All language subtitles for The.First.World.War.01of10.To.Arms.1914.Xvid.AC3.MVGroup

Kosutnjak Park,
outside the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

In May 1914, a Bosnian student,
Gavrilo Princip,

came here with a Browning pistol
for some target practice.

Princip was 19 years old.

According to his instructor,
he was not a very good shot.

Other students were much more confident.

Whenever Princip missed the target,
people standing around would laugh at him.

That would drive him to tears.

Out of sight in the forest,
he had a chance to get his eye in, shooting at trees.

His ultimate goal was far more ambitious.

I am an adherent of the radical anarchist idea,

which aims at destroying the present system
through terrorism.

In 1914, Princip's wish was granted.

The First World War began almost by accident.

It ended just as strangely.

In between, it was more destructive
than any war had ever been.

More British, French and Italian soldiers died
in the First World War than died in the Second.

It was the first genuinely global conflict,
fought not just on the fields of France and Flanders,

but up mountains, across deserts,
at sea and in the air.

The First World War shaped the 20th century.

It sparked the Russian Revolution.

It launched America as a world power.

The fault lines from its failed peace settlement

led the world to a second terrible war
barely 20 years later,

then to the Cold War.

But the ideas the men of 1914 fought for
still shape our world today:

nationalism and democracy, the rule of international law,
and the rights of nations.

Now, after the collapse of Communism,

the European map resembles the one redrawn
by the First World War.

We live with its unresolved,
bitter consequences:

in the Middle East and the Balkans.

And it was in the Balkans that it all began,
nearly a hundred years ago.

At the start of the 20th century,
as at its close,

the Balkans were the most unstable part of Europe.

Here, three great empires
fought for power and influence:

the Austro-Hungarian,
the Russian and the Ottoman.

For hundreds of years,
the Ottoman Turks had the upper hand.

Serbia, Bosnia, Albania,
were under their control.

They built over 80 mosques in Serbian Belgrade.

But by the 1900s, only this one was left.

Serbia had thrown the Turks out
and set herself up as an independent Slav kingdom.

But right on Serbia's border
was an even greater challenge to Slav nationalism:

the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The old Turks of the south have gone.

But new enemies come from the north,

more fearsome and dangerous than the old.

They want to take our freedom
and our language from us and crush us.

Gavrilo Princip was born in a poor,
mountainous part of Bosnia.

His house was destroyed
in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

His initials, carved in 1909,
are one of the few signs he ever lived here.

The year before,

control of Bosnia had been wrested
from the Turks by the Austro-Hungarians,

the enemy Princip wanted to destroy.

His particular target was the heir
to the Austro-Hungarian throne,

Franz Ferdinand,
member of the ruling family, the Hapsburgs.

That extraordinary empire known
as the Austrian-Hungarian Dual Monarchy,

is less an empire or a kingdom or a state,

than the personal property of the Hapsburgs,

whose hereditary talent for the acquisition of land
is recorded on the map of Europe today.

The Empire was ruled by Franz Ferdinand's uncle,
Franz Joseph.

He sat on two thrones,
as Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary.

By 1914, he'd been in charge for 66 years.

He'd spent them trying to resist change of any kind.

Hardly ever seen out of military uniform,
he hated the idea of political reform.

As he told US President Theodore Roosevelt,

You see in me the last European monarch
of the old school.

Austria-Hungary was a key part of European security,

a multi-national empire
keeping the peace on the borders of the West.

The capital, Vienna, was one
of the great cosmopolitan centres of Europe.

This was the Empire that produced
Freud and Mahler, Schiele, Kafka and Strauss.

It contained at least ten different nationalities.

Not just Austrians and Hungarians,
but Czechs, Slovaks,

Poles, Romanians, Italians, Croats and Bosnians.

A guide was prepared by the British Foreign Office,

to help work out who was who.

Teutons anti-Slav, vigorous and unpleasant...

manly and patriotic, very tall big noses.

Slovaks, ignorant but artistic.

Ruthenes, savage and ignorant but musical.

Czechs, energetic, forceful, intensely national.

But it was also an empire in a state of constant crisis.

Pols all for Polish independence.

Bosnian Serbs Pro-Yugoslav.

Italians anti-Austrian.

