- 6 months ago
All 5 parts of Epic History TV's history of World War One in one place (re-edited in 2021). From the Schlieffen Plan to the Versailles Treaty, a global history of the entire conflict.
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00:00:001914.
00:00:14The great powers of Europe are divided into two rival alliances.
00:00:19The Triple Entente, France, Britain and Russia, united by fear and suspicion of Germany, Europe's
00:00:27new strongest power.
00:00:29The Triple Alliance, Germany, which fears encirclement by its rivals, Austro-Hungary, clinging on
00:00:37to a fragile empire, and Italy, seeking gains at French expense.
00:00:44The spark comes on the 28th of June, in the city of Sarajevo.
00:00:51Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, is assassinated by a 19-year-old Slav
00:00:57nationalist, named Gavrilo Princip.
00:01:01Austro-Hungary accuses its Balkan rival Serbia of having aided the assassin, and sends an
00:01:07ultimatum, demanding humiliating concessions.
00:01:11Serbia rejects the ultimatum, and Austro-Hungary declares war.
00:01:17Within hours, Austrian forces are shelling Belgrade.
00:01:22The Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, feels honour bound to defend Serbia, a fellow Slav nation,
00:01:29and orders the Russian army to mobilise.
00:01:33German Emperor Wilhelm II has promised his support to Austro-Hungary.
00:01:36He and his generals see conflict with Russia as inevitable, and the sooner the better, as
00:01:44Russian strength grows year on year.
00:01:47Russian mobilisation is used to justify German mobilisation, followed by a declaration of war
00:01:53on Russia.
00:01:56Germany knows war with Russia means war with Russia's ally, France.
00:02:01It has developed the Schlieffen plan to meet this threat of a war on two fronts.
00:02:07First its armies will advance rapidly through neutral Belgium, to encircle and destroy French
00:02:12armies near Paris and win a quick victory.
00:02:16Then its forces can move east to deal with Russia, whose huge army will take much longer
00:02:21to mobilise.
00:02:23And so Germany declares war on France.
00:02:27Six million men are now marching to war across Europe.
00:02:34Italy however remains neutral.
00:02:37The terms of the Triple Alliance don't bind it to join an offensive war.
00:02:42The United States also declares its neutrality.
00:02:46President Wilson and the American public have no desire to get entangled in Europe's war.
00:02:53Britain is France's ally, but at first it's not clear if it will join the war against Germany.
00:03:00But when German troops invade Belgium, whose neutrality Britain has guaranteed, an ultimatum
00:03:06is sent from London to Berlin, demanding they withdraw.
00:03:11Britain gets ignored, and Britain declares war.
00:03:23A British expeditionary force lands in France, while the German invasion is held up for crucial
00:03:29days by Belgian resistance at the fortress city of Liège.
00:03:34German troops commit several massacres against Belgian civilians.
00:03:39The atrocities are inflated by Allied propaganda, and help turn public opinion in neutral countries against Germany.
00:03:48France, unaware of Germany's great encircling attack, launches Plan 17, an offensive into
00:03:55German territory.
00:03:56But in the Battle of the Frontiers, they're driven back, with enormous losses on both sides.
00:04:07The British expeditionary force clashes with the German army at Mons, but the British are
00:04:13heavily outnumbered, and soon join the French in retreat.
00:04:18The Allies make their stand at the river Marne, 40 miles outside Paris.
00:04:23Their desperate counterattack saves the city, and drives the Germans back.
00:04:30Both sides suffer a quarter of a million casualties.
00:04:36The race to the sea begins, as both sides try to outflank each other to the north.
00:04:42A series of clashes leads to the First Battle of Ypres, where the Allies desperately cling
00:04:48on, and prevent a German breakthrough.
00:04:51There are more heavy losses on both sides.
00:04:56The two armies then dig in along the entire 350-mile front, seeking shelter from deadly machine-gun
00:05:03fire and artillery shells.
00:05:06Trench warfare has begun.
00:05:18British warships win the first naval battle of the war, at Heligoland Bight, sinking three
00:05:25German cruisers.
00:05:28Britain has the most powerful navy in the world, 29 modern battleships to Germany's 19.
00:05:36They now impose a naval blockade on Germany, preventing contraband goods, including food, from reaching
00:05:43it by sea.
00:05:44The aim is to bring Germany's economy to its knees, and force it to surrender.
00:05:51But a week later, the British cruiser HMS Pathfinder becomes the first victim in history
00:05:58of a lethal new weapon.
00:06:00The submarine-launched torpedo.
00:06:04German submarines, or U-boats, have a surface range of 9,000 miles, and can attack undetected
00:06:11from beneath the waves.
00:06:13They herald a deadly new challenge to Britain's command of the seas.
00:06:27On the Eastern Front, Russian armies invade East Prussia.
00:06:32But they blunder into disaster at the Battle of Tannenberg, where General von Hindenburg and
00:06:38his chief of staff, Erich Ludendorff, mastermind a brilliant German victory, taking 90,000 prisoners
00:06:45and destroying an entire Russian army.
00:06:48The Russians contribute to their own defeat by transmitting uncoded wireless messages.
00:06:53A second massive German victory at Masurian Lakes forces the Russians into retreat.
00:07:02In just six weeks, the Russian army suffers nearly a third of a million casualties.
00:07:07Meanwhile, Austro-Hungary's invasion of Serbia suffers a humiliating reverse at the Battle
00:07:15of Tsar.
