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00:01Next on Secrets of War.
00:03As the armies of World War I struggled under a barrage of terrifying weapons,
00:08the German government turned to covert operations to break the stalemate.
00:13Sabotage, biological weapons, and top secret communications
00:17ushered in a new era of warfare.
00:20World War I, Germany's secret gambles, is next on Secrets of War.
00:30idee...
00:31...
00:31...
00:39o
00:41o
00:41o
01:44French warfare, Verdun, the Somme, the Battle of Jutland.
01:56Names and images from World War I.
02:00Death on a scale never seen before.
02:04Both sides relentlessly harnessed technology in pursuit of better weapons and communications.
02:13But to little avail.
02:19The war was fought in deadlock.
02:23Technology was not enough.
02:28New and secret means of warfare had to be developed.
02:33For Germany, these included wide-scale sabotage, biological weapons, signals intelligence,
02:42and political destabilization.
02:46These developments changed the face of warfare forever and altered the course of history.
02:55The war exploded with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in June of 1914.
03:04Alliances drew France, Great Britain, and Russia together when they were attacked by Imperial
03:10Germany in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
03:15This was the end of the era of monarchy.
03:18The Europeans thought it would be a gentleman's war.
03:21The United States, with its vast industrial might, remained neutral.
03:25American public opinion thought the conflict folly.
03:33When the French soldiers were mobilized, they were certain that they would be home for the
03:38grape harvest in September.
03:41Those who were pessimistic thought that the war would be over by Christmas.
03:52After the outbreak of the war, the German ambassador in Washington, Count Johann von Bernsdorff, received
03:58instructions from home.
04:01Keep the United States neutral.
04:05He had also received more sinister orders.
04:08Germany was about to play a dangerous double game.
04:13In 1914, the British Navy was the strongest in the world.
04:17With the Russian and French navies, a blockade was put in place to restrict the flow of supplies
04:22to Germany.
04:25At first, the German ambassador mounted a publicity campaign to convince the American public that
04:31Germany was being barbarically strangled by the British naval blockade.
04:40But the Germans had also developed the submarine, better known as the U-Boat.
04:47Capable of eluding enemy navies, the Imperial German Marine thought it could develop a merchant
04:53submarine fleet to supply the war machine.
04:59Its military potential as an attack vessel had not yet been realized.
05:05To inaugurate commercial U-Boat service between Bremen and Baltimore in late 1914,
05:12the U-Boat Deutschland sailed triumphantly into Baltimore Harbor after dodging the British Navy.
05:21Von Bernsdorff promoted its purpose.
05:24The naval mission hoped to cement good relations between Germany and America.
05:30The ambassador welcomed his countrymen, but he had also received secret instructions from Germany
05:37to establish a sabotage network.
05:42Up the street from the pier at the Hansa House, the office of the Hamburg-America line,
05:47the captain of the U-Boat greeted the public.
05:52In the evenings, he discreetly met with members of the German embassy.
05:59The U-Boat brought saboteurs and munitions.
06:04On the second floor of the Hansa House, they hid the explosives.
06:10But it was not practical to continually send agents to North America in U-boats.
06:17Well, the Germans, of course, would have preferred to bring over their own trained saboteurs,
06:23but it was extremely difficult to do so because of the control of the seas by the British.
06:28By and large, they were obliged to recruit people,
06:31and they recruited largely German-Americans.
06:36The embassy staff combed German-American neighborhoods
06:40looking for individuals with strong ties to the fatherland.
06:44Irish dock workers were also recruited.
06:47Many were political exiles who would do anything to harm Great Britain.
06:54By December 1914, von Bernsdorff received orders from Berlin
06:58to blow up rail lines in Canada.
07:03America's northern neighbor had already entered the war
07:06as part of the British Empire.
07:09Small acts of sabotage thousands of miles from the front
07:13began to have an effect.
07:16Germany used telephones and the wireless
07:19to transmit secret messages
07:21as well as diplomatic and military communications.
07:25The British had understood early on
07:27that new communications technologies
07:29meant that the war would not only be fought on the battlefields
07:32and on the oceans, but in the air as well.
07:38Maintaining military supremacy would require more than weapons.
07:43It would require intelligence.
07:47The Royal Navy's dependence by 1914 on wireless communications
07:52meant that this was a central part of secret communications.
07:59It had to protect its own communications.
08:01It knew that its enemies or its potential enemies
08:04were having to protect their own.
08:06Under Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty,
08:10Britain gathered together intellectuals, linguists, and Navy men.
08:16The Royal Navy's mission was to decipher intercepted messages.
08:23Based in room 40 in the Admiralty building in London,
08:26only a handful of people knew of their existence.
08:33British foresight paid off soon after the war began.
08:37At the end of 1914, they were to have an intelligence coup
08:41which ultimately affected the outcome of the war.
08:48Room 40 was trying desperately during September and October,
08:53November of 1914, to break into the German codes.
08:57They were having virtually no success.
09:01Then two Russian warships, the Pallada and the Bugatir,
09:04seized the German ship Magdeburg,
09:07which had run aground off the coast of Estonia.
09:15The officers of the Magdeburg took the code books,
09:18put them in weighted canvas bags,
09:20and as the ship sank, threw them over the side.
09:24Short time later, the Russians found the body of a German sailor
09:28clutching a canvas bag containing a code book.
09:32The Russians gave the code book to the British.
09:36The British got it back to London,
09:38and room 40 opened up this treasure trove.
