[Music]
19:15 no one who has not been at the
front has any idea what the soldiers are
living through
[Music]
she hasn't had a letter from him since
April he's been fighting the Germans for
a year every hour of every day she
wonders when he'll come home he writes
that the British troops tell of hardship
cruelty violence
[Music]
he writes that to stay alive the Germans
like them have dug themselves in
in the trenches the men live like rats
among the rats
[Music]
[Applause]
in the trenches every day is the same
despite repeated attacks
neither side gains any ground
when the whistle blows men go over the
top into a living hell
how is artillery the shelling wreaks
devastation
most terrifying a bowl is shrapnel
shells filled with lead pellets and
gunpowder that explode in midair
the writer mogees turn of whether
scribes is I'm caught in a hail of
shrapnel the lead shot widow's the
ground around me
Pierce's mess kits and splits men's
skulls
all around him men are being disfigured
for life the French called them broken
faces
doctor's encounter horrific rooms never
seen before
[Music]
they can do nothing for the trauma
caused by the shelling fits of terror
trembling paralysis
[Music]
millions of men find themselves caught
in the deadly trap of this massive war
September 1915 in the east the Turks the
Austrians and the Germans battled the
Russians in the south the Austrians hold
the Italians in check in the West the
Germans faced the Belgians French and
British along a line of trenches that
stretches 400 miles to hold their
positions the Allied troops need better
protection so in September 1915 French
factories now staffed by women convert
to war work with a rush order for 20
million helmets these are complicated to
produce but are designed to offer
protection from shrapnel
a film features one of these factory
workers leaving a note in a helmet in
order to boost the morale of its wearer
dear soldier I am a simple French woman
wishing you a quick and happy return to
your loved ones may this helmet bring
you luck mercy no bail this lucky
soldier and his companions also sports
new uniforms the color dubbed horizon
blue is supposed to blend in with the
sky during assaults but the men worry
that this new kit is a sign of a
drawn-out war although the official
cameramen instruct the men to appear
smiling in war like one soldier pretends
to commit suicide like the French the
British adopt a metal helmet
a Canadian private Koneru complains that
is too heavy it weighs over two pounds
but it is sturdier than the French
helmet and with its shallow shape can be
made from a single sheet of steel
still they're outclassed by their
enemies with the famous stall helm for
steel helmet which comes to symbolize
the German soldier it's wider shape
covering more of the head is better
suited to this new form of warfare
trench warfare
in storm of Steel lieutenant Ernst
younga writes is an easier matter to
describe these sounds than to endure
them because one cannot but associate
every single sound of flying steel with
the idea of death this artillery warfare
requires that the troops hold their
ground beneath every barrage even when
the shells are filled with poison gas
in addition to helmets soldiers are
issued gas masks as protection against
this new form of warfare the race is on
to discover the most lethal formula such
as chlorine or mustard gas which
appeared at the Battle of Ypres in
Belgium and killed thousands of man
a military doctor major fella writes
men turned purple they cry for air and
complain of burning in the chest and
stomach we have seen it all
ghastly wounds and deadly avalanches of
Steel but they are nothing compared to
the fog that darkened the Sun in the sky
for hours which seems like centuries
and these Canadian soldiers now blind
have to be led by the hand like children
the International Committee of the Red
Cross protests since 1899 the use of
asphyxiated gases has been outlawed
nonetheless all sides will use poison
gas
[Music]
the French army perfects its protective
measures cotton for the respiratory
tract and a cloth on which the soldier
is to urinate this is supposed to help
protect against chlorine found to be
ineffective
this approach is replaced by goggles and
a thick pad soaked with a protective
chemical
[Music]
like the hoods used by the British which
make it almost impossible to breathe
they are seen abandoned
[Music]
finding a German corpse the French
learned just how much more advanced
their enemies are in this technology by
autumn 1915 the Germans are using the
goomy mask a rubber mask with a filter
of activated charcoal
it will soon be copied by every army and
remain in service until the end of the
war combatants on all sides now live in
constant terror of poison gas obsessed
with the smell
[Music]
as one German artillery officer puts it
the men sniff about like hunting dogs
[Music]
but once protected they can hold their
ground the frontline doesn't budge
the Germans occupy almost all of Belgium
and 10 French provinces including the
cities of Lila Conway and sank on top
German troops are better supplied than
their families back in Brandenburg and
Saxony they take over the livestock the
peasants left behind when they fled the
