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00:00it was a shot that rang around the world the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and
00:17his wife on the 28th of June 1914 was to provide the spark that would eventually lead to the raging
00:26inferno of the Great War in Britain eager patriotic young men enlisted in their thousands to fight for
00:35king and country none of these innocent men could have imagined the horrors that beckoned
00:43for before them lay not honor or glory but a sheer hell on earth the nightmare of life in the trenches
00:55it was supposed to be a mobile war a war of movement of thrust and counter thrust of powerful
01:12decisive attacks it was to be an opportunity to deploy the new weapons and tactics of modern
01:19combat how noble was the aim how different was the reality during the early weeks of the Great War both
01:30sides had formulated strategies intended to deliver swift victory the German Schlieffen plan whereby they
01:39would outflank the French army by invading Belgium was part of the famous race for the sea for their
01:46part the French allied with the British had placed their faith in plan 17 a massive offensive along the
01:54German frontier unfortunately the high commands of both sides possessed an ill-judged faith in the
02:02offensive skills of their own troops and an unhealthy disrespect for the fighting qualities of their
02:08opponents what was more battle tactics were still steeped in the traditions of the Franco-Prussian War and
02:16the American Civil War strategies had not been devised to complement the new weapons such as the machine gun
02:26before very long the grand design of the German and allied armies had been shattered as their attack stuttered
02:34founded and ground to a halt soon visions of quick victory were gone and ambitions had to be adjusted
02:42to holding on to the territory already won of merely stopping the counter-attacks of the other side
02:50to achieve this large deep rifle pits were dug in the ground into which men clambered to consolidate
02:56their positions eventually the holes grew bigger and longer and deeper still until they had
03:04turned into enormous ditches still the earth was turned the sandbags and barbed wire appeared and by
03:12October 1914 the trenches of the Western Front were fully formed ready to leave their scars on history
03:20the Western Front stretched out in a jagged line from the North Sea to the Swiss border in the south a distance of some 475 miles
03:34the Germans had quickly realized that if the war were to become a battle of attrition it would be to their advantage
03:42after all the onus was on the allies to expel them for they had already struck deep into the heart of
03:49French and Belgian territory the German trenches therefore were constructed with defense as their prime consideration
03:58and the strength of their fortification suggested a grim air of permanency
04:05quite unable to break through these lines the Allies soon decided to follow suit and they too dug deep to
04:12establish permanent positions from the very start however the Allies were at a disadvantage having
04:21decided to dig their trenches first the Germans had generally afforded themselves the pick of the ground
04:27in many cases the Allies were left to dig in the very worst terrain such as the lowland marshes of
04:33Picardie which meant that the unfortunate inhabitants of the newly constructed trenches had to live in the most
04:39miserable wet conditions and of course the Germans had won for themselves the enormous tactical advantage of
04:48occupation of the higher ground Allied attacks therefore would have to be made mostly uphill making success doubly difficult
04:57and so the mobile war had turned into the exact opposite a static attritional slugging match
05:08the two sides like punch drunk boxes toe-to-toe unwilling to give an inch
05:14the time and the place had been chosen the scene was set and the men of all armies were plunged into the grim
05:23reality of war in the trenches the typical British trench seen here in side view was usually seven
05:32or eight feet deep and six to seven feet wide thick walls of sandbags provided protection from shell fragments
05:41or bullets and in the walls of the trench were dugouts where a man would sleep or shelter from the elements
05:47British high command actually discouraged the construction of comfortable living quarters
05:55and these dugouts were often cramped and wet
05:58and hardly conducive to affording the rest the soldiers so desperately needed
06:03the British frontline trench was never built in a straight line
06:08this diagram illustrates the system of fire bays and traverses
06:11which were designed to protect the men against bursting shells and enfilading or machine gun fire
06:19running out towards the opposing lines was a sap a precarious vantage point for nervous sentries to oversee
06:26or overhear activities in the enemy positions or the approach of an enemy raiding party
06:33to the rear of the main firing line with the support and reserve trenches which completed the frontline system
