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An army was forming in Picardy

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in the summertime of 1916.

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It was an army
such as had never been seen before.

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The war was approaching
its second anniversary.

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The strength of Germany
seemed to be unimpaired.

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Britain's allies, Russia and France,
had borne the brunt of the struggle

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to wrest back from the Germans
the advantages they had won in 1914.

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At the end of 1915,

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France had lost 1,961,687 men,

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of whom over one million
were killed or missing,

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and now, at Verdun, they were
fighting the most ferocious battle,

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launched by the Germans so that
France should bleed to death.

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It was time for Britain
to put forth her strength.

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The army forming in Picardy
expressed her resolve to do that.

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From shattered Ypres in the north,

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from the flatlands round Loos and
La Bassee, from the Channel ports,

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down the long roads of France,

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division by division,
month by month,

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the British soldiers flowed forward,

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like iron filings
drawn towards a magnet - the Somme.

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This was Britain's new army,

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the army with which
the war would be fought and won.

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The old regulars had passed away
in the dismal battles of 1915.

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Many of the first Territorials
had gone with them.

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The men of 1916 had responded

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to Lord Kitchener's famous appeal.

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But we think you ought to go

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Thank you

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were not just abstractions.

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People believed in them.
To join up was the thing to do.

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Those who didn't were shirkers.
Women handed them white feathers.

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Anyway,
all one's friends were going.

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We saw that the Canadians were
coming, the Australians were coming,

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the South Africans were coming.

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They were catching the first boat
to England, before the war was over.

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If you went to the pictures,
there you saw crowds of young men,
like I was then,

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drilling in Hyde Park, or maybe
crowding round the recruiting office,

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or it might be, shall we say,
a band playing Tipperary.

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The whole thing was exciting

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and even the pulpits, although
they started rather shakily at first,

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eventually they decided to come down
on the side of the angels

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and blessed our great mission.

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Above all, this was the effort
of the British middle class,

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which had never considered
that war was really its business.

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Suddenly the fever touched them all.

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No fear of privation, no obstacle,
stood in their way.

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We went to the recruiting office.
None of us knew much about the Army.

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And, when we told him our age...

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the old recruiting sergeant
looked very surprised and he said,

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"Well, you look the type.
You'd better walk round the park and
come back and be 19 years of age."

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So, we did.

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Back we went in the afternoon

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and signed the papers.

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We were members of the British Army.

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One idea - it began in Liverpool -

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caught on at once - Pals Battalions,
men of the same trade or profession,

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from the same city or street,

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men of the same class - they liked
to be among the faces they knew.

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Men of the North Eastern
Railway Company formed a battalion.

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A sportswoman, Mrs Cunliffe-Owen,
telegraphed to Lord Kitchener...

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Will you accept a complete battalion
of upper and middle-class men,

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able to shoot and ride,
up to the age of 45?

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The answer came back promptly.
Lord Kitchener gratefully accepts
complete battalion.

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This was the 23rd Sportsmen's
Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers.

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When the Sheffield City Battalion
first formed, their colonel said...

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You're a crowd -
a good-looking crowd, but a crowd.

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It was, said an eyewitness,
"an unusual crowd".

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Their ages range from 19 to 35.

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Standing there were many men whom
no other conceivable circumstances
would have brought into the Army -

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£500-a-year businessmen,
stockbrokers, engineers,

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chemists, metallurgical experts,
university and public school men,

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medical students, journalists,
schoolmasters, craftsmen,
shop assistants, secretaries,

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and all sorts of clerks.

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By the end of 1914,

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1,186,337 men had joined the Army.

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By September 1915,

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the figure was 2,257,521 men -

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2.25 million volunteers.

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BUGLE CALL

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Fall in, A. Fall in, B.
Fall in, every company.

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Now they were in the Army, and they
set about learning to be soldiers.

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Our training was done
in the local parks

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and for rifles,
we had broomsticks and whatnot.

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We went down on the trams, from home,

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met at nine o'clock,

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went home for lunch, back again -
practically the same as office hours.

