The War's Last Months: First World War | First World War EP10 | Timeline

[Music] by summer 1918 the war had been going for four terrible years and the end seemed nowhere in sight unless we can look ahead and plan for 1990 we should be in the same melancholy position next year as we are this do the means of beating the German armies in 1919 exist have we the willpower [Music] [Applause] [Music] since spring 1918 the Allies on the Western Front had been battered by German offensives but in August the Allies secretly assembled a strike force in northern France a hundred thousand men of the Australian and Canadian Corps were backed by four hundred tanks nineteen hundred planes 2,000 guns three cavalry division's General Sir Henry rowlandson British commander at the Somme in 1916 had learned from the past he embraced new ideas the close combination of men and machinery the importance of achievable goals my only difficulty will be to get enough divisions and to keep the things secret rowlandson aimed his assault at a weak 12-mile sector of the German line east of MEA he had the French in support to the south general erich ludendorff joint commander-in-chief of the german army neither knew of an attack nor feared one we should wish for nothing better than to see the enemy launched an offensive a [Music] hundred thousand infantry is standing grimly Salomon all field to make sure their bayonets are firmly locked the section officer counts the last seconds [Music] the speed was terrific within a few moments of the huns running from our tanks and infantry our guns were coming up into new forward positions the first glorious to be in the rush of an advance [Music] the allied attacks and the Germans reeling by nightfall Rawlinson's fourth army had advanced eight miles they killed and seriously wounded 9,000 Germans and captured 18,000 more Ludendorff declared the 8th of August the black day of the German army general paul von hindenburg steadied him but both knew the battle of amia was the beginning of the end [Music] my tias germany looked on the map her arm is on the western front when near the end of their tether exhausted hungry fed up their generals had given them neither clear aims nor adequate supplies the Germans had lost nearly a million men since March [Music] Ludendorff blamed the homefront for spreading defeatism I was told of behavior which I openly confess I should not have thought possible in the German army home bodies of our men had surrendered to single soldiers Germany's problems went beyond poor morale she'd lost a string of vital battles the Battle of the factories and Technology Germany had built just 20 tanks the Allies over 4,000 she'd lost the Battle of manpower a quarter of a million Americans were pouring into France every Monday she'd lost the Battle of command the Allies worked together under the leadership of marshal Ferdinand Fache but Ludendorff's generals despaired of his lack of strategic plan and some feared for his mental health great crisis this morning very nerve-wracking Ludendorff is a bundle of nerves it's never his fault he looks everywhere for scapegoats after amia Fache orchestrated a series of attacks up and down the German lines first French then British now American the Germans fell back under the rain of blows while the Allies were pulling together the Central Powers were tearing apart in austria-hungary a third of a million soldiers are deserted the people at home was starving the multi-ethnic Empire was splintering its poles czechs and Bosnians saw defeat was their chance to pursue independence [Music] in mid-september the Austrian Emperor Karl told the Kaiser he wanted to negotiate with the Allies the Kaiser begged him not to I cannot refrain from expressing to you my astonishment in sorrow that you could even think of doing this you must know how destructive this course of action is but Carl had already sent his proposal for talks to the allies and they just throw it back in his face another great Empire allied to Germany was dying the 600 year old Ottoman Empire was a spent force Ritter was driving the Turks out of Mesopotamia Palestine and Syria they were now fighting for their lives not for Germany then the third link in Germany's alliance chain started to give way Germany needed Bulgaria to hold the Balkan front but by September 1918 a huge Allied Force had gathered in Macedonia if the Bulgarians folded the Allies way would be clear to austria-hungary [Music] the Bulgarians who dug into these trenches them are all cracking crown prince Boris was almost attacked by his own soldiers when he visited the front we are naked barefoot and hungry an empty knapsack does not God a frontier [Music] the First World War had begun in the Balkans with Serbia as the tinderbox now as part of the Allied Force she was in at the kill and for the Serbs it was personal in 1915 the Bulgarians had helped keep them out of their home load here was the Serbs chance for revenge the heavy artillery made the Bulgarians crawl deep into their shelters all the excitement made my hair stand on end my blood was up the Allies smashed through the Bulgarian lines unrolled north on the 28th of September bulgaria sued for peace when he heard this Ludendorff suffered a fit collapsing to the floor foaming at the mouth the very next day he learned the Allies had breached the Hindenburg line along the sand contact canal Germany's last fixed line of defense on the western front two days later on the 1st of October Ludendorff summoned his senior staff to his headquarters in spa among them Colonel Albrecht von tear Ludendorff