00:07:16Austro-Hungary's offensive against Russia also ends in disaster and retreat, with the loss
00:07:22of more than 300,000 men.
00:07:26The fortress town of Chemyschul is cut off and besieged by the Russians.
00:07:31The Germans are forced to come to the rescue, launching a diversionary attack towards Warsaw.
00:07:38It leads to weeks of brutal winter fighting around the Polish city of Łódź, but there
00:07:43is no clear winner.
00:07:46Meanwhile, the Turkish Ottoman Empire has joined the Central Powers, declaring war on its old
00:07:53enemy, Russia.
00:07:56Turkish warships bombard the Russian ports of Odessa and Sevastopol, while in the Caucasus,
00:08:03Russian troops cross the Turkish frontier.
00:08:15Beyond Europe, the war rages on the world's oceans, and in far-flung European colonies.
00:08:22German troops cross into British East Africa, modern Kenya, and occupy Tavita, while Allied
00:08:31forces seize the German colony of Togoland, modern Togo.
00:08:36But British forces invading German Cameroon are defeated at Garoa and Nsangakong, while
00:08:44a 3,000-strong force attacking German South West Africa, modern Namibia, is captured at
00:08:50Saint-Fontaine.
00:08:52A month later, British landings at Tanga end in chaos and defeat, at the hands of a much
00:08:58smaller German force, led by Colonel von Lethoff-Worbeck.
00:09:03Cut off from Germany, Lethoff-Worbeck goes on to wage a highly successful guerrilla war against
00:09:08the Allies, tying down huge numbers of troops.
00:09:13In Asia, Japan honours its treaty with Britain, and declares war on Germany.
00:09:21Japanese forces go on to seize the German naval base at Tsingtao.
00:09:28The German colonies of Samoa and New Guinea surrender to troops from New Zealand and Australia.
00:09:35But in the Pacific, off the coast of Chile, German Admiral von Spee's powerful East Asia
00:09:41squadron sinks two British cruisers at the Battle of Cornell.
00:09:46Both ships are lost with all hands.
00:09:50Five weeks later, he runs into a British naval task force at the Falkland Islands.
00:09:55Four of the five German cruisers are sunk.
00:09:59Von Spee goes down with his flagship.
00:10:04Meanwhile in the Middle East, British troops seize control of the Ottoman port of Basra, securing
00:10:10access to the vital Persian oil that fuels the British fleet.
00:10:24In the late winter, Austrian troops finally capture Belgrade.
00:10:29But the Serbs then counterattack and drive them back once more.
00:10:35The fighting in Serbia has already cast around 200,000 casualties on each side.
00:10:43In the North Sea, German warships mount a hit-and-run raid against English coastal towns, shelling
00:10:50Falklepool, Whitby, and Scarborough, and killing more than a hundred civilians.
00:10:59On the Western Front, the French launch their first major offensive against the German lines, but the
00:11:05first Battle of Champagne leads to small gains at a cost of 90,000 casualties.
00:11:12While in the Caucasus, an Ottoman offensive through the mountains in mid-winter ends in disaster
00:11:18at Sarikamish.
00:11:21Turkish casualties total 60,000, many frozen to death.
00:11:28On the Western Front, that first Christmas is marked in some sectors by a short truce and
00:11:34games of football in no man's land, the killing zone between the trenches.
00:11:49January 1915.
00:11:52World War I is just five months old, and already around one million soldiers have fallen.
00:12:00A war that began in the Balkans has engulfed much of the world.
00:12:05The Central Powers, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire, fight the Allies.
00:12:12Britain, France, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Belgium, and Japan.
00:12:19In Poland and the Baltic, the Russian army has suffered a string of massive defeats, but
00:12:25continues to battle German and Austro-Hungarian forces.
00:12:30Austro-Hungarian troops have also suffered huge losses, and are humiliated by their failure
00:12:36to defeat Serbia.
00:12:39Within the Caucasus mountains, Russian and Ottoman forces fight each other in freezing
00:12:44winter conditions.
00:12:48While on the Western Front, French, British and Belgian troops are dug in facing the Germans,
00:12:54in trenches stretching from the English Channel to Switzerland.
00:13:07As part of the world's first strategic bombing campaign, Germany sends two giant airships,
00:13:14known as Zeppelins, to bomb Britain.
00:13:17They hit the ports of Kings Lynn and Great Yarmouth, damaging houses and killing four civilians.
00:13:24At sea, at the Battle of Dogger Bank, the British Navy sinks one German cruiser, but the rest of
00:13:33the German squadron escapes.
00:13:38Command of the seas has allowed Britain to impose a naval blockade of Germany, preventing
00:13:43vital supplies, including food, from reaching the country by sea.
00:13:49Germany now retaliates with its own blockade.
00:13:53It declares the waters around the British Isles to be a war zone, where its U-boats will attack
00:13:59Allied merchant ships without warning.
00:14:02Britain relies on imported food to feed its population.
00:14:07Germany plans to starve her into surrender.
00:14:11On the Eastern Front, German Field Marshal von Hindenburg launches a winter offensive, and inflicts
00:14:19another massive defeat on the Russian army at the Second Battle of Missourian Lakes.
00:14:26The Russians lose up to 200,000 men, half of them surrendering amid freezing winter conditions.
00:14:36The Russians have more success against Austria-Hungary.
00:14:41The city of Shamishul falls after a four-month siege, netting the Russians 100,000 prisoners.
00:14:49Austria-Hungary's total losses now reach two million.
