1 00:01:18,260 --> 00:01:24,420 The war was four years old and still the Western Front remained, 2 00:01:24,420 --> 00:01:32,220 like a chronic disease that men had become accustomed to live with, but conveying a daily reminder of death. 3 00:01:32,220 --> 00:01:37,300 This ragged line etched into the broad surface of the earth 4 00:01:37,300 --> 00:01:43,180 was the focus of the largest effort ever generated by the human race. 5 00:01:43,180 --> 00:01:49,220 More than 1,000 million people were staking their lives, their treasure, and their happiness 6 00:01:49,220 --> 00:01:54,860 to upset the equilibrium of power traced out by the Western Front. 7 00:01:54,860 --> 00:01:59,020 The Western Front dominated the thoughts of generals. 8 00:01:59,020 --> 00:02:03,980 Only here, they were certain, could the issue of the war be decided. 9 00:02:03,980 --> 00:02:07,300 Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig believed - 10 00:02:07,300 --> 00:02:12,140 "We cannot hope to win until we have defeated the German army." 11 00:02:12,140 --> 00:02:16,380 Defeat the enemy's army - Falkenhayn had tried. 12 00:02:25,220 --> 00:02:27,780 Joffre had tried. 13 00:02:41,780 --> 00:02:44,580 Nivelle had tried. 14 00:03:02,980 --> 00:03:05,940 Haig had tried. 15 00:03:23,660 --> 00:03:27,380 The human cost was appallingly evident. 16 00:03:29,060 --> 00:03:32,540 For the dead, the war was over. 17 00:03:32,540 --> 00:03:39,180 For the maimed, the shell-shocked of all the armies, the war would never be over. 18 00:03:39,180 --> 00:03:44,020 They had been through horrors whose memory would never fade - 19 00:03:44,020 --> 00:03:47,260 horrors that obliterated even the mind. 20 00:03:55,260 --> 00:03:58,620 MUSIC DROWNS SPEECH 21 00:04:26,140 --> 00:04:29,180 War had made soldiers into children. 22 00:04:32,780 --> 00:04:36,420 Children into soldiers. 23 00:04:58,420 --> 00:05:01,300 This was a new kind of war, 24 00:05:01,300 --> 00:05:08,580 whose scale dwarfed the traditional means to victory - victory by success on the battlefield. 25 00:05:08,580 --> 00:05:11,940 This was a conflict of armies and peoples - 26 00:05:11,940 --> 00:05:16,860 peoples armed with all the powers of modern industry and invention, 27 00:05:16,860 --> 00:05:20,220 and obsessed by a vision of total victory. 28 00:05:20,220 --> 00:05:26,980 They wished to stand triumphant over a smashed, crushed, humiliated and prostrate foe. 29 00:05:26,980 --> 00:05:31,940 Desire for total victory rode the human soul and spurred it on. 30 00:05:31,940 --> 00:05:36,700 The mainspring of the world's catastrophe was the mind of man. 31 00:05:36,700 --> 00:05:39,780 Victory lay with he who conquered it. 32 00:05:39,780 --> 00:05:45,420 Propaganda became the deadliest weapon and truth the first casualty. 33 00:05:45,420 --> 00:05:50,500 One got the impression, from reading the papers and hearing the talk, 34 00:05:50,500 --> 00:05:57,660 that the Germans, or the Huns, as we called them then, were a horde of barbarians descending upon Europe 35 00:05:57,660 --> 00:06:02,620 and were about to plunge Europe into the dark ages. 36 00:06:02,620 --> 00:06:07,300 I read about how they slaughtered women and children 37 00:06:07,300 --> 00:06:12,380 and threw babies up in the air and caught them on their bayonets. 38 00:06:12,380 --> 00:06:15,860 I didn't believe all that. 39 00:06:15,860 --> 00:06:20,300 In fact, I wondered, if the Germans were such barbarians, 40 00:06:20,300 --> 00:06:24,420 why we hadn't heard more about it before the war. 41 00:06:24,420 --> 00:06:30,780 Government censorship in every country made sure that all news was slanted or suppressed. 42 00:06:33,900 --> 00:06:37,180 Read all about it! Paper! Paper! 43 00:06:37,180 --> 00:06:41,340 Read all about it! Evening Standard! All the news! 44 00:06:41,340 --> 00:06:45,460 Paper! Standard! Standard! Read all about it! 45 00:06:45,460 --> 00:06:47,940 A British instruction laid down: 46 00:06:47,940 --> 00:06:53,180 "No suggestion of offensive actions by the captains of merchant ships should be made. 47 00:06:53,180 --> 00:06:59,260 "Statements in regard to the use of neutral flags by British merchantmen should not be published." 