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London, 1917.

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00:00:15,626 --> 00:00:20,935
Before returning to the front in Flanders,
an Australian soldier writes to his wife:

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00:00:23,460 --> 00:00:28,099
“My love, my only love.
I feel so dejected tonight.

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00:00:28,498 --> 00:00:31,428
I'm so sad that you didn't
send me the photograph.

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00:00:32,057 --> 00:00:38,358
My only love. You know how things are.
We are here to perform our duty.

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00:00:38,918 --> 00:00:43,261
And if I am killed, you must thank
God he has let me accomplish mine."

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APOCALYPSE
World War I

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The war is born out of the fury
of men that traps them in fear.

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00:01:17,364 --> 00:01:19,664
It plunges them into hell.

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00:01:20,416 --> 00:01:24,714
They rage for it to end,
they long for deliverance.

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5/5
DELIVERANCE

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Autumn, 1917. The world is at war.

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The United States has joined Great Britain,
France, Belgium, Russia, Japan and Italy.

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00:01:45,487 --> 00:01:49,896
Italy is battling the Austrians to
conquer the cities of Trento and Trieste.

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00:01:53,632 --> 00:01:57,483
In the Alps, the Italian troops
faced terrible hardships.

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00:01:58,101 --> 00:02:01,924
Most are peasants, though a few
work at the Fiat factory.

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00:02:06,650 --> 00:02:11,869
They are under the draconian command of
officers, led by General Luigi Cadorna.

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00:02:12,698 --> 00:02:15,576
The military hierarchy is merciless.

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750 soldiers are shot by firing
squad as an example, a dark record.

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00:02:26,620 --> 00:02:31,402
Since every day the same Italian
soldiers accomplish incredible feats,

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00:02:31,466 --> 00:02:35,102
such as carrying cannons
up 10,000 foot (3000m) mountains.

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00:02:58,052 --> 00:03:01,743
Cannons that are meant to
dislodge the Austrian enemy.

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00:03:07,706 --> 00:03:12,233
Even in the Alps, the established
defensive tactics of this war persist,

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barbed wire and trenches, except
that here the men are encased in ice.

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With their bayonets, they carve
altars for their heroic chaplain

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and for God,
their protector and only hope.

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After repeated Italian offensives, the
outnumbered Austrians hold their positions

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00:03:50,528 --> 00:03:53,140
but request support
from the Kaiser’s army.

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00:03:59,940 --> 00:04:04,788
October 24, 1917.
German reinforcements arrive.

30
00:04:07,762 --> 00:04:13,891
Among them is Lieutenant and future
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, he is 26.

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00:04:16,632 --> 00:04:19,745
He and his men infiltrate
the Italian lines.

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00:04:20,037 --> 00:04:23,488
He says, “The deeper we
penetrate enemy positions,

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the less they expect it,
and the easier the battle.”

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Rommel takes huge numbers of prisoners.

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It's the beginning of the
end for the Italian front.

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German and Austrian troops
pour down from the mountains

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00:04:46,536 --> 00:04:49,118
and take the city of Caporetto.

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00:04:50,420 --> 00:04:54,282
In less than 10 days,
they advance 60 miles(100km).

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00:04:59,521 --> 00:05:01,995
Early November, 1917.

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00:05:02,370 --> 00:05:06,859
The Germans and Austrians push forward
amidst the debris of the Italian Army.

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00:05:19,229 --> 00:05:22,927
275,000 Italian soldiers surrender.

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00:05:25,662 --> 00:05:30,134
Many shout: “Our enemy is Cadorna,
not the Austrians.”

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General Cadorna says:
“My army has gone on strike.”

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He is stripped of his command.

45
00:05:52,767 --> 00:05:56,191
The carnage of Caporetto was
evoked by Ernest Hemingway

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00:05:56,255 --> 00:05:58,555
in his novel “A Farewell to Arms”.

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At 19 he was a volunteer in
an Italian ambulance unit.

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00:06:04,207 --> 00:06:08,238
Hemingway writes:
“I was always embarrassed by the words -

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sacred, glorious and sacrifice.

50
00:06:12,521 --> 00:06:15,914
The sacrifices here were like
the stockyards at Chicago,

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00:06:15,978 --> 00:06:18,968
if nothing was done with the meat,
except to bury it.

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00:06:20,584 --> 00:06:23,466
There were many words that
you could not stand to hear.

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00:06:23,561 --> 00:06:29,722
Abstract words, such as glory, honor,
courage, or hallow, were obscene.”

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00:06:46,455 --> 00:06:50,386
The spirit of revolt,
fanned by the defeat of Caporetto,

55
00:06:50,462 --> 00:06:53,368
leads to an emergency
conference of Allied leaders,

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00:06:53,432 --> 00:06:56,258
who worry that Italy might
withdraw from the war.

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On November 15th, 1917,
they decide to send reinforcements,

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who are welcomed as saviors.

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00:07:08,708 --> 00:07:12,090
100,000 French and British
troops are assigned to stop

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00:07:12,154 --> 00:07:15,058
the German and Austrian
advance toward Venice.

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00:07:19,631 --> 00:07:22,021
France also sends an Air Squadron.

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00:07:22,517 --> 00:07:25,810
The French aviators enjoy
the perks of this posting.

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00:07:34,660 --> 00:07:38,925
The Allies stop the Austrians,
and take many prisoners.

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00:07:43,152 --> 00:07:46,025
These soldiers, encompassing
all the various peoples

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of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, are fed up.

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00:07:49,808 --> 00:07:53,619
There are rumblings of mutiny,
of independence.

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00:07:55,792 --> 00:08:01,376
Their Emperor Karl I meets
with the Kaiser Wilhelm II.

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00:08:02,353 --> 00:08:05,300
They travel to the front
to appraise the situation.