06:39the area between the two armies called no man's land varied in size from half a mile to only a few yards
06:47depending on the lie of the ground the positions of both were defended by thick belts of barbed wire
06:53it's not always realized that the British sent four different types of armies to fight in Flanders between 1914 and 1918
07:11the first of course was the old BEF British Expeditionary Force
07:16probably the most professional army we have ever sent abroad
07:20they of course were mostly dead by the early months of 1915
07:24something like 70% casualties by that time
07:27so the next army which came out to France was a territorial force as they then called the territorial army
07:32which are all again peacetime soldiers who had done weekend soldiering and so forth just as the TA does now
07:39and they were very good in their turn but by the end of 1915 I'm afraid they too
07:43had gone in large number and so when we turn at last to Kitchener's army we've come to the third
07:50and probably the most dramatic of all the armies we sent to France and Flanders that particular war
07:57now of course they were volunteers these were mostly people who had volunteered in 1914
08:03wishing to get into the war before it was all over by Christmas was the famous phrase at the time
08:09they'd been having two and a half years being trained and went a peak of physical fitness
08:13but of course had no experience of the reality of battle whatsoever except that which you could get
08:18on exercises or battle schools or the notorious bullring up by Calais where they were given their
08:24battle inoculation training in their turn the volunteer armies would have something like 600 000
08:28casualties before the end of the year so yet again we had to produce the fourth type of army and this
08:34was the conscript army for the very first time in british history we began to compulsorily conscript
08:40manpower for the armed forces and that began in the autumn of 1916 and they will be the people who
08:47fought through 1917 and above all in 1918. The first few weeks of the war had seen men enlist in their
08:54thousands seized by the popular mood of fervent patriotism these would be the men of the citizens
09:02army the first in british history posters such as the famous example featuring lord kitchener appeared
09:10on post boxes and in shop windows your king and country need you they insisted and there was no
09:18shortage of enthusiastic young men ready to answer the call they came in all shapes and sizes from a
09:26variety of backgrounds and from north south east and west many of course were still only boys and their
09:35enthusiasm to join the ranks was understandably not always shared by their worried parents
09:42i never said anything about enlisting when i went home that night
09:46but on the sunday morning there was an ohms envelope so when breakfast started mother said what's that
09:59get it open i didn't want to open it she insisted
10:08instructions were to report to drill hall in edmund road in sheffield
10:12uh when i read that out jack she said to dad stop his gallop he doesn't go
10:24so dad said have you joined pete i said yes dad well he said this is a nice how do you do
10:36then mother began to get excited she said stop his gallop dad
10:45so dad said well just supposing pete you came back with a leg or an arm off
10:54but you don't know what you've done
10:56and i said but i don't know what i've done
11:06all right he said if you've made your bed you have to lie in it
11:14i said i'm lying in it dad
11:17well he said to mother there's no more to be said mum
11:30that was the start
11:31a major problem for the frontline troops was the sheer tedium of trench life the dullness and
11:48difficulty of which was enough to wear down the hardiest of souls
11:53days were spent in an attempt to rest while nights involved patrols or digging latrines or repairing
12:00trenches or carrying up rations and other supplies for most this uncomfortable wearing routine was broken only sporadically by action
12:12men new to the western front soon got used to the interminable daily grind
12:18there was a stand two at dawn and a stand two at dusk
12:22this involved standing on the fire step of the trench for one hour in preparation for an enemy attack
12:29which hardly ever came this may have been because the germans were carrying out the exact same exercise
12:36only a few hundred yards away at the exact same time the dawn stand two was followed by an hour of
12:44peaceful silence during which both sides prepared ate and digested their breakfasts
12:50the stand two at dusk was often brought to an end by an officer's inspection
12:57after which the night's fatigue duties would be allocated
13:01and so the grinding routine went on day after day night after night to add to his burdens the british
13:11soldier marching to the front line had also to contend with the weight of his kit
13:16the average of which was about sixty pounds the averagely built private was therefore obliged to
