WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.379 Welcome to today's deep dive. I am I'm genuinely 00:00:04.379 --> 00:00:06.960 so thrilled you're joining us today. Absolutely. 00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:09.660 Because we are going on a journey that has been 00:00:09.660 --> 00:00:13.539 meticulously entirely custom tailored for you. 00:00:13.660 --> 00:00:15.900 Yeah, we've really dug into this one. We have. 00:00:16.359 --> 00:00:18.559 And knowing you and knowing your grasp of history, 00:00:19.140 --> 00:00:21.800 I am well aware that you already know the basics 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:24.399 of World War One. Right. Like when we mentioned 00:00:24.399 --> 00:00:26.320 the Great War, we don't need to lecture you about 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:28.899 the tragedy of the Psalm. Or Verdun? Exactly, 00:00:29.019 --> 00:00:31.660 the meat grinder of Verdun. Or those static muddy 00:00:31.660 --> 00:00:34.259 trenches stretching across France lined with 00:00:34.259 --> 00:00:36.799 barbed wire. The standard textbook stuff. You 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:38.520 already know the textbook picture of the Western 00:00:38.520 --> 00:00:41.179 Front. But we were setting that standard narrative 00:00:41.179 --> 00:00:43.719 aside today. Completely aside. What if I told 00:00:43.719 --> 00:00:46.439 you that the grand strategy of this conflict, 00:00:46.920 --> 00:00:48.939 the war that violently dragged the world into 00:00:48.939 --> 00:00:52.500 the 20th century, was dictated by events far 00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:54.679 beyond those infamous trenches? It's a crazy 00:00:54.679 --> 00:00:56.799 thought. It is. We're talking about seaplane 00:00:56.799 --> 00:00:59.179 carriers operating off the coast of China. We're 00:00:59.179 --> 00:01:02.859 talking about freezing, chaotic, blind breakouts 00:01:02.859 --> 00:01:06.319 in the snow -choked plains of Poland. Yeah. We're 00:01:06.319 --> 00:01:08.859 going to look at multilingual fortresses slowly 00:01:08.859 --> 00:01:11.700 starving to death and flooded Italian rivers 00:01:11.700 --> 00:01:14.760 literally swallowing entire empires whole. It 00:01:14.760 --> 00:01:17.659 is a necessary and frankly profound shift in 00:01:17.659 --> 00:01:20.540 perspective. The standard Western Front narrative, 00:01:20.980 --> 00:01:23.819 while undeniably tragic and historically crucial, 00:01:24.299 --> 00:01:27.480 it really does a disservice to the sheer terrifying 00:01:27.480 --> 00:01:30.219 global scale of this conflict. It really does. 00:01:30.359 --> 00:01:33.079 When we limit our view to just France and Belgium, 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:37.200 we miss the truly bizarre, highly mobile and 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:40.019 technologically experimental fringes of the war 00:01:40.019 --> 00:01:42.780 that actually dictated how the empires fought, 00:01:43.159 --> 00:01:45.569 adapted and ultimately collapsed. And that is 00:01:45.569 --> 00:01:48.010 precisely our mission today. We're going to completely 00:01:48.010 --> 00:01:50.209 reframe your understanding of the First World 00:01:50.209 --> 00:01:53.030 War. Reframe it entirely. To do this, we've pulled 00:01:53.030 --> 00:01:55.569 together a massive stack of sources for you. 00:01:55.849 --> 00:01:58.530 Specifically, five incredibly detailed Wikipedia 00:01:58.530 --> 00:02:01.370 articles covering massive, yet wildly different 00:02:01.370 --> 00:02:03.290 engagement. Right, covering a lot of ground. 00:02:03.370 --> 00:02:04.790 We're going to examine the Siege of Tsingtao, 00:02:04.969 --> 00:02:07.530 the Battle of Udu, the Siege of Presemual, the 00:02:07.530 --> 00:02:09.590 Battle of Eris, and the Second Battle of the 00:02:09.590 --> 00:02:12.639 Piave River. It's a huge scope. It is. Our goal 00:02:12.639 --> 00:02:15.120 isn't just to recount dates and casualty figures. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:19.580 We want to explore the true, sprawling global 00:02:19.580 --> 00:02:22.240 scale of the war, the terrifying extremes of 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:24.280 the environments these soldiers were forced to 00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:27.199 fight in, and the rapid, almost desperate evolution 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:29.740 of military tactics on the ground. Yeah. Okay, 00:02:29.759 --> 00:02:32.430 let's unpack this. The goal today is to connect 00:02:32.430 --> 00:02:35.590 the dots between these five seemingly disparate, 00:02:35.889 --> 00:02:38.710 geographically isolated battles. We want to show 00:02:38.710 --> 00:02:41.729 you how these massive empires frantically adapted 00:02:41.729 --> 00:02:44.849 to modern warfare in real time. We are going 00:02:44.849 --> 00:02:47.050 to look at the granular details of what that 00:02:47.050 --> 00:02:49.250 human cost actually felt like on the ground. 