All language subtitles for BBC.The.First.World.War.09of10.Germanys.Last.Gamble.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.Forum_[eng]

Spring 1918.

Revolution had taken Russia
out of the war,

releasing half a million
German soldiers from the east.

Briefly, Germany outnumbered
the Allies on the Western Front.

Here was her chance
to win the First World War.

We must strike
at the earliest moment

before the Americans can throw
strong forces into the scales.

We must beat the British.

Behind German lines,
great armies rolled into position
for the Michael Offensive,

named after Germany's patron saint.

All the roads were crowded
with columns on the march,

pressing forward, with countless
guns and endless transport.

The German and the Allied air forces
were closely matched,

but Germany had the legendary ace
Baron Manfred von Richthofen.

A special train carried
his famous fighter squadron.

Brightly painted aircraft
and daring antics

earned the nickname
"The Red Baron's Flying Circus".

These pilots were Germany's heroes,

among them the future Nazi leader
of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Goering.

The Red Baron's dog Moritz
with his own flying gear.

Von Richthofen had already downed
66 enemy planes.

He looked to the Michael Offensive
to swell his tally.

The Allies knew
the Germans were about to hit them -

they just didn't know where.

The French reinforced
the Chemin des Dames ridge.

The British strengthened the line
guarding the Channel ports.

But the Germans had their sights
on the gap between,

concentrating on a 12-mile sector

where they knew the British
were weak.

Here, the British 5th Army's trench
system was shallow and incomplete.

General Sir Hubert Gough
had few reserves.

Germany's supreme commanders
had chosen well.

Paul von Hindenburg and Erich
Ludendorff carried Germany's hopes.

Worshipped as demigods
for past triumphs,

they complemented
one another's characters.

Hindenburg the rock,
steady and unflappable.

Ludendorff the brains,
but erratic, nervous.

The plan was a short, intense
bombardment to stun the British,

then a shock attack
by storm troopers.

Evolved since 1915,

these were elite, mobile soldiers
with grenades and flame-throwers,

trained to seek out soft spots

and penetrate deep and fast
into enemy lines.

Ludendorff fixed the offensive
for dawn on 21st March 1918.

The Germans hit the British with
a million shells in just five hours.

Just before the bombardment ended,

battalion commander Major Scherer
sang

"Deutschland, Deutschland,
uber alles".

We all joined in.

It was the first time I had heard
our men singing the national anthem
since the autumn of 1914.

9.40 is zero hour.

One division after the other
breaks through in a gigantic leap

through the smashed
wire entanglement,

across no-man's-land,
into the first enemy trench!

Our bayonets are stuck
in their bodies.

The morning fog was thick
with poison gas.

Some British never saw them coming.

We heard the sentry shout
that the Germans were here.

We made a grab for our arms.

A party of Germans called on us
to surrender.

We had no choice.
There were hundreds to one.

Seeing that the case was hopeless,
we were taken against our will.

Lieutenant Stewart was one of
21,000 British captured that day.

Panic spread as senior officers,

used to years of
static trench warfare,

lost control in the havoc.

As soon as communications
with brigades ceased to exist,

divisional headquarters
in many cases became paralysed.

They had become so wedded
to a set piece type of warfare

that they were unable to function.

General Gough ordered what was left
of the 5th Army to withdraw.

We could hear large numbers
of Boches on the roads in front.

The tramp, tramp, tramp
made one imagine

the whole German army
was advancing against my company.

This was the biggest breakthrough

in over three years of trench
warfare on the Western Front.

What our enemies never achieved,
not even after month-long battles,

we managed in two days!
How happy the Kaiser must be!

Finally, the initiative is back
with us! It's a wonderful feeling!

Demoralised British troops retreated
over the Somme battlefield of 1916,

giving up ground for which
so much blood had been shed.

It is pathetic to think that the
old places where we were 2 years ago

are now in the hands of the Hun,

as, also, are the graves
of many people we know.

