All language subtitles for BBC.The.First.World.War.01of10.To.Arms.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.Forum_[eng]

Kosutnjak Park, outside
the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

In May 1914,
a Bosnian student, Gavrilo Princip,

came here with a Browning pistol
for some target practice.

Princip was 19 years old.

According to his instructor,
he was not a very good shot.

Other students were more confident.

When Princip missed the target,
people would laugh at him.

That would drive him to tears.

In the forest he had a chance to
get his eye in, shooting at trees.

His ultimate goal
was far more ambitious.

I am an adherent
of the radical anarchist idea,

which aims at destroying the
present system through terrorism.

In 1914, Princip's wish was granted.

The First World War began almost by
accident. It ended just as strangely.

In between, it was more destructive
than any war had ever been.

More British, French and Italian
soldiers died in the First World War

than died in the Second.

It was the first genuinely global
conflict,

fought not just on the fields
of France and Flanders,

but up mountains, across deserts,
at sea and in the air.

The First World War shaped the 20th
century,

it sparked the Russian Revolution,

it launched America
as a world power.

The fault lines
from its failed peace settlement

led the world to
a second terrible war 20 years later,

then to the Cold War.

But the ideas the men of 1914 fought
for still shape our world today -

nationalism and democracy,
the rule of international law

and the rights of nations.

Now, after the collapse of communism,

the European map resembles the one
redrawn by the First World War.

We live with
its unresolved, bitter consequences,

in the Middle East and the Balkans.

And it was in the Balkans that
it all began nearly 100 years ago.

At the start of the 20th century,
as at its close,

the Balkans were
the most unstable part of Europe.

Three great empires
fought for power and influence -

the Austro-Hungarian,
the Russian and the Ottoman.

For hundreds of years
the Ottoman Turks had the upper hand.

Serbia, Bosnia, Albania
were under their control.

They built over 80 mosques
in Serbian Belgrade,

but by the 1900s
only this one was left.

Serbia had thrown the Turks out

and set herself
up as an independent Slav kingdom.

IMAM CHANTS

But on Serbia's border was an even
greater challenge

to Slav nationalism -
the Austro-Hungarian empire.

The Turks of the South have gone,
but new enemies come from the North,

more fearsome and dangerous
than the old.

They want to take our freedom and
our language from us and crush us.

Gavrilo Princip was born in
a poor, mountainous part of Bosnia.

His house was destroyed
in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

His initials, carved in 1909, are one
of the few signs he ever lived here.

The year before, control of Bosnia
had been wrested from the Turks

by the Austro-Hungarians -
the enemy Princip wanted to destroy.

His particular target was the heir
to the throne, Franz Ferdinand,

member of the ruling family,
the Hapsburgs.

That extraordinary empire known as
the Austrian-Hungarian dual monarchy

is less an empire
or a kingdom or a state

than the personal property
of the Hapsburgs,

whose hereditary talent
for the acquisition of land

is recorded
on the map of Europe today.

The empire was ruled by
Franz Ferdinand's uncle, Franz Josef.

He sat on two thrones - as Emperor
of Austria and King of Hungary.

By 1914,
he'd been in charge for 66 years.

He'd spent them trying to resist
change of any kind.

Hardly seen out of military uniform,

he hated the idea of political
reform.

As he told US President
Theodore Roosevelt,

"You see in me the last
European monarch of the old school."

Austria-Hungary was a key part
of European security,

a multinational empire keeping
the peace on the borders of the West.

The capital, Vienna,

was one of the great cosmopolitan
centres of Europe.

This was the empire
that produced Freud and Mahler,

Schiele, Kafka and Strauss.

It contained at least ten different
nationalities.

Not just Austrians and Hungarians,
but Czechs, Slovaks,

Poles, Romanians, Italians,
Croats and Bosnians.

A British Foreign Office guide
was prepared to work out who was who.

Teutons - anti-Slav, vigorous...

Very wooden and hard-headed,
shy and suspicious, close-fisted...

Very tall, big noses...

Slovaks - ignorant but artistic...

Ruthenes -
savage and ignorant but musical...

Czechs - energetic, forceful...

But it was also an empire
in a state of constant crisis.

Poles - all for Polish independence.

Bosnian Serbs - pro-Yugoslav.

Italians - anti-Austrian.

