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In the spring of 1918,

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the empire of Austria-Hungary,
sprawled across the heart of Europe,

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faced the prospect of ruin.

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This war had begun as Austria's
quarrel, with gaiety and cheers

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as the soldiers of the Hapsburg
Empire marched to battle in 1914.

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The first enemy was Serbia,

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the impudent Slav kingdom
over the border.

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The crushing of Serbia would be a
warning to all under Austrian rule

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whose national ambitions
were coming to the boil.

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But war with Serbia
meant war with Russia.

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Harsh realities soon dispelled
the Hapsburg dream.

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In 1914, when the Austrian armies
marched to aid their German allies

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against Russian invasion,
they met with disaster.

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Counting the fearful Austrian
losses in the battles of 1914,

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cynical Germans said,
"We are fettered to a corpse."

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Yet somehow, the corpse revived.

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Defending bitterly
in the Carpathian Mountains

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in the icy grip of winter,
the Austrians held off the Russians.

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In 1915, Austrians and Germans

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hurled the Russians out of Galicia.

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At last,
with German and Bulgarian help,

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the Austrians defeated the Serbs
and overran their country.

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HEAVY GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS

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It was also in 1915 that Austria
found herself with another enemy.

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Italy, after long hesitation,

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and tempted by promises of
territorial gains after the war,

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joined the Allies.

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The Italian prime minister

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called this policy "Sacro Egoismo",
sacred egoism.

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For the first time in history,
the outposts of two great armies

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faced each other
across the Alpine peaks.

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WIND WHISTLES

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Here, in a region
of eternal ice and snow,

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of fierce storms and avalanches,

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the Austrians held
the commanding heights.

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TWO-WAY GUNFIRE

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Food, munitions,
everything the armies needed

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had to be supplied by cable railway
or by patient mules.

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General Cadorna,
the Italian chief of staff,

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threw his troops against
the eastern frontier.

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His objective
was the port of Trieste.

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The way to Trieste,
across the River Isonzo,

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was blocked by three high plateaus.

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Again and again, the Italians
attacked these rocky hillsides,

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where every shell burst flung out deadly
fragments of stone as well as iron.

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"It was a battlefield,"
wrote Hindenburg,

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"equal in desolation and horror
to the Western Front.

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"Indeed, in many respects worse."

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By 1916, Austria
was gravely weakened.

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In the summer of that year,

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another Russian offensive,
under General Brusilov,

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smashed through the front
in Galicia.

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Over 400,000 Austrians
were taken prisoner.

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Once again, it was only German help
that stemmed the tide.

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At the end of 1916,
the emperor Franz Josef died.

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There was great mourning in Vienna

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all over the place,
in all classes of the population.

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Everybody felt a personal loss.

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When, a few days after,

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the funeral of the emperor took
place, the streets were filled.

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The houses, the shops, even some
lampposts were draped in black.

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We looked at the funeral
with a sort of personal grief.

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The Kaiser came to pay his respects.

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The kings of Bulgaria, Bavaria
and Saxony, the German crown prince,

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the heir to the Turkish throne
and the crown prince of Sweden

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all escorted the dead emperor
on his journey to the family tomb.

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It was the end of an era.

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The new emperor, Karl, faced the ruin
war had brought on his once great empire.

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To preserve its crumbling facade
from final collapse,

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he entered into secret negotiations
with the French,

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which came to nothing. The German
ambassador in Vienna reported:

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"The longer the war lasts,
the stronger the simple question,

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"'Will Austria-Hungary be able
to carry on the fight?'

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"Her resources and troops
are nearly exhausted.

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"Depression is increased
by the economic situation.

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"The people of Vienna are starving,

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"and are driven to despair by long
queueing which brings no results.

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"We are running the danger that
the Hapsburg monarchy will sicken

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"and Germany will share
in its downfall."

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The harsh realities of the war

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had bound the Hapsburg empire
to Germany. Ludendorff decided:

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"The Austrian-Hungarian armies
needed stiffening by German troops

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"to prevent the collapse
of Austria-Hungary.

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"To send Germans for
purely defensive purposes

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does not correspond to
our serious situation.

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"The Austrian command must know it's
necessary to take the offensive."

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Seven Austrian and eight German
divisions, under a German general,

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were assembled in the mountains

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in the northern reaches
of the Isonzo.