Edward's sister, Vera Brittain,
was a nurse at Etaples,

now flooded with casualties.

"There's only a handful of us,
Sister,

"and thousands of them!"
was the perpetual cry

whether the patient came from
Bapaume, Peronne or St Quentin.

Day after day, while civilian
refugees fled in panic into Etaples,

some fresh enemy conquest
was incredulously whispered.

Peronne, Bapaume, Beaumont Hamel
were gone.

The huge German advance put Paris

within range of the biggest gun
in the world.

This morning,
the bombardment of Paris began,

with the 3 new Krupp cannons.

The target is 120 kilometres away

and from launch
the shell takes 3½ minutes.

The first French prisoners
I speak to ask me anxiously

whether it's true that Paris
has actually been shelled.

Travelling will be
all the rage in Paris.

Allied newsreels portrayed life
in the city continuing as normal.

But, away from the cameras, civilians
hurriedly packed their bags.

183 of the giant shells
fell on Paris.

The battle's going well.
The enemy is in retreat,

though fighting courageously
and with heavy losses.

A brilliant offensive -

great loot, over 3,000 prisoners,
60 artillery and 200 machine guns!

I receive a telegram
from Crown Prince Wilhelm

honouring me and my army.

This evening, His Majesty the Kaiser
returned from Avesnes

bursting with news of our successes.

As the train pulled in, he shouted,

"The battle is won. The English
have been utterly defeated."

The Kaiser declared 24th March 1918
a national holiday.

He awarded Hindenburg and Ludendorff
the highest military honours.

Days later, Ludendorff's troops
were still advancing.

Some of the British
started to think the unthinkable.

I shall never forget the crushing
tension of those extreme days.

Nothing had quite equalled them
before -

not the Somme, not Arras,
not Passchendaele -

for into our minds had crept
for the first time

the secret, incredible fear
that we might lose the war.

But German success
in the Michael Offensive
masked deep problems at home.

The biggest threat to Germany
and her allies

had increasingly come not from
their enemies but their civilians.

The crucial link
between fighting and home fronts
became decisive in 1918.

The Central Powers ran a desperate
race between victory on the
battlefield and collapse at home.

There are signs of
the increasing scarcity of metal.

In a small town near here,
a sad ceremony took place.

The church bell,
which had rung the people
from cradle to grave for 300 years,

was requisitioned.

The inhabitants performed
a funeral service for it.

The bell was covered
with wreaths and flowers

and handed over
to the military authorities

under tears and protestations.

Lead pipes were ripped up from the
streets and melted down into bullets.

The war gnawed at the vitals
of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

People's hearts turned against it.

They wanted change -
peace and democracy.

After a while, joy at the victory
announcements abated.

People stopped believing them.

They weren't sure any more
what the truth was.

I saw that the war had become old
and, like an old person,
was no longer wanted.

Surely peace must come soon.

Something dangerous was building up
in people,

something that smelled
like rebellion.

Dangerous ideas were coming in
from Russia -

anti-war, revolutionary -

carried by German troops
being moved from Eastern to Western
Front for the great offensive.

At railway stations and on leave,

these ideas took root amid
the pessimism of the home front.

Dominik Richert was one of the
soldiers ordered from East to West.

We were off to the front.

Again, the pleasant prospect
of a heroic death
for the beloved Fatherland.

We went through East Prussia,
West Prussia, Brandenburg.

Train after train, crammed full of
soldiers and war supplies,

rolled over from Russia to the West.

Farm workers were in the fields.
We waved.

Almost all of them made the sign
of having your throat cut.

Since 1917, letters from home
to Germany's soldiers

carried
an increasingly defeatist message.

Beloved Fritz,
hard work never seems to lessen.

We would all do it ever so willingly
if this cursed war would end.

Tomorrow, it will be two years
since our beloved brother was killed

and what a number has fallen
in those years.

