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00:00On these fields, one of the greatest battles of the First World War was fought, the Battle of the Somme.
00:22Today the Somme is remembered as the worst disaster in British military history.
00:26In just one day, nearly 20,000 British soldiers were killed.
00:44The generals who sent wave after wave of men to their death have been condemned as callous donkeys.
00:50But there was much more to the Somme than senseless slaughter, because it was on the Somme that the British army learnt to defeat their German enemy.
01:02This is the real story of the Somme, based on both British and German first-hand accounts.
01:11It's the story of a brave band of pals.
01:15Tom!
01:16Tom!
01:17Stay!
01:18And of commanders who turned initial failure into ultimate success.
01:22Port-Marshall me if I survive, sir. I'm the only senior officer out here still in one piece.
01:31Northern France, 21st of June 19th.
01:32This is a war.
01:33It's the same.
01:34Long era, still in one piece.
01:35What's the is going on?
01:37You're going on!
01:38Watch this!
01:43You're going on, join your sergeant!
01:46Go on!
01:48Go on!
01:48Go on!
01:49Go on!
01:51Go on!
01:52Go on!
01:57Go on!
01:58Northern France, 21st of June, 1916.
02:04Private Walter Fidesz and his mates were enjoying a few days' rest and relaxation,
02:08five miles behind the front line.
02:17These men were neither professional soldiers nor conscripts.
02:21Like most of the British troops in 1916, they were civilian volunteers.
02:28Walter Fidesz was a shop assistant from Salford, near Manchester.
02:39His best friend, Lance Corporal Thomas Mellor, was a travelling salesman.
02:43He'd just got married.
02:45Corporal Stephen Sharples was also from Salford. He knew both Fidesz and Mellor well from their local church.
03:02Go on, go on!
03:07Bloody hell!
03:08What's your language, Fidesz?
03:09Hey, Steve, you want to join in?
03:13It's Corporal to you, Fidesz.
03:16Yes, sir. Would you mind joining a fighting game of football, Corporal?
03:19No, thanks.
03:20Thanks.
03:21Oh, come on!
03:22It's Tommies versus the Huns, and the Huns are leading four to one.
03:26And we need a decent goalkeeper.
03:27Yeah, and a forward who scores.
03:28Fidesz, Mellor and Sharples had joined up soon after war broke out in 1914.
03:39Over a million men responded to Field Marshal Lord Kitchener's call for a new army.
03:44A wave of patriotic fervour swept the country.
03:58Often friends or colleagues from the same town or workplace joined so-called PALS battalions,
04:03so they could fight side by side.
04:05Fidesz and his friends had enlisted into the 2nd Salford PALS or 16th Lancashire Fusiliers.
04:26They had been afraid that the war would be over before they could see action,
04:30but now their wish was about to be granted.
04:32We'll move back to the trenches tomorrow.
04:35What? Tomorrow?
04:37We've only been here for a week.
04:39The word is, the big push is on.
04:42And we're going to play an important part in it.
04:47That's it then, lads.
04:49Big push is on at last.
05:02The big push was the British Army's response to a French plea for help.
05:08Two years of trench warfare along a 350-mile front had taken its toll.
05:16German and French troops were locked in a vicious battle of attrition at the fortress town of Verdun.
05:20The German aim was to bleed France white.
05:29By mid-1916, the French Army was on the brink of defeat.
05:38France was desperate for her ally to divert German troops through a joint Anglo-French attack in the north of France at the river Somme.
05:48So in the early summer of 1916, more than 300,000 Allied troops assembled against just 100,000 Germans along a front 25 miles long.
06:10It was the greatest deployment of British forces in the war so far.
06:25General Baron Franz von Söden commanded one of the eight German divisions facing the British Army.
06:31They were fully aware of the British build-up.
06:34The last message of the week, England had 20 times more men in our division division than us.
06:43What do you mean, my dear?
06:46One German soldier with six Kitschner soldiers at the meeting.
06:53What von Söden was relying on was that unlike Kitschner's volunteer army,
06:57most of his men were veterans of trench warfare.
