1 00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:18,319 Fort Loncin, doomed Belgian obstacle in Germany's path. 2 00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:26,316 The Fort's guardians, among the first of the war's millions of casualties. 3 00:00:30,520 --> 00:00:34,559 In the opening months, the mould for a new kind of war was cast in the West. 4 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:38,034 Industrialised states locked in conflict; 5 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:41,999 over seven million men armed with the latest technology; 6 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:45,719 eleven million civilians under brutal occupation. 7 00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:40,351 A rare wartime recording of Kaiser Wilhelm II addressing the German people. 8 00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:24,630 Germany, with 3.8 million men, 9 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:28,190 faced a similar-sized French Army to her west. 10 00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:31,352 But three million Russians were attacking in the east. 11 00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:36,798 Germany's resources were spread between two fronts, 12 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:41,351 and she couldn't easily smash through France's chain of forts along the border. 13 00:02:43,400 --> 00:02:45,436 But Belgium's defences were weaker. 14 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:54,278 The idea of going through Belgium was General Schlieffen's, 15 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,909 his way of storming into France and encircling the French Army. 16 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:03,280 But Schlieffen had retired in 1905. 17 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:06,432 And by 1914, his successors had no illusion 18 00:03:06,520 --> 00:03:09,876 that there was any swift victory to be had in a two-front war. 19 00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:16,718 Indeed, at the start of Germany's war, there was an air of pessimism, desperation, improvisation. 20 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:31,078 General Von Moltke, the German commander, acknowledged the uncertainties. 21 00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:34,270 I will do what I can. 22 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:36,920 We are not superior to the French. 23 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:47,070 The Germans went to war less with a master plan, 24 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:50,436 than a recognition that they would have to take the war bit by bit. 25 00:03:51,480 --> 00:03:53,436 And the first bit was Belgium. 26 00:03:56,520 --> 00:03:59,478 The Germans knew Britain had guaranteed Belgian neutrality, 27 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:02,358 but reckoned Britain would come into the war sooner or later, 28 00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:05,000 whichever route the Germans took into France. 29 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:20,469 The Belgians put their faith in reinforced concrete forts, armed with German Krupp guns. 30 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:32,798 The Germans brought their massive siege guns, the Big Berthas, named after Krupp's daughter, to smash them. 31 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:43,391 The monster advanced in two parts, pulled by 36 horses. 32 00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:46,396 The pavement trembled. 33 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:51,429 The crows went mute with consternation at the appearance of this phenomenal apparatus. 34 00:04:54,680 --> 00:04:57,399 Then came the frightful explosion. 35 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:04,234 The crowd was flung back, the earth shook like an earthquake 36 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:07,471 and all the window panes in the vicinity were shattered. 37 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:27,715 Colonel Victor Naessens was in Fort Loncin, on the receiving end. 38 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:39,756 Once the thick metal shutters were pulled down, the heavy metal doors shut, 39 00:05:39,840 --> 00:05:42,593 the fort, and its fate, were sealed. 40 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:50,758 The ventilation system has failed. 41 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:54,673 The chimney of the generator is totally blocked. 42 00:05:54,760 --> 00:05:57,354 The fort is also filling with concrete dust. 43 00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:02,552 The men's chests heave to get air. They're suffocating. 44 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:05,552 They don't look like humans any more, 45 00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:08,313 their features distorted with agony and hate. 46 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:15,070 A German shell had hit the magazine... 47 00:06:17,760 --> 00:06:24,154 bringing down the six-foot-thick concrete roof, crushing 250 soldiers to death. 48 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:28,270 The survivors were horrifically burnt. 49 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:37,991 By the 16th of August, all the forts around Liége had fallen. 50 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:42,070 But Belgium's war was only beginning. 51 00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:48,270 The Germans claimed that Belgian civilian snipers, franc-tireurs, were firing at them 52 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:50,316 from garret windows and rooftops. 53 00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:55,996 In fact, most of the shots came from small units of retreating French and Belgian soldiers... 54 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:02,111 or from nervous German troops shooting at each other. 55 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:09,678 Nevertheless, General von Moltke issued a warning to the people of Belgium. 56 00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:15,510 Anybody who in any form participates without autorization, 57 00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:18,114 will be considered as franc-tireur, 58 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:20,634 and summarily shot on the spot. 59 00:07:25,880 --> 00:07:29,953 Rare German newsreel of suspected franc-tireurs being taken prisoner. 60 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:40,237 Lurid stories filtered back to raw German troops leaving for the front, 61 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:42,390 heightening their sense of paranoia. 