1 00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:25,719 By summer 1918, the war had been going for four terrible years, 2 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:27,756 and the end seemed nowhere in sight. 3 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:33,636 Unless we can look ahead and plan for 1919, 4 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:37,872 we shall be in the same melancholy position next year as we are this. 5 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:42,993 Do the means of beating the German armies in 1919 exist? 6 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:45,996 Have we the willpower? 7 00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:32,830 Since spring 1918, the Allies on the Western Front had been battered by German offensives. 8 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:41,117 But in August, the Allies secretly assembled a strike force in northern France. 9 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:44,913 100.000 men of the Australian and Canadian Corps 10 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:46,956 were backed by 400 tanks... 11 00:01:49,920 --> 00:01:52,115 1.900 planes... 12 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:54,316 2.000 guns... 13 00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:57,356 three cavalry divisions. 14 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:04,039 General Sir Henry Rawlinson, British commander at the Somme in 1916, 15 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:06,076 had learned from the past. 16 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:09,116 He embraced new ideas. 17 00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:13,671 The close combination of men and machinery, the importance of achievable goals. 18 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:21,753 My only difficulty will be to get enough divisions and to keep the thing secret. 19 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:30,708 Rawlinson aimed his assault at a weak 12-mile sector of the German line, east of Amiens. 20 00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:35,114 He had the French in support to the south. 21 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:41,429 General Erich Ludendorff, joint commander in chief of the German Army, 22 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:43,795 neither knew of an attack, nor feared one. 23 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:49,956 We should wish for nothing better than to see the enemy launch an offensive. 24 00:02:52,040 --> 00:02:55,396 100.000 infantry are standing grimly, silently. 25 00:02:56,440 --> 00:02:59,512 All feel to make sure their bayonets are firmly locked. 26 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:03,195 The section officer counts the last seconds. 27 00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:24,636 The speed was terrific. 28 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:28,554 Within a few moments the Huns running from our tanks and infantry, 29 00:03:28,640 --> 00:03:31,518 our guns were coming up into new forward positions. 30 00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:36,997 It was glorious to be in the rush of an advance. 31 00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:45,314 The Allied attack sent the Germans reeling. 32 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:52,558 By nightfall, Rawlinson's Fourth Army had advanced eight miles. 33 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:02,959 They killed and seriously wounded 9.000 Germans, and captured 18.000 more. 34 00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:11,434 Ludendorff declared the 8th of August, "the Black Day of the German Army." 35 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:16,035 General Paul von Hindenburg steadied him, 36 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:19,590 but both knew the Battle of Amiens was the beginning of the end. 37 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:25,636 Mighty as Germany looked on the map, 38 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:29,349 her armies on the Western Front were near the end of their tether, 39 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:32,398 exhausted, hungry, fed up. 40 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:39,153 Their generals had given them neither clear aims nor adequate supplies. 41 00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:43,277 The Germans had lost nearly a million men since March. 42 00:04:48,280 --> 00:04:51,636 Ludendorff blamed the home front for spreading defeatism. 43 00:04:54,280 --> 00:04:56,748 I was told of behaviour which I openly confess 44 00:04:56,840 --> 00:04:59,877 I should not have thought possible in the German Army. 45 00:04:59,960 --> 00:05:03,316 Whole bodies of our men had surrendered to single soldiers. 46 00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:07,228 Germany's problems went beyond poor morale. 47 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:16,759 She had lost a string of vital battles. 48 00:05:18,840 --> 00:05:22,037 The battle of the factories and technology. 49 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:25,076 Germany had built just 20 tanks. 50 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:28,076 The Allies, over 4.000. 51 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:33,716 She'd lost the battle of manpower. 52 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:37,759 A quarter of a million Americans were pouring into France every month. 53 00:05:39,800 --> 00:05:41,756 She'd lost the battle of command. 54 00:05:41,840 --> 00:05:45,992 The Allies worked together under the leadership of Marshal Ferdinand Foch. 55 00:05:48,280 --> 00:05:52,114 But Ludendorff's generals despaired of his lack of strategic plan, 56 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:54,270 and some feared for his mental health. 57 00:05:56,280 --> 00:05:58,475 Great crisis this morning, very nerve-wracking. 58 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:03,192 Ludendorff is a bundle of nerves. It's never his fault. 59 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:06,276 He looks everywhere for scapegoats. 60 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:17,429 After Amiens, Foch orchestrated a series of attacks up and down the German lines. 61 00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:21,836 First French, then British, now American. 62 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:25,948 The Germans fell back under the rain of blows. 63 00:06:31,280 --> 00:06:35,751 While the Allies were pulling together, the Central Powers were tearing apart. 64 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:41,078 In Austria-Hungary, a third of a million soldiers had deserted. 65 00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:44,955 The people at home were starving. 