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Documentary, The Great War Armistice WWI Documentary
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00:00Armistice Day, the 11th of November, 1918.
00:09The First World War officially ended at 11 o'clock,
00:13a moment we solemnly mark each year in acts of remembrance.
00:18But less familiar to us today is how and why the Armistice came about.
00:25This film unravels World War I's bitter endgame,
00:30a story of wounded egos and brinkmanship behind the lines
00:33as generals haggled over the terms of the peace
00:36while at the front, the soldiers fought on, sustaining ever greater losses.
00:45The central character is Erich Ludendorff,
00:49after 1916 effectively Germany's military dictator.
00:54His will drove the Reich towards total victory.
00:57His loss of nerve then plunged Germany to total defeat.
01:06Historians and journalists like to explain why wars start,
01:11but endings are equally important.
01:15How one war ends can help explain why the next war breaks out.
01:20The war of 1914-18 was supposed to be the war to end all wars.
01:29But in its ending, it sowed the seeds of an even more appalling conflict
01:34just two decades later.
01:37If we want to understand that larger tragedy,
01:40I believe we need to unravel the extraordinary story of the Armistice.
01:47Our story begins and ends in a railway carriage.
02:17Here, in the early hours of the 11th of November, 1918,
02:23the Germans sat down with the Allies to sign an armistice.
02:29An armistice is usually just an agreement to stop fighting,
02:34to create a breathing space in which a peace treaty can be negotiated.
02:39But the armistice of 1918 went a lot further.
02:48The terms included not only evacuating all Germany's conquests in France and Belgium,
02:54but also allowing the Allied armies to occupy Germany west of the Rhine.
02:58The Germans also had to surrender 30,000 machine guns, 5,000 cannon, 1,700 planes and all their U-boats.
03:08In effect, the entire German capacity to wage war.
03:12These were exceptionally harsh terms.
03:19Germany had embarked on war, determined to become a world power equal to the British Empire.
03:25And in four years of fighting, the German army had never been pushed off French soil.
03:31Yet this armistice imposed nothing less than Germany's abject surrender.
03:36The question is why.
03:44The answer is rooted in earlier events in the war, and Germany's first bid for total victory.
03:52We need to go back to August 1914, to another train thundering east across Germany through the night.
04:01The First World War had just begun.
04:04In the west, the Germans had invaded Belgium and France.
04:08In the east, France's ally, Tsarist Russia, was invading Germany.
04:13Nothing was allowed to get in the train's way.
04:16Signals were cleared, points were set, other trains sidelined.
04:21On board were two men who would shape Germany's war in 1914,
04:26and even more decisively, four years later.
04:29Germany had gambled on winning the war in a few months.
04:35On its western front, a massive right hook through Belgium towards Paris
04:41was designed to knock France out of the war.
04:45In August 1914, that part of the plan seemed to be going well.
04:49But Germany was also fighting on its eastern front, and there the situation was grim.
04:58The Russian armies were surging into German territory in East Prussia,
05:03and German field commanders had panicked, talking of wholesale retreat.
05:07One of the men the German Supreme Command turned to was a figurehead to raise morale.
05:23Paul von Hindenburg was a retired veteran of Prussia's great victory against France in 1870,
05:29and renowned as a die-hard patriot.
05:33The other general was very different.
05:36An up-and-coming strategist, Erich Ludendorff,
05:39had just impressed the German Supreme Command
05:41by capturing the Belgian stronghold of Liège.
05:47Ludendorff was a complex personality.
05:50Meticulous, workaholic, and regularly top of his class as a military cadet,
05:54he drove hard, compromised rarely, and lived on his nerves.
06:00But Ludendorff also had a very vulnerable human side.
06:04He'd fallen in love in his forties with a divorcee, Margareta.
06:08He'd married her and become a devoted father to three stepsons.
06:13As patriotic Germans, the boys all fought in the war for the fatherland,
06:17and in time, their fate would be entangled with Ludendorff's.
06:24Under the towering medieval castle built by the Teutonic Knights at Marienburg,
06:35Ludendorff and Hindenburg took command of the shaken
06:38and vastly outnumbered German Eighth Army.
06:42Instead of being cowed by the pincer-like approach of two Russian armies,
06:47Ludendorff quickly saw the chance of dealing first with the one in the south
06:51and then turning on the other army in the north.
07:10The battle lasted just five days.
07:13By the end of August 1914, the Russians had been surrounded and destroyed.
07:26Just a few miles from the battlefield was the hamlet of Tannenberg,
07:31where in 1410 the Teutonic Knights, some of them Hindenburg's ancestors,
07:37had been obliterated by the Slavs.
07:39A second battle of Tannenberg, with the tables turned,
07:46was then sweet revenge for the Germans.
07:54For the Germans and their allies, this success came at exactly the right time.
08:00Germany's bid for a decisive victory in the west
08:03had been blocked by the French and British,
08:05so the German people, now facing a long war,
08:09seized on the good news from the east
08:10and the Supreme Command hiked it up as a massive triumph.
08:21For two years, Ludendorff and Hindenburg
08:24won a series of victories against Russia on Germany's eastern front.
08:28But none of these battles was decisive
08:32because Germany was still concentrating most of its resources
08:35on crushing France.
08:39During 1915, the Western Front had bogged down
08:43into a static war of attrition in the trenches.
08:47But in 1916, the Germans once again went for the jugular,
08:52seeking the victory that had eluded them so far.
08:55They mounted an all-out assault on Verdun,
09:00France's most sensitive point.
09:06Verdun, on the Meuse River,
09:08was a great fortress since the days of Louis XIV.
09:13Once committed here, the French, they were sure,
09:16could be bled white.
09:17The Germans brought up fearsome artillery,
09:23more than 1,200 guns,
09:24including massive Big Bertha mortars.
09:28Codename for the operation was Gericht,
09:31place of execution.
09:34And it was.