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00:08:11,250 --> 00:08:15,058
The Emperor is increasingly worried
that the revolt will spread.

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00:08:15,122 --> 00:08:20,334
He continues to favor peace and wants
to negotiate, but not the Kaiser.

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00:08:20,741 --> 00:08:23,267
He still dreams of a
victory that can save them.

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The Kaiser says: “After the war, we
will conclude a major treaty with France

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00:08:29,210 --> 00:08:31,510
and then with all of Europe.

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00:08:32,064 --> 00:08:36,734
That done, I will lead the
real war against England.”

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The Kaiser and his generals
believe they must achieve victory,

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before the Americans
are fully operational.

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The first step is to get
Russia out of the war,

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so German armies can be redeployed
from the eastern to the Western Front.

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With this in mind, General Ludendorff,
still in charge in Germany,

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facilitates the return of Russia's leading
political agitator to St.Petersburg.

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00:09:09,391 --> 00:09:13,653
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, known as Lenin,

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author of writings that
advocate a communist takeover.

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00:09:18,909 --> 00:09:22,015
Lenin has been living
in exile in Switzerland.

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He is 47.

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00:09:27,421 --> 00:09:31,741
The Germans cunningly decide to finance
both Lenin's party and his journey,

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because the communists, who deposed
the Tsar in February of 1917,

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are still fighting the war.

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This unnatural Alliance is not because
Ludendorff supports Lenin's plan

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to ban private property,
but because Lenin claims,

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that he will take Russia out of the war.

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00:09:49,025 --> 00:09:53,345
Ludendorff says: “Lenin will
overthrow the Russian patriots

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00:09:53,516 --> 00:09:57,823
and then I will strangle him.
Him and all his friends.”

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00:10:02,881 --> 00:10:06,848
In a Russia, crushed by war,
a Russia of misery,

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famine, and with an army in chaos.

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00:10:10,856 --> 00:10:17,500
Lenin says: “Peace, bread, land and
freedom are necessary for the masses.”

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00:10:20,424 --> 00:10:23,144
Lenin accuses Kerensky’s
Provisional Government

97
00:10:23,208 --> 00:10:25,879
of prolonging the imperialist butchery.

98
00:10:30,370 --> 00:10:35,340
On November 7th, 1917, October 25th,
in the Russian calendar,

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Lenin executes, what will come to
be known as the October Revolution.

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The sudden brutal arrest of
the Provisional Government

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and the establishment of a bloody
and implacable dictatorship.

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Lenin had written a decade earlier,
during the 1905 revolution:

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“Terror is an instrument
of social hygiene.”

104
00:11:08,189 --> 00:11:12,933
Among the early victims of this
policy are the entire imperial family.

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The great Russian Empire is the
first to fall as a result of the war.

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December 15, 1917.

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German and Russian soldiers
emerge from their trenches,

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cross the barbed wire and fraternize.

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The new communist regime in Moscow
has just signed an armistice

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and undertakes negotiations
to end the war.

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00:12:01,319 --> 00:12:06,333
Lenin says: “We must come to a
compromise with the imperialist bandits.”

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00:12:08,769 --> 00:12:13,449
In Brest-Litovsk, at a train station,
65 miles(105km) from Warsaw,

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peace talks begin
on December 22th, 1917.

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The Germans mockingly welcome
the communists, who harbor no illusions

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about the territorial concessions,
they will be forced to make.

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In Lenin's view, territory has to
be forfeited in order to gain time.

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Time to allow
the revolution to consolidate,

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as civil war is brewing
with the Russian armies

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that remain faithful to imperial rule.

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The communists must gain time, they hope

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that the revolution will
spread around the world.

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For three months, they negotiate with
their enemies from Germany, Austria,

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Turkey, and Bulgaria,
all of whom want their share of the pie.

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With Germany threatening to resume the war
against Russia, Lenin sends Leon Trotsky,

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one of his closest comrades,
to capitulate on every point.

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The peace treaty is signed
on March 3rd, 1918.

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00:13:28,865 --> 00:13:33,342
Russia loses almost 400,000
square miles(1 million km²) of its territory,

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and a quarter of its population
from the Balkans to Poland,

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00:13:37,523 --> 00:13:39,995
which regains its
independence, and Ukraine,

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which promptly enters the
war against the Bolsheviks.

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Ludendorff has succeeded, he can transfer
much of his army to the Western Front.

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For Wilhelm, Hindenburg, and
Ludendorff it's a whole new game.

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In March 1918,
a battered and starving Germany

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00:14:00,535 --> 00:14:04,058
begins massing 2 million
troops on the Western Front.

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00:14:08,401 --> 00:14:11,427
The German troops now
outnumber the enemy.

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00:14:15,313 --> 00:14:19,651
The German High Command
realizes its dream of 1914,

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00:14:20,068 --> 00:14:23,438
uniting his forces to overpower
the French and British,

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00:14:23,890 --> 00:14:27,528
with a series of offensives
along the entire front.

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00:14:33,389 --> 00:14:36,970
Ludendorff repeats,
“We must strike before the Americans

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00:14:37,034 --> 00:14:39,486
can throw their forces into the scale.”

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00:14:42,465 --> 00:14:47,109
He decides on March 21st, 1918,
to try a new tactic.

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00:14:53,386 --> 00:14:57,417
After a short period of shelling,
to prepare the attack, his shock troops,

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following the example of the young Rommel
in Caporetto, infiltrates the enemy lines.

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00:15:02,914 --> 00:15:05,214
The War of movement resumes.

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00:15:06,877 --> 00:15:09,327
For the first time since
the trench warfare began,

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the Allied front is breached.

147
00:15:12,528 --> 00:15:17,152
And just three days later,
the Germans are 75 miles(120km) from Paris.

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00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:22,746
March 23, 1918.