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Their objective was to break out
into the Venetian plain.

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EXPLOSION BOOMS

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On October 24th, 1917,

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a heavy bombardment
by gas and high explosive shell

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drenched the Italian positions
on the Isonzo.

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The Italian trenches,
dugouts and shelters

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were overwhelmed
in a hurricane of fire.

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All communications were destroyed.

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In snow and sleet showers,

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the Austro-German army advanced
14 miles through the mountains.

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Many Italians were terrified
when German troops appeared.

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One glance at the Pickelhaube
coming over the hill was enough.

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By the end of the first day,
the enemy had crossed the Isonzo,

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captured the village of Caporetto
and taken 30,000 prisoners.

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The Italian second army was smashed
and in headlong retreat.

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It was impossible for us

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even to think of abandoning
these positions

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that had cost hundreds of thousands
of lives.

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To leave our dead there...
we just couldn't believe it.

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Still, still we had to withdraw.

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An attempt was made to stand on
the Tagliamento River, 30 miles back.

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But the enemy crossed
by a half-destroyed bridge.

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The Italians went back again,

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400,000 men along roads
blocked by refugees.

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One of the most tiresome things
from a military point of view

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was the Austrian motorcyclists and
their sidecars with light machine guns

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that used to appear from nowhere
and disappear into nowhere

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after machine-gunning a convoy
or a crowd of refugees.

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And...we, we felt the whole time

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a kind of...shame

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that we had been defeated.

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Through the exhausted and beaten
army, word passed round.

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"Andiamo a casa".
"We're going home."

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By 1917, the majority of Italian
soldiers were weary of the war.

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An English officer wrote:

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"They were desperately tired,
physically and spiritually.

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"Their food was continually reduced.

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"They had to march to the trenches
and back heavily laden.

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"They were at the mercy of brutal
commanders who maintained discipline

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"by means of bestial punishment.

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"They got a few days' leave
once a year,

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"two postcards a week to write home,

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"no amusements, no relaxation,
no rest."

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On the Piave River,
a mere 15 miles from Venice,

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Cadorna managed to rally his troops.

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"We have taken
the inflexible decision

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"to defend here the honour of Italy.

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"The Italian nation commands us
to die,

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"and not to yield."

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On the Piave,
after a retreat of 70 miles,

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the Italians held the enemy at bay.

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In under three weeks,
they had lost 400,000 men,

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of whom 360,000 were either
prisoners or deserters.

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The approach of the war
to within 15 miles of Venice

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has produced inevitable changes.

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The Ducal Palace is no more than
a skeleton, boarded up and emptied.

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Shops are selling off their goods.

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Venetians who have stayed
hope for the best.

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The Grand Canal, with its shuttered
palaces, has a mournful, noble air.

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Most of the gondolas are gone.

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Five British and six French
divisions were sent to Italy.

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The arrival of the British was
observed by historian GM Trevelyan:

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"The anxiety overhanging that month
seemed lifted as they marched by.

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"I believe the Italians, civil and
military, were as cheered as I was.

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"Looking on such men, it seemed
impossible that we could be beaten."

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General Cadorna now gave way
to the younger General Armando Diaz.

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Under his command, the Italian army
made an astonishing recovery.

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The change in the heart of
the country was no less remarkable.

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Armchair defeatists were silenced,
peacemongers put to shame.

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In the face of a common danger,

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the Italian people
at last found unity.

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To the Austrian army, Caporetto
brought much-needed relief,

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and the booty of huge food stores.

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It drew together its many races,

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Austro, German, Magyars, Yugoslavs,

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Czechs, Rumanians and Poles.

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BAND PLAYS

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Morale improved.

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For a while, the troops could relax,
on full stomachs.

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But at home,
there was no such unity.

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In winter, 1917, mutual dislikes
of different races in the empire

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were intensified
by unequal food distribution.

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Vienna was starving, while
Budapest had something to spare.

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The harvest was a failure,
the administration chaotic.

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The rations became smaller
and smaller as the war went on.

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And the black market flourished,
fairly officially.

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The quality of the food was terrible.

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Bread, for instance,
gave many people some eczema.

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Potatoes were very short too.

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It was bitterly cold.
The electricity was cut.

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The gas was cut.