48 00:06:59,260 --> 00:07:05,100 "The press are requested to make no mention of the use of dogs 49 00:07:05,100 --> 00:07:09,220 "as messengers with armies in the field." 50 00:07:09,220 --> 00:07:15,340 Government propaganda machines disseminated mental poison by the newest inventions - 51 00:07:15,340 --> 00:07:20,980 the cinema film, wireless, telegraphy, faked photography. 52 00:07:20,980 --> 00:07:27,900 The unproven atrocity story was one means by which hatred was nourished among the home populations. 53 00:07:27,900 --> 00:07:32,540 The world was told that the Germans made candles and fats 54 00:07:32,540 --> 00:07:35,980 out of bodies taken from the battlefields. 55 00:07:35,980 --> 00:07:40,780 Such malicious inventions were widely believed. 56 00:07:47,500 --> 00:07:52,580 Relentlessly, the enemy was portrayed as a monster of savagery, 57 00:07:52,580 --> 00:07:55,100 worthy only of hate. 58 00:07:55,100 --> 00:07:59,740 The message never varied. Hate. Total hate. 59 00:07:59,740 --> 00:08:05,060 It was total hate that sustained the demand for total victory. 60 00:08:05,060 --> 00:08:12,820 "What is the war itself but the outcome only of British cunning, lying, hypocrisy, cant and treachery? 61 00:08:12,820 --> 00:08:17,660 "No means can be too unholy to combat this hideous octopus, 62 00:08:17,660 --> 00:08:22,540 "whose tentacles have too long encircled the peoples of the world." 63 00:08:23,660 --> 00:08:28,020 "The Huns, vicious in victory, cowardly in defeat, 64 00:08:28,020 --> 00:08:33,100 "deserve no more consideration than a mad dog or a venomous snake. 65 00:08:33,100 --> 00:08:38,220 "It is our duty to take devastation into the heart of their country. 66 00:08:38,220 --> 00:08:42,460 "We're out for war. Let it be war to the death." 67 00:08:49,300 --> 00:08:52,420 "There are only two divisions in the world - 68 00:08:52,420 --> 00:08:55,220 "human beings and Germans." 69 00:09:09,700 --> 00:09:14,980 The conflict became, for both sides, a holy war to rescue civilisation. 70 00:09:16,580 --> 00:09:21,500 "I believe in the powers of right and the crusade of civilisation, 71 00:09:21,500 --> 00:09:26,940 "in the purity of our cause and the stainless glory of our flag." 72 00:09:26,940 --> 00:09:29,460 "Such a war is a heavy price to pay 73 00:09:29,460 --> 00:09:35,820 "for our progress towards the realisation of Christ's Christianity, but duty calls." 74 00:09:35,820 --> 00:09:41,140 "One thing is clear - God must stand on Germany's side." 75 00:09:41,140 --> 00:09:47,860 "We fight for truth, culture and civilisation, human progress and true Christianity." 76 00:09:47,860 --> 00:09:53,020 Few were immune from the contagion of this universal hysteria. 77 00:09:53,020 --> 00:09:59,980 Even the novelist Arnold Bennett wrote with sincere conviction after a visit to a war cemetery: 78 00:09:59,980 --> 00:10:06,020 "And then a tomb with a black cross. Very disconcerting, that black cross. 79 00:10:06,020 --> 00:10:12,060 "It is different both in colour and shape from the other crosses. Sinister. 80 00:10:12,060 --> 00:10:18,300 "The whole devilishness of the Prussian ideal is expressed in that black cross." 81 00:10:21,180 --> 00:10:25,140 Mercy, truth and love had died, 82 00:10:25,140 --> 00:10:30,020 along with respect for the ancient decencies of civilisation. 83 00:10:30,020 --> 00:10:36,940 People had obediently followed the leaders without questioning the harsh requirements of their cause - 84 00:10:36,940 --> 00:10:39,580 victory by any means. 85 00:10:39,580 --> 00:10:46,700 Now, for the first time, the starvation of whole nations became a weapon of victory. 86 00:10:46,700 --> 00:10:49,940 The Allied blockade of Germany was complete. 87 00:10:49,940 --> 00:10:54,980 Germans were eating less than half the daily food necessary for health. 88 00:10:54,980 --> 00:10:59,980 In four years of war, more than 700,000 Germans - 89 00:10:59,980 --> 00:11:05,300 men, women and children - died as a result of the Allied blockade. 