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So, our first part of the training -
except as it included a lot of
marching, which we weren't used to -

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was more or less something
after the style of office workers.

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They were more than half civilians
at this stage - a citizen army.

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The manners of civil life
clung upon them.

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A man reprimanded for
not saluting the adjutant protested,
"Why? I hardly know him."

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A handful of old soldiers and NCOs,
survivors of Mons, South Africa
and forgotten fields of glory,

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put them through their paces.

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Sergeant Snell did his bit...

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Lower the right!
Keep those sections afore!

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Pick those knees up, throw those
chests out. Haul those heads up.
Stop talking. Keep those chins in.

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Left, left, left, left, right, left!
It's you I've got me glad eye on!

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form platoon

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form platoon

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don't mark time to paces

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form platoon?

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take his name

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take his name

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the sergeant major calling

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take his name.

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So far, we'd been individualists.

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So far, we'd been mammy's pets
or...something like that.

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We had a will of our own

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and it came rather hard,
to start with,

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to obey commands,

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but gradually
we knew how to form fours,

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right wheel, left wheel, halt,
and all the rest of it.

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We became, in other words,
a disciplined body of men.

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They learned the rituals
of another way of life.

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They had all the eagerness in
the world to impel their learning.

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Fixing bayonets is one of the
most wonderful things in the Army.

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The story goes
that the sergeant major was telling
their troops how to fix bayonets

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and he said,
"When I says fix, you don't fix,

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"but when I says bayonets, you
whips them out and whops them on."

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The new armies learned their trade,
despite every kind of difficulty,
without discouragement.

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Not only uniforms were in short
supply, but tents and huts and
almost everything a soldier needs.

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There were battalions dressed in
uniforms of surplus postman's blue.

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Through a bleak winter,
they had little beyond their own
hope and courage to keep them warm.

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The old soldiers who taught them to
drill taught them other things that
were part of the Army's way of life.

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As early as September 1914,
people living near Aldershot

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were astonished to hear a new song
on the lips of soldiers
marching along the roads.

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(I don't think)

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,

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me sister and me brother

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don't send me.

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When the words of this song were
printed in a letter to the Times,
slightly amended for tender readers,

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another correspondent wrote...

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Your correspondent placed a weapon
in the hands of the German press.

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"Send out my mother,
my sister and my brother, but
for goodness' sake, don't send me."

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Think how this will read,
duly translated into German.

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Impelled by the passionate will
of a nation still barely acquainted

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with the meaning of "total war",

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the new armies
drew towards readiness.

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Some regular soldiers despised them.
Sir Henry Wilson at GHQ, for one.

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Under no circumstances can these
mobs take the field for two years.

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Then what is the use of them?

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Kitchener's ridiculous, preposterous
army of 25 corps is the laughing
stock of every soldier in Europe.

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It took the Germans 40 years of
incessant work to make an army of 25
corps, with the aid of conscription.

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It will take us to all eternity
to do the same by voluntary effort.

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Bearing the proud badges
of their regiments,

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serious, determined
and a little apprehensive, the
young soldiers took their departure.

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In the mid-afternoon, the outside of
the town of embarkation was reached.

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The band recommenced playing and, at
the attention and in excellent step,

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they passed through the suburbs, the
town centre and so towards the docks.

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The people of that town
did not acclaim them,
nor stop about their business,

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for it was late in the second year.

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And so to France.

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The swelling numbers
of the British Army

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proclaimed that an enterprise of
great pith and moment was at hand.

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100,000 men in August 1914.

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350,000 by January 1915.

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Just over one million
by February 1916.

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Still they came.

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By June, 1.5 million.

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The people of France
noted their arrival.

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On the pavements, as they marched
by, women in deep black observed
them with particular attention.

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When the British Army attained the
million mark, the Battle of Verdun
was only nine days old.

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By the end of March, Verdun was 40
days old and incomparably savage.

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By the end of April, France had
been bleeding to death for 70 days.

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In June, new heights of ferocity
were reached

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and 100 days of Verdun
had passed by.

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The French people looked
thoughtfully at the young British
soldiers.