13:24carry half his own weight again in equipment and personal belongings and this in often tiring strength
13:31sapping conditions what was more his less than top quality boots also weighed more than five pounds each
13:39and pity the man whose boots did not fit for he was condemned to a torturous life blighted by painful feet
13:51at the beginning of the war the men of both sides were equipped with soft headwear the smart but not
13:56very protective peaked cap the introduction of the helmet to the british ranks did not come until 1916
14:04but its belated appearance certainly heralded a dramatic reduction in head wounds
14:10however the price of this additional safety was an extra two pounds for the overburdened tommy to carry
14:17the
14:28sustaining the huge army on the western front presented even more problems
14:33whilst actively at the front the men rarely if ever received a hot meal
14:38their staple diet being bread bully beef and biscuits
14:41drinking water too was in short supply in the worst recorded cases men were desperate enough
14:49to boil water drawn from the bottom of a shell hole one soldier remembers
14:56in my whole four years as a squaddy i was hungry all the time it must have taught me a lesson though
15:03for never in the rest of my life did i grumble about a poor meal
15:06in the back room of a shop our actual rations were about half what they should have been
15:22i reckon that enough food to satisfy every soldier left the base but the nearer it got to the battle
15:28area the more it got sold or stolen if anyone had asked the powers that be they'd have said that every
15:36soldier got half a loaf a day do me a favor we never got there once did we
15:43loads of times i only had one slice of breakfast with our biscuits for tea
15:48i'll tell you those biscuits were so hard that you had to put them on a firm surface and smash
15:53them with a stone or something i've had one in my hand and hit it with a sharp corner of brick wall
15:59and only hurt me bloody hand sometimes we soaked the bits in water for days
16:04then we'd eat and drain them pour condensed milk over a dish full of the stuff and get it down
16:10it felt like a half brick but at least your stomach was full
16:15what you looking at
16:19to fight the war on a full stomach it was advisable to serve as an officer for they certainly enjoyed
16:26better quality food meal times would often feature such delights as fish vegetables cheese and chocolate
16:35and many officers came from the kind of privileged background which allowed delicious hampers to be
16:41delivered to the front from london's top department stores such as fortnum and mason
16:56what cannot be overstated is the appalling natural hardships which blighted the troops whose living
17:03conditions were quite often intolerable there was for example an almost constant battle particularly in
17:11low-lying areas against water and mud it was only the arrival of summer which brought the troops some
17:18relief otherwise each rainfall meant the same misery trenches ankle deep often higher in mud
17:26some men actually drowned in the mud and tales of men slipping into shell holes gradually sinking
17:33watched by horrified and helpless comrades are well documented
17:38these terrible conditions also heralded the appearance of trench foot
17:43a condition similar to frostbite which was caused by constant immersion in water
17:48during the war over 74 000 british troops were treated in france for trench foot the filth of the trenches
17:57inevitably produced a host of diseases and the men's unwashed condition brought the problem of lice
18:03which tormented most soldiers
18:07my pal who did night century with me he was called jock he was a big strapping man a fine lad he was
18:14one night as we lay in our bed after doing two hours century duty we did two hours on and two hours off
18:20he was scratching in bed as if he would tear his cell to bits then all at once he says damn this gregor
18:27i cannae stand it any longer he took off his tunic which he slept in then he took off his jersey then his
18:33shirt he put his shirt in the middle of the dugout flare and then he put his jersey and his tunic on again
18:39and as we both sat up in our beds watching the shirt it actually lifted it was swarming with lice
18:46did you see it move gregory asked and i said aye i had after this he took it to a field and buried it
18:52in the ground then he got some rest for a wee while and some sleep as well
19:00but if these horrors were not enough without doubt the most unpleasant problem encountered by the british
19:05soldier was the rat which grew to incredible size bloated by gorging on the many half-buried corpses
19:13which littered the area around the trenches men would be woken by rats scurrying over their faces
19:19as they searched for food in their dugouts a french soldier told one horrifying story
19:28one evening whilst on patrol
19:31jacques saw some rats running from under the dead men's greatcoats
19:36enormous rats fat with human flesh