90 00:11:05,300 --> 00:11:08,660 The young and the weak suffered most. 91 00:11:11,500 --> 00:11:16,580 Our diet consisted of turnips one day and barley and prunes the next. 92 00:11:16,580 --> 00:11:21,620 Then it started again - turnips and barley and prunes. There was no fat. 93 00:11:21,620 --> 00:11:27,540 Potatoes were roasted in a little water. Bread got worse and worse. 94 00:11:27,540 --> 00:11:32,100 German bread was made with grass, tree bark, 95 00:11:32,100 --> 00:11:36,140 turnips, or even a flour made from dried blood. 96 00:11:36,140 --> 00:11:41,420 Coffee was made from walnut shells, tea from raspberry or nettle leaves. 97 00:11:41,420 --> 00:11:46,260 There were 7,000 food substitutes in German shops. 98 00:11:51,060 --> 00:11:55,700 The food situation got worse. We were always very hungry, 99 00:11:55,700 --> 00:11:59,740 especially those who didn't get anything else. 100 00:11:59,740 --> 00:12:06,380 I remember my mother was so thin that I, a small child, could easily lift her up. 101 00:12:06,380 --> 00:12:11,980 A great nation was being ground down to soul-destroying poverty. 102 00:12:11,980 --> 00:12:19,420 A German soldier on the Western Front was being struck at through the sufferings of his family. 103 00:12:19,420 --> 00:12:25,620 In a forlorn attempt to break the ring of warships that were starving her industries, 104 00:12:25,620 --> 00:12:31,900 Germany built the first submarine merchant ship in the world - the unarmed Deutschland. 105 00:12:31,900 --> 00:12:38,380 Before America's entry into the war, the Deutschland made two successful voyages to US ports. 106 00:12:38,380 --> 00:12:43,220 Her crew were feted for the daring of their enterprise. 107 00:12:43,220 --> 00:12:50,060 She could carry some chemicals and metals, but she could not solve the problem of the blockade. 108 00:12:50,060 --> 00:12:54,700 Only ruthless counter-blockade of Britain could do that. 109 00:12:54,700 --> 00:12:57,260 The German government announced: 110 00:12:57,260 --> 00:13:03,300 "From 1st February 1917, sea traffic will be stopped with every available weapon 111 00:13:03,300 --> 00:13:08,340 "in the following blockade zones - around Great Britain, France, Italy, 112 00:13:08,340 --> 00:13:11,180 "and the eastern Mediterranean." 113 00:13:15,220 --> 00:13:19,860 Henceforth, any ship, even neutrals, in these waters, 114 00:13:19,860 --> 00:13:22,780 would be sunk by German submarines. 115 00:13:28,260 --> 00:13:34,940 The vessel that, in 1914, had been thought too frail to venture far from Germany, 116 00:13:34,940 --> 00:13:38,020 became their greatest hope of victory. 117 00:13:44,860 --> 00:13:49,900 The great battle fleets of Britain and Germany were impotent onlookers 118 00:13:49,900 --> 00:13:53,020 on this unforeseen struggle at sea. 119 00:14:08,460 --> 00:14:13,220 There were no stately deployments into line ahead, 120 00:14:13,220 --> 00:14:19,900 no thundering broadsides, no victory bells in this continuous, pitiless war of starvation. 121 00:14:19,900 --> 00:14:26,940 Two great nations had each other by the throat with a grip that tightened in convulsive desperation, 122 00:14:26,940 --> 00:14:29,740 and one must die. 123 00:14:37,700 --> 00:14:43,060 January 1917 - 150,000 tonnes of British shipping lost. 124 00:14:46,860 --> 00:14:50,020 February - 300,000 tonnes. 125 00:14:54,180 --> 00:14:57,700 March - 350,000 tonnes. 126 00:14:59,980 --> 00:15:03,940 April - nearly 550,000 tonnes. 127 00:15:22,140 --> 00:15:25,020 Then, slowly, 128 00:15:25,020 --> 00:15:28,940 month by month, the U-boat was mastered. 129 00:15:33,500 --> 00:15:36,460 Convoys, counterattacks 130 00:15:36,460 --> 00:15:41,740 by convoy escorts and by merchant ships now armed with guns, 131 00:15:41,740 --> 00:15:48,780 new hydrophone listening gear, depth charges - each step made the British counterattack more deadly. 132 00:16:01,100 --> 00:16:05,300 Aircraft searched the seas ready to bomb and machine-gun. 133 00:16:15,820 --> 00:16:22,540 Even apparently helpless victims were used to tempt U-boats to destruction. 134 00:16:25,700 --> 00:16:29,100 These were the famous Q-ships. 