All language subtitles for BBC.The.Great.War.05of26.This.Business.May.Last.A.Long.Time.divx.mp3

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The pendulum of war had come to rest.

The armies halted.

Around the campfires, men were
too weary to talk much,

but they could wonder, which
way would they march tomorrow?

For 15 days, the Allies had
been in constant retreat.

For 15 days, the great weight of the
German army had pressed down towards Paris.

ORDERS SHOUTED IN GERMAN

By September 5th, they were less
than 20 miles from the capital.

Would Paris fall?

Hope waned and time was running out.

Yet one man preserved his hope
and made his will prevail.

At Allied headquarters, Gen Joffre perceived
that a significant change had occurred.

The situation was impressive.

Our front formed the arc of a vast circle

enveloping the enemy.

Thus our 5th Army was in a
position to attack

the enemy columns crossing the Marne,

while the British Army and mobile
troops of the Paris garrison

were well placed to attack in flank

the German forces who'd diverged
from the direction of Paris.

This was the moment of decision
that Joffre had been waiting for.

Now hundreds of thousands of tired men must be halted,

turned about and thrown against the enemy.

From Verdun to the Marne, Joffre
told his right wing to hold firm.

The German 2nd Army was marching south

at some distance from the First.

The French 6th Army would strike from the west.

As Von Kluck turned to meet them,

the French 5th Army and the BEF
could march on the gap in the line.

One thing was essential. The BEF must march.

Joffre visited Sir John French to
explain his plan and plead for aid.

Finally, clasping his two hands in front of
himself, he turned to Sir John French and said...

SPEAKS IN FRENCH

"Field Marshal,
it is France that is begging you."

It was so moving that Sir John French,
who was awfully British,

very unemotive himself,

he was so moved that he struggled
with the French language once more.

He couldn't get anything out.

And turning to somebody,

he said, "Tell him that anything
that men can do, our men will do.

"We will attack tomorrow."

Word began to filter down the
line that we were on the move

in the reverse direction.

At first it was hard to believe,
but soon we were recrossing the Marne.

We were on the advance again.

The feeling is impossible to describe.

From being tired, worn out,
demoralised creatures,

we became trained soldiers
with the enemy in view,

and off we went.

"The happiest day of my life.
We marched towards the rising sun,"

wrote a British officer.

It was September 6th, 1914.

General Joffre issued an order
of the day to his armies.

"The moment has passed for
looking to the rear.

"All our efforts must be directed to
attacking and driving back the enemy.

"Troops who can advance no further

"must, at any price, hold on to
the ground they have conquered

"and die on the spot,
rather than give way!

"Under the circumstances that face us,

"no act of weakness can be tolerated."

Slowly, the pendulum started its counter swing.

The Germans resisted strongly.

North of Paris, General Maunoury's
army was heavily counter attacked

and in danger of defeat.

Gen Gallieni, military governor of Paris,

rushed forward reinforcements in
taxi cabs - the taxis of the Marne.

The men they carried just
sufficed to prevent a collapse.

But the centre was the vital area.

Here the French 5th Army and
the BEF thrust forward

into the widening gap between the
armies of Von Kluck and Von Bulow.

Reluctantly at first, but each day
more certainly, the Germans gave way.

On September 11th, Joffre telegraphed
to the Minister of War:

"The Battle of the Marne is an
incontestable victory for us."

And now, as the Allies reap
the rewards of victory,

new hope surged up in them that
had faced the misery of defeat.

Could the Germans be hustled
back to the frontier

out of the rich provinces of
France which they had overrun?

Could the Allies pursue swiftly?
Back to the Rhine in three weeks, perhaps?

Optimism spread its wings.

Gen Sir Henry Wilson compared notes
with an officer on Joffre's staff.

Gatineau asked me when I thought
we'd enter Germany.

I said that I thought we should be in
Elsenborn in four weeks. He thought three.

"Vitesse! Vitesse!" urged General Foch.

"En avant, soldat, pour La France!"
cried Gen Franchet d'Esperey.

But General Haig, commanding the
British First Corps, remarked:

"I thought our movements very slow today,
in view of the fact the enemy's on the run."

The movements were too slow.

Broken bridges...

tiredness, over caution, brave
fighting by German rear guards,

all combined to slow the Allied advance.

On September 13th, Haig's corps
reached the River Aisne

and the wooded spurs of the
Chemin des Dames Ridge -

the Ladies Road, running along
beside the river in Soissons.

They were just two hours too late.

A German Army corps,
released by the fall of Maubert,

marched 40 miles in 24 hours, with a quarter
of its infantry falling out on the way.