00:14:55Meanwhile the British and French send warships to the Dardanelles to threaten Constantinople,
00:15:01capital of the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
00:15:04They believe a show of force will quickly cause Turkey to surrender.
00:15:09They bombard Turkish shore forts in the narrow straits.
00:15:14But three battleships are sunk by mines, and three more damaged.
00:15:19The attack is called off.
00:15:32On the Western Front, the British attack at Neuve-Chapelle, but the advance is soon halted by German barbed wire
00:15:41and machine guns.
00:15:45British and Indian units suffer 11,000 casualties, about a quarter of the attacking force.
00:15:52Six weeks later, at the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans attack with poison gas for the
00:15:58first time on the Western Front.
00:16:01A cloud of lethal chlorine forces Allied troops to abandon their trenches.
00:16:07But the Germans don't have enough reserves ready to exploit the advantage.
00:16:13Soldiers on both sides are quickly supplied with crude gas masks, as a chemical weapons arms
00:16:20force race begins.
00:16:24The Allies land ground troops at Gallipoli, including men of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps,
00:16:31the Anzacs.
00:16:33Their goal is to take out the shore forts that are preventing Allied warships reaching Constantinople.
00:16:40But they immediately meet fierce Turkish resistance, and are pinned down close to the shore.
00:16:48The day before the landings, the Ottoman Empire begins the systematic deportation and murder
00:16:54of ethnic Armenians living within its borders.
00:16:58The Armenians are a long-persecuted ethnic and religious minority, suspected of supporting
00:17:04Turkey's enemies.
00:17:07Tens of thousands of men, women and children are transported to the Syrian desert, and left
00:17:14to die.
00:17:16In all, more than a million Armenians perish.
00:17:20The Allies condemn the events as a crime against humanity and civilisation, and promise
00:17:26to hold the perpetrators criminally responsible.
00:17:30To this day, the Turkish government disputes the death toll, and that these events constituted
00:17:36a genocide.
00:17:38On the Eastern Front, a joint German-Austro-Hungarian offensive in Galicia breaks through Russian defences,
00:17:55recapturing Chemishul, and taking 100,000 prisoners.
00:18:01It is the beginning of a steady advance against Russian forces.
00:18:05At sea, the British passenger liner Lusitania, sailing from New York to Liverpool, is torpedoed
00:18:13by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland, without warning.
00:18:191,198 passengers and crew perish, including 128 Americans.
00:18:29US President Woodrow Wilson and the American public are outraged, but Germany insists the
00:18:36liner was a fair target, as the British used her to carry military supplies.
00:18:41In May, the Allies launch the Second Battle of Artois, in another effort to break through
00:18:48the German lines.
00:18:51The French make the main attack at Vimy Ridge, while the British launch supporting attacks
00:18:56at Aubert Ridge and Festubert.
00:19:00The Allies sustain 130,000 casualties, and advance just a few thousand yards.
00:19:10That summer, above the Western Front, the Fokker Eindecker helps Germany win control of the air.
00:19:17It's one of the first aircraft with a machine gun able to fire forward through its propeller,
00:19:22thanks to a new invention known as interrupter gear.
00:19:26Allied aircraft losses mount rapidly, in what becomes known as the Fokker Scourge.
00:19:32Italy, swayed by British and French promises of territorial gains at Austria-Hungary's expense,
00:19:47joins the Allies, declaring war on Austria-Hungary, and later the Ottoman Empire and Germany.
00:19:54The Italian army makes its first assault against Austro-Hungarian positions along the Isonso River,
00:20:01but is repulsed with heavy losses.
00:20:04Meanwhile, the Allies face a crisis on the Eastern Front.
00:20:10The Russians have begun a general retreat, abandoning Poland.
00:20:16Russian troops enter Warsaw on the 5th of August.
00:20:20Tsar Nicholas II dismisses the Russian army's commander-in-chief, Grand Duke Nicholas, and
00:20:26takes personal command.
00:20:29It will prove disastrous for the Tsar, as he becomes more and more closely tied to Russian
00:20:35military defeat.
00:20:38At Gallipoli, the Allies land reinforcements at Suvla Bay, but neither they nor a series
00:20:45of fresh attacks by the Anzacs can break the deadlock.
00:20:51Conditions for both sides are terrible.
00:20:54Troops are tormented not only by the enemy, but by heat, flies and sickness.
00:21:01In the Atlantic, a German U-boat sinks the liner SS Arabic.
00:21:0744 are lost, including three Americans.
00:21:12In response to further US warnings, Germany ends all attacks on passenger ships.
00:21:27On the Western Front, the Allies mount their biggest offensive of the war so far, designed
00:21:32to smash through the front, and take pressure off their beleaguered Russian ally.
00:21:38The French attack in the Third Battle of Artois, and Second Battle of Champagne.
00:21:44The British, with the help of poison gas, attack at loss.
00:21:50Despite initial gains, the attacks soon get bogged down, with enormous losses on all sides.
00:21:57Allied troops land at Salonika in Greece, to open a new front against the Central Powers,
00:22:11and bring aid to Serbia.
00:22:14But the Allies are too late.
00:22:17Bulgaria joins the Central Powers, and their joint offensive overruns Serbia in two months.
00:22:26Last winter, the remnants of the Serbian army escape through the Albanian mountains.
00:22:33Their losses are horrific.
00:22:35By the end of the war, a third of Serbia's army has been killed, the highest proportion
00:22:41of any nation.