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00:15:23,301 --> 00:15:26,660
Palm Sunday in
L'Étang-la-Ville near Paris,

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the Ferrari family continues
to make charming home movies.

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00:15:30,309 --> 00:15:34,874
Their natural optimism shining through.
René reassures Jacqueline,

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he doesn't believe,
the Germans will advance any further.

153
00:15:38,717 --> 00:15:41,696
In this war, everyone is an expert.

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00:15:45,956 --> 00:15:51,329
Still, for the last six months, Parisians
have lived in fear of German airplanes,

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the twin engine Gothas.

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00:16:00,076 --> 00:16:04,640
These planes are the world's first strategic
bombers. They replace the Zeppelins

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00:16:04,704 --> 00:16:07,271
that have terrorized London and Paris.

158
00:16:21,451 --> 00:16:23,980
Despite air raid sirens and shelters,

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00:16:24,044 --> 00:16:27,733
200 Parisians are killed
by bombs from German airplanes.

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00:16:32,940 --> 00:16:36,318
The army has proposed the
construction of a fake Paris,

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15 miles(20km) from the capital,
a decoy, to trick enemy bombers.

162
00:16:41,637 --> 00:16:48,457
The use of decoys has grown in scope,
phony cannons, phony railroad tracks,

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phony trees, even the hiring of abstract
painters to camouflage military hardware.

164
00:16:58,918 --> 00:17:04,005
A new industry is born,
the production of camouflage netting.

165
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It employs a large
number of female workers.

166
00:17:08,905 --> 00:17:13,975
The project for a phony city of
Paris advances. It's no joke.

167
00:17:15,656 --> 00:17:21,240
On March 29th, 1918, no planes are
spotted in the skies over the capital.

168
00:17:22,075 --> 00:17:25,677
But Parisians discovered the
church of Saint-Gervais in ruins.

169
00:17:26,287 --> 00:17:32,240
It was destroyed by an artillery shell
that left 91 people dead and 68 wounded.

170
00:17:32,951 --> 00:17:35,896
A shell, but how is that possible?

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00:17:36,950 --> 00:17:40,378
Parisians panic and send their
children out of the city.

172
00:17:43,267 --> 00:17:45,962
The Germans are 75 miles(120km) from Paris

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00:17:46,026 --> 00:17:49,800
and even the biggest guns have a range
of no more than 20 miles(30km).

174
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This cannon is indeed 75 miles(120km) away.

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00:18:00,955 --> 00:18:05,294
It's the Kaiser’s secret weapon,
a monster made of three cannon barrels,

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welded end to end,
and named The "Pariser Kanone".

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00:18:08,776 --> 00:18:13,865
Parisians take to calling it “the
Big Bertha”, after Bertha Krupp,

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of the famous arms
manufacturing company.

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00:18:20,103 --> 00:18:24,907
To the north, Canadians and Australian
troops help evacuate civilians.

180
00:18:28,412 --> 00:18:31,029
The situation is so dire
that the British, French,

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00:18:31,093 --> 00:18:35,339
and Belgians decide to unite their
forces under a single command.

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00:18:35,913 --> 00:18:38,855
Marshall Pétain is widely admired.

183
00:18:40,476 --> 00:18:44,629
But the head of the French government,
Georges Clemenceau, 76,

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00:18:44,693 --> 00:18:48,468
called the “Tiger”,
considers Pétain too cautious.

185
00:18:51,197 --> 00:18:55,834
Pétain has declared: “I'm waiting
for the tanks and the Americans.”

186
00:18:56,464 --> 00:19:02,583
The political and military leaders of the
Allied coalition agree on April 14th, 1918,

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00:19:02,647 --> 00:19:09,139
on a supreme commander of their armies,
General Ferdinand Foch, 66, who declares:

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00:19:09,546 --> 00:19:11,846
“Victory is a thing of the will.”

189
00:19:12,093 --> 00:19:16,949
His second in command, general Weygand
sticks out his tongue at the photographer.

190
00:19:17,254 --> 00:19:21,236
He will be the unfortunate leader
of the French army in World War Two.

191
00:19:22,846 --> 00:19:26,180
Foch visits American
headquarters east of Paris,

192
00:19:26,244 --> 00:19:30,082
to ask General Pershing to
engage all his forces in the war.

193
00:19:30,847 --> 00:19:37,269
Pershing refuses, the meeting is stormy,
despite the smiles for the camera.

194
00:19:38,027 --> 00:19:41,731
Pershing says, his troops won't
be operational before 1919.

195
00:19:43,072 --> 00:19:46,765
Exasperated, Foch asked
if he intends to sit it out,

196
00:19:46,829 --> 00:19:49,616
until the French and
British have been defeated.

197
00:19:54,745 --> 00:19:59,108
Pershing does not want to sacrifice
his men in trench warfare.

198
00:19:59,884 --> 00:20:03,977
He is preparing for another
kind of combat, open warfare,

199
00:20:04,300 --> 00:20:09,144
a war of movement over
vast areas and in the sky.

200
00:20:10,670 --> 00:20:14,213
General Billy Mitchell is
getting ready to bomb Germany.

201
00:20:15,143 --> 00:20:18,889
Suddenly, fighter pilots
are on every front page.

202
00:20:19,546 --> 00:20:22,887
Stories of their aircraft and exploits,
reassure those at home,

203
00:20:22,951 --> 00:20:25,251
and earn the much admiration.

204
00:20:36,796 --> 00:20:40,239
Former automobile racer and
Pershing's personal chauffeur,

205
00:20:40,303 --> 00:20:44,645
Eddie Rickenbacker,
becomes an ace with 26 victories.

206
00:20:47,278 --> 00:20:51,397
He says: “Courage is doing
what you are afraid to do.”

207
00:20:53,072 --> 00:20:55,699
He survives the terrible
dogfights in the sky.

