BBC - The First World War (2003) Part 10 War Without End

Ten-part series based on the book by Hew Strachan, Professor of the History of War at Oxford which tells the story as never before, dispelling the myths and offering new and provocative answers to core questions about the war's causes, conduct and legacy. It features hundreds of eyewitness accounts from frontline soldiers, generals, statesmen, children and women from all sides in the conflict. The First World War shaped the twentieth century. It sparked the Russian Revolution and launched America as a world power. The fault-line from its failed peace settlement led to a second terrible world war barely twenty years later. We live with its unresolved consequences; in the Middle East, the Balkans and Ireland.

Part 10: War Without End

The war's last months were more destructive than trench warfare had been. Germany remained on French soil, believing herself unbeatable. The Armistice was the Allies' bid to obtain - on paper - Germany's unconditional surrender. At Versailles she was made to shoulder the blame for the war, to force her to pay for it. The war, with losses of over 20 million, was later deemed as a senseless waste, but at the time it was seen in positive terms - for defence against aggression, for glory. It curbed militarism, for a while, but was not the war to end all wars. Its terrible message to the century it shaped was that war can fulfil ambitions, that war can work.

BBC Site

Full Version Available Upon Request