66 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:47,395 The multi-ethnic empire was splintering. 67 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:52,156 Its Poles, Czechs and Bosnians, saw defeat as their chance to pursue independence. 68 00:06:56,880 --> 00:07:02,672 In mid-September, the Austrian Emperor Karl told the Kaiser he wanted to negotiate with the Allies. 69 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:04,716 The Kaiser begged him not to. 70 00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:10,514 I cannot refrain from expressing to you my astonishment and sorrow 71 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:12,750 that you could even think of doing this. 72 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:15,912 You must know how destructive this course of action is. 73 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:21,750 But Karl had already sent his proposal for talks to the Allies, 74 00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:24,308 and they just threw it back in his face. 75 00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:29,913 Another great empire allied to Germany was dying. 76 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:34,758 The 600-year-old Ottoman Empire was a spent force. 77 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:39,839 Britain was driving the Turks out of Mesopotamia, Palestine and Syria. 78 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:44,031 They were now fighting for their lives, not for Germany. 79 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:51,834 Then the third link in Germany's alliance chain started to give way. 80 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:56,713 Germany needed Bulgaria to hold the Balkan Front. 81 00:07:56,800 --> 00:08:01,669 But by September 1918, a huge Allied force had gathered in Macedonia. 82 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:07,437 If the Bulgarians folded, the Allies' way would be clear to Austria-Hungary. 83 00:08:15,880 --> 00:08:19,953 The Bulgarians were dug into these trenches, their morale cracking. 84 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:25,795 Crown Prince Boris was almost attacked by his own soldiers when he visited the front. 85 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:31,560 We are naked, barefoot and hungry. 86 00:08:33,280 --> 00:08:35,714 An empty knapsack does not guard a frontier. 87 00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:44,953 The First World War had begun in the Balkans, with Serbia as the tinderbox. 88 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,037 Now, as part of the Allied force, she was in at the kill. 89 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:52,150 And for the Serbs it was personal. 90 00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:55,994 In 1915, the Bulgarians had helped kick them out of their homeland. 91 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:00,190 Here was the Serbs' chance for revenge. 92 00:09:06,280 --> 00:09:09,909 The heavy artillry made the Bulgarians crawl deep into their shelters. 93 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:14,117 All the excitement made my hair stand on end. 94 00:09:14,200 --> 00:09:15,758 My blood was up. 95 00:09:24,680 --> 00:09:28,355 The Allies smashed through the Bulgarian lines, and rolled north. 96 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:32,989 On the 28th of September, Bulgaria sued for peace. 97 00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:40,837 When he heard this, Ludendorff suffered a fit, collapsing to the floor, foaming at the mouth. 98 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:49,653 The very next day, he learned the Allies had breached the Hindenburg line along the St. Quentin canal, 99 00:09:49,740 --> 00:09:53,197 Germany's last fixed line of defence on the Western Front. 100 00:10:04,680 --> 00:10:06,636 Two days later, on the 1st of October, 101 00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:10,395 Ludendorff summoned his senior staff to his headquarters in Spa. 102 00:10:11,440 --> 00:10:14,477 Among them, Colonel Albrecht von Thaer. 103 00:10:15,560 --> 00:10:17,516 Ludendorff stood up. 104 00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:20,751 His face was pale and full of deep worry. 105 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:27,079 He said it was his duty to tell us that our military condition was terribly serious. 106 00:10:28,280 --> 00:10:30,555 Bulgaria has already been lost. 107 00:10:30,640 --> 00:10:34,553 Austria and Turkey are both at the end of their strength. 108 00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:38,155 Any day now, our Western Front could be breached. 109 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:42,653 Therefore the Supreme Army Command demands 110 00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:48,076 that a proposal for bringing about peace be made without delay. 111 00:10:51,680 --> 00:10:57,152 Ludendorff's stark decision to ask for an armistice, or cease-fire, was a terrible shock. 112 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:00,396 Generals quietly sobbed. 113 00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:04,716 When Ludendorff left the room, Thaer followed him. 114 00:11:06,280 --> 00:11:11,354 I grabbed his right arm with both hands and said: "Your Excellency, can it be true? 115 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:14,557 Is that the last word? Am I awake or dreaming?" 116 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:16,596 I was compltely beside myself. 117 00:11:18,400 --> 00:11:22,837 He remained calm and gentle and said to me with a deeply sorrowful smile: 118 00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:27,550 "Unfortunately that is how it is and I see no other way out." 119 00:11:45,680 --> 00:11:48,353 To the German people in October 1918, 120 00:11:48,440 --> 00:11:51,432 the prospect of an armistice seemed heaven-sent. 121 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:59,193 A great sigh of relief escapes from the lips of the tormented nation. 122 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:03,671 "This means peace", you can hear at every corner of the streets. 123 00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:09,392 and "peace" smiles in the eyes of every little shop girl in the baker's or grocer's. 124 00:12:14,280 --> 00:12:19,718 Germany's soldiers had kept her politicians in the dark about the string of military disasters. 125 00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:27,314 So the news that they wanted an armistice came as a bolt from the blue. 126 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:31,832 The deputies were absolutely broken. 127 00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:35,595 Ebert turned white as a sheet and didn't utter a single word. 128 00:12:35,680 --> 00:12:39,229 Stresemann looked as if he'd had an accident. 