In all the Empire,
only the Hungarians and Austrians had any real power,

and the Hungarians refused to share it with the rest.

For countries like Serbia,
Austria-Hungary was the prison of nations,

a repressive, undemocratic state,
that ground small peoples under its heel.

In 1905, there were
nationalist demonstrations in Vienna.

In 1912, there was rioting in Budapest.

By 1914, there had been ethnic unrest
in nearly every part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Local parliaments were suspended,
troops brought in to restore order.

Austria-Hungary's domestic problems
gave opportunities to her enemies.

Serbia wanted the break-up of the Empire.

She welcomed national unrest,
particularly in Croatia and Bosnia.

Backed by Slav Russia, Serbia saw herself
as the only independent hope

for Slavs living under foreign rule in the Balkans.

She wanted to unite them
into a single South Slav state: Yugoslavia.

Dragutin Dimitrijevic
was an officer in the Serbian Army.

He opposed any kind of friendship with Austria.

The blind surrender to Austria's embrace

was a most shameful betrayal of Serbian traditions.

I realised that Serbia must in full measure
become the leader, not only of Serbs,

but of Yugoslavia.

Dimitrijevic believed killing kings
could bring political change.

It had worked for him in the past.

In 1903 he led a palace revolution,
killing the old King of Serbia,

who was too close to Austria for the army's liking,

and installing a new one.

The crowds expressed enormous joy.

They stuck flowers and leaves in their caps.

Windows were decorated with banners,
flowers garlands.

Belgrade was celebrating!

The rest of the world was horrified
at Serbia's bloody coup.

Serbia was treated like a rogue state:

"a nest of revolutionaries",
one Foreign Minister complained.

Only two countries sent ambassadors
to King Peter's coronation:

Russia, Serbia's greatest ally,

and Austria, her greatest enemy.

Dimitrijevic was also one
of the founding members of the Black Hand,

a secret military society that used terrorism
and assassination to try and establish Yugoslavia.

He is said to have sent men to murder Austro-Hungarian
military leaders and cabinet ministers.

He allegedly tried to kill Emperor Franz Joseph.

One saw him nowhere,
yet one knew that he was doing everything.

By the spring of 1914,

Gavrilo Princip was also in Belgrade,
talking revolution with his friends.

Then the Young Bosnians heard
that Archduke Franz Ferdinand would visit Sarajevo in June.

Here was their chance to match deeds to words.

Luckily for them, their plans reached the ears
of Dimitrijevic and the Black Hand.

Dimitrijevic worked in the
Kalemegdan Fortress in Belgrade,

as Chief of Serbian Military Intelligence.

In the spring of 1914, Major Voja Tankosic,
also in the Black Hand,

walked into his office with a question.

I've got some Bosnian youths pestering me.

These kids want to pull off
some "great deed" at any cost.

They've heard that Franz Ferdinand
is coming to Bosnia

and have begged me to let them go there.

What do you say?
I have told them they cannot go,

but they give me no peace.

Franz Ferdinand was going to Bosnia

to observe the Austro-Hungarian Army's manoeuvres
in the hills outside Sarajevo.

As intelligence chief, Dimitrijevic feared
these manoeuvres were a smokescreen,

that what Franz Ferdinand really planned
was an invasion of Serbia.

As leader of the Black Hand,
he believed anything that destabilised Austria-Hungary

was good for his beloved Serbia.

Princip's plan to murder Franz Ferdinand
suited him perfectly.

"Fine", he said. "Let him go."

Unlike Gavrilo Princip,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was an excellent shot.

One of his castles, Konopischt,
in what is now the Czech Republic,

is full of the evidence.

By the age of 50, he'd shot 5.000 stags,

as well as 200.000 other animals,

all carefully numbered.

Anyone who diturbed the
Archduke's peace at Konopicht,

by trespassing on his land
as unsuspecting trippers sometimes did on Sundays,

had to reckon with being shouted at
by an irascible and almost apoplectic proprietor,

who threatened to shoot anyone who dared set foot
in his grounds a second time.

By 1914, Franz Ferdinand was Emperor-in-waiting.

Everyone knew it couldn't be long
before his uncle died.

Even the official portrait was ready,

Franz Ferdinand with the stars and sash
only the Emperor could wear.