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The French government looked to
the new British commander-in-chief,

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Sir Douglas Haig.

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Haig told
Joffre's liaison officer...

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I pointed out that I am not
under General Joffre's orders,
but that would make no difference,

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as my intention was to do my utmost
to carry out General Joffre's wishes
as if they WERE orders.

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It had already been decided in 1915

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that the Allies should shape their
1916 strategy as a joint effort,

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a gigantic pressure from all fronts
at once against the central powers.

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There had never been any doubt
that the British would take part
in a massive offensive in 1916,

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but now, week by week,
month by month,

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as Verdun dragged on,

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the project assumed
a new significance.

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It was not so much now
a matter of smashing Germany,
but of saving France.

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Haig's dilemma was acute.

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At the end of March,
he told Lord Kitchener...

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00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:50,880
I have not got an army in France,
really,

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but a collection of divisions
untrained for the field.

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The actual fighting Army
will be evolved from them.

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00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:06,560
"For these reasons," says Haig,
"I desire to postpone my attack
as long as possible."

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00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:09,200
Haig was fighting for time.

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00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:13,600
Then, on May 24th,
Joffre's liaison officer told him...

196
00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:20,240
Owing to the great losses
of the French at Verdun,
which would soon reach 200,000,

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00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:26,880
General Joffre was of the opinion
that the offensive cannot be delayed
beyond the beginning of July.

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00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:30,960
Two days later, Joffre came
to hammer the point home.

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00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:38,000
The French have supported for
three months alone the whole weight
of the German attack at Verdun.

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00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:42,080
If this went on,
the French army would be ruined.

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00:17:42,080 --> 00:17:50,080
He, therefore, was of the opinion
that the 1st of July was the latest
date for the combined offensive.

202
00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:53,040
I said that, before fixing the date,

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00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:59,680
I would like to indicate
the state of preparedness
of the British Army on certain dates

204
00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:02,360
and compare its condition.

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00:18:02,360 --> 00:18:07,000
I took 1st and 15th July
and 1st and 15th August.

206
00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:12,520
When I mentioned August the 15th,
Joffre got very excited and shouted,

207
00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:17,680
"The French army would cease to
exist if we did nothing till then!"

208
00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:20,520
Haig agreed to attack on July 1st,

209
00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:24,040
accepting that his army
would be unready.

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00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:28,920
The place would be the Somme, where
the British and French armies met.

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00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:31,760
The date was fixed - July the 1st.

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00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:36,520
The preparations accelerated.
There was 35 days to go.

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00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:41,360
The new steel helmets were issued...
and dubiously received.

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00:18:41,360 --> 00:18:45,400
One million had been delivered
in France by July.

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00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:49,440
We've all been served out
with a new shrapnel helmet.

216
00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:52,280
We look like so many Tweedle-dees.

217
00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:58,800
The tin hats are about the limit
in ugliness, like an inverted
dish-cover or tin basin.

218
00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:03,520
They're about as uncomfortable
to wear as they can be.

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00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:10,560
For these newcomers in their new
world across the water, it was time
to learn the disciplines of wars.

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00:19:10,560 --> 00:19:15,400
As the hardships and novelties
of its trade presented themselves,

221
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the citizen army
rearranged its thoughts.

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00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:24,400
These were unexpected situations,
beyond their range of communication.

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00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:29,080
They devised new forms of words
and set them to old tunes.

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00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:32,600

Oh, what a life

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00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:35,680


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00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:38,720

Oh, what a life

227
00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:41,560


228
00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:45,360

or a nice little wench

229
00:19:45,360 --> 00:19:48,600

in an old French trench.

230
00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:52,520
Dear Auntie,
this leaves me in the pink.

231
00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:56,560
We are at present
wading in blood up to our necks.

232
00:19:56,560 --> 00:19:59,320
Send me fags and a life belt.

233
00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:02,840
Satisfying jokes were devised
along these lines.

234
00:20:02,840 --> 00:20:07,840
Dear Mother, this war's a bugger.
Sell the pig and buy me out. John.