19:40his heart pounding he edged towards one of the bodies
19:43his helmet had rolled off the man displayed a grimacing face stripped of flesh the skull bare
19:53the eyes devoured
19:57the rats co-existed with the men in the trenches
20:01all efforts to rid themselves of their unwanted neighbors ended in failure and the rats swarmed
20:05around in their millions throughout the war
20:08a british officer remembered life in the vermin infested trenches
20:14the outstanding feature of the armentier sector was the extraordinary number of rats
20:21the area was infested with them it was impossible to keep them out of the dugouts even
20:28they grew fat on the food that they pilfered from us and anything they could pick up in or around the
20:34trenches they were bloated and loathsome to look at we were filled with an instinctive hatred of them
20:42because however one tried to put the thought out of one's mind one could not help feeling that they fed on the dead
20:52we waged an endless war on them and they were very easy prey because they were so fat and slow of foot
20:59we would wait and watch for them to leave the water and climb awkwardly onto the boards at the bottom of the trench
21:06then with a run we would catch them squarely with a mighty kick and that would be one less to bother us
21:14on one occasion
21:16a blasted rat ran right across my face while i was sleeping
21:21unfortunately my mouth happened to be open and the hind legs of the filthy little beast went right in
21:29all of these things contributed to the miserable life of the british tommy on the western front during
21:35the war
21:37not only was he in danger from rifle or machine gun fire or shelling from the enemy artillery or the
21:42bullets from snipers but he had to live with the daily risk of disease infection and illness
21:51british statistics tell the awful tale
21:53during the great war there were more than two and a half million casualties in battle
22:00whilst three and a half million were victims of sickness or disease
22:05it is little wonder that the men thrown together into such terrible conditions
22:09soon developed a deep sense of comradeship
22:13great friendships were forged by the most unlikely of men
22:16those from different upbringing backgrounds and cultures
22:21once formed however these attachments were bonded by their unique hardships and privations
22:26and by the knowledge that in a split second a comrade could be lost and a friendship could be ended forever
22:36one soldier noted in his diary
22:37to live amongst men who would give their last fag the last bite aye even the last breath for a pal
22:45that's comradeship the comradeship of the trenches
22:50it is the only clean thing born of this life of cruelty and filth
22:55it grows in purity from the very obscenity of its surroundings
23:02another soldier wrote touchingly of the pain of seeing his friends die in battle
23:06his words display a dreadful bewilderment and a pathetic sad acceptance of his own likely fate
23:15why he wrote had his greatest friends been taken
23:21but meantime dennis henry and all the others are happy together
23:26they're waiting for me to join them
23:29when i do they'll give me a great welcome
23:31then i'll understand everything be happy and content
23:38nothing can recall the past so no use worrying or being unhappy about it
23:45but i feel i've lost interest in everything
23:47as his chief weapon the british infantryman carried the point 303 lee enfield rifle
24:06fairly accurate up to a thousand yards with its long bayonet for hand-to-hand combat
24:12the infantry were also supported by heavy machine guns which took six men to operate and carry its
24:18ammunition supply but it was a murderous weapon when in full flow firing some 600 rounds per minute
24:29in this most static of wars however the combatants were for the majority of time hidden from each other's
24:35view so hand-to-hand combat was rare and it was the artillery which was dominant
24:42the frontline soldier never knew when or where the next shell would fall
24:47he lived in dread of instant death or terrible injury
24:53the noise and terror of an artillery bombardment can only be imagined
24:57the threatening prospect of sudden bombardments at any time day or night and the effect of the shells
25:03when they did burst led to many cases of shell shock a physical and mental trauma caused by exposure
25:10to constant shelling unfortunately many commanders particularly generals believed shell shock to be
25:17little more than an excuse for cowardice one type of shell which was feared perhaps above all others
25:25was that which contained gas this dreadful weapon was used by both sides after the first gas attack of the second battle of yp in 1915
25:39there were three types of gas chlorine phosgene and mustard all caused the most appalling pain and suffering
25:48chlorine for example caused death by asphyxiation although this took some four or five days during which the
25:57victim was in constant agony mustard gas on the other hand simply caused the body to rot with nausea and