combat zone and their rabbit hutches and
stores of cheese
the finest residences are reserved for
the military brass far from the
realities of the front among all the
belligerents the class system is upheld
the Lord's inhabit the chateaus while
the peasants underlings and servants
huddled in foxholes
on the French side excavators tear up
the countryside digging evermore
trenches which are now organized in
three successive lines
the first line of trenches is the most
dangerous the deadliest of all human
ingenuity knows no bounds when it comes
to killing anything can be used to
launch explosives at the enemy in the
opposite trench grenade launching rifles
flying torpedoes even medieval crossbows
are put to use and then there is the
giant slingshot used by British soldiers
[Music]
as well as their plum pudding a strange
projectile that is almost as dangerous
for its Gunners as for the enemy
[Music]
between artillery barrages the soldiers
wait they sleep they play cards write
letters and stave off boredom by
cobbling together all sorts of objects
out of copper cartridges
they construct makeshift shelters and
give them suggestive names like this one
meaning home miserable home
stench is overpowering private albezia
he writes no one washes becomes their
hair I've never worn the same clothes
for so long
[Music]
at night the soldiers descend into their
underground shelters one man even builds
a cage to protect himself from rats
sergeant Beck writes one of my men was
bitten on the ear another on the nose
when we're lying down
rats scamper over us like cats they
devour everything we have chocolate
camembert cheese even our rifle stocks
the men hunt them any way they can
in just one hole that killed 17 of them
like small rabbits the rats carry fleas
and scabies lice are a scourge in all
the trenches but four soldiers on the
front line the appalling hygienic
conditions and the serious diseases the
agender are nothing compared to the
terror of going over the top and they
have to stay at least a week at the
front before being relieved by troops
from the second line the support line
after an attack first line survivors
carry the wounded through narrow ditches
to reach the third line the reserve line
located among the abandoned towns they
need time to catch their breath Lance
Corporal Tonti writes we read the
letters of Hon prisoners they are the
same as ours misery despair the
monstrous stupidity of all these things
those wretches the Huns are the same as
us they are like us and for all of us
the hardship is the same
[Music]
the reserved line allows the French
soldiers known as plenary or hairy
beasts to wash and feel human again
[Music]
Lance Corporal Tati writes the puede
root is an animal halfway between a
human and a chimpanzee that the
twentieth century has spawned the puede
is the monster of a civilization going
backwards
his only human characteristic is his
ability to suffer a private from
Montreal Geordi Conca writes I'm trying
to avoid the tinned beef all I care
about is getting warm
we are soaked everything is always damp
we've run out of tobacco I'm smoking my
prayer book
[Music]
October 1915 in the West it's a
stalemate in the Balkans the Germans
Austrians and Bulgarians who have
entered the conflict overrun Serbia in
one month the French and the British
opened a new front in Salonika to assist
the Serbs and to bring Greece into the
war on their side on the morning of
October 12th 1915
sergeant Fattah aboard a French cargo
ship writes having come from the
Alsatian front still red with the blood
of our comrades we arrived at what had
been described to us as an unknown
destination
Salonika comes into view a simply
marvelous site bathed in the golden
light of the Orient the city spreads out
before me bleached white with its
minarets on mosques and domes on
churches
[Music]
imagine my stupefaction when I land the
dock is crowded with people of every
race and every language all one sees her
faces ravaged by jaundice and smallpox
[Music]
disease will decimate the 500,000 men
concentrated around Salonika a 100
square mile in clave on great territory
protected by a ring of artillery
[Music]
what is known as the army of the Orient
is an amalgam of British French
serves
[Music]
Montenegrin
Italians
Russians and an amis or Tonkinese from
French Indochina
[Music]
they will be dragged into a series of
ambushes against the Bulgarians who
proved more combative than expected
temperatures hit a hundred and five in
the shade and the swamps teem with flies
and mosquitoes leading to 6000 deaths
from malaria along
for the time being the army of the
Orient does not see combat these
immobilized French and British divisions
could have been more useful in the
trenches of northern France
as one German journalist writes
ironically the Allies have parked
themselves in the biggest internment
camp in the world
[Music]
in London King George the fifth is
concerned about his government's talk of
withdrawing from Salonika and about the
fate of his troops on all fronts he
writes I shall follow your every
movement with deepest interest indeed
your welfare will never be absent from
my thoughts King George and every other
head of state should be seeking a way to
