The Forced Labor Behind The WW1 Munitions Race | The Great War In Numbers | Timeline

one of the great privileges of working at history here and making films together with our team at timeline is the access we get to extraordinary historical locations like this one stonehenge i'm right in the middle of the stone circle now it is an absolutely extraordinary place to visit if you want to watch the documentary like the one we're producing here go to history hit tv it's like netflix for history and if you use the code timeline when you check out you'll get a special introductory offer see you there a war of numbers men [Applause] ammunition guns ships aircraft quantity is the difference between victory and defeat and for the first time in history everything is recorded in exacting detail a billion artillery shells a million machine guns 50 billion bullets 65 million men at war who die at a rate of 6 000 a day a war of numbers fought by calculating generals for whom no cost is too hard [Applause] in 1916 the imperial great war is killing men in appalling numbers british casualties killed wounded and missing amount to six hundred and fifty thousand french losses total almost nine hundred thousand germany's over one million and rushes a shocking two and a half million in 1917 many ordinary men will say no more but hundreds of thousands will die in the nightmare that will become known as total war 1916 has left the german army devastated a third of a million casualties on the eastern front 350 000 at verdun 600 000 more on the song the german army and the country itself cannot endure another year like it the germans were well aware of the risks of being engaged in another battle that was similar to the somme in 1917. indeed the british and the french even proposed fighting two sommes simultaneously to wear the germans down had this occurred german economists predicted that the german economy would simply collapse for wanted materials sometime in the autumn of 1917 and therefore forced germany to surrender germany needs a new plan a different way of fighting the war the men who come up with that plan are army commander paul von hindenburg and his deputy eric ludendorff [Music] these two men have done very very well on the eastern fronts and they bring with them the ideas of new tactics new methods of fighting the war but also of putting germany's industry on another step up from production to ensure that german soldiers have the means to win the war as quickly as possible because they both realize that a long war is going to be a disaster for germany these two promise a quick victory offering desperate germans hope of an end to the war hindenburg was an even more popular figure than the kaiser and hindenburg milks this shamelessly and he goes around posing for pictures like a war hero and furthermore he can also trace his ancestry all the way back to the teutonic knights so he desperately tries to build himself up as this really culturally and nationally essential figure eric ludendorff is from less refined stock he would like to be that great prussian aristocrat the great teutonic knight of old actually he's not he's effectively nouveau riche but he takes on the mantle of this great commander and he's very very very effective in this relationship it is the commoner who is the brains hindenburg and ludendorff work together in a very strange way insofar as the thinker the planner though the person that brings around strategy is actually ludendorff but hindenburg is a front man their biggest problem is industrial british and french munition factories are far out producing germany so the germans set new manufacturing targets twice as many shells three times as many machine guns three times as many heavy guns and howitzers but how are these targets to be achieved they drop a plan to conscript those who are too young or too old to fight to make munitions hindenburg demands the whole german nation must live only to serve the fatherland anybody over the age of 16 and women in supposedly useless occupations were forced into industrial production people were forced to work 15 hour days but despite all that there simply weren't enough people to produce the munitions that were needed ludendorff reckons he needs three million more workers [Applause] [Music] in this total war germany turns to slave labor drawn from its occupied territories since 1915 germany has imposed oberost a policy of military rule over three million people in the east ludendorff brings in an idea of forced labor and it really is a precursor of not exactly the concentration camps but the forced labor that we see under nazi germany it is very very harsh they ran oberost with an iron fist and they plundered the country for food and fodder and forced labor germany's barbarous methods are not restricted to the eastern front in occupied belgium and france prisoners of war and locals are used as slaves to build railways roads and defenses others are deported to work in german factories this is a material act a war of materiel and the army with the most material will win the war and if that means people suffering well the german war machine doesn't care 180 000 belgian men are forced into slave labor to work on military supply lines and in german factories conditions in forced labor camps are atrocious the number of belgians who die mostly from starvation reaches seven and a half thousand when they are liberated some men weigh as little as 35 kilograms but even so the german high