07:00Men such as Corporal Friedrich Hinkel.
07:08Like the Salford Pals, Hinkel and his men were not professional soldiers,
07:12but many of them had done two years of compulsory service before the war.
07:15Before the war.
07:16Tell me, Hinkel, what do you mean?
07:20How many Tommies can you take it?
07:25Five?
07:27Five?
07:28Or none.
07:30So you can take it with five to ten Englands?
07:33Yes, General.
07:34And all my young men.
07:35You must get ahead of the athletics of Robinson.
07:37Do you see the gentlemen?
07:40Speaker one, stay on the way!
07:45Weis Godinness.
07:48General!
07:50Do you know our westward phä»ç?
07:54Take him ham!
07:56Hang him, dalĐ”ĐčŃŃĐČu's.
07:57Zodan and his men held the Tiepval Plateau, a key strong point of the German defences.
08:11The high ground dominated the entire northern sector of the Somme Front.
08:18It included the ruins of the village of Tiepval and a stronghold called the Schwaben Redoubt.
08:27Zodan's troops had turned the place into a fortress.
08:35Yet on the morning of the 24th of June, the strength of German engineering was put to the test.
08:41For seven days and nights, some 3,000 British and French guns fired more than three million shells into the German lines.
09:01The aim was to obliterate the German defences entirely.
09:18By the 1st of July, the day of the attack, it seemed to have worked.
09:22Captain Thomas Tweed was the commander of B Company of the 2nd Salford Pals.
09:34Private Walter Fides was his orderly.
09:36Teacher?
09:42You want a look?
09:43I wouldn't want to be fritz.
09:59I think there'll be many of them left, sir, when we get over there.
10:02Can you imagine anything living through a bombardment like that?
10:07Might have been an easy time, wouldn't it?
10:09Easier than drinking your tea, Vince.
10:11As you were, lads.
10:17Tweed was a Salford man and a volunteer, just like his men.
10:21He had personally enlisted most of them, including Thomas Mellor and Stephen Sharples.
10:26I'm really sweet, I know.
10:31On your feet, lads.
10:32All right, lads, as you were, as you were.
10:34As you were.
10:38Who's of these?
10:40Mellor's suit.
10:41May I?
10:42Of course, sir.
10:47You're a very lucky man.
10:49I know, sir.
10:50At least that's what my wife keeps telling me.
10:55Don't suppose you've had much time to think about a honeymoon?
10:57Not yet.
10:58Tell you the truth.
10:59You were saying?
11:07Me wife quite likes the sound of northern France.
11:11Well, that's it, lads.
11:14We'll have to finish the Huns off today as a present for Mrs Mellor.
11:16Tweed's company were not in the first wave of the attack.
11:29Mellor, Fidders and Sharples would go over the top 30 minutes after Zero Hour.
11:34The battle plan dictated that the Salford Pals would take Thiepval within one hour and 20 minutes.
11:47On their left, the Ulster Division was to capture the Schwaben stronghold to the north.
11:59It was all meant to go like clockwork.
12:01At 7.30, all along the 25 miles of the Somme Front, 90,000 British and French soldiers began to cross no man's land.
12:29Many British infantry units were ordered to advance at walking pace.
12:41Nobody expected there would be much left of the Germans in their defences.
12:51But that was not what Captain Tweed saw.
12:59Where the hell did those machine guns come from?
13:10The huge British bombardment had failed.
13:14Within minutes of the attack, the Germans were out of their dugouts and back in position.
13:22No, thank you, sir.
13:24I must have smoked a pack on my own already.
13:25Not such an easy time, after all.
13:47They're breaking through.
13:48Some of our lads are breaking through.
13:49I can't see them.
13:55On the left.
13:58Where?
14:05Salford.
14:11Meanwhile, just 500 yards from the Salford Pals,
14:15Corporal Hinkle was facing the first waves of the Ulster Division.
14:19Three of Hinkle's section had been struck down by shrapnel,
14:46but the rest had survived the British bombardment.
14:48Among them, a young man nicknamed the Stammler,
14:54German for Stammler.
14:58Stammler!