He had no time for the etiquette and convention
that hemmed in the Vienna court.

He defied his uncle by marrying Sophie Chotek,
who was not of royal blood.

The most intelligent thing
I've ever done in my life

has been the marriage to my Soph.

She is everything to me,
my wife, my adviser,

my doctor, my guardian angel.

In a word, my entire happiness.

Franz Ferdinand also had radical ideas
for political reform.

He recognised that the less power
national minorities had within the Empire,

the more they'd look to other countries for help.

The old system allowed ethnic Germans and Hungarians
to dominate the government.

It was a system that couldn't last.

I can't help being surprised
that there is any loyalty

left among the nationalities
after their treatment for so many years past.

I must have them with me.
This is the only salvation for the future.

In 1914, the German Emperor came to stay
with Franz Ferdinand at Konopischt.

The Kaiser had a simple solution
for dealing with troublesome national minorities.

The Slavs are born not to rule but to obey.

This must be brought home to them.

And if they imagine they can look to Belgrade
for their salvation,

they must be cured of this belief.

But Franz Ferdinand had a better idea.

He thought political reform was the best way
to keep the Austrian Empire on its feet,

and protect his own future as Emperor.

He had this map drawn up,

showing how the Hapsburg Empire could become
the United States of Great Austria.

Above all, Franz Ferdinand
wanted to avoid war in the Balkans.

One night, he made a toast after dinner.

To peace!

What would we get out of war with Serbia?

We'd lose the lives of young men
and we'd spend money better used elewhere.

And what would we gain for heaven's sake?

A few plum trees, some pastures full of goat droppings
and a bunch of rebellious killers.

Gavrilo Princip crossed the border from Serbia
into Austria-Hungary here at the Drina river.

He paddled out to Isakovic Island,

where there was a Serbian guard post.

The soldiers helped him wade ashore into Bosnia.

From here, he made his way to Sarajevo,
where he met up with six others in on the plot.

The Serbian Major Tankosic
had supplied them with four pistols, six bombs,

and suicide pills in case of capture.

They were already in Sarajevo

when Franz Ferdinand arrived
outside the capital on the 25th of June.

They planned to attack him three days later,

as he drove from the railway station
to the Town Hall.

One would be stationed
at the first bridge on this road.

Princip and the others
would cover the rest of the route.

Franz Ferdinand chose the date of his visit badly.

Sarajevo was decked in flags for the occasion.

But the 28th of June was Serbian National Day,

a natural focus for hatred of the Hapsburgs,

as the Serbian Ambassador to Vienna warned.

This will cause much discontent.

Some young Serb might put a live round
rather than a blank in his gun and fire it.

Therefore it might be good
if Archduke Franz Ferdinand were not to go to Sarajevo.

But the Austrians laughed off the Ambassador's fears.

On the morning of the 28th of June,
Franz Ferdinand and Sophie arrived by train in Sarajevo.

Despite the warnings, security was light.

No soldiers lined the streets,
just a handful of policemen.

The royal car was a Gräf & Stift tourer.

At Franz Ferdinand's request,
it travelled with the top down, very slowly,

so the crowds could see him,
and he could see the sights.

As the procession passed the first bridge,
the conspirator there threw his bomb.

Sitting opposite the royal couple
was Oskar Potiorek.

The explosion came immediately
after the Archduchess's cry to "drive on quickly!"

I was sure no damage had been done to our car,

and the Archduke commented very calmly:

"I've always thought
something like this might happen."

The bomb had bounced off the car,

exploding behind it
and wounding two officers and some onlookers.

Franz Ferdinand stopped to ask after the casualties,
before hurrying on to the Town Hall.

There the Mayor of Sarajevo
began his official welcome speech.

The Archduke interrupted.

Lord Mayor,
what is the good of your speeches?

I come to Sarajevo on a friendly visit
and someone throws a bomb at me.

This is outrageous!

So far, the Young Bosnians' plans
had gone badly wrong.

Franz Ferdinand was alive.

Official security was now on high alert.

Gavrilo Princip turned to go home,

stopping on the corner of Franz Joseph Street
to buy a sandwich.

Then his luck changed.

Franz Ferdinand had left the Town Hall.

He should have been driven straight along the river,

travelling too fast
to give any other assassins a chance.