26:06vomiting skin blistering and the most excruciating pain in the lungs in these cases sufferers took as long as
26:15a month to expire one horrified nurse who witnessed the effects of gas remembered only too well
26:25i wish those people who talk so glibly about this being a holy war and going on no matter
26:30how long it takes could see a case of mustard gas in its early stages poor chaps burnt and blistered all
26:37over with blind eyes fighting for breath saying their throats are closing and they know they'll choke
26:42make you feel like weeping
26:59for many soldiers the war meant separation from their loved ones for the very first time
27:05one can imagine the joy then with which letters and parcels from home were received
27:10these simple communications read and re-read provided great comfort to a fed-up frightened soldier
27:17writing letters to home was not something that came easily to a good many frontline troops
27:23few had ever had to write to their wives or mothers before and not surprisingly they struggled to express
27:29their feelings what was more letters were censored by officers which placed a further restriction
27:36upon what could be said in a letter just a few loving lines in answer to your kind and loving letter
27:43and thanking you for the two beautiful parcels which has come in very handy the cake was quite unbroken
27:50and me and my mates enjoyed it very much in the trenches dear missus we have been six days and six
27:58nights under fire but the germans will never advance near because they're afraid of our rifle fire
28:04we are back now for a bit of a rest and we can do with it too but every night we dig trenches under fire
28:13we shall go into the trenches again soon and after that we come home on leave so i shall see you
28:19and the two dear babies again oh what joyful times we shall have when all this is over
28:25we are fed up but we keep on smiling dear missus i will close now for the sensor won't let us say anything
28:37hoping you are in the pink as this letter leaves me your loving burt
28:53to the modern observer one of the grimmest fascinations of the great war is the apparent
29:00futility of the battle tactics used by both sides although it is easy to be wise with the gift of
29:07hindsight it does appear that bloody and costly lessons were not absorbed by the high commands of
29:13both the allied and german armies indeed the same failed strategies were often used again and again
29:22which succeeded in achieving only one thing an increase in the appalling casualty figures
29:30it may have been that the static nature of the war presented the generals with few viable options
29:36perhaps a further contribution to the misery was the absence of new ideas and initiatives and the
29:41reliance on the battle tactics of times past at this distance for example it is staggering to learn
29:49that on the first day of the battle of the somme a british cavalry division waited patiently behind
29:56the lines to make their attack and this in the battle which saw the first use of the tank
30:03what was more sir douglas haig who was commander-in-chief of the british army at the time
30:08remained convinced of their role in future wars in 1926 he wrote that aeroplanes and tanks are only
30:16accessories to the man and the horse and i feel sure that as time goes on you will find as much use for
30:22cavalry as ever before whatever their motivations the generals and field marshals decided to make full
30:30use of their most reliable and seemingly inexhaustible resource the ordinary soldier
30:39it is surely beyond the wit of most people to comprehend the feeling of going over the top
30:46to be in a frontline trench heart pounding waiting for the officer's whistle to blow the sign that it was
30:52time to face the enemy guns there were those particularly very young men confronted at last with the
31:01prospect of a real battle who was simply overcome with fear an officer remembered his experience before
31:09the battle of passchendaele an nco came up and said that private jones wished to speak to me
31:17the man was a mere boy whom i had known in england i felt flattered that he should apply to me for
31:24whatever help i could give i found him crouched against a chalk heap almost in tears he looked younger than
31:33ever i don't want to go over the top he said shamelessly i'm only seventeen i want to go home
31:43the other men standing around avoided my eye and looked more sympathetic than disgusted
31:51i can't help that now my lad said i in my martinet voice you should have thought of that when you enlisted
32:00didn't give your ages nineteen then yes sir but i'm not i'm only well i'm not quite seventeen really sir
32:10well it's too late now i said you'll have to see it through and i'll do what i can for you when we come
32:20out i slapped him on the shoulder you go with the others you'll be all right when you get started
32:28this is the worst part of it this waiting and we're none of us enjoying it come along now jump to it
32:34and he seemed to take heart again