00:22:47Fierce fighting continues on the Italian front, as Italian troops launch the third and fourth
00:22:54battles of the Isonza.
00:22:56Austro-Hungarian forces, though outnumbered, are dug in on the high ground, and impossible
00:23:02to dislodge.
00:23:07In the Middle East, a British advance on Baghdad is blocked by Turkish forces at the Battle of
00:23:15Tessifon, 25 miles south of the city.
00:23:20The British withdraw to Kut, where they are besieged.
00:23:26The Allies abandon the Gallipoli campaign.
00:23:3083,000 troops are secretly evacuated without alerting Turkish forces.
00:23:37Not a man is lost.
00:23:40It's one of the best executed plans of the war.
00:23:44The campaign has cost both sides a quarter of a million casualties.
00:23:491915 is a bad year for the Allies, enormous losses for no tangible gains.
00:24:00But there is no talk of peace.
00:24:02Instead, all sides prepare for even bigger offensives in 1916, with new tactics developed
00:24:09from earlier failures.
00:24:12All sides still believe a decisive battlefield victory is within grasp.
00:24:26World War I was supposed to have been a short and glorious war.
00:24:32But by 1916, a new kind of industrialised warfare had seen the death toll soar into the millions,
00:24:40with no end in sight.
00:24:44Naval blockades were beginning to cause shortages of food and fuel across Europe.
00:24:51While thousands of women had entered the workforce, replacing the men sent to fight in their millions.
00:24:59All sides were preparing for a long war.
00:25:11The war has raged for a year and a half, as the Allies continue to battle the Central Powers,
00:25:18recently joined by Bulgaria.
00:25:21At sea, the British maintain their naval blockade of Germany, preventing the import of food and
00:25:29other vital raw materials.
00:25:33Germany has retaliated with a U-boat blockade of Britain, but has to limit its attacks to
00:25:39avoid provoking the neutral USA, whose citizens have already been caught in the crossfire.
00:25:47On the Western Front, French, British and Belgian troops are dug in opposite the Germans, both
00:25:54sides trapped in the bloody stalemate of trench warfare.
00:26:00On the Eastern Front, the Russians have ended their long retreat and stabilised the line,
00:26:06but their army has suffered huge losses.
00:26:11On the Italian Front, Italian troops have launched a series of costly, unsuccessful attacks against
00:26:18strong Austro-Hungarian defences.
00:26:22While on the Balkan Front, the Central Powers have overrun Serbia, whose army is forced to
00:26:28make a bitter retreat through the Albanian mountains.
00:26:32Now, on the 5th of January, Austro-Hungarian troops attack Montenegro.
00:26:39They are delayed at the Battle of Mojkovac, but three weeks later, Montenegro is forced to
00:26:46surrender.
00:26:49On the Caucasus Front, the Russians launch a surprise winter offensive against Ottoman Turkish forces.
00:26:57Six weeks later, Russian troops occupy the city of Erzurum.
00:27:01In April, they capture the Black Sea port of Trebizond.
00:27:06Meanwhile, the British transport two motorboats to Lake Tanganyika in Africa.
00:27:13They finally arrive after a 10,000-mile trip by sea and land, and help the British seize
00:27:19control of the strategic lake from local German forces.
00:27:25The same month in German Cameroon, German troops besieged on Mora mountain for 18 months finally
00:27:33surrender to the Allies.
00:27:36It marks the end of the Cameroon campaign.
00:27:51On the Western Front, the Germans unleash a devastating assault on the French fortress town of Verdun.
00:27:59German General Erich von Falkenhayn knows France will defend this symbolic town to the last
00:28:05man.
00:28:07His plan, in his own words, is to bleed France white in its defence.
00:28:13It is the strategy of attrition.
00:28:16Verdun becomes one of the most terrifying battles of the war – a mincing machine, where infantry
00:28:23divisions are destroyed almost as fast as they can be fed into the line.
00:28:29In Britain, one million men have already volunteered for military service.
00:28:34But the government realises it won't be enough.
00:28:38Britain becomes the last major power to introduce conscription.
00:28:43That spring, on the Western Front, British troops are the last to be issued with steel helmets.
00:28:50The nature of trench warfare produces a high proportion of head wounds.
00:28:55The German Stahlhelm, the French Adrian helmet, and the British Mark I steel helmet offer limited
00:29:02protection from shell splinters and shrapnel.
00:29:07Neutral Portugal has been cooperating with the British, which seems to offer the best chance
00:29:12of holding on to her African colony, Portuguese Angola.
00:29:17On the 9th of March, Germany retaliates by declaring war on Portugal.
00:29:25On the Eastern Front, Russia launches an attack near Lake Naroc, to relieve pressure on the French
00:29:31at Verdun.
00:29:32But it's a disaster.
00:29:34There are 100,000 Russian casualties, and the attack fails to divert any German troops from
00:29:41the fighting at Verdun.
00:29:44In Dublin, Irish Republicans launch an armed revolt against British rule.
00:29:50It becomes known as the Easter Rising, and is put down after six days of street fighting.
00:30:07In the Middle East, after a five-month siege, British forces at Kut surrender.
00:30:14General Townsend leads 9,000 British and Indian soldiers into captivity.
00:30:19About half later die from starvation or disease.
00:30:25Britain wants Arab support in its fight against the Ottoman Empire, so it's promised Arab leaders
00:30:31an independent Arab state after the war.