135 00:16:55,270 --> 00:16:58,030 Lloyd George wrote: 136 00:16:58,030 --> 00:17:02,790 "It was Britain's grandest struggle at sea, 137 00:17:02,790 --> 00:17:05,670 "in its magnitude, in its intensity, 138 00:17:05,670 --> 00:17:09,150 "in the issues that depended upon it. 139 00:17:09,150 --> 00:17:14,430 "The battle was fought in every ocean, and on every trade route. 140 00:17:14,430 --> 00:17:20,110 "Never were the skill, the daring, and the endurance of British sailors 141 00:17:20,110 --> 00:17:22,950 "put to so stern a test." 142 00:17:24,150 --> 00:17:29,750 The sea war went on. The submarines went still further afield for gain, 143 00:17:29,750 --> 00:17:33,350 refilling their tanks with captured oil 144 00:17:33,350 --> 00:17:37,190 and their galleys with captured eatables. 145 00:17:48,670 --> 00:17:53,750 British survival still depended on the courage of her merchant seamen. 146 00:17:53,750 --> 00:18:00,270 "I have heard of one man who has been in no less than seven vessels that have been torpedoed. 147 00:18:00,270 --> 00:18:05,110 "Many, last winter, experienced days of agony in open boats. 148 00:18:05,110 --> 00:18:08,470 "Many have had to have limbs amputated." 149 00:18:19,550 --> 00:18:25,630 Although the British had averted outright starvation, food became scarcer and scarcer. 150 00:18:25,630 --> 00:18:30,270 Compulsory rationing was hateful to British traditions. 151 00:18:30,270 --> 00:18:36,230 Instead, the nation rationed itself using a published weekly scale. 152 00:18:41,670 --> 00:18:48,350 "I know that in Government circles, deep anxiety prevails. Famine is feared. 153 00:18:48,350 --> 00:18:52,390 "Stocks of wheat are down to nine weeks' supply." 154 00:18:52,390 --> 00:18:59,190 On 25th February 1918, compulsory rationing was introduced in London and the Home Counties, 155 00:18:59,190 --> 00:19:01,950 and in April to the rest of Britain. 156 00:19:01,950 --> 00:19:08,710 "Meat - approximately 2lbs a week, sugar and fats - 0.5lbs each a week." 157 00:19:08,710 --> 00:19:12,390 Rationing did not put an end to shortages. 158 00:19:14,990 --> 00:19:20,030 I remember going into a shop after not having milk for several days, 159 00:19:20,030 --> 00:19:24,870 and they said, "If you can produce a baby, you can have some milk." 160 00:19:24,870 --> 00:19:31,830 That was out. I went to a butcher's shop to get some meat because we were beginning to be rationed... 161 00:19:33,030 --> 00:19:37,470 ...and I said, "That looks like cat." He said, "It is." 162 00:19:37,470 --> 00:19:40,350 The fight against food shortages 163 00:19:40,350 --> 00:19:46,350 fell upon a nation short of fertilizers, animal feed and labour. 164 00:19:46,350 --> 00:19:51,030 In 1917, the Women's Farm Labour Force - 165 00:19:51,030 --> 00:19:55,910 over 230,000 of them by 1918 - put on their uniforms 166 00:19:55,910 --> 00:20:03,630 and the fight for higher food production was carried into the fields by the Women's Land Army. 167 00:20:03,630 --> 00:20:07,190 The "lilac sun-bonnet brigade" 168 00:20:07,190 --> 00:20:10,630 overcame the scepticism of farmers 169 00:20:10,630 --> 00:20:14,670 and formed a vital replacement to farm workers 170 00:20:14,670 --> 00:20:19,510 drafted, by the inexorable demands of war, to the Front. 171 00:20:36,870 --> 00:20:43,150 Timber - a vital commodity in a war which demanded more and more for pit props, 172 00:20:43,150 --> 00:20:49,430 for ammunition boxes, for huts, duckboards, trench works, and for building - 173 00:20:49,430 --> 00:20:52,430 called for more and more labour. 174 00:20:52,430 --> 00:20:59,310 Again, women came to help and invaded a man's world with energy and unexpected skill. 175 00:20:59,310 --> 00:21:04,790 Nations came to accept the breaking down of traditions and firm beliefs, 176 00:21:04,790 --> 00:21:09,230 intrusions upon old ways, personal liberties. 177 00:21:12,950 --> 00:21:17,790 Motor vehicles, when requisitioned for Government purposes, 178 00:21:17,790 --> 00:21:21,670 rolled impressively into military depots. 