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The children were really underfed,
because they had very little milk.

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We had to be very careful
to have a drop for everyone.

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In May 1918, the Emperor Karl
was summoned by the Kaiser.

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His secret peace moves
had been made public by the French.

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His duplicity towards
his German ally stood revealed.

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Now the Germans demanded that
the Austrians attack again in Italy

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in support of their own offensive
in France.

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This time,
there would be no German help.

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Reluctantly, Karl had to agree.

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The key to the whole Italian line
on the Piave was the Monte Grappa,

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5,000 feet high
and dominating the plain below.

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It had become a symbol of Italian
resistance in the previous winter.

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On 15th June,
the whirlwind burst on the Grappa.

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"Within five hours,
our defences were smashed,

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"three key positions were lost,

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"the Austrians looked down
on Bassano.

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"But the soldiers at Grappa,
worn out and decimated,

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"dashed forward
to the counterattack.

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"In 24 hours, all was over,

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"and we could think of the Piave
as inviolate."

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Elsewhere, Austrian attacks
made some headway

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against two British divisions
in the Asiago Plateau.

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00:20:43,460 --> 00:20:47,900
Further east, they crossed
the Piave on a 15-mile front.

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But the attacks
were spread over too wide a front.

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The Austrians were short
of ammunition, transport and food.

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Worst of all,
the Piave now rose in flood.

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Within three days, counterattacks
threw them back across the river

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with the loss of 150,000 men.

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On the sea, too, Austria
had suffered a grievous blow.

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Two Italian boats on patrol
in the Adriatic

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torpedoed the dreadnought
Szent Istvan,

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one of the most powerful ships
in the Austrian navy.

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00:21:27,260 --> 00:21:31,460
The disaster hastened the end
of Austrian hopes.

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00:21:55,660 --> 00:22:01,740
In the Balkans, Germany's ally
Bulgaria stood on the defensive.

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00:22:01,740 --> 00:22:08,220
Bulgaria had entered the war
for territorial gain from Serbia.

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In 1915, as the Germans
and Austrians invaded Serbia,

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Bulgaria struck at her flank.

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00:22:30,980 --> 00:22:34,020
The Serbs begged for Allied help,

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00:22:34,020 --> 00:22:38,780
but how could they help this
landlocked, isolated country

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in the heart
of the Balkan mountains?

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Only with the aid of Serbia's ally,
Greece.

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00:22:45,500 --> 00:22:50,260
At the invitation of the Greek
prime minister, Venizelos,

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British and French troops
landed at Salonika.

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00:22:56,260 --> 00:23:01,020
The force owed its existence
more to diplomatic necessities

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than to the foresight
of the military.

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00:23:04,380 --> 00:23:08,420
The expedition was launched
not to defeat the enemy,

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00:23:08,420 --> 00:23:12,460
but to rescue the remains
of the Serbian army,

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and prevent the whole of the Balkans
from becoming an Austro-German area.

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00:23:17,780 --> 00:23:21,980
But on the very day
the Allies landed,

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Venizelos was dismissed
by the pro-German King Constantine.

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00:23:26,740 --> 00:23:30,780
The king declared that Greece
would stay neutral.

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00:23:30,780 --> 00:23:34,300
The Allies were too late
to help Serbia.

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00:23:34,300 --> 00:23:39,140
They found themselves in a neutral
country teeming with German spies.

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00:23:52,420 --> 00:23:57,180
In the bare hills north of Salonika,
they entrenched in a vast camp,

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known ironically as the "Birdcage".

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00:23:59,860 --> 00:24:05,260
Here they waited for the Bulgarians
and Germans to advance.

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00:24:05,260 --> 00:24:08,300
But they did not come.

238
00:24:08,300 --> 00:24:11,340
All we prayed for and hoped for was,

239
00:24:11,340 --> 00:24:16,580
"Let us have some fights. Let us get
into there. Let us do something."

240
00:24:16,580 --> 00:24:21,740
We joined the army
to fight for the old country,

241
00:24:21,740 --> 00:24:25,780
not to flounder about
and dig trenches.

242
00:24:25,780 --> 00:24:29,500
As the troops in the Birdcage
made roads,

243
00:24:29,500 --> 00:24:32,340
reinforcements poured into Salonika,

244
00:24:32,340 --> 00:24:36,020
British, French, Italians,
Russians, Serbians.