09:39France's high command had been astonishingly complacent.
09:43They'd ignored signs of a German build-up
09:47and failed to strengthen outlying forts.
09:52The French were soon reeling.
09:55But rather like Ludendorff at Tannenberg,
09:58one general turned the crisis around.
10:00When the call came to defend Verdun,
10:07Philippe Pétain was absent without leave.
10:11His aide had to rush to Paris
10:12to drag him away from his mistress.
10:16Pétain was unconventional.
10:20He came from peasant stock
10:22and had led at the front by example.
10:24This was a soldier's soldier,
10:28harrowed by the eyes of men returning from combat,
10:32who, said Pétain,
10:34stared into space as if transfixed
10:37by a vision of terror.
10:45Practical and realistic,
10:47Pétain reinforced key forts
10:49and organised the French artillery
10:51into a concentrated system of firepower,
10:54directed at wherever the Germans attacked.
10:59Equally important,
11:01he turned the clogged, narrow road
11:03that led to Verdun
11:04into a meticulously run supply lifeline.
11:08But more was needed.
11:10To divert German resources
11:12from the assault on Verdun,
11:14the French demanded that their ally, Britain,
11:17launch a major offensive to the north.
11:19This was the Battle of the Somme.
11:3160,000 British troops
11:33were killed or wounded on the opening day.
11:36The greatest disaster
11:37in the history of the British army.
11:39The battle then dragged on fruitlessly for months,
11:47becoming a byword for mindless slaughter.
11:50The British commander,
11:57Douglas Haig,
11:58bore much of the blame.
12:01A Dua Scotsman,
12:02he was a veteran of Sudan and the Boer War.
12:05But on the Western Front,
12:07he seemed tied to a plan.
12:09It was tactics before troops,
12:11rather like Ludendorff.
12:14Politicians in London
12:15called Haig
12:16the Butcher.
12:18Yet, for all the criticism,
12:20the Somme did serve its purpose.
12:26It helped to relieve pressure
12:28on the French back at Verdun.
12:32There, both sides were now evenly matched
12:35in firepower.
12:38And the casualty levels became appalling.
12:41Around 800,000 French and Germans
12:47were killed or wounded.
12:50Even more than the Somme,
12:52this was the First World War
12:54in all its horror.
13:01Like the struggle for Stalingrad
13:03in the next war,
13:04the stakes and the symbolism
13:06had become immense.
13:08The Battle of Verdun
13:10finally ended in December 1916.
13:14And it was the Germans
13:15who'd been bled to exhaustion.
13:22Germany's catastrophic failure
13:24at Verdun
13:24had far-reaching consequences.
13:27It forced a shake-up
13:28of the Supreme Command,
13:29the real power in the German Reich,
13:32controlling practically
13:33every aspect of German life,
13:35economy and administration,
13:37propaganda and censorship.
13:40It was answerable only
13:42to the German monarch,
13:43Kaiser Wilhelm II.
13:47The Kaiser now made
13:49a fateful decision.
13:51He turned to Hindenburg
13:52and Ludendorff
13:53to head the all-powerful
13:55Supreme Command.
13:59In reality,
14:01that meant the day-to-day
14:03control of Germany
14:04Germany and its war
14:04had been placed
14:06in the hands
14:07of one man.
14:11The Supreme Command
14:12ran the show.
14:14And the Supreme Command
14:15was really run
14:16by Ludendorff.
14:18The Kaiser and Hindenburg
14:19were nominally
14:20his superiors,
14:21but it was Ludendorff
14:22who controlled
14:23the detail of the war,
14:25from Flanders
14:26right down
14:27to the Balkans.
14:28In all but name,
14:30Ludendorff was
14:31the dictator
14:32of Germany.
14:34And he was
14:34the dictator
14:35searching for
14:36a decisive blow
14:38to win the war.
14:39In January 1917,
14:50Ludendorff gambled
14:51on an all-out
14:52U-boat campaign,
14:54hoping to cut off
14:55Britain's supply lines.
15:01Yet U-boat aggression
15:03in the Atlantic
15:03brought America,
15:05hitherto neutral,
15:06into the war
15:07against Germany.
15:08The USA
15:09gradually mobilised
15:10all its vast
15:11economic resources
15:12for the Allied war effort
15:14to make the world
15:16safe for democracy,
15:17in the words
15:18of its president,
15:19Woodrow Wilson.
15:26America's entry
15:27into the war
15:27tightened the Allied
15:29blockade of Germany
15:30and its fresh manpower
15:32promised in time
15:33to decisively tip
15:34the balance of forces
15:35in Europe
15:36against Germany.
15:38This was the moment
15:41when Ludendorff
15:42should probably
15:43have sought
15:44a compromise peace.
15:46But he still
15:47hankered after
15:47a decisive
15:48Tannenberg-style
15:50victory in the West.
15:52He aimed to make
15:53Belgium and north-eastern
15:54France
15:55part of the German Reich.
15:57For him,
15:58anything less than that
15:59would be a defeat.
16:01If Germany makes peace
16:03without profit,
16:04then Germany
16:04has lost the war.
16:13Here,
16:14at his headquarters
16:15in Spahr,
16:16in Belgium,
16:17Ludendorff believed
16:18he could still achieve
16:19Germany's war aims
16:20of becoming a global power
16:22to match the British Empire.
16:23and he calculated
16:26that he had
16:27one last opportunity.
16:30Ludendorff reasoned
16:32that it would take time
16:33for the Americans
16:34to make their presence felt
16:35because the US
16:37was only just starting
16:38to train an army.
16:40And there was
16:41further cause for hope.
16:43In 1917,
16:44the war in the East
16:46was finally
16:47bearing fruit.
16:51The Russian economy
16:53had collapsed,
16:54the army was in revolt
16:55and the country
16:56disintegrated
16:57into revolution.
16:59Russia's people
17:00had been pushed
17:01too far.
