BBC - The First World War (2003) Part 1 To Arms

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 1: To Arms

It began as a clash in the Balkans which grew to engulf Europe and the world. Britain joined in, more to protect her great empire than for the defence of small nations. The merciless pattern of the war was set early on, by Austro-Hungarian atrocities against Serbian civilians.

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