09:42The Germans didn't fear the loss of a single code book
09:45because they used a system called super-encipherment.
09:51Two code books were required to decipher a single document.
09:59Then the British had a real find.
10:04At almost the same time the Magdeburg book reached London,
10:09a book from a German freighter captured off Australia reached London.
10:14So suddenly the code breakers in room 40 had it made.
10:20Great Britain had won a significant battle in the Secret War.
10:24without losing a single human life.
10:28Its profound significance would not be apparent until the end of the war.
10:39The German army was engaged by French and British forces
10:43after it moved through Belgium and into France.
10:46The opposing armies dug in.
10:50It all took place in about a five-mile-wide swath of land,
10:56about 450 miles long.
10:59Whereas in other wars,
11:01there are battlefields here, there, and everywhere.
11:03But this was just two parallel ditches
11:06with a million men on each side for four years.
11:12As soldiers filled the trenches,
11:14the pace of innovation quickened.
11:22For the first time,
11:23the use of airplanes,
11:25balloons,
11:26and dirigibles
11:27broadened the scope of the war.
11:31Aerial reconnaissance gave each side
11:33precise information on troop movements.
11:36Artillery could be directed more accurately.
11:40In spite of the advances,
11:41neither side achieved military superiority.
11:47On the ground,
11:48ammunition, food, and fuel
11:50were consumed at a dizzying pace.
11:55Battles were decided
11:57by who could get supplies to the front.
12:00The warring nations thrust their industrial might
12:04into the conflict.
12:07Communications technologies also developed rapidly.
12:11You had things like the railway
12:14and the telegraph,
12:16which meant that you could move troops
12:18to and from battlefields much more quickly
12:22than, for example, 100 years before.
12:24And communications were that much better.
12:28It was possible to keep in touch
12:31with field armies from a very great distance,
12:33providing the telegraph system was working.
12:37A lightning speed of telephone and telegraph
12:40kept the fronts well supplied.
12:44But advances in telecommunications
12:46had unintended consequences.
12:49Lines could be tapped.
12:51Radio transmissions could be intercepted.
12:54An important new military art emerged.
12:57Signal intelligence.
12:59Strategies and tactics were perfected
13:02based on secret surveillance.
13:04Supply lines were attacked.
13:06Enemy positions were determined.
13:08Codes were developed to protect communications.
13:11But in the end,
13:13the battle lines did not move.
13:17One of the great ironies of the First World War
13:19in terms of communication
13:21was that the telephone system behind the lines
13:24was extremely extensive,
13:26the best that anyone had ever seen up to that point.
13:28But of course,
13:29the moment that soldiers got out of their front-line trench
13:32and marched across no man's land,
13:35that telephone system became useless.
13:39Soldiers would often go over the top
13:41to overwhelm the enemy
13:42and outflank him.
13:45Only to be cut down
13:47by a lethal scythe of steel shards and lead.
13:52Artillery gunners lobbed shells,
13:54constantly trying to score direct hits in the trenches.
14:00Literally millions of tons of shells
14:02fell in this narrow area of land
14:04so that every year,
14:06the French government, for example,
14:07explodes something like 100 tons of shells
14:10that the farmers plow up.
14:14The volume of shells
14:15that rained on the trenches
14:16was difficult to imagine.
14:19For the living, like the dead,
14:21the only escape was to go deeper into the ground.
14:27Armies burrowed into rock,
14:29strengthening dugouts
14:31to provide relief from the hell above.
14:35In Confraecorps, near Soissons,
14:37hundreds of these caves
14:38were scraped out of solid rock.
14:43Foot soldiers would alternate
14:45three days in the trenches
14:46and three days in the caves.
14:51Equally matched,
14:52each side hurled death at its enemy.
14:56The result was daily catastrophic losses
14:59on both sides.
15:02The current of this blood sacrifice
15:04moved very little.
15:07The antagonists' positions were deadlocked.
15:13Germany moved beyond the battlefield.
15:16Using their sabotage network in North America,
15:19they set out to disrupt Allied supply lines.
15:23The Germans knew that even if the U.S. was neutral,
15:27her great industrial machine
15:28was still supplying the enemy.
15:32The United States remained well outside the conflict.
15:35It was far from the daily concerns of Americans.
15:40Sentiment in the U.S. was strictly isolationist.
15:44President Woodrow Wilson took it upon himself
15:47to become the moral arbiter,
15:49encouraging the warring parties
15:51to come to their senses.
15:55American business profited through its neutrality.
15:59War material could be sold to any and all sides.
16:03However, British naval supremacy guaranteed
16:07that only Allied ships could safely cross the Atlantic,
16:11while a British naval blockade sealed off German ports.
16:16The Germans developed an ingenious diversion.
16:21The Germans also had a very interesting scheme
16:24to reduce the production of armaments
16:26that were going to the Allies.
16:30New arms and munitions plants
16:32were constructed across the United States
16:34to profit from the war boom.
16:37In Bridgeport, Connecticut,
16:39a new munitions plant was set up.
16:42Russian, British, and French buyers
16:45frantically sought supplies.
16:49The plant took orders.
16:51It required deposits
16:52and promised delivery six months later.
16:56There was just one problem.
16:58The plant was run by Germans.
17:01They had set it up
17:02as a kind of a dummy operation
17:04where they didn't actually manufacture anything.
17:07They got contracts,
17:09and the money that flowed there
17:10went back to the Germans.
