All language subtitles for BBC.The.Great.War.26of26.And.We.Were.Young.divx.mp3

Harvest home.

In 1914, the nations of Europe had
marched to war while the corn ripened.

Now it was 1918 and the harvest
was being reaped.

For two months, the whole
weight of the Alliance

had pressed upon the German
army on the Western Front.

July 18th, the Battle of the Marne.

August 8th, the Battle of Amiens.

August 21st, the Battle of Bapaume.

August 26th,
the Battle of the Scarpe.

September 12th,
the Battle of St Mihiel.

Now on September 26th, another
massive blow fell on the German army.

Marshal Foch launched a series
of offensives by all the Allies.

Field Marshal von Hindenburg wrote:

"For us another battle was raging
side by side with those in the field.

"The other battlefield
was in our hearts.

On September 28th, this inward
battle raged most fiercely."

On September 28th,
the German high command

knew that its Bulgarian allies
were on the point of surrender.

General Ludendorff concluded:
"We must plainly sue for peace.

"I went down
to the field marshal's room.

"I explained my views. The field
marshal listened to me with emotion.

"He answered that he had intended
to say the same to me.

"The field marshal and I
parted with a firm handshake

like men who have buried
their dearest hopes."

The next day the surrender
of Bulgaria became a fact -

the first rift in the front
of the central powers.

The British Army burst through
the Hindenburg Line.

GUNFIRE

The German government
and high command

held a conference at Spa
in the Hotel Britannique.

The ministers told the generals
of possible revolution in Germany.

The generals told the ministers that the
army had reached the end of its strength.

Our anxieties for the
army, said Hindenburg,

were mingled with cares
for the homeland.

"If the one did not stand firm,
the other would collapse."

I went through the streets
of Frankfurt and was not saluted.

I was a commissioned officer and
in the army we had to be saluted.

That was not the only soldier
I met who didn't salute.

Quite a number refused to salute.

I realised that the discipline
and mood of people was really bad.

We hadn't realised at the Front
how bad it was at home.

People were fed up with war.

They wanted it to end as soon
as possible - victory or no victory.

"We placed our proposals for a peace
step before his majesty.

"He approved our proposals
with a strong and resolute heart."

"It had to be peace.
Peace after 50 months of war."

There were children going to school
who had never known peace.

Men had forgotten
what peace was like.

The very sense of the word had changed.
What was peace?

Whatever else it might be, it was
something very difficult to obtain.

The first stage towards peace
must be an armistice.

Fire!

There could be no peace while guns
thundered and the killing went on.

But in every country,
soldiers and political leaders knew

that once the guns fell silent
and the killing ceased,

it was inconceivable that the
weary, blood-stained armies

could ever be made to
rise up and fight again.

And so before there
could be an armistice

there must be an assurance
that it would lead to peace.

And after 50 months of
hatred and suspicion,

how could there be
such assurance?

The clamour of the guns went on.

Despite losses, despite exhaustion,

the mood of the Allies in 1918
was implacable.

20% of the French
nation had been taken

into the armed forces
since the war began.

Nearly eight million men.

3.5% of the French nation
had been killed.

Over 1,300,000 men.

France had suffered and fought and
bled as no other country had done.

Great Britain also had put forth
a tremendous effort.

13% of her population had been drawn into
the armed forces - over six million men.

Since 1916 the toll of British dead
had mounted steeply.

Now they numbered 750,000 -
more than half the French figure.

Britain had also lost something
Continental nations never possessed.

A centuries-old sense of immunity.

Over 7.5 million tonnes
of British shipping

had been sunk by October
1918 - over 1,000 ships.

A blow at Britain's lifelines,
which struck at every citizen.

And every large city now knew
that it was a potential war target.

Only 1,413 people had actually
been killed in air raids,

but the enemy in the sky had brought
war home to British people

as nothing else could do.

They didn't like it.

The British mood was sour.

The clamour of the guns continued.

Now it was October.

On the 3rd, a new government
was formed in Germany

under the liberal
Prince Max of Baden.

First he addressed himself to
the President of the United States.

"To avoid further bloodshed,

"the German government
requests the President

to arrange the immediate
conclusion of an armistice

"on land, by sea and in the air."

How would America react?

For Germany and Austria,
this was the all-important question.

CHEERING

President Woodrow Wilson
was the man of the hour.

His own views were simple
and did not alter.

"If the Germans are beaten,
they will accept any terms.

"If they are not beaten, I do
not wish to make terms with them."

Wilson lost no time in putting
German intentions to the test.

He asked whether the German
and Austrian governments

were prepared to accept
the peace programme

which he had delivered
to the US Congress in January, 1918,

known as the Fourteen Points.
It was an unfortunate criterion.