14:59How did you do that?
15:00You've already got to go!
15:02Fierer!
15:03Fierer!
15:05Very good!
15:05Fierer so!
15:06Back home, the Stammler was a farm boy.
15:12On the Somme, he was Hinkle's best shot.
15:20Yet shooting skills alone could do little against the onrushing Ulstermen.
15:24Hinkle's men were vastly outnumbered.
15:27Hold my back!
15:28But just in time, there came vital support.
15:40Once our machine guns started chattering and our field artillery flashed up,
15:51the leaderless masses wavered and fled.
15:55A wall of dead was piling up.
15:57The machine guns had a rich harvest.
16:00Not one of them made it through to what was left of our trench.
16:03By now, the 2nd Salford Pals had moved into the front trench.
16:15At 8 o'clock, it was their turn to go over the top.
16:20Sergeant Major, fix bayonets.
16:23Fix bayonets!
16:24Five and six, over the top.
16:38Good luck, boys!
16:38Good luck, boys!
16:40Help a ladder!
16:56Yeah!
17:10What are you doing? Keep going! Keep going! Keep going!
17:17Keep going!
17:18Aw!
17:28Keep in your dressing!
17:29Keep in your dressing!
17:40Through the perfect storm of lead, the company went on.
17:44Ignoring the rain of death that whistled about them,
17:47they kept running from shell hole to shell hole, on and on.
17:51Pals of years' association dropped.
17:53Others fell, riddled with bullets, never to rise again.
17:59But the cry was always on.
18:01Come on! Move on!
18:09Move on!
18:10Forward!
18:11Come on!
18:12Let's keep moving!
18:14Among the many casualties was Lance Corporal Thomas Mellor.
18:19Lance!
18:32Jump!
18:36Jump!
18:40All right, lads, come on!
18:42Come on!
19:00One hour into the battle, the picture was the same on much of the Somme front.
19:04Infantrymen mown down by machine guns.
19:08Those among the wounded who made it back to their trenches were the lucky ones.
19:19But there were some Allied successes that day.
19:34In the south, the more experienced French army made rapid gains, taking thousands of prisoners during their advance.
19:40And in some places, the British had captured their objectives.
19:49Corporal Hinckle's section had so far held their own, but as Hinckle discovered, the battle had only just started.
19:59The men, they came up.
20:00The men who came to the Worms, they came to the Worms.
20:01The men who came to the Worms.
20:02The people who came to the Worms.
20:03The boys came to the Worms.
20:03600 yards from Hinkle's Trench, the Ulster Division on the left of the Salford Pals had broken into the stronghold of the Schwaben redoubt.
20:23A British victory at Thiepval was now a real possibility.
20:33Success now hung on the corps commander in charge of that section of the Somme Front, Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Moreland.
20:45He was trying to follow events from an observation post, three miles from the battlefield.
20:51Still no line?
20:53No, sir.
20:54Well, keep trying.
20:56Yes, sir.
20:57The commander of Moreland's 12,000 strong reserves went to see Moreland in person.
21:02Major General Edward Percival had a suggestion that he thought needed his superiors' immediate attention.
21:08Sir.
21:10Percival.
21:13What are you doing here?
21:15I've been following the progress of the Ulster Division from their headquarters.
21:19They've done rather well, haven't they?
21:20That's why I'm here, sir.
21:22I believe you ought to put the corps reserve at their disposal.
21:26You want to commit your entire reserve division to support the Ulstermen?
21:29Yes.
21:31To exploit our success at the Schwabenredout.
21:34We haven't taken Thiepval yet.
21:38Sir, it seems that the machine guns at Thiepval make any frontal assault on the village impossible.
21:43But we could use our success at the Schwabenredout to take Thiepval from the north.
21:48This will be quite a major deviation from our battle plan.
21:54Yes, sir.
21:55But it's far too early to change the plan.
22:01Yes, sir.
22:02Moreland's failure to change the battle plan was just one of many mischances that day.
22:14By the time Percival saw Moreland, two-thirds of Captain Tweed's 120 men were already dead or wounded.