17:14After six months,
17:15the factories closed
17:17and the principals vanished.
17:20This operation was the brainchild
17:22of Franz von Rintelen,
17:24known as the Dark Invader.
17:30He worked for an English bank in New York.
17:34His familiarity with finance
17:37and his respectability
17:38gave him the perfect cover.
17:43Rintelen became one of the most important
17:45German agents in America
17:49and worked to disrupt
17:51allied war efforts
17:52in more violent ways.
17:54He recruited a German-American chemist
17:57who'd invented a small bomb
17:59ideal for sabotage.
18:02A lead tube
18:04about the size of a cigar
18:06was half-filled
18:07with flammable chemical.
18:10The chemist then placed
18:12a copper disc inside
18:13and added sulfuric acid
18:15to the other side.
18:18When the acid ate through the disc,
18:20the bomb would explode
18:21a week or two later.
18:26One of the most amazing aspects
18:28of that whole story
18:29was that at the time
18:31the war began,
18:32a major German liner
18:34called the Friedrich de Gross
18:36was tied up
18:38in New York Harbor.
18:39The Germans got the bright idea
18:42of manufacturing
18:44these devices
18:45on the ship
18:46and they turned
18:47a portion of the ship
18:48into a little factory
18:50to manufacture
18:51these bombs
18:53which were then
18:54smuggled off the ship
18:55and passed around
18:56among stevedores
18:57on the waterfront
18:58to place them
18:59in ships
18:59that were carrying
19:00munitions to the Allies.
19:03Somewhere far at sea,
19:05a fire would start
19:06in a coal bunker
19:07of a freighter
19:08and it would sink.
19:09How many times
19:10this was successful
19:12is not really known.
19:16Cigar bombs
19:17were never suspected.
19:19Their small size
19:20and the intensity
19:21of their flames
19:22made them very hard to trace.
19:26In 1915,
19:28America was oblivious
19:29to German infiltration.
19:33President Woodrow Wilson
19:35wanted to keep the U.S.
19:36on a neutral course.
19:40But this stance
19:41would soon be tested
19:42by a new secret weapon.
19:51On the 7th of May, 1915,
19:54the British passenger liner
19:55Lusitania went down,
19:57the victim of a U-boat
19:58torpedo attack.
20:08The German submarine
20:10was a failure
20:11as a merchant vessel,
20:12but it was having
20:12great success
20:13as an offensive weapon.
20:15The U-boats sank
20:17millions of tons
20:18of Allied shipping.
20:20The loss of American life
20:22was not well received
20:24in the United States.
20:26There were calls
20:27for action against Germany.
20:29Once again,
20:30Ambassador von Bernsdorff
20:32swung into action.
20:34He issued a statement
20:36claiming the Lusitania
20:37was carrying arms to Britain.
20:41In light of the strangulation
20:42by Allied navies,
20:44he said the sinking
20:44was justified.
20:46To support his contention,
20:48von Bernsdorff's
20:49espionage network
20:50forged documents
20:52supposedly proving
20:53that the liner
20:54carried munitions.
20:55The network also
20:56paid witnesses
20:57to lie at inquiries.
20:59There was considerable
21:01controversy
21:01because many believed
21:03the British
21:03were using Americans
21:05as shields.
21:06But von Bernsdorff
21:07was vilified
21:08in the American press.
21:12There was more
21:13and more clamor
21:14for the United States
21:15to do something
21:16more aggressively.
21:17Of course,
21:18President Woodrow Wilson
21:20was determined
21:21at all costs
21:22to keep the United States
21:23out of the war.
21:26Wilson didn't want
21:27to antagonize voters
21:28before the 1916 election.
21:31He protested
21:32to von Bernsdorff,
21:33but mildly.
21:35The German ambassador
21:36tried to placate
21:37the president
21:38by promising peace talks.
21:40Wilson had sent
21:41his close friend,
21:42Colonel Edward Haus,
21:43to Europe
21:44to assess prospects
21:45for peace.
21:46He met with all
21:47the belligerents
21:48and transmitted
21:49his findings to Wilson
21:50in hopes the president
21:52could craft
21:53what he called
21:53a just peace.
21:57The American government
21:58in Washington
21:59continued to send
22:00communiques to Europe
22:01to clarify the situation,
22:03but the Germans
22:04complained
22:04that they were
22:05at a disadvantage
22:06because their
22:06transatlantic cable
22:08had been cut
22:08for the British.
22:10They made an extraordinary
22:11request to Colonel Haus,
22:13asking that they be allowed
22:14to use the American cable
22:16to send coded messages
22:17to their diplomatic corps.
22:22Haus consented
22:23in an effort
22:24to provide
22:25a level playing field.
22:28But the Germans
22:29had other ideas.
22:33Their double game
22:34took a new
22:35and deadly twist.
22:40Motorized vehicles
22:41were coming
22:42into their own,
22:43but by and large,
22:44horses still provided
22:45the essential means
22:46of transportation.
22:48The United States,
22:50with its vast open plains,
22:52became the major supplier
22:53of horses
22:54to the Allied armies.
22:58The horses
22:59were going to be used
22:59to pull artillery caissons
23:02to get supplies
23:03to the front.
23:04I mean,
23:04horse power
23:05was a very big,
23:06important element
23:07of war making
23:08at that time.
23:09The Germans
23:10hit upon the idea
23:11of going after
23:12the horses.