208
00:20:58,915 --> 00:21:03,316
But the most famous French airman,
George Guynemer, is shot down.

209
00:21:04,990 --> 00:21:10,419
Other flying aces make history, such as
France’s René Fonck with 75 victories.

210
00:21:13,074 --> 00:21:16,393
And Canada's Billy Bishop with 72.

211
00:21:25,118 --> 00:21:29,794
Their most feared adversary is the
German ace Manfred von Richthofen,

212
00:21:30,130 --> 00:21:32,430
who racks up 80 victories.

213
00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:37,641
He is one of the rare pilots to comment on
the real meaning of air combat victories.

214
00:21:37,907 --> 00:21:44,278
Von Richthofen says: “The murder of a
man is still a murder, even in wartime.”

215
00:21:48,646 --> 00:21:51,564
His noble Prussian blood,
and the color of his airplane

216
00:21:51,628 --> 00:21:54,518
earned him the nickname “The Red Baron”.

217
00:21:56,193 --> 00:22:00,324
He flies a three wing fighter,
the famous Fokker triplane,

218
00:22:00,552 --> 00:22:03,615
remarkable for its
maneuverability and speed.

219
00:22:06,573 --> 00:22:10,711
Von Richthofen develops a new tactic
with the other pilots of his squadron.

220
00:22:11,983 --> 00:22:16,514
He describes it: “With my bright
red plane, I serve as bait.

221
00:22:16,578 --> 00:22:20,079
I fly very low.
My pilots lie and wait above,

222
00:22:20,143 --> 00:22:23,288
ready to dive on any enemy
plane that goes for me.”

223
00:22:28,852 --> 00:22:34,144
April 21th, 1918, Richthofen,
26, prepares for takeoff.

224
00:22:36,599 --> 00:22:41,204
He loads the two machine guns which are
synchronized to fire through the propeller.

225
00:22:47,660 --> 00:22:53,869
Flying above the British lines, pursued
by an enemy pilot, he descends too low.

226
00:22:54,776 --> 00:22:58,409
He is shot in the heart by an
Australian anti-aircraft gun.

227
00:22:59,666 --> 00:23:03,019
The victory over the German Ace
is also claimed by the pilot,

228
00:23:03,083 --> 00:23:06,180
who was in pursuit,
the Canadian Roy Brown,

229
00:23:06,246 --> 00:23:10,198
seen here posing with Richthofen’s
two machine guns to prove it.

230
00:23:14,983 --> 00:23:17,383
Six British pilots carry the German Ace

231
00:23:17,447 --> 00:23:21,352
to his final resting place in the
New Zealand section of the graveyard.

232
00:23:22,649 --> 00:23:26,436
The Maori’s warrior rituals are meant
to help his soul on its journey.

233
00:23:41,679 --> 00:23:47,794
In this month of April 1918, the loss
of the Red Baron hits Germans hard.

234
00:23:50,781 --> 00:23:55,025
The German advance becomes bogged down,
because logistics cannot keep up.

235
00:24:07,355 --> 00:24:11,475
Supplies do not arrive.
The men are hungry.

236
00:24:16,004 --> 00:24:19,905
Officers complain that their men
stopped fighting to forage for any food

237
00:24:19,969 --> 00:24:23,694
that may be left in their sectors,
such as in the Chemin des Dames,

238
00:24:23,758 --> 00:24:27,059
which the Germans themselves
had ravaged the previous year.

239
00:24:37,556 --> 00:24:41,710
From time to time, a lucky few
may find a scrawny, old sheep.

240
00:24:45,852 --> 00:24:50,825
Lack of food, water contaminated
by decomposing bodies, buried

241
00:24:50,889 --> 00:24:56,811
and thrown up again by the shelling,
the staggering proliferation of vermin,

242
00:24:57,980 --> 00:25:00,568
the movement of massive numbers of men.

243
00:25:00,655 --> 00:25:04,674
All these factors create ideal
conditions for the worst epidemics

244
00:25:04,738 --> 00:25:10,563
since the Black Death in the
14th century. The Spanish flu,

245
00:25:10,627 --> 00:25:14,856
so named because it was first reported
in Spain by an uncensored press,

246
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:19,078
hits North America, Africa,
Asia and all of Europe,

247
00:25:19,247 --> 00:25:22,258
leaving 30 million
dead around the world.

248
00:25:28,285 --> 00:25:31,588
On the front, the disease
afflicts all the belligerents.

249
00:25:31,652 --> 00:25:36,850
200,000 British, 400,000 French
and 500,000 German soldiers

250
00:25:36,914 --> 00:25:39,542
are put out of action
by the Spanish flu.

251
00:25:41,721 --> 00:25:46,693
Ludendorff, short of men, empties
military hospitals and orders soldiers

252
00:25:46,757 --> 00:25:49,859
who are sick or convalescing,
back to the front.

253
00:25:54,188 --> 00:25:58,136
And Wilhelm II hands out medals,
the Iron Cross,

254
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:03,343
after the initial successes in this
campaign, but he is visibly worried.

255
00:26:10,254 --> 00:26:14,105
His men have still not broken
the enemy lines once and for all,

256
00:26:14,169 --> 00:26:17,335
and will soon find
themselves under heavy fire.

257
00:26:20,178 --> 00:26:24,066
In the Meuse at Saint-Mihiel,
in what has been a quiet sector,

258
00:26:24,130 --> 00:26:27,158
a German unit surprises
an American position.

259
00:26:28,217 --> 00:26:30,946
On April 23rd, 1918,

260
00:26:45,434 --> 00:26:50,896
the Americans lose 650 men,
General Pershing is furious.

261
00:26:51,826 --> 00:26:56,121
He orders a counter attack, in which
a future president of the United States,

262
00:26:56,185 --> 00:27:00,394
artillery Captain Harry Truman,
distinguishes himself.