In the empire, only the Hungarians
and Austrians had any power,

and the Hungarians refused
to share it with the rest.

For countries like Serbia,

Austria-Hungary was the prison of
nations,

a repressive, undemocratic state that
ground small peoples under its heel.

In 1905, there were nationalist
demonstrations in Vienna.

HUBBUB

GLASS SHATTERS

In 1912,
there was rioting in Budapest.

By 1914, there'd been ethnic unrest

in nearly every part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Local parliaments were suspended,
troops brought in to restore order.

Austria-Hungary's domestic problems
gave opportunities to her enemies.

BIRDSONG

Serbia wanted
the break-up of the empire.

She welcomed national unrest,
particularly in Croatia and Bosnia.

Backed by Slav Russia, Serbia saw
herself as the only independent hope

for Slavs living under foreign rule
in the Balkans.

She wanted to unite them into a
single south-Slav state - Yugoslavia.

Dragutin Dimitrijevic
was an officer in the Serbian army.

He opposed any kind of friendship
with Austria.

The blind surrender
to Austria's embrace

was a most shameful betrayal
of Serbian traditions.

I realise that Serbia must
in full measure become the leader

not only of Serbs,
but of Yugoslavia.

Dimitrijevic believed killing kings
could bring political change -

it had worked for him in the past.

In 1903, he led a palace revolution,
killing the old king of Serbia -

who was too close to Austria for the
army's liking

and installing a new one.

The crowds expressed enormous joy.

They stuck flowers and leaves in
their caps,

windows were decorated
with banners, flowers, garlands.

Belgrade was celebrating.

CHEERING

The rest of the world was horrified
at Serbia's bloody coup.

Serbia was treated like a rogue
state.

"A nest of revolutionaries,"
one foreign minister complained.

Only two countries sent ambassadors
to King Peter's coronation -

Russia, Serbia's greatest ally,
and Austria, her greatest enemy.

Dimitrijevic was also one of the
founding members of the Black Hand,

the secret military society that
used terrorism and assassination

to try and establish Yugoslavia.

He is said to have sent men

to murder Austro-Hungarian
military leaders and ministers.

He allegedly tried to kill
Emperor Franz Josef.

One saw him nowhere. Yet one knew
he was doing everything.

By the spring of 1914,
Gavrilo Princip was also in Belgrade,

talking revolution with his friends.

VIOLIN PLAYS

Then the young Bosnians heard
that Archduke Franz Ferdinand

would visit Sarajevo in June.

Here was their chance to match deeds
to words.

Luckily for them,

their plans reached the ears of
Dimitrijevic and the Black Hand.

Dimitrijevic worked in
the Kalemegdan fortress in Belgrade

as chief of
Serbian military intelligence.

In the spring of 1914, Major Voja
Tankosic, also in the Black Hand,

walked into his office
with a question.

I've got some Bosnian youths
pestering me.

They want to pull off
some great deed at any cost.

They've heard that Franz Ferdinand
is coming to Bosnia

and begged me to let them go there.
What do YOU say?

I've told them they cannot go but
they give me no peace.

Franz Ferdinand was going to Bosnia

to observe the Austro-Hungarian
army's manoeuvres

in the hills outside Sarajevo.

As intelligence chief, Dimitrijevic
feared these manoeuvres

were a smoke screen,

that what Franz Ferdinand really
planned was an invasion of Serbia.

HOOVES RUMBLE

As leader of the Black Hand,

he believed anything that
destabilised Austria-Hungary

was good for his beloved Serbia.

Princip's plan to murder
Franz Ferdinand suited him perfectly.

"Fine," he said. "Let him go."

Unlike Gavrilo Princip,

Archduke Franz Ferdinand
was an excellent shot.

One of his castles, Konopischt,
in what is now the Czech Republic,

is full of the evidence.

By the age of 50,
he'd shot 5,000 stags,

as well as 200,000 other animals,
all carefully numbered.

Anyone who disturbed the Archduke's
peace by trespassing on his land,

as unsuspecting trippers sometimes
did on Sundays,

had to reckon with being shouted at

by an irascible and almost
apoplectic proprietor,

who threatened to shoot anyone

who dared set foot in his grounds
a second time.

By 1914, Franz Ferdinand was
emperor-in-waiting.

Everyone knew it couldn't be long
before his uncle died.

Even the official portrait
was ready -

Franz Ferdinand with the stars
and sash only the emperor could wear.