22:21For the survivors, the situation was desperate.
22:33A sheltering bank in no-man's land became a haven of refuge.
22:38What was left of the company stayed there for two hours, unable to move.
22:41The enemy machine gun searched and searched continually, occasionally hitting one of us.
22:50I can't see how we can advance any further.
22:53If we get beyond that shell, I think we can take the machine gun.
22:57That's suicide.
22:59We'll see.
23:00You can stay here.
23:03Ow!
23:05Jones!
23:06We'll need more bombs.
23:07Careful.
23:14Are you sure about this, Sharples?
23:16Yes, sir.
23:17Good luck.
23:18Help!
23:23Steve!
23:27Steve!
23:29Sharple!
23:30He's dead!
23:31No, he's not!
23:32Steve!
23:33It's all right, it's all right.
23:34Steve!
23:35I need to get a message back to the battalion.
23:40They have to order a withdrawal.
23:43Yes, sir.
23:43Tweed realised he had to pull his men out, yet he dared not take the decision himself.
23:49Get out!
23:50Be quick and be careful.
23:52Yes, sir.
23:53Will do, sir.
23:56Ah!
23:58Ah!
23:58Ah!
24:01Ah!
24:01Ah!
24:04Ah!
24:05Ah!
24:05Ah!
24:05He's back.
24:06There it is.
24:07Easy.
24:07Ah!
24:11Easy.
24:11It's just a scratch.
24:13Do you think so, sir?
24:15Sure.
24:16Ah!
24:18You're a brave man.
24:20You just need to be brave a little longer.
24:22But...
24:23We'll get you out of here, I promise.
24:25I'll get that withdrawal order myself.
24:26Yes.
24:27Yes.
24:27Yes.
24:33Meanwhile, at the German local headquarters, tension was rising.
24:39With the fall of the Schwaben stronghold, General von Soden knew that the whole Tiepval plateau could be lost.
24:46It would be a catastrophe.
24:47He had ordered a counterattack, as soon as he'd heard about the British success.
24:55But by midday, it still hadn't happened.
24:58Und?
25:06The commandeer of the gegenangriffs, Oberstleutnant Bram, had the Angriffsbeginn on 4 Uhr festgesetzt.
25:12In 3 Stunden?
25:14Von den 3 Angriffsgruppen ist soweit nur eine Entstellung.
25:18Ich spreche ein bisschen selber mit der Brigad.
25:21Mit Verlaub, Herr General, es geht einfach nicht schneller.
25:24Das gesamte GelÀnde ist völlig verschlammt und unter stÀndigen feindlichen Artilleriebeschuss.
25:31So kriege mal den EnglÀnder nie aus der Schwabenfeste raus.
25:38Komm da noch rĂŒber!
25:40RĂŒber mit dem!
25:41RĂŒber mit dem!
25:42RĂŒber mit dem!
25:43RĂŒber mit dem!
25:44Without a counterattack, Hinkle and his men at Tiepval were bound to be overrun.
25:48The Ulster men were now penetrating the German trenches and closing in on Hinkle's section.
25:58All he and his men could do was barricade themselves in.
26:03Our company was encircled and the situation was extremely critical.
26:07A few survivors from the company on our right joined us and they had given everything up for lost.
26:12That also made many of us lose all hope and fighting spirit.
26:15No German counterattack meant that General Morland still had time to exploit British success at the Schrauben Redoubt.
26:44Any news from Tiepval? How's it going?
26:49Hello?
26:51Hello?
26:53Do you hear me?
26:54Three hours earlier, he had ordered a second frontal assault on Tiepval.
26:58Shortly after half past two, his chief of staff informed him about the result.
27:04Yes, I see.
27:07Still the machine guns.
27:08So you're saying the second attack on Tiepval has failed as well?
27:17I'm afraid so, sir, yes.
27:19Morland now had two options.
27:22He could send his reserves to secure the British hold on the Redoubt and encircle Tiepval from the north.
27:27Or he could stick to the original battle plan and attempt yet another frontal attack.
27:40I agree.
27:41Another attack on Tiepval at four, this time with a 146 Brigade of the Reserve Division.