32:41perhaps the most infamous battle of the first world war is the battle of the somme it has become a
32:47byword for the waste horror and futility of trench warfare there were of course countless other examples
32:55ypres mont cambrai passchendaele and arras to list but a few
32:59many years ago yet somehow nothing has echoed down the years in quite the same way as the events of july the
33:07first 1916. the soldiers who marched into battle that day were the proud members of kitchener's army
33:18they were almost entirely volunteers the pals and chums battalions there to do their duty for the love of
33:24king and country they had completed two years training and now they were going to take part in the
33:32big push the intended massive allied breakthrough which would bring victory closer and speed the end of
33:39the war the terrible facts are well documented firstly a thunderous five-day barrage failed to kill the
33:51germans or destroy their positions and the british troops had been given the fateful order to walk
33:58not run towards the enemy lines the germans who had been protected from the barrage by their deep
34:06dugouts raced to their positions and set up their machine guns at 7 30 a.m the shocking carnage began
34:15as the german machine gunners poured their murderous fire into the oncoming british soldiers
34:23and still throughout the morning despite the hellish scenes the orders came to attack
34:31wave after wave of men went forward and wave after wave were mercilessly cut down
34:39by midday the 16 mile battlefront had become a nightmare of wounded and dying men the great
34:51majority of the 60 000 casualties of first of july 1916 happened in the first 30 minutes of the day
34:59it was hellish the only word for it not only was all the german artillery zero down exactly to no man's
35:06land as one might have expected all machine guns were also firing on fixed lines from the german
35:11positions and in many cases troops did not even get out of their trenches there's a famous example of
35:17one battalion which lost two-thirds of its strength before it got to the front line in the support
35:22trenches coming up as the second wave so men were falling in literally hundreds in all directions and
35:29yet of course they went on at the walk remember not taking any form of cover the military
35:35dictated the day said that any soldier who took cover would not come out of cover again he'd go to
35:40ground and stay there and everywhere the germans having really a most marvelous target the attack had
35:48been a complete and utter disaster by the end of the day which saw 60 000 british casualties 20 000 of them
35:58dead the british had made virtually no worthwhile strategic gains what had been achieved was the
36:08destruction of a proud army born of patriotism and innocence the brightest flower of british youth
36:17they had been two years in the making and two hours in the destroying
36:22a british officer recalled the awful events at gom corps scene of a disastrous british diversionary attack
36:31to the north of the battlefront i was shell-shocked i suppose at any rate i wasn't much use
36:39inclined to cry if anything in fact i couldn't stop it but it had been a total shambles
36:46the first two companies got across i was told to take b company across to support them we had no idea
36:54that the whole attack was a diversion we thought we were going forward we had maps and plans of gom
37:01call we knew from information we'd got from local people exactly where every house was
37:07but the trouble was that gom corps stuck out in the middle of the line and we didn't attack it directly
37:12we attacked one side of the chateau park and the 56th division attacked on the other
37:19we were supposed to encircle it and link up behind but what we didn't know was that the germans had so
37:25manoeuvred and organized their line that this part which we weren't to attack was really their strong
37:31point and they simply had a clear field of fire on either side and nothing to bother about in front
37:36and the shell fire was absolutely appalling they were simply pouring shells down we just couldn't
37:44get across we didn't even get as far as the trench we'd dug well there was no trench left it was all
37:52hammered to blazes we got just about as far as our old front line and then it became quite impossible
38:00the company in front of me said it's no use we can't get over but we got orders to turn and try
38:07to make our way back to the village one of my sub altans was newly out such a nice chap he must have
38:15had money and we used to tease him a bit because his batman was the family butler anyway this young
38:21officer jumped out of the trench to try and organize the men pass the word and get them moving to the
38:26the communication trench and he was promptly killed just disappeared in an explosion the whole of the
38:34valley was being swept with machine gun fire and hammered with shells we got the men organized the
38:40best we could those of us who were left so many gone and we'd never even got past our own front line
