The Great War

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The Great War
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The penultimate episode recounts the collapse of Germany's Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian allies. In September 1918 Bulgaria, her forces routed in Serbia, finally capitulated. In Italy, the decisive clash came late in October, when the Austrians were resoundingly defeated at the...

March 2016
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The final episode looks at the last phase of the war and the final peace. At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year 1918, the Armistice came into effect. A wave of incredulous relief spread through the armies on all sides. As the day wore on and the certainty of peace sank in, the populatio...
February 2016
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This episode looks at the first Allied counter attack against the German onslaught on 17 July, 1918. By 5 August, the Germans had once again been driven back to the River Aisne. This was the turning point of the war. Six days later, the Kaiser said to his generals, 'The war must be ended.'.
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This episode examines the war in the Middle East. With the Western Front dominating the minds of generals and statesmen, they sought a back door to victory. The Dardanelles expedition of 1915 had been one attempt to find such a solution. The campaigns in the Middle East - in Egypt, Palestine, and Mesopotamia - were another...
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This episode follows the German offensive of March 1918. It was the greatest offensive in the west since the beginning of the war - a desperate German gamble to achieve victory at a stroke, before the bulk of the American army arrived. Initially they succeeded in breaking through the trench system, pursuing the allies thro...
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This episode tells how the German army attempted to retrieve a desperate situation. They counter-attacked on 27 May 1918 and made the deepest penetration on any day of the war. Once again, French and British alike fell back in confusion. By June the Germans were once more on the Marne. But it was too late - the Americans h...
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Exploring how the war had evolved from an old-fashioned military conflict to a war engulfing whole nations, fought with passionate and irrational hatred. But out of 'total war' grew modern ideas of a state's responsibility for its citizens, and the concept of managing an economy as one vast business. Whatever the final out...
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This episode looks at the experiences of soldiers on the Western Front and the effect this had upon the human spirit. At the time, the scale of the losses appeared as an unrivalled evil. The dehumanising manner in which the war was fought lent it a special horror which was has endured across the years.
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This episode turns to the Western Front in 1917. The centrepiece of this gloomy year was the third battle of Ypres - known as the battle of Passchendale. The British fought alone through three and half long months of one of the wettest summers Flanders had ever seen. The battle has aroused much controversy, but one truth e...
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This episode turns to Russia and its short-lived democracy, brought about by mass strikes and demonstrations. The tsar was blamed for all evils and forced to abdicate. The new enthusiasm in Russia heartened the Allies and alarmed the Germans, who had calculated that a Russian revolution would put an end to war on the Easte...
January 2016
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This episode of the 26-part classic documentary series looks at two of the most important events of the war in 1917. One was the October revolution bringing the Communists to power in Russia, the other America's entry into Europe's war on 6th April. These two events were to shape not only the outcome of the war, but of the...
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Definitive film account of the world-shattering events of 1914-1918, originally broadcast in 1964. This episode explores the attempts to rally the French Army for a great spring offensive. Robert Nivelle, the commander-in-chief, promised breakthrough in no more than 48 hours and total victory to follow. But the Germans kne...
March 2015
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This episode looks at the Battle of the Somme, which began on 1 July, 1916. By the end of the first day of fighting the British had lost over 57,000 men. Although 11 days later one of the primary objectives was achieved - to relieve the pressure on the French army at Verdun - the battle continued unofficially into February...
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This episode takes stock of the events of 1916. Both sides made heroic efforts to achieve victory, yet both sides had nothing to show but staggering losses at the year's end. The alternative to bloody and futile deadlock was a compromise peace. Towards the end of the year such a peace was considered, but rejected. Instead ...
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This episode surveys the British Army of 1916, reinforced by over two million volunteers following Lord Kitchener's famous appeal. In spite of the reservations of General Sir Douglas Haig, the new commander-in-chief, many of these volunteers were sent to the scene of the British Army's greatest endeavour - the Battle of th...
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In 1964, the BBC broadcast one of its most important and ambitious series ever. The Great War was to be the definitive account of the world-shattering events of 1914-1918. The eleventh part of this 26-part classic series looks at Verdun, one of the bloodiest battles known to history, continuing with almost non-stop violenc...
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This episode follows the war on all fronts as it continues throughout 1915. Towering over all else was the mighty German offensive of Gorlice-Tarnow, where the Russians lost two million men. Elsewhere, the British, French and new ally Italy made little or no progress. Disappointment was universal, but the end of the year b...
February 2015
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Lord Kitchener recognised the stalemate in the trench lines on the Western Front and looked elsewhere for victory. A British naval expedition attempted to take the Dardanelles, and Allied troops landed at Gallipoli hoping to take Constantinople. For 37 weeks the soldiers clung desperately to small footholds, but to no avai...
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David Lloyd George struggled to modernise Britain. As minister of munitions he was faced with an industrial capability severely lacking. In some key fields, Britain even relied on German imports. With the help of American equipment Lloyd George was able to drag British industry into the twentieth century, and from 1916 Bri...
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The war continued into 1915, and the French and British struggled to keep up with the demand for shells and artillery. The Germans had no shortages. The most modern industrial system in Europe had smoothly switched over to war production. It went so far as to introduce the use of gas, made swiftly by the German chemical fa...
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