Britain, depending on sea power,
disliked the insistence

on "absolute freedom of navigation
upon the seas in peace and in war".

Proposals for altering
the frontiers of Europe,

which seemed straightforward
in Washington,

took on a different look
when seen from Paris or Rome.

Wilson had not consulted the Allies
before replying to Germany.

And now for the Allies, the war
seemed a little less promising

than it had in October's early days.

In Flanders, drenching rain had halted
the Belgian and British advance.

The Americans in the Argonne also
faced insoluble transport problems.

The French army fought hard,

but the men of 1918 were not the
dashing soldiers of 1914 and 1915.

And the memory of the mutinies
of 1917

was not likely to fade in the mind
of their commander, General Petain.

He could not press them too hard.

MACHINE GUNFIRE

The burden of the advance
fell upon the British Army.

Against it, the Germans summoned up

their last reserves of
courage, skill and fortitude.

All of these they possessed
in a rare degree.

The British had been within three
miles of Cambrai on September 27th.

They didn't enter the burning city
until October 9th.

Yet the British Army also possessed
reserves of fortitude and courage.

On October 17th, they attacked
again on the river Selle,

capturing 20,000 prisoners
and 475 guns.

By the end of October
their own losses in this offensive

had been as heavy as any they had
sustained throughout the war.

The British Army, Haig told
the Government on October 19th:

"...was never more efficient
than it is today.

But it has fought hard and
lacks reinforcements.

"With diminishing effectives,
morale is bound to suffer.

"The French and American
armies are not capable

of making a serious
offensive now.

"The British alone might bring
the enemy to his knees.

"But why expend more British lives
and for what?"

Around the whole perimeter of the war,
the central powers faced disaster.

In Syria, the city of Damascus
had been taken on October 1st.

Aleppo was captured on the 26th.

On the 30th, Turkey asked
for an armistice.

Allied forces advancing from
Salonika now stood on the Danube.

On October 24th,
the Italians had launched

their final offensive
against Austria.

By the end of the month,
Austrian resistance had collapsed.

Austria surrendered on November 3rd.

Now Germany stood quite alone

to face her agonising moment.

She had no choice.

She had to accept whatever terms
she was offered.

A semi-official newspaper wrote:

"There will be a moment
of rebellion against the terms.

"Then we shall have to say to ourselves
that we have the right to die ourselves

"but not the right to let others die;

"that our business is to prevent
useless bloodshed

"and that further bloodshed has
become really and obviously useless."

A socialist leader summed it up:

"Better a terrible end
than terror without end."

Germany faced the truth
with wracking despair.

November came and a Munich paper

bitterly recalled the Kaiser's
promise in August 1914,

that the army would be home
"when the leaves fall".

"'When the leaves fall.'

Many are now dead who thought that they
would be home when the leaves fall.

"Who does not remember with pain
those cheerful words of the Kaiser?

"The leaves are now falling
for the fifth time.

Now perhaps peace will come."

"The signs of internal
commotion in Germany

are growing more numerous
and more serious.

"Want and the collapse of all the
expectations of victory and plunder

"have evidently excited very
dangerous passions among the masses.

"The people of Cologne
are sick of the war.

They say they've been
grossly deceived.

"They were told it would bring them
prosperity but it's brought misery."

By November 6th, there was
revolution in all parts of Germany.

Mutinous sailors from the fleet at
Kiel took over Hamburg and Bremen.

There were insurrections in Hanover,

Brunswick, Cologne and Munich.

Berlin was in ferment.

Ludendorff had resigned
on October 27th.

Now his successor
told the Government:

"We shall have to cross the
lines with a white flag.

"Even a week is too long to wait."

The next day, November 7th, the German
Armistice Commission crossed the lines.

The last days of the war
were at hand.

The last shells
were being fired,

the last attacks mounted, the
last killing being done.

From first to last,
the price of war was fearful.

The poet Wilfred Owen,
who had written in his poems

one of the sternest
indictments of war,

was only one of the many
who fell during these last days.

"If in some smothering dreams
you too could pace

"Behind the wagon
that we flung him in,

"And watch the white eyes
writhing in his face,

"His hanging face,
like a devil's, sick of sin

"If you could hear, at every jolt,
the blood

"Come gargling
from the froth-corrupted lungs,

"Obscene as cancer,
bitter as the cud

"Of vile, incurable sores
on innocent tongues -

"My friend, you would not tell
with such high zest

"To children ardent
for some desperate glory,

"The old lie: 'It is sweet and
glorious to die for one's country.'"

