even now at the start of a 21st century
for all our advances we still haven't
eliminated the scourge of war in fact
the last hundred years have seen war
waged on a greater scale than any other
time in human history in this new series
my son Dan and I will be examining some
of the greatest battles of the 20th
century battles that have shaped the
world we live in today
we apply to the Pacific to find out how
America turned the tide against Japan
we'll see what remains of the ravage
city of Stalingrad
we'll go to the Far East to visit the
battlefields of Vietnam
and the frontline of the ongoing
conflict in Korea still unresolved to
this day will travel to the Falkland
Islands scene of the last war on British
territory
and journey to the Middle East to
describe methyls at the heart of a
lighted relationship between Arabs
Israelis and the Western world the 20th
century saw the most radical
transformation ever in how battles were
fought it witnessed the last cavalry
charge and the first nuclear bomb more
people both military and civilian were
killed in the conflicts of the 20th
century than in any other throughout
this series I'll be finding out what it
was like for the soldiers sailors and
airmen who found themselves fighting
often thousands of miles away from home
the enemy is not the only challenge in
this dark
difficult terrain and I'll be analyzing
how the commanders devise new strategies
to exploit revolution rate advances in
technology
our series begins here in northern
France at the start of the 20th century
with the most destructive war the world
had yet seen the fighting involved tens
of millions of troops from all around
the world and led to a greater death
toll at any previous war in history the
First World War the Great War
established the way that battles are
fought to this very day new weapons like
tanks and aircraft were used for the
first time with devastating effect
there was one battle more than any other
that harnessed the power of these new
weapons to turn the tide of the war it
was fought here in northeast France on
the Western Front in 1918 it was the
Battle of a Miao
by the beginning of 1918 Europe
superpowers had fought each other to a
standstill on the killing grounds of
northern France and Belgium
a war that had been supposed to last six
months had dragged on the
three-and-a-half blood-soaked years when
the First World War began
nobody had expected the conflict would
turn out the way it did
Germany and her coalition partners
austro-hungary Bulgaria and Turkey were
fighting to secure dominance in Europe
and the Middle East in the east they had
driven deep into Russia and captured
huge swaths of land and in the West
they'd invaded first Belgium and then
France expecting a quick victory the
British Army including men from
Australia Canada and other countries of
the Empire had helped the French secure
the rest of France but they have failed
to push the Germans out by 1918 the
Allies were still where they had been
three years earlier with the British
holding the line closest to the Channel
ports the Great War had turned into a
deadly stalemate battles like
Passchendaele
eeep the psalm and they're done further
down the Western Front had resulted in a
catastrophic loss of life on both sides
but the front line had hardly moved to
break this deadlock that would have to
be a startling change of strategy
without it it seemed the war would never
end
the soldiers have been dug in here on
the western front for the best part of
three years and they've been slogging it
out in a chain of murderous offensives
that seem to them to be pretty futile
life in these trenches alternated
between long periods of mind-numbing
boredom and short moments of extreme
danger there was nothing to be seen one
of your line of earth and some bags with
occasional piece as a timber line about
when you get tired of sitting you can
get up and have a peek between the
sandbags what a man can be in the
trenches for a year and never have fired
a shot the daily routine in the trenches
was made infinitely worse by the fact
that months of shelling had destroyed
the landscape what had been a
countryside of rolling farmland was now
one of utter devastation
for the men living and fighting in these
dreadful conditions it must have often
seemed like the war was going to go on
forever but thousands of miles away from
these trenches events were now taking
place that would bring these men hope
that the end of the war was finally in
sight
throughout the war there had been a
vicious fight for control of the
Atlantic shipping lanes at first German
u-boats only aim to sink British vessels
by 1917 they made the mistake of
targeting supply ships belonging to the
United States of America for America's
President Woodrow Wilson this was an
outrage too far forcing him to declare
war on Germany after three years of
watching and waiting America was now
firmly in the fight
hundreds of thousands of strong fresh
American troops would soon be arriving
in northern France it was exactly what
the exhausted Allied soldiers on the
Western Front had been waiting for with
this huge infusion of Americans the
balance of power should shift
irreversibly away from the Germans into