179 00:21:28,750 --> 00:21:35,750 Compulsory rationing, requisition, national control of industry, shipping and railways, 180 00:21:35,750 --> 00:21:41,950 conscription, women in work normally done by men, national scientific research, 181 00:21:41,950 --> 00:21:49,030 now even Britain with her traditional dislike of large-scale organisation and state direction 182 00:21:49,030 --> 00:21:55,630 had yielded to the shrill imperatives of total war. Lloyd George wrote: 183 00:21:55,630 --> 00:22:00,950 "The scope of Government control widened steadily and ineluctably 184 00:22:00,950 --> 00:22:06,190 "until it covered practically the whole industrial life of the nation. 185 00:22:06,190 --> 00:22:12,510 "The nation concentrated all its great strength and skill on victory." 186 00:22:13,910 --> 00:22:19,670 In each country, the individual had become a cog in a huge war machine. 187 00:22:19,670 --> 00:22:23,790 Whole new industries had been created since 1914 - 188 00:22:23,790 --> 00:22:30,390 for making aero engines, for making all the instruments required by modern aircraft, 189 00:22:30,390 --> 00:22:34,550 a small chemical industry had become a national asset. 190 00:22:34,550 --> 00:22:40,510 Prefabricated ships slid down the slipways one after another. 191 00:22:40,510 --> 00:22:46,510 Steel for guns, or steel for shells. Steel for ships, or steel for tanks. 192 00:22:46,510 --> 00:22:49,670 There was not enough for all. 193 00:22:49,670 --> 00:22:56,910 Engines for tanks, or engines for lorries, or engines for aircraft. Not enough for all. 194 00:22:56,910 --> 00:23:00,990 Britain was now the war factory of the Allies. 195 00:23:21,710 --> 00:23:26,750 In France, the losses of four years had drained the land of fit men. 196 00:23:26,750 --> 00:23:30,870 Her farms needed labour as much as her factories. 197 00:23:30,870 --> 00:23:35,910 She worked and strove for victory to the limits of her strength. 198 00:23:59,590 --> 00:24:02,270 So did Germany. 199 00:24:12,670 --> 00:24:19,110 Endlessly, the trains rolled away from her factories loaded with war material. 200 00:24:20,990 --> 00:24:25,870 In every country, the worker was a cog in the machine, 201 00:24:25,870 --> 00:24:33,670 often better looked after as a cog than as a citizen in peacetime - a strange irony of total war. 202 00:24:33,670 --> 00:24:40,430 Factory canteens became commonplace instead of showpieces of a few progressive firms. 203 00:24:40,430 --> 00:24:44,550 National kitchens were set up in industrial areas. 204 00:24:53,710 --> 00:24:59,070 "The purpose of this movement organised by the Ministry of Food 205 00:24:59,070 --> 00:25:04,510 "is to instruct the poorer classes how food by proper cooking 206 00:25:04,510 --> 00:25:09,630 "can be made to yield the most nutrition with the least waste. 207 00:25:09,630 --> 00:25:16,670 "The food's distributed to the poor residents - women and children - who come in large numbers with dishes." 208 00:25:18,030 --> 00:25:25,110 Better working conditions, medical centres, housing for workers, high wages - 209 00:25:25,110 --> 00:25:30,310 these also were the fruits of war. Lloyd George told an audience: 210 00:25:30,310 --> 00:25:36,030 "It is a strange irony, but no small compensation, 211 00:25:36,030 --> 00:25:42,070 "that the making of weapons should afford the occasion to humanise industry, 212 00:25:42,070 --> 00:25:44,350 "yet such is the case. 213 00:25:44,350 --> 00:25:48,990 "Old prejudices have vanished, new ideas are abroad. 214 00:25:48,990 --> 00:25:53,350 "This opportunity must not be allowed to slip." 215 00:25:53,350 --> 00:25:58,670 It could not be allowed to slip. Victory depended on industry. 216 00:25:58,670 --> 00:26:02,110 The enemy knew this too. 217 00:26:02,110 --> 00:26:04,630 "His Majesty the Kaiser hopes 218 00:26:04,630 --> 00:26:09,390 "the air war against England will be carried out with energy. 219 00:26:09,390 --> 00:26:14,150 "He has designated as attack targets all war material, barracks, 220 00:26:14,150 --> 00:26:17,870 "oil and petroleum tanks, and the London docks." 221 00:26:17,870 --> 00:26:24,270 Scientists and engineers had created a new dimension in warfare - the air. 222 00:26:24,270 --> 00:26:29,030 The demands of total war changed the marvellous toy of 1914 223 00:26:29,030 --> 00:26:33,790 into an instrument to carry death to the enemy's unarmed civilians, 224 00:26:33,790 --> 00:26:37,150 and destruction to his war factories. 