62 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:50,117 At all training sessions we're told about the nastiness of the French, 63 00:07:50,200 --> 00:07:54,239 that our wounded have their eyes gouged out, their noses and ears cut off. 64 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:58,552 We're given to understand we are to act without mercy. 65 00:08:07,440 --> 00:08:12,468 The pressure to maintain a speedy advance through a hostile population led to atrocities. 66 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:17,909 These were not just the impetuous actions of frightened troops. 67 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:22,790 They became part of a systematic plan to terrorise and demoralise the enemy. 68 00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:30,549 We've been ordered to kill everyone and wipe off the map, part of the left bank of the Meuse. 69 00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:34,394 It's a tremendously honourable task and we'll be famous for ever. 70 00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:49,074 The Belgian town of Tamines, 71 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:51,116 on the 22nd of August 1914. 72 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:58,319 French troops kept up a storm of fire at the advancing Germans from across the River Sambre. 73 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:07,878 The Germans rounded up civilians, including Fernand Scohier, for a special task. 74 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:12,276 We are forced to advance, acting as a shield for the Germans 75 00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:13,918 who follow behind us. 76 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:17,788 But they fall, mown down by French bullets. 77 00:09:17,880 --> 00:09:20,519 One of them charges at us like a man possessed, 78 00:09:20,600 --> 00:09:24,434 and only stops when his bayonet has gone right through poor Materne, 79 00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:27,796 who leaves behind a widow and three orphans. 80 00:09:29,560 --> 00:09:31,198 After the French withdrew, 81 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:36,115 the Germans were convinced that Belgian snipers were active, so they torched the town. 82 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:44,794 They held hostages like Adolphe Seron captive in the church overnight, 83 00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:49,116 then escorted them down the Rue de la Station in the morning. 84 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:52,556 The soldiers up on carts beat us brutally. 85 00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:58,795 The priests in particular were badly treated, jokes, swearing, blows. 86 00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:15,997 Nearly 400 men, women and children, among them the priest, Father Donnet, 87 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:18,913 were herded into the main square by the river bank. 88 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:21,996 A German firing squad was waiting for them. 89 00:10:23,040 --> 00:10:25,600 A whistle blew, and the shooting began. 90 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:31,198 There was total chaos among the crowd. 91 00:10:31,280 --> 00:10:33,669 Some fell dead, others pushed blindly. 92 00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:38,230 I found myself on the ground, the tide moving above me. 93 00:10:41,160 --> 00:10:43,116 I was suffocating. 94 00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:45,873 I was hit by two bullets in the kidneys. 95 00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:48,633 I felt their holes drill into me. 96 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:57,072 Arthur Fauvelle fell on top of me, dead. 97 00:10:59,840 --> 00:11:04,197 No matter how hard I tried, I couln't get out from under the pile of corpses. 98 00:11:04,280 --> 00:11:08,159 They cut the head off Achill Leroy, the coalman. 99 00:11:08,240 --> 00:11:12,074 I saw it, the head separated from the trunk. 100 00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:21,353 The ultimate cruelty was when the soldiers checked the victims one by one. 101 00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:26,796 Any still alive they bayoneted violently, then threw them in the Sambre. 102 00:11:39,560 --> 00:11:43,838 Photographs of some of those who remarkably survived the German bullets... 103 00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:47,076 and those who fell victim. 104 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:53,359 A total of 6.500 French and Belgian civilians, 105 00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:58,275 including women and children, were killed in the first month of the war. 106 00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:06,750 180.000 Belgian refugees crossed the Channel to Britain. 107 00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:11,594 The stories of German atrocities against "plucky little Belgium", 108 00:12:11,680 --> 00:12:16,515 provided ideal propaganda to rally Allied public opinion behind the war. 109 00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:22,037 The image of the "murderous Hun", the "Barbaric Boche", was born. 110 00:12:30,800 --> 00:12:32,552 But what drove this nation, 111 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:38,590 whose soldiers massacred women and children, razed towns to the ground, shot priests, 112 00:12:38,680 --> 00:12:43,959 yet had the engraving on their belt buckles, "Gott Mit Uns" - "God is with us"? 114 00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:15,640 The monument erected outside Leipzig, 115 00:13:15,720 --> 00:13:20,350 to commemorate the centenary of the "Battle of Nations", was dedicated yesterday. 116 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:26,676 In the interior of the monument is a crypt 117 00:13:26,760 --> 00:13:30,469 to the honour of the heroes, who fell in the fight with Napoleon. 118 00:13:30,560 --> 00:13:33,233 Amid uproarious cheering, 119 00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:38,394 the Emperor reached the broad flight of steps leading to the foot of the monument. 120 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:44,992 The whole concourse sang the beautiful choral "Now Thank We All Our God". 121 00:13:52,800 --> 00:13:57,430 In 1913, Kaiser Wilhelm II celebrated his silver jubilee. 122 00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:03,793 Germany had not known war for 40 years, and was enjoying spectacular economic growth. 123 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:15,832 The Kaiser depicted his country not as an aggressor with territorial ambitions, 124 00:14:15,920 --> 00:14:18,559 but as the custodian of international concord. 125 00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:23,753 Germany is standing, guarding the peace of the earth 126 00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:29,517 at the door of the temple of peace, not only of Europe but of the whole world. 