Londyn 1917
before returning to the front and
Flanders an Australian soldier writes to
his wife my love my only love I feel so
dejected tonight I'm so sad that you
didn't send me the photograph my only
love you know how things are we are here
to perform our duty and if I am killed
you must thank God he has let me
accomplish mine
[Music]
the war is borne out of the fury of men
it traps them in fear it plunges them
into hell they rage for it to end they
long for deliverance
autumn 1917 the world is at war the
United States has joined Great Britain
France Belgium Russia Japan and Italy
Italy is battling the Austrians to
conquer the cities of Trento and Trieste
in the Alps the Italian troops face
terrible hardships most are peasants
though a few work at the Fiat Factory
they are under the draconian command of
officers led by general Luigi Cadorna
the military hierarchy is merciless 750
soldiers are shot by firing squad as an
example a dark record since everyday
these same Italian soldiers accomplish
incredible feats such as carrying
cannons up 10,000 foot mountains
[Music]
Kennan's that are meant to dislodge the
Austrian enemy even in the Alps the
established defensive tactics of this
war persist barbed wire and trenches
accepted here
the men are encased in ice
with their bayonets they carve altars
for the heroic chaplain and for God
their protector and only hope
[Music]
after repeated Italian offensives the
outnumbered Austrians hold their
positions but request support from the
kaisers army
[Music]
October 24th 1917 German reinforcements
arrived
among them is lieutenant and future
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel he is 26 he
and his men infiltrate the Italian lines
he says the deeper we penetrate enemy
positions the less they expected and the
easier the battle
[Music]
rommel takes huge numbers of prisoners
it's the beginning of the end for the
Italian front
German and Austrian troops pour down for
the mountains and take the city of
Caporetto in less than ten days they
advance sixty miles
early November 1917 the Germans and
Austrians push forward amidst the debris
of the Italian army
[Music]
275,000 italian soldiers surrender many
shout our enemy is Cadorna not the
Austrians
general Cadorna says my army has gone on
strike
he is stripped of his command
[Music]
the carnage of Caporetto was evoke by
ernest hemingway in his novel A Farewell
to Arms at 19 he was a volunteer in an
Italian ambulance unit Hemingway writes
I was always embarrassed by the word
sacred glorious and sacrifice the
sacrifices here were like the stockyards
of Chicago if nothing was done with the
meat except to bury it
there were many words that you could not
stand to hear abstract words such as
glory honor courage or hallow were
obscene
[Music]
the spirit of revolt fanned by the
defeated Caporetto leads to an emergency
conference of Allied leaders who worried
that Italy might withdraw from the war
on November 15th 1917 they decide to
send reinforcements who are welcome to
saviors
100,000 French and British troops are
assigned to stop the German and Austrian
advance toward Venice France also sends
an air squadron the French aviators
enjoy the perks of this posting
the Allies stopped the Austrians and
take many prisoners
these soldiers encompassing all the
various peoples of the austro-hungarian
Empire are fed up today there are
rumblings of mutiny of Independence
their Emperor Karl the first meets with
the kaiser wilhelm ii they traveled to
the front to appraise the situation the
emperor is increasingly worried that the
revolt will spread he continues to favor
peace and wants to negotiate but not the
Kaiser he still dreams of a victory that
can save him
the Kaiser says after the war we will
conclude a major treaty with France and
then with all of Europe that done I will
lead the real war against England
the Kaiser and his generals believe they
must achieve victory before the
Americans are fully operational the
first step is to get Russia out of the
war so German armies can be redeployed
from the eastern to the Western Front
with this in mind general Ludendorff
still in charge in Germany facilitates
the return of Russia's leading political
agitator to st. Petersburg
vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov known as Lenin
author of writings that advocate a
communist takeover Lenin has been living
in exile in Switzerland
he is 47
the Germans cunningly decide to finance
both Lenin's party and this journey
because the Communists who deposed the
Tsar in February of 1917 are still
fighting the war this unnatural alliance
is not because Ludendorff supports
Lenin's plan to ban private property but
because Lenin claims he will take Russia
out of the war
Ludendorff says Lenin will overthrow the
Russian Patriots and then I will
strangle him him and all his friends
[Music]
in a Russia crushed by war a Russia of
misery famine and with an army in chaos
Lenin says peace bread land and freedom
are necessary for the masses
[Music]
Lenin accuses Kerensky's provisional
government of prolonging the imperialist
butchery on November 7th 1917 October
25th in the Russian calendar Lenin
executes what will come to be known as
the October Revolution the sudden brutal
arrest of the provisional government and
the establishment of a bloody and
implacable dictatorship
[Music]
