 358 00:40:39,401 --> 00:40:42,343 alongside the German and Ottoman empires. 359 00:40:54,318 --> 00:40:58,166 The Turks have powerful cannons and underwater minefields. 360 00:40:59,048 --> 00:41:02,960 They sink three battleships and damage seven others. 361 00:41:04,787 --> 00:41:09,594 Out of a fleet of 18, 10 British and French warships are out of action. 362 00:41:15,780 --> 00:41:20,910 After the defeat, Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty 363 00:41:21,872 --> 00:41:25,104 and mastermind of the mission is forced to step down, 364 00:41:25,521 --> 00:41:29,887 but those responsible for the disaster are the admirals and generals. 365 00:41:30,786 --> 00:41:35,790 In their continued content in underestimation of the Turks, one month later, 366 00:41:35,854 --> 00:41:41,151 the venture landing on the coast of Turkey at Gallipoli to seize the enemy’s batteries. 367 00:41:50,263 --> 00:41:56,298 On April 25, 1915, the ANZAC’s, the Australian and New Zealand forces, 368 00:41:56,362 --> 00:42:00,648 together with British and French contingents, are dropped on the narrow beaches. 369 00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:10,251 From high on the steep slopes, the Turks fire on them with impunity. 370 00:42:20,987 --> 00:42:25,360 The Turks are well armed, well-equipped, and well commanded by officers 371 00:42:25,424 --> 00:42:30,100 such as Mustafa Kemal, the future leader, and modernizer of Turkey. 372 00:42:45,998 --> 00:42:49,618 Pin down, the Allied troops endure after months of agony. 373 00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:58,552 Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, the British war correspondent for the „London Daily Telegraph” 374 00:42:58,616 --> 00:43:03,783 writes: „It is the most ghastly military fiasco in our history”. 375 00:43:03,847 --> 00:43:08,498 "The generals had no maps, and a vague idea of the nature of the ground in their front 376 00:43:08,763 --> 00:43:12,441 and no adequate steps were taken to keep the troops' supply". 377 00:43:12,809 --> 00:43:17,030 "The Australian volunteers have nothing to drink under the beating Sun". 378 00:43:25,287 --> 00:43:31,086 Three months later, using his own camera, Ashmead-Bartlett films these same men, 379 00:43:31,344 --> 00:43:33,844 now starving and feverish. 380 00:43:35,606 --> 00:43:40,364 They know that 150,000 men have been killed or wounded here in vain. 381 00:43:40,664 --> 00:43:43,365 Bulgaria has swung over to the German side; 382 00:43:45,168 --> 00:43:47,763 the Dardanelles remain in Turkish hands. 383 00:43:54,458 --> 00:43:58,624 „The Daily Telegraph” correspondent directly addresses Herbert Asquith, 384 00:43:58,688 --> 00:44:01,578 the British Prime Minister, and causing scandal. 385 00:44:02,638 --> 00:44:08,062 “Mr. Prime Minister, I am not sure you are aware of the true state of affairs out here 386 00:44:08,126 --> 00:44:11,273 or to what extent the generals keep you informed”. 387 00:44:11,628 --> 00:44:16,434 “Here, in Gallipoli, we are dissipating a large portion of the Empire's fortune 388 00:44:16,498 --> 00:44:21,144 and have not yet gained a single acre of ground of any strategic value”. 389 00:44:21,208 --> 00:44:24,038 “This futile expedition may ruin our prospects 390 00:44:24,102 --> 00:44:27,673 of wearing down Germany's colossal military power”. 391 00:44:31,497 --> 00:44:35,001 Germany's power, embodied by the victor of East Prussia, 392 00:44:35,065 --> 00:44:38,692 Marshall Von Hindenburg, nonetheless has its limits. 393 00:44:41,081 --> 00:44:46,288 The toll of German dead and wounded is turning public opinion against the war. 394 00:44:46,642 --> 00:44:50,901 In April, in The Hague, in the Netherlands, which remains neutral, 395 00:44:51,147 --> 00:44:55,815 the women's Congress for peace demands an immediate end to hostilities. 396 00:44:57,712 --> 00:45:02,829 But just the opposite happens, the conflict expands again. 397 00:45:04,771 --> 00:45:09,351 Italy enters the war on May 23, 1915. 398 00:45:10,461 --> 00:45:15,967 A neutral power in the early months of the war, it was, nonetheless, allied with Germany. 399 00:45:16,444 --> 00:45:21,172 Britain and France promised to return to Italy the cities of Trento and Trieste 400 00:45:21,236 --> 00:45:25,859 which are still in Austrian territory. Italy changes sides. 401 00:45:30,196 --> 00:45:33,679 A patriotic anti-Austrian fervor sweeps Italy, 402 00:45:34,235 --> 00:45:39,426 fed by the grandiloquent verses of the nationalist poet Gabriele D'Annunzio. 