In this small area, we can count 33

and yet there is no end.

The Central Powers'
censorship of letters revealed

the extent to which dangerous
pacifist ideas infiltrated society.

An understandable yearning
for one's home, family, job

can be detrimental
to the soldiers' resolution.

The heavier these burdens weigh
on the army's spirit,

the more it needs to rely on
a strong foundation of belief.

Ludendorff used propaganda
to boost the nation's morale.

By now, his authority had spread
into all aspects of life,
military and civilian.

In July 1917, he launched
a "Patriotic Instruction Programme"

to restore the army's faith
in nation and cause.

One of the propagandists was
Major Walther Nicolai.

A German victory is necessary
and possible,

the only means of reaching a peace
appropriate to its sacrifices.

We must eradicate all doubt
in a German victory.

Film became a key propaganda tool.

A massive new studio, UFA,
secretly funded by the military,

made films to encourage
the war effort.

Neptune, king of the seas, learns
that the feast his mermaids bring

has floated down from British ships
sunk by U-boats.

He goes to Berlin to urge
the public to keep buying war bonds.

Propaganda also taught the importance
of security and secrecy.

In this film, a soldier's careless
talk on the telephone to his wife

is intercepted by the British.

Ludendorff enlisted German women
to spy on their fellow citizens

and root out defeatism.

Politician Hans Peter Hanssen
described in his diary

the covert mission of
the Women's Home Army.

Women are given special instruction
in espionage.

They are to pay attention
to conversations everywhere,

to post themselves in front of
food shops to prevent complaints.

If they hear people making
improper utterances,

they are to demand their identity

and turn them over
to the state attorney.

In these repressive times,
politics grew more extreme.

In July 1917, the German parliament,
the Reichstag, passed a resolution

calling for a negotiated peace
with the Allies.

But Hindenburg and Ludendorff
welcomed the formation

of the Fatherland Party
to reunite the nation.

Financed by industry and the army,
and backed by the right,

it launched savage propaganda attacks
against all anti-war factions.

But the party only fuelled Germany's
slide into dissent and division.

Outward distinctions of
class and rank must be avoided.

Many who grew rich through war
are detested.

Finer distinctions
are not always made.

Anyone with a fur mantle
or well-made boots is suspected of
being a war profiteer.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff ran Germany
as a military dictatorship.

They had marginalised the Kaiser.

The Kaiser is more and more
the shadow of a king.

People talk openly of his abdication
as a possibility very much desired.

In January 1918, frustration,
war weariness and hunger

drove 400,000 people
onto the streets of Germany.

Enough with the murder at the front!
Down with war!

We don't want to starve any longer!

This war will only end when Kaiser
Wilhelm has to queue for potatoes!

We are croaking with hunger!

There was a heavy battle between
strikers and police at Moabit.

A policeman was shot.

The strike is spreading.

In north Berlin, streetcars were
overturned and used as barricades.

Kurt Eisner, a radical socialist
leader, addressed the crowd.

Comrades! The battle has begun!

For three and a half years,
you have swallowed shameful lies

and become accomplices
to terrible slaughter.

If you give in now,
the oppression will start again.

You will be sent to die in the name
of the economic and military
interests of a few.

If you stand firm now,
we will be victorious!

The German army responded
by arresting 150 strike leaders
and putting them on trial.

We are now entirely at the mercy of
the military courts of justice.

Anyone who strikes is being
sent off to the front at once.

In the darkest days of serfdom,

men could not have been more
in a state of slavery

than we are
in these days of militarism.

Over 3,000 strikers
were sent to the front.

It was a foolhardy decision,

only likely to spread radical
and pacifist ideas into the army.

The company was ordered to attend
the cavalry captain's burial

in the military graveyard

where thousands of poor victims
of European militarism lay buried.

Of course, there was a speech.