lenin had written a decade earlier
during the 1905 revolution terror is an
instrument of social hygiene among the
early victims of this policy for the
entire imperial family the great russian
empire is the first to fall as a result
of the war
[Music]
December 15th 1917 German and Russian
soldiers emerge from their trenches
across the barbed wire and fraternize
the new communist regime in Moscow has
just signed an armistice and undertakes
negotiations to end the war
[Music]
Lenin says we must come to a compromise
with the imperialist bandits in
brest-litovsk at a train station
sixty-five miles from Warsaw peace talks
begin on December 22nd 1917 the Germans
mockingly welcome the Communists who
harbor no illusions about the
territorial concessions they will be
forced to make
in linens view territory has to be
forfeited in order to gain time time to
allow the revolution to consolidate a
civil war as brewing with the Russian
armies that remain faithful to Imperial
rule the Communists must gain time they
hope that the revolution will spread
around the world for three months they
negotiate with their enemies from
Germany Austria
Turkey and Bulgaria all of whom want
their share of the pie
with Germany threatening to resume the
war against Russia Lenin sends Leon
Trotsky one of his closest comrades to
capitulate on every point the peace
treaty is signed on March 3rd 1918
Russia loses almost 400,000 square miles
of its territory in a quarter of his
population from the Balkans to Poland
which regains its independence and
Ukraine which promptly enters the war
against the Bolsheviks Ludendorff has
succeeded he can transfer much of his
army to the Western Front for Wilhelm
Hindenburg and Ludendorff it's a whole
new game
in March 1918 a battered and starving
Germany begins massing two million
troops on the Western Front
the German troops now outnumber the
enemy
the German High Command realizes its
dream of 1914 uniting his forces to
overpower the French and British with
the series of offensives along the
entire front
Ludendorff repeats we must strike before
the Americans can throw their forces
into the scale
he decides on March 21st 1918 to try a
new tactic after a short period of
shelling to prepare the attack of his
shock troops following the example of
the young Rommel in Caporetto infiltrate
the enemy lines the war of movement
resumes for the first time since the
trench warfare began the Allied front is
reached in just three days later the
Germans are 75 miles from Paris March
23rd 1918 Palm Sunday in latonia villa
near paris the ferrari family continues
to make charming home movies their
natural optimism shining through
Lynnae reassures yukine he doesn't
believe the Germans will advance any
farther in this war everyone's an expert
still for the last six months her
reasons have lived in fear of German
airplanes the twin-engine gafas
[Music]
these planes are the world's first
strategic bombers they replace the
Zeppelin's that have terrorized London
in Paris
[Music]
despite air-raid sirens and shelters 200
Parisians are killed by bombs from
German airplanes
[Music]
the army has proposed the construction
of a fake Paris 15 miles from the
capital a decoy to trick enemy bombers
the use of decoys is grown in scope
phony canons phony railroad tracks phony
trees even the hiring of abstract
painters to camouflage military hardware
a new industry is born the production of
camouflage netting it employs a large
number of female workers the project for
a phony city of Paris advances it's no
joke
on March 29th 1918 no planes are spotted
in the skies over the capital but
Parisians discover the Church of San
Java in ruins it was destroyed by an
artillery shell that left 91 people dead
and 68 wounded a shell but how is that
possible Parisians panic and send their
children out of the city
the Germans are 75 miles from Paris and
even the biggest guns have a range of no
more than 20 miles
this cannon is indeed 75 miles away
it's the kaisers secret weapon
a monster made of three cannon barrels
welded end-to-end and named the puppies
of cannon
Parisians take to calling it the big
bertha after bertha Krupp of the famous
arms manufacturing company
[Music]
to the north Canadians and Australian
troops help evacuate civilians
the situation is so dire that the
British French and Belgians decide to
unite their forces under a single
command marshal Peeta is widely admired
but the head of the French government
Georges Clemenceau 76 called the tiger
considers pizza too cautious
Pizza has declared I'm waiting for the
tanks and the Americans the political
and military leaders of the Allied
coalition agree on April 14th 1918 on a
supreme commander of their Army's
general failed in elfish 66 who declares
victory is a thing of the will his
second-in-command General Vega sticks
out his tongue in the photographer he
will be the unfortunate leader of the
French army in World War two fuch visits
American headquarters
east of Paris to ask General Pershing to
engage all his forces in the war
Pershing refuses the meeting is stormy
despite the smiles for the camera
Pershing says his troops won't be
operational before 1919 exasperated fuch
asks if he intends to sit it out until
the French and British have been
defeated
pursing does not want to sacrifice his
men in trench warfare he's preparing for