17:03This sudden collapse
17:05of a great power
17:06should have served
17:08as a warning
17:08to Ludendorff,
17:10but it simply
17:11didn't register.
17:13Instead,
17:14he saw Russia's revolution
17:15as the last chance
17:17for a German victory
17:18in the West.
17:25Ludendorff was able
17:26to pull some
17:2740 army divisions
17:29out of the East
17:30and send them
17:31to the Western Front.
17:33This gave Germany
17:35numerical superiority there
17:37for the first time
17:38since 1914.
17:41He planned to mobilise
17:42these forces
17:43in a massive push.
17:45towards Paris.
17:53Ludendorff worked
17:54relentlessly
17:55around the clock,
17:56personally supervising
17:58strategy
17:58and micromanaging
18:00logistics
18:00and even training.
18:03Ludendorff was
18:04outwardly confident
18:05but as ever
18:06inwardly on edge.
18:08when asked
18:11what would happen
18:12if the great
18:13offensive failed,
18:15Ludendorff glowered,
18:17then Germany
18:19then Germany
18:23will just
18:24have to go
18:24under.
18:28At dawn
18:30on the 21st
18:31of March 1918
18:32the static
18:33trench war
18:34of the previous
18:35three years
18:35would change
18:36forever.
18:46Ludendorff unleashed
18:47die Kaiserschlacht,
18:49the Kaiser's battle.
18:51Unlike earlier offensives
18:53the artillery
18:53softening up
18:54was short,
18:55only five hours
18:56to retain surprise.
18:58then the storm
19:02troops advanced
19:03just behind
19:04a carefully
19:04calibrated
19:05creeping barrage
19:06ready to capture
19:08the enemy trenches
19:09while their defenders
19:10were still
19:10under cover.
19:12The push
19:13along the Somme
19:14was a great success
19:16routing the
19:17British 5th Army.
19:18Ludendorff's offensive
19:30had suddenly
19:31broken the
19:32stalemate
19:32of the trenches.
19:35The German surge
19:37even threatened
19:38to split
19:38the British army
19:39from the French.
19:41In London
19:41Prime Minister
19:42David Lloyd George
19:43was sure
19:44that would be
19:45disastrous.
19:48On March 26th
19:51the Allied commanders
19:52held a crisis meeting
19:53here at Doulence.
19:55Shells were falling
19:56near the town
19:57and the atmosphere
19:58was close to panic.
20:01Pétain
20:02was genuinely
20:03demoralised.
20:04It seemed
20:05the British army
20:05was falling apart
20:06and he doubted
20:08that Haig
20:08had any answers.
20:12Haig
20:12was under pressure.
20:15He knew
20:15that many
20:16in the war cabinet
20:17in London
20:18wanted to sack him
20:19and he had
20:20little confidence
20:21in the French generals.
20:24Fat tavern keepers
20:25as he once called them.
20:27Certainly
20:28he'd lost confidence
20:29in Pétain
20:30who seemed to him
20:31totally defeatist.
20:34So the initial exchanges
20:35at Doulence
20:36were very tense.
20:38Haig
20:38kept talking
20:39about his
20:395th Army.
20:41Pétain
20:41said
20:42it no longer
20:43existed.
20:44Eventually
20:47a compromise
20:48was thrashed out.
20:50The British
20:50and French
20:51would jointly
20:51defend
20:52the crucial
20:52railway junction
20:53at Amiens
20:54key to holding
20:56their front together
20:57and to coordinate
20:58the armies
20:59and their
20:59bickering commanders
21:00the French general
21:02Ferdinand Foch
21:03Pétain's great rival
21:04was appointed
21:05commander-in-chief
21:06of the allied forces.
21:08This was
21:11a vital
21:12turning point.
21:13It had taken
21:14imminent defeat
21:15to make the two nations
21:17start fighting
21:18as one.
21:26The allies
21:27finally held the line
21:29in sufficient numbers
21:30just outside Amiens.
21:32But in April
21:33Ludendorff
21:34mounted a new
21:35assault to the north
21:36in Flanders
21:37firing off
21:38some 40,000
21:39gas shells.
21:44In four months
21:46from March
21:46to July 1918
21:47he launched
21:48five great
21:49offences
21:50completely
21:51redrawing
21:52the Western
21:52Front
21:53which had
21:53hardly moved
21:54since the
21:54end of 1914.
21:57At one point
21:58the Germans
21:59had come
21:59within 60
22:00miles of Paris.
22:04Yet each
22:05stab westwards
22:06was weaker
22:07than the one
22:08before
22:08because Germany
22:09was simply
22:10running out
22:11of men.
22:15Of the initial
22:16assault strength
22:17of 1.4 million
22:19soldiers
22:19more than one-fifth
22:21were killed,
22:21wounded or missing
22:22after two weeks.
22:25German morale
22:27began to crumble.
22:28Ludendorff
22:31behind the lines
22:32in his headquarters
22:33could not appreciate
22:34what was happening
22:35to the men.
22:37He had no experience
22:39of the human cost
22:40of his strategy,
22:41the blood
22:42and mud,
22:44the cold and wet,
22:45the excrement
22:46and rotting bodies.
22:48He read of casualty figures
22:49with icy composure.
22:52War consumes men.
22:55That is its nature.
22:59Ludendorff's world
23:01was one of crisp uniforms
23:03and good dinners.
23:05A war fought by phone,
23:07telegram and dispatches
23:09and marked
23:10not by corpses
23:11riddled with bullets
23:13but maps
23:15filled with coloured pins.
23:18But then,
23:19catastrophically,
23:20for the most powerful
23:21man in Germany,
23:23the real war
23:24suddenly broke through.
23:32At the end of March,
23:33Ludendorff got into
23:35his staff car.
23:36He was driven
23:37across the old
23:38Somme battlefield
23:39through...
23:40The two trench systems
23:42in which the opponents
23:43had faced each other
23:44for so long.