23:14Coming from
23:15Vladivostok, Russia,
23:16a German spy
23:17dressed as a woman
23:18hid vials
23:19on his person.
23:22These small bottles
23:23were a new kind
23:24of weapon,
23:24potentially more deadly
23:26than bullets.
23:29They had anthrax,
23:31glanders,
23:32and other disease agents.
23:34The longshoremen
23:35and the stevedores,
23:39who were among
23:40the German saboteurs
23:41working on the waterfront
23:42in New York,
23:43managed to get vials
23:45of these disease-causing
23:47organisms
23:48into the boats.
23:51Given the dreadful
23:52conditions of combat
23:54it was not readily
23:55apparent why large numbers
23:56of horses were dying.
23:58The source of this
23:59biological warfare
24:00was not identified
24:02until many years
24:03after the war.
24:05Germany resorted
24:06to other acts
24:07of sabotage
24:08around the world.
24:09It developed plots
24:11that would destabilize
24:12the British Empire.
24:13It supported Sikh rebels
24:15in India
24:16and worked to upset
24:17colonies in Africa.
24:18America.
24:20But one of its
24:21more nefarious plots
24:22was much closer
24:24to home.
24:26Very early
24:27in the war
24:28the Germans realized
24:29that Ireland
24:30being just a boat
24:32trip away
24:33from Great Britain
24:34was a great place
24:35for establishing
24:36espionage,
24:37for running agents,
24:39for generally
24:40having right
24:42on the flank
24:42of Great Britain
24:44a potential ally.
24:47Britain had passed
24:48home rule
24:49for its Irish colony.
24:51After years of strife
24:53Ireland would soon
24:54have a government
24:55like that of Canada
24:56or Australia.
24:58But the outbreak
24:59of war caused
25:00home rule
25:01to be suspended.
25:05In New York
25:06a fringe group
25:06of nationalists
25:07the Irish Republican
25:09Brotherhood
25:09approached
25:10German Ambassador
25:11von Bernsdorf.
25:14The war
25:15on the continent
25:16created the opportunity
25:17for the Irish
25:18to cast off
25:19British rule.
25:20It was not money
25:21they needed
25:21but arms
25:22and officers.
25:24In return
25:25they would attack
25:26the colonial military
25:27infrastructure
25:28in Ireland
25:29and draw British troops
25:30away from the front.
25:35The Germans
25:36seized
25:36the opportunity.
25:39On the 23rd
25:40of December
25:401914
25:41the German
25:42Foreign Office
25:43and Roger Casement
25:44a representative
25:45of the Irish
25:46Brotherhood
25:47signed a treaty.
25:50It recognized
25:51the right
25:52of a free Ireland.
25:54It also provided
25:56for arms
25:57ammunition
25:57and even
25:58German officers
25:59and men.
26:03Casement
26:03from then on
26:04in his main aim
26:06was to try
26:07and recruit
26:09Irish prisoners
26:10of war
26:10who had been
26:11captured by the Germans
26:12to try and recruit
26:13them into an Irish
26:14brigade.
26:15The eventual idea
26:16being to
26:17return these
26:19this Irish brigade
26:21to Ireland
26:21with arms
26:22to help to
26:23start a rebellion
26:24in Ireland.
26:26Recruitment
26:27progressed slowly.
26:29Nonetheless,
26:29by 1915
26:31the Irish Republican
26:32Brotherhood
26:33had discussed
26:33the shipment
26:34of arms
26:35for an uprising
26:35the following year.
26:37The Germans
26:38were happy
26:38to let the Irish
26:39do the dirty work.
26:41The rebels
26:42wanted 100,000 rifles,
26:45artillery,
26:46and German officers.
26:48But the Germans
26:49supplied only 20,000 rifles
26:51and several machine guns.
26:54Patrick Pierce,
26:56organizer of the
26:57Irish Brotherhood
26:57planned a rebellion
26:58for Easter 1916.
27:02He claimed
27:04the Irish people
27:04like Christ
27:05would be resurrected
27:06that day.
27:08However,
27:09Roger Casement
27:10feared an ill-planned action
27:11would be a disaster
27:13for Ireland.
27:14When the plan
27:14to recruit
27:15Irish POWs failed,
27:17he implored the Germans
27:18to live up
27:19to their treaty obligations
27:20and fully support
27:21the rebellion,
27:22but to no avail.
27:25German intelligence
27:26disguised
27:27a captured English vessel
27:29as a Norwegian freighter
27:30named the Aud.
27:32It was to take
27:33a circuitous voyage
27:34from Bremen
27:35to Ireland
27:36to avoid
27:37the British blockade.
27:38It arrived
27:39in Tralee Bay
27:40with its meager
27:41shipment of arms
27:42on the 21st of April,
27:44a good Friday
27:44before Easter Sunday.
27:48Casement insisted
27:49on accompanying
27:50the shipment
27:51in a U-boat.
27:54In reality,
27:55Roger Casement
27:56had come back
27:57to Ireland
27:57to stop the rebellion
27:59because he believed
28:00it wasn't going
28:01to get the proper help
28:02from the Germans
28:04that he had expected.
28:05And he landed
28:07off the coast
28:08of Tralee
28:10on Good Friday
28:11in 1916,
28:12and his aim
28:13was actually
28:13to get work
28:14to the rebel leaders
28:16to call the whole thing off.
28:19The Aud
28:20and the U-boat
28:20waited for their comrades,
28:22but none came
28:23to the shore.
28:24There'd been
28:25a miscommunication.