another kind of combat open warfare a
war of movement over vast areas and in
the sky
general Billy Mitchell is getting ready
to bomb Germany suddenly fighter pilots
are on every front page stories of their
aircraft and exploits reassure those at
home and earn the much admiration
a former automobile racer and Pershing's
personal chauffeur Eddie Rickenbacker
becomes an ace with 26 victories
he says courage is doing what you are
afraid to do he survives the terrible
dog fights in the sky
but the most famous French airman Joel's
been mayor is shot down
other flying aces make history such as
Frances Lorna funk with 75 victories
and Canada's Billy Bishop with 72
[Music]
they're most feared adversary is the
German ace Manfred von Richthofen who
racks up 80 victories he is one of the
rare pilots to comment on the real
meaning of air combat victories von
Richtofen says the murder of a man is
still a murder even in wartime
his noble Prussian blood and the color
of his airplane earned him the nickname
the Red Baron
he flies a three winged fighter at the
famous Fokker triplane remarkable for
its maneuverability and speed von
Richtofen develops a new tactic with the
other pilots of his squadron he
describes it with my bright red plane I
serve as bait
I fly very low my pilots lion weight
above ready to dive on any enemy plane
that goes for me
April 21st 1918 Richtofen
26 prepares for takeoff he loads the two
machine guns which are synchronized to
fire through the propeller
flying above the British lines pursued
by an enemy pilot he descends too low he
is shot in the heart by an Australian
anti-aircraft gun the victory over the
German ace is also claimed by the pilot
who was in pursuit
the Canadian Roy brown seen here posing
with Rick Tobin's two machine guns to
prove his six British pilots carry the
German ace to his final resting place in
the New Zealand section of the graveyard
the merry warrior rituals are meant to
help his soul on his journey
in this month of April 1918 the loss of
the Red Baron hits Germans hard the
German advance becomes bogged down
because logistics cannot keep up
supply's do not arrive the men are
hungry
officers complained that their men
stopped fighting to forage for any food
that may be left in their sectors such
as in the shamanda dam which the Germans
themselves had ravaged the previous year
[Music]
from time to time a lucky few may find a
scrawny old sheep lack of food water
contaminated by decomposing bodies
buried and thrown up again by the
shelling the staggering proliferation of
vermin the movement of massive numbers
of men all these factors create ideal
conditions for the worst epidemic since
the Black Death in the 14th century
the Spanish flu so named because it was
first reported in Spain by an uncensored
press hits North America Africa Asia and
all of Europe leaving 30 million dead
around the world
[Music]
on the front the disease afflicts all
the belligerents 200,000 British 400,000
French and 500,000 German soldiers are
put out of action by the Spanish flu
Ludendorff short of men empties military
hospitals and orders soldiers who were
sick or convalescing back to the front
and wilhelm ii hands up medals the iron
cross after the initial successes in
this campaign but he is visibly worried
[Music]
his men have still not broken the enemy
lines once and for all
and will soon find themselves under
heavy fire
in the mers at Samael in what has been a
quiet sector a German unit surprises an
American position on April 23rd 1918 the
Americans lose 650 men General Pershing
is furious he orders a counterattack in
which a future President of the United
States artillery captain Harry Truman
distinguishes herself
the Americans take the German trenches
they prove their ability to fight in
this hell
they filmed their first prisoners
[Music]
Pershing has kept his soldiers from
being amalgamated into the combined
Allied regiments but he can't keep them
out of hand-to-hand combat to defend
their positions as here at Babylonia vas
on June 26 1918 the Marines have stopped
the German advance but at a terrible
costume the US Secretary of the Navy
Josephus Daniels witnessed the fighting
he writes to Wilson the Marines fought
according to American methods in
successive waves passing over the bodies
of their dead comrades and plunging
ahead until they too should be torn to
bits
in all the history of the Marine Corps
there is no such battle as that one
fighting day and night without sleep
often without water and for days without
hot rations they lost three-quarters of
their companies
July 15th 1918 the Germans receive the
order to resume their advance the High
Command says it's the feedin storm the
offensive for peace but does anyone
believe it the shock troops know they
will now be facing the Americans two
soldiers not exhausted from four years
of war and who have every military
resource at their disposal general
Ludendorff knows that he no longer has
numerical superiority it's all or
nothing he launches his last divisions
600,000 men on either side of fast
toward Paris
the Second Battle of the Marne has begun
but the Germans advanced through the
same wheat fields was in August 1914
suddenly ahead of them French troops
[Music]
to the slaughterhouse as a book by the
soldiers Georgio know who writes they
had watched as all the men left it was a
thick summer night smelling of corn and