He had no time for the etiquette
and convention

that hemmed in the Vienna court.

He defied his uncle
by marrying Sophie Chotek,

who was not of royal blood.

The most intelligent thing I've
ever done in my life

has been the marriage to
my Sophe.

She is everything to me -

my wife, my adviser,
my doctor, my guardian angel.

In a word, my entire happiness.

Franz Ferdinand also had
radical ideas for political reform.

He recognised that the less power
national minorities had,

within the empire, the more they'd
look to other countries for help.

The old system allowed ethnic Germans
and Hungarians

to dominate the government.

It was a system that couldn't last.

I can't help being surprised

that there is any loyalty left among
the nationalities

after their treatment
for so many years.

I must have them with me. This is
the only salvation for the future.

In 1914, the German emperor
came to stay with Franz Ferdinand

at Konopischt.

The Kaiser had a solution for dealing
with troublesome national minorities.

The Slavs are born not to rule
but to obey.

This must be brought home to them.

If they imagine they can look
to Belgrade for their salvation,

they must be cured of this belief.

But Franz Ferdinand had a better
idea.

He thought political reform

was the best way to keep the
multinational Austrian Empire

on its feet and protect his own
future as emperor.

He had this map drawn up,

showing how the Hapsburg Empire
could become

the United States of Great Austria.

Above all, Franz Ferdinand
wanted to avoid war in the Balkans.

One night
he made a toast after dinner.

To peace! What would we get
out of war with Serbia?

We'd lose the lives of young men and
spend money better used elsewhere.

What would we gain,
for heaven's sake?

A few plum trees, some pastures
full of goat droppings

and a bunch of rebellious killers.

Gavrilo Princip crossed from Serbia
into Austria-Hungary,

here at the Drina River.

He paddled out to Isakovic Island,
where there was a Serbian guard post.

The soldiers helped him wade ashore
into Bosnia.

From here
he made his way to Sarajevo,

where he met up with
six others in on the plot.

The Serbian major, Tankosic,
had supplied them with four pistols,

six bombs, and suicide pills
in case of capture.

They were already in Sarajevo

when Franz Ferdinand arrived
outside the capital on 25th June.

They planned to attack him
three days later

as he drove from the railway station
to the town hall.

One would be stationed
at the first bridge on this road,

Princip and the others
would cover the rest of the route.

Franz Ferdinand
chose the date of his visit badly.

Sarajevo was decked in flags
for the occasion,

for the 28th June
was Serbian National Day -

a focus for hatred of the Hapsburgs,

as the Serbian ambassador to Vienna
warned.

This will cause much discontent.

Some young Serb might put
a live round

rather than a blank
in his gun and fire it.

It might be good if Archduke Franz
Ferdinand

were not to go to Sarajevo.

But the Austrians laughed off
the ambassador's fears.

On the morning of 28th June,

Franz Ferdinand and Sophie
arrived by train in Sarajevo.

Despite the warnings,
security was light.

No soldiers lined the streets,
just a handful of policemen.

The royal car
was a Graf & Stift tourer.

At Franz Ferdinand's request,

it travelled with the top down, very
slowly,

so the crowds could see him
and he could see the sights.

As the procession passed the first
bridge,

the conspirator there threw
his bomb.

Sitting opposite the royal couple
was Oskar Potiorek.

The explosion came immediately after
the Archduchess' cry

to drive on quickly.

I was sure no damage had been done
to our car

and the Archduke commented
very calmly,

"I've always thought something
like this might happen."

The bomb had bounced off the car,

exploding behind it and wounding two
officers and some onlookers.

Franz Ferdinand stopped to ask
after the casualties,

before hurrying on to the town hall.

There, the Mayor of Sarajevo
began his welcome speech.

The Archduke interrupted.

"Lord Mayor,
what is the good of speeches?

"I come to Sarajevo
on a friendly visit

"and someone throws a bomb at
me. This is outrageous!"

So far the young Bosnians' plans
had gone badly wrong -

Franz Ferdinand was alive, official
security was now on high alert.

Gavrilo Princip turned to go home,

stopping on the corner of
Franz Josef Street to buy a sandwich.

Then his luck changed.

Franz Ferdinand had left the town
hall.

He should've been driven
along the river,

travelling too fast to give
any other assassins a chance,

but his driver took a wrong turn,
at the corner of Franz Josef Street.

