Someone asked about the inaccuracies in the video. The spoken narrative is acceptable.. However, There are a number of inaccurate or anachronistic video excerpts. For example, as Archduke Ferdinand is mentioned in his June 1914 inspection tour of Sarajevo, there appear film clips of German army officers in plumed headgear. Later, German soldiers are shown preparing to mobilize in 1914. At the beginning of the war, these soldiers would have worn spiked helmets, The rounded, more characteristic German helmet was not introduced until around 1915, and in fact, one of the film excerpts looks suspiciously like it was from the Third Reich. These anachronisms and inconsistencies undermine the authority of the entire program, to say nothing of the scenic music, most of which is also anachronistic. The old popular music in this video is clearly an attempt to evoke a contemporaneous atmosphere. If one is going to do that, one ought to at least get it right. These musical selections are from the 1920s and 1930s. And please, Barber’s Adagio for Strings, expressive though it is, has nothing to do with the Great War.
Nothing could ever persuade the Germans that their troops were mown down by British riflemen at Langemarck, and not by heavy machine gun fire. Even today, over 100 years later, the story of British machine gun fire decimating the ranks of German infantry is found in German histories of WW1.
Excellent documentary with previously unseen footage - the only criticism is that the "background" (!) music is far too loud and in parts drowns out the narrative.
When I see units of the Royal Horse Artillery in the footage, I always wonder whether my grandfather was amongst those men being filmed all those years ago. He was a Sergeant in the RHA from 1914 to 1919, was awarded the Military Medal for courageous actions and always on the Western Front apart from time spent in Northern Italy in 1918.
I've rarely felt sorry for the Germans, but the killing of those students is heartbreaking. They had no idea what they were getting into and lacked sufficient training.
The warmongers in Washington and London are beating the Drums of War we never learn put psychpaths in power only this time nuclear war means the end of humanity we need statesmen now not clowns.
Thank you sooo much for posting this!!! I have always loved this documentary because it doesnt over dramatize the war and telling a story, but uses archiavel footage of the war and real troop home movies that really bring it to life. Plus, it interviews veterans who were there and fought in the war and thats always cool to get a first hand account of the war!!! This has always been my favorite documentary and I always learn something new every time I watch it :)
This is one of the few documentaries which attempts to stand back and look at how all the great powers contributed to the outbreak of war, rather than the traditional theory that it was all the fault of Germany and Austria-Hungary. However, even this documentary fails to consider the reasonable security interests of Austria-Hungary which by reason of the assassination was faciing the culmination of years of terrorism. A-H was an orderly country that on the Austrian side recognized minority rights, had universal male sufferage, and the rule of law. Serbia was a constant source of terrorism, and itself was involved even then in ethnic cleansing in recently acquired parts of Ottoman Macedonia. My views come from Christopher Clark's scholary work "The Sleepwalkers".
What a Shame/Sham now the robbers elites only wear suits; like in an Abbott & Costello Neighborhood somewhere in Homo Colossus America; where the landlord is Mr. Sidney Fields.. aka Paterson. NJ..
If I ever had a time machine to back in time during the late 1800s, I probably fall in love how life simple was and invest in things to come for the future. 🥰