235
00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:10,920
Dear John, pig's gone. Soldier on!

236
00:20:23,080 --> 00:20:25,720
Up. Pointing to the left.

237
00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:27,960
Stretch.

238
00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:30,480
And...up.

239
00:20:51,360 --> 00:20:54,200
The care of the feet after marching,

240
00:20:54,200 --> 00:21:00,720
or after long, continuous hours
in the slime of the trenches,
was obligatory,

241
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:03,560
an officer's task to attend to it.

242
00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:08,480
Hygiene was a matter for serious
observance, as far as possible.

243
00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:12,000
He was carrying
two full latrine buckets.

244
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:16,760
I said, "Hello, Evan.
You've got a pretty bloody job."

245
00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:20,800
He said, "Bloody job?!
Bloody job, indeed?!

246
00:21:20,800 --> 00:21:26,720
"The army of Artaxerxes was utterly
destroyed for lack of sanitation!"

247
00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:32,560
Rations claimed the attention of
all ranks and inspired their muses.

248
00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:36,560

What bloody big lumps of beef

249
00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:40,280

What bloody big lumps of beef

250
00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:44,320

What bloody big lumps of beef

251
00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:48,200

Bloody big lumps.

252
00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:51,840
Fresh meat, generally,
was for out of the line.

253
00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:58,560
In the line, it came in tins,
with vegetables mixed,
the famous product of Maconochie.

254
00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:03,360


255
00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:06,320


256
00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:10,520

and sealed it in

257
00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:13,880


258
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:17,320

and tasted it

259
00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:20,600


260
00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:24,880


261
00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:31,520


262
00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:37,680
And, all the time, training
for the imminent battle continued.

263
00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:42,880
The moment was approaching.
There was much to do.

264
00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:47,320
The British Army gained familiarity
with the worst of its afflictions.

265
00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:54,360
When you came out of the line,
you were mentally tired, but also
physically tired and hoping for rest,

266
00:22:54,360 --> 00:23:01,400
but you often did not get much of a
physical rest because you had to go
on working parties to the front line,

267
00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:06,400
on which, for the last mile,
everything had to be carried by hand

268
00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:13,240
and, somehow or other,
you had to get up to the front,
in silence and in darkness,

269
00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:18,080
food and ammunition, drinking water,
trench mortar ammunition...

270
00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:22,600
duckboards,
planks to make dugouts with, posts

271
00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:26,200
and, worst of all,
coils of barbed wire.

272
00:23:26,200 --> 00:23:29,080
This was a manpower war.

273
00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:33,120
The labour was unending,
fatigue never absent.

274
00:23:33,120 --> 00:23:38,120
It played havoc with training.
It made nonsense of periods of rest.

275
00:23:38,120 --> 00:23:43,160
It was rather appalling, to see some
of these chaps laying down asleep

276
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:49,680
after they'd come out the line
after four or five days, fatigued,
beat to the world...

277
00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:54,520
They hadn't been laying down three
or four hours, scratching theirself,

278
00:23:54,520 --> 00:24:01,160
when the sergeant would come and say,
"I want you and you.
Fall in outside."

279
00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:07,760


280
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:13,880

Tired we are

281
00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:20,040


282
00:24:20,040 --> 00:24:26,760


283
00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:32,880


284
00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:39,400

Tired we are

285
00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:45,440


286
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:55,200


287
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:59,320
Waiting, waiting,
always bloody well waiting,

288
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:03,360
to go up to the line,
to come out of the line,

289
00:25:03,360 --> 00:25:06,080
for rations, for orders,

290
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:10,920
for a traffic block, hours old,
to clear on the line of march.

291
00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:16,680
An extraordinary thing, whenever you
were really stuck, it was raining.

292
00:25:32,120 --> 00:25:34,840
The soldiers waited.

293
00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:41,760
The staff prepared the largest
British Army ever yet seen,
for the time of testing.

294
00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:44,680
1.5 million men,

295
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:48,920
four separate armies, 18 army corps,
58 divisions.