127 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:33,349 But Germany was only as old as that peace, 128 00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:37,718 welded just 40 years before out of 39 separate states. 129 00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:45,755 The Leipzig memorial was a building block for German nationalism. 130 00:14:46,800 --> 00:14:50,349 It harked back to a time when German states had joined with Britain and Russia 131 00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:52,032 to defeat Bonaparte's France. 132 00:14:55,840 --> 00:15:00,311 Its monumental architecture sought to embed the nation's roots in a shared past. 133 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:12,159 But the Kaiser, in 1913, realised that the process of unification was not complete. 134 00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:14,196 And that spelt weakness. 135 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:19,036 Whereas England forms a political unit, 136 00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:25,309 Germany resembles a mosaic in which the individual pieces are still clearly distinguishable. 137 00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:30,758 This is shown by the army which is still made up of contingents from the various German states, 138 00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:32,717 all wearing different uniforms. 139 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:37,834 The young German Reich needs institutions which are clearly German. 140 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:42,869 Beneath one flag, Germany remained extremely diverse: 141 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:46,110 Catholic South, and Protestant North. 142 00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:48,879 Rural East... 143 00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:51,916 and industrialised West. 144 00:15:56,400 --> 00:15:58,470 Germany seemed ultra-conservative, 145 00:15:58,560 --> 00:16:03,031 but boasted a modern welfare state which inspired Britain's pre-1914 reforms. 146 00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:10,551 I have been shown round one of the new labour exchanges by the mayor of Strasbourg. 147 00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:14,674 I saw some of the poorest fellows in German society, 148 00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:17,149 but they all had an insurance card, 149 00:16:17,240 --> 00:16:22,234 entitling them to benefit in sickness, invalidity, infirmity and old age. 150 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:27,193 There is no doubt that these labour exchanges are tremendous. 151 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:32,438 The honour of introducing them into England would be in itself a rich reward. 152 00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:42,079 Men would die for Britain in the First World War who did not have the vote. 153 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:44,435 Perhaps half failed to meet the qualifications. 154 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:49,315 But in Germany, there was suffrage for all men over 21. 155 00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:53,870 The largest party in the Reichstag, or parliament, was socialist, 156 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:55,951 and yet none of this added up to democracy. 157 00:16:57,640 --> 00:17:01,349 Germany's government was accountable not to her people, via the Reichstag, 158 00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:03,396 but to her emperor. 159 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:09,199 The call for political reform was growing loud, 160 00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:12,431 but Germany entered the First World War governed by an autocrat. 161 00:17:12,520 --> 00:17:16,957 And his character was as burdened by paradox as his country was. 162 00:17:22,120 --> 00:17:27,675 One day the Kaiser is a Soldier-King, rigid, traditional. 163 00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:32,072 Suddenly he is the reform king, embracing the worker as a brother. 164 00:17:33,120 --> 00:17:37,156 Next he is the modern king, treating the past with contempt, 165 00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:42,234 regarding the factory as a temple, with electricity powering all of Germany. 166 00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:51,076 Kaiser Wilhelm II was Queen Victoria's oldest grandson... 167 00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:56,033 cousin to both Britain's George V and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. 168 00:17:58,040 --> 00:18:02,113 Wilhelm was born with a withered left arm, for which he compensated with sports: 169 00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:04,316 sailing, riding and hunting. 170 00:18:05,360 --> 00:18:09,990 He had an immature streak, dressing up and playing often cruel practical jokes. 171 00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:19,072 Wilhelm's right arm was incredibly powerful. 172 00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:20,798 With his rings turned inwards, 173 00:18:20,880 --> 00:18:25,237 he would squeeze the hands of visiting dignitaries so hard they would cry out. 174 00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:34,236 A king's insecurities matter little if he has no power, 175 00:18:34,320 --> 00:18:38,996 but the Kaiser was Germany's Commander in Chief, its supreme warlord. 176 00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:46,958 In no area has the Kaiser views of his own and he doesn't know what to do. 177 00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:50,191 Sadly he is putty in the hands of clever people, 178 00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:53,556 and makes surprising leaps of judgment all over the place. 179 00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:57,349 Everything he decides is motivated by his desire to be popular. 180 00:19:03,760 --> 00:19:07,309 The Kaiser was most comfortable in the company of his officers. 181 00:19:08,360 --> 00:19:10,920 He was obsessed with uniforms and militarism. 182 00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:22,910 His army's ethos was rigidly professional, 183 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:25,753 though, even in peacetime, half were conscripts. 184 00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:31,359 They were highly disciplined, and the guardians of the German state. 185 00:19:31,440 --> 00:19:33,510 The French were old enemies. 186 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:37,989 The last time they'd fought, in 1870, 187 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:42,631 the French had used civilian snipers, franc-tireurs, against them. 188 00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:48,111 The German Chief of Staff's own uncle led that campaign, 189 00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:52,512 and passed on the crucial lesson to the German soldiers of 1914. 