263
00:27:12,651 --> 00:27:15,345
The Americans take the German trenches.

264
00:27:15,501 --> 00:27:18,416
They prove their ability
to fight in this hell.

265
00:27:27,905 --> 00:27:30,205
They film their first prisoners.

266
00:27:41,993 --> 00:27:44,893
Pershing has kept his soldiers
from being amalgamated

267
00:27:44,957 --> 00:27:47,526
into the combined allied regiments,

268
00:27:47,671 --> 00:27:51,688
but he can't keep them out of hand to
hand combat to defend their positions,

269
00:27:51,752 --> 00:27:56,704
as here, at Bois Belleau near l'Aisne,
on June 26th, 1918.

270
00:27:57,687 --> 00:28:01,648
The Marines have stopped the German
advance, but at a terrible cost.

271
00:28:01,712 --> 00:28:05,844
The US Secretary of the Navy, Josephus
Daniels, witnessed the fighting.

272
00:28:05,908 --> 00:28:08,460
He writes to Wilson: “The Marines fought

273
00:28:08,524 --> 00:28:11,764
according to American
methods in successive waves,

274
00:28:11,828 --> 00:28:15,316
passing over the bodies of their
dead comrades, and plunging ahead

275
00:28:15,380 --> 00:28:18,136
until they too should be torn to bits.

276
00:28:20,220 --> 00:28:24,697
In all the history of the Marine Corps,
there is no such battle as that one,

277
00:28:24,898 --> 00:28:28,309
fighting day and night without sleep,
often without water,

278
00:28:28,373 --> 00:28:30,937
and for days without hot rations.

279
00:28:31,260 --> 00:28:33,772
They lost three quarters
of their companies.”

280
00:28:40,277 --> 00:28:46,673
July 15th, 1918, the Germans received
the order to resume their advance.

281
00:28:46,830 --> 00:28:52,334
The High Command says: “It's the
“Friedensturm”, the offensive for peace.”

282
00:28:53,518 --> 00:28:55,818
But does anyone believe it?

283
00:28:59,159 --> 00:29:03,080
The shock troops know, they will
now be facing the Americans too.

284
00:29:03,531 --> 00:29:06,301
Soldiers, not exhausted
from four years of war,

285
00:29:06,365 --> 00:29:09,811
and who have every military
resource at their disposal.

286
00:29:11,198 --> 00:29:15,546
General Ludendorff knows that he no
longer has numerical superiority.

287
00:29:16,292 --> 00:29:18,592
It's all or nothing.

288
00:29:21,163 --> 00:29:25,403
He launches his last divisions,
600,000 men,

289
00:29:25,610 --> 00:29:28,902
on either side of Reims toward Paris.

290
00:29:30,128 --> 00:29:32,563
The Second Battle of
the Marne has begun.

291
00:29:35,453 --> 00:29:40,186
The Germans advance through the
same wheat fields as in August 1914.

292
00:29:44,996 --> 00:29:48,704
Suddenly, ahead of them, French troops.

293
00:29:53,530 --> 00:29:58,286
“To the slaughterhouse” is a book by
the soldier Jean Giono, who writes:

294
00:29:58,648 --> 00:30:01,262
“They had watched as all the men left.

295
00:30:01,522 --> 00:30:05,405
It was a thick summer night
smelling of corn and horse sweat.

296
00:30:06,336 --> 00:30:13,071
This war was to be the war to
end all wars. The last war ever.

297
00:30:13,708 --> 00:30:19,567
It was the war to kill off war,
but it killed only men, pointlessly,

298
00:30:20,269 --> 00:30:22,569
all wars are pointless.”

299
00:30:37,902 --> 00:30:41,678
Marshall Foch mounts a powerful
allied counter offensive,

300
00:30:41,742 --> 00:30:45,208
comprising a million men and 500 tanks.

301
00:30:48,719 --> 00:30:54,974
The British Mark IVs, the French
Renault FTs, also used by the Americans,

302
00:30:55,278 --> 00:30:58,776
under the command of Lieutenant
Colonel George Patton.

303
00:31:07,209 --> 00:31:11,583
A prelude to the combined tank
warplane tactics of the next war.

304
00:31:24,188 --> 00:31:28,286
This wounded soldier could easily
be the main character of the novel

305
00:31:28,350 --> 00:31:32,150
“Johnny got his gun”.
A young American soldier,

306
00:31:32,214 --> 00:31:38,432
he loses all his limbs, his sight,
his speech, but not his consciousness.

307
00:31:49,482 --> 00:31:51,873
August 8th, 1918.

308
00:31:52,656 --> 00:31:57,069
Allied tanks overrun the enemy,
so close to Paris.

309
00:32:01,969 --> 00:32:07,592
The German Army, lacking tanks and
reserve troops, completely collapses.

310
00:32:09,649 --> 00:32:14,810
They lose 150,000 men,
including 40,000 taken prisoner.

311
00:32:17,123 --> 00:32:21,216
Ludendorff dubs it:
“The black day of the German army.”

312
00:32:23,191 --> 00:32:26,807
His offensive for peace has failed,
but he has no choice,

313
00:32:26,871 --> 00:32:30,904
except to try to delay for as long
as possible the Allied advance

314
00:32:30,968 --> 00:32:33,268
toward the German border.

315
00:32:33,597 --> 00:32:35,865
The great empires teeter,

316
00:32:35,929 --> 00:32:39,812
Austria-Hungary braces for an
onslaught of the army of the Orient,

317
00:32:39,876 --> 00:32:43,071
troops from France, Great Britain,
Italy, Serbia and Greece

318
00:32:43,135 --> 00:32:46,825
set out from Salonica
to reconquer the Balkans.

319
00:32:49,982 --> 00:32:55,176
The Ottoman Empire is also under threat,
with the British advancing on Damascus.