296
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:53,760
The mere administration of such
a host was a major enterprise.

297
00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:58,280
Staff officers, like soldiers,
had everything to learn.

298
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:05,320
One of them wrote... Nearly
every one of the ramifications
of civil life has its counterpart -

299
00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:09,360
food supply, road and rail transport,
law and order,

300
00:26:09,360 --> 00:26:15,160
engineering, medical work, education,
postal service, even agriculture -

301
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:22,000
and for a population bigger
than any single unit of control,
except London, in England.

302
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:25,640
Can you imagine what it is to feed,
administer,

303
00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:30,120
look after the medical and spiritual
requirements of a million men?

304
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:41,080
Civilian experts were crammed
into uniform and turned into staff
officers. Eyebrows were raised.

305
00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:44,760
Some regular army people
were scandalised.

306
00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:48,280
Haig welcomed the experts
and remarked...

307
00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:52,520
These critics fail to realise
the size of this army

308
00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:58,280
and the amount of work which an army
requires of a civilian nature -

309
00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:02,880
working the railways, the upkeep
of the roads, the baking of bread

310
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:08,200
and a thousand other industries,
go on in war, as well as in peace,

311
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:11,040
so with the whole nation at war,

312
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:17,880
our object should be to employ men
on the same work in war as
they are accustomed to do in peace.

313
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:22,960
To put soldiers with no experience
of these matters into such positions,

314
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:28,000
merely because they are generals
and colonels, must result in failure.

315
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:34,560
The 100th day of Verdun came and
went. The assembly of the British
Army was nearing completion.

316
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:37,400
Only three weeks to go now.

317
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:49,520
The Royal Flying Corps
expanded to 27 squadrons.

318
00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:53,880
In May, they began to win
air superiority over the Germans.

319
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:09,920
Then their real work began -

320
00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:15,440
spotting for the artillery with
aerial photography and recognition.

321
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:21,080
There was no mistaking
the difficulty of the task ahead.

322
00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:27,120
Haig wrote... The enemy's position
was of a very formidable character.

323
00:28:27,120 --> 00:28:34,080
During nearly two years' preparation,
he had spared no pains to render
these defences impregnable.

324
00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:38,920
The first and second lines
each consisted of deep trenches,

325
00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:43,960
well provided with bomb-proof
shelters and communication trenches.

326
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:48,600
The front of each line was protected
by wire entanglements,

327
00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:51,480
many of them in belts 40 yards broad,

328
00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:58,200
built of iron stakes
interlaced with barbed wire, often
almost as thick as a man's finger.

329
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:05,240
The numerous woods and villages in
and between these systems of defence
have been turned into fortresses.

330
00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:10,040
In the early summer of 1916,
the project didn't look impossible.

331
00:29:10,040 --> 00:29:15,720
Swelling numbers and a sense of
new power gave the Army confidence.

332
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:21,640
At last, British production of guns
was approaching the Army's needs.

333
00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:28,560
In July, there were
4,338 British guns in France,
nearly a thousand of them heavies.

334
00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:33,600
The munitions programmes were
bearing fruit, and shells poured in.

335
00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:39,240
Vast dumps appeared by the roadside
and vanished again under camouflage.

336
00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:44,080
The depot at Rouen alone
handled 3,500 tons a day.

337
00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:58,600

I want to go home

338
00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:01,680

how they whistle and roar

339
00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:04,920

in the trenches no more

340
00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:09,960

where the Alleyman can't get at me

341
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:15,520

I want to go home.

342
00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:19,960
Endless lines of lorries
supplied the hungry front.

343
00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:27,840
Over 400,000 horses and mules also
pulled and carried for the Army.

344
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:39,880
Light railways pushed forward
to the front line itself.

345
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:44,600
The variety of articles
was astonishing, the quantity vast.

346
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:47,640
One base alone issued, in 1916...

347
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:51,160
11,000 compasses, 7,000 watches,

348
00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:54,200
12,800 bicycles,

349
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:57,840
40,000 electric torches,

350
00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:00,880
1.5 million waterproof sheets,

351
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:06,120
five million anti-gas helmets,
2.25 million bars of soap.