245
00:24:36,020 --> 00:24:41,220
It was maybe the most crowded city
in the world, and the most polyglot.

246
00:24:41,220 --> 00:24:46,460
Sailors from half a dozen navies,
Turks, Albanians and Greeks,

247
00:24:46,460 --> 00:24:51,220
Balkan peasants in their rough
frieze dresses, native soldiers,

248
00:24:51,220 --> 00:24:55,060
Algerians, Indians, Ammonites
and Senegalese.

249
00:24:55,060 --> 00:25:00,500
Salonika's cafes, cabarets, cinemas
and music halls did a roaring trade.

250
00:25:00,500 --> 00:25:05,580
There were never enough for
the many strangers within the city.

251
00:25:13,820 --> 00:25:16,340
For nine months, the Allies waited.

252
00:25:16,340 --> 00:25:19,700
There was mistrust
of Greek intentions,

253
00:25:19,700 --> 00:25:22,220
mistrust between the Allies,

254
00:25:22,220 --> 00:25:26,260
mistrust of the French commander,
General Sarrail.

255
00:25:31,860 --> 00:25:35,260
At last, in the early summer
of 1916,

256
00:25:35,260 --> 00:25:40,020
the armies advanced north
towards the distant mountains.

257
00:25:41,620 --> 00:25:43,660
HORSE NEIGHS

258
00:25:43,660 --> 00:25:47,900
The Bulgarians and Germans
had had time to prepare.

259
00:25:47,900 --> 00:25:51,260
They held all heights
in great strength.

260
00:25:51,260 --> 00:25:56,060
No matter where you were,
you were under observation.

261
00:25:57,860 --> 00:26:02,900
All they had to do was look down.
We couldn't move by daylight at all.

262
00:26:02,900 --> 00:26:08,460
In the heat, the trench lines
spread across the Balkan peninsula

263
00:26:08,460 --> 00:26:12,380
from the Aegean to Albania
on the Adriatic.

264
00:26:12,380 --> 00:26:16,860
The sun beat down
on the stony, treeless heights

265
00:26:16,860 --> 00:26:19,380
on the swampy plains.

266
00:26:19,380 --> 00:26:22,420
The temperature rose to 114 degrees.

267
00:26:22,420 --> 00:26:26,260
The British troops
had no sun helmets.

268
00:26:26,260 --> 00:26:31,020
A director of medical services in
Egypt thought they were unnecessary.

269
00:26:31,020 --> 00:26:33,499
With the heat came
the mosquitoes,

270
00:26:33,500 --> 00:26:37,820
but there were not enough mosquito
nets, not enough quinine.

271
00:26:37,820 --> 00:26:42,860
In summer 1916, in every battalion,
men went down by the hundred.

272
00:26:42,860 --> 00:26:45,580
Medical services were overwhelmed.

273
00:26:45,580 --> 00:26:50,380
The difficulties of evacuating
this flood of sick men were extreme.

274
00:26:50,380 --> 00:26:56,940
In 1916, there were 30,000 cases
of malaria. In 1917, 63,000.

275
00:26:56,940 --> 00:26:59,900
In 1918, 67,000.

276
00:27:00,900 --> 00:27:04,580
It was then when you had an attack
of malaria

277
00:27:04,580 --> 00:27:09,340
and you had, as a result,
a chronic fit of depression,

278
00:27:09,340 --> 00:27:13,380
that it was hardest
to keep one's reason.

279
00:27:13,380 --> 00:27:18,020
Long hours in the line,
in one's lonely dugout,

280
00:27:18,020 --> 00:27:22,420
as one sat there, and thought,

281
00:27:22,420 --> 00:27:27,780
"Will I ever see home again,
and the people I love?"

282
00:27:29,020 --> 00:27:34,660
That was the most dangerous moment
for any man to have to face,

283
00:27:34,660 --> 00:27:40,180
and some poor chaps couldn't face it,
and shot themselves.

284
00:27:43,540 --> 00:27:46,980
The British army felt abandoned,
forgotten.

285
00:27:46,980 --> 00:27:49,700
We are far out of the limelight.

286
00:27:49,700 --> 00:27:53,740
People ask,
"What is the Salonika army doing?"