As the royal car tried to reverse
onto the main road,

Princip came face to face
with his target.

I heard the crack of a pistol shot,

followed swiftly by another,

and saw in the same split second
a man standing in front of me

being thrown to the ground
by the people around him

and the shining sabre of
a security guard descending on him.

A stream of blood spurted from

His Highness's mouth on to my right
cheek.

The Duchess cried out, "In heaven's
name, what has happened to you?"

Then she slid off the seat
and lay on the floor of the car.

I thought she had simply fainted.

Then I heard
His Imperial Highness say,

"Sopher, Sopher! Don't die!
Stay alive for the children!"

I asked him if he was in great pain.

He answered me quite distinctly,
"It's nothing."

Franz Ferdinand and Sophie
died on the way to hospital.

WINGS FLAP

The people of Sarajevo didn't know

Serbian army officers had secretly
sponsored the assassination,

but they made the same leap
the world did -

that Serbia had as good as
pulled the trigger herself.

The pro-Austrian element
in the crowd went wild.

The excitement of the moment turned
into fury against

everyone and everything Serbian.

Serbian shops, schools and churches
were smashed and looted,

the streets choked with furniture,
clothes, bicycles, books,

even icons and crosses,
twisted and befouled,

lying in heaps in the gutters.

Over 200 Serbs were arrested
in Sarajevo alone.

Local officials hanged some
in the city prison.

Many more died in pogroms
across Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The funeral of Franz
Ferdinand and Sophie

was held in Vienna on 4th July.

Oskar Potiorek had written
to the Foreign Ministry,

calling for Austria-Hungary
to take revenge against Serbia.

We must take the first opportunity
for a destructive blow

against Serbia,

to give the monarchy a few decades
of calm internal development.

Serbia must learn
to fear us again.

Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff
Conrad von Hotzendorf agreed.

This is not the crime
of a single fanatic,

assassination represents

Serbia's declaration of war on
Austria-Hungary.

If we miss this occasion,

the monarchy will be exposed
to new explosions of ethnic unrest.

Austria-Hungary must wage war,
for political reasons.

In life, the crown prince had been
a champion of

peaceful coexistence
with Serbia.

In death,
he was becoming a cause for war.

The murder of Franz Ferdinand did
not immediately set Europe alight,

international tensions in early July
remained low.

But, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary's
leaders were planning

how to take revenge on Serbia

without getting stamped on
by Serbia's powerful friends.

Even before the assassination, army
Chief of Staff Conrad von Hotzendorf

had pressed for war against Serbia
no fewer than 20 times.

Now he made his case again.

I expressed to His Majesty my
opinion

that war with Serbia was
unavoidable.

"That is entirely correct..."
said His Majesty,

"..but how are you going to wage war

"if everyone, in particular Russia,
is going to attack us?"

"We have backing from Germany,"
I replied.

His Majesty gave me
a searching look and said,

"Can you be certain of that?"

This was the moment when what could
have been just another

war in the Balkans

began to turn into
the First World War.

Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Josef

now asked the German Kaiser for
support.

On 6th July,
he got the answer he wanted.

The German government is of the
opinion that WE must decide

what is to be done.

We may always be certain that
we will find Germany at our side,

a faithful ally
and friend of our monarchy.

Germany's decision to back Austria

was made with no care for the
consequences.

Neither the Kaiser nor
his political and military leaders

took any steps to find out
what Austria-Hungary had in mind.

It was an extraordinary oversight,

because nothing in the Balkans
happened in isolation.

Europe was divided into two camps.

On one side were
Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.

On the other were France and Russia.

War with one
could mean war with the others.

No-one knew how Russia would respond

if one of the leading Balkan
countries was attacked.

She might go to war with Austria
to protect Serbia,

then Germany would have to fight
to protect Austria.

DISPARATE VOICES

The Germans thought
the Russians might stay out of it.

Germany's ambassador in St Petersburg

insisted Russia couldn't risk
war for fear of internal revolution.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

The German foreign minister decided
Austria would settle with Serbia.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

The German chancellor, Bethmann
Hollweg, was almost as confident.

The crime of Sarajevo
was reprehensible,

but politically it would have
the positive results

of making Russia thoroughly
disgusted with the Serbs.

THEY TALK IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE

It was Germany's confident support
that pushed Austria forward.

