2:00

two-front war, on the Eastern Front

2:02

against Russia

2:03

and on the Western Front against France, fully

2:06

mobilised, and Britain slowly amassing

2:08

her strength and relatively invulnerable

2:11

behind her navy.

2:15

A vast area of interlocking defensive

2:17

networks stretched almost 500 miles

2:19

from the English Channel down

2:22

to the Swiss border. The

2:24

main defence, the trenches, were

2:26

cut about 12 feet deep in a zigzag

2:28

fashion so that troops could find protection

2:31

from fire from their flanks, and

2:33

in order to stop the spread of a blast along

2:36

the length of a trench if a shell landed

2:38

on it.

2:41

Barbed wire was stretched in front

2:43

of the line, and parties were sent out

2:45

each night to maintain it and to improve

2:47

its effectiveness. Frontline

2:50

troops lived in dugouts, rooms

2:53

used for dormitories and stores dug

2:55

into the trench wall facing the enemy,

2:58

and further trenches ran back to safer

3:00

areas in which hospitals and stores

3:02

of supplies were located. The

3:05

network grew over time, with increased numbers

3:07

of lines running parallel to each other,

3:10

to be used in the event of retreat. The

3:14

space between opposing trenches, known

3:16

as No Man's Land, varied in width,

3:19

both typically anything between 100 and 300

3:22

metres.

3:23

Temporary unmanned dead-end

3:26

trenches were also dug out

3:28

into No Man's Land to listen to the enemy's

3:30

activities or for mounting surprise

3:32

attacks. A

3:34

typical British battalion, as an example,

3:37

could be expected to engage in action a

3:39

handful of times a year, though

3:41

some sectors of the front line saw little

3:44

activity during the whole war, especially

3:46

in the south, while others saw almost

3:49

continuous fighting. Even

3:51

in quiet sectors there were dangers, however,

3:54

from snipers, gas attacks or disease.

4:01

Communications were by career

4:03

pigeon, by hand or through telephone

4:06

lines. Newly developed

4:08

wireless was also available but only

4:10

to higher headquarters and lacked range

4:13

and reliability.

4:15

The so-called spark sets of 1914 were

4:18

incapable of fine-tuning so

4:20

that signals were dispersed across all known

4:23

long-wave frequencies and thus

4:25

were duly susceptible to interception.

4:29

Valve technology, which made possible

4:31

transmissions on a narrowband, was

4:34

invented only in the United States

4:37

in 1913 and was not widely

4:39

used in Europe until two years

4:41

later.

4:44

The French commander-in-chief, Joseph

4:47

Joffre, was under intense pressure

4:49

to remove the invaders from French soil. The

4:52

question was how?

4:54

Over the winter of 1914 to 15, the

4:58

French troops tested the limitations of trench

5:00

warfare with a series of major

5:02

offensives that started in 1914

5:05

and stretched deep into the following year.

5:08

Fighting around the regions of Artois

5:11

and Champagne was highly attritional

5:14

as tactically significant positions were

5:16

taken but invariably then

5:18

lost again. It became

5:21

clear that the key to a successful assault

5:24

lay in sufficient artillery support

5:27

but neither the French nor

5:29

the British had as yet enough

5:31

guns of the right calibre to

5:33

break down the German defences.

5:36

For the British, the shortage of artillery

5:39

led in May 1915 to

5:41

a political incident known as the Shower

5:43

Crisis which so damaged

5:46

the reputation of the Liberal Prime

5:48

Minister Herbert Asquith that

5:50

he was forced to bring in senior conservatives

5:52

to form a coalition government dedicated

5:55

to prosecuting the war more effectively.

6:01

As a result of the shortage of artillery,

6:03

the Allied armies were increasingly forced to

6:06

rely on long-range preliminary

6:09

bombardments by the field artillery

6:11

to try and wear down the German trenches before

6:14

the infantry were sent over the top.

6:18

The Germans mainly stood on the defensive

6:20

through 1915 except for one

6:22

major attack in April at Ypres.

6:25

Here they tried out a new weapon,

6:28

chlorine-poison gas, and

6:30

initially this was highly effective.

6:33

The Allied troops against whom it was deployed

6:36

were taken completely by surprise and

6:38

temporarily abandoned a stretch of the front

6:41

line.

6:42

The chlorine invaded the bodies

6:44

of its victims, burning and

6:47

choking them and destroying their lungs.

6:50

But

6:50

the Allies rapidly improvised antidotes

6:53

and began to use poison gas themselves,

6:56

and in their propaganda attacked the Germans

6:59

for initiating the use of gas. After

7:02

all, its use had been expressly forbidden

7:05

by the Hague Convention of 1907.

7:10

Throughout 1915, in a succession

7:13

of attacks of increasing intensity, the

7:15

French and British armies learned the techniques

7:17

of the new kind of war at very heavy

7:20

cost.