00:30:36But now Britain and France secretly sign the Sykes-Picot Agreement, planning after the war to divide
00:30:43the Middle East into British and French zones of control.
00:30:47Unaware of this deal, Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, leads the Arabs in revolt against Turkish-Ottoman
00:30:55rule.
00:30:56In the Battle of Mecca, his forces seize control of the Holy City.
00:31:01On the Italian front, Austro-Hungarian forces launch a surprise attack at Asiago.
00:31:09Italian defences give way.
00:31:12Austro-Hungarian troops are poised to break through into northern Italy.
00:31:17That month in the North Sea, the German High Seas Fleet clashes with the British Grand Fleet,
00:31:25at the Battle of Jutland.
00:31:26In the only major naval battle of the war, the British suffer heavier losses, but claim
00:31:33victory as the German fleet withdraws and does not re-emerge from its base for the rest
00:31:39of the war.
00:31:49For the summer of 1916, the Allies have planned major, simultaneous offensives against the
00:31:55Central Powers, from East and West.
00:31:58Now they are needed more than ever to relieve pressure on the French at Verdun, and the Italians
00:32:05at Asiago.
00:32:08The Russians launch their attack first.
00:32:11On the Eastern Front, General Alexei Brusilov has carefully maintained the element of surprise.
00:32:18His troops break through the enemy lines, in some places advancing 60 miles, and taking
00:32:24200,000 prisoners.
00:32:27This brilliant, though costly, Russian attack achieves its aim, as the Central Powers are
00:32:33forced to redeploy troops from other fronts, to shore up the line.
00:32:42At sea, British cruiser HMS Hampshire, en route to Russia, hits a mine and sinks off Orkney.
00:32:51Among the 650 dead is Britain's iconic Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener.
00:33:00Three days later, in the Adriatic, Italian troop ship Principe Umberto is sunk by a German submarine.
00:33:09It's the deadliest sinking of the war, with 1,900 lives lost.
00:33:16On the Western Front, Britain and France launch their major summer offensive, the Battle of
00:33:23the Somme.
00:33:25Hopes are high for a breakthrough, but the first day is a disaster.
00:33:30A long Allied artillery bombardment fails to knock out German defences, and waves of British
00:33:36infantry are cut down by machine gun fire, as they advance into no man's land.
00:33:43In the space of a few hours, the British suffer 57,000 casualties, a third of them killed.
00:33:50It's the worst day in the history of the British army.
00:33:57But more attacks are ordered, and the battle will rage for another five months.
00:34:09Encouraged by the Russian advance, Romania joins the Allies.
00:34:15But despite an initially successful advance into Transylvania, Romania quickly faces a counteroffensive
00:34:22from German, Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian forces.
00:34:27The Allied force at Salonica tries to support Romania by launching their own offensive towards
00:34:33Monastir.
00:34:35With Serbian troops in the lead, there are small gains, but dogged Bulgarian resistance prevents
00:34:41a breakthrough.
00:34:44On the Western Front, General von Falkenhayn finally calls off the attack at Verdun.
00:34:51The French army has honoured their commander, General Nivelle's promise, ils ne passeront pas,
00:34:58they shall not pass.
00:35:01But victory comes at a terrible price – 365,000 casualties.
00:35:08The Germans lose almost as many.
00:35:11Verdun remains one of the bloodiest battles in human history.
00:35:18For his defeat at Verdun, Falkenhayn is sacked, and Germany's heroes of the Eastern Front, von
00:35:24Hindenburg and Ludendorff, take command in the west.
00:35:28Meanwhile, the Battle of the Song continues.
00:35:32Near the village of Fleur, the British introduce a new weapon they hope can break the deadlock
00:35:38of the trenches.
00:35:40It is called the Tank.
00:35:42But despite some small successes, the first tanks are too few in number, and too prone to
00:35:48mechanical failure, to make any real impact.
00:35:53On the Eastern Front, Russia's Brusilov offensive comes to an end.
00:35:59The estimates vary wildly, but it's clear both sides have suffered catastrophic losses.
00:36:06Neither the Russian nor the Austro-Hungarian army ever fully recovers.
00:36:12On the Italian front, heavy fighting rages throughout the autumn, as Italian forces make repeated, costly
00:36:22assaults against Austro-Hungarian positions along the Isonso River.
00:36:29The Battle of the Somme comes to an end amid autumn rain and mud.
00:36:35The Allies have advanced 10 miles, at the cost of 600,000 casualties.
00:36:42German losses are about 450,000.
00:36:47The Allies reassure themselves that this is a winning strategy, because at this rate, Germany
00:36:54will run out of men first.
00:36:57Meanwhile, disaster engulfs Romania, as the country is overrun by the Central Powers.
00:37:05Romanian forces suffer a quarter of a million casualties.
00:37:08The remnants of its army take position alongside the Russians on the Eastern Front.
00:37:16That winter, Franz Josef, Emperor of Austria since 1848, dies.
00:37:23He is succeeded by Karl.
00:37:27In Britain, Prime Minister Herbert Asquith is forced from office, and succeeded by David
00:37:33Lloyd George.
00:37:36While General Joffre is replaced as French Commander-in-Chief by General Nivelle, who promises
00:37:42victory through bold, aggressive action.
00:37:46Amid the comings and goings, US President Woodrow Wilson's attempts to mediate a peace settlement
00:37:52come to nothing.
00:37:54Neither side is willing to make concessions.
00:38:03In 1916, World War I became a war of attrition.