352
00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:13,480
This was becoming a war of objects
and machines - the material battle,
the Germans called it.

353
00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:17,920
The authority of the machines
grew from day to day.

354
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:23,720
The personality of the individual
human withered among the masses

355
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:27,560
and in servitude
to the weapons of modern war.

356
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:31,520
These are our masters -

357
00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:35,960
the slim, grim muzzles
that irk in the pit,

358
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:41,080
that chafe for the rushing of wheels,
for the teams plunging madly to bit,

359
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:46,200
as the gunners swing down to unkey,
for the trail's half-circle right,

360
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:51,720
for breach-blocks clashing as one
to a target viewed on the sight,

361
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:58,640
for the hour
of the red battle harvest, the dream
of the slave is for the gun.

362
00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:03,040
June 24th - the 125th day
of the Battle of Verdun.

363
00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:07,920
One week to go.

364
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:10,680
We are the guns and ye serve us.

365
00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:13,160
Dare ye grow weary,

366
00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:17,960
steadfast at night-time
and noon-time, or waking,

367
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:21,520
when dawn winds blow dreary
over the fields

368
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:28,760
and the flats and the reeds
of the barrier water,
to wait on the hour of our choosing,

369
00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:32,560
the minute decided for slaughter.

370
00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:36,800
Swift the clock runs -
yea, to the ultimate settlement.

371
00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:38,800
Stand to your guns!

372
00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:46,920
2, 400, charge 3!

373
00:33:46,920 --> 00:33:49,440
Fire!

374
00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:57,280
Our intense, ceaseless artillery
bombardment of the German positions

375
00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:00,560
began paving the way for the assault.

376
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:04,600
In the afternoon,
I rode to a small crest to watch it.

377
00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:09,680
At times, the village of Pozieres,
two miles beyond our front trenches,

378
00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:13,400
was being completely smothered
in shells,

379
00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:20,640
while, in their turn,
Thiepval, Contalmaison and Fricourt
were subjected to the hurricane.

380
00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:32,880
The endless columns moved up along
the roads and tracks of Picardy,

381
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:36,120
out of the world of everyday things,

382
00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:39,960
out of the orbit
of ordinary apprehension,

383
00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:43,600
into a world
riven by unspeakable sound.

384
00:36:08,060 --> 00:36:11,980
General Rawlinson,
the Fourth Army commander,

385
00:36:11,980 --> 00:36:14,420
wrote in his diary...

386
00:36:14,420 --> 00:36:18,220
What the results will be,
no-one can foretell,

387
00:36:18,220 --> 00:36:21,740
but I feel pretty confident
of success,

388
00:36:21,740 --> 00:36:25,660
though we shall only get it
after heavy fighting.

389
00:36:25,660 --> 00:36:28,380
We've done all we can

390
00:36:28,380 --> 00:36:32,220
and the rest
is in the hands of the good God.

391
00:36:32,220 --> 00:36:40,260


392
00:36:40,260 --> 00:36:46,060


393
00:36:46,060 --> 00:36:52,500


394
00:36:52,500 --> 00:37:01,260


395
00:37:01,260 --> 00:37:08,660
The burdened infantry, each man
bearing 66lb of assorted equipment,
took up their final positions,

396
00:37:08,660 --> 00:37:13,420
awaited the last violent spasm
of the guns.

397
00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:37,920
Across the evening,

398
00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:43,840
homing birds cawed on high above
them, and the preparation there,

399
00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:48,080
and some people
began settling down for the night

400
00:38:48,080 --> 00:38:52,120
and more solicitors
disposed themselves in groups

401
00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:56,640
and stood about and rather tended
to speak in undertones,

402
00:38:56,640 --> 00:39:00,680
as though to not hasten
or not disturb,

403
00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:06,120
to not activate too soon
the immense potential empoweredness

404
00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:09,560
and talk about impending dooms.

405
00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:13,080
It fair gets you in the guts.

406
00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:22,960
Let them kip on now
and take their rest.