190 00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:59,556 International rules do not work when soldiers are in constant fear for their lives, 191 00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:03,189 worried that a civilian may pick up a rifle and shoot them. 192 00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:10,197 It must also be remembered that the greatest deed in war is the speedy ending of the war, 193 00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:13,955 and every means to that end must remain open. 194 00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:20,992 German troops going into Belgium and France used terror from the start. 195 00:20:23,480 --> 00:20:24,708 The civilian population, 196 00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:28,509 caught between the weight of historic fears and current military necessities, 197 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:31,034 was not going to get the benefit of any doubt. 198 00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:42,350 Belgian and French forces bore the brunt of the German onslaught. 199 00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:46,273 They were soon joined by British troops. 200 00:20:56,040 --> 00:20:59,396 In all, 100.000 men of the British Expeditionary Force 201 00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:02,233 crossed the Channel in the early weeks of the war. 202 00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:08,709 On the 21th of August, British troops moved into position alongside the French 5th Army, 203 00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:12,190 near the Belgian town of Mons, close to the French border. 204 00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:28,428 Two days later, the British, with 70.000 men, were hit by a German force four times the size. 205 00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:37,233 I focused the telescope and saw a number of little grey figures. 206 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:40,278 More and more were appearing. 207 00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:56,795 Women started to wail and rushed for home followed by the men, 208 00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:03,189 while children torn by curiosity lagged behind turning to see. 209 00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:10,438 In a few seconds all these civilians were fleeing along the roads. 210 00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:23,034 The Allies started an epic retreat south, just ahead of the German tidal wave. 211 00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:32,714 The war on the Western Front did not begin in the trenches. 212 00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:36,718 These early months were mobile, fast, dangerous. 213 00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:42,718 In the first four weeks, the German Army lost over a quarter of a million men, 214 00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:44,756 killed, wounded and missing. 215 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:54,709 The front was constantly shifting, giving men no time to dig in. 216 00:22:55,760 --> 00:23:00,470 There was nowhere to hide in fields swept by machine guns and rapid-firing artillery. 217 00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:13,718 British soldier Edward Dwyer won the Victoria Cross on Hill 60 in Belgium. 218 00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:16,798 He was just 19. 219 00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:22,915 He recalled the retreat from Mons on a sound recording made in 1915. 220 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:25,916 He was killed a year later. 221 00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:30,914 I was already in the army when the war broke out, 222 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:34,197 and went to France on August 13, 1914. 223 00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:39,035 You people over here don't realise what our boys went through in those days. 224 00:23:39,120 --> 00:23:41,714 That march from Mons was a nightmare. 225 00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:46,316 Unless you'd been through it you can't imagine what an agonising time it was. 226 00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:49,392 We used to do from 20 to 25 miles a day. 227 00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:54,633 There was only one thing that could cheer us up on the march and that was singing. 228 00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:56,870 We're here because 229 00:23:57,320 --> 00:23:59,834 We're here because 230 00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:04,118 We're here because we're here 231 00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:06,270 We're here because 232 00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:09,109 We're here because 233 00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:13,079 We're here because we're here 234 00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:25,392 France has just been the object of a violent and premeditated attack. 235 00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:29,917 She will be heroically defended by all her sons. 236 00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:33,549 Nothing will break their sacred union. 237 00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:39,909 Once again she stands before the universe for liberty, justice and reason. 238 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:41,956 Vive la France! 239 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:53,151 At the war's start, Poincaré had appealed to all France for national unity. 240 00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:55,754 By the 2nd of September 1914, 241 00:24:55,840 --> 00:25:01,039 the Germans were just 30 miles from Paris, and the Sacred Union was starting to crack. 242 00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:09,152 Trenches were dug, sandbags filled, barricades erected. 243 00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:16,998 The government left the capital for Bordeaux, triggering a general exodus. 244 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:22,153 A million Parisians, a third of its inhabitants, fled the city. 245 00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:31,509 The fate of Paris and France would be decided on the River Marne. 246 00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:38,517 Fought along a 300-mile front, it was a battle France had to win. 247 00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:53,874 But although the Germans had their enemy's capital almost in sight, 248 00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:56,520 their advance was outstripping supply lines. 249 00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:02,238 There were few lorries in 1914; horses pulled the guns and wagons. 