129 00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:42,596 Secretary Walow is believed to have left the room saying: 130 00:12:42,680 --> 00:12:46,593 "The only thing left to do is to shoot oneself in the head." 131 00:12:50,880 --> 00:12:52,836 But peace talks were still a way off. 132 00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:57,156 First, the terms of the cease-fire would have to be settled. 133 00:12:58,560 --> 00:13:01,393 Germany approached US President Woodrow Wilson, 134 00:13:01,480 --> 00:13:04,358 asking him to broker the Armistice with the Allies. 135 00:13:04,440 --> 00:13:09,639 They chose him, because he'd already proposed a peace plan, the Fourteen Points. 136 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:14,269 French Prime Minister Clemenceau was unimpressed. 137 00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:16,316 Fourteen points? 138 00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:19,358 The good Lord has only ten. 139 00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:26,714 Wilson's points were an idealistic package of liberal principles, 140 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:31,715 including rights to national self-determination, and a League of Nations to watch over it all. 141 00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:36,839 Germany believed Wilson would secure a fair deal for them on this basis. 142 00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:42,400 We are ready to be just to the German people, 143 00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:46,075 to deal fairly with the German power as with all others. 144 00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:49,152 To propose anything but justice to Germany, 145 00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:52,994 would be to renounce and dishonour our own cause. 146 00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:59,148 But Wilson also insisted Germany had to admit defeat and democratise. 147 00:14:02,880 --> 00:14:07,715 And Britain and France didn't want to talk about a new world order until the war was over. 148 00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:14,709 While the politicians argued, the fighting raged on. 149 00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:18,554 Germany's U-boats continued to sink Allied ships in the Atlantic. 150 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:25,839 And as her armies retreated across France, they looted and laid waste. 151 00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:38,758 14-year-old Yves Congar had kept a diary 152 00:14:38,840 --> 00:14:42,196 throughout the German occupation of his home town of Sedan. 153 00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:48,637 He longed for freedom, but dreaded the price the French would have to pay for it. 154 00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:02,636 So here it is. 155 00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:08,317 The great moment we've spent the last four years, waiting, hoping, begging for. 156 00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:11,949 And yet it brings with it the horror of bombing. 157 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:15,396 Gas, fire, perhaps death. 158 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:18,956 We may never see our friends again. 159 00:15:19,040 --> 00:15:22,874 Many might be killed, the entire town destroyed. 160 00:15:23,960 --> 00:15:27,111 Our one great hope is an armistice. 161 00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:30,953 The First World War did not go quietly. 162 00:15:37,880 --> 00:15:42,112 The final months were more lethal than the trench war of past years had been. 163 00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:46,789 Men now had to leave the safety of trenches and cross open ground, 164 00:15:46,880 --> 00:15:50,634 with little place to hide from sweeping machine-gun and shellfire. 165 00:15:57,480 --> 00:16:02,838 British casualties in autumn 1918, were higher than those exactly a year before, 166 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:07,391 during the terrible battle of Passchendaele, the epitome of trench slaughter. 167 00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:20,639 And the closer to peace, the harder it was to bear the losses. 168 00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:34,831 It was a slaughterhouse, just a mass of mangled flesh and blood. 169 00:16:35,880 --> 00:16:38,235 Bob's head was hanging off. 170 00:16:38,320 --> 00:16:41,551 You coulnd't tell which was Harris and which was Kempton. 171 00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:43,596 What was left of them was in pieces. 172 00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:47,355 We knew the enemy was beaten. 173 00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:54,118 After three years in France and the end so near, Bob killed. 174 00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:58,038 Harris, who'd left a young bride, killed. 175 00:16:59,080 --> 00:17:02,550 Jimmy Fooks, whose time was nearly up, killed. 176 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:07,149 Kempton, who also was due for leave, killed. 177 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:15,315 General Haig had seemed careless with his men's lives at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. 178 00:17:16,360 --> 00:17:20,399 Now he argued for stopping the war without a total defeat of the Germans. 179 00:17:23,120 --> 00:17:26,078 The Britih alone might bring the enemy to his knees, 180 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:29,596 but why expend more Britih lives and for what? 181 00:17:30,760 --> 00:17:36,676 French General Charles Mangin insisted this would only store up trouble for the future. 182 00:17:38,080 --> 00:17:40,036 No, no, no! 183 00:17:40,120 --> 00:17:43,078 We must go right into the heart of Germany. 184 00:17:43,160 --> 00:17:45,674 The Germans will not admit they were beaten. 185 00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:49,355 It is a fatal error and France will pay for it. 186 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:58,277 But with winter setting in, any invasion of Germany would have to wait till spring 1919. 187 00:17:58,360 --> 00:18:01,511 By then, the Germans might have renewed their strength. 188 00:18:05,880 --> 00:18:09,919 Marshal Foch believed France would get what she wanted by negotiation. 189 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:11,956 No need to battle on to Berlin. 190 00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:19,235 So the Allies set out to achieve on paper what their armies had not done in the field, 191 00:18:19,320 --> 00:18:22,392 obtain Germany's unconditional surrender. 