stood up his face was pale and full of deep worry he said it was his duty to tell us that our military condition was terribly serious Bulgaria has already been lost Austria and Turkey are both at the end of their strength any day now our Western Front could be breached therefore the supreme army command demands that a proposal for bringing about peace be made without delay Ludendorff stark decision to ask for an armistice or ceasefire was a terrible shock generals quietly sold when Ludendorff left the room terr followed him I grabbed his right arm with both hands and said your excellency can it be true is that the last word am I awake or dreaming I was completely beside missing he remained calm and gentle and said to me with a deeply sorrowful smile unfortunately that is how it is and I see no other way out [Music] to the German people in October 1918 the prospect of an armistice seemed heaven send a great sigh of relief escapes from the lips of the tormented nation this means peace you can hear at every corner of the streets and peace smiles in the eyes of every little shop girl in the Baker's or grocers Germany's soldiers had kept her politicians in the dark about the string of military disasters so the news that they wanted an armistice came as a bolt from the blue the deputies were absolutely broken Ebert turned white as a sheet and didn't after a single word straizo mom looked as if he'd had an accident Secretary Valdo is believed to have left the room saying the only thing left to do is to shoot oneself in the head but P Stokes was still away off first the terms of the ceasefire would have to be settled Germany approached US President Woodrow Wilson asking him to broker the armistice with the Allies they chose him because he'd already proposed a peace plan the fourteen points French Prime Minister clemenceau was unimpressed fourteen-point the good Lord has only ten Wilson's points were an idealistic package of liberal principles including rights to national self-determination and a League of Nations to watch over it all germany believes Wilson would secure a fair deal for them on this basis we are ready to be just to the German people to deal fairly with the German power as with all others to propose anything but justice that Germany would be to renounce and dishonor our own cause but Wilson also insisted Germany had to admit defeat and democratize and Britain and France didn't want to talk about a new world order until the war was over while the politicians argued the fighting raged on Germany's u-boats continued to sink Allied ships in the Atlanta and that's how armies retreated across France they looted and laid waste 14 year old Eve conga had kept a diary throughout the German occupation of his hometown of Saddam he longed for freedom but dreaded the price the French would have to pay for it [Music] so here it is a great moment who spent the last four years waiting hoping begging for and yes it brings with it the horror of bombing gas fire perhaps death when we never see our friends again many might be killed the entire town destroyed our one great hope is an armistice the first world war did not go quietly the final months were more lethal than the trench war of past years have been men now had to leave the safety of trenches across open ground with little place to hide from sweeping machine gun and shell far [Music] British casualties in autumn 1918 were higher than those exactly a year before during the terrible Battle of Passchendaele the epitome of trench slaughter [Music] and the closer to peace the harder it was to bear the losses [Music] it was a slaughterhouse just a mass of mangled flesh and blood Bob's head was hanging off you couldn't tell which was Harris and which was Kempton what was left of them was in pieces we knew the enemy was beaten after three years in France and the end so near Bob killed Harris who'd left a young bride killed Jimmy Fuchs whose time was nearly up killed Kempton who also was due for leave killed general Haig had seemed careless with his men's lives at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 now he argued for stopping the war without a total defeat of the Germans the British alone might bring the enemy to his knees but why expend more British lives and for what French General shall mahjongg insisted this would only store up trouble for the future no no no we must go right into the heart of Germany the Germans will not admit they were beaten it is a fatal error and France will pay for it but with winter setting in any invasion of Germany would have to wait till spring 1919 by then the Germans might have renewed their strength marshal Fache believed France would get what she wanted by negotiation no need to battle on to Berlin so the Allies set out to achieve on paper what their armies had not done in the field obtain Germany's unconditional surrender [Music] Fache chose to meet the Germans in con piernas 45 miles northeast of Paris in a secluded forest through which a railway line conveniently round [Music] in his train on the 8th of November Fache handed the Armistice conditions to politician Matthias arts burger leader of the German delegation arts burger was visibly shaken by the terms Germany would have to accept just to obtain a ceasefire Germany would have to evacuate Belgium and France surrender her fleet and pay compensation the Allies would continue their blockade disarm the Germans and occupy the left bank of the Rhine Germany was being forced to capitulate meanwhile the country--its burger represented was falling apart its cities swept by revolution [Music] the German people exhausted by war and hunger wanted democracy in and the Kaiser out [Applause] [Music] but it was the German army which forced the Kaiser to abdicate he asked his generals to turn the army against the people but the generals refused the army will return home in good order under its generals but not under the command of your majesty it no longer stands behind your majesty the Prussian dynasty of Frederick the Great was over the next day the Kaiser slipped into exile in Holland he would live long enough to hear that Germany had beaten France in 1940 he never accepted that in 1918 his army had been defeated for 30 years the army was my pride now after four and a half brilliant years of war with unprecedented victories it was brought down by a stab in the back from the dagger of the revolutionaries at a very moment when peace was within reach most Germans rejoiced at the news that the Kaiser had gone I felt as if a heavy weight had suddenly been lifted from my heart this definitely means the armistice will be signed back in the forest of compiègne asperger now found himself representing the German Republic at 5:00 a.m. on the 11th of November he signed the armistice hostilities temporarily cease 1,100 today when all offensive action will cease present outpost line to be maintained and no troops to pass east of it other than Road etc reconnaissance and working parties no conversation with enemy to be allowed the most remarkable feature was the uncanny silence the war was over peace and safety was a new thing it could not be grasped in a moment a dreadful blow I was just beginning to enjoy it [Music] no more slaughter no more maiming no more modern blood no more shoveling bits of men's bodies and dumping them into sandbags no more writing those dreadfully difficult letters to the next of kin of the dead a strange and unreal thought was running through my mind I had a future [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] it was the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month a great cheer arose all along the line we could hear the men a thousand yards in front raising holy hell the French behind our position were dancing shouting and waving bottles of wine [Applause] we were stupefied to see crowds of boss running over to us between the minefields of their hands up and yelling like mad they were crazy for cigarettes and chocolate we had some burnt rice that our boys wouldn't eat and they fell on it like wolves our soldiers were choked with emotion I thought about my family about all the women of France except those who are alone and who cry [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] one great wave of joy swept round the world who found its way to every nook and cranny no one was more delighted than our African soldiers and cheered themselves hoarse [Applause] [Music] everybody came out disabled old men old women in slippers and housewives leaving lunch on the stove I wept with joy 5,000 Indian soldiers lit their torches the hilltops burst into fire with scores of bonfires I found myself arm and arm with soldiers I had never seen before I forgot where we went toward the streets and sang and saying the significance of what it means was overwhelming peace [Music] [Applause] people whose lives were shaped by the war went home people the world did not yet know Ernest Hemmingway Berthold Brecht Harold Macmillan Vera Brittain Charles - go Joseph Tito Benito Mussolini David ben-gurion Mustafa Kemal and one of the most insignificant of them all for now Adolf Hitler [Music] the German armies in France and Belgium headed home how we had looked forward to this moment we used to picture it as the most splendid event of our lives and here we are now humbled our souls torn and bleeding but we can be proud of our performance never before has a nation a single army had the whole world against it and stood its ground we protected our homeland they never got into Germany [Music] in mid-december 1918 the first German troops arrived in Berlin the people welcomed them as an army with no cause to feel ashamed the men wore green laurel wreaths over their steel helmets the machine guns were garland it with green branches many a soldier had a child or sweetheart on his flower wreath horse a feeling of confidence of fresh hope in the future seems to have returned with the troops Germany's new Republican Chancellor friedrich ebert reinforced the dangerous illusion that they had not been beaten in this war I salute you you returned unvanquished from the field of battle the Allies were in no doubt who had beaten whom allied troops moved into Germany and began their watch on the Rhine the German fleet was surrendered to Britain and the Allies assembled in Paris to dictate the terms of the peace [Applause] u.s. President Woodrow Wilson crossed the Atlantic to put his idealism to the test we have used the great words right and justice now we are to prove whether or not we understand those words and how they are to be applied but the world had not stood still between the end of the war and the start of the peace talks on the 22nd of November 1918 the Belgian King Albert came home in triumph to Brussels occupied lands had been won back [Music] you the French repossessed alsace-lorraine [Music] what a moving welcome but people were so happy and smiling some were pale and cried while they greeted us they all speak absolutely pure French they really are French all those locals we were treated like victors like saviors [Music] these scenes confirmed that France and Belgium had been liberated from an evil grip