halt the massacre after 16 months of war
five million men are already dead but no
one wants to stop even most of the
widow's call for vengeance and the
leaders judged the human and material
costs to be so high that the enemy must
be made to pay and so war goes on
[Music]
on December 6 1915 the military and
political leaders of France Great
Britain Belgium Russia and Italy convene
in shanties near Paris
they agree to improve the coordination
of their armies and to stop depleting
the resources and separate attacks and
to organize a united anglo-french
offensive for the summer of 1916 the
offensive will originate from the
British and French positions on the
Somme River but the Germans beat them to
it
by launching their own offensive on
Verdun
[Music]
verdun is a gateway city on the mers
river but the French consider it to be a
quiet sector they have dismantled the
canons of its forts and sent them to the
hotspots on the front the garrison has
been reduced to a minimum
yet the Germans are only 12 miles away
in early February 1916 the Germans begin
massing troops and artillery for what
they hope will be a decisive battle
German cameraman arrived to film kaiser
wilhelm ii who has come to encourage his
son and heir the crown prince leads a
force of 150,000 men their plan either
capture Verdun and opened the road to
paris or if the French army digs in the
Germans decimated
[Music]
at 7:15 on the morning of February 21st
1916 the Crown Prince launches operation
give East or judgment
[Music]
within hours
a million shells have pummeled the
French positions
ninety-five miles away troops in the
Vosges can hear the bombardment
[Music]
for their attack on Verdun the Germans
deploy a terrifying weapon the
flamethrower
they break through the French lines and
enter the Coe forest where the trees
have been blasted by shells here
the Germans encounter unexpected
resistance from the French soldiers who
survived the barrage
[Applause]
the sacrifice of Colonel Tiana's manna
slows down the crown prince but he
remains confident and congratulate the
stormtroopers
[Music]
shakin the French General Staff decide
to defend Verdun to the end a new
commander is named General Philippe
bitte who has remained on the sidelines
the 60-year old general is known to
oppose the French strategy of offense at
all costs and he implements a defensive
strategy his orders are to dig in and
hold on
but the French stopped the German
advance the battlefield becomes a
slaughterhouse Verdun survivor and
winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
Jean giono later writes we are 9 and a
whole nothing will get us out of here
but we have eaten we must relieve
ourselves the first of us to feel the
urge climbs out he has been there for
two days now ten feet away killed with
his trousers down we crap on paper and
throw it up and out when we have no more
paper we go in our haversacks the Battle
of Verdun continues we go in our hands
dysentery flows between our fingers we
crab blood we go every lie
we are devoured by flames of thirst we
drink our own urine if we remain on this
battlefield it is because they won't let
us get away
[Music]
to second lieutenants ldren and Mito are
executed for desertion
they had retreated after the Germans had
smashed through the French lines with so
many killed there is insufficient
manpower
I command Institute's a rotation system
so that nearly every regiment of the
French army is forced through the Salle
[Music]
this torrent of men is backed by a
massive industrial effort a fleet of
12,000 trucks and a special railway
transport the 2,000 tons of munitions
required each day to defend Regina
[Music]
the French and Germans each fire 300
thousand shells a day 20 million shells
during the entire battle
[Music]
how are the millions of soldiers to be
fed the generals think that the men need
to eat lots of meat troops get far more
than civilians behind the lines
the Army's butchers slaughter the horses
wounded in combat in the Battle of
Verdun 7,000 horses died in a single day
it takes enormous effort to transport
the food to the frontlines and a great
deal of courage
marksmen on both sides target the supply
convoys
[Music]
the trenches lack water private put
shale rights we're dying of thirst but I
drink more hooch in one day here than I
have in my entire life
hooch or rum keeps the men going before
an assault to cope with the horrors of
daily life there is an endless supply of
rough wine or plunk
[Music]
private oak writes a glass of plonk too
many and they break into song to dispel
the gloom that gnaws at them like some
invisible the Germans to need comfort
[Music]
they find it in schnapps in camaraderie
and religion their experience mirrors
that of their adversaries
corporal Carl fritz of the 10th Mountain
battalion writes we spent three days
lying in shell holes looking death in
the eye expecting it at any moment
one shell buries the dead the next one
uncovers them again
in Verdun and this cold month of March
1916 only the aviators escaped the
trenches the kaisers pilots are Lords of
the skies mounting their wood and canvas
steeds they see themselves as modern-day
Knights one of them is Hammond going 23
years old aggressive and ambitious he
