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00:00A November morning in the churned battlefields of Flanders and northern France.
00:14Four British platoons are making their way through the mud.
00:21Each stops at a mass grave and digs up one body.
00:30At midnight, a British general is blindfolded.
00:49Three days later, on the 11th of November 1920, the chosen coffin was carried in full military procession through the streets of London.
01:15In a solemn ceremony, the body was then buried deep in the sand below Westminster Abbey.
01:30The tomb of the unknown warrior is a supremely democratic memorial.
01:43Millions of bereaved people could half believe that the person buried here was their own father, husband, son, brother or friend.
01:55At the time, some people thought it was too democratic, almost a bit common.
02:02But the so-called Great War touched people in these islands in a way that no conflict really since the brutal civil wars of the 17th century had done.
02:12First, of course, the millions who actually fought, but also the millions at home who felt the full force of modern warfare for the first time.
02:24Now, we know that the war to end all wars didn't, but it tore up Europe and it changed the great story of the British people forever.
02:46Princess
03:042
03:052
03:092
03:133
03:14Sunday, the 23rd of August, 1914, was a nerve-wracking day for Britain.
03:36In Belgium, British troops had just faced the Germans in battle for the first time.
03:44But the Prime Minister was distracted, as he often was.
03:51Henry Herbert Asquith was enjoying a weekend in the country, here at Lim Castle on the Kent coast.
03:58The 61-year-old Premier was busy writing, not to his generals, but to a 27-year-old woman called Venetia Stanley.
04:07Asquith wrote to Venetia Stanley most days, sometimes several times a day, and often right in the middle of crucial cabinet meetings.
04:18With his lengthy love letters and his leisurely country-house weekends, Asquith himself was beginning to look as dated as the posh politics of Edwardian Britain.
04:31After one of those weekends, a hostess asked him,
04:34Mr Asquith, would you take an interest in the war?
04:39Asquith thought she was joking, but soon it was a question on many people's lips.
04:44Two men in Asquith's cabinet were taking a ferocious interest in the war.
04:52The Chancellor, David Lloyd George, was already speaking like the war leader, Asquith, plainly wasn't.
05:01While along at the Admiralty, Winston Churchill was hyperactively trying to think of ways to win the war at sea.
05:08But it was the Secretary of State for war, the imperial war hero, Lord Horatio Kitchener, who really understood what Britain was in for.
05:21It was clear to Kitchener that Britain's professional army, a quarter of a million men compared to Germany's four and a half million, was nothing like big enough to win the war.
05:33And so he set about creating a citizen's army.
05:37And he was remarkably successful.
05:39Your country needs you.
05:41And his accusing finger had a dramatic effect.
05:46By September 1914, three quarters of a million men had signed up.
05:53Kitchener's army would go on to become the biggest volunteer army raised by any country in history.
06:01Many men would do anything to fight.
06:15Boys lied about their age.
06:19Men with health problems did their best to hide them.
06:22Recruiting officers were paid a shilling for every new recruit, so they cheerfully played along.
06:31For tens of thousands of young men, brought up on stories of British heroism, this was the great adventure.
06:43In the words of the future Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan,
06:47our major anxiety was by hook or by crook, not to miss it.
06:53Little did they know what it would mean.
06:57Within three months, the war on the Western Front had frozen into deadlock.
07:21The German advance through Belgium and France had been halted.
07:25Both sides had dug in.
07:30The trenches stretched nearly 500 miles from Ostend in the north all the way to the Swiss border.
07:39The meat grinder war had begun.
07:42The shock of war was also hitting hard at home.
07:57At eight o'clock in the morning of the 16th of December, 1914,
08:03eight German warships appeared off the northeast coast of England.
08:07They turned their guns on Scarborough, Whitby and Hartlepool.
08:12One hundred and twenty-seven men, women and children were killed.
08:23These attacks came as a terrible shock.
08:31The first time civilians had been killed by enemy fire on British soil since the 17th century.
08:40Utter humiliation for the royal navy and, above all, further evidence of the beastliness of the enemy.
08:51Atrocity stories were spreading around the country like wildfire.
08:56Women and children murdered in Belgium.
08:59Wounded soldiers bayoneted and, of course, by April 1915, the world's first use of poison gas on the Western Front.
09:11Well, war is war, but some of the German tactics did make it easy to hate the Hun.
09:32Then, on the 7th of May, 1915, the German navy torpedoed the Lusitania off the coast of Ireland.
09:41She was carrying British and American civilians from New York to Liverpool.
09:51Over 1,200 people were killed, 94 of them children, including 31 babies.
10:02When news of the sinking of the Lusitania arrived in Liverpool,
10:07a mob formed here at the docks and marched through the town,
10:10and gathering people as it went.
10:12In Edwardian Britain, German migrants had been quite common,
10:18running pastry shops and restaurants and butchers,
10:21working as musicians or engineers.
10:25Now, Germans began to be attacked,
10:28their homes and businesses smashed, looted and burned out.
10:33The right-wing journalist Horatio Bottomley called for a vendetta against every German in Britain,
10:41whether naturalised or not,
10:43because he said,
10:44you cannot naturalise an unnatural beast,
10:48a human abortion,
10:50a hellish freak,
10:52but you can exterminate it.
10:54If there was hysteria in the country,
11:00there was crack-up at the top, too.