225 00:26:47,270 --> 00:26:51,910 In the autumn of 1916, as many as 14 zeppelins at a time 226 00:26:51,910 --> 00:26:57,270 set out for England. 200,000 cubic feet of hydrogen lifted them. 227 00:26:57,270 --> 00:27:01,310 The zeppelin crews were pioneers in the upper air. 228 00:27:01,310 --> 00:27:04,190 Each mission was an epic of danger. 229 00:27:04,190 --> 00:27:09,030 For the attacking aircraft, and also for the anti-aircraft guns, 230 00:27:09,030 --> 00:27:13,750 a zeppelin of that size was a sitting target. 231 00:27:14,710 --> 00:27:17,870 About, er...over 300 feet long, 232 00:27:18,870 --> 00:27:21,430 50 feet in diameter, 233 00:27:21,430 --> 00:27:26,150 and a speed of 60 miles per hour. That was all. 234 00:27:26,150 --> 00:27:31,150 It was a very cold affair to go across to England. 235 00:27:31,150 --> 00:27:38,070 It was so cold that, er...if you forgot that you didn't wear a glove, 236 00:27:38,070 --> 00:27:42,830 and you touched any part of the aluminium structure, 237 00:27:43,950 --> 00:27:46,990 you would burn your fingers. 238 00:27:46,990 --> 00:27:51,750 The sandwiches, which were kept in a container in the gondola, 239 00:27:51,750 --> 00:27:54,510 were absolutely frozen stiff. 240 00:27:54,510 --> 00:28:00,150 You had to melt part of it in your mouth until it could be bitten off. 241 00:28:00,150 --> 00:28:04,350 German science gave her airmen triumph over England. 242 00:28:04,350 --> 00:28:07,710 British science made that triumph brief. 243 00:28:07,710 --> 00:28:11,590 The incendiary bullet transformed a zeppelin 244 00:28:11,590 --> 00:28:14,950 into a blazing funeral pyre in the sky. 245 00:28:14,950 --> 00:28:21,030 The death of a great airship was terrible, even to the men who destroyed it. 246 00:28:21,030 --> 00:28:24,710 I approached it from the stern, 300 feet below, 247 00:28:24,710 --> 00:28:29,470 and fired four drums of explosive ammunition into its stern, 248 00:28:29,470 --> 00:28:33,630 which immediately started to light. At the same time, 249 00:28:33,630 --> 00:28:38,670 one of the other pilots was flying across the zeppelin from the top. 250 00:28:38,670 --> 00:28:43,430 And to his horror, he saw a man in the machine-gun pit 251 00:28:43,430 --> 00:28:48,190 at the top of the zeppelin run to the side and leap overboard. 252 00:28:48,190 --> 00:28:53,270 I saw that this zeppelin had been picked out by the searchlights. 253 00:28:55,430 --> 00:29:01,550 Then there was a small glow which gradually spread the whole length, 254 00:29:02,550 --> 00:29:07,390 and afterwards the whole thing burst into one big conflagration. 255 00:29:08,750 --> 00:29:11,270 There was a gasp of... 256 00:29:12,230 --> 00:29:17,870 I don't know if it was abhorrence or whatever it was from the...people. 257 00:29:17,870 --> 00:29:22,950 Very much like the sound you get when there's a big firework display. 258 00:29:24,390 --> 00:29:27,870 And as it came down, very very slowly, 259 00:29:27,870 --> 00:29:32,630 I heard my mother say, "Oh, those poor men up there." 260 00:29:33,910 --> 00:29:38,470 But there was an old Boer War veteran next door 261 00:29:38,470 --> 00:29:41,510 who said, "Let 'em frizzle." 262 00:29:42,510 --> 00:29:45,550 And so it came gradually down, 263 00:29:45,550 --> 00:29:48,910 but someone, I don't know whom, 264 00:29:48,910 --> 00:29:53,270 started to sing Land Of Hope And Glory, 265 00:29:53,270 --> 00:29:56,630 and it was taken up one after another 266 00:29:56,630 --> 00:30:02,270 by the people that were congregated there, 267 00:30:02,270 --> 00:30:07,550 until the whole place seemed to be resonant with this singing. 268 00:30:14,150 --> 00:30:18,910 However terrible his death, there was no pity now for the enemy. 269 00:30:27,070 --> 00:30:30,630 "Since an airship raid on London is impossible, 270 00:30:30,630 --> 00:30:35,390 "the air service is required to make a raid with Gotha bombers soon." 271 00:30:35,390 --> 00:30:37,910 On June 13th, 1917, 272 00:30:37,910 --> 00:30:42,630 14 Gothas went on the first daylight bomber raid on London, 273 00:30:42,630 --> 00:30:47,190 twin-engined aeroplanes, each carrying one tonne of bombs. 