403 00:45:40,165 --> 00:45:43,386 “You are the raging sparks of the sacred blaze, 404 00:45:43,851 --> 00:45:49,619 may old voices be a single flaming cry “Italia”, “Italia”.” 405 00:46:01,222 --> 00:46:04,733 These young Italians have no idea of the hardships ahead 406 00:46:04,826 --> 00:46:07,326 as they march into the Alpine war. 407 00:46:25,918 --> 00:46:29,185 In France, the front is deadlocked in the trenches, 408 00:46:29,291 --> 00:46:33,210 though punctuated by attacks as deadly as they are futile. 409 00:46:38,023 --> 00:46:43,508 Private Charles Gaillard writes: “Here morale is very poor; we are fed up with fighting, 410 00:46:43,572 --> 00:46:46,715 but not advancing and the peasants envy the cows, 411 00:46:46,779 --> 00:46:49,604 which are bedded more comfortably than they are”. 412 00:47:04,780 --> 00:47:10,258 The enemy is on the other side of the Sea of the barbed wire which stretches to infinity. 413 00:47:12,284 --> 00:47:17,042 Given the impasse, the Germans decide to strike a major blow in the East 414 00:47:17,732 --> 00:47:20,736 and the part of Poland, still under Russian rule. 415 00:47:22,304 --> 00:47:27,940 Certain of his success, the new German commander-in-chief, General von Falkenhayn, 416 00:47:28,186 --> 00:47:33,099 authorizes 33-year-old American journalist Wilbur Durborough and his crew 417 00:47:33,287 --> 00:47:36,351 to follow the German Army for six months. 418 00:47:37,296 --> 00:47:41,845 They travel in an American luxury convertible, Stutz, 419 00:47:41,995 --> 00:47:44,495 led by a German military guide. 420 00:47:50,263 --> 00:47:53,357 Durborough is clearly proud of his scoop. 421 00:47:54,519 --> 00:47:58,039 In the United States which is still officially neutral, 422 00:47:58,103 --> 00:48:02,855 hostility toward Germany surges, after German submarine torpedoes and sinks 423 00:48:02,919 --> 00:48:08,132 the British liner SS Lusitania on May 7, 1915, 424 00:48:08,447 --> 00:48:12,877 killing 1,500 including 120 Americans. 425 00:48:15,512 --> 00:48:17,926 The Germans claimed the attack is justified, 426 00:48:17,990 --> 00:48:21,035 because the Lusitania was transporting ammunition, 427 00:48:21,437 --> 00:48:24,901 proof of this emerges only years later. 428 00:48:26,838 --> 00:48:30,740 But the darkening mood at home does not stop Durborough from enjoying his travels 429 00:48:30,804 --> 00:48:33,304 with these German officers. 430 00:48:33,908 --> 00:48:38,601 He presents an affectionate portrait of the Kaiser's troops, relaxing before the attack. 431 00:48:49,106 --> 00:48:54,321 After the German victory in Poland, Durborough films thousands of Russian prisoners. 432 00:48:57,336 --> 00:49:00,061 And in this shot of a captured Russian field kitchen, 433 00:49:00,320 --> 00:49:03,148 he shows Germans who seem to like Russian food. 434 00:49:09,473 --> 00:49:13,566 Durborough films himself on the platform of the Warsaw train station, 435 00:49:13,855 --> 00:49:17,391 alongside German soldiers, celebrating the city's capture. 436 00:49:20,491 --> 00:49:24,068 Then, accompanied by police contingent, armed with whips, 437 00:49:24,132 --> 00:49:27,277 he films the Jews in the Jewish quarter. 438 00:49:38,856 --> 00:49:44,291 And the German armies’ victory march to Warsaw on August 4, 1915. 439 00:49:53,712 --> 00:49:59,609 Other war cameramen also capture images of Germany's might as zeppelins bomb London. 440 00:50:02,684 --> 00:50:06,995 The British realize that the heart of their empire is now vulnerable. 441 00:50:10,817 --> 00:50:14,761 A new kind of warfare is born, industrial warfare, 442 00:50:14,825 --> 00:50:17,877 a war of destruction, of annihilation. 443 00:50:20,554 --> 00:50:25,163 The aim now is to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. 444 00:50:30,918 --> 00:50:34,845 Assembly lines turnout flood of even deadlier inventions - 445 00:50:44,425 --> 00:50:46,925 grenades of all kinds, 446 00:50:47,706 --> 00:50:50,206 bombshells of every caliber, 447 00:50:54,072 --> 00:50:56,687 a variety of poison gases, 448 00:50:58,592 --> 00:51:02,106 a proud achievement of scientific research. 449 00:51:07,979 --> 00:51:12,186 How will mankind endure this voyage to the heart of darkness 450 00:51:12,356 --> 00:51:14,856 to the farthest reaches of Hell? 451 00:51:18,856 --> 00:51:34,856 TIMING & TRANSCRIPTION danel32 /eng. to.est@gmail.com/