11:06On the 15th of May, 1915,
11:10Lord Jackie Fisher,
11:12Britain's first sea lord
11:13and one of the most brilliant and charismatic men of the age,
11:17walked out of the admiralty buildings
11:19and vanished.
11:22The man in charge of Britain's awesome battle fleets
11:25had disappeared.
11:31Lord Fisher had been appointed first sea lord
11:34by Winston Churchill in October 1914.
11:38They had a passionate, often rocky, relationship,
11:41but they agreed on one thing.
11:43They were both convinced of the need to end the deadlock on the Western Front.
11:51Churchill asked Asquith,
11:53are there not other alternatives to sending our armies to chew barbed wire in Flanders?
12:00He favoured an attack on Europe's southeastern coast
12:04to knock the Ottoman Turks, who were allies of the Germans, out of the war.
12:08Fisher thought that was insane.
12:11He dreamed instead of a grand royal naval coup,
12:15an invasion of Germany's northern coast
12:18and then straight to Berlin.
12:21Brilliant or bonkers?
12:23Well, we'll never know,
12:25because Fisher lost the argument.
12:29What we do know
12:31is that Churchill's Turkish adventure
12:33was a disaster.
12:35Hesitation and delay
12:41led to the troops landing at Gallipoli
12:43two months after the first naval bombardment.
12:48The Turks were waiting for them.
12:5350,000 British, Australian and New Zealand troops
12:57died in the bloodbath.
12:58In the Admiralty, Fisher and Churchill were at each other's throats.
13:06At a war council meeting,
13:09Kitchener had to physically prevent Fisher from walking out.
13:13Fisher's memos became wilder and wilder,
13:16some people thought deranged.
13:18He threatened to resign no fewer than eight times.
13:23And then, on that May morning,
13:25just as it was becoming clear
13:27how bloody the disaster of Gallipoli was,
13:32Fisher walked out,
13:34apparently into thin air.
13:36Government officials were sent all over London
13:44to hunt him down.
13:48It turned out that Fisher was, in fact,
13:51hiding just a few hundred yards from the Admiralty
13:54in a room here at the Charing Cross Hotel.
14:00When Fisher was finally tracked down,
14:03Asquith ordered him in the name of the king
14:07to return to his command.
14:09By now, there were rumours
14:11that the German fleet was at last on the attack.
14:15The queen wrote to Fisher,
14:17begging him to stay at his post like Nelson.
14:21The king said his admiral
14:23should be hanged at the yardarm for desertion.
14:30Fisher sent an ultimatum to Asquith,
14:33he would return,
14:35but only if Churchill was kicked out of the Cabinet.
14:39He also demanded absolute control
14:41of all naval appointments
14:43and sole command of the Royal Navy.
14:49This was the kind of fantasy
14:51of a constitutional coup
14:53that many generals and admirals
14:54might have dreamt about,
14:56but nobody before or since
14:58has actually dared to propose it
15:00to a British Prime Minister.
15:03The letter was deranged
15:05and it finished Fisher.
15:07But if Asquith thought
15:08the Navy were causing him problems,
15:11the army was about to show
15:13what a real crisis looked like.
15:15Just six days after Fisher's breakdown,
15:24there was uproar
15:25on the floor of the London Stock Exchange.
15:30Hundreds of men were shouting,
15:33jeering and setting fire
15:34to bundles of newspapers.
15:36The burning papers
15:42were copies of that day's Daily Mail,
15:44whose owner, Lord Northcliffe,
15:46had used it to announce a scandal
15:48on the Western Front.
15:49Lord Kitchener was starving
15:51the British army
15:52of high-explosive shells,
15:55the kind you need
15:56to blow up trenches.
15:58The public was outraged,
16:00not by that,
16:01but by the newspaper's attack
16:03on the country's greatest soldier.
16:06You can't kick Kitchener.
16:17But Northcliffe could,
16:20and he did,
16:21and he was essentially right.
16:24Kitchener had provided shells
16:26that would have been useful
16:27in the Boer War in 1900,
16:29but against dug-in Germans in 1915,
16:33were almost useless,
16:35and in some places,
16:37they'd run out of shells altogether.
16:39Kitchener was increasingly seen
16:41as a liability.
16:45Margot Asquith wasn't alone
16:48in rudely describing Kitchener
16:49as a great poster,
16:51not a great man.
16:53In public, at least,
16:54Asquith himself continued
16:56to defend Kitchener,
16:57but Northcliffe's attack
16:59persuaded the Tory leadership
17:01and many liberals,
17:02including Lloyd George,
17:04that things couldn't carry on this way.
17:07The mood began to turn
17:09against both the warlord,
17:11Kitchener,
17:12and his prime minister.
17:15Asquith survived for now
17:17by inviting the Tory leader,
17:20Andrew Boner Law,
17:21to join him
17:21in a new coalition government
17:23of national unity.
17:24Kitchener also managed
17:29to hang on unhappily
17:31until his ship
17:33hit a mine
17:34on a mission to Russia.
17:36On the night of the 31st of May,
17:511915,
17:52a new terror
17:53appeared over London.
18:01German Zeppelin airships.
18:06The first bomb
18:20ever dropped on London
18:22landed here
18:23at No. 16 Alcombe Road
18:25in Stoke Newington.
18:27It bounced off
18:28a neighbour's chimney,
18:29lodged in the rafters
18:31and set fire
18:31to the upstairs bedroom.
18:33The family escaped.
18:34Many others didn't.