The main words featured were
Fatherland, hero's death, honour etc

In reality,
that's all lies and deceit.

The only people who die purely for
the Fatherland are basic soldiers.

The higher ranks are paid,
so die for the money.

By March 1918,
Germany's ally Austria-Hungary
faced bankruptcy and famine.

Joseph Redlich, a member of the
Austrian parliament, was in despair.

The financial worries are crushing.

All in all,
the national debt is 75 billion!

And all around the country,
hunger is crushing the masses!

Has such hunger
ever been experienced

by 100 million people and more?

Emperor Franz Josef had died in 1916.

His successor, Kaiser Karl,
liberalised Austria

and had a French wife Zita
who disliked Germany.

In 1917, he opened secret
peace negotiations with France.

The Germans felt betrayed.

Then Austria wavered in the one area
Germany relied on her to hold firm -

the Italian Front.

In November 1917,
Austria-Hungary had beaten Italy
at the battle of Caporetto,

capturing rich farmland
and thousands of prisoners.

But the troops soon slaughtered the
animals and emptied the granaries.

By February 1918,
warnings reached Vienna

that Austro-Hungarian troops in
the Alps and on the Venetian plains
were near starvation.

Troops are no longer moved
by incessant empty phrases

that the hinterland is starving
or that one must hold out.

They must be adequately supplied
to be able to live and fight.

I beg again for vigorous measures

to overcome the present food crisis
as quickly as possible.

But Vienna couldn't feed herself,
let alone supply an army.

In April 1918,
Austrian General Landwehr,

in charge of food distribution,
took matters into his own hands.

Grain barges from Romania
passed through the city,

down the Danube to Germany.

Landwehr ordered his men
to hijack one.

Now Vienna had no bread.
Something had to be done.

The confiscation of the German
grain barge was the only way out.

This was simply street robbery,

albeit an official one
dictated by need.

It was a violent action I had to
take to save Vienna from starvation.

Ludendorff was so enraged he
considered declaring war on Austria.

Trouble was brewing with Germany's
other main ally, Ottoman Turkey.

Germany needed Turkey

to hold the line against the British
advance into the Middle East.

But after 600 years,
the Ottoman Empire was crumbling

and the British Empire
was licking its lips.

In March 1917,
the British captured Baghdad.

In December, they entered Jerusalem.

Losing both cities was
a severe blow to Ottoman authority
in the Middle East.

The words "Jerusalem has fallen"
spread like news of
a death in the family.

Jerusalem was in the hands of
the English.

How heroically
the last Turks fought.

We did not leave Jerusalem
like the sons of Israel,

we left it like Turks.

Through the Mount of Olives,
the evening shadows deepen and widen

like a grave sucking in
the whole of the Ottoman Empire.

We now had to prepare our tears
for Beirut, Damascus and Aleppo.

Now we thought only of
Anatolia and Istanbul.

Goodbye to the Empire

and all its dreams and fancies!

The British Army had it all.

They had build roads. Even pipes to
distribute water to the troops.

We did not have any clean
drinking water.

A flask full of clean water was sold
for a gold coin on the Turkish side.

In Turkey, as with her allies,

the situation on the home front
was so desperate,

it threatened her capacity
to wage war.

Turkey hadn't known peace
for seven years.

The First World War was just the
latest and most terrible
in a string of conflicts.

Most able-bodied men were
in the army, or wounded, or dead.

The land was impoverished,
the people near breaking point.

An old farmer with his
granddaughter

came to see me. Her father had died
in Gallipoli. The mother had, too.

He begged me, "Take this child and
save her from starvation and death."

I took the child.

Back in Istanbul, I discovered that
almost all of my officer friends

had taken in children like that,
from the villages of Anatolia.

General Mustafa Kemal,
Turkey's future leader,

warned this was a recipe
for national disaster.

There are no bonds between
the government and people.

What we call the people is composed
of women, disabled men and children.