It arrived in the nick of time to
block the British advance.

The Germans dug in hastily along
the Chemin des Dames Ridge.

The British, unable to move
them, dug in also.

The French did the same in their turn.

The beginnings of Trench
warfare were now seen.

On September 16th, Joffre told
his army commanders:

"It seems as if the enemy is once
more going to accept battle

"in prepared positions north of the Aisne.

"It is not longer a question of pursuit,

"but of methodical attack."

Every attack was halted.

The Germans counter attacked to
throw the Allies into the Aisne.

They also failed.
Losses mounted on both sides.

At the end of the month,
Gen Haig said:

"In front of this corps,
and for miles either side,

"affairs have reached a deadlock.
No decision seems possible here."

Joffre had already reached this conclusion,

so had the German High Command.

Simultaneously, Allies and Germans
moved against each other's flanks.

So, the war, which had burned
southwards so swiftly,

rolled back northward like a
forest fire under a changing wind.

The flames fell on new countryside -
Picardy, Artois, Flanders.

This was the "race to the sea".

All through these days of
frustration on the Aisne,

by railway,

on horseback,

on foot

and thousands by bicycle,

the soldiers of both sides
were on the move.

Populations which had hoped to be
spared were driven before them.

And in the north, the thunder of
great guns was heard again.

On September 28th, the Germans began
a violent bombardment of Antwerp.

The King of the Belgians with
his army and his government

had taken refuge in this great port.

Antwerp was heavily defended
by rings of forts,

with some 150,000 Belgian
soldiers inside them.

On October 1st,
the London Times said:

"We do not think there is any
need to worry about Antwerp."

But the next day,
the British government heard

that the Belgian Army proposed
to abandon the city.

"The news," said Sir Winston Churchill,

"seemed not only terrible
but incomprehensible."

Churchill himself sped across the sea.

He promised the Belgians Allied
support and persuaded them to wait.

Naval armoured cars came up
the coast from Ostend.

With them, troops of the Uniformed 7th
Division by whatever means they could find.

CHEERING

At Antwerp itself, Royal Marines
of the Naval Division landed.

They were soon under
bombardment in the line.

Some shrapnel,
a few high explosives,

and then, high in the sky,
a train-like rumble and whistle.

It ended with an explosion in
Antwerp with smoke and flames.

An old hand said,
"Them's Howitzer shells!

"The bastards must be 12 miles away!"

At intervals all day these
train-like shells came over

and burst on the city of Antwerp.

Late in the afternoon, the oil
tanks by the dockside were hit.

We sat, watched, waited.

Felt hopeless and useless.

For three days,
the unequal struggle went on.

But the Allies had nothing like the German
Howitzers which had already battered Liege and Namur.

On October 7th,
the inevitable end was in sight.

The Belgian Government
left for Ostend

and the field army began its
withdrawal down the coast.

With them, once more,
went the pitiful refugees,

escaping as best they could,
by any route they could,

from the German invaders whose cruel
reputation had gone before them.

The future of Belgium was
all in shadows now.

On October 9th, the Germans
entered Antwerp.

Now the flames of war licked down the coast
to join the blaze of battle to the south.

The Belgian Army fell
back to Diksmuide.

It joined a magnificent
detachment of French marines.

And division by division, the BEF,
transported from the Aisne,

was coming into action near the
old Flemish market town of Ypres.

Their arrival filled the last
remaining gap in a battle line

from the sea to Switzerland.

It was the final act of
the war's movement.

The last great encounter battle
of the Western Front

opened with glittering
promise for both sides.

Gen Foch was now in charge of all
the Allied forces in the north.

He was clear about what
he had to do.

The question was, did we have the time
and means to effect a breakthrough

before the enemy could complete defensive
measures against which we would be impotent?

This effort was an attempt to exploit the
last vestige of our victory on the Marne.

The Germans now had a new commander.

Von Moltke had failed and was replaced
by Erich von Falkenhayn as Chief of Staff.

He too was clear about his task.

The Allied threat to the German
right wing must be eliminated.

If this at least was not done,

then the drastic action against
England and her sea traffic,

submarines, aeroplanes and airships,

which was being prepared as a reply
to England's war of starvation,

was impossible.

It was also questionable whether the
occupied territory in France and Belgium

could be held.

The prize, felt von Falkenhayn,
was worth the stake.

For both sides, the stake at
Ypres was everything they had.

The sustained intensity of this
battle was something new.

Crisis after crisis flared
along the line.