amasses aerial victories and develops
the heart of a merciless killer
[Music]
but in reality pilots face every bit as
much dangerous foot soldiers
[Music]
rarely strapped in with no parachutes
German aviators fly over the French
lines at Verdun to photograph enemy
positions or if possible drop bombs on
them
that is if they can evade French fighter
aircraft
[Music]
the Germans also shoot down the balloons
of artillery spotters
it takes a lot of courage to go up in
these balloons but it is vital work link
to the ground by telephone
the officers direct artillery fire
protecting them becomes a priority as
general pizza affirms with his order
sweeps the Germans from the sky
with the development of a cax for
anti-aircraft guns the appearance of new
and faster airplanes and the arrival of
squadrons of fearless and implacable
young pilots in just three months time
France regains the upper hand in the
skies over Verdun
after five aerial victories fighter
pilots earned the title of ace they
become famous like second lieutenant
Josh green mail the 21 year old who had
been rejected by the Army in 1914 as too
scrawny
now promoted flag bearer for the public
he is a national hero decorated with the
Legion of Honor a model of devotion to
his country
[Music]
war in the sky is every bit as brutal as
the war in the trenches and more often
than not ends in the same mud April 1916
sees the spring thaw the Verdun soil
torn up by shelling turns into an
impassable quagmire but the army wants
to project an image of determination
after a French counter-attack that
advances the front a few short yards a
cameraman films another cameraman
filming an infantryman who is laying new
barbed wire in no-man's land the deadly
expanse between the opposing trenches
the enemy returns the very same night to
cut down the barbed wire
and Verdun for 300 days and 300 nights
the Germans attack and the Allies hold
on
yet there are touching human stories
when his entire company is gassed
corporal Piaf abaya whose lungs were
burned is carried out by his less
severely wounded comrades in a large
Hospital far from the front pa ba ba has
cared for by a nurse Charlotte they fall
in love
[Music]
he is granted permission to recover in
Lithonia villa outside paris and he
brings charlotte with him here they are
in the Rose Garden of his sister
Jacqueline who is married to a pioneer
of home movies honey honey
[Music]
at 40 too old to fight her Nephele he is
assigned to the medical service and is
allowed to sleep at home
many such men serve on the home front
posted to factories or offices soldiers
on leave view them with envy and
bitterness
Charlotte like thousands of women
devotes herself to her handsome military
invalid but does she really have a
choice already there are a few men left
women don't want to be old maids and
even worse fate than being a young widow
[Music]
[Applause]
in England it is now common to marry in
haste before the groom returns to the
front
[Music]
she will receive his pay after his death
[Music]
everyone senses that the worst is yet to
come
across the British Empire a vast
recruiting campaign enlists 500,000 more
men
[Music]
fathers and sons cousins neighbors often
enlist together but these patriotic
volunteers cannot meet the ravenous
needs of the major offensives
voluntary enlistment is eventually
replaced by conscription French
Canadians have been reluctant to
volunteer they do not identify with
England which they don't consider the
motherland united by an unshakable
Catholic faith
they are mistrustful of France which
they see as anti-clerical but at the
urging of their parish priests they sign
up
[Music]
upon their arrival in France they are
grouped in an entirely french-speaking
unit the Royal 22nd Regiment were the
van doos they are sent to the front on
the Somme River
in early summer 1916
they are pleasantly surprised by the
warm welcome they receive but after all
the local men and women speak French
just as they do for almost as they do in
the van doos a dual agave from Quebec
recounts to strike up a conversation
with a pretty girl the favorite joke was
to ask excuse me miss where's the road
to Berlin for French president came upon
Calais and the British king George the
fifth the Somme offensive decided upon
at the conference of December 1915 will
break the German lines and open the road
to Berlin
however French commander-in-chief
general Java now argues in favor of
relieving the French forces still
entrenched at Verdun the fighting there
has inflicted enormous losses 40,000
dead in six months general fuss of
France and general Haig of Britain will
have the honour of commanding this huge
offensive aimed at putting an end to the
war and they proudly display their full
confidence the British are masked to the
north of the town of Isaiah and the
French to the south their goal is to
march on the occupied towns of pian and
buckle penetrating the German trenches
along a 30 mile long front
[Music]
the plan is familiar by now crush the
Germans with artillery fire before
sending in the troops
[Music]
the size of the force is staggering 40
divisions almost 600,000 men and 4,000
pieces of artillery
[Music]
Lieutenant John Buchan writes troops
were everywhere on the move and the