250 00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:06,955 General von Moltke, the German commander, grew alarmed. 251 00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:17,596 We have hardly any horses left in the army which can take another step. 252 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:20,955 We don't want to fool ourselves. 253 00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:24,749 We have had successes, but we are not victorious yet. 254 00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:29,395 Victory means annihilation of the enemy's resistance. 255 00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:34,718 But where are all the French prisoners and guns we should have been capturing? 256 00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:39,435 The French have retreated in a disciplined way, according to a plan. 257 00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:43,756 The most difficult time lies ahead of us. 258 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:50,552 The German right wing was sweeping down towards Paris. 259 00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:53,716 The French had detached troops from the east, 260 00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:57,475 moving them by rail to Paris, to attack the Germans in their flank. 261 00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:03,592 The Allies now outnumbered the Germans, and chose their moment to strike. 262 00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:10,358 As the Germans neared Paris, a dangerous gap opened up between their 1st and 2nd Armies. 263 00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:15,389 The British Expeditionary Force would be driven in like a wedge. 264 00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:23,598 To the French it is their own home and it makes them mad. 265 00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:27,552 We somehow fight on with no increased animosity. 266 00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:30,791 But the French really are giving everything, and it makes one wonder 267 00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:35,635 if people in England realise what the advance of an invading army over a country means. 268 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:39,957 On the eve of battle, 269 00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:43,919 the French Commander in Chief, Marshal Joffre, addressed his officers. 270 00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:51,035 When a battle begins upon which the nation's salvation depends, we cannot look back. 271 00:27:51,120 --> 00:27:55,352 We must make every effort to attack and repel the enemy. 272 00:27:56,440 --> 00:28:01,876 Troops who can no longer advance must at all cost hold the captured ground 273 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:03,953 and die rather than retreat. 274 00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:11,509 The Marne would consign the set-piece battle, fought on a single field in a day, to history. 275 00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:15,672 It was on the cusp between old warfare and new. 276 00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:20,358 Around Paris, great armies wheeled and manoeuvred, 277 00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:22,396 as they had done for centuries. 278 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:26,712 But to the east, the French dug trenches to defend their positions. 279 00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:29,268 Here, the battle lines would become static. 280 00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:40,273 The Battle of the Marne began on the 5th of September 1914. 281 00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:00,911 The fighting has begun. 282 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:03,992 French shells explode incessantly in front of us. 283 00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:06,514 We seek shelter in a sunken lane. 284 00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:10,719 Stomachs loudly remind us of our hunger. 285 00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:15,032 Constant shelling makes it impossible to reach up and fetch an apple. 286 00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:20,790 Some block their ears, so as not to lose their nerve with the incessant machine-gun fire. 287 00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:25,992 Our ranks are decimated. We cannot hold this position much longer. 288 00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:35,437 Pieces of shrapnel whistled past me. I felt I'd been hit. 289 00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:38,432 My knee was giving way as I walked. 290 00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:40,511 I wasn't sure what had happened. 291 00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:44,752 I stopped and pushed my finger through a hole in my trousers. 292 00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:47,832 My finger kept on going into my leg. 293 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:53,869 We turn towards the gunfire that rattles out on our right, beyond Barcy, 294 00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:56,952 where the shrapnel still rains down. 295 00:29:58,000 --> 00:29:59,956 The houses are burning. 296 00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:06,434 I hear from both sides, "It's our own guns shooting at us!" 297 00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:12,270 I stick very close to the ground, face against the earth. 298 00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:44,238 For all its modernity, there were elements of the battle that Napoleon would have recognised. 299 00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:49,038 Cavary, armed with lances, played an active role. 300 00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:53,156 No-one wore tin helmets. 301 00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:58,756 And as these original colour photographs of the Marne show, 302 00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:03,675 some soldiers' uniforms owed more to the parade ground than to the needs of camouflage. 303 00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:10,515 There were easy targets in the early months. 304 00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:14,160 My rifle went to my shoulder. 305 00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:17,430 Two Frenchmen fell. 306 00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:19,715 I fired again. Nothing. 307 00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:21,756 My magazine was empty. 308 00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:27,159 I reached for my bayonet. I expected to be killed by a bullet any second. 309 00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:30,994 But then the rest of my men burst through the undergrowth, 310 00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:33,435 and the enemy vanished. 