192 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:32,549 Foch chose to meet the Germans in Compiégne, 45 miles northeast of Paris, 193 00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:36,474 in a secluded forest through which a railway line conveniently ran. 194 00:18:41,280 --> 00:18:45,034 In his train on the 8th of November, Foch handed the armistice conditions 195 00:18:45,120 --> 00:18:49,398 to politician Matthias Erzberger, leader of the German delegation. 196 00:18:51,880 --> 00:18:55,759 Erzberger was visibly shaken by the terms Germany would have to accept 197 00:18:55,840 --> 00:18:57,592 just to obtain a cease-fire. 198 00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:03,797 Germany would have to evacuate Belgium and France, 199 00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:06,713 surrender her fleet, and pay compensation. 200 00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:11,230 The Allies would continue their blockade, disarm the Germans, 201 00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:13,356 and occupy the left bank of the Rhine. 202 00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:17,310 Germany was being forced to capitulate. 203 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:28,958 Meanwhile, the country Erzberger represented was falling apart, its cities swept by revolution. 204 00:19:35,280 --> 00:19:38,078 The German people, exhausted by war and hunger, 205 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:40,833 wanted democracy in and the Kaiser out. 206 00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:55,036 But it was the German Army which forced the Kaiser to abdicate. 207 00:19:55,120 --> 00:19:58,351 He asked his generals to turn the Army against the people. 208 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:00,396 But the generals refused. 209 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:08,839 The Army will return home in good order under its generals, 210 00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:11,832 but not under the command of Your Majesty. 211 00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:15,754 It no longer stands behind Your Majesty. 212 00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:22,636 The Prussian dynasty of Frederick the Great was over. 213 00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:31,352 The next day, the Kaiser slipped into exile in Holland. 214 00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:37,357 He would live long enough to hear that Germany had beaten France in 1940. 215 00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:42,791 He never accepted that in 1918 his army had been defeated. 216 00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:47,838 For 30 years the Army was my pride. 217 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:52,869 Now after four and a half brilliant years of war, with unprecedented victories, 218 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:59,034 it was brought down by a stab in the back from the dagger of the revolutionaries, 219 00:20:59,120 --> 00:21:02,715 at the very moment when peace was within reach. 220 00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:10,470 Most Germans rejoiced at the news that the Kaiser had gone. 221 00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:16,631 I felt as if a heavy weight had suddenly been lifted from my heart. 222 00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:19,678 This definitely means the armistice will be signed. 223 00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:27,236 Back in the forest at Compiégne, 224 00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:31,313 Erzberger now found himself representing the German Republic. 225 00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:39,232 At 5 a.m. on the 11th of November, he signed the Armistice. 226 00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:56,634 Hostilities temporarily cease 11:00 today, when all offensive action will cease. 227 00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:01,230 Present outpost line to be maintained 228 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:07,190 and no troops to pass east of it other than road et cetera reconnaisance and working parties. 229 00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:11,955 No conversation with enemy to be allowed. 230 00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:34,717 The most remarkable feature, was the uncanny silence. 231 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:37,756 The war was over. 232 00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:43,510 Peace and safety was a new thing. 233 00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:45,556 It could not be grasped in a moment. 234 00:22:51,120 --> 00:22:53,076 A dreadful blow! 235 00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:55,116 I was just beginning to enjoy it. 236 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:14,591 No more slaughter, no more maiming, no more mud and blood. 237 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:19,719 No more shovelling bits of men's bodies and dumping them into sandbags. 238 00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:25,231 No more writing those dreadfully difficult letters to the next of kin of the dead. 239 00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:31,478 A strange and unreal thought was running through my mind. 240 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:33,516 I had a future. 241 00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:53,430 It was the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. 242 00:23:57,880 --> 00:24:00,997 A great cheer arose all along the line. 243 00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:05,437 We could hear the men 1.000 yards in front raising holy hell. 244 00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:11,356 The French behind our position were dancing, shouting and waving bottles of wine. 245 00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:21,231 We were stupefied to see crowds of Boche running over to us between the minefields, 246 00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:23,550 with their hands up and yelling like mad. 247 00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:26,598 They were crazy for cigarettes and chocolate. 248 00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:31,151 We had some burned rice that our boys woulnd't eat and they fell on it like wolves. 249 00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:50,231 Our soldiers were choked with emotion. 250 00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:54,472 I thought about my family, about all the women of France. 251 00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:58,632 Except those who are alone and who cry. 252 00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:24,150 One great wave of joy swept round the world and found its way to every nook and cranny. 