23:46The impression it made
23:47was great.
23:48A strip many miles
23:50in width.
23:52Bleak and devastated.
24:05By the roadside,
24:07Ludendorff was met
24:08by grim-faced officers.
24:10They walked across
24:11a muddy field
24:12toward an open grave
24:13marked by a rough
24:14wooden cross.
24:20Ludendorff leaned forward
24:21to read the inscription
24:23in English.
24:26Here rest
24:27two German
24:29flying officers.
24:33A soldier
24:34pointed uneasily
24:35to where the exhumed bodies
24:37lay under a tarpaulin.
24:40Ludendorff nodded.
24:41And walked over
24:44slowly.
24:48A corner of the tarpaulin
24:50was pulled back.
24:53And he looked down
24:55at the face
24:55of his dead
24:56stepson,
24:58Erich.
25:00Germany's war leader
25:01stood there
25:02pathetically,
25:03shoulders slumped,
25:05fighting back the tears.
25:06For the first time,
25:13Ludendorff was face
25:15to face
25:16with the intimate
25:17suffering of war.
25:19This was about
25:20flesh and blood,
25:22not just grand strategy.
25:28Ludendorff had always
25:30kept his life
25:31in separate compartments.
25:32But now his grief
25:34as a father
25:35began to shake
25:36his grip
25:36as a general.
25:39While he sought
25:40the willpower
25:41to cope with war's
25:42unknown psychological
25:43forces,
25:45his great offensive
25:46was running
25:47out of steam.
25:50With their numbers
25:51depleted,
25:52many German soldiers
25:53deserted en route
25:54to the next
25:55suicidal assault.
26:00This was a decisive
26:02moment for the success
26:04of the German war effort.
26:06The question
26:06was whether
26:07Germany's leaders,
26:09Ludendorff or his
26:09old partner,
26:10Hindenburg,
26:11could see it.
26:15Ludendorff's
26:15intense inner anguish
26:17was becoming more
26:18and more apparent.
26:20When one staff officer
26:22came to his office
26:22to warn him about
26:23the collapse
26:24of troop morale,
26:26Ludendorff bawled
26:27him out.
26:29What is the purpose
26:31of your drivel?
26:34What do you expect
26:36me to do?
26:37Make peace
26:38at any price?
26:44Ludendorff was
26:44in deep denial
26:46and there was
26:47no one who could
26:48make him rethink.
26:50Certainly not
26:50Hindenburg.
26:51his forte
26:53was doing
26:53what he was told,
26:54not thinking
26:56outside the box.
26:58Confident
26:59and patriotic
27:00as ever,
27:01Hindenburg
27:02offered no
27:02alternative
27:03as Germany
27:05lurched
27:06towards disaster.
27:07It wasn't just
27:15the German troops
27:16who were losing
27:17heart.
27:18The home front
27:19was seething
27:20with discontent
27:21because of
27:21rising food prices
27:23caused by
27:23poor harvests
27:24and the Allied
27:25blockade.
27:27Strikes
27:27were being whipped
27:28up by socialist
27:29and communist
27:30agitators.
27:32And now the Allies,
27:33reviving under
27:34the command
27:35of the breezy
27:35and confident
27:36Foch,
27:37took the offensive.
27:40On the 8th of August
27:42the British blasted
27:43through the Germans
27:44east of Amiens.
27:47Tanks were used
27:49to crush
27:49the barbed wire
27:50and behind them
27:51well-armed
27:52assault platoons
27:53operated fluidly.
27:5516,000
27:56demoralised Germans
27:57simply laid down
27:59their arms.
28:00The tide
28:01had turned.
28:02Hague,
28:06who'd struggled
28:06to cope
28:07with trench
28:07warfare,
28:08was now
28:09in his element
28:10in this
28:10newly mobile
28:11conflict,
28:12redeeming his
28:13reputation
28:14as commander.
28:16Even cavalry
28:17reappeared
28:18on the battlefield,
28:19ideal for
28:20pursuing
28:20a retreating
28:21enemy.
28:27Ludendorff
28:28was shaken
28:29to the core.
28:30as a leader
28:32he had
28:32willed victory
28:33but his men
28:35could not
28:35deliver it.
28:37The acid
28:37of doubt
28:38was rotting
28:39his confidence.
28:41He called
28:42August the 8th
28:43the black
28:44day of the
28:45German army.
28:47Our war machine
28:49is no longer
28:50working.
28:52Leadership
28:52is like
28:53an irresponsible
28:54game of chance.
28:56the fate
28:59of the
28:59German
28:59nation
29:00is too
29:01high
29:01a stake
29:02for me
29:03to play.
29:05The war
29:06must
29:07be ended.
29:14But how
29:15could Ludendorff
29:17now end
29:17the war?
29:19One option
29:20was to pull
29:20his troops
29:21back to
29:21fortified rear lines
29:23but that
29:24would mean
29:24abandoning
29:25the territory
29:26taken in
29:261918
29:27and this
29:29Ludendorff
29:30would not
29:30do.
29:34Instead
29:34he insisted
29:36the troops
29:36must hold
29:37all the ground
29:38just gained
29:39in France
29:39while Germany's
29:41diplomats
29:41negotiated
29:42a favourable
29:43peace.
29:44It would
29:45prove a
29:46terrible
29:46misjudgment.
29:48Germany's
29:48war
29:49and Ludendorff's
29:50mind
29:51were falling
29:52apart.
29:53Ludendorff
29:56was now
29:57close to
29:58breakdown
29:58sometimes
29:59in tears.
30:01In secret
30:02he kept
30:03visiting the
30:04grave of
30:05his stepson
30:05Eric
30:06whose body
30:07had not
30:07been taken
30:08back to
30:08his mother
30:09in Berlin.
30:13If I
30:14didn't send
30:15him to
30:16you
30:16then that
30:17was pure
30:18selfishness.
30:19I wanted
30:21to keep
30:21him here
30:22I go
30:24to him
30:24often.
