BBC - The First World War (2003) Part 6 Breaking the Deadlock

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 6: Breaking the Deadlock

This part covers the battle on the Western Front from 1915-17. Attrition, 'lions led by donkeys', the slaughter only ceasing for a brief truce one Christmas - these are old, mistaken views of the war on the Western Front. In fact there were constant tactical evolutions, hundreds of generals died in action and some men adopted a system of 'live and let live', with countless informal local truces. The Germans tried new ideas at Verdun - 750,000 French and Germans died with little gain. After terrible failure on the Somme the British used tanks at Cambrai, but the Germans clawed back lost ground. Victory on the Western Front would go to the side that learned to consolidate success.

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