command struggles to supply and defend its long front line [Music] so ludendorff decides to change his front make it shorter stronger and closer to home this will be the famous hindenburg line germany secretly builds a series of formidable defenses 30 miles shorter than its current front a new seemingly impregnable defensive system the hindenburg line was a series of five fortified zones stretching from the north sea down to vadon it was organized in depth one trench line following behind the other they incorporated every single tactical advantage the germans could find from concrete blocks to intercept tanks to enormous belts of barbed wire hidden machine gun nests in concrete bunkers artillery positions that could bring down counter battery fire onto any british guns that came into range not to mention an enormous series of underground dugouts tunnels and wireless operating stations to ensure the front was always in communication with its commanders building such a massive fortification is a colossal undertaking to transport the raw materials requires 1 250 trains and 450 barges it takes more than four months and 65 000 workers slave laborers russian prisoners of war and others twelve thousand five hundred tons of barbed wire one hundred thousand tons of cement and half a million tons of rocks and gravel the german army's retreat to its new defensive line is called operation albury and it is an act of total savagery during operation albrecht the german army conducted a policy of scorched earth this had precedence they used a similar technique on the eastern front in the early years of the war on the western front rows and railways were destroyed houses and villages were raised to the ground wells were poisoned and anything that was left standing was booby-trapped [Music] for the local inhabitants operation albury was an act of sheer terror the french civilians who had been living in the ground between the old german front line and the hindenburg line were evicted by force they had no choice in this matter they were removed and taken into german held territory and their property was simply destroyed by april 1917 the formidable hindenburg line is built the german economy is under total state control and german generals are resorting to the most brutal and inhuman methods of fighting a war the question is will it work april 1917 the german defenses along the hindenburg line are about to be tested the french commander robert nivell has a new plan to end the war and liberate france deville's plan would become known as the novella offensive a plan for a massive battle of rupture to be fought on the shemin desalms and the river rain it was an assault that he believed would crack the german line in 48 hours and precipitate a general advance liberating france by the summer of 1917. despite heavy losses at verdun nivelle was thought to have commanded well navel is buoyed up by his successor vedant and he promises that he can win the war virtually in a few days and he's saying with the right preparation with the right number of troops he can actually break through the german offenses and get revenge for their done for the first time here was a general who claimed to have a plan that could win the war not merely in a matter of months but in a matter of 48 hours and he was charismatic enough to convince powerful people that he was correct to capture the ridge at chamande dam nivelle amasses over a million men 5 000 guns and 200 tanks the british will launch a simultaneous attack to distract the germans and capture high ground 25 divisions of the british army armed with 3 000 artillery guns will hit german defenses near the french city of arras once through the german lines they will join the french breakthrough and chase the enemy across belgium back to the german border liberating france despite years of similar false promises and terrible losses french troops pinned their hopes on nivelle and his bowl's new plan soldiers in the front line trenches were encouraged by the promise that the war was soon to end with victory but many of novell's fellow officers expressed doubts that his methods were far too ambitious and could not possibly end the war only result instead in a vast number of casualties april the 9th 1917 the british attack first field marshall hague orders an artillery barrage of two and a half million shells three-quarters of a million more than the opening bombardment of the somme what's more by 1917 british shells are more advanced you have an increase in quality control you have the ministry of munitions on whitehall that is overseeing the national production of shells and munitions but there's also a technological innovation the 106 grey's fuse also known as the daisy cutter this fuse did exactly what the name implies rather than detonating on a timer it would decimate the moment it struck a strand of barbed wire vaporizing the barbed wire far more effectively than the old trapmore shells or the old timed shells of 1916. [Music] a key objective for the british is the high ground at vimy ridge whoever held vimy ridge held a critical observation advantage in all four compass points the troops allocated the difficult task of capturing vimy ridge with the canadian corps chosen specifically because they had established a well-earned reputation in 1916 as crack assault troops some of the best shock troops that the british army possessed at this stage of the first world war for a week 980 british guns rain one million shells down