7:22

Infantry attacks had to

7:24

be carefully coordinated with artillery

7:27

barrages, and if an attack

7:29

was initially successful, it could

7:31

seldom penetrate beyond the first line of

7:34

the German trench system, where

7:36

it remained vulnerable to bombardment

7:38

and counter-attack from the flanks.

7:41

The advance was then slowed down by

7:44

the need for artillery to re-register

7:46

their targets. Targeting

7:51

was helped by advances in aerial photographic

7:53

reconnaissance, whose images allowed

7:56

a map to be produced detaining

7:58

the German trenches. Aircraft

8:01

began to carry wireless transmitters,

8:03

which allowed messages to be sent directly

8:05

to the gun batteries using special lettered

8:08

and numbered squared maps, with a

8:10

simple clock code to indicate the relative

8:12

position of the shells as they fell

8:15

around their target. By

8:18

September a desperate state of the Russian

8:20

armies demanded a major effort

8:23

in the west.

8:25

The French and British therefore launched

8:27

a joint attack that Joffre hoped would

8:29

finally make a breakthrough.

8:32

The British sector centred on the mining region

8:35

of Lise, where they managed to breach

8:37

the German front line to a width of five

8:39

miles and a depth of two. However,

8:43

the Germans had constructed an entire second

8:45

defensive position behind the first, and

8:47

the British were unable to bring up reserves

8:50

quick enough to exploit the breach.

8:53

The operation dragged on for another month, by

8:55

the end of which both sides had lost

8:57

some 200,000 men.

9:03

Britain was becoming an increasingly important

9:05

partner for the French, as the size

9:07

of their forces swirled from its original

9:10

six to fifty-six divisions,

9:13

although many of the new soldiers were volunteers

9:15

with almost no training.

9:17

Sir John French, much criticised

9:19

for the failure at Lise, was removed

9:21

and replaced by the dour Sir Douglas

9:24

Haig.

9:43

The centre stage of the year 1915 was probably the

9:45

Eastern Front.

9:48

The chief

9:48

of the German General Staff, Erich

9:51

von Falkenhayn, realised

9:53

that his country's most dangerous enemies

9:56

lay in the west,

9:58

and as France and Britain were defeated, the

10:00

allies could prolong the war in definitely

10:03

not so much through their own military strength

10:05

is to maritime superiority that

10:08

enabled them to draw on the economic resources

10:10

of the new road and deny them to

10:13

germany russia

10:15

no longer presented any immediate threat

10:18

and the sheer size of the eastern theater made

10:21

it difficult to obtain a decisive victory

10:23

on that front falcon

10:25

hind would have preferred to have concentrated everything

10:28

on achieving a decisive victory in the west

10:31

be had to deal with hindenburg and nude

10:33

and off the great german heroes

10:36

of the battle of talent bag insisted

10:38

on an active eastern campaign

10:42

moreover the austrians were on the

10:44

verge of collapse of an honest already

10:46

a million and a quarter men there's

10:49

less is included most of the professional contra

10:52

but how it the multinational only together

10:55

and the army began suffering mass desertions

10:58

especially from this love units

11:02

under seven february march and fifteen

11:05

ludendorff launch the second battle of

11:07

the massive in lakes with an

11:09

attack on the russian tenth army

11:11

which is occupying defensive lines and

11:14

east prussia

11:17

the russians were suffering from low morale and

11:19

a shortage of rifles and ammunition and

11:21

were taken by surprise

11:23

the german forces must on

11:25

both flanks and go forward

11:28

seeking to choke off escape routes there

11:31

are partially successful but the bulk

11:33

of the russian army was able to retreat

11:35

and to evade capture

11:40

and much the germans withdrew

11:42

back to the own borders under renewed pressure

11:45

from the russians

11:47

hindenburg and newton doth claimed a great

11:49

victory declaring they liberated

11:51

the last piece of occupied german

11:53

may not territory

11:56

falcon home though was less impressed

11:59

consider

11:59

a meaningless success which would

12:02

cost the lives of far too many troops. Meanwhile

12:09

the Austrians attempted to push deep back

12:11

into Galicia and to relieve

12:13

the besieged fortress of Shemeshal.

12:17

But wintry weather conditions made

12:19

military operations almost impossible.

12:23

The garrison launched occasional attempts to

12:26

break out but they were fended off.

12:28

At last with food running out and

12:30

with no hope of relief the garrison

12:33

finally surrendered on the 22nd of

12:35

March. With

12:39

the ford of the fortress of Shemeshal the Russians were able to

12:43

launch a major offensive on the south west

12:45

front with the intention of capturing

12:47

the Carpathian passes and

12:49

defeating the Austrians. With

12:53

the imminent collapse of Austro-Hungary Falkenhayn

12:56

had little choice but to provide

12:58

reinforcements. He

13:01

created a brand new 11th Army

13:03

under the command of General August von

13:06

Mackensen which combined with the

13:08

Austrians now enjoyed numerical

13:11

superiority over the Russians.