00:38:10Both sides began to focus less on winning victory on the battlefield, than grinding down the enemy.
00:38:17And inflicting such enormous losses, they would be forced to surrender.
00:38:23In 1917, the strategy will push Europe's major powers to the brink of collapse.
00:38:30Germany knows it will lose a long war of attrition against the Allies, who have greater resources.
00:38:48So its leaders gamble.
00:38:50They resume unrestricted submarine warfare, believing their U-boats can cut off Britain's
00:38:57food imports by sea, and starve the country into surrender within six months.
00:39:05But the new shoot-on-site tactics mean neutral American ships will inevitably be caught in the
00:39:12crossfire, risking America joining the war on the Allied side.
00:39:18Just two days into the campaign, the SS Housatonic, an American steamer carrying wheat from Galveston,
00:39:25Texas to England, is sunk by a U-boat.
00:39:31The British then pass to the US government a telegram they've intercepted, from German foreign
00:39:37secretary Arthur Zimmermann to the German ambassador in Mexico.
00:39:43Germany is encouraging Mexico to attack America, if America and Germany end up at war.
00:39:51The so-called Zimmermann telegram puts yet more pressure on US President Wilson to declare
00:39:58war on Germany.
00:40:07In Russia, enormous casualties and bread shortages lead to riots and revolution.
00:40:16The Tsar abdicates.
00:40:18A provisional government takes charge, pledging to continue the war.
00:40:23But at the front, Russian troops begin to desert en masse.
00:40:31After a string of German provocations, the US finally declares war on Germany.
00:40:38It brings immense resources to the Allied cause, but they will take many months to mobilise.
00:40:45And the German gamble of unrestricted submarine warfare may still pay off.
00:40:51April is the U-boats' most successful month of the war.
00:40:55They sink 886,000 tonnes of Allied shipping, an average of 17 ships a day, all packed with
00:41:04urgently needed food and supplies.
00:41:08Britain will face starvation if the U-boats are not defeated soon.
00:41:16On the Western Front, the British launch the Battle of Arras, a diversion to support a major
00:41:22upcoming French offensive.
00:41:25After heavy fighting, Canadian troops seize the high ground of Vimy Ridge.
00:41:31It's a limited Allied victory, but costs 150,000 Allied casualties to 130,000 German.
00:41:42Above the trenches, the First Air War has reached new levels of sophistication and deadliness.
00:41:50Reconnaissance aircraft are crucial for spotting enemy positions and directing artillery fire onto
00:41:56them.
00:41:57Scout aircraft, or fighters, try to shoot them down before they can execute their mission.
00:42:06New models of aircraft are developed every few months, but that spring, the superiority of
00:42:12German aircraft leads to heavy Allied losses in what becomes known as Bloody April.
00:42:18Three days after the fall of Vimy Ridge, French General Robert Nivelle launches his main offensive.
00:42:35Expectations are high, but after initial success, the advance bogs down, and casualties quickly
00:42:42mount on both sides.
00:42:53The apparently senseless losses cause morale in the French army to collapse, whole units
00:43:00mutiny, refusing to attack.
00:43:05General Nivelle is sacked as French commander-in-chief, and replaced by General Pétain, hero of Verdun,
00:43:11who promises no more suicidal attacks.
00:43:19That summer, at Messines Ridge, the British tunnel under the German lines, and detonate 19 enormous
00:43:27mines under the enemy position.
00:43:32It's the largest man-made explosion in history to date, and paves the way to a brilliant, but
00:43:38highly local British victory.
00:43:46In Greece, King Constantine, who has favoured neutrality, is forced to abdicate, and Greece
00:43:56joins the Allies.
00:43:58Russia's provisional government orders a new attack, but the July offensive is a disaster.
00:44:07The morale and discipline of the Russian army has collapsed.
00:44:12It can no longer be relied on to fight, and the Central Power's counter-attack is almost
00:44:17unopposed.
00:44:23At sea, the Allies begin to group their merchant ships into convoys, which sail under naval escort.
00:44:31The new system leads to a steady fall in losses.
00:44:35The tide is turning in the U-boat war.
00:44:42As discontent with the war grows in Germany, the German parliament, the Reichstag, passes
00:44:48a peace resolution, calling for a peace of understanding and reconciliation.
00:44:53It's ignored by the German High Command, which now effectively rules the country as a military
00:45:01dictatorship.
00:45:03In Belgium, the British launch their major offensive of 1917, the Third Battle of Ypres.
00:45:13It will be remembered as Passchendaele.
00:45:18Heavy shelling, rain and broken irrigation channels turn the battlefield into a sea of mud.
00:45:25In these impossible conditions, all hopes of a breakthrough soon fade.
00:45:33The attack is called off after three months, by which point the British have suffered 240,000
00:45:39casualties, the Germans 200,000.
00:45:50On the Italian front, at the 11th Battle of the Isonzo, Italian and Austro-Hungarian forces
00:45:58batter each other into exhaustion.
00:46:00There are 150,000 Italian casualties, 100,000 Austro-Hungarian.
00:46:12That year, 1917, the list of Allied nations grows.
00:46:18Brazil, Liberia, China and Siam all declare war on Germany as a result of German U-boat attacks,
00:46:28or to curry favour with the Allies.
00:46:32China will contribute many thousands of labourers working for the Allies in Europe, the Middle
00:46:38East and Asia.
00:46:51That year in the Middle East, British forces avenge their 1916 humiliation at Kut, by defeating
00:46:58the Ottoman Turks and marching on to occupy Baghdad.