upon german lines at vimy ridge then fifteen thousand canadian soldiers are ordered to advance as they do britain's big guns keep firing this barrage is meant to clear a path and defend the advancing troops the canadians are advancing behind what's known as a creeping barrage essentially a wall of fire and shells they have to hug the barrage as it's known they have to walk as close behind it as possible hugging the creeping barrage is an incredibly risky business not only are you subject to potential drop shorts so essentially shells that aren't in line with others that acts as a form of friendly fire you've also got to keep within about 15 or 20 yards from the barrage itself so this is incredibly dangerous work at vimy ridge the creeping barrage proves its effectiveness german frontline defenses are overwhelmed by this combination of intense fire and resolute shock troops the canadian storm to a famous victory canadian brigadier general a.e ross will proudly say in those few minutes i witnessed the birth of a nation [Music] it's the first major allied success on the western front in 18 months of fighting but capturing vimy ridge comes at a horrendous cost in lives [Music] of the four canadian divisions who attack seven thousand are injured and three and a half thousand killed to the generals the battle of arras is a great success but the common soldiers call it the blood tub every day the cost in lives is greater than it was at the somme there british casualties were approaching three thousand a day at arras they are over four thousand the heavily fortified hindenburg line will be the scene of terrible slaughter german defenses are in greater depth and what they're able to do is effectively let our forces advance and then hammer them with artillery and counter-attack but harass is meant to be just a diversion the main assault is planned 80 miles south on the chamande dam where french commander robert nivell now orders his troops to advance novell is incredibly confident in fact he's overconfident he thinks that he can achieve victory in just 48 hours he expects the french to go eight kilometers in just nine hours but nivelle is not expecting anything as heavily fortified and massively defended as the hindenburg line navel is operating under a massive disadvantage what he doesn't know is that the germans have now fortified and reinforced the area they're waiting for him french artillery fires an incredible five million shells but they have little impact the germans have taken shelter deep underground there they wait for the advancing french troops who are cut down in shocking numbers by a devastating hail of bullets the germans have an astonishing amount of firepower it's said that they have a machine gun every 10 meters they're gonna mow down the french on the first day of the assault french losses total forty thousand nivelle had promised there would be at most ten thousand casualties instead the french lose more than ten thousand a day for eighteen days and the hindenburg line holds firm french troops call nivelle a mass murderer on the 15th of may he is sacked but that's not enough to appease ordinary french soldiers they're being sent to their slaughter like animals war is taking their homes tearing apart their families and now they've had enough mutiny is in the air may 1917 following the disastrous nivelle offensive ordinary french soldiers have had enough the impact of the novella offensive on the morale of french troops was devastating when their new general promised them a victory they believed him and when that victory did not materialize they were discouraged despondent and indeed mutants discontent is growing a new atmosphere of rebelliousness spreads through the army one of the ways that soldiers cope with the conditions in the western front was humour and whether it was jokes or satirical magazines or songs they all worked the british army produced the wipers times starting in 1915 and it was full of dark humor the french had la vie parisienne the parisian life it's full of satirical songs um this one here poking fun the germans of course but sometimes humor wasn't enough of its own and in the aftermath of the failed offensive on the shaman adam the song was written which had the lines we've had it for good with this awful war and the french soldiers really meant it soon thousands of french troops are defiantly singing this anti-war song the government offers a reward of a million francs and an honorable discharge to anyone who snitches on the soldier who wrote it but no one grasses instead french soldiers turn against their officers [Music] it begins in april with what commanders somewhat euphemistically call collective acts of in discipline what we start finding is units going into the line start passing their senior officers bleating like sheep they are lambs to the slaughter and it simply gets worse from there french troops are refusing to go over the top in tens of thousands almost half the french army mutinies 68 divisions 40 000 troops refused to fight 554 are court-martialed and condemned to death but officers fear the rebellion will get ugly so only 26 men are executed [Music] the french commanders realize they face a possible revolution this mutants behavior isn't just rooted in an unwillingness to go over the top actually it's also a social movement french soldiers are looking at injustices being carried out against them they want improved living conditions for their families they want better help for