But far from plunging the world
into war in 1914 out of aggression,

Germany was nudging it closer out of
incompetence and wishful thinking.

The Kaiser was so sure no war was
brewing that he went on holiday.

THEY TALK IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE

In Sarajevo, the trial
of Gavrilo Princip was under way.

The court heard evidence to prove
Serbian army officers had helped him,

and with Germany's unconditional
support, that was enough for Austria.

She sentenced Princip to 20 years
in jail, where he died in 1918.

She sent Serbia an ultimatum.

This document was
Austria's excuse for war.

Its demands were
so extreme and insulting,

Serbia could never accept them.

But just in case they did,
the Austrian ambassador in Belgrade

was ordered to reject
any reply as unacceptable.

He delivered the ultimatum
at 6pm on 23rd July 1914.

Slavka Mihajlovic
was a Belgrade doctor.

The news of the ultimatum spread
quickly

and soon there was a real alert.

Streets and bars were crowded
with anxious people.

Everybody wondered what answer
our government would give,

whether a new war would be avoided.

Austria's ultimatum caught
the world's diplomats napping.

The French government,
the French press and public opinion

have been inconceivably surprised.
Paris is almost dead.

All the ambassadors
but one are out of town.

The Italian ambassador is in
Ireland.

The Kaiser was on his yacht in Norway

when the text of the Austrian
ultimatum arrived.

DOG BARKS

The Kaiser arrived on deck as usual
after breakfast

and said to me - I was still
holding the wireless message -

"That's a pretty strong note,
for once in a while."

"It certainly is," I replied,
"but it means war."

Whereupon the Kaiser observed
that Serbia would never risk a war.

She might not have risked it on her
own

but on 24th July the Serbian regent,
Prince Alexander,

telegrammed Russia for help.

In St Petersburg, the Russian
foreign minister

spoke frankly to the British
ambassador.

Austria would not have acted
so aggressively

without the consent of Germany.

I hope the British Government

will declare itself on the side
of France and Russia without delay.

Russia was convinced
that Germany was warmongering.

On 26th July,
she called up her reserves.

This was the second key stage
of the crisis,

as Britain's foreign secretary,
Edward Grey, warned on the 28th.

From the moment the dispute ceases
to be one

between Austria-Hungary and Serbia

and becomes one in which another
great power is involved,

it cannot but end in
the greatest catastrophe

that has ever befallen
the continent of Europe.

Austria-Hungary declared war
on Serbia that same day.

The first shots of the war
were fired from here,

the Austrian fortress of Zemun,
just across the river from Belgrade.

In the dead of night, Major
Voya Tankosic

had the Black Hand
blow up the only railway bridge.

Windows shattered to smithereens

and broken glass covered the floor.

Patients started screaming.

Then there was another explosion
and another one.

SHELLS EXPLODE

So it was true. The war had begun.

EXPLOSIONS

How well our city deserved the name
the Turks gave her -

the House of Wars.

Shells fired from all sides
were crisscrossing above her.

The Austrians had peculiar weapons,
so-called monitors -

little boats armed with heavy guns
circling Belgrade like rabid dogs

and firing from every direction.

It was still only a war
between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.

And on 29th July,
as the shells fell on Belgrade,

there was a final attempt
to keep it that way -

a series of last-minute telegrams
flashed across Europe,

Tsar to Kaiser, cousin to cousin.

Dear Willie,

An ignoble war has been declared

on a weak country. The indignation
in Russia is enormous...

Dear Nicky, I am exerting my utmost
influence on the Austrians...

Dear Willie, My troops shall not
take any provocative action.

But by now the crisis was beyond the
control of monarchs or politicians.

It was in the hands of the military.

From the moment Russia mobilised her
army,

German generals knew their own
clock was ticking.

RHYTHMIC MARCHING

The French and Russian alliance meant
Germany faced a war on two fronts.

Her only hope was to deal with France

before the main Russian armies
could invade from the East.

That left no time to wait and see.

For Germany, Russian
mobilisation meant war.

RHYTHMIC MARCHING

Germany hadn't looked for a fight.

Her generals knew a war would be
long and devastating,

even for the victors.

But, if it was going to happen, they
thought, "Better sooner than later."

RHYTHMIC MARCHING

According to more
competent observation,

Russia will be prepared to fight
in a few years.