00:47:06British forces in Egypt advance across the Sinai Desert, but are thrown back by Ottoman forces
00:47:13at the first and second battles of Gaza.
00:47:19In July, Arab rebels capture the strategic Ottoman port of Aqaba.
00:47:25They are accompanied by a British military adviser, Captain T. E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence
00:47:33of Arabia.
00:47:37That autumn, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issues the Balfour Declaration, expressing
00:47:43support for the creation of a national home for the Jews in Palestine.
00:47:50The aim is to rally Jewish support for the Allies, but the declaration contradicts existing pledges
00:47:57to Arab leaders.
00:48:04In October, the British finally win at Gaza, clearing the way for an advance into Palestine.
00:48:15Six weeks later, General Allenby leads British troops into Jerusalem, ending 400 years of Ottoman
00:48:23rule.
00:48:32With Russian forces in disarray, Germany is able to move troops from the east to the Italian
00:48:39front.
00:48:41At the Battle of Caporetto, they help to smash through the Italian army, advancing 70 miles,
00:48:48and taking a quarter of a million prisoners.
00:48:53British and French divisions, desperately needed on the Western Front, have to be redeployed to
00:49:00shore up the line.
00:49:05In Russia, a second revolution brings Lenin's Bolshevik party to power.
00:49:09He is determined to end Russia's involvement in the war.
00:49:16In France, Georges Clemenceau becomes Prime Minister.
00:49:20Nicknamed the Tiger, he promises total war and total victory.
00:49:27But for the Allies in late 1917, final victory looks uncertain.
00:49:32Russia has stopped fighting.
00:49:36French armies are recovering from mutiny.
00:49:40The Italian front has almost collapsed.
00:49:43And American reinforcements still seem a long way off.
00:49:49For the time being, the British are the only effective Allied force in the field.
00:49:56So, the British attack at Cambrai, with the first major tank assault in history.
00:50:03On the first day, nearly 400 tanks spearhead an advance of several miles through German defences.
00:50:12But then the tanks break down or are knocked out.
00:50:16The Germans rush in reinforcements, and the gains are lost.
00:50:29Finland declares independence from Russia.
00:50:34Romania, isolated by the Russian collapse, signs an armistice with the Central Powers.
00:50:42Six days later, Russia also signs an armistice.
00:50:47The Allied Eastern Front is no more.
00:50:511917 has seen one major Allied power, Russia, knocked out of the war.
00:50:59But the arrival of a fresh new ally, America.
00:51:04Germany knows only military victory can now save it from being overwhelmed by Allied resources,
00:51:11and begins planning one last massive onslaught for the spring of 1918.
00:51:24After three and a half years of war, the Allies are in crisis.
00:51:32Russia has been rocked by revolution, and its new Bolshevik government has signed an armistice
00:51:37with the Central Powers.
00:51:40Thousands of German troops will be freed up to fight on the Western Front, where the carnage
00:51:45of trench warfare has already claimed more than a million lives.
00:51:53But Germany is also desperate.
00:51:56Britain's long naval blockade has led to shortages and social unrest at home.
00:52:03While America's entry into the war brings fresh manpower and vast resources to the Allied cause.
00:52:10Germany faces inevitable defeat, unless it can win a quick victory on the Western Front.
00:52:22US President Wilson announces his 14 points.
00:52:30They outline his vision for a post-war world, including an end to secret treaties, a reduction
00:52:37in the size of armed forces, self-determination for the people of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
00:52:44and an international organisation to settle future disputes.
00:52:50But most European leaders dismiss his ideas as wishful thinking.
00:52:57At Brest-Litovsk, Bolshevik Russia signs a peace treaty with the Central Powers.
00:53:04Russia gives up vast amounts of territory in exchange for peace.
00:53:11Half a million German troops can now be redeployed from the East to the Western Front, where German
00:53:18general Erich Ludendorff plans an all-out, last-ditch offensive to win the war.
00:53:29Ludendorff's spring offensive catches the Allies off-guard.
00:53:34German stormtroopers using new infiltration tactics help to overwhelm the British 5th Army,
00:53:40which is soon in full retreat.
00:53:44The German advance threatens to split the British and French armies, with disastrous consequences.
00:53:51So French general Ferdinand Foch is appointed Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, to coordinate strategy.
00:54:01Outside Amiens, British and Australian troops improvise a defence, and finally halt the German advance.
00:54:09The German offensive switches to the north, targeting the channel ports.
00:54:19But the British inflict heavy losses on the Germans, and prevent a breakthrough.
00:54:34Above the trenches, the first air war continues to escalate.
00:54:41Each side now has more than 3,000 aircraft in service on the Western Front.
00:54:46But by 1918, the Allies have won air superiority, thanks to greater resources.
00:54:53On the 21st of April, Germany's most famous pilot, Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, is shot
00:55:04down and killed near Amiens.
00:55:07With 80 victories, he's the war's highest-scoring ace, and is buried by the Allies, with full military
00:55:14honours.
00:55:17Britain's new independent bombing force launches a daylight raid against Cologne.
00:55:24It marks the beginning of Britain's own strategic bombing campaign.
00:55:29On the ground, Ludendorff's offensive switches south, targeting the French.
00:55:35German troops advance 30 miles, but are halted at the River Marne, just as fresh American divisions
00:55:42enter the line.
00:55:45The US 1st Division is the first to see combat, at the Battle of Contigny.