bereaved families this is not just a military mutiny this is a mutiny against society and the way it's organized commander robert nivel is replaced by the more cautious philippe patern he persuades his political masters to postpone any further military action and tries to appease the troops pessah has to be very careful about how he now deals with a very brittle french army he improves the rations the amount of leave goes up the french army responds but the great fear is that although the french army is getting better it's been tainted by revolutionary spirit because actually on the western front there were russian soldiers serving alongside the french and they begin to mutilate for real [Music] on the western front the french high command has managed to avert a revolution but in the east it's too late for the russian czar to escape the wrath of the people [Music] russians have had enough of war and their noble masters there is no sense of patriotism among ordinary russian conscripts we see a significant number of attempts to self-harm and to avoid the draft and we see significant draft riots in various parts of the empire as soldiers are called up to arms by 1917 russian losses are shocking of 12 million men conscripted almost two million are dead a further two and a half million have been captured or else have deserted five million have been maimed or wounded less than a quarter of the russian army is left standing war has decimated the russian peasantry but it has also armed them by the beginning of 1917 nicholas ii's personal position is profoundly vulnerable he took over personal control of the army in 1915 so it was personally associated with the successes or in the case of the russian army the failures of the prosecution of the war back in russia after centuries of groveling civility ordinary people are daring to challenge the authority of the ruling aristocratic elite food is running out since the start of the war the price of bread has increased 400 in theory during the first world war the russian empire was very well equipped to feed itself and its colossal army in practice however the state struggled with the challenge of feeding the army and maintaining a decent supply network for the country as a whole in february 1917 150 000 factory workers in petrograd many of them soldiers wives have had enough not only do they go on strike they also riot 1917 offers the opportunity for soldiers wives to say well we're part of this great russian national war effort we are an important part of this but the state must listen to us but the imperial state is not listening a quarter of a million workers join the women's protest the government orders the strike and the riots be put down by force soldiers are sent in to quell the rebellion but when they arrive they refuse to fire on their own people up to 80 000 troops mutiny [Music] on march the second the tsar is on a train to the capital petrograd but he's stopped by members of the russian parliament who demand his abdication the shocked tsar hands the crown to his brother who wisely turns down the job four centuries of czarist rule has come to a sudden end a provisional government is formed one that offers peace to germany on condition that germany returns all the territory it is occupied germany refuses instead the germans set out to kick their greatest threat in the east out of the conflict and into chaos and they know just the man to do it a left-wing agitator vladimir ilyich lenin living in exile in switzerland lennon was the leader of the only socialist party which promoted a defeatist position about the war that is he would be quite happy for russia to lose the war and this was something which was really welcomed by imperial germany so they were very keen to encourage lenin to get back to russia and to continue to sow his message he traveled back to russia on a sealed train which was authorized by the imperial german government the imperial german state bankrolls lenin 40 million marks to support his bolshevik coup and help him set up a propaganda paper called prafta a provisional russian government has already replaced the tsar declared a republic and promised elections but before these can take place lenin and a small force of armed revolutionaries seize power lenin does as his german paymasters expect of him and takes russia out of the war lennon's declaration of an armistice was important in meeting popular expectation that the new regime would bring an end to the war in july 1918 tsar nicholas his wife and their children are executed but lenin and his communist revolutionaries will bring death and terror on a far greater scale even than the war civil war and communist purges will claim another 10 million russian lives snuffed out by the bullet disease or starvation the russian people will soon learn that they have swapped one autocratic government for another even more terrifying meanwhile in autumn 1917 lenin's armistice threatens to change the course of the entire war with russia out of the way the germans can focus on the western front [Music] june 1917 french soldiers have risen up in mutiny the british army will have to fight on alone they plan to do it at flanders but first they must capture the adjoining high ground at machine ridge and they'll do it by stealth the british prepare for their assault on machines ridge through a remarkable process of military engineering underneath the ridge no less than 20 mine shafts are sunk digging through the clay underneath