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6 Episodes 2017 - 0
Episode 1
Wed, Oct 4, 2017 60 mins
The complete story of World War I - from outbreak to conclusion - told through illuminating figures. Hear how an assassination brought conflict to Europe in 1914.
Episode 2
Wed, Oct 11, 2017 60 mins
By the beginning of 1915 the horrific killing power of machine guns and artillery had taught all sides that the only way to survive was to find shelter and dig in. Nowhere was this illustrated more dramatically than at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915, where a handful of German soldiers with machine guns held off a British force of 9,000 men. Eventually 25,000 miles of trenches would cut across Europe.
Episode 3
Wed, Oct 18, 2017 60 mins
By January 1916 the war had become a stalemate. Millions had died and yet no side had achieved a decisive breakthrough. Austria-Hungary tripled the size of its armies to five million men. Germany doubled its forces to seven million. And in Britain men were volunteering to fight at the rate of up to 33,000 a day. 1916's Descent into Hell began at the French fortress city of Verdun. Entire villages were wiped off the map and both sides suffered over 300,000 casualties.
Episode 4
Wed, Oct 25, 2017 60 mins
A fresh look at the Great War, with statistics helping to shed new light on the horrendous conflict. Hear about the effect of World War I on the domestic front.
Episode 5
Wed, Nov 1, 2017 60 mins
Episode five tells how, after 1916 and the hell of the Somme and Verdun, the imperial powers redoubled their efforts to crush their enemies. In Germany the new commander in chief, Paul von Hindenburg, and his deputy, Erich Ludendorff, demanded that German industry doubled its output of shells, to 11 million a month, and treble production of machine guns, artillery and aircraft. To meet these new targets Germany needed three-million more workers.
Episode 6
Wed, Nov 8, 2017 60 mins
Episode six tells how the numbers will favoured one side, then the other in 1918. When the Bolsheviks took Russia out of the war, millions of German and Austro-Hungarian troops were freed up to attack Britain and Belgium, France and Italy. But across the Atlantic, America was training an army of two-million men. The German commanders, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, knew that if they didn't achieve victory in 1918, they faced defeat in 1919.