27:50I'm sure it'll work this time.
27:55Keep us posted.
27:56The unwillingness to alter the battle plan was typical of many British commanders that day.
28:08Such unimaginative thinking would condemn thousands of soldiers to death.
28:12But Zodan's commanders were trained to adapt battle plans to the situation on the ground.
28:28At four o'clock, still only one of the three groups designated to retake the Schwaben stronghold was in place.
28:34Even so, the German commander in the field had decided to act.
28:40That's not true.
28:41That's not true.
28:41That's true.
28:41The Brahm had the Angriff trotzdem befohlen.
28:45TatsÀchlich.
28:46But only with Bayer-Köhlers Truppe.
28:48Very good.
28:50The Brahm had the decision on their own own.
28:51The Brigade had that first in the afternoon.
28:54For Hinkle and his men, the counterattack came just in time.
29:14It forced the Ulstermen to withdraw.
29:23They retreated in droves from the Schwaben redoubt.
29:27Once again, our machine guns chattered away.
29:30Once again, our rifle barrels glowed red hot.
29:33Once again, my men were seized by the reckless bravado that had gripped them in the morning.
29:37Many an Irish mother's son lay down to the eternal sleep, from which there's no awakening.
29:44By 10.30 that night, the stronghold of the Schwaben redoubt was back in German hands.
30:07There were many reasons for the British failure on the Somme that day.
30:15And the battle for Thiepval illustrated most of them.
30:19An excessive faith in the power of artillery.
30:24Poor intelligence.
30:26And the inflexibility of commanders who stuck to their battle plan, regardless of events.
30:37It was mostly volunteers like the Salford Pals who paid the price.
30:44Sorry, Ulstermen.
30:46By the end of the day, hardly anyone was left of Captain Tweed's company.
31:01Almost a hundred of his men were dead, missing, or badly wounded.
31:07Tweed had finally been able to withdraw his pals, but only after he had personally gone back to obtain the order to retire.
31:19All set, lads.
31:21Here we go then, boys.
31:24Stay together and you'll be safe.
31:26Now some of the survivors volunteered to find the many wounded that had been left behind in no man's land.
31:32Good luck.
31:33There are no better pals than you.
31:37Remember what I told your mother?
31:41I will, sir.
31:42I'll have you back safe and sound.
31:43Don't let me down now.
31:44I will, sir.
31:45Understand?
31:46Good lad.
31:47Among those still out there was Tweed's orderly.
31:50Look out for Fiddish.
31:51Yes, sir.
31:53OK.
31:58See you all soon then, lads.
31:59OK, over you go.
32:03Bring them back, boys.
32:11Good luck.
32:11Not one of the volunteers returned.
32:31Not one of the volunteers returned.
32:3119,240 British soldiers were killed on the first day of the Somme, and 37,000 were wounded.
32:57In contrast, the French casualties numbered 2,500.
33:05The 1st of July, 1916, was the bloodiest day in British military history.
33:20All over Britain, communities like Salford were devastated by the tragedy.
33:34Entire streets were plunged into mourning, as obituaries confirmed the death of pals reported missing.
33:51Among them, Lance Corporal Thomas Mellor, Corporal Stephen Sharples, and Private Walter Fidesz.
34:07Captain Tweed had to write letters to the relatives of the dead.
34:31Of all the companies in the 2nd Salford Pals, his had suffered the worst losses.
34:45One month after the battle, Tweed felt he had to issue a statement to the relatives in a local paper.
34:50That I feel the loss of so many gallant men need not be stated.
34:58Most of my men I personally persuaded to join the colours,
35:02and I felt the burden of responsibility for their welfare as a matter of both honour and duty.
35:08And now so many of them have made the supreme sacrifice,
35:11I wonder with what feelings their loved ones regard myself.
35:14And that is where the story of the Battle of the Somme traditionally ends.
35:25The British army defeated.
35:27A pointless tragedy.
35:29The Germans victorious.
35:31A byword for the idiocy of war.
35:41But it didn't end there.
35:44The 1st of July was just the beginning of a battle that lasted for more than four months.