horse sweat this war was to be the war
to end all wars the last war ever it was
the war to kill off war but it killed
only men pointlessly all wars are
pointless
Marshall fuch mounts a powerful Allied
counter-offensive comprising a million
men and 500 tanks
the British mark fours the French
Renault FTS also used by the Americans
under the command of Lieutenant Colonel
George Patton
a prelude to the combined tank warplane
tactics of the next war
this wounded soldier could easily be the
main character of the novel Johnny got
his gun
a young American soldier he loses all
his limbs his sight his speech but not
his consciousness
August 8 1918 Allied tanks overrun the
enemy so close to Paris
the German army lacking tanks and
reserve troops completely collapses they
lose a hundred and fifty thousand men
including forty thousand taken prisoner
Ludendorff dubs it the black day of the
German army his offensive for peace has
failed but he has no choice except to
try to delay for as long as possible the
Allied advance toward the German border
the great empires Teeter austria-hungary
braces for an onslaught of the army of
the Orient troops from France Great
Britain Italy Serbia and Greece set out
from Salonika to reconquer the Balkans
the Ottoman Empire is also under threat
with the British advancing on Damascus
with support from Arab tribes the
British complete their conquest of
Turkish ruled Palestine
[Music]
on September 30th 1918 warriors from
Arabia entered Damascus led by Emir
Faisal the son of Hussein Prince of
Mecca
faisal was 33 years old he owes his
victory to his bravery and also to his
mysterious adviser thomas edward
lawrence a british intelligence agent
[Music]
his mission was to foment an Arab revolt
against the Turks by providing them with
money weapons and promises
Lawrence is 30 he speaks Arabic he has
adopted local garb to be less
conspicuous among the Bedouin he later
writes the British Army uniform was
abominable when camel riding her when
sitting about on the ground Arab
clothing was cleaner and more decent
he loves the desert with a passion and
has become a guerilla leader in his book
the Seven Pillars of wisdom and he
writes the Arabic respected force
alyttle he respected craft more and
often hadded an enviable degree but most
of all he respected blunt sincerity of
utterance
but the British go back on their
commitment by divvying up with the
French the Ottoman Empire that they had
promised to Faisal
Syria and Lebanon go to the French then
the English create a new country Iraq
as consolation they install faisal on
the throne of this oil-rich nation
Feisal cannot forgive the man known from
here on is Lawrence of Arabia
for going back on his promise to return
to him the vast realm of his distant
ancestors the food in the 8th century
had conquered a good part of the world
in the name of Islam
equally galling to the Arabs when the
British conquered Jerusalem they showed
support for the Jewish population of
Palestine the British government has
made promises to them too
the first world war is not over
France early October 1918 the east and
north of the country Lyon rooms flushes
powerful counter-offensives advance
along the entire front the americans
attack in the gun region the french in
demos in chomping and in Takagi the
British armies along with the Australian
cavalry advanced toward convey the
Belgians and Canadians march on walls
[Music]
many Germans surrender when their final
effort to hold the line fails their
leaders still try to convince them that
defeat is impossible but many are too
young for battle are too old
most feel only relief
[Music]
there's no need for Battlefield
propaganda now camera crews go back to
Germany to film the revolution sailors
are mutinying workers councils control
two major cities Ludendorff feels his
power slipping in private he speaks of
armistice but in public he defends the
Army's record on October 25th 1918
Ludendorff issues a proclamation for us
a soldier's capitulation is unacceptable
we must resist with all our might this
is the beginning of the legend known as
the stab in the back for both Ludendorff
and Hitler the army had not been
defeated by the enemy but by the
politicians
a new government under the Socialists
strips Ludendorff of his command he
flees to Sweden on October 29th 1918
wilhelm ii travels to spa in belgium to
his general headquarters to make sure
the army is behind him but the regime in
berlin has changed and now demands his
abdication no one least of all Wilson
wants to negotiate with the man seen as
one of the main instigators of the war
on November 9th 1918 kaiser wilhelm ii
abdicates and seeks refuge in the
netherlands
[Music]
it's the end for the great empires and
their monarchs
[Music]
the golden imperial carriage of Austria
is sold off the Viennese no longer swoon
at the sight of the beautiful princess
Sita they are too weak from hunger
[Music]
as is the austro-hungarian army defeated
by the Italians at the Battle of
Vittorio Veneto
[Music]
the massive austro-hungarian Empire
sinks as does its greatest battleship
the 20,000 ton has sent ished von
torpedoed by the Italians
Emperor Karl goes into exile with Sita
November 11th 1918 Marshall flushes
special train enters the station of
coking north of Paris
in this carriage hidden from the cameras
the envoy's of the provisional German