Then she will crush us
by the number of her soldiers,

then she will have built her Baltic
sea fleet and strategic railways.

Our side, meanwhile,
will have grown steadily weaker.

On 1st August,
Germany declared war on Russia.

Two days later she declared war
on Russia's ally, France.

Across Europe,
ten million men headed off to fight.

For all the bands and flag-waving,
many went unwillingly to war.

TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS

Where are we off to?
France? Belgium? Or the East?

At the station people waved goodbye,
some with handkerchiefs.

I thought of my wife and child,
left alone at home.

Not so much a thought as a fearful
shadow flitting over my soul.

STEAM ENGINE HISSES

God! How long is this town?

My bayonet's digging in,
my collar's strangling me.

When I look up I see a pretty girl.

She is so full of admiration,
so moved by it,

I realise we have to look handsome
and walk tall.

Off we march
to the sound of shrill brass,

although where we're going you die,
you're defaced, hacked, torn apart.

All down the line my comrades
straighten up at the sight of her.

There's great excitement
among my comrades.

Bachelors are calm,
even joking about it.

Family men are depressed. Some say
we'll get nothing from this war,

we'll get beaten by the Germans.

What's in it
for us peasant soldiers?

Why have we got to fight
for some offended Serbs?

The leaders had little better idea
why they were fighting.

They had no lists of war aims.

Germany and Austria,
Serbia, Russia and France

were convinced they were fighting
a defensive war,

forced on them by someone else.

The only great power in Europe
still on the sidelines was Britain.

On 2nd August 1914, Britain was
still at peace, but only just.

We've been in a state of excitement
as reservists are called up,

all the railways guarded.

Everything points to the Great War,
so long expected, being upon us.

Britain was the only power not to
claim she was a victim of aggression.

Nobody had attacked her,
so why should she fight?

It wasn't to defend
the rights of small nations.

At least, not Serbia,
according to The Manchester Guardian.

If it were possible for Serbia
to be towed out to sea

and sunk there,

the air of Europe
would at once seem cleaner.

Nor was Britain bound by treaties,

as the Foreign Secretary, Edward
Grey, assured Parliament.

We are not parties
to the Franco-Russian alliance.

We do not even know
the terms of the alliance.

But in private, Grey and other
leaders knew Britain had to fight.

If Britain stayed neutral,

the war would still
threaten the country's vast empire,

its global trade and security.

Britain needed to stay on friendly
terms with France and Russia.

Even in peacetime,
she was not powerful enough

to defend her empire
against everyone.

In Africa and India,
the safety of Britain's colonies

depended on
French and Russian goodwill.

In 1914, Britain feared her friends
just as much as her enemies.

If we fail Russia, we cannot hope
to maintain her cooperation in Asia

that is
of such vital importance to us.

Britain could not afford Europe
dominated by a triumphant Germany.

If Germany overran the Channel ports,

Britain's control of the seas
would be under threat.

Prime Minister Herbert Asquith
took a pragmatic view.

It is quite against British
interests

that France should be wiped out.

At 11pm on 4th August,
Britain declared war on Germany.

It was like the pulling of a lever,

hurling millions to their doom.

The deep notes of Big Ben rang out
into the night -

the first strokes
in Britain's most fateful hour

since she arose out of the deep.

Every face was suddenly
contracted into a painful intensity.

BELL TOLLS

It's horrible to think of the
suffering that follows mobilisation.

I suppose the less one thinks of it,
the better.

We never talk of death
and very seldom think about it.

It's when everyone is asleep
and you are awake

that sometimes you look
into the future and wonder.

The British Government's War Book

listed all that had to be done
in an emergency.

The country's leaders knew war
would be a long, painful struggle,

a slow, grinding process of blockade,
of starving the enemy out.

But most civilians had no idea
what they were getting into.

Across Europe,
there was a run on the banks.

"The war couldn't last longer than a
year..."

the French finance minister told a
British general.

"..because the money to
pay for it will run out."

HUBBUB

Most people expected Britain,
with the largest navy in the world,

to fight a sea war.

The Foreign Secretary
reassured the nation.

For us, with a fleet we believe able
to protect our commerce,

to protect our shores
and to protect our interests,

if we are engaged in war,

we shall suffer but little more than
we shall suffer if we stand aside.

HUBBUB

Bert Fielder was
a sergeant in the Royal Marines.