18:37Henry and Caroline Good
18:38of 187 Balls Pond Road
18:40in Dalston
18:41were discovered
18:42by a policeman
18:42still kneeling
18:43at their bedside.
18:45Their bodies charred,
18:47their clothes burned away.
18:49Mr Good's arm
18:50was still around his wife.
18:53They had died while praying.
19:00Visits from Zeppelins
19:01would now be
19:02a regular occurrence.
19:04They became known
19:07as the Baby Killers.
19:12Far fewer people
19:13were killed
19:14in the First World War
19:15by air raids
19:16than would be
19:16in the Second World War,
19:17but in some ways
19:19it was even more terrifying.
19:24People who'd only
19:26just got used
19:27to the idea
19:27of human flight
19:29were confronted
19:30by 500-foot balloons
19:33lobbing death
19:34and air raid precautions
19:37were laughably inadequate.
19:40He didn't have much time
19:42to scarper.
19:45But the invention
19:47of the incendiary bullet
19:48gave a way
19:49to fight back.
19:50In September 1916,
19:54millions watched
19:55as Lieutenant
19:56Leif Robinson
19:57attacked a German airship
19:58over North London
19:59with the new weapon.
20:00The inferno
20:04could be seen
20:05for more than 35 miles
20:07in all directions.
20:12The airship
20:13crashed to the ground
20:15behind this pub
20:16that Plough Inn
20:17in the village of Cuffley
20:19and the next day
20:20more than 10,000 sightseers
20:22swarmed over the wreckage.
20:24The plough had soon
20:25sold out anything
20:26that could be eaten or drunk
20:27and they had to bolt
20:28their doors
20:29against the crowds.
20:30One rather ghoulish
20:31highlight
20:32was the charred remains
20:34of the German airmen.
20:36A girl watched
20:37a pair of policemen
20:38playing ball
20:39with their helmets
20:40over the charred corpses.
20:49But outproducing
20:51the enemy
20:51was just as important
20:53as outfighting them.
20:55Winning
20:56an industrial war
20:58meant winning
20:58industrially.
21:02And so the human dynamo
21:03Lloyd George
21:04now asked
21:05for the toughest job
21:06in politics
21:07sorting out
21:08old-fashioned
21:09British industry
21:10to make more weapons.
21:14He built 50
21:16new munitions factories.
21:18The largest
21:19was here at Gretna
21:20in Scotland.
21:23These ruined power stations
21:26are all that remain now.
21:29But in its day
21:30this was the largest
21:31factory in the world.
21:33It employed
21:3430,000 people
21:36and stretched out
21:37over an area
21:38of nine miles.
21:42And into his new factories
21:44Lloyd George
21:45poured a new workforce.
21:48With so many men
21:48away fighting
21:49he turned
21:50and to women.
21:56And they flocked
21:58into the new jobs.
21:59Bus conductors,
22:00farm workers,
22:01shipyard workers
22:02and 700,000 of them
22:05became munitionettes
22:07working in the new munitions factories
22:10which were very dangerous.
22:12Explosions,
22:14TNT poisoning
22:15killed more than 100 women.
22:17Many more
22:18found their teeth fell out
22:19or they turned yellow.
22:20They were called
22:21canaries.
22:23But there were
22:24less toxic changes
22:25for the new workers
22:26too.
22:27Women started
22:28to cut their hair
22:29shorter.
22:30They wore simpler clothing.
22:31They learned
22:32to smoke cigarettes.
22:33They learned
22:33about condoms.
22:37Among the many
22:38casualties
22:39of the Great War
22:40was the Edwardian woman.
22:42As munitions minister
22:47Lloyd George
22:48was a phenomenal success.
22:51Within a year
22:51the manufacture
22:52of heavy guns
22:53was up by over
22:54a thousand percent.
23:01Lloyd George
23:02was also sketching out
23:04a blueprint
23:04for a more modern
23:06fairer Britain.
23:07He extended welfare help
23:09for munitions workers
23:10and their families
23:11providing new houses
23:13and flats
23:13and feeding them
23:14in canteens.
23:17Lloyd George
23:19chewed over
23:20the strange thought
23:21that the manufacturing
23:23of weapons
23:24of destruction
23:25was humanising
23:26industry.
23:28And if you're looking
23:29for the real origins
23:30of the welfare state
23:31they can be seen
23:32most clearly
23:33in what Lloyd George
23:35was up to
23:36in places like
23:37Gretna
23:37in 1916.
23:40A whole new town
23:42was created here
23:43to service the factory
23:45with shops
23:48a cinema
23:49and a social hall.
23:58To encourage production
24:00Lloyd George
24:01introduced
24:02British summertime
24:03in May 1916
24:05we've had it
24:06ever since.
24:09Lloyd George
24:10was very worried
24:11about the amount
24:11munition workers
24:12were drinking
24:13and so the state
24:15started to take over
24:16some pubs
24:17including this one.
24:19He banned
24:19all day drinking
24:20that's where pub
24:21opening hours
24:22come from.
24:23He banned
24:23the buying
24:24of rounds
24:25and yes
24:26he watered
24:27the workers' beer
24:28and it wasn't
24:29just the workers.
24:30Lloyd George
24:31wanted leading figures
24:32in the country
24:33to give up alcohol
24:34for the duration
24:35of the war
24:35to set an example
24:36and when he heard
24:38that the cabinet
24:38had agreed to do so
24:40the king
24:41reluctantly
24:42gave up drink
24:43himself.