But his driver took a wrong turn,
at the corner of Franz Joseph Street.

As the royal car
tried to reverse onto the main road,

Princip came face-to-face with his target.

At that moment I heard
the crack of a pistol shot,

followed swiftly by another,
and saw in the same split second

a man standing right in front of me
being thrown to the ground by the people around him,

and the shining sabre
of a security guard descending on him.

A thin stream of blood spurted
from His Highness's mouth onto my right cheek.

The Duchess cried out,
"In heaven's name what has happened to you?"

Then she slid off the seat
and lay on the floor of the car.

I thought she had simply fainted.

Then I heard His Imperial Highness say,

"Sopherl, Sopherl don't die!
Stay alive for the children!"

I asked him if he was in great pain.

He answered me quite distinctly,
"It's nothing".

Franz Ferdinand and Sophie died
on the way to hospital.

The people of Sarajevo didn't know

that a clutch of Serbian army officers
had secretly sponsored the assassination.

But they made the same leap the world did:

that Serbia had as good
as pulled the trigger herself.

The pro-Austrian element in the crowd went wild.

The excitement of the moment turned into fury
against everyone and everything Serbian.

Serbian shops, school and churches
were smashed and looted,

the streets choked with furniture,
clothes, bicycles, books,

even icons and crosses twisted and befouled,
lying in heaps in the gutters.

Over 200 Serbs were arrested in Sarajevo alone.

Local officials hanged some in the city prison.

Many more died in pogroms
across Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The funeral of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie
was held in Vienna on the 4th of July.

Oskar Potiorek had already written
to the Foreign Ministry,

calling for Austria-Hungary
to take revenge against Serbia.

We must take the first opportunity
for a destructive blow against Serbia,

to give the Monarchy a few decades
of calm internal development.

Serbia must learn to fear us again.

Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff
Conrad von Hötzendorf agreed.

This is not the crime of a single fanatic.

Assassination represents
Serbia's declaration of war on Austria-Hungary.

If we miss this occasion, the Monarchy will be exposed
to new explosions of ethnic unrest.

Austria-Hungary must wage war
for political reasons.

In life, the Crown Prince had been a champion
of peaceful co-existence with Serbia.

In death he was becoming a cause for war.

The murder of Franz Ferdinand
did not immediately set Europe alight.

International tensions in early July remained low.

But behind the scenes in Vienna,
Austria-Hungary's leaders were planning

how to take revenge on Serbia,
without getting stamped on by Serbia's powerful friends.

Even before the assassination,
Army Chief of Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf

had pressed for war against Serbia
no fewer than 20 times.

Now he made his case again.

I expressed to His Majesty my opinion
that war with Serbia was unavoidable.

"That is entirely correct", said His Majesty.

"But how are you going to wage war if everyone,
in particular Russia, is going to attack us?"

"We have backing from Germany", I replied.

His Majesty gave me a searching look and said,
"Can you be certain of that?"

This was the moment when what could have been
just another war in the Balkans,

began to turn into the First World War.

Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph
now asked the German Kaiser for support.

On the 6th of July, he got just the answer he wanted.

The German Government is of the opinion
that we must decide what is to be done.

Whatever we decide, we may always be certain
that we will find Germany at our side,

a faithful ally and friend of our monarchy.

Germany's crucial decision to back Austria
was made with no care for the consequences.

Neither the Kaiser nor his senior political
and military leaders took any steps to find out

what Austria-Hungary had in mind.

It was an extraordinary oversight...

because nothing in the Balkans happened in isolation.

Europe was divided into two camps.

On one side were Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.

On the other were France and Russia.

War with one could mean war with the others.

No-one knew how Russia would respond
if one of the leading Balkan countries was attacked.

She might go to war with Austria to protect Serbia.

Then Germany would have to fight to protect Austria.

The Germans thought the Russians might stay out of it.

The German Ambassador in St. Petersburg insisted

Russia couldn't risk war
for fear of internal revolution.

The German Foreign Minister decided
Austria would quietly settle with Serbia.

The German Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg,
was almost as confident.

The crime of Sarajevo was reprehensible,

but politically it would have the positive result

of making Russia thoroughly disgusted with the Serbs.

It was Germany's confident support
that pushed Austria forward.