311 00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:38,597 The Germans were in a shade of field grey. 312 00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:43,356 But the British were even more difficult to spot, as another German enviously noted. 313 00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:49,437 The colour of the English clothing is much more suited to the terrain than ours. 314 00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:53,638 It's a sort of brownie green, a really dirty colour. 315 00:31:53,720 --> 00:31:57,952 This really is an advantage, although we're still going to win. 316 00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:06,149 With men dug in along so vast a front, aerial observation became vital. 317 00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:11,830 Balloons and planes gathered crucial information. 318 00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:14,354 They also began to take on a more active role. 319 00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:23,511 A French plane suddenly appears. 320 00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:25,318 It turns and drops something. 321 00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:31,192 The air fill with a strange whistling followed by a violent explosion. 322 00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:36,116 It's dropped a bomb! 323 00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:40,552 Seven horses killed, three men lost. 324 00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:43,995 For us this is something completely new. 325 00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:48,392 None of us know how to defend ourselves from this monster of the skies. 326 00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:56,519 German reconnaissance planes monitored the worsening situation at the Marne. 327 00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:05,229 Pilots' reports went to Count von Bulow's 2nd Army headquarters at Montmort. 328 00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:12,118 Handwritten reports like this one revealed the steady advance of the Allies 329 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:15,715 into the lethal gap between his men and the 1st Army. 330 00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:22,035 On the 8th of September 1914, von Bulow ordered his forces to retreat. 331 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:37,312 We continued to fall back, passing through French villages. 332 00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:40,756 In the faces of every inhabitant we saw scorn and derision. 333 00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:49,391 The women leaned out of their windows, and thumbed their noses and sneered at us. 334 00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:51,994 To them we were the defeated army. 335 00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:00,909 The French referred to the battle as "The Miracle on the Marne". 336 00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:06,511 France had been saved, but at a cost of a quarter of a million casualties, 337 00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:08,830 the same losses as the Germans. 338 00:34:12,240 --> 00:34:16,677 No future battle on the Western Front would average so many casualties per day. 339 00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:21,432 Louis de la Grandiere, a French ambulance driver, 340 00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:24,796 was based at St. Sophie farm in the thick of the battle. 341 00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:35,749 We are surrounded by dead bodies, 342 00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:37,910 thousands, piled one on top of another. 343 00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:41,633 We've got used to the shelling now, we don't even look up. 344 00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:51,353 The whole area has been devastated, the local people gone. 345 00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:04,313 33 German generals were quietly sacked. 346 00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:09,672 Moltke was replaced by Erich von Falkenhayn, after a tactful pause. 347 00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:14,471 The German people were never told the truth about the Marne. 348 00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:19,998 Indeed, the myth at the war's end would be that the German Army was undefeated in the field. 349 00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:24,472 But in a sense, they lost the First World War here, 350 00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:27,597 never having again the chance they had at the Marne 351 00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:29,955 to win a resounding victory against the Allies. 352 00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:41,195 Germany was now committed to a long war, and she didn't have the resources for it. 353 00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:48,952 In November 1914, Falkenhayn ordered his troops to fall back to high ground and dig in. 354 00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:58,071 Unable to break through, the Allies had few options but to dig in as well. 355 00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:09,030 The pattern for the Western Front was now set, 356 00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:12,635 with its line of trenches stretching from the Channel to Switzerland. 357 00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:21,149 500 miles of mud and horror that would be home to the living and the dead for over three years. 358 00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:27,670 27-year-old Bernard Montgomery, the future victor of Alamein, 359 00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:29,716 wrote home to his mother. 360 00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:34,112 The situation is strange here. 361 00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:37,351 I eat peppermints with a dead man beside me in the trench. 362 00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:40,750 The German trenches are only 700 yards away. 363 00:36:40,840 --> 00:36:45,550 The weather is perfectly vile, very wet, and it's starting to get cold too. 364 00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:49,315 My clothes are soaked and muddy but it's too cold to take them off. 365 00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:54,155 Any warm things you can send me and the men will be greatly appreciated. 366 00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:09,795 And beyond no-man's-land, beyond the German lines, 367 00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:13,156 11 million French and Belgian men, women and children, 368 00:37:13,240 --> 00:37:15,800 were learning to adapt to their changed lives, 369 00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:18,917 as civilians under German occupation. 