that this was a victory for the Allies and in Eastern Europe new nations arose out of shattered empires they didn't wait for the Peace Conference to bring them self-determination they tore down all signs of foreign rule and put up new frontiers Poland carved a vast territory out of Germany and Russia Czechoslovakia took land from Austria and Hungary and Serbia realized the aim she'd started the war over by founding her own Slav super state the peace talks would recognize these new nations they did not create them 27 countries met in Paris to divide the spoils and define the peace the losers were not invited [Music] we are going into these negotiations with our mouths full of fine phrases and our brains sealing with dark thoughts [Music] the big decisions were made by the Council of for prime ministers Orlando of Italy Lloyd George of Britain Clemenceau of France and US President Wilson all liberals but with very different agendas and forceful personalities arguments between Lord George and myself were so violent Wilson had to interpose between us with outstretched arms saying pleasantly I have never come across to such unreasonable men Clemenceau wanted Germany restrained for the sake of French security Orlando wanted more territory for Italy lloyd-george looked beyond Europe to safeguard the British Empire Wilson wanted his new world order with justice and democracy for all but first there was the little matter of settling the war and that would force Wilson to compromise his ideals the big four did not go into the talks planning to pin guilt for the war on Germany but when they realized how much the war had cost they looked for someone to foot the bill France owed billions to Britain and America for financing her war Britain couldn't afford to waive the debt and America wouldn't so the Allies turned to Germany but she could only be made to pay up if she accepted blame for the war so the Allies included a clause pinning the guilt on Germany Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and associated governments and their Nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies on the 7th of May 1919 the German delegation came to collect the treaty expecting to find an even-handed settlement infused with Wilson's sense of fair play they were horrified by what they read four hundred and forty articles beating Germany into submission [Music] the Germans protested so vehement ly particularly against the requirement to admit war guilt that lloyd-george worried that the Allies had gone too far a member of his own delegation the renowned economist John Maynard Keynes was openly critical he felt the forcing Germany to pay reparations could ruin Europe politically and economically the policy of reducing Germany to servitude for a generation of degrading the lives of millions of human beings should be abhorrent and detestable but Clem also believed the terms were fully justified on Wilsons line had toughened he had wanted to treat Germany fairly but as a liberal he was appalled by the way she'd waged war and as president of the United States he wanted America's loans repaid it is a good thing that the term should be so hard so that Germany may know what an unjust war means if the Germans won't sign then we must renew the war Germany did sign on the 28th of June 1919 in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles five years to the day after the Sarajevo assassination that had triggered the war you the settlement was far from perfect the much-touted principle that people should govern themselves was not applied outside Europe and imperialism was condoned but Wilson achieved his great goal the creation of the first global forum the League of Nations in the event the Allies wound up with the worst of both worlds the Germans paid little in reparations and the League of Nations proved powerless to force them and the Versailles terms left some Germans like future Nazi Rudolf Hess smoldering with resentment with disastrous consequences the only thing that keeps me going is the hope for the day of revenge however far off it may be I wonder whether it'll happen in my lifetime [Music] marshal Ferdinand Fache felt the Allies haven't been tough enough and realized the world would have to go to war again this is not peace it is an armistice for 20 years he got it wrong by just 65 days [Music] men were killed in the wars final hours whose last letters did not reach home for weeks men like Marius sokka's who wrote to his father in Morocco dear dad if I were to die in a future attack don't cry there's no point I would only be doing my duty and would die like many others for a noble cause a great ideal I'm proud to be your son and I want to tell you today because who knows what the future holds I love you more than I have ever shown you love and kisses Marius around 10 million soldiers were killed in the war prompting lloyd George's sardonic comment when I look at the appalling casualty lists I sometimes wish she'd had not been necessary to win so many great victories [Music] the tidy rows of crosses sanitized the deaths they often cover mass graves with a man represented only by the part of him that could be found and identified Verde in France has a huge vault full of bones some of the millions posted missing in the war the place and circumstance of their death unknown no one is certain how many civilians died women children and elderly caught in the mayhem of the East and front in the flight of the Serb nation in 1915 in the Armenian massacres in occupied France and Belgium then in 1918 influenza broke out eventually killing 20 