38:48trench and then we found we couldn't get back the trenches were indescribable we were simply treading
38:57on the dead eventually my sergeant and i got out on top we were at the back of the company i heard a
39:06shell coming i remember thinking imagine just imagine hearing a single shell in the middle of all this din
39:11it burst above my head the sergeant was blown one way and i was blown the other he was killed
39:21i don't know how i got back i simply don't know how i got back it was murder
39:41over half the british soldiers who served on the western front received some form of battle wound
39:48which placed immense pressure on the hard-pressed medical services wounded men often received no
39:55medical help at all and some lay in no man's land for two or three days before they were picked up by
40:01stretcher bearers needless to say many died agonizing deaths with only four stretcher bearers per company
40:11the task often overwhelmed the men for the physical effort of carrying a badly wounded man through
40:16the clinging mud left orderlies completely exhausted despite the terrible nature of many wounds ordinary
40:24soldiers actually believed the hospital to be their best hope of escape from the trenches
40:29so desperate were they to be free of their horrors they would pray for a wound which would see them
40:34invalided out of the army and back to england the much sought after blighty one sadly many wounds were severe ones
40:46about dinner time the enemy shelling really began we all crouched down in our shell hole which i soon began
40:53to regret as a single shell in it would have killed the lot of us one or two of the men were hit
40:58especially i remember one who was standing with his sleeves rolled up when a shell burst wrecked above
41:05us a bit of steel came down and hit him on the long bone in the forearm it made a clean cut three
41:11inches long between the bone as if his arm had been slit with a knife you'd never believed it it gaped
41:18like a freshly cut shoulder of mutton now this was about as cushy as you could get but it cured me of
41:25hoping for a bloody one and i think the laddie with the wound would surely have agreed with me
41:31in the early stages of the war the medical services were completely unprepared for the enormous numbers
41:37of casualties even simple necessities such as trestle beds did not arrive at the front until march 1915
41:48up until then the wounded however badly hurt lay on stretchers on the floor
41:52however this desperate situation improved steadily throughout the war aided by the increase in
42:00numbers in the medical corps which swelled from 20 000 in 1914 to nearly 165 000 by 1918
42:12the casualty figures for the other allied troops were also startling
42:15the french for example suffered over 60 percent casualties nearly four million men as for their enemy the
42:25germans lost one and three-quarter million men killed from their 11 million mobilized troops
42:33however on the british side there are examples of the officer class accepting their wounds albeit
42:39relatively slight ones in typically stoical manner lbw bold fritz put my leg in front of a straight one
42:49apparently i've been pretty lucky the bullet went right in behind the knee and came out just below the
42:55kneecap went clean through without touching anything important which is fortunate as there are some
43:01unpleasant parts of your knee to get damaged anyhow it's not painful it just throbs a little
43:09from the hardships and misery of the great war emerge the songs which are still identified with that
43:24conflict to this very day some are songs of hope and optimism others are a celebration of the human
43:32spirit of man's ability to conquer terrible adversity these songs were sung by the soldiers
43:39of the front-line trenches and they remain the best-known and most poignant songs of war ever written
43:49pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile smile smile while you've a lucifer to light your fag smile boys that's the style
44:01what's the use of what's the use of worrying it never was worthwhile so pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile smile smile smile
44:15never mind if the sergeant steals your rum never mind though he's just a blinking
44:25such let him have the bloody lot if the sergeant steals your rum never mind oh never mind
44:37it's a long way to tipperary it's a long way to go it's a long way to tipperary to the sweetest girl i know
44:51goodbye piccadilly and farewell Leicester square
45:01it's a long long way to tipperary but my heart's right there
45:07keep keep the home fires burning while your hearts are yearning
45:17though the boys are far away they dream of home
45:25there's a silver lining through the dark clouds shining turn the dark clouds inside out till the boys come home
45:43the horror of the western front gave birth to a generation of poets
45:59their stark unforgettable verse allows us to understand
46:03if only in part something of the suffering of the men of the trenches