370 00:37:50,240 --> 00:37:53,710 Tuesday, cruel Tuesday. 371 00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,228 The German troops ride past my window. 372 00:37:57,320 --> 00:38:00,551 I hear a guttural order "Aarrarrnach!" 373 00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:06,116 Soon the town is filled with Boche. The beasts! The swines! 374 00:38:06,200 --> 00:38:11,513 They confiscate all weapons and demand a quarter of a million francs in gold. 375 00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:17,952 The extraordinary diary of a ten -year-old French schoolboy, 376 00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:20,759 titled, "Journal of the Franco-Boche War". 377 00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:32,117 Yves Congar lived with his family in this house in Sedan, eastern France. 378 00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:37,870 Yves' mother encouraged him to write a diary to keep him busy during the summer holidays. 379 00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:40,679 It became a unique record of the occupation. 380 00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:47,273 What Yves had seen, when the Germans marched into Sedan, 381 00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:48,793 was forced requisitioning. 382 00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:02,879 At the outset, Germany adopted a policy of state intervention for war production. 383 00:39:04,080 --> 00:39:07,675 In peacetime, Germany imported raw materials, 384 00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:10,399 but she knew that the Allies would impose a blockade. 385 00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:14,558 So German industrialist Walther Rathenau 386 00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:19,236 drew up plans to ensure the most effective use of what materials Germany had. 387 00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:25,950 But after a few weeks of war, 388 00:39:26,040 --> 00:39:32,033 the German state had most of France and Belgium's industrial and mineral resources at its disposal. 389 00:39:35,440 --> 00:39:37,749 These were now taken back to Germany. 390 00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:41,628 Millions of tons of raw materials, plant and foodstuffs. 391 00:39:50,160 --> 00:39:53,072 But the asset-stripping wasn't limited to government. 392 00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:56,835 The German Army was ordered to live off the occupied territories. 393 00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:01,599 What the soldiers wanted, they took. 394 00:40:03,560 --> 00:40:07,075 Moved on towards Fromelles. 395 00:40:07,160 --> 00:40:09,116 The inhabitants were pensioners. 396 00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:15,916 Our boys found a stash of wine and eggs. We helped ourselves. 397 00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:22,278 In the meantime the church was shot to bits. 398 00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:24,316 Not a single house was spared. 399 00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:32,195 They have taken, rather stolen from us, straw, copper, oats, 400 00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:35,195 and the belongings of over eight million people. 401 00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:41,359 They have looted the cellars, the empty houses, the walnut trees, 402 00:40:41,440 --> 00:40:45,069 the telegraph poles and the livestock. 403 00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:52,796 One doctor in Lille pleaded with the German authorities. 404 00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:58,590 My patient Madame Lefebvre is 86 years old. 405 00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:02,116 She is in a state of great weakness and serious malnutrition, 406 00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:06,478 which makes it absolutely necessary for her to keep her mattress. 407 00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,594 It wasn't just material loss. 408 00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:21,913 The Germans rounded up thousands of teenage boys and girls for forced labour. 409 00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:33,635 The last three weeks we have spent in the most terrible anguish and moral torture possible for a mother's heart. 410 00:41:33,720 --> 00:41:40,239 At three in the morning, these German heroes go out with a military band and machine guns and bayonets fixed, 411 00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:43,949 to hunt down women and children, to take them away. 412 00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:47,798 God knows where or why. 413 00:41:54,120 --> 00:41:56,680 Yves' brother got a job at the railway station. 414 00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:01,556 Robert is unloading the wagons of animal carcasses, 415 00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:06,350 already green and covered with rotten pieces of flesh crawling with vermin. 416 00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:11,070 He has to touch these stinking dead animals with his bare hands. 417 00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:23,480 Occupied France was run like a military state, 418 00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:27,314 as this film of the German military police in Lille shows. 419 00:42:28,400 --> 00:42:32,439 Clocks were set to German time, new identity papers issued. 420 00:42:37,240 --> 00:42:40,676 The Germans generally made us parade at 5 a.m. 421 00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:46,236 One night however the whole commune was called out at 1:00 in the morning. 422 00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:50,359 An old man of 92 asked to be allowed to stay in bed, 423 00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:53,796 but the troops made fun of him, pushed him out of the house 424 00:42:53,880 --> 00:42:57,236 and said that "fresh air was good for the dying". 425 00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:05,877 Ordinary people had stark choices to make about how to deal with the occupation. 426 00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:13,789 There was some resistance against the Germans, mostly passive. 427 00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:24,275 Belgian opposition was spurred on by the head of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Mercier. 428 00:43:25,480 --> 00:43:27,755 His letter, "Patriotism and Endurance", 429 00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:31,833 was read out in every church across Belgium in February 1915. 