13:14

They attacked the Russian 3rd Army on

13:16

the 1st of May and quickly smashed

13:19

through the enemy lines.

13:21

They recaptured the fortress of Shemeshal

13:24

on the 4th of June and the city of Lemberg

13:27

on the 22nd of June and

13:29

so swept away all of the gains made

13:31

by Russia in 1914. By mid-June the situation was desperate for

13:37

the

13:39

Russians as their whole line had destabilised.

13:43

Hindenburg and Ludendorff proposed

13:45

a grand strategy of encirclement which would

13:47

trap the entire Russian army. Falkenhayn

13:51

was more cautious and overawed them. He

13:53

was determined not to repeat Napoleon's

13:56

mistake and ventured too far into

13:58

the Russian interior.

14:00

What he did authorize was a series

14:02

of offensives into Russian Poland

14:05

with the intent of capturing Warsaw.

14:08

The Russians were forced further back and

14:10

they conceded Warsaw to the Germans on

14:12

the 5th of August.

14:16

By the end of August the Russians had

14:18

lost all of Poland, but as they retreated

14:21

they burnt and destroyed everything of possible

14:23

value to the enemy.

14:26

The German campaign in Poland was

14:28

so successful that Ludendorff was

14:31

allowed by Falkenhayn to push

14:33

further, and so carry

14:35

out a sweeping advance in the north to

14:37

take Vilnius in Lithuania.

14:41

For all their victories the Germans and

14:44

Austro-Hungarians were still suffering very

14:46

large casualties and were unable

14:48

to replenish their troops as fast

14:51

as the Russians could.

14:53

The Germans gained no real strategic

14:55

advantage. Indeed for the Russians

14:58

the new line of defence had advantages

15:00

over the Polish salient. It

15:02

ran from close to Riga in

15:05

the north all the way down to the Dnieszt

15:07

River and the border with Romania.

15:10

As well as being straighter and shorter the

15:12

expanses of marshland helped buttress

15:15

the line making it less vulnerable

15:17

to sudden breakthroughs. The

15:23

Eastern campaign was fought with particular

15:25

brutality. The Russian devastation

15:28

of the countryside as they withdrew created

15:30

somewhere between 3 and 10 million

15:33

refugees.

15:35

The Germans likewise had scant regard for

15:37

civilian welfare and planned to

15:39

annex the conquered territory and have

15:41

it settled and dominated by Germans. The

15:45

annexed region became known as Oba-Ost

15:48

after the military organisation that

15:50

ruled it.

15:53

Plans for population transfer and

15:56

German domination were especially intense

15:58

in the northern section of the world.

17:06

to

18:00

attack Serbia from the west, or

18:02

the Bulgarians attacked from the east. The

18:06

bombardment of Belgrade began on 6 October 1915,

18:11

and within just three days the Serbian

18:13

capital was taken. Five

18:15

days later the Bulgarian army crossed

18:18

into Macedonia, while Austrian troops

18:20

entered from Damasia.

18:24

The Serbs fought bravely, but were overwhelmed

18:27

and fled southwards to the mountain passes

18:29

into Montenegro and Albania. The

18:33

retreat took the remnants of the army together

18:35

with King Peter, hundreds of thousands

18:38

of civilian refugees, as well as war

18:40

prisoners across some of the roughest terrains

18:43

in Europe in the middle of winter. Suffering

18:46

greatly from disease and from cold, lacking

18:49

food or transport, and harassed by

18:51

Albanian garidas, they headed for safety

18:54

to the Adriatic coast. After

18:57

the 400,000 people who set

18:59

out on the journey, only 120,000 soldiers and 60,000 civilians

19:01

reached their destination.

19:07

They were evacuated by Allied ships to

19:09

the island of Khorfu, where a Serbian

19:12

government in exile headed by Prince

19:14

Regent Alexander

19:16

and Nikola Passich was established.

19:21

The Allied troops in the Salonika, who

19:23

were supposed to defend Serbia, had been

19:25

given cautious orders from London, requiring

19:28

them to stay close to Salonika, penning

19:31

the final decision of the Greek government as

19:33

to whether to abandon neutrality. The

19:37

French commander, Maurice Surail,

19:40

was determined to push inland, but

19:43

the most he could hope to achieve was

19:45

to hold a line of retreat for the Serbs.

19:48

When the British finally moved forward,

19:50

it was too late to save Serbia. The

19:56

British and French fell back and formed

19:58

a line just within the Greek government.