35:51And in that time, the British would learn from that terrible day,
35:55and ultimately turn those lessons into victory.
36:01As July 1916 progressed,
36:04Allied forces made steady gains along the Somme front, south of Thiepval.
36:08By the end of the month,
36:1980,000 Germans were captured, wounded, or dead.
36:23And above all, the failures of the 1st day triggered a period of radical change in the British army.
36:47Inflexible commanders like Moorland were taken out of the front line.
36:54Many key decisions were now left to the commanders on the spot,
36:58to men such as Brigadier General Herbert Shoebridge.
37:01The 0 hour will be at 12.35pm, not as usually at dawn.
37:06All our experience shows that a dawn start gives the enemy too much time to organise the counter-attack.
37:13The Brigade will attack with 5-3 Brigade on the right.
37:16Shoebridge's brigade was charged with the next assault on Thiepval in September.
37:22Up to the crucifix in the north.
37:25The Brigade will assault...
37:27Spearheading the attack would be his star battalion commander,
37:30Lieutenant Colonel Frank Maxwell, V.C.
37:36A veteran of the Boer War and a maverick,
37:39Maxwell was a hero to his men and had a reputation for leading from the front.
37:43Will we be allowed to go forward with our men?
37:49I knew you were going to ask that, Maxwell.
37:52One of the mistakes on 1st of July was the commanding officers were ordered to remain in their command post
37:56while the men went over the top.
37:57Now one has to be out there, leading.
37:59So, you lead your men by trying to get yourself killed, do you?
38:05As a matter of fact, I do.
38:07It's all about setting an example.
38:09The men want to see you out there with them.
38:11Men with a pipe and an upright posture.
38:16I'll tell you, General, why you don't want us out there.
38:19We can't send you pretty messages of victory all the time.
38:22You know how damned important it is for me to be informed of all times.
38:26Well, of course I do.
38:27Especially when there's no such thing as a pretty victory.
38:29However, once your men have achieved their first objective,
38:36you may well follow and set up a forward command post.
38:39Maxwell's battalion, the 12th Middlesex, was to take on Thiepval on the 26th of September.
38:54With the 11th Royal Fusiliers, their task was to assault some of the most heavily defended German positions,
39:00such as the ruins of the Thiepval Chateau.
39:23Fingers crossed.
39:24The attack began, just as on the 1st of July, with an artillery bombardment.
39:43But this time, there was a difference.
39:49So far?
39:50So good.
39:52Looks like the Hansa.
39:53Not as yet.
39:55Our artilleries, come your trumps.
40:01Maxwell's men were relying on a new, sophisticated artillery tactic.
40:08The Creeping Barrage.
40:11It was one of the many innovations in the Battle of the Somme.
40:14The artillery barrage started in no man's land, and then crept gradually over the German trenches,
40:27according to a set timetable.
40:31The British infantry followed as closely as possible the curtain of shell fire that the barrage created.
40:37This way, they could advance with constant artillery cover, making it far harder for the Germans to shoot at them.
40:48And it seemed to work.
41:00The Middlesex overran the first German trenches with ease.
41:05But once Maxwell's men had cleared the German forward trenches,
41:35they had to move over open ground to reach the Thiepval Chateau.
41:39It was then that things went wrong.
41:44The barrage is way ahead.
41:46No men can't keep up with the artillery's timetable.
41:51Shall I inform Brigade, sir?
41:54Still ain't no, anyway.
41:57As the barrage moved on, the defenders of the Thiepval Chateau were able to man their positions.
42:02These were men of infantry regiment 180.
42:10They had captured Thiepval and its chateau in 1914.
42:14Their commander had pledged to fight to the last man.
42:17Fire!
42:17It started to look very similar to the slaughter of the 1st of July.
42:47But then, a strange machine appeared.
43:00But then, a strange machine appeared.
43:00This was a revolutionary new weapon.
43:19Tanks had arrived in France just a few weeks earlier.
43:36It was on the Somme that they were used for the first time in history.
43:39Tanks would eventually become a key weapon in breaking the deadlock of trench warfare.