253 00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:28,995 No-one was more delighted than our African soldiers, who cheered themselves hoarse. 254 00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:35,076 Everybody came out. 255 00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:38,630 Disabled old men, old women in slippers, 256 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:41,712 and housewives leaving lunch on the stove. 257 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:44,756 I wept with joy. 258 00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:48,276 5.000 Indian soldiers lit their torches. 259 00:25:48,360 --> 00:25:52,319 The hilltops burst into fire, with scores of bonfires. 260 00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:56,870 I found myself arm in arm with soldiers I had never seen before. 261 00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:02,637 I forgot where we went, toured the streets and sang and sang. 262 00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:08,078 The significance of what it means was overwhelming: peace. 263 00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:21,035 People whose lives were shaped by the war went home. 264 00:26:21,120 --> 00:26:23,588 People the world did not yet know. 265 00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:31,319 Ernest Hemingway, Bertolt Brecht, Harold Macmillan, Vera Brittain, Charles de Gaulle, 266 00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:37,430 Josef Tito, Benito Mussolini, David Ben-Gurion, Mustafa Kemal. 267 00:26:40,120 --> 00:26:43,271 And one of the most insignificant of them all... for now. 268 00:26:43,360 --> 00:26:45,316 Adolf Hitler. 269 00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:58,558 The German armies in France and Belgium headed home. 270 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:03,513 How we had looked forward to this moment. 271 00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:07,832 We used to picture it as the most splendid event of our lives. 272 00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:12,357 And here we are now, humbled, our soul torn and bleeding. 273 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:16,472 But we can be proud of our performance. 274 00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:23,636 Never before has a nation, a single army, had the whole world against it and stood its ground. 275 00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:26,678 We protected our homeland. 276 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:29,718 They never got into Germany. 277 00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:45,310 In mid-December 1918, the first German troops arrived in Berlin. 278 00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:51,349 The people welcomed them as an army with no cause to feel ashamed. 279 00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:56,319 The men wore green laurel wreaths over their steel helmets. 280 00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:59,710 The machine guns were garlanded with green branches. 281 00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:04,839 Many a soldier had a child or a sweetheart on his flower-wreathed horse. 282 00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:12,590 A feeling of confidence, of fresh hope in the future, seems to have returned with the troops. 283 00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:19,478 Germany's new Republican Chancellor, Friedrich Ebert, 284 00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:24,680 reinforced the dangerous illusion that they had not been beaten in this war. 285 00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:30,630 I salute you, who return unvanquished from the field of battle. 286 00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:43,917 The Allies were in no doubt who had beaten whom. 287 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:47,834 Allied troops moved into Germany and began their watch on the Rhine. 288 00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:51,948 The German fleet was surrendered to Britain. 289 00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:56,795 And the Allies assembled in Paris to dictate the terms of the peace. 290 00:29:08,280 --> 00:29:12,831 US President Woodrow Wilson crossed the Atlantic to put his idealism to the test. 291 00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:18,993 We have used the great words "right" and "justice", 292 00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:22,959 and now we are to prove whether or not we understand those words 293 00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:25,270 and how they are to be applied. 294 00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:34,670 But the world had not stood still between the end of the war and the start of the peace talks. 295 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:45,750 On the 22nd of November 1918, the Belgian King Albert came home in triumph to Brussels. 296 00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:54,636 Occupied lands had been won back. 297 00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:08,035 The French repossessed Alsace-Lorraine. 298 00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:15,157 What a moving welcome! 299 00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:18,437 The people were so happy and smiling. 300 00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:21,159 Some were pale and cried while they greeted us. 301 00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:24,910 They all speak absolutely pure French. 302 00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:28,037 They really are French, all those locals. 303 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:31,351 We were treated like victors, like saviors. 304 00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:49,471 These scenes confirmed that France and Belgium had been liberated from an evil grip, 305 00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:51,630 that this was a victory for the Allies. 306 00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:05,039 And in Eastern Europe, new nations arose out of shattered empires. 307 00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:12,393 They didn't wait for the Peace Conference to bring them self-determination. 308 00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:17,270 They tore down all signs of foreign rule, and put up new frontiers. 309 00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:23,591 Poland carved a vast territory out of Germany and Russia. 310 00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:28,438 Czechoslovakia took land from Austria and Hungary. 311 00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:36,915 And Serbia realised the aim she had started the war over, by founding her own Slav superstate. 