But far from plunging the world into war
in 1914 out of aggression,

Germany was just nudging it closer,
out of incompetence and wishful thinking.

The Kaiser was so sure no war was brewing
that he went on holiday.

In Sarajevo, the trial of Gavrilo Princip was underway.

The court heard plenty of evidence to prove
that Serbian army officers had helped him,

and with Germany's unconditional support,
that was enough for Austria.

She sentenced Princip to 20 years in jail,

where he died in 1918.

She sent Serbia an ultimatum.

This document was Austria's excuse for war.

It was filled with demands so extreme and insulting
that Serbia could never accept them.

But just in case they did,
the Austrian Ambassador in Belgrade

was ordered to reject any reply as unacceptable.

He delivered the ultimatum at 6 p.m. on the 23th July 1914.

Slavka Mihajlovic was a Belgrade doctor.

The news of the ultimatum spread quickly,

and soon there was a real alert.

Streets and bars were crowded with anxious people.

Everybody wondered what answer
our Government would give,

whether a new war would be avoided.

Austria's ultimatum caught the world's diplomats napping.

The French Government,
the French press and public opinion,

have been inconceivably surprised.

Paris is almost dead.

All the ambassadors but one are out of town.

The Italian Ambassador is in Ireland.

The Kaiser was on his yacht in Norway
when the text of the Austrian ultimatum arrived.

The Kaiser arrived on deck
as usual after breakfast

and said to me,
I was still holing the wirelss message,

"That's a pretty strong note for once in a while."

"It certainly is", I replied,
"but it means war."

Whereupon the Kaiser observed
that Serbia would never risk a war.

She might not have risked it on her own.

But on the 24th of July, the Serbian Regent,
Prince Alexander, telegrammed Russia for help.

In St. Petersburg, the Russian Foreign Minister
spoke frankly to the British Ambassador.

Austria would not have acted so aggressively
without the consent of Germany.

I hoped the Britih Government would declare itself
on the side of France and Russia without delay.

Russia was convinced that Germany was warmongering.

On the 26th of July, she called up her reserves.

This was the second key stage of the crisis,

as Britain's Foreign Secretary, Edward Grey,
warned on the 28th.

From the moment the dispute ceases
to be one between Austria-Hungary and Serbia,

and becomes one in which
another Great Power is involved,

it cannot but end in the greatest catastrophe
that has ever befallen the continent of Europe.

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia that same day.

The first shots of the war were fired from here,

the Austrian fortress of Zemun,
just across the river from Belgrade.

In the dead of night, Voja Tankosic had the Black Hand
blow the only railway bridge.

Windows shattered to smithereens
and broken glass covered the floor.

Patients started screaming.

Then there was another explosion and another one.

So it was true.

The war had begun.

How well our old city deserved the name
the Turks had given her,

the House of Wars.

Shells fired from all sides
were cris-crossing above her.

The Austrians had peculiar weapons,

the so-called "monitors",

little boats armed with heavy guns,
circling Belgrade like rabid dogs

and firing from every direction.

It was still only a war
between Austria-Hungary and Serbia...

and on the 29th of July,
as the shells fell on Belgrade,

there was a final attempt to keep it that way.

A series of last-minute telegrams
flashed across Europe.

Tsar to Kaiser. Cousin to cousin.

Dear Willy, An ignoble war
has been declared on a weak country.

The indignation in Russia is enormous.

Dear Nicky, I am exerting my utmost influence
on the Austrians.

I confidently hope you will help me...

Dear Willy,
My troops shall not take any provocative action.

But by now, the crisis was beyond the control
of monarchs or politicians.

It was in the hands of the military.

From the moment Russia mobilised her army,

German generals knew their own clock was ticking.

The alliance between France and Russia
meant that Germany faced a war on two fronts.

Her only hope was to deal with France in the west,

before the main Russian armies
could invade from the east.

That left no time to wait and see.

For Germany, Russian mobilisation meant war.

Germany hadn't looked for a fight.

Her generals knew a European war
would be long and devastating, even for the victors.

But if it was going to happen, they thought,
better sooner than later.

According to all competent observation,

Russia will be prepared to fight in a few years.

Then she will crush us
by the number of her soldiers.

Then she will have built her Baltic Sea Fleet
and strategic railways.