100 days of savage fighting
which had begun in August

and which had never
relaxed its pressure

had cost the British Army
almost 400,000 men.

In that time, the British
had taken 188,000 prisoners.

The other Allies together,
French, Americans and Belgians

had taken 196,000
prisoners.

Of these, the vast majority
fell to the French.

No army in the world
could stand this rate of loss.

A proud German army was breaking up
in the field.

There could be no doubt about the
outcome of the armistice negotiations.

The London Times wrote:

"All the world awaits with
eager desire the news

that Germany has taken the
next step towards peace.

"There is but one way, and
every hour that she delays

increases her losses
and her dangers.

"The terms have been
irrevocably fixed.

They are to take or leave
within a definite period."

At Compiegne, the drama
was played out.

The German armistice delegation
entered Foch's railway carriage.

"Foch invited them to be seated on
one side of the table and sat down.

"'Do you request an armistice?'
the marshal asked abruptly.

"'Yes. We are here to ask

that an armistice be concluded,'
they replied together."

The terms were read out in complete
silence. One German delegate wept.

The Germans were given 72 hours
in which to reach a decision.

They did not need so long.

Revolution was sweeping
through the cities of Germany.

ANGRY SHOUTING

On November 9th,
the Kaiser abdicated

and the next day he fled to Holland.

Hearing the news, Sir Douglas Haig
wrote in his diary:

"If the war had gone against us, no
doubt our king would have had to go.

"And probably our army would have become
insubordinate like the German army.

"Compare John Bunyan's remark on
seeing a man on his way to be hanged.

"But for the grace of God, John Bunyan
would have been in that man's place."

At 5am on November 11th,
the armistice was signed

and a signal went out from Marshal Foch's
headquarters to all the Allied armies.

"Hostilities will cease
at 1100 hours today, November 11th.

Now, at last, on the hundredth day
of the fifth year,

the guns fell silent,
the killings stopped.

No more Very lights going up
with their greenish wavering flare.

No lilies of the dead in the night.

No flash of howitzers
on the horizon.

No drowning with droning
of the shells.

No machine guns.
No patrols going out.

Just nothing.

Silence.

The Canadians were approaching Mons.

Then we carried on into Mons.

And got to the main street

which was filled with the inhabitants
screaming their heads off and shouting.

They didn't seem to know
what had happened to them.

And as I got to the town hall
in the main street of Mons,

the church clock chimed.
It was 11 o'clock.

The war was over.
This was the unbelievable moment.

And nowhere more unbelievable
than at the front itself.

Slowly the news came in officially
that an armistice had been signed.

But there was no show of emotion.
No-one went berserk or anything.

We were too far gone. Our emotions
were all killed long ago.

A French officer observed
the reaction of his soldiers.

"They didn't show their joy by shouts
or songs as one could have expected.

"They talked about it but remained
remarkably composed and dignified.

"Peace came so suddenly
that we were all rather stunned

"asking ourselves if it was possible
or whether we were dreaming.

"Walking along the trenches
several hours after the armistice,

"I was surprised to see all our
soldiers at their listening posts

"or in their shelters,
as if the war was still on."

The more boisterous Americans
responded differently to it.

"In one unit, the men joined hands
in one long line behind the gun.

"As the captain dropped his arm,
they all pulled in unison

"so each could say he had fired
the last shell."

EXPLOSION

In many British sectors, stern fighting
went on until the very last minute.

There'd been one German
machine gun unit

giving our troops a lot of trouble.

They kept on firing
until almost 11 o'clock.

At 11 o'clock the officer
stepped out of their position,

lifted his helmet and bowed
to the British troops,

fell all his men in
and marched them off.

CHEERING

British soldiers watched
with astonishment

as civilians in the liberated
areas dug up in gardens

clothes, money and valuables
which had been hidden for years.

For these people,
November 11th, 1918,

meant the end of enemy rule,
repression and fear.

"If there are endless miles of ruins,
there are thousands of beaming faces.

"Wounded, filtering back
from the front,

"old men and women
and then grandchildren,

"huddled with the remains
of their possessions

on a creaking cart drawn
by a lame old horse,

"returning perhaps to ruins which
they may still fondly claim as home.

"One and all bear the stamp
of trials bravely borne."

For some the armistice
had another meaning.

An English officer heard stories
of a different fear.

"Of how from want,
because the children were hungry,

"to provide medicine
for a sick baby

or to save an invalid
mother from starvation,

"the girl or the wife had lived
with a German officer,

"with men their men were fighting.

"Sometimes there was a child
by this stranger

"and you felt the unhappy mother
did not dare say,

"could not explain
that she loved this one also.

"And I, the Englishman,

"thank God that my country
had not been invaded."