430 00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:37,199 God will save Belgium my brethren, you cannot doubt it. 431 00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:39,999 Nay, rather He is saving her. 432 00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:44,915 Across the smoke of conflagration, across the stream of blood, 433 00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:48,390 have you not glimpses of His love for us? 434 00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:54,150 There is no perfect Christian who is not also a perfect patriot. 435 00:43:54,240 --> 00:43:58,597 Whence, in truth, come this irresistable impulse, 436 00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:03,310 which carries the will of the whole nation in a single effort of resistance, 437 00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:05,550 in the face of the hostile menace? 438 00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:09,916 Mercier kept up his resistance, 439 00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:13,834 calling the Germans an "army of evil" and "Lucifer's own". 440 00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:18,031 This embarrassed not just the Germans, but the Vatican. 441 00:44:19,840 --> 00:44:23,037 Like Pope Pius XII during the Second World War, 442 00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:26,715 Pope Benedict XV refused to condemn German atrocities. 443 00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:31,639 The Germans placed Mercier under house arrest in a bid to silence him, 444 00:44:31,720 --> 00:44:34,075 but it only increased his popularity. 445 00:44:36,920 --> 00:44:39,992 The Germans also unwittingly created another martyr. 446 00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:47,396 Edith Cavell was the British matron of a hospital in Brussels. 447 00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:56,113 After Belgium was overrun, she helped Allied soldiers escape into neutral Holland. 448 00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:02,394 In August 1915, she was caught, tried, and condemned to death. 449 00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:08,431 The night before her execution by firing squad, she spoke to the prison chaplain. 450 00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:13,318 I have no fear or shrinking. 451 00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:17,109 I have seen death so often that it is not fearful or strange to me. 452 00:45:17,200 --> 00:45:21,478 And this I would say standing as I do in view of God and Eternity. 453 00:45:21,560 --> 00:45:24,597 I realise that patriotism is not enough. 454 00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:28,468 I must have no hatred or bitterness against anyone. 455 00:45:32,200 --> 00:45:36,113 The British exploited to the hilt stories of German atrocities against women, 456 00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:38,475 especially the shooting of Edith Cavell. 457 00:45:40,920 --> 00:45:45,710 Films like this one were made to show in neutral countries, particularly America. 458 00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:00,951 I closed her eyes and placed her body in the coffin. 459 00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:06,629 She was the bravest woman I ever met, going to her death with poise and bearing. 460 00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:10,997 She had however acted as a man towards the Germans, 461 00:46:11,080 --> 00:46:13,548 and deserved to be punished as a man. 462 00:46:21,720 --> 00:46:27,192 The Germans rounded up underground leaders, then posted notices of their execution. 463 00:46:28,240 --> 00:46:30,913 And they used another method to ensure civil obedience. 464 00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:35,278 They took hostages, including Yves Congar's father. 465 00:46:37,040 --> 00:46:39,235 The hour is near. 466 00:46:39,320 --> 00:46:41,515 The last meal together. 467 00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:43,909 The goodbyes, the hugs. 468 00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:45,797 I want to cry. 469 00:46:47,080 --> 00:46:49,548 Father walks to the station with just us boys. 470 00:46:50,800 --> 00:46:53,360 I bite my lip and feel my eyes tightening. 471 00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:59,156 Father says, "I love you. Farewell. Remember me." 472 00:47:00,200 --> 00:47:02,156 Then he kissed us. 473 00:47:02,240 --> 00:47:06,119 Every night I'll say a prayer for my father and the other hostages. 474 00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:11,835 Civilian men, women and children were packed into cattle trucks, 475 00:47:11,920 --> 00:47:15,833 sent to concentration camps as hostages and forced labourers. 476 00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:21,518 Several thousand French and 58.000 Belgians. 477 00:47:24,600 --> 00:47:27,353 The rounding up of civilians by the enemy has been tragic. 478 00:47:27,440 --> 00:47:30,193 The weaker, because they were the most harmless, 479 00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:33,556 were detained without understanding the reason for their arrest, 480 00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:38,156 without time to collect any belongings, suddenly considered as criminals, 481 00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:45,228 then taken to concentration camps, to assure security in the occupied areas. 482 00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:49,677 These civilians became simple pawns in the hands of their captors. 483 00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:54,395 A doctor's daughter from Lille learned what her father was suffering. 484 00:47:54,480 --> 00:47:57,074 Papa was locked up for five days, 485 00:47:57,160 --> 00:48:00,675 for refusing to assist an operation carried out by a Boche. 486 00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:03,718 All food packages are opened and classified. 487 00:48:03,800 --> 00:48:06,872 The prisoners come each day to collect their provisions. 488 00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:12,557 But there's only one container, milk, fish, fruit, all tipped into one bucket, 489 00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:15,518 because the Germans use the tins to make grenades. 490 00:48:39,120 --> 00:48:41,395 Far from being broken by the German occupation, 491 00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:46,349 Yves Congar, who became a prisoner in the Second World War, was politicised by it. 492 00:48:51,480 --> 00:48:53,357 There's hardly any bread. 493 00:48:53,440 --> 00:48:56,193 The swines will leave us to die of hunger. 494 00:48:57,320 --> 00:48:58,435 Too bad! 495 00:48:58,520 --> 00:49:03,674 After all we are French and if we have to die, we shall die. 496 00:49:03,760 --> 00:49:05,830 But France will be victorious. 497 00:49:27,480 --> 00:49:30,313 In the next episode of The First World War: 498 00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:35,952 global conflict rocks empires, as Germany beats the Royal Navy in the Pacific, 499 00:49:36,040 --> 00:49:38,508 and maverick armies rampage through Africa.