the Allies favor
as we march through the town the
sidewalks were full of people we felt so
proud and important that such a fuss was
being made over us the French girls were
jumping the ranks and throw flowers at
us of course we were looking forward to
the great adventure ahead of us we were
looking forward to the fight
from June 1917 the trickle of Americans
arriving in France became a flood but
there was a problem with these American
troops nicknamed doughboys they were raw
inexperienced recruits once they arrived
in France they need months of training
to get them ready for battle the fact
was the Allies would have to hold the
line against the Germans by themselves
for a while longer and if that was bad
news that was worse to come from the war
in the east since the beginning of the
war Germany had been locked in battle
with Russia on the Eastern Front but by
the beginning of 1918 this had changed
dramatically
after seizing power in the Russian
Revolution communists made peace with
Germany with the war in the East at an
end in early 1918 hundreds of thousands
of crack German troops could be freed up
to fight on the Western Front for the
time being
the balance of power had swung in favor
of the Germans but if the Germans were
to win this war
they had to make their move before the
Americans became fully operational after
three and a half long years the war had
suddenly become a race against time by
spring 1918 it looked as if Germany
would win that race
Germany was counting on one man to the
liver victory their chief strategist
Erich Ludendorff Ludendorff had presided
over Germany's victory in the East now
he plan to finish off the Allies in the
West
goodand off knew this could be Germany's
last chance to win the war even with
freed up German troops flooding in from
the east wouldn't off still didn't have
the manpower to launch a general
offensive all along the Western Front so
he decided to focus on one part of the
line if he could push the British back
into the sea the French would be on
their own and the war would be as good
as one he came up with a plan called
Kaiser Schlacht the Emperor's battle his
troops would concentrate their attacks
in a series of powerful punches the
first punch was aimed to drive a wedge
here between the British and the French
where the two armies met just east of
the city of a Myung
am young was the most important city on
the western front but it lay only 39
miles behind the part of the front that
was poorly defended it was a key
transport hub vital for getting supplies
and reinforcements up to the Allied
trenches
if wooden door could capture this city
of am young then he would divide the
British from the French and cut their
supply line
he chose March the 21st the launch is
offensive and named it after Germany's
patron st. Michael's a massive force of
unprecedented strength and quality began
to be put together for the offensives
the German army was scoured for the
toughest fittest and most experienced
soldiers
the week in the old were transferred to
the rear only the very best of all would
be trained up as stormtroopers
specialist units of shock troops that
would punch through the Allied lines
the men of the storm battalions were
treated like football stars they lived
in comfortable quarters they did their
jobs and disappeared again
and left it to the poor foot sluggers to
dig in it wasn't just fresh troops
Ludendorff was counting on he intended
to throw away the old rule book on how
to fight a battle the front lines ran
through these fields just here this is
where I'm standing
40 miles east of a myung the German
infantry were here in a series of
trenches skirting around the town of San
Quentin just a few hundred meters away
across no-man's land
were the British infantry and their
trenches their heavy guns further back
here and here usually an infantry attack
was preceded by a long indiscriminate
bombardment lasting days if not weeks to
care a path through enemy defenses the
problem was that these long bombardments
gave the enemy plenty of warning as an
infantry attack was imminent this time
Ludendorff planned a barrage of just
five hours but with more artillery guns
than ever before for the first two hours
a mixture of gas and high-explosive
shells would target the British
artillery positions back here then they
would fire on the British infantry
positions further forward the
bombardment would keep the British
hunkered down in their trenches exactly
five hours after the bombardment started
the elite force of German stormtroopers
would begin their advance
Ludendorff hoped that this artillery
fire plan coupled with the stormtroopers
would cause such mass confusion that the
entire British front line would fall
apart in just one day
in ludendorff the Germans had a strong
commander with a clear battle plan on
the Allied side there was no man in
overall charge the British were led by
Field Marshal Douglas Haig he rarely saw
eye to eye with the French chief of
staff general Ferdinand fuch and now
there was also the American commander
General John Pershing there was little
sign of coordinated leadership between
the Allied commanders and March 1918
would present them with their greatest
challenge so far