28:27On the evening
28:28of Saturday,
28:29the 22nd,
28:30the U-boat
28:30left Casement
28:31on the shore.
28:33The next morning
28:34when the fog lifted,
28:36the Aud
28:36was intercepted
28:37by British naval vessels.
28:40It was escorted
28:41to Queensland
28:42where the captain
28:43of the Aud
28:43scuttled the boat
28:44and the 20,000 rifles.
28:47Casement was arrested
28:48by British authorities
28:49not long after he landed.
28:53When Casement
28:54got to England
28:55and he was interrogated
28:57by British intelligence,
28:59naval intelligence,
29:00he realized
29:01that they were aware
29:02and he asked
29:03for permission
29:04to appeal
29:04to the rebels
29:06to call off
29:07the rebellion.
29:07but Admiral Blinker Hall,
29:11the head
29:11of the British
29:12naval intelligence,
29:14wanted the rebellion
29:15to take place
29:16because he wanted
29:17that the British military
29:19would be able
29:20to suppress it
29:21and he called it
29:22a cancerous soul
29:23and he wanted it cut out.
29:26On Monday,
29:28the day after Easter,
29:29in spite of their shortage
29:30of men and arms
29:31and lacking support
29:32of the population,
29:34the Irish rebels
29:35launched a suicidal attack
29:36led by Patrick Pearce.
29:40Pearce was determined
29:41to have a rebellion
29:42at all costs
29:43because he believed
29:44that if the British
29:45suppressed it violently enough
29:48that the Irish opinion
29:50would be driven
29:51into the arms
29:52of the Republicans.
29:55In the six-day conflict,
29:57the British laid waste
29:58to entire blocks
29:59of Dublin
30:00with serious loss of life.
30:02The attack polarised
30:04the Irish population.
30:06The dream of home rule
30:08lay shattered.
30:10The Germans were content
30:12to have destabilised Ireland.
30:15The Irish nationalists
30:17would now move ahead
30:18organising for a free state.
30:20The British,
30:21with their crushing response,
30:23incurred the hatred
30:24of many Irish.
30:26The resulting problems
30:27have continued
30:28continued to the end
30:29of the 20th century.
30:35The German covert war
30:37had not diminished
30:38the shooting war.
30:40In 1916,
30:42battles on the continent
30:43raged on
30:44to new and bloodier heights.
30:46At Verdun,
30:47the German secret strategy
30:49was war by attrition.
30:51They attacked French lines
30:53intent not on taking
30:54more territory,
30:55but as one German general
30:57said,
30:58bleeding the French white.
31:02The plan was
31:03to demoralise the French
31:04with an unimaginable
31:06death toll.
31:10There is no word
31:11to describe it
31:11because today
31:12we cannot imagine
31:13what the Battle of Verdun
31:14was like.
31:15You can go to the location
31:17where the battle happened.
31:18There are traces of the past,
31:19ruins,
31:20there are cemeteries,
31:21but the battlefield
31:22was different.
31:23There were no trees,
31:24it was only dust
31:26and mud.
31:27It was freezing cold
31:28in February,
31:29boiling hot in June.
31:31Men were dying of thirst
31:32and then in September
31:33and October,
31:33men were dying,
31:34sinking in the mud
31:35on the same battlefield.
31:37The Verdun battlefield
31:38was as big as Paris.
31:43It's been calculated
31:45that one shell fell
31:46on every square centimeter
31:47of Verdun,
31:49parking the terrain
31:50with exploding projectiles.
31:53In the end,
31:54after nine months of battle,
31:56the lines had barely moved.
32:00Half a million
32:01were dead
32:02on each side.
32:04The combatants
32:05searched for secret methods
32:07to tip the scales
32:08in their favor.
32:12Miners were employed
32:13to dig under enemy trenches
32:15and plant dynamite.
32:17In a stunning Allied victory
32:19earlier that year
32:20at the Battle of Messines,
32:22five tunnels
32:22were filled with explosives
32:24and detonated.
32:26Ten thousand German soldiers
32:29were buried,
32:30alive.
32:31The massive explosion
32:32was heard across
32:33the English Channel
32:34in London,
32:35100 miles away.
32:38Anti-mining units
32:39literally put their ears
32:40to the ground
32:41to detect
32:42mole-like activity.
32:45near the Somme River
32:46in 1916,
32:48hundreds of thousands
32:49of British troops
32:50had massed,
32:51hoping to knock out
32:51the German forces
32:52and break through the lines.
32:55One of the keys
32:56to this massive assault
32:58was a tunnel constructed
32:59beneath German trenches.
33:02Miners had placed
33:0327 tons of explosives
33:05in the shaft.
33:08When the tunnel
33:09was detonated,
33:10the offensive began.
33:10The blast created
33:12a crater 300 feet around
33:15and 40 feet deep.
33:18As the dust cleared,
33:20the British discovered
33:21that the Germans
33:22had moved.
33:25The Germans
33:26were able
33:27to learn,
33:29because of a British
33:31officer's carelessness
33:32on the phone,
33:33when an offensive
33:35was going to be launched.
33:36They hadn't really
33:37developed the doctrine
33:38of how to handle telephones.
33:42the Germans
33:43lay in wait
33:43for the British.
33:46It was too late
33:47for the Allied soldiers.
33:49They were slaughtered
33:50in massive numbers.
33:52During the 12 years
33:54of American involvement
33:55in Vietnam,
33:56the United States
33:57lost more than
33:5855,000 men.