287
00:27:53,740 --> 00:27:56,260
Lloyd George wrote:

288
00:27:56,260 --> 00:28:01,700
"Our Balkan force was a miserable
Cinderella among the Allied armies.

289
00:28:01,700 --> 00:28:05,260
"The British War Office
never loved it.

290
00:28:05,260 --> 00:28:09,620
"The campaign was a wretched story
of neglect, delay,

291
00:28:09,620 --> 00:28:13,660
"and official bungling
of essential supplies."

292
00:28:13,660 --> 00:28:16,700
Winter brought a new enemy - cold.

293
00:28:16,700 --> 00:28:19,740
Day and night, armies on both sides

294
00:28:19,740 --> 00:28:24,580
were exposed to the full blast
of the blinding sleet, the icy wind.

295
00:28:24,580 --> 00:28:29,060
The temperature fell to 35 degrees
below freezing.

296
00:28:30,260 --> 00:28:33,620
Men went down by the score
with frostbite.

297
00:28:33,620 --> 00:28:37,620
The German high commands remained
on the defensive,

298
00:28:37,620 --> 00:28:40,140
and let Bulgarians hold the line.

299
00:28:40,140 --> 00:28:43,787
It was more advantageous to
know that 300,000 of the enemy

300
00:28:43,788 --> 00:28:46,340
were being chained to
that distant region

301
00:28:46,340 --> 00:28:49,563
than to drive them from
the Balkan peninsula

302
00:28:49,564 --> 00:28:52,500
and thence to the
French theatre of war.

303
00:28:52,500 --> 00:28:56,540
The Germans had other
preoccupations in the Balkans.

304
00:28:56,540 --> 00:29:01,140
In 1916, Rumania declared war
on the central powers,

305
00:29:01,140 --> 00:29:05,900
and Bulgaria found herself with
an enemy on her northern frontier.

306
00:29:05,900 --> 00:29:09,740
But Rumanian ambitions exceeded
their powers.

307
00:29:09,740 --> 00:29:15,220
"The trouble is, we are such babies,
so unlearned in the art of war",

308
00:29:15,220 --> 00:29:17,740
wrote the queen of Rumania.

309
00:29:17,740 --> 00:29:23,340
She set an example befitting
a granddaughter of Queen Victoria,

310
00:29:23,340 --> 00:29:28,980
distributing sweets, cigarettes,
little crosses and holy pictures.

311
00:29:32,780 --> 00:29:36,900
But crosses and holy pictures
were not enough.

312
00:29:36,900 --> 00:29:41,740
The Rumanian army was
pitifully equipped and badly led.

313
00:29:43,300 --> 00:29:47,062
In the north-west, German
and Austrian alpine troops

314
00:29:47,063 --> 00:29:50,540
came through the mountains
to the central plain.

315
00:29:50,540 --> 00:29:54,820
Bucharest, the capital,
fell without a struggle.

316
00:30:09,660 --> 00:30:12,644
In the south, Field
Marshal Mackensen,

317
00:30:12,645 --> 00:30:16,700
with a mixed force of Germans,
Bulgarians and Turks,

318
00:30:16,700 --> 00:30:20,420
had pushed up the Danube
towards its mouth

319
00:30:20,420 --> 00:30:24,140
and captured the Black Sea port
of Constanza.

320
00:30:44,460 --> 00:30:48,300
Three-quarters of the country
had been overrun.

321
00:30:48,300 --> 00:30:52,740
The following year,
the Rumanians sued for peace.

322
00:31:02,380 --> 00:31:07,220
The Rumanian catastrophe completed
the tale of unrelieved failure

323
00:31:07,220 --> 00:31:09,740
for the Allies in the Balkans.

324
00:31:09,740 --> 00:31:15,180
They now resorted to political
weapons. The majority of Greeks

325
00:31:15,180 --> 00:31:20,020
weren't pro-Ally or pro-German.
They just wanted to be left alone.

326
00:31:20,020 --> 00:31:24,420
But it didn't suit the Allies
for Greece to remain neutral.

327
00:31:24,420 --> 00:31:26,900
By political and military pressure,

328
00:31:26,900 --> 00:31:32,780
including a landing at Athens, King
Constantine was forced to abdicate.