24:45As for the cabinet
24:46they weaseled out.
24:49Politicians eh?
24:57And what these
24:59politicians needed
25:00were victories
25:01which weren't coming.
25:04By February 1916
25:06Asquith was forced
25:07to introduce
25:08conscription.
25:10So what was it like?
25:13What happened here
25:13was beyond
25:14anybody's imagination
25:16and yet despite
25:17the massive scale
25:19it was in one way
25:20strangely familiar
25:22even local.
25:24Each thousand
25:25strong battalion
25:26of officers and men
25:27defending their own
25:29tiny part
25:30of the front line
25:31became a kind
25:32of community.
25:34With its class
25:35divisions
25:35it was a small
25:37piece of Britain
25:37transplanted.
25:40It wasn't a real
25:41Britain.
25:42There were no women
25:43no trade unions
25:44no strikes
25:45and very few
25:46political arguments
25:47because all politicians
25:48were pretty much
25:50universally despised
25:52along with the staff
25:53officers who were
25:55allegedly living it up
25:57in chateau
25:58away from danger.
25:59There were some comforts.
26:11British troops
26:12had rum
26:12and cigarettes.
26:14They ate better
26:15than the Germans
26:15and had shorter spells
26:17at the front line.
26:24Soldiers could send letters
26:25and even their dirty linen
26:27home
26:27and back
26:28came home
26:29baked cakes
26:30family photos
26:31and newly
26:32knitted socks.
26:38But none of that
26:39took away
26:40from the utter horror
26:41of what happened here.
26:43At times
26:43the rain
26:44seemed to go on
26:45forever
26:46turning the trenches
26:47into filthy little rivers
26:48infested with
26:49rats and lice.
26:51The noise
26:52was monstrous.
26:54Sometimes you could hear
27:04the artillery barrage
27:06in London
27:06and when the order
27:08finally came to go
27:09over the top
27:09you had to march
27:10steadily into scythe-like
27:12machine gun fire.
27:18One war correspondent
27:20described the horrors
27:21of the front.
27:27Human flesh
27:29rotting and stinking
27:31mere pulp
27:32was pasted
27:33into the mud banks.
27:37If they dug
27:38to get deeper cover
27:39their shovels
27:40went into the softness
27:41of dead bodies
27:42who had been
27:43their comrades.
27:44Scraps of flesh
27:49booted legs
27:51blackened hands
27:52eyeless heads
27:54came falling over them
27:55when the enemy
27:56trench-mortared
27:57their position.
28:04So how did these men
28:05possibly cope?
28:07Religion
28:07yes
28:08but humour
28:09was also
28:10absolutely essential
28:11some of it
28:12was pretty dark
28:13like the habit
28:14of shaking hands
28:15with the hands
28:16of corpses
28:17protruding from the mud.
28:19Other times
28:20it was lighter.
28:21When Captain Fred Roberts
28:23discovered
28:23a smashed old
28:24printing press
28:25in the town of Ypres
28:26he decided to mend it
28:27and produce
28:28his own newspaper.
28:29It was called
28:30The Wipers Times
28:31Wipers being how
28:33British troops
28:34mispronounced Ypres.
28:35This was a newspaper
28:37from the front
28:37for the front.
28:39Oh, oh
28:40oh it's a lovely one
28:42So how did the men
28:49see themselves
28:50in the pages
28:51of their own
28:51local paper?
28:54Well, it's all
28:55terribly British
28:56and understated.
28:59What do we want
28:59with eggs and apples
29:00We've got some
29:01and apples
29:02One ad asks
29:03Are you going over the top?
29:05If so, be sure
29:06to first inspect
29:07our new line
29:08of velveteen
29:09corduroy
29:09plush breeches.
29:10The Wipers Times
29:16is a really
29:17important document
29:18because it reminds us
29:19that in the middle
29:20of horror
29:21people were enjoying
29:22the same stupid jokes
29:23and gossip
29:24they always had done.