312 00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:42,558 The Peace Talks would recognise these new nations. They did not create them. 313 00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:53,035 27 countries met in Paris to divide the spoils and define the peace. 314 00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:57,036 The losers were not invited. 315 00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:05,192 We are going into these negotiations with our mouths full of fine phrases 316 00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:08,829 and our brains seething with dark thoughts. 317 00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:13,713 The big decisions were made by the Council of Four: 318 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:16,075 Prime Ministers Orlando of Italy, 319 00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:18,116 Lloyd George of Britain, 320 00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:21,237 Clemenceau of France and US President Wilson. 321 00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:28,391 All liberals, but with very different agendas and forceful personalities. 322 00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:32,917 Arguments between Lloyd George and myself were so violent. 323 00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:38,358 Wilson had to interpose between us with outstretched arms, saying pleasantly: 324 00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:42,274 "I have never come across two such unreasonable men." 325 00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:49,399 Clemenceau wanted Germany restrained for the sake of French security. 326 00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:54,195 Orlando wanted more territory for Italy. 327 00:32:56,200 --> 00:33:00,273 Lloyd George looked beyond Europe, to safeguard the British Empire. 328 00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:05,309 Wilson wanted his new world order, with justice and democracy for all. 329 00:33:06,680 --> 00:33:10,116 But first, there was the little matter of settling the war, 330 00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:13,237 and that would force Wilson to compromise his ideals. 331 00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:23,351 The Big Four did not go into the talks planning to pin guilt for the war on Germany. 332 00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:29,949 But when they realised how much the war had cost, they looked for someone to foot the bill. 333 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:34,754 France owed billions to Britain and America for financing her war. 334 00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:39,429 Britain couldn't afford to waive the debt and America wouldn't. 335 00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:41,476 So the Allies turned to Germany. 336 00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:47,034 But she could only be made to pay up if she accepted blame for the war. 337 00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:51,516 So the Allies included a clause, pinning the guilt on Germany. 338 00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:59,117 Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies, 339 00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:01,475 for causing all the loss and damage 340 00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:06,953 to which the Allied and associated governments, and their nationals have been subjected 341 00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:10,316 as a consequence of the war imposed upon them 342 00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:13,836 by the aggression of Germany and her allies. 343 00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:24,708 On the 7th of May 1919, the German delegation came to collect the treaty, 344 00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:29,555 expecting to find an even-handed settlement infused with Wilson's sense of fair play. 345 00:34:31,640 --> 00:34:33,710 They were horrified by what they read. 346 00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:37,399 440 articles beating Germany into submission. 347 00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:42,550 The Germans protested so vehemently, 348 00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:45,837 particularly against the requirement to admit war guilt, 349 00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:49,230 that Lloyd George worried that the Allies had gone too far. 350 00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:55,712 A member of his own delegation, the renowned economist John Maynard Keynes, 351 00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:57,756 was openly critical. 352 00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:03,312 He felt that forcing Germany to pay reparations could ruin Europe, politically and economically. 353 00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:10,598 The policy of reducing Germany to servitude for a generation, 354 00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:16,915 of degrading the lives of millions of human beings, should be abhorrent and detestable. 355 00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:25,708 But Clemenceau believed the terms were fully justified and Wilson's line had toughened. 356 00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:30,599 He had wanted to treat Germany fairly, 357 00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:33,956 but as a liberal he was apalled by the way she'd waged war, 358 00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:38,113 and as President of the United States, he wanted America's loans repaid. 359 00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:44,078 It is a good thing that the terms should be so hard, 360 00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:48,039 so that Germany may know what an unjust war means. 361 00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:52,079 If the Germans won't sign, then we must renew the war. 362 00:35:57,680 --> 00:36:03,994 Germany did sign, on the 28th of June 1919, in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, 363 00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:08,278 five years to the day after the Sarajevo assassination that had triggered the war. 364 00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:14,916 The settlement was far from perfect. 365 00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:20,555 The much-touted principle that people should govern themselves 366 00:36:20,640 --> 00:36:24,758 was not applied outside Europe and imperialism was condoned. 367 00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:32,439 But Wilson achieved his great goal, the creation of the first global forum, the League of Nations. 368 00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:38,350 In the event, the Allies wound up with the worst of both worlds. 