million soldiers and civilians around the world 20 million men were wounded by the war of whom several million were badly mutilated the French called one category the girl Cassie the broken faces some were given human masks to hide their wounds new faces new legs new arms new minds were more difficult no one really knew what to do with the victims of shell-shocked soldiers with a range of disorders were filmed including 19 year old private Preston his memory blank responsive only to the word bombs [Music] over the decades which followed the suffering and the dying and the sense of futile waste central themes in the wars poetry came to dominate our perceptions come back come back he didn't want to die and all this wars a sham a stinking lie and the glory that our fathers lured so well a crowd of corpses freed from pangs of hell [Music] but in its immediate aftermath when the memorials went up around the world the First World War was not seen solely in terms of senseless slaughter their designs and descriptions to find the war in positive terms for defense against aggression for love of one's country for glory so much hardship so much heroism and now such overwhelming glory anything after this can be no more than an anti-climax [Music] Germany to celebrated victory where she could a gigantic monument was built in 1927 at Tannenberg to commemorate Germany's triumph over the Russians in 1914 it was inaugurated by Field Marshal Hindenburg the war may have been lost but the dead were proclaimed as heroes the struggle itself honored though the aim for which I fought was not to be achieved we learned once and for all to stand for a cause and if necessary to fall as befitted men many allied memorials spelled out the values felt to be at stake during the war in the stained glass window in Canterbury University New Zealand the central powers are depicted as the dragon of brutality and ignorance the Allied troops have humanity and justice on their side and are naturally victorious the years after the war were defined by the search for significance in the loss national symbols like the senator from the unknown warrior helped answer the question in so many people's minds what did all the suffering mean in 1920 the body of an unidentified British soldier was exhumed in France and transported home [Music] on the 11th of November the Unknown Warrior was brought to Whitehall he did not seem an unknown warrior he was known to us all he was one of our boys to some women he was their own boy who went missing [Music] too many men wearing ribbons and badges he was one of their comrades [Music] it was the steel helmet the old tin hat lying there on the Crimson of the flag which revealed him instantly [Music] Herbert Thompson had lost his eyesight in the war he could not see the proceedings but he could feel them there was ineffable sadness and melancholy yet a message of inspiration and hope as if the spirit of the unknown soldier had whispered courage brother hope on I felt with my comrades almost ashamed that I had given is so little while he who was sleeping bias have given all [Music] veera Britain had served in France as a nurse during the war she lost her fiance to close friends her only brother she went back in 1921 [Music] at amia we stood in the dimness of the once threatened cathedral we looked up with reminiscent melancholy at the still bordered stained glass windows smashed by german shells realizing with sudden surprise that in my own mind the anger and resentment had died long ago leaving only an everlasting sorrow and a passionate pity the first world war had achieved its basic aim of containing German and Austrian militarism at least for the moment it moved Europe from the Age of Empires to the era of nation-states he gave Eastern European people's their independence it gave a sense of national identity to Canada Australia and New Zealand it helped Russia become the world's first communist state unlaunchable the ideas which men fought have proved lasting democracy and liberalism religious faith and nationalism but the First World War sold few of the grievances over which it was fought we live with its unresolved consequences in the Middle East the Balkans Ireland it wasn't the war to end all wars not just because it left dangerous loose ends but because it bequeathed the world a terrible message that war can affect change the war can fulfill ambitions that war can work the battlefields were tied it up or plowed over or just abandoned but they held their grip on the soldiers who'd fought on them on those who dared go back I saw again with a pang of anguish the trenches damp and muddy and was surprised have lived there for four years so moving because of the endless silence the gloomy barren deserted look old churches pierced chipped ripped open and barbed wire everywhere life resumes things remain the same we're the only ones who have changed you [Music]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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Keywords: end of ww1 documentary, trench warfare, real, Full length Documentaries, military history, ww1 documentary, Documentary, BBC documentary, great war, epic history tv, history of the world, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, documentary history, Channel 4 documentary, history channel, Full Documentary, world war one, history documentary, world war 1, first world war, world war i (military conflict), 2017 documentary, History, Documentaries, stories

Id: 3tNft7sv-Zo

Length: 49min 51sec (2991 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 06 2019