29:25Here's the authentic voice
29:27of 1916
29:28Three Tommies
29:30sat in the trench
29:30one day
29:31discussing the war
29:32in the normal way
29:33they talked of the mud
29:35and they talked
29:35of the Hun
29:36of what was to do
29:37and what had been done
29:38they talked about rum
29:40but the point
29:41which they argued
29:42from post back
29:43to pillar
29:44was whether
29:45Notts County
29:46could beat
29:47Aston Villa
29:47But not all
30:04the United Kingdom
30:05was so united
30:06In the early hours
30:10of Good Friday
30:111916
30:12a man
30:13scrambled off
30:14a German U-boat
30:15into a small
30:16rubber dinghy
30:17then landed here
30:19at Banner Strand
30:20on the west coast
30:21of Ireland
30:21He sucked in
30:26the fresh Irish air
30:27and gloried
30:28in the birdsong
30:29but not for long
30:30two officers
30:31of the Royal Irish
30:32Constabulary
30:33arrived
30:33they'd had a tip-off
30:35about a German
30:36sponsored revolt
30:37against British
30:38ruling Ireland
30:39Quite right
30:40in one of the man's
30:42pockets
30:42they found
30:43the ticket stub
30:44for a railway journey
30:45from Berlin
30:46to one of the U-boat
30:48bases
30:48The weary traveller
30:50was promptly
30:51arrested
30:51charged with
30:53sabotage
30:54and treason
30:54and taken
30:55to the Tower
30:56of London
30:57The man was
30:59Sir Roger Casement
31:01once a loyal servant
31:03of the British Empire
31:04An Irishman
31:06he'd become
31:07a determined
31:07critic of imperialism
31:09and joined forces
31:10with the Irish
31:11Republican movement
31:12When war broke out
31:18Casement decided
31:20that his enemies
31:21would be his friend
31:22so he made his way
31:23to Berlin
31:24and spoke to the
31:25Kaiser's high command
31:27about using the
31:27German army and navy
31:29to help a full-scale
31:31Irish rebellion
31:32against the British Empire
31:33In Dublin
31:36the Republicans
31:37were also secretly
31:38asking for help
31:39from the Germans
31:40and they resolved
31:43to proclaim
31:43a republic
31:44at Easter
31:451916
31:46When Casement
31:52eventually heard about the plan
31:54he went to the Germans
31:55to find out how they were
31:56going to help
31:56from his point of view
31:58the answer was bad news
32:0020,000 old rifles
32:02but just enough ammunition
32:03for two or three days
32:05of heavy fighting
32:06and above all
32:07no German soldiers
32:08at all
32:09This gave Casement
32:11a terrible dilemma
32:12either he'd come back
32:13and join a rebellion
32:15he knew was going to be
32:16a disaster
32:16or he'd seem a coward
32:18He decided to return
32:20to Ireland
32:20but to plead
32:22with the rebel leaders
32:23to delay their uprising
32:24and that was what he was doing
32:26here
32:26when he was arrested
32:27In Dublin
32:31the rebels decided
32:32to go ahead
32:33with the revolt
32:33and on Easter Monday
32:35they rose in rebellion
32:36They occupied
32:42key buildings
32:43including the General Post Office
32:45and proclaimed
32:46Irish independence
32:48But after the arrival
32:52of 20,000 British reinforcements
32:54the rebellion collapsed
32:55in five days
32:57It had been a small-scale revolt
33:04Just 1,600 rebels
33:09compared to the 150,000 Irishmen
33:12who'd volunteered
33:13to fight for Britain
33:14in the war
33:15The Irish
33:17even in the Catholic South
33:19still generally backed
33:21the British Empire
33:22This general goodwill
33:26was about to be squandered
33:28by an act
33:29of brutal British stupidity
33:31The police and the army
33:33rounded up
33:343,500
33:34of the Irish nationalists
33:36whether or not
33:37they'd been involved
33:38in the uprising
33:3997 of them
33:41were sentenced to death
33:4216 actually killed
33:4413 men
33:46died here
33:47in one of the courtyards
33:49in one of the courtyards
33:49of Dublin's Kilmainham Jail
33:51A 14th
33:53James Connolly
33:54one of the leaders
33:54was so badly injured
33:56that he had to be tied
33:58to a chair
33:59so that he could be killed
34:00there
34:01These killings
34:03changed everything
34:05In the words of one bishop
34:06the blood seemed to be
34:07seeping out
34:08from under the prison door
34:10they made martyrs
34:12of the rebels
34:13and Irish opinion
34:15began to swing
34:16away from the empire
34:18and towards
34:19the republican court
34:20In London
34:31there was an influential
34:33campaign for clemency
34:34for Roger Casement
34:35who was even supported
34:37by the king
34:37But then
34:39in a search of his rooms
34:41the police discovered
34:42Casement's private diaries
34:44They became known
34:45as the Black Diaries
34:47Casement was a homosexual
34:54and his Black Diaries
34:55listed and described
34:57his exploits
34:58with scores
34:58of young men
35:00As soon as the diaries
35:01were in the hands
35:02of the British Secret Service
35:03there was no chance
35:05of a reprieve
35:05and Casement
35:06was duly hanged
35:08His Irish cause
35:10however
35:10would smoulder
35:11and fizz
35:12all the way
35:13to civil war
35:14On the western front
35:27the war was descending
35:28into a nightmarish
35:30paralysis
35:30It reached its bloodiest
35:32with the Somme Offensive
35:34of July 1916
35:36The idea was to destroy
35:41the German trenches
35:42with an intensive
35:43seven-day bombardment
35:45British troops were told
35:47they'd be able to stroll
35:48through the shattered
35:49German lines
35:50and bring the war
35:51to an end
35:52Many of the British troops
36:02were absolutely convinced
36:03of victory
36:04Captain Billy Neville
36:06of the 8th East Surries
36:07painted a football
36:08with the words
36:09Great European Cup Tie Final
36:12East Surries
36:13versus Bavarians
36:14kick off at zero
36:16Another football
36:17was painted with the words
36:18No referee
36:19and when the attack started
36:21both were kicked
36:22over the top
36:24Captain Neville
36:25offered a prize
36:26for the first British soldier
36:27to dribble
36:28one of the footballs
36:29to the German front line
36:31When he led his men
36:38over the top
36:38Captain Neville
36:40was killed