369 00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:41,834 The Germans paid little in reparations, 370 00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:44,957 and the League of Nations proved powerless to force them. 371 00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:50,676 And the Versailles terms left some Germans, like future Nazi Rudolf Hess, 372 00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:54,230 smouldering with resentment, with disastrous consequences. 373 00:36:55,280 --> 00:37:01,355 The only thing that keeps me going is the hope for the day of revenge, however far off it may be. 374 00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:04,318 I wonder whether it'll happen in my lifetime. 375 00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:12,709 Marshal Ferdinand Foch felt the Allies hadn't been tough enough 376 00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:15,678 and realised the world would have to go to war again. 377 00:37:16,720 --> 00:37:18,676 This is not peace. 378 00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:21,718 It is an armistice for 20 years. 379 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:25,435 He got it wrong by just 65 days. 380 00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:44,512 Men were killed in the war's final hours, whose last letters did not reach home for weeks. 381 00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:50,473 Men like Marius Saucaz, who wrote to his father in Morocco. 382 00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:56,516 Dear Dad, 383 00:37:56,600 --> 00:38:00,070 if I were to die in a future attack, don't cry. 384 00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:02,116 There's no point. 385 00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:09,470 I would only be doing my duty and would die like many others for a noble cause, a great ideal. 386 00:38:11,080 --> 00:38:13,036 I am proud to be your son, 387 00:38:13,120 --> 00:38:17,955 and I want to tell you today because who knows what the future holds. 388 00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:21,639 I love you more than I have ever shown you. 389 00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:25,240 Love and kisses, Marius. 390 00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:38,032 Around ten million soldiers were killed in the war, 391 00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:40,588 prompting Lloyd George's sardonic comment. 392 00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:44,752 When I look at the appalling casualty lists, 393 00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:49,960 I sometimes wish it had not been necessary to win so many great victories. 394 00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:58,950 The tidy rows of crosses sanitise the deaths. 395 00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:02,596 They often cover mass graves, 396 00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:06,514 with a man represented only by the part of him that could be found and identified. 397 00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:11,957 Verdun in France has a huge vault, full of bones. 398 00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:17,840 Some of the millions posted missing in the war, 399 00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:21,515 the place and circumstance of their death unknown. 400 00:39:24,680 --> 00:39:26,910 No-one is certain how many civilians died, 401 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:31,915 women, children and elderly, caught in the mayhem of the Eastern Front: 402 00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:35,713 in the flight of the Serb nation in 1915, 403 00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:38,716 in the Armenian massacres, 404 00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:41,716 in occupied France and Belgium. 405 00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:46,958 Then, in 1918, influenza broke out, 406 00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:51,079 eventually killing 20 million soldiers and civilians around the world. 407 00:39:55,280 --> 00:40:00,832 20 million men were wounded by the war, of whom several million were badly mutilated. 408 00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:11,673 The French called one category the "gueules cassées", the "broken faces". 409 00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:19,836 Some were given human masks to hide their wounds. 410 00:40:27,280 --> 00:40:31,353 New faces, new legs, new arms. 411 00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:38,836 New minds were more difficult. 412 00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:43,236 No-one really knew what to do with the victims of shell shock. 413 00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:50,673 Soldiers with a range of disorders were filmed, including 19-year-old Private Preston, 414 00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:55,436 his memory blank, responsive only to the word "bombs". 415 00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:07,918 Over the decades which followed, the suffering and the dying and the sense of futile waste, 416 00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:12,994 central themes in the war's poetry, came to dominate our perceptions. 417 00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:17,038 Come back, come back, 418 00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:19,190 You didn't want to die, 419 00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:21,919 And all this war's a sham, a stinking lie, 420 00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:25,356 And the glory that our fathers laud so well, 421 00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:29,353 A crowd of corpses freed from pangs of hell. 422 00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:44,751 But in its immediate aftermath, when the memorials went up around the world, 423 00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:48,879 the First World War was not seen solely in terms of senseless slaughter. 424 00:41:52,880 --> 00:41:56,998 Their designs and inscriptions defined the war in positive terms. 425 00:41:58,040 --> 00:41:59,996 For defence against aggression. 426 00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:02,036 For love of one's country. 427 00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:04,111 For glory. 428 00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:12,199 So much hardship, so much heroism, and now such overwhelming glory. 429 00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:16,392 Anything after this can be no more than an anticlimax. 430 00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:22,758 Germany too, celebrated victory where she could. 431 00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:27,999 A gigantic monument was built in 1927 at Tannenberg, 432 00:42:28,080 --> 00:42:31,516 to commemorate Germany's triumph over the Russians in 1914. 