320
00:32:56,729 --> 00:32:59,029
With support from Arab tribes,

321
00:32:59,117 --> 00:33:02,915
the British complete their conquest
of Turkish ruled Palestine.

322
00:33:07,679 --> 00:33:13,123
On September 30th, 1918,
warriors from Arabia enter Damascus,

323
00:33:14,354 --> 00:33:18,348
led by Emir Faisal,
the son of Hussein, Prince of Mecca.

324
00:33:21,192 --> 00:33:25,623
Faisal is 33 years old,
he owes his victory to his bravery,

325
00:33:26,234 --> 00:33:30,157
and also to his mysterious advisor,
Thomas Edward Lawrence,

326
00:33:30,221 --> 00:33:32,521
a British intelligence agent.

327
00:33:35,322 --> 00:33:38,746
His mission was to foment an
Arab revolt against the Turks

328
00:33:38,810 --> 00:33:42,904
by providing them with money,
weapons, and promises.

329
00:33:45,012 --> 00:33:49,743
Lawrence is 30, he speaks Arabic,
he has adopted local garb,

330
00:33:49,807 --> 00:33:52,434
to be less conspicuous
among the Bedouins.

331
00:33:52,974 --> 00:33:57,985
He later writes: “The British Army
uniform was abominable when camel riding

332
00:33:58,049 --> 00:34:03,487
or when sitting about on the ground. Arab
clothing was cleaner and more decent.”

333
00:34:07,446 --> 00:34:11,654
He loves the desert with a passion,
and has become a guerrilla leader.

334
00:34:12,316 --> 00:34:15,916
In his book, “The Seven
Pillars of wisdom”, he writes:

335
00:34:16,379 --> 00:34:18,897
“The Arab respected force a little,

336
00:34:18,961 --> 00:34:23,626
he respected craft more,
and often had it in enviable degree,

337
00:34:23,690 --> 00:34:27,975
but most of all he respected
blunt sincerity of utterance.”

338
00:34:33,612 --> 00:34:37,874
But the British go back on their
commitment by divvying up with the French,

339
00:34:37,938 --> 00:34:41,070
the Ottoman Empire,
that they had promised to Faisal.

340
00:34:44,472 --> 00:34:50,083
Syria and Lebanon go to the French and
the English create a new country, Iraq.

341
00:34:52,869 --> 00:34:57,904
As consolation, they install Faisal
on the throne of this oil rich nation.

342
00:35:01,701 --> 00:35:06,444
Faisal cannot forgive the man,
known from hereon as Lawrence of Arabia,

343
00:35:06,508 --> 00:35:11,571
for going back on his promise, to return to
him the vast realm of his distant ancestors,

344
00:35:11,635 --> 00:35:15,750
who, in the 8th century, had
conquered a good part of the world

345
00:35:15,814 --> 00:35:18,114
in the name of Islam.

346
00:35:21,843 --> 00:35:25,889
Equally galling to the Arabs,
when the British conquered Jerusalem,

347
00:35:25,953 --> 00:35:29,386
they showed support for the
Jewish population of Palestine.

348
00:35:30,734 --> 00:35:33,860
The British government has
made promises to them too.

349
00:35:38,261 --> 00:35:41,183
The First World War is not over.

350
00:35:44,731 --> 00:35:50,976
France, early October 1918, the eastern
North of the country lie in ruins.

351
00:35:51,234 --> 00:35:55,481
Foch’s powerful counter offensives
advanced along the entire front.

352
00:35:57,289 --> 00:36:02,502
The Americans attack in the Argonne
region, the French in the Meuse,

353
00:36:02,794 --> 00:36:05,465
in Champagne, and in Picardy.

354
00:36:05,604 --> 00:36:08,457
The British armies,
along with the Australian cavalry,

355
00:36:08,521 --> 00:36:12,820
advance toward Cambrai, the
Belgians and Canadians march on Mons.

356
00:37:54,281 --> 00:37:58,740
Many Germans surrender. When their
final effort to hold the line fails,

357
00:37:58,996 --> 00:38:02,835
their leaders still try to convince
them that defeat is impossible.

358
00:38:03,959 --> 00:38:09,357
But many are too young
for battle or too old.

359
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:12,780
Most feel only relief.

360
00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:22,890
There's no need for
battlefield propaganda now.

361
00:38:23,727 --> 00:38:27,754
Camera crews go back to
Germany to film the revolution.

362
00:38:31,995 --> 00:38:36,249
Sailors are mutinying, workers
councils control the major cities.

363
00:38:37,115 --> 00:38:39,724
Ludendorff feels his power slipping.

364
00:38:40,221 --> 00:38:45,178
In private, he speaks of armistice, but
in public he defends the Army's record.

365
00:38:46,570 --> 00:38:51,494
On October 25th, 1918
Ludendorff issues a proclamation:

366
00:38:52,719 --> 00:38:56,654
“For us, as soldiers,
capitulation is unacceptable.

367
00:38:56,718 --> 00:38:59,552
We must resist with all our might.”

368
00:39:01,021 --> 00:39:03,439
This is the beginning of the legend,
known as

369
00:39:03,503 --> 00:39:07,596
“The stab in the back”.
For both, Ludendorff and Hitler,

370
00:39:07,787 --> 00:39:12,162
the army had not been defeated by
the enemy, but by the politicians.

371
00:39:13,853 --> 00:39:18,031
A new government, under the socialists,
strips Ludendorff of his command.

372
00:39:18,251 --> 00:39:20,551
He flees to Sweden.

373
00:39:22,295 --> 00:39:27,666
On October 29th, 1918,
Wilhelm II travels to Spa in Belgium

374
00:39:27,730 --> 00:39:31,355
to his general headquarters to
make sure the army is behind them.

375
00:39:31,857 --> 00:39:36,188
But the regime in Berlin has changed
and now demands his abdication.