30:26You can
30:26rest assured
30:27that he
30:27is at
30:28peace
30:28and it's
30:30a lovely
30:30feeling
30:31to have
30:32him here.
30:35Ludendorff's
30:35worried staff
30:36called in
30:37a psychiatrist.
30:38Meanwhile at
30:43the front
30:43German combat
30:45battalions
30:45were at
30:46half strength.
30:47Deserters
30:47roamed the
30:48rear areas
30:49and those
30:50that remained
30:50faced renewed
30:51onslaughts.
30:55It was
30:56Britain and
30:56France that
30:57now had
30:57guns,
30:58tanks and
30:59supplies in
30:59profusion
31:00and could
31:01fight the
31:01kind of
31:02mobile war
31:03Ludendorff had
31:04pioneered in
31:05march and
31:08the Americans
31:09were coming
31:10into the
31:10line in
31:11strength.
31:14In mid
31:15September they
31:16broke through
31:17around St.
31:17Miel taking
31:1915,000 more
31:20German prisoners.
31:26The final
31:28straw came on
31:29September the
31:2928th.
31:31Ludendorff learned
31:32that Bulgaria,
31:33one of Germany's
31:34key remaining
31:34allies, was
31:35asking for
31:36peace.
31:41Some claimed
31:42that Ludendorff
31:43had a fit,
31:44rolling around
31:45on the floor.
31:47His doctor
31:47always denied
31:48it, but what
31:50is quite clear
31:51is that Ludendorff's
31:52nerves had
31:53finally shredded.
32:02At six
32:04that evening
32:05Ludendorff left
32:06his office in
32:07the Hôtel
32:07Britannique and
32:09came down one
32:09floor to
32:11Hindenburg's
32:11room.
32:13He told
32:14Hindenburg the
32:15military situation
32:16was untenable
32:18and that Germany
32:20must ask for an
32:21immediate ceasefire,
32:23an harvesters.
32:28On October
32:29the 1st,
32:30Ludendorff announced
32:31his plan to stop
32:32the fighting
32:32to tearful
32:34senior officers.
32:36One recalled,
32:38His grief-stricken
32:39face, pale,
32:41but with head
32:41held high,
32:43truly a beautiful
32:44Germanic hero.
32:47I could only
32:47think of Siegfried
32:48with his death
32:49wound in the back
32:50from Hagen's
32:51spear.
32:54This was a
32:55reference to the
32:56tragic finale of
32:57Wagner's
32:58Goethe-Demmerung,
32:59Twilight of the
33:00Gods.
33:02And it was
33:02entirely apt
33:04because a stab
33:06in the back
33:07would become
33:08Ludendorff's
33:09swansong.
33:12He blamed all of
33:14Germany's disasters
33:15on the political
33:15left, declaring
33:17to his staff,
33:18our own army.
33:19Our own army is
33:20badly infected
33:21with the poison
33:22of communist
33:23socialist ideas.
33:25The troops can
33:26no longer be
33:26relied upon.
33:28Since August
33:28the 8th,
33:29things have gone
33:29downhill rapidly.
33:33Ludendorff was
33:34claiming that the
33:35soldiers at the
33:35front had been
33:36undermined by
33:37treacherous agitators
33:38at home.
33:40The idea of
33:41Germany's betrayal
33:42by the left,
33:43the undefeated army
33:45succumbing to
33:45a stab in the
33:47back, had been
33:48born.
33:51In fact,
33:52Germany's collapse
33:53was largely
33:54Ludendorff's fault.
33:56He could have
33:57tried to end the
33:58war from a
33:59position of strength
33:59in the spring,
34:01or retreated to
34:02secure lines in
34:03August and given
34:05his troops'
34:05respite to hold
34:06on into 1919.
34:09Instead, he waited
34:11till the army was
34:12on the back foot
34:13and the home front
34:14was in revolt,
34:15then panicked
34:16and blamed the
34:17whole collapse
34:18on the political
34:19left.
34:25Desperately trying
34:26to retrieve the
34:27situation,
34:28Ludendorff now
34:28hatched an
34:29extraordinary new
34:30plan.
34:33He proposed
34:34that Germany
34:35appeal over the
34:36heads of Britain
34:37and France
34:37directly to the
34:39American president,
34:40Woodrow Wilson,
34:41who he believed
34:42would offer
34:43softer peace
34:44terms.
34:46And he wanted
34:47to create a new
34:48civilian government
34:49accountable to
34:50Germany's parliament,
34:51the Reichstag,
34:52to conduct the
34:53negotiations.
34:56Ludendorff, of
34:57course, didn't have
34:58a democratic bone
34:59in his body.
35:00This was simply
35:01cunning
35:02realpolitik.
35:03He calculated
35:05that civilians
35:06would get a
35:06better deal
35:07from the
35:07Americans than
35:08militaristic
35:09autocrats like
35:10himself.
35:13And equally
35:14important,
35:15by demanding
35:16that the
35:16civilians now
35:17raise the
35:17white flag
35:18rather than
35:19the army,
35:20he aimed
35:20to save
35:21face,
35:22shifting the
35:22blame for
35:23ending the
35:23war away
35:24from the
35:25supreme
35:25command.
35:26Ludendorff
35:29had gambled
35:30wrongly in
35:31the spring
35:31of 1918
35:32on military
35:33victory.
35:34The question
35:35now was
35:35whether his
35:36political
35:36strategy would
35:37prove any
35:38more effective.
35:41The new
35:42German government's
35:43exchange of
35:43notes with
35:44Wilson was
35:45like a game
35:45of diplomatic
35:46tennis that
35:47went on all
35:48through October.
35:50But Ludendorff
35:51hadn't got the
35:51measure of the
35:52American president.
35:53Wilson played a
35:54much harder
35:55game than he
35:56expected.
35:59Wilson was a
36:00bit of a
36:01control freak.