433 00:42:34,560 --> 00:42:37,233 It was inaugurated by Field Marshal Hindenburg. 434 00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:45,078 The war may have been lost, but the dead were proclaimed as heroes, 435 00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:47,116 the struggle itself honoured. 436 00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:51,752 Though the aim for which I fought was not to be achieved, 437 00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:58,712 we learned once and for all to stand for a cause and, if necessary, to fall as befitted men. 438 00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:07,717 Many Allied memorials spelt out the values felt to be at stake during the war. 439 00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:15,634 In the stained-glass window in Canterbury University, New Zealand, 440 00:43:15,720 --> 00:43:20,555 the Central Powers are depicted as the dragon of Brutality & lgnorance. 441 00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:25,115 The Allied troops have Humanity and Justice on their side, 442 00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:27,156 and are naturally victorious. 443 00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:41,110 The years after the war were defined by the search for significance in the loss. 444 00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:45,872 National symbols, like the Cenotaph and the Unknown Warrior, 445 00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:50,829 helped answer the question in so many people's minds, "What did all the suffering mean?" 446 00:43:54,880 --> 00:43:57,917 In 1920, the body of an unidentified British soldier 447 00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:01,231 was exhumed in France and transported home. 448 00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:15,719 On the 11th of November, the Unknown Warrior was brought to Whitehall. 449 00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:23,236 He did not seem an Unknown Warrior. 450 00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:25,276 He was known to us all. 451 00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:28,276 He was one of our boys. 452 00:44:29,320 --> 00:44:33,677 To some women he was their own boy who went missing. 453 00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:42,475 To many men wearing ribbons and badges he was one of their comrades. 454 00:44:56,880 --> 00:45:04,195 It was the steel helmet, the old "tin hat", lying there on the crimson of the flag 455 00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:07,397 which revealed him instantly. 456 00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:12,313 Herbert Thompson had lost his eyesight in the war. 457 00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:16,511 He could not see the proceedings, but he could feel them. 458 00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:25,355 There was ineffable sadness and melancholy, yet a message of inspiration and hope, 459 00:45:25,440 --> 00:45:30,798 as if the spirit of the Unknown Soldier had whispered: "Courage brother, hope on." 460 00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:36,591 I felt with my comrades almost ashamed that I had given so little, 461 00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:39,831 while he who was sleeping by us had given all. 462 00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:54,436 Vera Brittain had served in France as a nurse during the war. 463 00:45:55,480 --> 00:45:59,917 She lost her fiancé, two close friends, her only brother. 464 00:46:00,960 --> 00:46:02,916 She went back in 1921. 465 00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:14,759 At Amiens, we stood in the dimness of the once-threatened cathedral. 466 00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:17,912 We looked up with reminicent melancholy 467 00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:22,357 at the still-boarded stained-glass windows smashed by German shells, 468 00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:25,955 realising with sudden surprise that in my own mind 469 00:46:26,040 --> 00:46:28,918 the anger and resentment had died long ago, 470 00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:34,994 leaving only an everlasting sorrow and a passionate pity. 471 00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:45,912 The First World War had achieved its basic aim of containing German and Austrian militarism. 472 00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:47,956 At least for the moment. 473 00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:52,948 It moved Europe from the age of empires, to the era of nation states. 474 00:46:55,360 --> 00:46:59,239 It gave Eastern European peoples their independence. 475 00:46:59,320 --> 00:47:03,472 It gave a sense of national identity to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. 476 00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:09,034 It helped Russia become the world's first communist state, 477 00:47:09,120 --> 00:47:11,190 and launched America as a world power. 478 00:47:14,280 --> 00:47:17,158 The ideas for which men fought have proved lasting. 479 00:47:17,240 --> 00:47:21,711 Democracy and liberalism, religious faith and nationalism. 480 00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:33,956 But the First World War solved few of the grievances over which it was fought. 481 00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:38,238 We live with its unresolved consequences in the Middle East, the Balkans, Ireland. 482 00:47:40,520 --> 00:47:44,877 It wasn't the war to end all wars, not just because it left dangerous loose ends, 483 00:47:44,960 --> 00:47:47,952 but because it bequeathed the world a terrible message. 484 00:47:49,040 --> 00:47:51,110 That war can effect change. 485 00:47:51,200 --> 00:47:53,156 That war can fulfil ambitions. 486 00:47:54,200 --> 00:47:56,156 That war can work. 487 00:48:01,680 --> 00:48:05,958 The battlefields were tidied up, or ploughed over or just abandoned. 488 00:48:07,040 --> 00:48:11,909 But they held their grip on the soldiers who had fought on them, on those who dared to go back. 489 00:48:16,680 --> 00:48:21,151 I saw again with a pang of anguish the trenches, damp and muddy, 490 00:48:21,240 --> 00:48:24,915 and was surprised to have lived there for four years. 491 00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:31,313 So moving because of the endless silence, the gloomy, barren, deserted look. 492 00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:39,239 Old churches pierced, chipped, ripped open. 493 00:48:39,320 --> 00:48:41,880 And barbed wire everywhere. 494 00:48:47,080 --> 00:48:50,516 Life resumes, things remain the same. 495 00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:54,316 We are the only ones who have changed.