376
00:39:37,169 --> 00:39:41,253
No one, least of all Wilson,
wants to negotiate with the man,

377
00:39:41,317 --> 00:39:44,246
seen as one of the main
instigators of the war.

378
00:39:46,842 --> 00:39:51,484
On November 9th, 1918,
Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates

379
00:39:51,548 --> 00:39:54,157
and seeks refuge in the Netherlands.

380
00:39:59,198 --> 00:40:02,459
It's the end for the great
empires and their monarchs.

381
00:40:06,143 --> 00:40:09,506
The Golden Imperial carriage
of Austria is sold off.

382
00:40:10,047 --> 00:40:13,973
The Viennese no longer swoon at the
sight of the beautiful princess Zita.

383
00:40:15,103 --> 00:40:17,403
They are too weak from hunger,

384
00:40:21,497 --> 00:40:23,844
as is the Austro-Hungarian army,

385
00:40:24,186 --> 00:40:27,825
defeated by the Italians
at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto.

386
00:40:42,364 --> 00:40:47,658
The massive Austro-Hungarian Empire
sinks, as does its greatest battleship,

387
00:40:47,722 --> 00:40:53,146
the 20,000 ton Szent Istvan,
torpedoed by the Italians.

388
00:41:01,596 --> 00:41:05,569
Emperor Karl goes into exile with Zita.

389
00:41:07,626 --> 00:41:09,905
November 11th, 1918.

390
00:41:09,969 --> 00:41:15,315
Marshall Fosch’s special train enters
the station of Compiegne, north of Paris.

391
00:41:19,293 --> 00:41:22,026
In this carriage,
hidden from the cameras,

392
00:41:22,090 --> 00:41:27,086
the envoys of the provisional German
government sign the armistice.

393
00:41:28,478 --> 00:41:32,918
Germany accepts defeat and
requests an end to hostilities.

394
00:41:34,553 --> 00:41:38,569
On the front,
the ceasefire is set for 11am.

395
00:41:40,876 --> 00:41:45,680
The 11th hour of the 11th
day of the 11th month.

396
00:41:48,953 --> 00:41:53,904
It has lasted four years.
75 million men were mobilized.

397
00:41:54,611 --> 00:41:59,010
10 million soldiers were killed.
7000 Portuguese,

398
00:41:59,232 --> 00:42:05,853
13,000 Belgians, 90,000 Bulgarians,
120,000 Americans,

399
00:42:06,111 --> 00:42:12,869
130,000 Serbians,
200,000 Romanians, 350,000 Turks,

400
00:42:13,534 --> 00:42:19,004
450,000 Italians,
900,000 troops from the British Empire,

401
00:42:19,147 --> 00:42:24,463
from Canada, Newfoundland, Australia,
New Zealand, India, South Africa,

402
00:42:25,349 --> 00:42:28,713
1,200,000 troops from Austro-Hungary.

403
00:42:29,331 --> 00:42:32,976
1,400,000 soldiers from
France and its colonies,

404
00:42:33,132 --> 00:42:36,375
Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco.

405
00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:42,668
1,700,000 Germans, 1,800,000 Russians,

406
00:42:43,068 --> 00:42:45,847
20 million soldiers were wounded.

407
00:42:58,689 --> 00:43:01,190
8 million civilians died.

408
00:43:02,177 --> 00:43:07,200
There's not a family that doesn't
count someone killed, amputated,

409
00:43:07,438 --> 00:43:11,739
gassed, or orphaned.
But around the world,

410
00:43:11,803 --> 00:43:17,842
joy erupts as if to erase the horrendous
numbers of the first mass killing in history.

411
00:43:47,308 --> 00:43:51,782
Leaders shape the memory of the war,
by commissioning countless monuments,

412
00:43:51,846 --> 00:43:56,379
that depict their soldiers,
marching towards sacrifice and glory.

413
00:43:58,097 --> 00:44:00,349
They never depict the firing squads

414
00:44:00,413 --> 00:44:03,630
and repression imposed to
keep order in the ranks.

415
00:44:04,012 --> 00:44:08,781
Despite the mass slaughter, these
monuments almost always seek to convince us

416
00:44:08,845 --> 00:44:12,828
that it is right to kill and to
be killed for one's homeland.

417
00:44:32,031 --> 00:44:37,197
On December 13th, 1918, in Paris,
Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau

418
00:44:37,261 --> 00:44:41,643
and his entire government, await the
arrival of an exceptional visitor.

419
00:44:42,643 --> 00:44:45,891
The President of the United States,
Woodrow Wilson.

420
00:44:46,740 --> 00:44:50,600
This is the first time in history
that a president of the United States

421
00:44:50,664 --> 00:44:55,779
leaves his country and crosses the
Atlantic, but the situation is grave.

422
00:44:55,912 --> 00:44:59,800
The armistice has been signed,
the peace must be made.

423
00:45:00,175 --> 00:45:02,475
Many questions remain open.

424
00:45:02,830 --> 00:45:08,582
Countless conflicts arise, and now
America has a place at the table.

425
00:45:10,108 --> 00:45:14,232
Wilson's first official act is
of course to inspect his troops.

426
00:45:18,698 --> 00:45:23,512
He says to Pershing: “I'm not
sure everyone is glad to see me.”

427
00:45:25,436 --> 00:45:28,962
Wilson is aware that because of
its role at the bargaining table,

428
00:45:29,026 --> 00:45:32,685
America is now a dominant
figure on the world stage.

429
00:45:37,161 --> 00:45:41,888
Wilson champions what he calls “The
right of nations to self-determination”.

430
00:45:43,152 --> 00:45:46,743
This ideal opens the door to
innumerable demands for nationhood

431
00:45:46,807 --> 00:45:49,107
and the drawing of new borders.