34:00At the Somme,
34:01the British lost
34:02the same number
34:03in one day.
34:07In battle after battle
34:09along the Western Front,
34:10it was common
34:11for tens of thousands
34:12of men
34:13to lose their lives
34:14within days.
34:16For what,
34:18many asked.
34:18Often the lines
34:19moved only
34:20several miles.
34:22The stalemate
34:23continued.
34:25German covert efforts
34:27intensified.
34:30In the great port
34:32of New York
34:32on the Jersey side,
34:34there was an island,
34:36Black Tom Island,
34:37that was devoted
34:38primarily to the storage
34:40of ammunition
34:41that was going to be
34:42loaded on ships
34:43and sent to England.
34:4680% of all the munitions
34:48shipped to Europe
34:49during the war
34:50went through
34:50New York Harbor.
34:53At a brothel
34:54set up by the
34:55Imperial German government
34:56at 123 West 15th Street,
34:59a secret mission
35:00was planned.
35:02On the 31st of July,
35:031916,
35:05a warm Saturday night,
35:06several small boats
35:08piloted by German-American
35:09agents set out
35:11for Black Tom Island
35:12behind the Statue of Liberty.
35:15The boats arrived
35:16at the National Dock
35:17and Storage Company
35:18on Black Tom.
35:21It was owned
35:22by the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
35:24Its rail lines
35:26fed the largest
35:27storage and dock
35:28munitions facility
35:29in America.
35:32The boats
35:33quietly departed.
35:35Several hours later,
35:37small fires broke out
35:38around the yard.
35:40The fire spread
35:42from one freight car
35:43to another
35:44where the armaments
35:45were contained.
35:49Within half an hour,
35:50Black Tom Island
35:51burst into an inferno
35:53the likes of which
35:54had never been seen
35:55in the United States.
35:59For two hours,
36:00ton after ton
36:01of shrapnel-filled charges
36:03tore through the air.
36:07The reverberations
36:08from the explosion
36:09were so great
36:10that windows
36:11by the thousands
36:12were smashed
36:13in downtown New York.
36:17The Brooklyn Bridge
36:18swayed.
36:19Bombs went off
36:20and lit up the sky
36:22so it could be seen
36:23as far south
36:24as Philadelphia.
36:27The metal skin
36:28of the Statue of Liberty
36:29still bore shrapnel wounds
36:3160 years after the blast.
36:35The saboteurs
36:37had quietly won
36:38the equivalent
36:38of a major battle.
36:41Six months' worth
36:42of munitions
36:43destined for Russia
36:44were destroyed.
36:46Yet, naively,
36:48few suspected
36:49foul play.
36:52In the New York Times
36:53the day after the explosions
36:54explicitly said so,
36:56that this was just
36:57an accident
36:57and that it wasn't
36:59an act of sabotage
37:00at all.
37:03The perpetrators
37:04had covered their tracks
37:05well.
37:06It was not until
37:08many years later,
37:09after the war,
37:10that the real cause
37:11of the explosions
37:12came to light.
37:16German eyes turned
37:17from New York
37:18to America's
37:19southern border.
37:21Civil war raged
37:22in Mexico in 1916.
37:24German operatives
37:26looked for ways
37:27to exploit it.
37:28If the United States
37:29could be drawn
37:30into conflict
37:31with its southern neighbor,
37:33attention and resources
37:34would be diverted
37:35from the European conflict.
37:38Although the evidence
37:39is not conclusive,
37:41it appears that
37:42Pancho Villa
37:43was supplied
37:44by German agents.
37:46His attack
37:47on the 9th of March,
37:481916,
37:49in the town
37:50of Columbus,
37:51New Mexico,
37:51provoked Wilson.
37:54He dispatched
37:55General Blackjack Pershing
37:57to pursue Villa's army.
38:00The American general
38:01pushed deep
38:02into Mexico.
38:07and the U.S.
38:13came perilously close
38:14to declaring war
38:15on Mexico.
38:16The last-minute
38:17release of the prisoners
38:19allowed Wilson
38:19to retreat
38:20from a dangerous
38:21entanglement.
38:24The American troops
38:26withdrew
38:26to an uneasy border.
38:31By early 1917,
38:33Germany had won
38:34important victories
38:35on the continent.
38:37Although its civilian
38:38population
38:39was paying
38:40a heavy price,
38:41the war was on the verge
38:43of turning
38:44against the Allies.
38:46But German intelligence
38:48failed to uncover
38:49an important French secret
38:51at the Chemin des Dents.
38:53had it been discovered,
38:55the Germans
38:55could have won
38:56the war.
39:03By 1917,
39:05anti-war sentiment
39:06swept across Europe.
39:09On the western front
39:10at Chemin des Dents,
39:11not far from Verdun,
39:13many French troops
39:14refused to fight
39:15following a suicidal battle
39:17in which they were forced
39:18to run up steep hills
39:20in an attempt
39:20to take fortified positions
39:22from the Germans.
39:24The Chemin des Dents
39:25was perhaps
39:26one of the biggest,
39:27was the biggest blunder
39:28of a war
39:29that had a lot of,
39:31a lot of blunders.
39:33To understand this,
39:34you have to realize
39:34that 1917 was preceded
39:36by 1916,
39:37which was the year
39:38of Verdun
39:38and the Somme.
39:40Between them,
39:41the German,
39:42the British,
39:42and the French
39:43high commands
39:43had managed
39:45to kill a million men
39:47without the lines
39:48having moved
39:49one inch.