with the objective of planting a series of enormous high explosive mines deep beneath the german trenches ready to detonate them sky high when zero hour comes the number of tunnelers digging beneath the trenches total three thousand many are experienced miners recruited from tin mines and collieries the miners use a tunneling method they call clay kicking using leg rather than arm power to get through heavy wet clay what i've got here is a mining tool used to dig under the enemy's position this particular kind of shovel was used in clay kicking this technique had been developed before the war in building sewers under manchester and liverpool but what it meant was that the miner put himself on the cross as they called it a piece of timber with a cross piece with his back on that at 45 degrees and what the miner does is he puts both feet on the shovel and uses his strong thigh muscles in his back to dig forward silently and getting deep under the enemy tunneling was going on 365 days of the year with people rotating underground in their shifts of eight hours or longer in absolutely appalling conditions always aware of the dangers of the enemy breaking in a mind that would crush you or possibly poison gas it's a ghastly ghastly way to fight a war by june the 7th the miners have dug 21 tunnels up to 30 meters below the german positions the tunnels are packed with an incredible 1 million pounds of explosive at 10 past 3 in the morning the mines are detonated it is still one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history the explosion is so definitely loud that it can be heard in london for the germans it's little short of a nightmare as many as 10 000 german soldiers are simply annihilated by this enormous eruption of high explosive one of the largest mines creates a crater 40 feet deep and 250 feet in diameter it can still be seen today british and anzac troops sweep over machine ridge forcing the shock germans back to their third line of defence the assault on machines is one of the most successful operations of the first world war up to this point it's a textbook example of how to carry out an assault on a difficult position using all the methods available to the british army at this point machine is a complete military success finally it looks as if the allies have figured out how to break the hindenburg line emboldened by the victory commander of the british expeditionary force field marshal douglas hague pushes on with his ambitious plan for the autumn hague's plan is to coordinate a breakthrough at eep with a amphibious landing on the belgian coast in short this will create a strategic pincer movement that will allow britain and its allies to capture germany in the rear hague's first goal is to capture a village just five miles beyond the british lines the name of the village is passchendaele hague plans to use the same tactics that worked so well at machine ridge but he is not accounted for one small detail it's raining in fact it's the wettest flanders summer for a generation in the whole of august the rain lets up for just three days it rains almost constantly and because of that it floods in part because the very very careful system of drainage ditches built by the belgians for years as destroyed by trampling feet and by shell fire and by mines it turns into a quagmire making advance almost impossible the village of passchendaele will forever be remembered for the slaughter that takes place there in 1917 the battle begins to degenerate into a grim attritional slog fought in the most appalling conditions imaginable it is clear that countless thousands of men are about to lose their lives wave after wave are sent over the top some are swallowed by the mud and drown many more are butchered as they stagger on seen off by the machine guns [Music] still hague sends ever more men into the slaughter passchendaele is finally captured on the 6th of november by then british and commonwealth casualties totaled 275 000 germany's 220 000 almost half a million men british soldiers are now calling their commander butcher hague there is a new dangerous mood in the ranks lloyd george would later come to regard passchendale as perhaps his worst mistake of the war not least because the british never managed to punch through to the channel ports however what it did manage to do was to draw away several german divisions which meant that they couldn't then attack the seriously weakened french forces the hindenburg defensive line is holding but a defensive line won't win germany the war hindenburg and ludendorff decide to go on the offensive not on land but at sea the naval campaign that follows is widely thought to be one of the biggest blunders in military history the great war is bleeding the imperial powers dry before it began a massive dreadnought battleship had cost 1.9 million pounds to build by the end of the war the british army is spending twice that every day just on ammunition from less than 100 million in 1912 british defense spending in 1917 has exploded to almost 2 billion pounds [Music] and britain is also lending money to russia italy and france to pay for their war efforts but britain is not just lending its allies its own money it is borrowing it and there is only one place on earth able to lend that kind of money wall street at the end of 1916 the investment bank jp morgan was preparing to borrow another 1.5 billion dollars on britain's behalf to fund the war throughout 1970 but u.s president woodrow wilson forbids