government sign the armistice Germany
accepts defeat and requests an end to
hostilities on the front the ceasefire
is set for 11:00 a.m. the 11th hour of
the 11th day of the 11th month
it has lasted for years seventy-five
million men were mobilized ten million
soldiers were killed seven thousand
Portuguese thirteen thousand Belgians
ninety thousand Bulgarians 120 thousand
Americans 130 thousand Serbians 200,000
Romanians 350,000 Turks 450 thousand
Italians 900 thousand troops from the
British Empire from Canada Newfoundland
Australia New Zealand India South Africa
1 million 200,000 troops from
austro-hungary 1 million four hundred
thousand soldiers from France and its
colonies Senegal Algeria Tunisia Morocco
1 million 700 thousand Germans 1 million
eight hundred thousand Russians 20
million soldiers were wounded
[Music]
8 million civilians died
there's not a family that doesn't count
someone killed amputated gassed or
orphaned but around the world joy erupts
as if to erase the horrendous numbers of
the first mass killing in history
[Applause]
[Music]
leaders shaped the memory of the war by
commissioning countless monuments that
depict their soldiers marching towards
sacrifice and glory
they never depict the firing squads and
repression imposed to keep order in the
ranks
despite the mass slaughter these
monuments almost always seek to convince
us that it is right to kill and to be
killed for one's homeland
[Music]
on December 13 1918 in Paris Prime
Minister George Tomaso and his entire
government await the arrival of an
exceptional visitor the President of the
United States Woodrow Wilson this is the
first time in history that a President
of the United States leaves his country
and crosses the Atlantic but the
situation is grave the Armistice has
been signed but peace must be made
many questions remain open countless
conflicts arise and now America has a
place at the table
Wilson's first official act is of course
to inspect his troops
he says to Pershing I'm not sure
everyone is glad to see me
Wilson is aware that because of its role
at the bargaining table America is now a
dominant figure on the world stage
Willson champions what he calls the
right of Nations to self-determination
this ideal opens the door to innumerable
demands for nationhood and the drawing
of new borders
the second act is one of compassion he
travels to vas to witness the
unimaginable damage to the Cathedral
Wilson surveys the extent of the
disaster he says the whole world is sick
to the heart at the sight of the
beautiful cities and fields of France
struck by catastrophe seven and a half
million acres of land are no longer fit
for agriculture it is forever polluted
from chemical warfare the millions of
artillery shells and the countless
corpses that will have to be collected
and buried
[Music]
refugees just want to go home they try
but hundreds of villages have been wiped
from the map
never again proclaim the pacifist
movements the US president the French
and the British come up with the idea of
an international body designed to avoid
war in the future they call it the
League of Nations
On June 28 1919 and the palace of
versaille five years to the day after
the assassination in Sarajevo delegates
from all the nations that were at war
with Germany sit down together after
lengthy negotiations they are ready to
sign the peace treaty
the famous Hall of Mirrors has been
chosen for the signing it was here that
Wilhelm the first was crowned emperor of
Germany after defeating France in 1871
in this highly symbolic setting the
German representatives must sign the
Treaty of Versailles which is imposed by
the victors Hitler will later call it
the diktat the Allies divide up
Germany's colonies among themselves and
impose harsh war reparations
[Music]
the treaty has many critics the renowned
British economist John Maynard Keynes
writes if we take the view that Germany
must be kept impoverished and her
children starved and crippled vengence I
dare predict will not live
[Music]
but for clim mosul what matters above
all is the return of Oz's Levin to
France with the rich coal fields of the
star Valley austro-hungary ceases to
exist with some areas going to Italy and
others becoming new countries between
1919 and 1922 Germany is divided into by
the Polish corridor intended to give
Poland access to the sea Russia is
excluded from the treaty after a bloody
civil war
it becomes the Soviet Union the USSR
[Music]
Willson sails back home Americans are
hostile to the treaty and Congress fails
to ratify it the senator from
Pennsylvania Philander Knox tells Wilson
mr. president I am convinced after the
most painstaking consideration that I
can give that this treaty does not spell
peace but war war more woeful and
devastating than the one we have but now
closed the United Kingdom is the only
great empire to survive
King George the fifth his Prime Minister
Lloyd George and Marshall fuch embraced
their roles as victors but there is
division among them the priority for the
British is to prevent the return of war
whereas in the eyes of the French
Germany must be punished
pfft now eighteen dressed in his
father's uniform plays the part of a
soldier he refuses to shake hands with
his brother who was playing a German a
whole generation of German children will
grow up humiliated and dreaming of
revenge
[Music]