across no-man's land the British Army
were woefully unprepared to deal with
any kind of offensive the ground had
frozen hard during the winters they
didn't even have a proper network of
trenches on top of this they've had to
take over an extra 42 miles of the front
line to ease up pressure on the French
worst of all though was the fact that
the British government had been so
horrified with the losses of 1917 they
hadn't sent enough men to the front in
1918 the British Army was sitting ducks
we cannot tell what even the next moment
hasn't store for us but what will this
same spot be one the Germans attack
bloody and phone Ahmir happen at any
moment
sudden jump from still Nelson to Hill
on the stroke of 4:40 a.m. on March 21st
the eerie calm and the Allied trenches
was broken by the heaviest bombardment
of the entire First World War
six and a half thousand guns and three
and a half thousand trench waters found
virtually simultaneously along a forty
six mile front in the greatest
concentration of bubble Farber to date
into this brew of high explosive and
razor-sharp shrapnel was mixed a
concoction of lethal gases which hung in
the air for hours
burning the eyes of soldiers and horses
in the half-built British trenches the
German artillery bombardment was
obliterating whole regiments at a time
entire units were literally being wiped
off the face of the earth
the British were being slaughtered
such hell makes weaklings of the
strongest and no humans nerves or body
were ever built to stand such torture
noise horror and mental pain
a 9:40 a.m. the first wave of German
troops scrambled forward in their gas
masks through the fog they were so well
prepared they had maps showing British
gun emplacements sewn into their sleeves
they were Ludendorff's elite the
stormtroopers
all morning the stormtroopers forced
their way through gaps in the Allied
lines which were already weakened by the
artillery barrage armed with light
machine guns hand grenades and
flamethrowers they swarmed forward
whenever they came up against
particularly stubborn resistance
they'd skirt around it looking for weak
points elsewhere and seeking out the
more exposed to artillery positions in
the rear the stormtroopers left the job
of mopping up any remaining strong
points to the main infantry force moving
up behind
it's gaps appearing all along the front
line tens of thousands of looking dolf's
regular German infantry now advanced and
were surprised at how quickly they broke
through the British had lost control of
the situation
we crossed a better tangle of wire
without difficulty and at a jump were
over the front line the English jumped
out of their trenches and fled by
battalions across the open they stumbled
over each other as they fled him in a
few seconds the ground was strewn with
dead only a few got away
thousands of British troops were cut off
and surrounded and forced to surrender
this remorseless attack thousands more
suffering from the effects of gassing
coughed and staggered their way to the
rear where they hope to find some
shelter by midday the British troops
facing the attack had lost 1/3 of their
number a full-scale British retreat had
begun four days the German advances
continue then on April the 5th the
Allies finally managed to stand firm
just 11 miles from a Myung
Lunn Dolph fist offensive had won a
remarkable series of territorial gains
for the Germans that village is the
furthest they got here it is VA Brett
honor
they'd advance 28 miles and made a
massive dent in the British front line
but the British line had not broken over
the next eight weeks
Ludendorff launched for more offensives
here here here and here
the last advance took them to win 37
miles of Paris
each time the offensives fell short of
that crucial breakthrough despite
everything learned all throughout them
the Allies were holding on
the outcome of the First World War
now hung in the balance the Germans had
extended their front line so much
they were outstretched for his thinly
along the length of the Western Front
and the Allies were finally starting to
regroup it was a critical point in the
race against time that would marked the
tip of the German advance towards Paris
control of it gave the Germans a key
strategic foothold on the road to the
French capital if the Allies were to
prevent Ludendorff rum strutting down
the shah's Alizee the German stronghold
in Bello would would have to be cleared
in the blazing heat of June the sixth
Allied troops prepared to start their
advance on this wood but these men
weren't British or French instead the
task of clearing bellow would had been
given to the United States Marine Corps
for the first time in World War one the
Americans were going on the offensive
even though it had been 14 months since
the United States declared war on
Germany this had not been long enough to
master modern tactics now the US Marines
prepared to retake belleau wood in the
old-fashioned way advancing line abreast
over their heads American guns lead a
barrage of shells to soften up the
German defenses
but the advancing Marines were in for a
nasty shock hidden amongst the tightly
packed trees there were units of dogged
German soldiers veterans of the Russian
front