j.p morgan from issuing the bonds he is turning off the money tab the war must end in january 1917 he calls on both sides to accept a peace without victory for wilson this was america's moment to force the old imperial powers to make peace on american terms and to accept an american-run league of nations as the ultimate arbiter in all future disputes there is panic in london and paris the german ambassador in washington urges berlin to grab the opportunity for peace but hindenburg and ludendorff want a total german victory and they think they know how to secure it they decide to resume unrestricted u-boat attacks in the atlantic they will cut off the allies from their american supply lines hindenburg and ludendorff did a careful calculation they calculated they could starve britain in a five month campaign the german chancellor warns the plan to relaunch unrestricted submarine warfare is a high-stakes gamble that risks antagonizing america ordinary americans were enraged when a u-boat sank the liner yusitania killing 128 of their countrymen but hindenburg and ludendorff do not fear the americans the us has a tiny army just 128 000 men the imperial powers lose that many in a single battle american battleships have never even fired a shot in anger so on the 9th of january 1917 the u-boat campaign begins for many historians it's come to be seen as the worst decision of the war but for germany which was suffering terribly under the british blockade it was hugely popular giving the british back some of what they had experienced for the past years germany has 105 u-boats and its navy also commissions 10 giant eu cruisers monster submarines which can double as cargo ships in 1916 the first of the u-cruisers the deutschland turned up in baltimore harbor carrying a supply of dyes and pharmaceuticals they were able to sell the supplies and return to germany with hundreds of tons of valuable nickel tin and natural rubber but as well as carrying cargo the eu cruisers are terrifying weapons of war armed with 24 torpedoes and two powerful guns they have arranged two times that of ordinary u-boats at first the unrestricted u-boat campaign goes well in april germany sends more than 860 000 tons of vital allied supplies to the sea floor the allies are losing 13 merchant ships a day but britain soon responds to the threat [Music] in may british merchant vessels start travelling in convoys protected by royal navy destroyers by december the weight of allied shipping being sunk each month is halved to 400 000 tons the destroyers meanwhile are refitted to deal with the subs by 1917 the convoy system was better able to protect itself from the u-boat threat convoys were able to identify where those u-boats were and destroy them british and american escorts also had much better more sophisticated depth charges and mines in order to destroy the u-boats before they could get too close in 1917 the numbers of u-boats put out of action rise by two-thirds in 1916 losses total 23 in 1917 75 in just three months german u-boats sink 500 merchant ships but this causes outrage in america president wilson lifts the ban on lending to the allies he is still reluctant to take america into the war but on march the 1st that changes newspapers publish an intercepted telegram from germany's foreign secretary arthur zimmerman to his ambassador in mexico in the telegram zimmermann makes mexico an offer make war together and germany will generously support mexico in its attempts to reconquer the lost territory of texas new mexico and arizona rather than claiming that the telegram is a propaganda stunt to lure america into the war zimmerman admits it's genuine if resuming the u-boat campaign was the worst decision of the war then the zimmermann telegram must run it pretty close for the united states this was the final straw on the 6th of april 1917 the u.s congress votes to declare war on germany america's army is tiny just 128 000 men american general pershing calls for a million men to be sent to europe but americans have been reading about this gruesome imperialist war for years just three hundred thousand volunteer so conscription is introduced there are sixty five thousand conscientious objectors including quakers and jehovah's witnesses seventeen will be sentenced to death though none will actually be executed in the end almost three million men are drafted this new fresh well-supplied american army will arrive in europe in 1918. for the germans time was running out their defensive victories in 1917 had come at a ruinous cost in lives and material with the american army about to make its presence felt in the west the germans only hope of victory lay in striking a knockout blow against the french and the british in 1918. by the end of 1917 three years of war has transformed the world it has destroyed imperial russia and brought about communism the old habsburg empire is on its knees the french army has mutinied britain and germany are bleeding each other to death but now america has taken up arms growing in economic strength can it impose peace on the squabbling bloodthirsty imperial powers of the old world [Music]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, great war, ww1, german empire, slave labor, forced labor, women in factories, women of the war, ww1 production, timeline, timeline world history, timeline channel, timeline world history documentaries

Id: CW-XSSBo2l8

Length: 45min 4sec (2704 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 24 2021