The November day wore on.

The truth, the wonderful,
incredible truth, sank in.

The war really was over.

A British officer wrote:

"Throughout the night, the singing,
the hooting of railway whistles

"and the blast of factory sirens
might awaken the dead.

"At last I lay down.

"Tired and happy.
But sleep is elusive.

"Incidents thrash through the memory.

"The battles
of the first four months.

"The awful winters
in waterlogged trenches,

"cold and miserable.

"The terrible trench assaults and
shellfire of the next three years.

"Loss of friends.
Exhaustion and wounds.

"Thank God. The end of a
frightful four years at the Front.

"Company officers, rank and file

"together with other
front-line units

"had suffered bravely,
patiently and unselfishly

"hardships and perils beyond
even the imagination of those,

"including soldiers,
who had not shared them."

To all his soldiers, Marshal Foch
addressed an order of the day.

"Officers, non-commissioned officers
and soldiers of the allied armies,

"You have won
the greatest battle in history

"and rescued the most sacred of
causes - the liberty of the world.

"You have full right to be proud.

"For you have crowned
your standards with immortal glory

"and won the gratitude of posterity."

On the other side of the line,
Field Marshal von Hindenburg

led the defeated German army home
to a country bitterly divided.

Children were dying of hunger

and mobs
attacked officers in the streets.

Even the soldiers were shot at

and all their achievements
and courage, was set at naught.

Yet Hindenburg did not despair.

"I have witnessed
the heroic struggle of my fatherland.

"and I shall never believe
that it was its death struggle."

Germany reported 1,800,000 dead.

Austria-Hungary - 1,200,000.

Two great empires foundered
in sorrow, in hunger, in ruin

to face a merciless future.

The day of reckoning had come.

The reckoning
of victory was no less exorbitant.

Nearly five million
French men were killed,

wounded or taken
prisoner during the war.

That was the price
France paid for victory.

General de Gaulle wrote,

"The sacrifice was cruel as it
was paid with the lives of her youth.

"A treasure in which France was
poorer than other European countries.

"Here dead we lie

"Because we did not choose to live

"And shame the land
from which we sprung

"Life, to be sure,
is nothing much to lose

"But young men think it is

"And we were young."

Now it was over.

Now the awful letting of blood
was ended.

France could breathe again.

We had had
so many years of suffering.

Four years. Four years
of dull suffering. Acute suffering.

Pain everywhere.

It was dreadful.

Every day we heard about someone
we loved being killed or wounded.

There was no relief anywhere

and we thought it would
go on and on and on for ever.

But it didn't
because armistice came.

We waited for it.
We knew it was coming.

Although we weren't sure when.

We knew that one day it would come

and we waited and we waited,

with such tense feelings that
everything around us seemed to wait.

The town waited.

Paris waited. The buildings waited.
We were hushing everything.

We didn't want to talk because
something was going to happen.

We waited and it came.

The day it came it was SO wonderful!

The news seemed too good to be true.

Even the excitable Parisians
had to wait till it was confirmed.

Everyone knew
that an armistice had been signed.

The war would surely end at eleven.

The great city remained calm until
it had been announced officially.

Until the fighting ceased
Parisians went about their affairs

and conducted themselves
with good sense and restraint.

At 1100, the great fact established,
Paris threw her chapeau into the air,

became alive with colour,
began to sing and dance.

In America, most people were asleep
when the news of the armistice came

They awoke to a joyful day.

America's war losses - 325,000
men - did not compare with Europe's.

But at least there would
be no more young Americans

sailing away to death and
wounds on distant fields.

London's relief
matched that of Paris.

Now the bells
could ring and go on ringing,

announcing what all British people
desired to hear.

"There was wild rejoicing
and crowds went crazy with delight.

"But it seemed to me that behind
the ringing of these peals of joy,

"there was the tolling of spectral
bells for those who would not return.

For the British Prime Minister,
David Lloyd George,

it was a day for gratitude -
and hope.

"In the House of Commons
that afternoon,

I rose and announced the
signing of the armistice.

"I concluded by saying, 'Thus at
eleven this morning came to an end

"'the cruellest and most terrible
war that has scorched mankind.'"

In the cities of the allied nations

the armistice set loose a wave
of exaltation and expectation

like the breaking
of a dam.

The very word was electrifying.

Clemenceau expressed
the relief and happiness

of all those who greeted
the armistice with cheers.

"A grand word.

"A great word
to set down when after four years,

"lived through in anguished
expectation of the worst,

"suddenly a voice is heard crying,
'It is finished.'"

"The armistice is the interval
between the curtain's rise and fall.

"Hail to it! And welcome!"