there'd the perfect cover for their
machine-gun nests and interlocking
fields of fire when the Marines got
close enough
the Germans let rip
we hadn't gone 50 yards when they cut
loose at us from the woods ahead more
machine guns and I had ever heard before
I have a vague recollection of urging
the whole line on faster we came to an
open wheat field full of red poppies and
here we caught hell some of the Marines
fought their way through the machine gun
fire managed to establish a small
foothold in this forest but it cost them
terrible casualties elsewhere on the
battlefield one young American officer
was told to retreat by some French
troops that were pulling back he
famously said retreat hell we just got
here
the difficulty with Bella wood was that
you never knew where the front was while
you were fighting in one direction all
of a sudden without warning you would
find there some Germans to the rear that
needed to be mopped up that was Bela
wood
five times the Marines made headway five
times they were beaten back but on the
sixth attempt the Marines finally prized
belleau wood away from the German grip
it had been a terrible cost in their
first encounter with the Germans the US
Marine Corps suffered 10,000 casualties
with the Allied victory at belleau wood
wooden doors path to Paris had been
blocked the Marines hadn't won the war
but they had helped save the Allies from
defeat more importantly the Germans have
come face to face with the Americans for
the first time and the doughboys had
delivered a massive psychological blow
to German morale no-one could no doubt
that the Americans were in the war for
real
if those in front of us are fair
specimens of the average American troops
and if there are as many as they say
there then goodbye farce
throughout the spring offensives
Ludendorff had committed everything he
had and he now came face-to-face with
the plain truth that his army was
exhausted and overextended and he had
lost more men than he could ever replace
and for all that he'd still failed to
break the Allied line now the Allies had
the opportunity and they seized it they
would now take the fight to the Germans
the Allied attempt to break through on
the Western Front will be led by a
British General Sir Henry Rawlinson
rowlandson had been the commander at the
Battle of the Somme back in 1916 where
58,000 British soldiers had been lost in
one day this would be his chance to
prove he'd learnt the lessons of past
battles the Allies now came up with a
plan for a counter-offensive that was
one of the most significant initiatives
of the war it must be a milestone in
military history the idea came in July
1918 at a conference of allied generals
which offered him a chance to redeem his
reputation his men controlled the ground
east of a miaow
where Ludendorff had now thinned out his
troops presenting Rawlinson with a
perfect spot for a breakthrough
what Rawlinson came up with was an
imaginative and radical new strategy he
would concentrate a force of around
350,000 troops along a 17 mile front
this force would massively outnumber the
Germans facing them north of a river
Somme in this hilly country was the
British three Corps below them the
Australians on the other side of this
railway line the Canadians and next to
them the French what attracted Rowland's
into this terrain was that apart from
the rugged and more difficult ground to
the north it was dry and open
ideal territory for the Allies newest
weapon tanks
today tanks and armored vehicles are one
of the most important weapon systems in
a modern army back in 1918 troops
regarded them with quele of suspicion
they were prone to mechanical failure
and they were slow top speed was about 4
miles per hour and this made them
vulnerable to enemy artillery fire tanks
could be very claustrophobic and
disorientating but perhaps worst of all
was the fact there was no separation
between where the engine was and the
area for the crews which meant that
after half an hour temperatures could
reach about a hundred degrees Fahrenheit
not only did the men frequently suffer
from burns but more crewmen died from
carbon monoxide poisoning than were
killed by enemy action
in fact usually after just one day of
battle tank crews had to be sent to
recover in a field hospital from the
experience but despite this they did
have their advantages
they weren't invulnerable to machine gun
fire and they could crush barbed wire
lastly they put the fear of God into the
Germans
the Germans had virtually no tanks but
now they were about to face the greatest
concentration of tanks ever assembled on
a battlefield the tanks were only part
of Rawlinson's grand design the Battle
of am young would use all the resources
he had working closely together just as
they do today
we've come to Salisbury Plain to watch a
combined-arms exercise the modern-day
equivalent of what Rawlinson had in mind
for the Battle of a meow one of the main
roles of the tank and I don't think it's
really changing is actually to help
protect the infantry and deliver them
onto the enemy position in good order
and that's something the tank does very
well indeed both tanks and infantry are
supported by the big guns of the
artillery Gunners back in 1918 didn't