Our side meanwhile
will have grown steadily weaker.

On the 1st of August,
Germany declared war on Russia.

Two days later,
she declared war on Russia's ally, France.

Across Europe,
ten million men headed off to fight.

For all the bands and flag-waving,
many went unwillingly to war.

Where are we off to?
France? Belgium? Or the East?

At the station people waved goodbye,
some with handkerchiefs.

I thought of my wife and child left alone at home.

In fact, it wasn't so much a thought
as a fearful shadow flitting over my soul.

God! How long is this town?

My bayonet's digging in,
my collar's strangling me,

but when I look up I see a pretty girl.

She was so full of admiration,
so moved by it all,

that I realise we've got
to look handsome and walk tall.

Off we march to the sound of shrill brass,
although where we are going

you die, you're defaced,
hacked up, torn apart.

All down the line my comrades
straighten up at the sight of her.

There is great excitement among my comrades.

The bachelors are calm,
they're even joking about it.

Family men are depressed.

Some are saying we'll get nothing from this war.
We'll get beaten by the Germans.

What's in it for us peasant-soldiers?

Why have we got to fight for some offended Serbs?

The leaders had little better idea
why they were fighting than the men.

They had no lists of war aims.

Germany and Austria, Serbia, Russia and France

were all convinced they were fighting a defensive war,

forced on them by someone else.

The only great power in Europe
still on the sidelines was Britain.

On the 2nd of August 1914,
Britain was still at peace.

But only just.

We've been in a state of great excitement

as the reservists are being called up.

All the railways are guarded.

Everything points to the great war
so long expected being upon us.

But Britain was the only Great Power
who could not claim she was the victim of aggression.

Nobody had attacked her,
so why should she fight?

It wasn't really to defend
the rights of small nations,

at least, not Serbia,
according to the Manchester Guardian.

If it were physically possible for Serbia
to be towed out to sea and sunk there,

the air of Europe would at once seem cleaner.

Nor was Britain bound by treaty obligations,

as the Foreign Secretary,
Edward Grey, assured Parliament.

We are not parties to the Franco-Russian alliance.

We do not even know the terms of the alliance.

But in private, Grey and other leaders
knew that Britain had to fight.

If Britain stayed neutral,
the war would still threaten the country's vast empire,

its global trade and security.

And Britain needed to stay on friendly terms
with France and Russia.

Even in peacetime, she was not powerful enough
to defend her empire against everyone.

In Africa and India,

the safety of Britain's colonies
depended on French and Russian goodwill.

In 1914, Britain feared her friends
just as much as her enemies.

If we fail Russia now,

we cannot hope to maintain
that friendly co-operation with her in Asia,

that is of such vital importance to us.

Above all, Britain could never afford to have Europe
dominated by a triumphant Germany.

If Germany overran the Channel ports,
Britain's control of the seas would be under threat.

Prime Minister Herbert Asquith took a pragmatic view.

It is quite against Britih interests
that France should be wiped out.

At 11 p.m. on the 4th of August,
Britain declared war on Germany.

It was like awaiting the signal for the pulling of a leaver
which would hurl millions to their doom.

The deep notes of Big Ben rang out into the night,

the first strokes in Britain's most fateful hour
since she arose out of the deep.

Every face was suddenly contracted
into a painful intensity.

It's horrible to think of all the suffering
which may follow our mobiliation.

I suppose the less one thinks of it, the better.

We never talk of death
and very selom think much about it.

It's when everyone is asleep and you are awake,

that sometimes you look into the future and wonder.

The British Government had a War Book,
listing all that had to be done in an emergency.

The country's leaders knew war
would be a long and painful struggle,

a slow, grinding process of blockade,
of starving the enemy out.

But most civilians had no idea
what they were getting into.

Across Europe, there was a run on the banks.

The war couldn't last longer than a year,

the French Finance Minister
told a British general,

because the money to pay for it would run out.

Most people expected Britain,

with the largest navy in the world,
to fight a sea war.

The Foreign Secretary reassured the nation.

For us with a powerful fleet,

which we believe able to protect our commerce,
to protect our shores and to protect our interests,

if we are engaged in war,

we shall suffer but little more
than we shall suffer if we stand aside.

Bert Fielder was a sergeant in the Royal Marines.