In the north, the Belgians
were hard pressed,

defending the last patch of
native soil from the invader.

They took a terrible decision, to open
the sluice gates of the River Yser.

They let in the sea over land that had
been reclaimed by the labour of centuries.

A French officer watched the result.

Little by little,
the soil became spongy.

The ditches began to fill.

On the 29th,
we could see the water rise,

but it wasn't till the 31st that
we saw a different landscape.

Over this new landscape,
veiled by a mist,

settled a deathlike silence.

The Germans, too, were willing
to mortgage their future.

They flung into battle divisions
of student volunteers,

wildly enthusiastic,
but only half trained.

They were mown down by
the British regulars.

The Germans called their fate
"the slaughter of the innocents".

Veteran units also suffered
heavy losses.

GERMAN ACCENT: Within 100 yards,
we came under machine gun fire,

which was so terrific and the
losses were so staggering

that we got orders to lie
down and stay still.

Nobody dared to lift his head

because they knew that if the
machine gunners saw any movement,

they let fly.

And then the British
artillery opened up.

The corpses and the heads and the
legs and the arms flew about

and we were cut to pieces.

The British Expeditionary Force was
also cut to pieces by the German guns.

These men were irreplaceable. They
were Britain's only trained troops.

By the time the battle was over, the
old British Army was gone past recall.

Losses in this battle
totalled nearly 60,000.

Already, before it ended, the
consequences were seen.

The Territorials made
their appearance.

The London Scottish were the
first to enter the fight.

They lost 60% of their numbers
in their first battle.

Beside them, on October 29th, arrived
the first units of the Indian Corps.

The citizen army and the Empire were
already having to replace the regulars.

Regulars, Territorials,
Indians, French, Belgians.

The French outnumbered
all the rest.

Together, they beat off all
the German attacks.

Their own attacks failed also.

Capt Rudolph Binding of the German
Dragoons wrote in a letter:

"The war has got stuck into a
gigantic siege on both sides.

"The whole front is one endless
fortified trench.

"Neither side has the force
to make a decisive push."

On November 2nd,
he was even gloomier.

"Everyone is getting ready
for a winter campaign.

"I judge there's no possibility
of an early finish."

The thought grew upon him with
all its cheerless implications.

"November 8th, we are still stuck
here for perfectly good reasons.

"One might as well say for
perfectly bad reasons."

By the middle of November,
his mind was made up.

"This business may last
for a long time."

The impossible was now a fact -

a battle line which stretched
across a continent.

There were no flanks to turn, only
the convolutions of the trenches

in which the million-strong
armies crouched and waited.

Nothing like it had ever
been seen before.

All the plans had gone awry.

All the careful preparation of Germany, all
the brave improvisation of the Allies.

All the heroism of the soldiers
had produced stalemate.

The stalemate was universal.

In Serbia, where the war began, the
same incredible spectacle was seen.

On August 12, the Austrians entered
Serbia on what they thought

would be a swift punitive campaign

which would quickly bring down this
upstart Slav kingdom to the dust.

To everyone's astonishment, the
Austrian invasion was repelled.

The Serbs fought with passionate
fury against their neighbours.

But the weight of numbers was
on Austria's side.

After an interval, the Austrians
returned in strength

and with more caution.

This time, it seemed that
they must win.

GUNSHOT

On December 2nd, they
entered Belgrade again.

Easy enough, Belgrade was
right on the border.

But once again, the Serbs made
a remarkable rally.

By the 15th, the Austrians were
out of Belgrade again.

Serbia was cleared of the invaders.

The campaign had been
brutal and bloody.

The Austrians lost 227,000 men,

more than half the numbers of
their invading forces.

This was a war of Austria's making,
but Austria was out of luck.

The bulk of Austria's army marched
with enthusiasm to meet the Russians,

believing in the strength of
their German allies.

Under 50% of them were
Austrians and Hungarians.

The rest, mostly Slavs, have little
desire to fight for the Hapsburg empire.

Many of them knew no more German
than the 80 basic words of command.

Yet the German victory at Tannenberg
in August gave them hope.

Commander-in-Chief,
Field Marshall Conrad von Hotzendorf,

had visions of a Tannenberg of his own

against Russia's southern islands.

On September 6th, the main bodies
of the Russians and Austrians

met around the town of Lemberg.

There was bitter fighting.

On September 11th, the day on which
Joffre announced victory on the Marne,

Conrad had accepted defeat.

His casualties were enormous,

and included over 100,000 prisoners.

The Austrians began a withdrawal
which carried them back 200 miles.

A lasting blow had been
struck at Austrian morale.