43:52But in September 1916, the army had yet to figure out how best to use them.
43:57He seems to realize that these monsters are supposed to go ahead of our troops, not follow them.
44:08It is just so obvious.
44:10We only have two tanks, sir.
44:11Two?
44:14Well, where's the other one?
44:15The other tank had broken down.
44:20Yet, even one tank could make a huge difference.
44:23The other tank could make a huge difference.
44:53They have taken the shatter.
45:01They have taken the shatter.
45:08At that very moment, General von Soden was dealing with a distraction that he could have done without.
45:13A visit from the Adjutant General to his Imperial Majesty the Kaiser, General Hans von Plessen.
45:23He was the German Rulers' official representative.
45:43Ich bitte Eure Exzellenz um Entschuldigung fĂŒr die Unterbrechung, aber wir haben gerade wichtige Mitteilungen erhalten.
45:58Der Feind ist in Tiefall eingedrungen. NĂ€her ist unbekannt.
46:02SĂ€mtliche Fernsprechleitungen nach Tiefall sind unterbrochen.
46:05Wie ist denn das möglich, Soden?
46:07Exzellenz, dem Englische Artilleriefeier halte selbst unsere Erdkabel auf Dauernet stand.
46:20Without accurate information, Soden, as a commander, was helpless.
46:30In contrast, this time British Generals were fully informed about the course of the fighting.
46:35Reports were coming through from artillery observers and aeroplanes.
46:44Air observation had greatly improved since the 1st of July.
46:49This enabled headquarters to order a re-bombardment of the position still in German hands.
46:55But above all, unlike on the 1st of July, the Senior British Command left most decisions to the men on the ground.
47:14Lieutenant Colonel Maxwell had followed his troops onto the battlefield and set up a command post at the Tiefall Chateau.
47:31This proved crucial, as he could use his initiative and make decisions without orders from headquarters.
47:37Colonel Maxwell?
47:38Yeah.
47:40Johnson. 11th Royal Fusiliers.
47:43How's it going, Johnson? I hear you. You've been held up on the left.
47:46Yes, sir. We're receiving crossfire from the Bosch.
47:51Colonel Carr and his adjutant are down.
47:55As are most other senior officers.
47:57Who's in command of the battalion?
47:59Me, sir.
48:01For the time being, you report to me. Tell me what you need.
48:04We need reinforcements on the left flank.
48:0750 of our men to support the 11th Fusiliers.
48:10Start split. 50 men. Reinforcing the Rolf Fusiliers.
48:25From the heart of the battle, Maxwell wrote to his wife.
48:29July 1st was a playground compared to it.
48:32I confess, I hated the job from the first.
48:35So many attempts had been made.
48:37So many failures.
48:39I hadn't personally any particular hopes of accomplishing it.
48:43By now, the tank had ditched.
48:53Try to reverse.
48:57Despite frantic efforts to get it back into action, it would play no further part that day.
49:02The outcome of the battle now depended entirely on the courage and close combat skills of the infantry.
49:14I must say that the Germans fought most stubbornly and bravely.
49:25And probably not more than 300 to 500 put their hands up.
49:30They took it out of us badly.
49:32But we did ditto.
49:34And I have no shame in saying so.
49:36As every German should, in my opinion, be exterminated.
49:38Maxwell's men suffered heavy losses and started to run out of officers.
49:54Men from the ranks had to use their initiative.
49:57Men like Frederick Edwards, a 21-year-old private from Ireland.
50:01He couldn't even read or write.
50:05Give us your bums!
50:06Give me your bums!
50:11Come on, hold that.
50:12When his platoon commander was wounded, he showed what he was made of.
50:16Oh!
50:16Oh!
50:24Oh!
50:25Oh!
50:26Oh!
50:39Oh!
50:40Oh!
50:41Quiet now, eh?
51:00His action earned Edwards the Victoria Cross.
51:03But despite the heroism of men like Private Edwards,
51:11the north-west corner of Thiepval remained in German hands
51:14even five hours into the attack.
51:18It made it impossible to stick to the battle plan.