have computers or satellites to help him
find the right range normally before a
battle they would fire off test shots
but before the Battle of amia they were
ordered to use only maps and mathematics
so as not to alert the Germans for 5-7
million a body can can drop something
like four and a half tons of explosives
on any area and a very short period of
time and so you know the only people
that give us a great short effect on
enemy
unlike 1918 today's infantry are carried
into battle by armored personnel
carriers but the carriers can only take
them so far in the final stage of an
assault there's no alternative but to
get out and go in on foot airpower is
the final component of the all arms
attack
it's crucial that that all the different
elements work together tanks on their
own are very very vulnerable likewise
the the infantry and everything else so
it's crucial dat the tanks the engineers
the artillery and the air support all
work together to to destroy the enemy
positions
so as Rawlinson approached the Battle of
Mei he had a quite new system of weapon
systems tactics and everything's all
arms cooperation that's right and
although the the weapons and the
vehicles have become much more
technologically advanced over the years
the basic tactics that they use back in
1918 haven't really changed a great deal
isn't it amazing how everyone we've
talked to you today is kept saying what
we're seeing today is is it began back
in 1918 it's extraordinary all their
tactics are really date back from then
and you consider that two years before
1918 it was still just a bunch of
riflemen lining up in a line and walking
towards the enemy trenches it's amazing
how much change happen in those two
years and while surprise here we've seen
all arms working together aircraft tanks
infantry combining to overwhelm the
enemy August 1918 would be the first
time in history that all available
weapons were coordinated on such a scale
to a meticulous timetable the guns would
create a curtain of fire that would move
forward a hundred metres every three
minutes wiping out many German defensive
positions protected by the cover of fire
the Allied infantry would advance at the
closer they followed the barrels the
more likely they were to overcome their
enemy with infantry found themselves up
against stiff opposition they would call
in the tanks to overrun German positions
they had lighter tanks too called
weapons they were twice as fast as the
heavy tanks and could look for gaps in
the enemy lines through which they could
drive and cause havoc they be the
cavalry of the future but in 1918 they
could still only do eight miles an hour
horses were still faster and rowlandson
had thousands of them waiting to gallop
into battle rowlandson said his men
three objectives first he drew a green
line on the map two miles behind the
first enemy line he gave them two hours
to reach it there they consolidate and
new forces would pass through them and
fight their way through to the red line
which he marked three miles further on
and if by the end of the day they could
then reach his blue line they would have
achieved an eight mile advance
altogether it would be the biggest
advance in one day's fighting of any
allied force on the Western Front since
the war began
in early August amia was a ghost town
the population had been evacuated during
the ludendorff offensives now the city
was only 11 miles behind the front line
and no civilians have been allowed to
return the only people here were
military and there were more of them on
their way the troop bill that was hidden
by a shroud of secrecy the element of
surprise was essential if the British
plan was to succeed sand was even laid
down on some of the deserted roads to
deaden the sound of the troops and
artillery massing in and around the city
and hundreds of tanks were hidden on the
banks of the tree-lined canals
to make sure each soldier knew just how
important it was to maintain secrecy a
small note was pasted into their pay
books it told them that if they were
captured by the Germans they were
allowed to say their name their serial
number and their rank and nothing else
it ended with the words keep your mouths
shut
a few days before the battle began
reports reach German commanders that
unusual noise had been heard outside I'm
young
perhaps signifying an allied buildup but
learned off to scan to these reports
there is nothing he said to justify this
apprehension as long as our troops are
vigilant and do their duty Rawlinson's
obsessive secrecy was paying off
the early hours of August the 8th
provided the perfect conditions for the
launch of roland Sands elaborate plan it
was a moonless night and from the river
valleys a ground mist provided valuable
cover for the tanks rumbling into
position
this countryside was an anthill of
activity as tens of thousands of Allied
troops move towards the frontline the
men went a strict instructions there was
to be no shouting no flashlights and no
cigarettes no unnecessary noise the
silence played on our nerves a bit as we
got our guns into position
you could hear drivers whispering to
their horses and men muttering curses
under their breath and still the silence
persisted the 0r was set at 4:20 a.m.