329
00:31:32,780 --> 00:31:35,300
Venizelos was returned as premier

330
00:31:35,300 --> 00:31:40,140
and Greece was induced to declare
war on the Central Powers.

331
00:31:40,140 --> 00:31:46,460
"The conversion of the Greek army from
a source of danger to a powerful ally

332
00:31:46,460 --> 00:31:49,700
"changed the aspect of
things in the Balkans

333
00:31:49,701 --> 00:31:52,580
and made a renewed
offensive possible."

334
00:31:52,580 --> 00:31:56,020
From Corfu
came other reinforcements -

335
00:31:56,020 --> 00:32:01,060
100,000 Serbians who had escaped
from their country in 1915.

336
00:32:01,060 --> 00:32:05,580
They were dedicated to avenge
that terrible defeat.

337
00:32:05,580 --> 00:32:11,220
As Lloyd George put it, they were
"ravening to be up and at the foe".

338
00:32:24,660 --> 00:32:30,500
Now mighty events elsewhere
impinged on the Macedonian front.

339
00:32:30,500 --> 00:32:35,540
Germany's defeats in the west had
weakened Bulgaria's will to resist.

340
00:32:35,540 --> 00:32:42,140
Her peasant soldiers had lived for too
long on garlic soup and maize bread.

341
00:32:42,140 --> 00:32:47,340
They'd suffered too long in the
mountains without boots or coats.

342
00:32:47,340 --> 00:32:51,900
There was no longer a German army
to stiffen their morale.

343
00:32:51,900 --> 00:32:57,100
They began to slip away from
the front to their neglected farms.

344
00:33:00,860 --> 00:33:05,740
On 15 September 1918,
the Allied bombardment roared out

345
00:33:05,740 --> 00:33:10,460
and the mountains echoed
with its thunder.

346
00:33:10,460 --> 00:33:13,700
SHELL FIRE AND EXPLOSIONS

347
00:33:22,700 --> 00:33:28,300
Fire of battle spread quickly from
west to east as French, Serbians,

348
00:33:28,300 --> 00:33:29,940
Italians,

349
00:33:29,940 --> 00:33:34,860
Greeks and British attacked
the walls of rock that faced them.

350
00:33:46,460 --> 00:33:50,407
The main attack was made
by the French and Serbians

351
00:33:50,408 --> 00:33:53,460
over mountains, in
places, 7,000ft high.

352
00:34:02,220 --> 00:34:08,740
Within a week, the Serbian army,
inspired by the sight of their homeland,

353
00:34:08,740 --> 00:34:13,780
had stormed through the mountains
to the valleys beyond.

354
00:34:13,780 --> 00:34:20,340
Now they were retracing the path of their
bitter retreat three long years before.

355
00:34:20,340 --> 00:34:22,500
Veles, Skopje,

356
00:34:22,500 --> 00:34:24,580
Uskub, Nis -

357
00:34:24,580 --> 00:34:29,420
the towns of Serbia returned,
one after another, into their hands.

358
00:34:29,420 --> 00:34:32,140
ACCORDION PLAYS FOLK TUNE

359
00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:43,000
The Bulgarian commander in chief
frantically called on the Germans

360
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:45,480
for reinforcements.

361
00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:47,920
Hindenburg replied -

362
00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:51,760
"As Your Excellency is aware,
Germany is now engaged

363
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:54,540
"in a most terrific struggle
on the Western Front.

364
00:34:54,600 --> 00:34:57,100
"All our forces will be
 required for that purpose."

365
00:34:57,180 --> 00:35:01,368
Only a small nucleus of German
troops remained in Bulgaria

366
00:35:01,369 --> 00:35:04,020
- not enough to rally
the demoralized Bulgarians.

367
00:35:04,020 --> 00:35:10,420
"It was impossible to stop their career,
even though the pursuing enemy were weak.

368
00:35:10,420 --> 00:35:12,913
"The moment the
enemy approached,

369
00:35:12,914 --> 00:35:17,460
the Bulgarians fired a few rounds
and then left their lines."

370
00:35:17,460 --> 00:35:22,380
The Bulgarians fell back, leaving
behind the debris of a broken army.

371
00:35:22,380 --> 00:35:25,900
"The situation
was fast becoming unbelievable.

372
00:35:25,900 --> 00:35:29,639
"We were on the point of
rolling up the whole line.