For all, the government is the power

which insistently drives them
to hunger and death.

Every new step taken by
the government

increases the general hatred
the people feel for it.

But far from relaxing the pressure
on the Turkish people,

their war leader Enver Pasha
had even bigger demands to make.

While Britain swallowed up
the old Ottoman Empire in the south,

Enver looked east,

dreaming of a new Turkish Empire
extending into central Asia.

Our destiny forces us to move
from the south to the east

where our blood, roots, language
and, most important, our future lie.

Ludendorff also had plans,

which ignored the parlous state
of the Turkish army.

By May 1918, he had a crazy idea
for Enver to strike at the heart
of the British Empire.

Even if we are victorious in France,
it is still uncertain

we can force the English
to a peace acceptable to us

if we are not able to threaten
their most sensitive spot, India.

But Enver stuck to his own agenda,

including sending
his newly formed Army of Islam

to capture the oil-rich city of Baku.

Britain and Germany had Baku
in their sights.

The scramble for central Asia was on.

The speed and energy of the Turkish
advance took Europe by surprise.

They hadn't thought that Turkey
was able to carry out such deeds.

Ludendorff was furious to find,
yet again, an ally

trying to steal resources
from Germany.

Unless the Turkish advance on Baku
is halted at once,

and the troops are withdrawn
to their original positions,

I shall have propose
to His Majesty the Kaiser

the recall of German officers
in the Turkish high command.

While they were bickering,
Britain sneaked into Baku first.

Turkey's commanders, like Vecihi Bey,
grew bitter

at the cost of alliance with Germany.

We thought we were
sacrificing ourselves

for the common good of
Germans and Turks.

Oh, this shining silvered plan!

We have sacrificed
millions of our sons for a dream.

A woman is asking everyone she sees,

"Have you seen my Ahmed?" Which one?

Which of the
hundred thousand Ahmeds?

"He went this way," she said.

That way?
To the Suez Canal?

Sarikamis or Baghdad?

Was your Ahmed swallowed by ice,
sand or bitten by scorpions?

No, none of us has seen your Ahmed.

But he has seen hell.

If we could only explain to a mother
what we gained from it,

news to make her proud.

But we lost Ahmed in a gamble.

Regardless of the Central Powers'
mounting problems,

Ludendorff's push on the
Western Front was storming ahead.

We are going like hell, on and on,
day and night.

Our baggage is somewhere
in the rear

and nobody expects to see it again.

We're glad if ration carts and
field kitchens get to us at night.

Now we go forward,

past craters and trenches,

captured gun positions,

ration dumps and clothing depots.

Our cars now run on the best
English rubber tyres.

We smoke none but English cigarettes

and plaster our boots with lovely
English boot polish.

All unheard-of things which belonged
to a fairy land a long time ago.

The British 5th Army fell back
in disorder before the Germans.

Von Hutier's 18th Army
had advanced the furthest.

They encountered slight resistance

because the areas they reached were
of lesser strategic importance
to the Allies.

Instead of reining von Hutier in
and turning his army
against Allied strongholds,

Ludendorff rewarded him with medals
and reinforcements.

Crown Prince Rupprecht, commanding
four armies, foresaw trouble.

German high command
has changed direction,

making decisions according to
the size of territorial gain

rather than according to
operational goals.

The problem was Ludendorff.

He had an eye for
detailed battlefield tactics

but was blind
to the big strategic picture.

His armies' spectacular advance
had no vital objective.

Woe betide a staff officer who dared
ask what the operation was meant
to achieve.

I object to the word "operation".

We will punch a hole
into their line.

For the rest, we shall see.

Rudolf Binding, at the cutting edge
of the 2nd Army, realised

the speed of the German advance
across this undefended ground
was a problem in itself.

One cannot go on victoriously
without ammunition or reinforcements

Behind us lies the wilderness.