36:02He composed
36:03the American
36:03messages to
36:04Germany himself
36:05on his own
36:07typewriter.
36:10The good
36:11faith of any
36:12discussion would
36:13manifestly depend
36:15upon the consent
36:16of the central
36:17powers immediately
36:19to withdraw their
36:20forces everywhere
36:21from invaded
36:23territory.
36:25So much for
36:26Ludendorff's hopes
36:27of hanging on to
36:28chunks of France
36:30and Belgium.
36:32Wilson's second
36:33note struck an
36:34even more damaging
36:36blow at the
36:36German Reich,
36:37effectively demanding
36:38the abdication of
36:40the Kaiser.
36:42When the Kaiser
36:43received Wilson's
36:44note, he was
36:45furious, telling
36:46an aide,
36:47read it, it
36:49aims directly at
36:51the overthrow
36:51of my house,
36:54at the complete
36:55overthrow of the
36:56institution of
36:57monarchy.
37:01After Wilson's
37:02second note,
37:03Ludendorff,
37:04instability itself
37:06at the heart of
37:07the German regime,
37:08began to realise
37:09the mess he'd got
37:10Germany into.
37:11All his calculations
37:13had gone wrong.
37:16Back at the front,
37:18the German army
37:19was disintegrating
37:20and the Allied
37:21onslaught continued
37:22with mounting
37:23ferocity.
37:28During the five
37:29weeks between
37:29Germany asking for
37:30an armistice and
37:31the actual signature,
37:33half a million
37:34soldiers were
37:35killed or wounded,
37:37even though both
37:37the German and
37:38Allied high
37:39commands knew
37:40that a ceasefire
37:41could be imminent.
37:43The huge bloodshed
37:45can be explained
37:46in part by the
37:47more open style
37:48of warfare.
37:49But there were
37:50other factors,
37:52including the
37:53entry of the
37:54Americans into
37:55the war.
37:57Here were
37:58fresh troops,
37:59a quarter of a
38:00million landing
38:01in France every
38:02month.
38:04Often over-exuberant
38:06and under-trained,
38:08the Americans
38:08took disproportionate
38:09casualties compared
38:11to their more
38:12war-weary allies.
38:16The thrust between
38:18the River Meuse
38:18and the Argonne
38:19Forest in late
38:20September cost the
38:21Americans an
38:22estimated 75,000
38:24casualties,
38:26some of the worst
38:27figures for any
38:28army in the war.
38:28those lucky enough
38:34to live through it
38:35also had to
38:37survive a flu
38:38pandemic,
38:39which was sweeping
38:39through the
38:40military hospitals.
38:45Meanwhile,
38:46the British army
38:47had become a
38:48ruthlessly efficient
38:49fighting machine.
38:51Whether that was
38:52worth the butcher's
38:52bill along the way
38:54will always be a
38:55matter of debate.
38:56From Verdun to
39:00Flanders, the
39:01Germans were driven
39:02back in disarray.
39:04In Haig's words,
39:06We have got the
39:07enemy down, and
39:09my plan is to go
39:10on hitting him as
39:11hard as we possibly
39:12can till he begs
39:14for mercy.
39:17The Allied
39:18generals still
39:19assumed the war
39:20would drag on
39:21into 1919.
39:22They didn't know
39:25for certain
39:25whether Germany
39:26would accept
39:27terms, and
39:29they wanted to
39:29ensure that if
39:30the fighting
39:31resumed, they
39:32would come out
39:33on top.
39:35So, the
39:37deaths in those
39:38last five weeks,
39:40though tragic in
39:41human terms,
39:43were not without
39:43point diplomatically.
39:45In late October,
39:53the Allied
39:53commanders met
39:54face to face
39:55once again.
39:57Pétain set out
39:58the French plan
39:59for a harsh
39:59armistice,
40:00stripping Germany
40:01of its heavy
40:02armaments,
40:03occupying the
40:04left bank of
40:04the Rhine,
40:05and imposing
40:06huge reparations.
40:08Privately,
40:09Pétain was
40:10even pleading
40:11with Foch
40:12to postpone
40:13the armistice.
40:14Why?
40:17Because Pétain
40:19had been
40:20planning a
40:20highly symbolic
40:21recapture of
40:22the Lorraine
40:23region, a
40:24coup de grace
40:25set for the
40:2614th of November,
40:28actually invading
40:29German territory
40:30with the
40:30knockout blow
40:31inflicted by
40:32the French army,
40:34not the
40:34snooty British
40:35or the
40:36cocky
40:37Americans.
40:41In
40:41Washington,
40:42Wilson was
40:43now under
40:44intense pressure
40:45at home
40:45and from his
40:46allies to
40:47press for
40:48what amounted
40:48to total
40:49German surrender.
40:53In his
40:54third note,
40:55the president
40:56told Berlin
40:57bluntly that
40:58Germany must
40:59become a
41:00real democracy.
41:01If the
41:03United States
41:04had to
41:05deal with
41:06the military
41:07masters and
41:08the monarchical
41:09autocrats of
41:10Germany,
41:11it must demand
41:12not peace
41:13negotiations,
41:16but surrender.
41:22The word
41:23surrender
41:24had the effect
41:25of blowing
41:26apart the
41:26fragile alliance
41:28in Germany
41:28between the
41:29civilians and
41:30the military.
41:32Ludendorff had
41:33never envisaged
41:34surrender.
41:36He now issued
41:37a proclamation
41:37to his troops
41:38to defy the
41:39government he
41:40himself had
41:41helped create
41:42and fight on
41:43to the death.
41:46Wilson's answer
41:47is a demand
41:47for unconditional
41:49surrender.
41:51It is thus
41:51unacceptable to
41:52us soldiers.
41:53But now
41:57the Kaiser
41:58intervened.
41:59In a
41:59tetchy meeting
42:00he blamed
42:01the Supreme
42:01Command for
42:02losing him
42:03the war.