the hour before dawn as it approached
all was silent
the moment British guns had opened fire
on German positions the British infantry
had started their attack a creeping
barrage which the advancing foot
soldiers now hugged as closely as
possible was delivered by 700 heavy guns
at the same time hundreds more guns
concentrated on Germans strongpoints and
artillery positions further back the 17
miles along the front flares lit up the
countryside as a mass of groups of tanks
moved forward under the barrage
as the British Canadian and Australian
infantry advance the early morning fog
was so thick they could only see about
ten yards in front of them it was made
even murkier by the smoke from the
exploding artillery shells
we were traveling fast the sweat was
rolling down my face the shells were
bursting everywhere some of them very
low machine-gun bullets also whistled
over us from the left flank where the
advance had been held up for a while
precisely as planned the creeping
barrage and the almost simultaneous
infantry assault took the Germans
totally by surprise some lead allied
units stormed into enemy trenches and
bunkers and captured or killed the
German defenders before they had any
chance to organize a counter-attack
at 6:30 a.m. this village of Marcel
carve became the target of the Canadian
infantry but they could make little
headway against well dug in German
machine guns then help appeared in the
form of a lumbering mark five British
tank it's commander a lawyer from
Somerset sized up the situation and
advanced into the village
some of the German positions were
blasted away by the tanks six pound guns
the rest were crushed under its tracks
it was all over in about half an hour
and the tank commander handed the
village over to the Allied infantry but
not until a typical lawyer like fashion
he'd received a receipt the village of
Marcel carve was now officially in
allied hands
the taking of this village of Marcel
carve but the Canadians across
Rawlinson's first objective his green
line British soldiers operating north of
the river Somme had been given less
distance to cover because they were
fighting on rougher terrain but about
three hours into the battle
most of Rawlinson's units had reached
their objectives now they could rest
while new troops were pushed through to
continue the attack
hi I'm 9 a.m. the fog was beginning to
lift right the way across the wide
battlefield and Rawlinson was now able
to employ his final weapon in his
armoury aircraft the royal air force
barely a few months old sent in 600
fighters and bombers to provide close
air support to the Allied infantry
phosphorus bombs were dropped ahead of
the advancing tanks and the planes
straight German ground targets like
machine-gun emplacements which are much
easier to spot from the air low-flying
planes ate away at German morale for any
experienced British Airmen it was a
bewildering experience
we were over the target and dropping
bombs before I realized we cross the
lines I leaned over the side to watch
the form we have a look down from a high
building felt as though you must throw
yourself down are to turn away
gaps were now appearing in the German
line which the Canadian Australian
troops tried to exploit as quickly as
possible this led to one of the more
bizarre sights of the day a group of
Canadian cyclists pedaled off down the
road their rifles slung across their
shoulders they were escorting a group of
armour plated cars carrying machine guns
the Allies were willing to try anything
to increase their speed and mobility the
cyclists sped off down the road looking
for German positions this mobility paid
off when they came across the enemy-held
village of meze ere the cyclists rode
through the back streets and overwhelmed
a German machine gun post from behind
but in this area north of the river
Somme that British ran into the most
stubborn resistance of all they were
heading a cross here towards that high
ground over there called chili ridge
when they ran into concentrated fire
that stopped them in their tracks
the British troops didn't have that many
tanks supporting them because the
terrain on this side of the Sun was
unsuitable to make matters worse these
men had borne the brunt of months of
heavy fighting and they were weakened
and exhausted they did manage to get to
the edge of this open field just
opposite chilly Ridge over there
as soon as they got here they were
driven back into these woods by
devastating German machine-gun fire
the British north of the Sun were pinned
down in front of Shapley Ridge but of
the south of the river Rollins's plan
was ahead of schedule by late morning
most of his men had reached the second
objective the red line they've moved a
remarkable five miles in half a day
already some of the light whipping tanks
had pressed on at a heady 8 miles an
hour causing havoc behind enemy lines
the exploits of one of these tanks
nicknamed musical box would pass into
legend for nine hours it ran wild
attacking German artillery from the rear
surprising wresting German troops and
even ramming a truck into a stream the
Germans peppered the tank with bullets
they perforated fuel tanks stored on the
roof and soon petrol was flooding down
inside the tank the crew were forced to
Don gas masks as they pushed on now
ankle deep in petrol soon a German shell