What annoys and upsets us
again and again

are exaggerations of the newspapers

and the telegrams to crowned heads
about the "decisive victory".

The German advance,
which looked so good on paper,

had dangerously outstripped
its supply lines.

Some units were so far ahead,
no-one was sure where they were.

Germans had neither horses to pull
supply carts, nor enough fodder.

The sun dries the poor earth
to dust.

I don't know what we will live off.
Already we have no oats.

If we have a bad harvest, we can
send horses to the sausage factory.

The deeper the Germans penetrated
Allied lines,

the more their own deprivations
were forced home to them.

Like a vision
from the Promised Land,

we are already
in the English rest areas,

a land flowing with milk and honey.

Our men can hardly be distinguished
from English soldiers.

Every one wear at least
a leather jerkin,

a waterproof
either short or long.

There is no doubt the army is
looting with some zest.

On 23rd March, Ludendorff suddenly
dreamed up a real objective -

the city of Amiens.

Amiens,
hub of the Allied railway system,

was a key junction
between northern France and Paris.

Amiens' loss would be a calamity
for the Allies,

as French General Ferdinand Foch
realised.

We must fight in front of Amiens.
We must fight where we are now.

As we have not been able
to stop the Germans on the Somme,

we must now not retire
a single inch.

The German 2nd Army
set out for Amiens,

but slowed and halted on the way.

Rudolf Binding was sent
to investigate.

Today, the advance of our infantry
stopped near Albert.

Nobody understood why.

Strange figures like soldiers were
making their way back out of town,

men with a bottle of wine under
their arm, another in their hand.

The advance was held up and there
was no means of getting it
going again for hours.

The German troops had found
French towns full of food and drink,

in quantities and qualities
they hadn't seen for years.

Whole divisions had entirely gorged
themselves on food and liquor

and failed to press
the vital attack.

The 2nd Army had lost
precious time and momentum.

Here, outside Amiens on 4th April,

a combined Australian and British
force stopped the Germans.

Ludendorff called off
the Michael Offensive.

His lack of a strategic plan
and the failure to supply his troops

had squandered
a priceless opportunity.

His officers were now
seriously concerned.

Ludendorff has totally lost
his nerve.

How will this war end?

England is still unbeaten.

The physical exhaustion
of the infantry was so great

that finally the men could hardly
fire their rifles.

They let themselves be slowly
wiped out, almost without caring.

Then Germany's greatest hero,
Baron von Richthofen, was shot down

behind British lines, on 21st April,
shortly after his 80th kill.

The Allies buried him
with full military honours.

A British plane then flew
over his headquarters,

dropping a photograph of
von Richthofen's grave.

The Baron's was
the most public German death

but he was one of over 230,000
casualties in just one month.

Germany was running out of men,

having failed to capitalise on
Russia's withdrawal from the war.

Germany had left 1.5 million troops
on the Eastern Front,

using vital resources -
food and transport.

Germany's leaders were
out of their depth,

fighting what Ludendorff would
later call a "total war",

but with administrative structures,

and thinking, of
a small 19th-century state.

Now Ludendorff's nightmare unfolded.

Germany had failed
to achieve decisive victory

before the Americans
poured into France.

A quarter of a million by March 1918.

But General Pershing gave the Germans
breathing space,

refusing to allow American troops to
serve under British or French command

America declared war
independently of the Allies.

She must face it as soon as possible
with a powerful army.

The morale of our soldiers depends
upon fighting under our own flag.

Pershing, obstinate and stupid,

desiring a "great,
self-contained American army".

Ridiculous!

A radical reorganisation
of the Allied command structure
changed the situation.

During the bleakest moments
of the Michael Offensive,

General Foch was
appointed the Western Front's
Allied supreme commander.

If Petain and Haig could take orders
from him, so could Pershing.

But the Americans went their own way
over how to fight.

Captain Christison gave
a training lecture

to newly arrived American troops.

I held forth,
adding personal experiences.