432
00:45:55,268 --> 00:45:57,982
His second act is one of compassion.

433
00:45:58,046 --> 00:46:03,100
He travels to Reims, to witness the
unimaginable damage to the cathedral.

434
00:46:08,620 --> 00:46:11,376
Wilson surveys the
extent of the disaster.

435
00:46:16,064 --> 00:46:20,140
He says:
“The whole world is sick to the heart,

436
00:46:20,204 --> 00:46:24,871
at the sight of the beautiful cities and
fields of France struck by catastrophe.”

437
00:46:25,732 --> 00:46:30,446
Seven and a half million acres of land
(3 million hectares) are no longer fit for agriculture.

438
00:46:30,559 --> 00:46:35,387
It is forever polluted from chemical
warfare, the millions of artillery shells,

439
00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:39,117
and the countless corpses that will
have to be collected and buried.

440
00:46:55,910 --> 00:46:58,530
Refugees just want to go home.

441
00:46:59,481 --> 00:47:03,927
They try, but hundreds of villages
have been wiped from the map.

442
00:47:08,904 --> 00:47:11,824
Never again,
proclaim the pacifist movements.

443
00:47:19,092 --> 00:47:22,033
The US president,
the French and the British,

444
00:47:22,318 --> 00:47:27,718
come up with the idea of an international
body, designed to avoid war in the future.

445
00:47:27,782 --> 00:47:30,641
They call it “The League of Nations”.

446
00:47:34,657 --> 00:47:38,580
On June 28th, 1919,
at the Palace of Versailles,

447
00:47:38,644 --> 00:47:42,322
five years to the day after
the assassination in Sarajevo,

448
00:47:42,466 --> 00:47:47,141
delegates from all the nations that were
at war with Germany sit down together.

449
00:47:47,415 --> 00:47:51,783
After lengthy negotiations,
they are ready to sign the peace treaty.

450
00:47:55,593 --> 00:47:59,213
The famous Hall of Mirrors has
been chosen for the signing.

451
00:47:59,831 --> 00:48:03,613
It was here that Wilhelm I was
crowned emperor of Germany,

452
00:48:03,677 --> 00:48:06,565
after defeating France in 1871.

453
00:48:10,172 --> 00:48:12,472
In this highly symbolic setting,

454
00:48:12,833 --> 00:48:16,646
the German representatives must
sign the Treaty of Versailles,

455
00:48:17,008 --> 00:48:19,308
which is imposed by the victors.

456
00:48:19,657 --> 00:48:22,235
Hitler will later call it the 'Diktat'.

457
00:48:22,890 --> 00:48:26,269
The Allies divide up Germany's
colonies among themselves

458
00:48:26,333 --> 00:48:28,998
and impose harsh war reparations.

459
00:48:36,536 --> 00:48:38,836
The treaty has many critics.

460
00:48:39,844 --> 00:48:43,950
The renowned British economist
John Maynard Keynes writes:

461
00:48:44,318 --> 00:48:48,741
“If we take the view that Germany must be
kept impoverished, and her children starved

462
00:48:48,805 --> 00:48:53,453
and crippled, vengeance,
I dare predict, will not limp.”

463
00:48:59,627 --> 00:49:05,417
But for Clemenceau, what matters above all,
is the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France

464
00:49:05,515 --> 00:49:08,343
with the rich coalfields
of the Saar Valley.

465
00:49:08,407 --> 00:49:12,734
Austro-Hungary ceases to exist,
with some areas going to Italy,

466
00:49:12,798 --> 00:49:17,116
and others becoming new
countries between 1919 and 1922.

467
00:49:17,549 --> 00:49:20,724
Germany is divided in two
by the Polish corridor,

468
00:49:20,788 --> 00:49:23,887
intended to give Poland
access to the sea.

469
00:49:24,235 --> 00:49:26,535
Russia is excluded from the treaty.

470
00:49:26,610 --> 00:49:32,279
After a bloody civil war,
it becomes the Soviet Union, the USSR.

471
00:49:37,497 --> 00:49:42,234
Wilson sails back home,
Americans are hostile to the treaty,

472
00:49:42,298 --> 00:49:44,598
and Congress fails to ratify it.

473
00:49:45,740 --> 00:49:49,678
The senator from Pennsylvania,
Philander Knox, tells Wilson:

474
00:49:49,742 --> 00:49:55,022
“Mr. President, I am convinced,
after the most painstaking consideration

475
00:49:55,086 --> 00:49:59,544
that I can give, that this treaty
does not spell peace but war.

476
00:49:59,913 --> 00:50:05,382
War more woeful and devastating,
than the one we have but now closed.”

477
00:50:06,927 --> 00:50:11,416
The United Kingdom is the
only great empire to survive.

478
00:50:15,279 --> 00:50:18,710
King George V,
his prime minister Lloyd George,

479
00:50:18,774 --> 00:50:22,516
and Marshall Foch embrace
their roles as victors.

480
00:50:22,965 --> 00:50:25,265
But there is division among them.

481
00:50:25,436 --> 00:50:29,146
The priority for the British is
to prevent the return of war,

482
00:50:29,418 --> 00:50:33,268
whereas in the eyes of the French,
Germany must be punished.

483
00:50:37,296 --> 00:50:41,809
Pierre Ferrari, now 18,
dressed in his father's uniform,

484
00:50:41,873 --> 00:50:44,173
plays the part of a soldier.

485
00:50:44,400 --> 00:50:48,077
He refuses to shake hands with his
brother, who is playing a German.

486
00:50:51,012 --> 00:50:55,381
A whole generation of German
children will grow up humiliated

487
00:50:56,363 --> 00:50:58,663
and dreaming of revenge.

488
00:51:02,663 --> 00:51:18,663
TIMING & TRANSCRIPTION danel32
/eng. to.est@gmail.com/