39:51The offensive
39:52began on April 16th
39:54and it was such
39:56an unqualified disaster
39:57because they were
39:59supposed to go
40:0012 miles the first day
40:01and they barely
40:01got 500 yards.
40:04And as the French army
40:06was licking its wounds,
40:08they had already lost
40:09about 270,000 men.
40:12When the order came
40:13to go back
40:14and try again
40:15in May,
40:15that's when
40:16the mutinies broke out.
40:20Before long,
40:21two-thirds
40:22of the French troops
40:23were refusing to fight.
40:26In a sign
40:27of ultimate disrespect,
40:2930,000 men
40:30imitated sheep
40:31bleating in response
40:33to their superiors' orders.
40:37In four French towns,
40:38soldiers disobeyed orders,
40:40commandeered buildings,
40:41and refused
40:42to go to the front.
40:46As the revolt spread,
40:47an infantry regiment
40:49declared an anti-war government
40:50in the town
40:51of Missy-au-Bois.
40:55After six weeks
40:56of mutiny,
40:57the French high command
40:58understood the gravity
40:59of the crisis.
41:03Punishment was severe.
41:05More than 23,000 men
41:08were court-martialed,
41:09some of them shot,
41:10under the direction
41:11of General Philippe Petain.
41:14Miraculously,
41:15the Germans
41:16never learned
41:17of the mutiny.
41:19French newspaper censorship
41:21was strong,
41:21and German ground intelligence
41:23did not detect the problem.
41:26The revolt left
41:28the French lines
41:28very weak.
41:30Had the Germans attacked,
41:32they would have certainly
41:33decimated those lines
41:34across a broad swath
41:36of the front.
41:38It could have been
41:39the decisive victory
41:41necessary for Germany
41:42to win the war.
41:46In Russia,
41:47the circumstances
41:47were worse.
41:50Desertion was commonplace,
41:52brought on largely
41:53by corrupt
41:54and incompetent officers.
41:56Deserters were encouraged
41:57by a well-organized coalition
41:59of socialists
42:00and Bolsheviks.
42:04Inside Russia,
42:05this opposition
42:06seized power
42:07from the Tsar.
42:09The Germans then
42:10tried to do
42:11all they could
42:11to encourage
42:12a Russian withdrawal
42:13from the war.
42:14If successful,
42:16the Kaiser would be fighting
42:17only on the Western front.
42:20Vladimir Lenin
42:21was the leading
42:22Bolshevik theorist.
42:25Exiled in neutral Switzerland,
42:27he was firmly against
42:28Russian involvement
42:29in the war.
42:30He wanted to return
42:31to Russia,
42:32but was afraid
42:33he'd be arrested
42:34if he traveled
42:35through Allied territory.
42:40Germany,
42:41although strongly opposed
42:42to Lenin's political ideology,
42:44placed Lenin
42:45in a sealed boxcar
42:46and transported him
42:48through Germany
42:49and Sweden
42:50to Russia.
42:52Upon his arrival,
42:54he assumed the leadership
42:55of the Bolshevik party
42:56and quickly organized
42:57the October Revolution.
43:01Russia became the world's
43:03first communist state
43:05and withdrew from the war.
43:11Despite U-boat attacks
43:12on military targets,
43:14the British still commanded
43:16the high seas.
43:17Germany was effectively
43:18cut off.
43:20Conditions for German civilians
43:22continued to deteriorate.
43:25their government
43:26felt compelled
43:27to start
43:27unrestricted
43:28submarine warfare.
43:30Breaking its promise
43:32to the Americans,
43:32the German U-boats
43:34would begin attacking
43:35civilian and military ships.
43:40On the 2nd of February, 1917,
43:43German Ambassador
43:44von Bernsdorf
43:45reluctantly gave
43:46the White House
43:47the news.
43:48The ambassador
43:49made it appear
43:50that his objections
43:51to the policy
43:52had been ignored
43:53by the Imperial Chancellery.
43:56But now,
43:57Wilson could no longer
43:58remain neutral.
44:00The president
44:01hesitantly broke
44:03diplomatic relations
44:04with Germany.
44:05In the preceding months,
44:07Colonel Edward House
44:07had become
44:08Bernsdorf's friend,
44:09unaware of his
44:11espionage activities.
44:12When Count von Bernsdorf
44:14finally was recalled
44:15to Germany,
44:16he received a letter
44:18from Colonel Edward House.
44:19The day will come
44:20when people in Germany
44:21will see how much
44:23you have done
44:23for your country
44:24in America.
44:27The German ambassador's
44:29espionage efforts
44:30may not have been
44:31clear to the Americans,
44:32but the British
44:33had been tapping
44:34their communication channels
44:35and made a stunning discovery.
44:39The Germans
44:40continued to communicate
44:41with their embassy
44:42in the United States
44:43in consulates,
44:45as well as
44:46with the German embassies
44:47in Mexico
44:47and South America.
44:51secret German diplomatic messages
44:53sent through American channels
44:55in code
44:55protected them
44:57from American eyes,
44:58but not from room 40.
45:02The British deciphered
45:04an explosive message
45:05in January of 1917,
45:08stating that if war came
45:10between the U.S.
45:11and Germany,
45:13Ambassador von Bernsdorf
45:14should approach Mexico
45:15with a plan.