36:40instantly
36:41So too were 21,000
36:44other British soldiers
36:46most of them
36:46within the first hour
36:48German troops
36:53had survived
36:54the bombardment
36:55in concrete bunkers
36:56ten metres underground
36:58British infantry
37:01had walked
37:01into an inferno
37:02of machine gun fire
37:03The generals
37:06have been blamed
37:07callous
37:08stupid
37:09skulking
37:10behind the lines
37:11Not quite fair
37:1378 British generals
37:18were killed
37:19in the war
37:20and this was
37:21a totally new
37:22type of dug-in
37:23industrialised
37:24slaughter
37:25In 1916
37:27nobody knew
37:28how to win
37:29this kind of war
37:30But we're still left
37:35with the frightened
37:36young officers
37:37blowing their whistles
37:38and leading
37:39their men to death
37:40Take Captain D.L. Martin
37:42of the 9th Devons
37:43He'd been a maths teacher
37:45before the war
37:46and he used
37:47trigonometry
37:48and scale models
37:49to prove
37:50conclusively
37:51that an agreed line
37:52of attack
37:53must end
37:54with him
37:55and his men
37:56being cut down
37:57by a particular
37:58German machine gun
37:59post
38:00He showed his
38:01superior officers
38:02and was told
38:03Sorry
38:04You must attack
38:06Captain Martin
38:08and 160 of the Devons
38:10were killed
38:11instantly
38:12They're buried together
38:13in a mass grave
38:15above which
38:16is written
38:17The Devonshires
38:18held this trench
38:19They hold it still
38:21of the day
38:22in a mass grave
38:24in a adult
38:24of the day
38:25of the force
38:26to save
38:27and discover
38:27the whole
38:28heart
38:29and beneficial
38:29and be
38:32as good as
38:34you can see
38:35to see
38:35the way
38:36as you can see
38:37the mad people
38:37who are
38:39and if you are
38:39with me
38:40who are
38:41who's
38:42in a new
38:42or
38:43who are
38:43and if you are
38:44and not
38:45and i'm my
38:45not
38:45who are
38:45doing
38:46and i'm there
38:48These disasters had a direct political effect.
39:07Asquith had lost his own son in the fiasco of the Somme.
39:10Now it would cost him his political career.
39:15Lloyd George scented blood.
39:18Was Lloyd George plotting?
39:24Lloyd George was always plotting.
39:27But the first person to stick in the knife was the press baron.
39:30Northcliffe asked the editor of the Daily Mail
39:33to find the worst possible picture of Asquith
39:36and label it, wait and see.
39:39And then the best possible picture of Lloyd George
39:42and call it, do it now.
39:45And in case anybody failed to get the message,
39:47he then wrote a headline which read simply,
39:50Asquith, a limpet.
39:53Politicians these days who complain about being roughed up by the press
39:57should stay in a little more and read some history.
40:04Lloyd George now joined hands with Andrew Boner Law
40:08and forced Asquith to resign.
40:10The King invited Lloyd George to form a new coalition government.
40:16The Liberal Party was split down the middle and would never really recover.
40:22The Tories were now the majority in Lloyd George's coalition.
40:27With no election, this was a wartime parliamentary coup.
40:34The socialist Beatrice Webb wrote in her diary that it was brilliant improvisation,
40:39reactionary in composition and undemocratic in form.
40:45Lloyd George remade British government.
40:48A war cabinet of just five men oversaw the fighting,
40:53while outside this place, British government power spread to undreamt of degrees.
40:59The Edwardian age didn't really end in 1914.
41:04It ended with what was, in effect,
41:06the first parliamentary dictatorship since the days of Oliver Cromwell.
41:12The dictatorship of David Lloyd George.
41:15The first year of Lloyd George's parliamentary dictatorship would be a black one.
41:28The Battle of Passchendaele on the Western Front was another bloodbath that achieved little.
41:34France was crippled, its army mutinous.
41:38Russia, one of the key allies, fell to the Germans and then to revolution.
41:43The United States was doggedly refusing to join the war.
41:54And most alarming of all, Britain was running out of food.
42:00The food crisis of 1917 was caused by a step change in German strategy.
42:07We tend to think of the U-boat menace as a Second World War affair,
42:13but actually, the submarines were more dangerous first time round.
42:17The Germans knew that Britain imported two-thirds of her food
42:22and thought that a slaughter of merchant shipping might bring this country to surrender.
42:31But there was a problem.
42:33To make that effective, they would have to try to sink all ships coming into British ports,
42:38including American ships, which meant risking America coming into the war.
42:44Starving and desperate herself, Germany took the risk.
42:59And lost her gamble within weeks,
43:02for America, at last, declared war.
43:05Now it was a race to the finish.
43:12Could the U-boats defeat Britain
43:14before American intervention changed everything?
43:20It was a close-run thing.
43:24Before long, Britain was running out of fuel and food.
43:28Prices shot up and long queues formed outside shops.
43:39Keep the home fires burning
43:43While your hearts are yearning
43:48Though your lads are far away
43:52This nation of gardeners pooled together.
43:57They turned parks and squares into allotments.
44:02And the government set up national canteens,
44:06serving cheap meals.
44:07Put the dark cloud inside out
44:10Till the boys come home
44:14And none of it was enough.
44:28The U-boats continued to slaughter the merchant ships.
44:32What could be done?
44:35The answer was staring the Admiralty in the face.
44:40Organise the merchant ships in convoys.
44:43The Admiralty was sure this wouldn't work.
44:47A convoy is a lot bigger than a single ship.
44:51Once the U-boats found them,
44:53there'd be a turkey shoot.
44:54Obvious.
44:56But sometimes the obvious is wrong.
45:00Set against the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean,
45:02a convoy is not much bigger proportionally
45:05than a single ship.
45:06Almost as hard for the U-boats to find.