274 00:30:47,190 --> 00:30:51,950 Out of science and total war, strategic bombing had been born. 275 00:30:51,950 --> 00:30:56,710 Wherever an aircraft could fly was now part of the battlefield. 276 00:30:56,710 --> 00:31:00,070 Cities resounded to the roar of the barrage. 277 00:31:00,070 --> 00:31:04,110 Each raid left its tragic human litter. 278 00:31:04,110 --> 00:31:08,270 162 dead and 432 injured in London in June, 279 00:31:08,270 --> 00:31:10,870 54 killed in August. 280 00:31:10,870 --> 00:31:14,710 The British public was moved to deep anger, 281 00:31:14,710 --> 00:31:20,590 anger at a terrifying ordeal, and the feebleness of London's defences. 282 00:31:39,030 --> 00:31:43,790 The Government reorganised the defences at frantic speed. 283 00:31:43,790 --> 00:31:46,750 An air raid warning system began. 284 00:31:46,750 --> 00:31:51,590 Whistles and the firing of maroons heralded the coming of the Gothas. 285 00:32:01,590 --> 00:32:04,270 Bugles sounded the all clear. 286 00:32:04,270 --> 00:32:08,310 In the autumn of 1917, the Gothas flew by night. 287 00:32:10,750 --> 00:32:15,950 The terrifying noise of air raids frayed the nerve of a population 288 00:32:15,950 --> 00:32:20,710 born in the safe tranquillity of the Victorian and Edwardian age. 289 00:32:20,710 --> 00:32:26,390 War production began to suffer. General Robertson warned Haig: 290 00:32:26,390 --> 00:32:30,910 "Continuous air raids are interrupting munitions work 291 00:32:30,910 --> 00:32:34,270 "and having some effect on the public." 292 00:32:34,270 --> 00:32:39,510 At Woolwich Arsenal, production fell to one fifth after an air raid. 293 00:32:39,510 --> 00:32:44,470 The British and French air forces hit back at German industry. 294 00:32:44,470 --> 00:32:49,230 As Allied bombers ranged over industrial towns of the Rhineland, 295 00:32:49,230 --> 00:32:54,350 the Germans proved no more steady under bombardment than the British. 296 00:33:00,750 --> 00:33:03,430 Everybody was frightened. 297 00:33:03,430 --> 00:33:06,110 We had to go to the cellar, 298 00:33:06,110 --> 00:33:09,870 and we had no electric light in our flat. 299 00:33:09,870 --> 00:33:14,950 All clothes had to be put on a chair so that one could dress in no time 300 00:33:14,950 --> 00:33:19,710 and rush down to the cellar, where the whole house met. 301 00:33:19,710 --> 00:33:23,750 Air raids mainly occurred on cloudless nights. 302 00:33:23,750 --> 00:33:28,510 We heard the planes coming, we heard the anti-aircraft guns, 303 00:33:28,510 --> 00:33:31,950 and everybody got more and more frightened. 304 00:33:31,950 --> 00:33:39,910 The bombers turned cities into a battlefield strewn with dead or maimed civilians. Women, children. 305 00:33:39,910 --> 00:33:44,910 There were no non-combatants in a total war. Everyone was drawn in. 306 00:33:46,430 --> 00:33:48,950 Everyone was doing their bit. 307 00:33:51,350 --> 00:33:53,870 The war was insatiable. 308 00:33:53,870 --> 00:33:57,310 The men had marched and died in millions. 309 00:33:57,310 --> 00:34:00,670 Now, women had to don service uniform. 310 00:34:00,670 --> 00:34:04,710 "Today, we had a unique and inspiring war pageant. 311 00:34:04,710 --> 00:34:07,390 "A procession of 3,000 young women, 312 00:34:07,390 --> 00:34:12,790 "representing branches of war work in which female labour is employed, 313 00:34:12,790 --> 00:34:17,110 "each section distinguished by its own uniform." 314 00:34:17,110 --> 00:34:22,030 The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, the WAACs, serve as cooks, typists, 315 00:34:22,030 --> 00:34:24,550 telephonists and transport drivers. 316 00:34:24,550 --> 00:34:28,790 Some decode messages in every modern language. 317 00:34:28,790 --> 00:34:33,470 The Women's Royal Naval Service, the Wrens, clean torpedoes, 318 00:34:33,470 --> 00:34:38,750 signal, make mine nets, gas masks, depth charges, and sails. 319 00:34:41,070 --> 00:34:46,430 The Women's Royal Air Force, the WRAF, fit aircraft and airships. 320 00:34:48,030 --> 00:34:53,310 Women gained an importance in war they had never enjoyed previously. 321 00:34:53,310 --> 00:34:58,070 Total war, rather than Mrs Pankhurst and her suffragettes, 322 00:34:58,070 --> 00:35:00,590 gave women the right to vote. 323 00:35:00,590 --> 00:35:05,350 The Representation Of The People Act of 1918 went even further. 