He reassured his wife.

My dear Nell, I don 't think this war is going to be
half as bad as people expect it to be.

You see, it's not a hard job for England,
so there is no need to worry yourself.

As long as I can keep you informed as to where I am,
it'll all be all right.

But the weapons with which the world
went to war were so new

that few had ever been fired in anger.

Countries were armed with battleships and submarines
less than ten years old.

Nobody really knew how to use them.

All the European powers had been stockpiling
new artillery, machine guns, explosive shells.

But none had fought a major war in Europe
for over 40 years.

The crisis had begun in the Balkans,

and as the Austrians faced up to the Serbs,

the First World War started here
as it would go on everywhere else.

A war in which old scores would be settled
and the rule book thrown away.

The war is taking us
into a country inhabited by a population

inspired with fanatical hatred towards ourselves.

An attitude of extreme severity,

extreme harshness and extreme distrust
is to be observed towards everybody.

In some sectors,
Serbian civilians did fight a guerrilla war,

not in uniform, not in the regular army.

It was hard for the Austrians to tell
who was a real enemy, who was not.

But their reprisals
against the Serbian people were vicious.

This was a war of nationalities and races.

Not just against an enemy army,
but against whole peoples.

In the first month of the war,
4.000 civilians in western Serbia were killed or disappeared.

They burnt houses down,
looted, raped, killed.

Seventeen people, all women, girls,
children tied with rope,

dead in a ditch by the road.

All of them slaughtered.

At 9:00 a.m. I went to Lešnica
to get some supplies for the battery.

In the town you could see the atrocities
left behind by the enemy.

Ten people, some children among them,
had been hanged near the church.

About a hundred people their throats cut
at the railway station.

A terrible sight to cast your eyes on.

At the Serbian town of Prnjavor,
this memorial commemorates those who died.

The Serbian Government commissioned a report
into the massacres,

by a Swiss doctor, Rudolf Rice.

The massacres of the civil population
were systematically organised

by the command of the invading army.

It's upon the command
that all responsibility must rest,

and also the disgrace with which this army
has covered itself for all time.

Austria-Hungary was far less ruthless
when it came to fighting the Serbian Army.

That too set a pattern for the war,
a foretaste of the military weakness

which would dog
Austria-Hungary's partnership with Germany.

This was a war in which events on one front
could have a critical effect on another.

Germany was relying on her ally Austria-Hungary
to hold the Eastern Front.

With Russia massing on her borders,

Germany was horrified to learn Austria
had concentrated her reserves not against Russia

but down in the Balkans, to deal with Serbia.

Meanwhile, the main Serbian army
had marched up from the south of the country,

gathering numbers as it went.

On the 12th of August, it finally met the Austrians,
at Cer Mountain.

The Serbs had taken up
strong defensive positions along the mountain range,

and waited for the Austrians to walk into the trap.

The Serbs surrounded us.

The Serbian artillery had the range perfectly.

Unluckily,
so we were told by senior officers,

we had arrived
at the Serbian artillery practice area.

Laughable!

The Serbs easily beat off
the Austro-Hungarian attack.

We could see the enemy retreating along the river.

Their ammunition train
left all their carts in the valley and ran away,

as soon as they were hit by our artillery.

A beaten army, no an uncontrolled mob
ran towards the border in senseless panic.

Drivers whipped their horses,
officers and soldiers shoved and squeezed through,

between the columns of wagons.

Austro-Hungarian prisoners,
captured in the first Allied victory of the war.

Austria had thought Serbia would be a pushover,

swift revenge for the murder of Franz Ferdinand.

But Serbia had scattered the Austrian Army.

The victories of 1914 cost Serbia 130.000 men.

"They did not die in vain",
reads the inscription on this memorial to Serbia's dead.

Every nation would learn that nothing in this war
would be easy, quick or clean.

On the Western Front,
a French ambulance driver wrote to his son.

Do you ever think of your daddy,
walking day and night over ploughed fields,

and getting very used to shells
exploding all over the place?

I'd really like to hear from you.

How's school?

Don't be too quick
to learn the geography of Europe,

I think it's all about to change.

In the next episode of The First World War:

German armies roll into Belgium and France,
leaving a trail of atrocities.

And France, aided by Britain, fights for her life.