51:26General!
51:27Yet unlike most commanders on the 1st of July,
51:30Maxwell and Shoebridge could think on their feet.
51:33Now, General, I have already ordered the men to go no further
51:38and to consolidate.
51:40All battalions are completely mixed up and pretty much expended.
51:44I've instructed the men to dig in at their present positions
51:47and form front and supply lines at about 50 yards between each line.
51:51I see.
51:53You've taken command of my brigade.
51:58Court-martial me if I survive, sir.
52:00I'm the only senior officer out here still in one piece.
52:03Very well, Maxwell.
52:06What do you reckon?
52:07Are the Hunton going to counterattack?
52:08If so, we are prepared.
52:12But we need fresh troops in order to advance further.
52:19Yes?
52:21I could send the Bedfords in at nightfall.
52:24They could renew the attack in the morning.
52:26Very good, sir.
52:34Maxwell and Shoebridge needn't have worried about a German counterattack.
52:37The Kaiser's representative, General von Plessen, had stayed at Zodan's headquarters,
52:47hoping for news of the battle.
52:52Yet Plessen had to wait for six hours before the situation in Thiebval became clear.
52:58I'm sorry.
52:59I'm sorry.
53:00I'm sorry.
53:01I'm sorry.
53:02I'm sorry.
53:03I'm sorry.
53:04I'm sorry.
53:05I'm sorry.
53:06I'm sorry.
53:07I'm sorry.
53:08I'm sorry.
53:09Einige Offizierspatrouille hat es endlich geschafft, nach Thiebval vorzudringen.
53:13Der StĂŒtzfunk scheint aber schon in englischer Hand zu sein.
53:17Ich nehme an, Sie werden einen Gegenangriff ansetzen.
53:20Das wÀre offen gesagt wohlkam ratsam, Eure Exzellenz.
53:25FĂŒr Einen Gegenangriff auf Thiebval ist es zu spĂ€t.
53:29Jetzt brauchen wir unsere Reserve, um einen Durchbruch auf unsere rĂŒckwĂ€rtige Stellung zu verhindern.
53:34Und Thiebval?
53:38Thiebval ist verloren.
53:52The loss of Thiebval was a major blow to the Germans on the Somme.
53:58It would eventually allow the British Army to achieve all their objectives of the 1st of July,
54:04objectives that had cost so many lives.
54:09But the true importance of the battle should not be measured by the territory gained.
54:17For the French at Verdun, the Somme Offensive provided the relief that they so desperately needed.
54:23By October, they were able to launch a large-scale counterattack.
54:33And by December 1916, the Germans had been pushed back.
54:38The German strategy, to bleed France white, had failed.
55:00But perhaps the most important outcome of the Battle of the Somme
55:03was the lessons learnt by the British Army.
55:10After the disaster of the 1st of July,
55:13it developed new tactics combining infantry, artillery, air power and tanks.
55:21These radical new tactics would ultimately help the Allies to win the war.
55:26The lessons of the Somme were paid for by hundreds of thousands of lives.
55:42432,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded in the Battle of the Somme.
55:50The French lost nearly 200,000 men,
55:53and the Germans, an estimated half a million.
55:56Thiebval is now the site of the largest British war memorial in the world.
56:15It commemorates more than 70,000 soldiers who have no known grave.
56:26Among them, Stephen Sharples,
56:31Thomas Mellor,
56:34and Walter Fides.
56:39The officer who led them, Captain Thomas Tweed,
56:42was promoted to command a battalion.
56:46After the war, he became an advisor to former Prime Minister Lloyd George.
56:50Private Frederick Edwards,
56:55the man who single-handedly knocked out a German machine gun,
56:58returned from the war as a hero,
57:00but was later forced to sell his Victoria Cross to make ends meet.
57:09Lieutenant Colonel Frank Maxwell
57:11received a bar to his distinguished service order
57:13and was given command of a brigade.
57:15In 1917, he was killed by a German sniper.
57:25Like so many on all sides of the war to end all wars,
57:30he did not live to see it end.
57:31wurde not in 19.
57:54or
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