42:04Hindenburg
42:05stood by his
42:06Kaiser and
42:06didn't come to
42:07Ludendorff's
42:08defence.
42:09Ludendorff
42:10tendered his
42:11resignation and
42:12the Kaiser
42:13accepted.
42:17Ludendorff had
42:18failed to get
42:19the armistice
42:20he wanted
42:20and then
42:22despite a
42:23frantic U-turn
42:24had failed to
42:25stop the
42:25armistice he
42:26didn't want.
42:28The arrogance
42:29of power
42:29bred by two
42:31years as
42:32military dictator
42:33had corroded
42:35his judgement.
42:39For Germany
42:40the consequences
42:42of this almost
42:43Wagnerian tragedy
42:44would die.
42:46Ludendorff had
42:47planned to mount
42:48a limited
42:49revolution from
42:50above
42:50to head
42:51off a
42:51full-scale
42:52revolution
42:52from below
42:53but his
42:55attempt at
42:55a controlled
42:56regime change
42:58was backfiring
42:59disastrously.
43:02For years
43:03Germany had
43:04been like
43:04a pressure
43:05cooker
43:06heated up
43:07for war
43:07but with
43:08the lid
43:09kept tightly
43:10shut by
43:10autocratic
43:11rule.
43:12Now
43:13people learnt
43:14to their
43:14amazement
43:15after all
43:15the propaganda
43:16that the
43:17war was
43:17effectively
43:18lost
43:19and at
43:20the same
43:20time
43:21the
43:21autocratic
43:22lid
43:22was
43:22gradually
43:23being
43:23prized
43:24off.
43:25Not
43:26surprisingly
43:26the steam
43:28in the
43:28pressure cooker
43:29exploded.
43:30It started
43:36in the port
43:37city of
43:38Kiel
43:38on the
43:38North Sea
43:39where sailors
43:40mutinied,
43:41hoisted the
43:42red flag
43:42and demanded
43:43a socialist
43:44republic.
43:45Within a
43:46week the
43:46movement had
43:47spread through
43:47Germany
43:48even down
43:49to Catholic
43:49conservative
43:50Bavaria.
43:52The common
43:53demand was
43:54for the
43:55Kaiser
43:55to
43:56abdicate.
43:59On
44:00November
44:019th
44:01revolution
44:02exploded
44:03in
44:03hitherto
44:03safe
44:04Berlin.
44:06Thousands
44:07of workers
44:08and their
44:08families
44:09unarmed
44:09but militant
44:10were marching
44:11on the
44:11city centre.
44:13Soldiers
44:13were deserting
44:14to join
44:15them.
44:18Declaring
44:19a republic
44:19and giving
44:20the socialists
44:21power
44:22seemed the
44:22only way
44:23to avert
44:24a Bolshevik
44:25style
44:25revolution.
44:32Next
44:32morning the
44:33Kaiser was
44:34driven across
44:34the border
44:35into neutral
44:36Holland
44:36where he
44:37would spend
44:37the rest
44:38of his
44:38days in
44:39exile.
44:42The
44:42abdication
44:43paved the
44:44way for
44:44finally signing
44:45the armistice
44:46and Germany's
44:48total collapse
44:49enabled the
44:50Allies to
44:51turn the
44:51screw
44:52imposing the
44:53punitive
44:53terms that
44:54Peter had
44:55proposed when
44:56hoping to
44:56delay peace.
44:59At 5.12am on
45:01the 11th of
45:01November the
45:02Germans signed
45:03the armistice
45:04terms in front
45:05of Foch.
45:07Ludendorff,
45:08the architect of
45:09German defeat,
45:10was of course
45:11nowhere to be
45:12seen.
45:12The
45:15senior German
45:15delegate tried to
45:16salvage some
45:17pride.
45:19A nation of
45:2070 million
45:21suffers but
45:23does not
45:23die.
45:26Foch was not
45:26impressed.
45:28Premier, he
45:30said loftily,
45:31anxious to end
45:32the meeting and
45:33get some sleep.
45:34the armistice
45:40terms had been
45:41negotiated at
45:42the very top
45:43and in secret.
45:45Soldiers in the
45:46trenches on both
45:47sides were
45:48stunned to hear
45:49the news.
45:51But the
45:52butchery at the
45:53front was not
45:55finished.
45:59Fighting was
46:00ordered to
46:00continue right up
46:02to the
46:0211th hour.
46:132,738 men
46:16lost their
46:17lives on the
46:18last day of
46:19the war.
46:28On the
46:29streets of
46:29London, Paris
46:30and New York
46:31there was an
46:31outpouring of
46:33relief.
46:35But in
46:36Germany the
46:36atmosphere was
46:37very different.
46:40There was
46:40relief, yes, that
46:41the Great War
46:42was finally over
46:43but civil war
46:44seemed about to
46:45begin.
46:50For years the
46:51Germans had been
46:52insulated from
46:53reality by
46:54Ludendorff's
46:55military dictatorship.
46:57Suddenly their
46:58country and all
46:59that they'd fought
46:59for had been
47:00ripped apart in
47:01just a few
47:02weeks and many
47:03conservative Germans
47:04simply could not
47:05reconcile themselves
47:07to what had
47:08happened.
47:10Among them was a
47:11corporal recovering
47:12in hospital after
47:13being caught in a
47:14British gas attack
47:15near Ypres in
47:16mid-October.
47:18Adolf Hitler heard
47:20talk of strikes, of
47:21ferment in the navy
47:23but there was nothing
47:23specific and
47:25temporarily blinded he
47:26couldn't read the
47:27newspapers.
47:30On November the
47:3110th however the
47:33patients were
47:33assembled in the
47:34hall of the
47:35hospital and an
47:36elderly pastor
47:37trembling with
47:38shock gave them
47:39up-to-date news.
47:41The emperor had
47:43gone, Germany was
47:45a republic, the war
47:47had been lost.