When I ended, an old colonel,
dressed like a sheriff, said,

"I'd like yous all to accord the
Scottish major a vote of thanks
for his very interesting lecture."

He shook his finger and went on,

"But, remember, the British have
tried these tactics for four years

"and they ain't done much damn
good!"

The Americans were raring to fight.

We all seemed to go crazy,

for we gave a yell like a bunch of
wild Indians

and started down the hill,
running and cursing

in the face of the machine gunfire.

Men were falling on every side

but we kept going,
yelling and firing as we went.

We threw hand grenades
as if they were baseballs.

A boy next to me threw
a hand grenade and hit a tree.

It bounced back and exploded.

We saw it in time to hit the trench
bottom and keep from getting killed.

By refusing to learn from the Allies,

the Americans fought in 1918
the way the Allies had done in 1914 -

charging across open ground,
without adequate artillery support.

German Intelligence
noted their inexperience
from interrogation of prisoners.

Attacks were carried out
with dash and recklessness.

Regarding military matters, however,

they show
not the slightest interest.

For example, most of them
have never seen a map.

They cannot describe villages and
roads through which they marched.

The Americans had a lot to learn,

but their presence gave the Allies
a huge morale boost.

They looked larger
than ordinary men.

Their tall, straight figures
were in vivid contrast

to our undersized
armies of pale recruits.

I pressed forward to watch the US
physically entering the war.

So godlike,

so magnificent,

so splendidly unimpaired
in comparison with

the tired, nerve-racked men
of the British Army.

So these were our deliverers
at last.

And, with the knowledge that
we were not, after all, defeated,

I found myself beginning to cry.

The failure of the Michael Offensive
further depressed German morale
at home.

Pacifism and defeatism seeped through
to the soldiers in the German rear.

Military transports,
block station windows and trains

have been smashed
by stone-throwing.

Troops on top of wagons cut through
telephone cables and signals.

In other trains,
brakes were tampered with,

making it impossible to stop in time
for signals and in stations.

Also, wagons have been uncoupled.

Colonel von Thaer became so worried
about the state of the German army

that he voiced his concerns
to Hindenburg.

His soothing voice said
"My dear Thaer,

"while it may be the case that
things recently have not
gone well for you,

"remember, you are talking about
a front of 12 miles."

I daily receive reports
from the entire front.

Morale is splendid.

According to our reports,
enemy morale is rather poor.

But morale in Hindenburg's
own headquarters was sliding

and the root cause was Ludendorff.

By July 1918, his nerves were shot.

He'd only had three days off
in four years.

His beloved stepson had been killed
in the Michael Offensive.

He became morbidly attached
to the boy's body,

refusing to send it back
to his wife in Berlin.

If I didn't send you Pieckchen,
then that was pure selfishness.

I wanted to keep him.

I go to him often.

It's a lovely feeling
to have him here.

Ludendorff's inner circle feared
for his mental health.

There is a serious question

about Ludendorff's nervousness
and his incoherence.

He is working himself to death.

The situation is really serious.

It looks as if he has lost all hope.

Throughout June, the Germans grew
weaker and the Allies stronger.

On 15th July,

Ludendorff launched the last German
offensive of the First World War.

I have lived through the most
disheartening day of the whole war.

The French lured us
across rusty snakes of barbed wire.

We only managed to advance about
3 kilometres. Everything went wrong.

Then the French struck back
at the Marne.

Their counteroffensive battered
the exhausted German army.

It looks as though
we are being thrown against

the largest enemy counteroffensive
of all time.

And it was supposed to be
our offensive!

We could never have dreamed
that this would happen - ever.

Germany had suffered
nearly a million casualties

since the glory days of March.

Her great gamble had failed, and the
tables were turning against her.

In the next episode
of The First World War...

The strange,
sudden ending of the war,

the bitter legacy of Versailles

and the search for meaning
in the terrible losses.