45:21It outlined
45:22German-Mexican cooperation,
45:24the spirit of which
45:25was,
45:25we make war together,
45:26we make peace together.
45:31The plan offered
45:32financial and political
45:33support to Mexico,
45:36but most incredibly,
45:38it suggested that Mexico
45:39take back Texas,
45:41Arizona,
45:42and New Mexico.
45:44It was signed
45:45by the German
45:46Secretary of State,
45:47Arthur Zimmermann.
45:50The German threat
45:52was at America's doorstep.
45:55Now, this message
45:56when decoded
45:57was obviously dynamite.
45:59The big problem there
46:00was how to use it.
46:03Once the British
46:04had this message,
46:05they could not
46:06hand it to the Americans.
46:08One, because then
46:09the Americans
46:10would realize
46:10the British were reading
46:12American diplomatic traffic
46:14going through
46:15the same transatlantic cable.
46:17And if America
46:19stood up and held
46:20that piece of paper
46:22and waved it around,
46:24the Germans would realize
46:25the British were reading
46:26all of their
46:27diplomatic traffic.
46:28So here they had
46:30a real find,
46:32something which would
46:33get America
46:34into the war possibly
46:35on the British side
46:37and the British
46:38couldn't use it.
46:41Admiral Blinker Hall,
46:43chief of British
46:44Naval Intelligence,
46:45constructed
46:45an elaborate deception.
46:48The British knew
46:50that the Germans
46:51communicated with
46:52their embassies
46:53in several different ways.
46:55So they knew
46:56the basic Zimmermann telegram,
46:57which not only
46:58won transatlantic cable,
47:00might have been carried
47:01by a courier,
47:02might have been sent
47:03by radio.
47:04So they had
47:05a British agent
47:06in Mexico City
47:08steal one
47:09from the German embassy.
47:11They were able
47:12to take that copy
47:13and show that
47:14to the Americans,
47:17implying that they,
47:18that they,
47:18the British,
47:19learned about this
47:20from their spy
47:22in the German embassy
47:23in Mexico City.
47:26The admiral outlined
47:28how the Germans
47:29had been planning war
47:30against the United States
47:31using the American
47:32cable system
47:33that had been
47:34so graciously offered
47:35by Wilson.
47:38The Zimmermann message
47:39had been sent
47:40by Western Union.
47:42A copy of the telegram
47:44could be found
47:45in New York
47:45and the Americans
47:46could claim
47:47this intelligence victory
47:48as their own.
47:51When the American
47:52president heard
47:53the contents
47:54of the German message,
47:55he was furious.
47:57He quickly abandoned
47:59his isolationist stance.
48:02Wilson leaked
48:02the telegram
48:03to the press.
48:05War fever
48:06swept the land.
48:08Some isolationists
48:10in Congress
48:10accused Wilson
48:11of fabricating
48:12the telegram
48:13for propaganda purposes.
48:15They were quieted
48:17when, astoundingly,
48:18Arthur Zimmermann
48:19acknowledged
48:20that he had
48:21sent the message.
48:23It was a grave mistake.
48:27On the 2nd of April, 1917,
48:30Wilson asked Congress
48:31to declare war
48:32on Germany.
48:34America mobilized
48:35to join the conflict.
48:38German espionage
48:39continued unabated
48:40and undetected.
48:42In early 1917,
48:44in Kingsland, New Jersey,
48:45the Canadian car
48:46and foundry plant,
48:47a major manufacturer
48:49of shells,
48:50blew up.
48:52It was not
48:53until long
48:53after the war
48:54that the Yanks
48:55realized
48:55the saboteurs
48:56had been recruited
48:57from German-American
48:58communities.
49:00Twenty years later,
49:01during World War II,
49:03fear of this type
49:04of internal sabotage
49:05prompted President
49:06Franklin Roosevelt
49:07to intern
49:08tens of thousands
49:09of Japanese-Americans.
49:11Of those responsible
49:13for the sabotage,
49:14few were ever discovered
49:15and brought to trial.
49:18The success of Germany's
49:20secret war
49:21against America
49:22and its allies,
49:23however,
49:23was not enough
49:24to overcome
49:25German political
49:26and military
49:27miscalculations.
49:30America's entry
49:31into the conflict
49:32tipped the scales
49:33of the war.
49:34A depleted Germany
49:36surrendered
49:36on the 11th
49:37of November, 1918.
49:41Armistice ended
49:42the war,
49:42but it did not
49:43bring true peace.
49:45Many millions died.
49:47Millions more
49:48were wounded.
49:50An entire generation
49:51of young men
49:52was lost.
49:54The political
49:54and social terrain
49:55had been so profoundly
49:57disturbed
49:57that war
49:58would never
49:59be the same.
50:01Armies and nations
50:02developed invisible
50:03tentacles
50:04which reached further
50:05into other countries
50:06and across time.
50:08Breakthroughs
50:09in cryptography
50:10led to complex
50:11encoding machines
50:12and advanced computers.
50:14Political destabilization
50:16became a fine art
50:17within MI6,
50:19the CIA,
50:19and the KGB.
50:22Biological agents
50:23and sabotage
50:24evolved into
50:25secret arsenals,
50:26transforming terrorism
50:28into a viable weapon.
50:31World War I
50:32ushered in
50:33the modern age
50:34of instability.
50:35It is not yet over.
50:58World War I
51:29World War I
51:51World War I
51:51World War I
51:52World War I
51:55World War I
51:57World War I
51:59World War I
52:01World War I
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