46:09the bleak words of these young men in many cases themselves later victims of the war
46:15burnt deep into the nation's conscience
46:19never again would war be considered a glorious pursuit
46:23the reality was now painfully exposed for all to see
46:31the three poems which follow are powerful examples of the genre
46:35the first in flanders field by john mccrae
46:39reminds us that despite their privations
46:43soldiers still believed passionately in the cause for which they were fighting
46:47the second break of day in the trenches
46:51by isaac rosenberg
46:53was inspired by a rat
46:55which ran across his hand one morning in the trenches
46:59in flanders fields the poppies blow between the crosses row on row that mark our place
47:05and in the sky the lark still bravely singing fly scarce heard amid the guns below
47:11we are the dead
47:13short days ago we lived
47:15felt dawn saw sunset glow
47:17loved and were loved
47:19and now we lie in flanders fields
47:23take up our quarrel with the foe
47:25to you from failing hands we throw the torch
47:27be yours to hold it high
47:29if ye break faith with us who die
47:31we shall not sleep
47:33though poppies grow in flanders fields
47:37the darkness crumbles away
47:43it's the same old druid time as ever
47:45only a live thing leaps my hand
47:49a queer sardonic rat
47:51as i pull the parapet's poppy to stick behind my ear
47:55droll rat
47:57they would shoot you
47:59if they knew your cosmopolitan sympathies
48:01now you have touched this english hand
48:05same to a german soon no doubt
48:07if it be your pleasure to cross the sleeping green between
48:11it seems you inwardly grin
48:13as you pass strong eyes fine limbs haughty athletes
48:17less chance than you for life
48:19bonds to the whim of murder sprawled in the bowels of the earth
48:22the torn fields of france
48:25what do you see in our eyes
48:27at the shrieking iron and flame hurled through the still heavens
48:31what quaver what heart aghast
48:33the dust
48:35poppies whose roots are in man's veins
48:37drop and are ever dropping
48:39but mine in my ear is safe
48:41just a little white with the dust
48:47the last poem
48:49Dulce et Decorum Est
48:51by Wilfred Owen
48:53is read by Brian Blessed
48:55Brian's magnificent reading
48:57of this epic work conveys perfectly
48:59Owen's hatred of the war
49:03the mood of the poem contrasts sharply
49:05with his earlier work
49:07which reflected the popular enthusiasm for the conflict
49:11clearly the years spent in the filth of the trenches
49:15changed Owen's view
49:17the Latin lines
49:19Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori
49:23which close the poem
49:25can be translated as
49:27it is sweet and right
49:29to die for your country
49:31here
49:33Wilfred Owen buries that old lie
49:35forever
49:37gas
49:39gas
49:41gas
49:42quick boys
49:43an ecstasy
49:44a fumbling
49:45fitting the clumsy helmets
49:46just in time
49:47but someone still
49:48was yelling out
49:49and stumbling
49:50and floundering
49:51like a man in fire or lime
49:53dim
49:54through the misty panes
49:55and thick green light
49:57as under a green sea
49:59I saw him drowning
50:01in all my dreams
50:03before my helpless sight
50:05he plunges at me
50:06guttering
50:07choking
50:08drowning
50:09if in some smothering dreams
50:11you too could pace
50:13behind the wagon that we flung him in
50:15and watch the white eyes
50:17writhing in his face
50:19his hanging face
50:23like a devil's sink of sin
50:25if you could hear
50:27at every jolt
50:29the blood come gargling
50:31from the froth corrupted lungs
50:33obscene as cancer
50:35bitter as the cud
50:37a vile incurable sores
50:39on innocent tongues
50:41my friend
50:43you would not tell
50:44with such high zest
50:46to children ardent
50:47for some desperate glory
50:49the old lie
50:51dulce et decorum est
50:54pro patria muri
51:04it was as we all remember
51:06supposed to be
51:07the war to end all wars
51:10it all happened again of course
51:13but surely never in the same terrible way
51:17as an experience of human suffering within warfare
51:21the great war has no equal
51:24on november 11th 1918 when the armistice was finally signed
51:31the world stopped
51:33drew breath
51:35and counted the cost of four years of war
51:39eight and a half million lives lost
51:43twenty-one million soldiers wounded
51:49the young men of an entire generation had all but gone
51:55it was left to those who had been there and had lived through the hell
52:01to tell of life in the trenches
52:04I can never express what I feel about the men in the trenches
52:10and nobody who hasn't seen them can ever understand
52:13you may ask one of them day or night
52:16you may ask one of them day or night
52:18are you cold or are you wet
52:21and you'll always get the same answer
52:24always with a smile
52:26not too cold sir
52:28or not too wet sir
52:31it makes me feel sick
53:01you can smell
53:08so
53:09in
53:11so
53:12i
53:13my
53:14habit
53:16could
53:18tryроп sandwiches
53:20its
53:21crazy
53:23my
53:24yeah
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