He reassured his wife.

My dear Nell,

I don't think this war is going
to be half as bad

as people expect it to be.

You see,
it's not a hard job for England

so there's no need to worry
yourself.

As long as I can keep you
informed as to where I am

it'll all be all right.

But the weapons with which
the world went to war were so new

that few had ever
been fired in anger.

Countries had battleships and
submarines less then ten years old.

Nobody really knew how to use them.

All the European powers
had stockpiled new artillery -

machine guns, explosive shells.

But none had fought a major
war in Europe for over 40 years.

HORSE WHINNIES

The crisis had begun in the Balkans.

As the Austrians faced up to the
Serbs,

the war started here
as it would go on everywhere else -

a war in which old scores would be
settled

and the rule book thrown away.

The war is taking us into a country
inhabited by a population

inspired with fanatical hatred
towards ourselves.

An attitude of extreme severity,
extreme harshness and distrust

is to be observed towards everybody.

In some sectors, Serbian civilians
did fight a guerrilla war,

not in uniform,
not in the regular army.

It was hard for the Austrians to tell
who was a real enemy, who was not.

But their reprisals against
the Serbian people were vicious.

This was a war
of nationalities and races.

Not just against an enemy army,
but against whole peoples.

In the first month of the war,

4,000 civilians in western Serbia
were killed or disappeared.

They burnt houses down, looted,
raped, killed.

17 people, all women, girls,
children tied with rope,

dead in a ditch by the road.

All of them slaughtered.

At 9am I went to Lezhnitsa to get
some supplies for the battery.

In the town you could see
the atrocities left by the enemy.

Ten people,
some children among them,

had been hanged near the church.

About 100 people, their throats cut,
at the railway station.

A terrible sight to
cast your eyes on.

BIRDSONG

At the Serbian town of Prnjavor,
this memorial commemorates

those who died.

The Serbian government commissioned
a report into the massacres

by Swiss doctor, Rodolphe Reiss.

The massacres of the civil
population

were systematically organised
by the command of the invading army.

It's upon the command
that all responsibility must rest,

and also the disgrace

with which this army
has covered itself for all time.

Austria-Hungary was far less ruthless
when fighting the Serbian army.

That, too, set a pattern for the war,
a foretaste of the military weakness

which dogged Austria-Hungary's
partnership with Germany.

This was a war in which events on one
front

could have a critical
effect on another.

RHYTHMIC MARCHING

Germany was relying on her ally,
Austria-Hungary,

to hold the eastern front.

With Russia massing on her borders,

Germany was horrified to learn
Austria had concentrated her reserves

down in the Balkans,
to deal with Serbia.

Meanwhile, the main Serbian army
had marched up from the south,

gathering numbers as it went.

On 12th August, it finally met
the Austrians, at Cer mountain.

The Serbs had taken up defensive
positions along the mountain range

and waited for the Austrians
to walk into the trap.

The Serbs surrounded us.

The Serbian artillery
had the range perfectly.

Unluckily, we were told by officers,

we had arrived at the
Serbian artillery practice area.

Laughable!

SHELLS EXPLODE

The Serbs easily beat off
the Austro-Hungarian attack.

We could see the enemy
retreating along the river.

Their ammunition train
left their carts in the valley

and ran away when they were hit
by our artillery.

A beaten army? No.

An uncontrolled mob ran towards
the border in senseless panic.

Drivers whipped their horses.
Officers and soldiers

shoved and squeezed through between
the columns of wagons.

Austro-Hungarian prisoners were
captured in the first allied victory.

Austria had thought Serbia would be a
pushover,

swift revenge for Franz Ferdinand's
murder,

but Serbia had scattered
the Austrian army.

The victories of 1914
cost Serbia 130,000 men.

"They did not die in vain" reads
this inscription to Serbia's dead.

Every nation would learn that nothing
in this war would be easy,

quick or clean.

On the western front, a French
ambulance driver wrote to his son -

Do you ever think of your daddy,

walking day and night over ploughed
fields

and getting very used to shells
exploding all over the place?

I'd really like to hear from you.

How's school? Don't be too quick
to learn the geography of Europe,

I think it's all about to change.

In the next episode
of The First World War,

German armies roll into Belgium
and France,

leaving a trail of atrocities.

And France, aided by Britain,
fights for her life.