German staff officers cruelly
summed it up by saying:

"We are fettered to a corpse."

The Germans had
reasons for bitterness.

This Austrian disaster had gravely
affected their plans and prospects,

which had looked so
bright after Tannenberg.

Now, as the Russians
advanced into Carpathia,

the Germans had to leave
their own offensives

to meet the threat.

Their attack on Warsaw came to nothing.

In East Prussia, the Russians were
able to mount a new invasion.

At the root of all problems
in this vast fighting area

was communication.

General Ludendorff wrote:

"We had trouble getting
the railway lines,

"that we had ourselves
previously destroyed,

"into working order again.

"We worked now with might
and main to restore them,

"but considerable time elapsed before the
railway communications were really in order."

The Russian winter arrived,

halting all the armies
in their tracks.

Germans, Austrians, Russians,
they burrowed holes for shelter,

struggled to keep warm and
waited for better times.

- Ludendorff said: - "The 1914
campaign had not brought a decision.

"And I could not see how one
would be reached in 1915."

In the east, as in the west,
it was stalemate.

This, too, was going to be
a long business.

As the weeks slid into months and
drew towards the ending of the year,

shocked nations recognised that this
war would not be "over by Christmas"!

In France, censorship concealed the full
truth of what had happened since August 3rd.

But in hundreds of
thousands of homes,

nothing could conceal the loss of
a husband or brother or a son.

995,000 Frenchmen were killed,
wounded or missing in 1914.

Russia's losses were even
greater than the French.

Also, disturbing signs of
internal rottenness had appeared.

The Russian soldiers had displayed
unbelievable devotion, patience and tenacity.

Too often, their courage was
brought to nothing

by blunders, corruption and
heartbreaking shortages.

Yet, at the end of the year,
the Tzar's illusions lingered on.

My dear army have given such proofs of
valour that victory can't fail us now.

We must dictate the peace. I am determined to
continue until the Central Powers are destroyed.

No congress or mediation for me!

Britain and Germany settled to their
business with implacable wrath.

The novelist H.G. Wells
voiced their ardour.

"Nobody wants to be a non-combatant
in a war of this sort."

The desire to join in the fight, possessed
the British people in odd ways.

A Times reporter wrote in his diary:

"People seem enveloped in
a mysterious darkness,

"haunted by goblins in the
form of German spies.

"The wildest stories circulate of outrages
committed by Germans in our midst."

Fear of spies and of invasion
produced hysteria

which turned venomously against
Germans and Austrians in Britain,

or against their
suspected sympathisers.

The first casualty
was Lord Haldane,

the man who had created the Expeditionary
Force and the Territorial Army.

Haldane was accused in the papers
of being secretly pro-German.

It was even said that this lifelong
bachelor had a German wife.

He recalled:

"I was threatened with assault
in the street.

"And I was, on occasions,
in some danger of being shot at."

This violence turned in
other directions, too.

In the East End of London,
German shops were attacked and looted.

Driven by popular pressure, the government
unwillingly rounded up aliens in Britain.

The historian F.S. Oliver recorded:

"One of my friends has
given away her dachshunds

"lest they should lead her to
be suspected of spying."

In October, the agitation
reached its climax

with a campaign against
Prince Louis of Battenburg,

who, with Winston Churchill, had been responsible
for creating the Grand Fleet before war broke out.

The journal "John Bull" wrote:

"Blood is said to be
thicker than water.

"We doubt whether all the
water in the North Sea

"could obliterate the blood-ties
between the Battenburgs and Hohenzollerns

"when it comes to a life or death
struggle between Germany and ourselves."

On October 30th, Prince Louis resigned.

But these preoccupations were
remote from the needs of the BEF.

On August 7th, the Prime Minister requested parliament
to sanction an army increase of 500,000 men.

CHEERING

The response was immediate
and impressive.

BAND PLAYS "THE BRITISH GRENADIERS"

War had been declared and the following Sunday I
went to the Shepherd's Bush Empire to a show.

At the end, they showed the
Fleet sailing the high seas,

and played "Britons never
shall be slaves".

And one feels the shiver run up the back
and you know you've got to do something.

I was just turned 17 at the time.

On the Monday, I went up to Whitehall,
Old Scotland Yard, and enlisted.

By September 5th,
the Prime Minister announced

that between 250,000 and 300,000
men had joined Kitchener's Army.

Two days later, the figure
was corrected. It was 439,000.

The patriotic fires burned high.

A letter to the Times cried out:

"Reform Club, Pall Mall, Sir...