00:55:52Three days later, the US 2nd Division wins victory at the Battle of Belleau-Wood.
00:55:59By now, there are nearly a million American soldiers in France, with 10,000 more arriving
00:56:06every day.
00:56:08The fourth phase of the German offensive leads to a 9-mile advance, but is finally halted by
00:56:14a French counter-attack.
00:56:18In Italy, Austria-Hungary launches an attack at Asiago and the Piave River, to support Ludendorff's
00:56:25offensive in France.
00:56:28But it's repulsed with heavy losses, and morale amongst the Austro-Hungarian army collapses.
00:56:36British and French troops land at Murmansk, in northern Russia.
00:56:45It's the beginning of Allied intervention in Russia's civil war, on the side of so-called
00:56:51white or anti-Bolshevik forces.
00:56:54On the Western Front, the Germans' final attack is defeated in the Second Battle of the Marne.
00:57:06Ludendorff's offensive has cost the Germans more than 600,000 casualties, and has failed
00:57:13to make a decisive breakthrough.
00:57:16Germany's final gamble has failed.
00:57:22The Allies now go on the attack.
00:57:31At the Battle of Amiens, British, Australian, Canadian and French troops, supported by tanks
00:57:38and aircraft, advance seven miles in a single day.
00:57:44General Ludendorff calls the 8th of August, the Black Day of the German army.
00:57:52German troops are exhausted, hungry and demoralised, and begin to surrender in their thousands.
00:58:00The Battle of Amiens begins the Allies' 100 days offensive.
00:58:08French warfare is over.
00:58:10The Germans are in full retreat.
00:58:20In the Balkans, a new Allied offensive at Dobropolje breaks through Bulgarian positions.
00:58:27The overstretched Bulgarian army collapses, and two weeks later, Bulgaria signs an armistice.
00:58:37In the Middle East, British-led forces defeat the Turks at the Battle of Megiddo, taking 25,000
00:58:46prisoners.
00:58:47Allied troops soon occupy Damascus and Aleppo.
00:58:56On the Western Front, Marshal Foch orders a general attack.
00:59:01British, French and American armies reach the Hindenburg Line, a line of reinforced German defences,
00:59:10and break through.
00:59:19Ludendorff informs the Kaiser that the military situation is hopeless, and that Germany must
00:59:24seek an armistice.
00:59:31Germany sends a request to US President Woodrow Wilson, who in return demands German withdrawal
00:59:38from all occupied territory, and the Kaiser's abdication.
00:59:45On the Italian Front, the Allies deliver the final blow to Austria-Hungary, at the Battle
00:59:51of Vittorio Veneto.
00:59:56The Austro-Hungarian army disintegrates, and 300,000 prisoners are taken.
01:00:04With the central powers facing collapse, the Ottoman Empire signs an armistice with the Allies
01:00:10at Villa Giusti.
01:00:21At Kiel, the German high seas fleet is ordered to make a suicidal attack on the British navy,
01:00:28but instead it mutinies.
01:00:31Revolution spreads through Germany.
01:00:34The Kaiser abdicates, and a German Republic is proclaimed.
01:00:41On 11th November 1918, a German delegation signs an armistice with the Allies inside Marshal
01:00:49Foch's railway carriage at Compiègne.
01:00:53It comes into force at 11am, but fighting continues until the last moment.
01:01:00Western Private Henry Gunther is killed, charging a German machine gun at 10.59am.
01:01:08He is thought to be the last soldier killed during World War I.
01:01:16Three days later, in East Africa, German General von Letov Vorbeck surrenders his army on the
01:01:23Chambesi River.
01:01:25For four years, he has tied down huge numbers of Allied troops, remaining undefeated while
01:01:31cut off from home.
01:01:33He is still considered one of history's greatest guerrilla leaders.
01:01:48The Paris Peace Conference opens at the Palace of Versailles, just outside the French capital.
01:01:55Delegates accept a proposal to create a League of Nations to settle future international disputes.
01:02:02The Versailles Treaty, signed in June, imposes harsh terms on Germany.
01:02:09Its military is restricted in size.
01:02:13It must pay war reparations to the Allies.
01:02:18It loses territory to its neighbours.
01:02:23And its colonies are seized by the victors.
01:02:29Germany must also accept responsibility for the war, in a war-guilt clause – a source of
01:02:35lasting resentment in Germany.
01:02:43The boundaries of Europe are redrawn.
01:02:47Poland re-emerges after a hundred years of foreign rule, while Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia,
01:02:56Yugoslavia and an enlarged Romania emerge from the ashes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
01:03:04The Ottoman Empire is dismantled.
01:03:08New states, most under European control, are created in the Middle East.
01:03:13Here, as in Europe, the seeds of future conflict are sown.
01:03:20While in the Far East, former German possessions in China are handed to Japan – to China's outrage.
01:03:34World War I claimed the lives of nine and a half million soldiers.
01:03:40One in eight of those who fought.
01:03:43Twenty-one million more were wounded.
01:03:47Seven million civilians also lost their lives.
01:03:53Huge areas of Europe were left devastated.
01:03:57Old empires vanished.
01:03:59New states were born.
01:04:02Lives across the world were transformed.
01:04:07The world was never the same again.
01:04:09If you enjoyed this video, please remember to like it and subscribe to the channel.
01:04:24And find out how you can help us make more videos at our Patreon page.
01:04:29Thanks for listening.
01:04:43You're welcome.
01:04:48You're welcome.
01:04:48We'll see you next time.
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