hit the tank and it burst into flames
the three crewmen scrambled to escape
and as they did so one of them was shot
dead and the other two captured by the
Germans
the British tank drivers weren't the
only ones to feel the heat of the German
guns dead after noon on the southern
banks of a river Somme Australian troops
were taking a beating from German
artillery firing at them from across the
river from positions high up on Tripoli
Ridge which the British are still
struggling to capture
hours after the British were supposed to
have captured this vital sector of the
north bank of the Somme the area was
still in German hands every time British
troops tried to leave the shelter of
this wood they were cut down by German
machine-gun and artillery fire the
prospects for advancing any further
looked grim and it wasn't till the next
day that Allied troops finally managed
to secure the north bank of the song but
on this first day of battle August the
8th Rawlinson's units
south of the river Somme were pushing
deeper and faster into German Hill
territory than ever before to keep up
the pace of his advance Rawlinson all of
his horsemen to go into the front line
two entire cavalry division's over
20,000 horsemen
now moved up to the front through the
infantry to begin the attack on the
final objective for blue line
the cavalry surged forward easily
outstripping the lumbering tanks that
were supposed to provide him with
supporting fire but once the horsemen
left the tanks behind they found
themselves at the mercy of German
machine guns one group of horsemen left
this village of bokor and ran into
lethal fire from that wood over there
men and horses crashed to the ground the
surviving horses stampeded even with
this bloodshed August the 8th would
still be the British Cavalry's most
successful day of fighting on the
Western Front during the entire war
the German line have been shattered and
for the first time in years the cavalry
could charge through the gaps they
galloped east sowing chaos behind enemy
lines and taking thousands of prisoners
by noon it was clear that enemy
resistance was confined to a few small
pockets everywhere else their positions
were collapsing
Allied soldiers found that the German
troops were all too willing to surrender
to them
in fact one lone Australian was nearly
overwhelmed when a hundred Germans tried
to give themselves up the once mighty
German army was showing signs of falling
apart
the Germans were surrendering everywhere
you could feel the hair breaking up on
your spine with excitement because we
knew it was going to be the end of the
war goodand off lost more ground to the
Allies on the first day of the Battle of
a meow than almost any other day and the
war on the Western Front but what he
found even harder to accept was the
entire German units had surrendered
wholesale and the skill with which the
British had coordinated tanks aircraft
and artillery was beyond anything the
Germans without capable of
the morale and discipline that the
German fighting machine had cracked
Ludendorff later called August the 8th a
blackest day for the German army in this
war he had a nervous breakdown
until the Kaiser the war must be brought
to an end Rawlinson's attack went on for
three more days then finally lost
momentum the Battle of a miaow was over
but it owned rowlandson a place in
military history as the man who used new
technology and tactics to liberate
warfare from the tyranny of the trenches
those few days in August 1918 turned the
tide of the First World War after the
Battle of am Yap the British and French
refreshed by American troops fought on
for another three months liberating more
and more German held teletran at the
start of October 1918 the Germans
finally asked America's President
Woodrow Wilson for an armistice early in
the morning of November the 7th the
supreme Allied commander marshal Fache
arrived here by train in the forest of
calm cane outside Paris just after 5:00
a.m. on the 11th of November the leader
of the German delegation signed the
armistice document it would take effect
at 11:00 that morning
after more than four years of fighting
and 15 million dead the guns were now
sight
a new world order emerged from the first
world war
a world without kaisers in Germany or
czars in Russia a world with new systems
of government like communism and new
countries like Yugoslavia and Iraq and
with it this new order brought new
tensions and rivalries that will plague
the world for the rest of the 20th
century
but the darkest legacy of the First
World War began in a military hospital
where a corporal in the German army was
recovering from the effects of being
gassed by the British
he was seething with resentment at what
he perceived as Germany's national
humiliation that resentment would simmer
away until 20 years later it ignited a
second great global conflict that
corporals name was Adolf Hitler and he
would never forget the experience of
1918
next time in 1942
these Pacific Islands were at the heart
of a battle between America and Japan
I'll be looking at how a new form of
warfare at sea demanded split-second
decisions from the commanders and I'll
be revealing the risks taken by
servicemen and learning the skills they
needed to survive this titanic struggle
took place over just one day it was the
Battle of Midway