45:08And you can protect a convoy with warships.
45:12The Admiralty was pressed into trying this
45:16by, among others, Lloyd George himself.
45:19And very reluctantly,
45:21they agreed to give it a go.
45:23As soon as they tried the convoy system,
45:25the rate of sinkings dramatically decreased.
45:28The food started to come through.
45:30This single, lateral jump of logic
45:35may have saved Britain from losing the war.
45:38The beach at Fornby,
45:56where the Mersey meets the Irish Sea,
45:58was a quiet place, even in wartime.
46:00In July 1917,
46:05a tall, striking-looking officer
46:07was walking here alone.
46:08He stopped by the water,
46:17shook his fist at the sky,
46:19and then he began to tug
46:23at a small ribbon on his tunic,
46:26which showed that he won the military cross.
46:30He tore it off
46:30and let it drop weakly into the water
46:34and watched it float away and sink.
46:39The man was Siegfried Sassoon,
46:43one of the greatest war poets ever
46:45and a hero of the trenches.
46:48And he was in the middle of the worst crisis
46:51of his young life.
46:55Sassoon was in turmoil about the war.
46:57He'd been quick to enlist
47:00and was a brave and charismatic
47:02front-line leader.
47:03But he'd come to believe
47:05that the war was being fought
47:06for the wrong reasons.
47:08At home on leave,
47:09he wrote a public statement
47:11explaining why he felt
47:12he could no longer serve.
47:17A war of defence and liberation,
47:21he said,
47:21had become one of aggression
47:24and conquest.
47:25I am protesting
47:27against the political errors
47:30and insincerities
47:32for which the fighting men
47:34are being sacrificed,
47:35he said,
47:36and against the callous complacency
47:40with which the majority
47:41of those at home
47:43regard the continuance
47:45of agonies
47:47which they do not share
47:49and which they have not sufficient
47:51imagination to realise.
47:54Sassoon's statement
47:58was all the more explosive
48:00because he was a genuine war hero.
48:04Now he was determined
48:06to be a martyr.
48:07He knew he was risking
48:09court-martial,
48:10imprisonment
48:10and even execution.
48:14Instead,
48:14the army tried to discredit Sassoon
48:16by packing him off
48:17to Craig Lockett
48:18in Edinburgh,
48:19a hospital for officers
48:21suffering from
48:22the newly diagnosed condition
48:23of shell shock.
48:39Sassoon called this place
48:41Dottieville.
48:43He was surrounded
48:44by the psychically shattered
48:46and shaking victims
48:47of the war.
48:48But he himself
48:49didn't really fit in.
48:50He was mentally
48:52and physically sound
48:53and he spent his time
48:54playing golf,
48:56talking to other writers
48:57and producing
48:59some of the great war poetry
49:01which has made his name
49:02live ever since.
49:04I see them in foul dugouts
49:08gnawed by rats
49:09and in the ruined trenches
49:11lashed with rain
49:13dreaming of things
49:15they did with balls
49:17and bats
49:18and mocked
49:19by hopeless longing
49:21to regain
49:22bank holidays
49:24and picture shows
49:26and spats
49:28and going to the office
49:30in the train.
49:31Sassoon was speaking out
49:40for a small minority.
49:43There were 16,000
49:44conscientious objectors
49:46who refused to fight
49:47as some people sympathised
49:49most did not.
49:54Pacifist meetings
49:55were broken up
49:56by angry mobs
49:57Conchies
49:58as they were known
49:59were attacked
50:00and imprisoned.
50:04For Sassoon
50:05things weren't quite
50:07as clear cut
50:08as they were
50:08for the conscientious objectors.
50:10He was torn
50:12between his
50:13intellectual contempt
50:14for the war
50:15and its leaders
50:16and his own feelings
50:18of comradeship
50:19and exhilaration
50:21in the trenches.
50:22However vile
50:23and murderous
50:24the fighting was
50:25it gave him
50:26more of a sense
50:27of being alive
50:29than anything
50:30here at home
50:31among the
50:32sheep-like civilians.
50:35And in the end
50:36he decided
50:37his place
50:37was with the
50:38fighting men.
50:38He returned
50:39to the army
50:40and eventually
50:40to the Western Front
50:42where he survived.
50:44But for the rest
50:45of his life
50:46he never lost
50:47that seething anger
50:49with the politicians.
50:50in the spring
50:56of 1918
50:56a new
50:57German offensive
50:58using troops
50:59returning from
51:00the Russian front
51:01almost broke
51:02the British
51:03and the French armies.
51:06The new
51:07stormtroopers
51:08very nearly
51:09won the war.
51:11The British commander
51:13Sir Douglas Haig
51:14ordered
51:14with our backs
51:15to the wall
51:16each one of us
51:16must fight
51:17to the end.
51:18Back at home
51:25Britain
51:26was descending
51:26into panic
51:27about German
51:28spies
51:29and saboteurs.
51:34In June
51:361918
51:36a scandalous
51:38trial
51:38at the Old
51:39Bailey
51:40threatened
51:41to ignite
51:41this combustible
51:42atmosphere.
51:46The man
51:47behind the scandal
51:48was an eccentric
51:50right-wing MP
51:51and self-publicist
51:52called
51:53Noel Pemberton
51:54Billing.
51:58Pemberton
51:59Billing
51:59was obsessed
52:00by what he
52:01called
52:01the hidden hand.