373
00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:32,300
Central Europe was
before our eyes."

374
00:35:32,300 --> 00:35:36,860
On 29 September,
a fortnight after the first assault,

375
00:35:36,860 --> 00:35:39,500
Bulgaria capitulated.

376
00:35:39,500 --> 00:35:43,940
The first of Germany's allies
had cracked.

377
00:35:43,940 --> 00:35:47,860
"The iron thrones are falling,"
one Englishman wrote.

378
00:35:47,860 --> 00:35:51,500
The way lay open
to Constantinople in the east,

379
00:35:51,500 --> 00:35:54,220
to the Hapsburg Empire in the north.

380
00:35:54,220 --> 00:36:00,660
In Austria-Hungary, social discontent
had reached a revolutionary pitch,

381
00:36:00,660 --> 00:36:03,140
as it had done in Russia.

382
00:36:03,140 --> 00:36:06,522
Mutinies had broken out
among the Slovenes,

383
00:36:06,523 --> 00:36:09,980
Czechs, Hungarians,
Bosnians and Slovakians.

384
00:36:09,980 --> 00:36:13,460
Bad news from the Western Front
fanned them.

385
00:36:13,460 --> 00:36:17,470
The Austrians asked - "If Germany
can't put up a defence,

386
00:36:17,471 --> 00:36:19,820
why don't they end
the fighting?"

387
00:36:19,820 --> 00:36:23,140
Austrian dependence on Germany

388
00:36:23,140 --> 00:36:26,500
was coming full circle.

389
00:36:34,420 --> 00:36:39,420
Endurance was near breaking point.
One soldier wrote to his mother -

390
00:36:39,420 --> 00:36:42,820
"The life is unworthy
of any human being.

391
00:36:42,820 --> 00:36:45,170
"I ask myself how the older men

392
00:36:45,171 --> 00:36:49,300
and young boys in their front
positions endure this life.

393
00:36:49,300 --> 00:36:53,340
"Insufficient food.
Tattered uniforms.

394
00:36:53,340 --> 00:36:56,423
"No possibility of
keeping oneself clean.

395
00:36:56,424 --> 00:37:00,020
I feel convinced that we
can't go on like this."

396
00:37:00,020 --> 00:37:05,060
On 16 October, the troops learned
that the emperor had proclaimed

397
00:37:05,060 --> 00:37:10,660
a federal constitution giving full
autonomy to the empire's nations.

398
00:37:10,660 --> 00:37:15,060
It was too late. One by one,
they cast off the Hapsburg yoke.

399
00:37:15,060 --> 00:37:19,620
First the Czechoslovaks,
then the Yugoslavs and Hungarians

400
00:37:19,620 --> 00:37:23,020
proclaimed themselves
as independent states

401
00:37:23,021 --> 00:37:25,740
- the empire was
splitting asunder.

402
00:37:25,740 --> 00:37:28,220
After four years,

403
00:37:28,220 --> 00:37:33,060
the shot at Sarajevo had at last
achieved its true purpose.

404
00:37:35,020 --> 00:37:40,060
On 24 October, the anniversary
of Caporetto, the Allies attacked

405
00:37:40,060 --> 00:37:42,500
in Italy.

406
00:37:51,260 --> 00:37:55,180
EXPLOSIONS OF SHELLS

407
00:38:12,500 --> 00:38:17,220
For two days, the Austrians hung on
tenaciously in the mountains

408
00:38:17,220 --> 00:38:20,100
and along the line of the Piave.

409
00:38:20,100 --> 00:38:25,540
But on the 27th, the Allies
broke through the river front.

410
00:38:25,540 --> 00:38:30,100
CONTINUOUS MACHINE-GUNFIRE

411
00:38:34,660 --> 00:38:38,100
Three days later,
cavalry and armoured cars

412
00:38:38,100 --> 00:38:42,460
reached Vittorio Veneto,
the Austrian headquarters.

413
00:38:42,460 --> 00:38:45,460
The retreat had turned into a rout.

414
00:38:57,740 --> 00:39:02,140
Now, at last,
Austrian resistance was at an end.

415
00:39:02,140 --> 00:39:05,420
Her dream of empire was in ruins.

416
00:39:05,420 --> 00:39:09,700
Her imperial eagle
was at the point of death.