shifting of ammunition dumps nearer to
the firing line foretold what was coming
[Music]
Buchan adds there was a curious
exhilaration everywhere for the soldiers
the great offensive had finally come
[Music]
but these young recruits smiling at the
camera have received minimal training
this will be their first battle the
British are also counting on underground
explosives to destroy the German
frontline
[Music]
since the introduction of trenches each
side has tried to tunnel under the enemy
trenches and blow them up
[Music]
it's a sort of parallel war harrowing
and hidden everyone listens for sounds
coming from underground which can mean
either that the enemy is burrowing
toward you or that you're closing in on
his trench
[Music]
this time British sappers have dug a
tunnel nearly in my lawn beneath the
German trenches filling it with 24 tons
of powerful explosive
July 1st 1916 7:20 a.m. the mine is
blown up leaving a crater 300 feet
across
[Music]
but the Germans had heard the sappers
and withdrawn the most powerful
underground mine of the war left no
victims
twenty other minds are blown out 7:30
a.m. the British artillery which have
been shelling the German lines for eight
days hold their fire opening the way for
an assault
but the shelling hasn't cleared the
barbed wire or destroyed the concrete
bunkers the Germans come out stunned but
alive for 10 minutes nothing happens the
Germans have time to set up their
machineguns 7:40 a.m. the British
prepare to attack all these young
inexperienced men are afraid to reassure
them Captain Billy Neville 22 is the
first man over dribbling a soccer ball
across no-man's land
[Applause]
until you spelled
[Applause]
by the end of this hellish day the
British have suffered 20,000 dead
[Music]
forty thousand troops are wounded they
will have to endure a long and
excruciating journey to the hospital
most of the time this delay means
gangrene amputation or death
[Music]
survivors report that the shelling
destroyed nothing this doesn't stop
general Hague from ordering further
suicidal attacks
in Paris in the Ailey's a palace the
president of the French Republic came
upon cafe writes in his diary Saturday
July 1st 1916 blood is flowing like
water in north of the Somme meanwhile
sunlight dapples the trees of the ill
easy Elms sycamores chestnut trees
acacia 's radiates greens of every hue
and delicious harmony black birds wood
pigeons and smaller birds frolic on the
lawn and he concludes over there and
Verdun and the Somme thousands of brave
young men are dying
in September at the song the British
unveil a new weapon capable of piercing
the barbed wire and opening the way for
the infantry to mislead enemy spies they
refer to these armored assault vehicles
as tanks
at first the Germans are terrified by
the tanks but slow and vulnerable and
deployed in two small numbers the early
models proved easy targets for enemy
artillery
and day after day the carnage continues
[Music]
the troops at the Somme questioned their
leaders in tractability
as a result 50,000 Frenchmen died
overall a hundred and thirty thousand
British troops also fall including
twenty-three thousand Australians 8,000
New Zealanders 3,000 South Africans
24,000 Canadians and every single
volunteer from the then independent
Dominion of Newfoundland as well as a
hundred and sixty thousand Germans
on November 18 1916 the French and
British announced the end of the bloody
Battle of the Somme which has lasted
five months
they have advanced only 10 miles and
reoccupied some German trenches where
they take prisoners
either exhausted or deaf from the
shelling
here in Costa let the German prisoners
and their captors French Canadians of
the van doos briefly put the war behind
them
a German doctor Gill batten of the 26th
Infantry Division writes it is
inconceivable that this horrible
fighting can continue much longer in the
end there will be no one left but how
can there be peace when we are intent on
mowing down a whole generation in the
flower of its youth
[Music]
in the spring of the following year
after the disastrous offensive known as
the shamanda Domini
French troops by the thousands will
refuse to move up to the front line
which they know is a direct route to a
mass grave
[Music]
in the prison-like universe of the
trenches the men smoked non-stop to mask
the odor of rotting flesh and they vent
their despair with the song jostle de
cone named after the village where
hundreds of their fellow soldiers were
killed farewell to life farewell to love
farewell to all the women it's all over
now we're done for good would this awful
war it's in Colin
upon the hill that we must meet our
maker because we are all sentenced to
die we have all been sacrificed
[Music]
On June 15th 1917 at the court-martial
of the 17th Division one of the French
mutineers is found guilty of having said
we need to end the war not through a
victory but through revolution
[Music]
[Applause]
revolution which has already broken out
in Russia in February 1917 the Russian
soldiers have also made meat Bazar has
been driven out will the revolution mean
an end to the war
who can put in ends to this inferno when
it is fanned by so many forces and so
much rage
[Music]
you
[Music]