52:04He thought
52:04the Germans
52:04had infiltrated
52:05the British
52:06establishment.
52:07There was
52:08a German
52:08black book
52:09containing
52:10the names
52:10of 47,000
52:12sexually depraved
52:14British men
52:15and women
52:15who'd been
52:16blackmailed
52:17into helping
52:17Germany
52:18win the war.
52:20It was,
52:20he said,
52:21a most
52:21Catholic list.
52:23It contained
52:24the names
52:24of privy
52:25councillors,
52:26cabinet ministers
52:27and their wives,
52:29diplomats,
52:29newspaper proprietors
52:31and even members
52:32of His Majesty's
52:33household.
52:34In short,
52:36the Germans
52:36had the British
52:37establishment
52:38over a barrel.
52:39Billing's theory
52:45might have been
52:45ignored were it
52:47not for a private
52:48performance of
52:49Salome,
52:50a band play
52:50by Oscar Wilde.
52:53Its star
52:54was a risque
52:54Canadian dancer
52:56called Maud Allen.
52:58Billing saw
52:59an opportunity
53:00to promote
53:01his obsession
53:01and pounced.
53:03He implied
53:03that Maud Allen
53:04was a lesbian
53:05and that her
53:06audience
53:07were among
53:07the 47,000
53:09traitors
53:09named in
53:10the Black Book.
53:13Maud Allen
53:14took the bait
53:15and sued
53:15for libel
53:16at the Old Bailey.
53:17The British
53:20people were
53:21transfixed.
53:22There were
53:22huge daily
53:23queues
53:24for the
53:24public gallery.
53:25The atmosphere
53:25in court
53:26was described
53:26as pantomime
53:28circus
53:28farce.
53:30The gallery
53:30cheered
53:31like spectators
53:32at a football
53:33match.
53:34Billing's
53:35witnesses
53:35claimed that
53:36Asquith
53:37was in
53:37the Black Book
53:38alongside his
53:39wife,
53:40Margot,
53:40and in
53:41an extraordinary
53:42twist,
53:43Billing even
53:44claimed that
53:44the man
53:45presiding
53:45over the trial
53:46Britain's
53:47most famous
53:48judge,
53:49Justice Darling,
53:51known as
53:51Little Darling,
53:53was involved
53:54as well.
53:56This was the
53:57conspiracy theory
53:58to end them
53:59all.
54:01And the British
54:02public seemed
54:03to be falling
54:04for Billing's
54:04extraordinary claims
54:06about pro-German
54:07homosexuals in
54:08high places.
54:12Anxiety rippled
54:13through the
54:13corridors of
54:14power.
54:14There were
54:16even fears
54:17of a
54:18revolution,
54:19a people's
54:19revolt.
54:24After a
54:25five-day
54:26sliver of
54:28titter fodder
54:29and garbage
54:29had gurgled
54:31out of the
54:31old bailey,
54:32the jury
54:33took just
54:34two hours
54:35to acquit
54:36Billing
54:37of
54:37Libeling
54:38Maud
54:38Allen.
54:39The public
54:40gallery
54:40erupted
54:41did enjoy.
54:45As their
54:46hero emerged
54:48from the
54:48old bailey,
54:49he was
54:49mobbed by
54:50more than
54:50a thousand
54:51supporters.
54:52But what
54:53of the
54:53German
54:54black book
54:54itself that
54:55had started
54:56it all?
54:57Well, there's
54:58no evidence
54:58that it ever
54:59existed.
54:59It was almost
55:00certainly the
55:01fevered figment
55:02of one man's
55:02imagination,
55:03seized upon
55:04by a people
55:05driven half
55:06mad by four
55:07years of
55:08loss and
55:09fear and
55:10hating.
55:20But by the
55:21end of the
55:21trial, the
55:22fortunes of
55:23war were
55:24dramatically
55:25reversing.
55:26In July, the
55:27German advance
55:28was stopped
55:29and by
55:30September, a
55:31ferocious
55:31counterattack by
55:32British, Canadian
55:33and Australian
55:34troops was
55:35smashing through
55:36German lines.
55:37These mostly
55:41forgotten battles
55:42formed one of
55:43the greatest
55:44military victories
55:45ever won by
55:46British forces.
55:50Finally, at
55:5111 o'clock, on
55:52the 11th of
55:53November, 1918,
55:55the Germans
55:55formally surrendered
55:56and signed the
55:57armistice.
56:01The guns fell
56:02silent.
56:07to start with, the
56:18reaction was
56:19celebratory, wild, even
56:22drunken.
56:27Lloyd George was
56:28hailed by the
56:29jubilant crowds as
56:31the man who won
56:32the war.
56:35But the crowds
56:36quickly sobered up
56:37and the mood
56:38darkened.
56:39ated.
56:47Oh, no, no, no.
56:49So, no, no.
56:50Oh, no, no, no, no.
57:22The war had changed Britain in ways that would have been unimaginable four years earlier.
57:34More than 720,000 people never returned from the battlefields, and those at home lived surrounded by the gaps and the ghosts,
57:46those people who should have been in the street or in the factory or down the pub, but just weren't there.
57:53The civilians had pooled together and worked for the war effort as never before.
58:03They'd seen the birth of big government.
58:06But perhaps no shock has ever hit these islands with quite the force of what they called, with, let's hope, an edge of bitter humour, the Great War.
58:21In the next programme, cocktails and communists, nightclubs, gold and sleaze.
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