324 00:35:05,350 --> 00:35:09,030 Women could now stand for election to Parliament. 325 00:35:15,390 --> 00:35:20,150 Everywhere, the most ancient of privileges and prejudices 326 00:35:20,150 --> 00:35:24,710 were swept away by the ruthless struggle for victory. 327 00:35:24,710 --> 00:35:29,230 The needs of war, so simple in 1914, so demanding by 1918, 328 00:35:29,230 --> 00:35:33,270 had been met by the scientist and the engineer. 329 00:35:33,270 --> 00:35:36,910 The small of 1914 had become mighty. 330 00:35:38,510 --> 00:35:42,830 The few of 1914...had become many. 331 00:35:47,950 --> 00:35:52,750 The novelties of early days had become vital weapons of war. 332 00:35:52,750 --> 00:35:55,790 Modern war changed continuously. 333 00:35:55,790 --> 00:35:58,350 Refinements of invention multiplied. 334 00:35:58,350 --> 00:36:00,870 The most significant war innovation 335 00:36:00,870 --> 00:36:04,230 was achieved by man's most urgent need - 336 00:36:04,230 --> 00:36:08,270 to break the deadlock of the Western Front. 337 00:36:14,990 --> 00:36:17,510 The glowing hatred of the nations 338 00:36:17,510 --> 00:36:22,270 put no bounds to the ingenuity and horror of their inventions. 339 00:36:22,270 --> 00:36:25,230 Gas that choked was not good enough. 340 00:36:25,230 --> 00:36:27,830 In summer 1917, a new gas appeared. 341 00:36:27,830 --> 00:36:31,510 It smelled of garlic, some said, or mustard. 342 00:36:31,510 --> 00:36:35,950 It was an oily liquid, which evaporated very slowly. 343 00:36:35,950 --> 00:36:40,830 Because it had such a faint smell, troops tended not to notice it. 344 00:36:40,830 --> 00:36:45,590 When they did feel their eyes smarting, they were too late. 345 00:36:45,590 --> 00:36:52,670 It was a dreadful substance. If it got on the soles of their boots, it would penetrate and burn their feet. 346 00:36:52,670 --> 00:36:56,670 If they went with it on their boots into a dugout, 347 00:36:56,670 --> 00:37:01,310 and slept there, they would gas everyone in the dugout. 348 00:37:01,310 --> 00:37:05,950 A man could even go with some on his boots into a hut, 349 00:37:05,950 --> 00:37:08,470 and gas everyone in the hut. 350 00:37:08,470 --> 00:37:14,070 What total war demanded, scientists and engineers diligently provided. 351 00:37:18,230 --> 00:37:23,510 Paris, twenty past seven in the morning, 23rd March, 1918. 352 00:37:23,510 --> 00:37:27,390 EXPLOSION An explosion. And another. 353 00:37:27,390 --> 00:37:31,030 And another, at intervals of 15 minutes. 354 00:37:31,030 --> 00:37:33,550 Yet no German aircraft was nearby, 355 00:37:33,550 --> 00:37:37,590 and the nearest German lines were 75 miles away. 356 00:37:39,190 --> 00:37:43,990 A new fear came to a great city. What had caused these explosions? 357 00:37:43,990 --> 00:37:48,750 Rumours, speculations seethed through the streets of Paris. 358 00:37:48,750 --> 00:37:52,110 Then the French authorities announced: 359 00:37:52,110 --> 00:37:56,790 "The enemy has fired on Paris with a long-range gun. 360 00:37:56,790 --> 00:38:01,230 "There are about a dozen dead, and about 15 wounded." 361 00:38:01,230 --> 00:38:05,030 A gun with a range of 75 miles? 362 00:38:05,030 --> 00:38:09,790 Allied experts believed it beyond the scope of technology, 363 00:38:09,790 --> 00:38:13,830 but Germany had made it. She had made three. 364 00:38:13,830 --> 00:38:19,670 Each gun weighed 154 tonnes. It rested on a 26-tonne cradle, 365 00:38:19,670 --> 00:38:23,350 on a railway wagon of 210 tonnes. 366 00:38:23,350 --> 00:38:26,390 The most colossal gun ever made. 367 00:38:33,910 --> 00:38:38,670 When the French railway guns began to counter-bombard the Germans, 368 00:38:38,670 --> 00:38:43,510 the war of artillery and technology reached its fantastic climax. 369 00:38:43,510 --> 00:38:49,030 The city and the trenches shared the same conflict. 370 00:38:49,030 --> 00:38:55,030 Man cringed beneath the weight of the horrors he'd made for victory. 371 00:38:55,030 --> 00:39:00,270 Yet victory belonged to no-one, the horrors, to everyone.