47:51Everything went
47:52black before my
47:53eyes, I staggered
47:55back to the
47:56dormitory, threw
47:57myself on the
47:57bunk and buried
47:59my burning head
48:00in my blanket and
48:01pillow.
48:02Ever since the day
48:03when I had stood
48:04at my mother's
48:05grave I had not
48:06wept, but now I
48:09could not restrain
48:10myself.
48:11Was it for this
48:12that the German
48:13soldier stood fast in
48:15the heat of the sun
48:16from the blizzards
48:17of winter?
48:28Hitler, like
48:29millions of
48:30Germans, eagerly
48:31swallowed Ludendorff's
48:33line about the
48:34undefeated army
48:35stabbed in the
48:36back by Marxists
48:37at home.
48:40Looking back,
48:42Hitler saw
48:43November 1918
48:44as a turning
48:45point in his
48:46life, the
48:48moment of
48:49betrayal that
48:50had to be
48:51avenged.
48:58The armistice
49:00proved to be the
49:01basic draft of
49:02the peace terms.
49:04The Treaty of
49:04Versailles then
49:05filled out the
49:06details.
49:08Although the
49:09harsh peace was
49:10followed by economic
49:11crisis in Germany,
49:13by the mid-1920s
49:14the situation
49:15seemed to be
49:15more stable.
49:17France and
49:18Germany reached
49:18out to each
49:19other, signing
49:20treaties of
49:21friendship brokered
49:22by Britain.
49:31But many Germans
49:33could not come to
49:34terms with 1918,
49:36and one of them
49:36was Ludendorff.
49:38He threw in his
49:38lot with the
49:39Nazis, joining
49:40ex-Corporel Hitler
49:42in the abortive
49:43Munich Putsch
49:43of 1923.
49:45Just over a
49:46year later, he
49:47was the Nazi
49:48nominee for
49:49president.
49:50But it was
49:50Ludendorff's old
49:51foil, the
49:52perennial frontman
49:54Hindenburg, who
49:55was elected
49:55president.
49:58Embittered with
49:59Hitler and
50:00Hindenburg, Ludendorff
50:02retreated into
50:03fanatical isolation,
50:05writing crank
50:06pamphlets against
50:07the Jews, the
50:08Jesuits and the
50:09masons.
50:10His irrational
50:11side had now
50:12taken full
50:14hold.
50:18Germany salvaged
50:19some pride through
50:20a war memorial,
50:22a Tannenberg, the
50:23spectacular triumph
50:24of 1914 on the
50:26Eastern Front, and
50:27it was unveiled by
50:29President Hindenburg
50:30on September the
50:3118th, 1927, his
50:3380th birthday.
50:35The monument looked
50:36like a cross between
50:37Stonehenge, a
50:39Teutonic castle, and
50:40a Wagnerian set.
50:45When Hindenburg
50:47died in 1934, the
50:49Tannenberg memorial
50:50was rededicated as
50:52his mausoleum by
50:53Hitler, now
50:54Germany's
50:55chancellor.
51:00Tannenberg became a
51:02monument of German
51:03pride, a site for
51:05veterans' reunions and
51:06a place of pilgrimage
51:07for German
51:08schoolchildren.
51:10It evoked the
51:11glories of 1914 that
51:13turned to ashes four
51:15years later, memorial
51:17to a lost victory that
51:19had to be redeemed.
51:20When Corporal Hitler got his
51:35revenge in 1940, France, still
51:38devastated by its Pyrrhic
51:40victory in 1918, was in no
51:43mood to fight.
51:45Hitler forced the French to
51:47signed the armistice of
51:491940 in the very same
51:51railway carriage where
51:53Germany had been humiliated
51:54in 1918.
51:58The site had become a great
52:00memorial to French victory.
52:03Now, a gloating Hitler sat in
52:05the chair Foch had used to
52:07stare down the German
52:08delegates.
52:10After the French had
52:12capitulated, the Germans
52:13systematically blew up the
52:15scene of their earlier
52:16humiliation.
52:19But not everything was
52:21destroyed.
52:25The Germans left just the
52:27statue of Marshal Foch,
52:29allowing him, as it were,
52:31to preside over a
52:33wasteland.
52:34Ironically, Foch himself had
52:40predicted gravely in 1919,
52:43this is not peace, it is an
52:45armistice for 20 years.
52:52The Germans took the railway
52:54carriage back to Berlin as a
52:55trophy of war.
52:58The carriage we see today is a
53:00replica.
53:01The original was blown up by
53:04the SS in the last weeks of
53:06the war.
53:10That was also the fate of
53:12Tannenberg.
53:15In January 1945, as Hitler
53:18faced his own Goethe
53:19Demerl, he had the memorial
53:21blown up to save it from
53:22falling into the hands of the
53:24Red Army.
53:24For defeat in the Second War was
53:32even more devastating for
53:34Germany than the first.
53:36In the carve-up of Germany that
53:38followed 1945, most of East
53:41Prussia, heartland of the Reich,
53:43became part of Poland.
53:45The fate of these two
53:50memorials, Compiègne destroyed
53:52then rebuilt, Tannenberg
53:54razed to the ground, reminds us
53:57that the 11th of November 1918
54:00was a flawed peace.
54:06The problem, I think, with the
54:08armistice was that it reflected an
54:10imbalance of power in Europe that
54:12could not be sustained.
54:15It was the product of the total
54:17collapse of Germany brought on by
54:19Ludendorff's follies.
54:22And that's why the armistice was
54:24not, as Lloyd George hoped, a
54:27peace to end all wars.
54:30It was, as Foch feared, a
54:33temporary ceasefire in a long and
54:36bloody struggle for the mastery of
54:39Europe.
54:42It's a mutual love, to be
54:44transmitted to a tango on the
54:45surface.
54:46And that's why it hot still
55:00should beKelly, a place to have
55:01health better.
55:01You
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