"Yesterday, while Lord Kitchener was telling
us the bravery of our wounded and dead,

"while he was asking for
men to replace them,

"every lawn tennis court near me was
filled with strapping young men and gells!

"Is there no way of
shaming these laggards?

"The English gell who will not know
the man - lover, brother, friend -

"that has no overwhelming
reason for not taking up arms,

"that gell will do her duty and
give good help to her country."

54 million posters were issued,

eight million personal
letters were sent,

12,000 meetings were held,

20,000 speeches were delivered
by servicemen or ex-servicemen.

By the end of 1914, one million one hundred and eighty-six thousand three hundred and thirty-seven men

had enlisted.

And this was not all.

Canada's position had been made
clear long before the war.

In 1910, her prime minister said:

"When Britain is at war,
Canada is at war.

"There is no distinction."

The Canadian government
offered a contingent of 25,000,

but 40,000 men came forward
in less than a month.

Lord Beaverbrook wrote:

"No mere jack-booted
militarism inspired them.

"They sought neither the glory
of conquest, the rape of freedom,

"nor the loot of sacked cities.

"They came forward free
men and unconstrained,

"with the simple resolve to lay down their
lives if need be in defence of the Empire -

"their Empire, too."

As with Canada, so with Australia.
On August 3rd, their treasurer said:

"If Britain goes to her
Armageddon, we will go with her.

"Our fate and hers, for good or
ill, are as woven threads."

Australia offered her navy
and a contingent of 20,000.

FOG HORN BOOMS

New Zealand also offered
her navy and 8,000 men -

a higher proportion than
any other dominion.

South Africa joined in.
Men came from all the colonies.

The martial races of India gathered
at the summons of the drum.

The Empire was at war.

This was something that
Germany had not catered for.

The Swedish explorer, Sven Hedin,
visiting Germany in October,

spoke for her outraged feelings:

"The two western powers of the
entente bear the responsibility

"for having caused the dance of
death to involve the whole globe!

"Canadians come from America,
Senegalese Negroes from Africa,

'and poor Hindus and Gurkhas,
bronzed by the sun of India,

"lie freezing in the trenches.

"Lastly, Australia and New Zealand
are sending contingents.

"What is the purpose of such a
world-wide levy of warriors?

"Why, Germanic culture is to
be uprooted from the earth!"

Victorious, yet thwarted of final victory,
Germany set her teeth and hardened her will.

At the end of October, the president
of the national bank in Berlin

told the correspondent
of the New York Sun:

"It is a fight between
England and Germany

"to the bitter end, to the
last German, if need be.

"England has wanted it,
so let it be.

"We want no quarter from England,
we shall give none.

"Now it is death, destruction
and annihilation

"for one or other of
the two nations.

"Tell your American people that,

"and say the words don't come from a fanatic,
but from a quiet businessman who knows his people.

"Tell America not to be
misled by peace talk.

"There is not going
to be any peace.

"This will be a long war."

In an ugly mood, the nations
settled down to fight it out.

In the crude trenches, men dug
for shelter as deep as they dared.

They learned to suffer the
companionship of mud.

The manhood of Europe
discovered a new way of life,

with death never far away.

They were surprised to find
that Christmas had overtaken them.

British soldiers listened with wonder as the carol
"Heilige Nacht" arose from the German trenches.

Here and there, they
saw Christmas trees go up.

The next day, it was just the sort of day for
peace to be declared said one British officer.

Without a word, British and German
soldiers got out of their trenches

and walked towards each other.

The whole of No Man's Land
was grey and khaki.

We were smoking, talking,
shaking hands,

exchanging names and addresses for
after the war, to write to each other.

The British soldiers
showed the Germans

the gift boxes they'd
had from Princess Mary,

each containing tobacco
and cigarettes.

The Germans had pipes embossed
with the head of the Crown Prince,

Little Willie of the
English cartoons.

When the Germans started to
bury some of their frozen dead,

the British had another shock,
the inscriptions on the crosses.

They would put,
"Fur Vaterland und Freiheit" -

"For Fatherland and Freedom".

And I said to a German,

"Excuse me, but how can you
be fighting for freedom?

"You started the war and WE
are fighting for freedom."

And he said, "Excuse me,
English comrade,

"but WE are fighting for
freedom for our country."

"And I see you also put 'Here rests in God...
here rests in God an unknown hero.' In God?"

"Oh, yes, God is on our side."
I said, "But he's on OUR side."

"Well, English comrade, do not
let us quarrel on Christmas day."

MALE CHOIR SINGS "SILENT NIGHT"

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