00:02:49.650 --> 00:02:51.289 Because when you move away from just staring 00:02:51.289 --> 00:02:53.849 at the static lines of the Western Front, you 00:02:53.849 --> 00:02:56.469 see what is essentially a horrifying, globally 00:02:56.469 --> 00:02:59.030 distributed laboratory of military science and 00:02:59.030 --> 00:03:01.479 human endurance. I love that framing. Yeah. A 00:03:01.479 --> 00:03:03.979 horrifying laboratory. So to start this deep 00:03:03.979 --> 00:03:05.699 dive, we're going to travel to the very last 00:03:05.699 --> 00:03:07.599 place most people associate with the outbreak 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:11.259 of World War I. We are heading to Asia. Specifically, 00:03:11.500 --> 00:03:15.120 we're looking at August 1914 in a German colonial 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:18.439 port city called Qingdao, China. And right off 00:03:18.439 --> 00:03:22.080 the bat. Just, I have to ask, how on earth did 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:25.280 a massive European war immediately trigger a 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:27.560 siege in China? To understand that, we have to 00:03:27.560 --> 00:03:29.719 look at the aggressive imperialism of the late 00:03:29.719 --> 00:03:33.419 19th century. Back in 1898, the German Empire 00:03:33.419 --> 00:03:36.460 under Kaiser Wilhelm II essentially strong -armed 00:03:36.460 --> 00:03:39.659 the Qing dynasty into granting them a 99 -year 00:03:39.659 --> 00:03:43.400 lease on the area around Qizube. Wow, 99 years. 00:03:43.500 --> 00:03:45.840 Yeah. They poured massive amounts of money into 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:48.599 Qingdao, or Xingtao as it was spelled then, turning 00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:50.800 it from a relatively small fishing village into 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:53.900 a heavily fortified, modernized naval base. So 00:03:53.900 --> 00:03:56.120 it wasn't just a tiny outpost. Not at all. It 00:03:56.120 --> 00:03:58.740 had had wide streets, modern plumbing, breweries, 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:01.080 and most importantly, it was the deep -water 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:03.659 home port for the German East Asia Squadron. 00:04:04.020 --> 00:04:06.300 It was Germany's crown jewel in the Pacific, 00:04:06.580 --> 00:04:09.139 their main hub for projecting naval power across 00:04:09.139 --> 00:04:11.659 the globe. But the moment the Archduke is assassinated 00:04:11.659 --> 00:04:13.819 in Sarajevo and the dominoes fall in Europe, 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:16.459 that prized colony suddenly becomes a massive 00:04:16.459 --> 00:04:18.959 liability, doesn't it? because Japan enters the 00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:22.339 chat. Precisely. And what's fascinating here 00:04:22.339 --> 00:04:24.819 is the geopolitical shift happening right beneath 00:04:24.819 --> 00:04:27.420 the surface. You have Great Britain, who had 00:04:27.420 --> 00:04:29.939 been viewing the German naval buildup in the 00:04:29.939 --> 00:04:32.939 Pacific with immense paranoid suspicion for over 00:04:32.939 --> 00:04:35.240 a decade. Naturally. To counter this, Britain 00:04:35.240 --> 00:04:38.439 had actively forged closer ties with Japan, culminating 00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:42.300 in the Anglo -Japanese alliance of 1902. So when 00:04:42.300 --> 00:04:45.839 war breaks out in August 1914, Britain officially 00:04:45.839 --> 00:04:48.980 requests Japanese assistance to hunt down armed 00:04:48.980 --> 00:04:51.639 German raiders in the Pacific. But Japan takes 00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:54.420 it a step further. They absolutely do. Japan, 00:04:54.579 --> 00:04:56.939 seeing a golden opportunity to expand its own 00:04:56.939 --> 00:04:59.399 empire and eliminate its primary European rival 00:04:59.399 --> 00:05:02.620 in Asia, doesn't just hunt ships. They issue 00:05:02.620 --> 00:05:05.660 a blatant ultimatum to Germany. Hand over the 00:05:05.660 --> 00:05:08.000 entire port of Tsingtao immediately, without 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:09.740 conditions. And of course, Kaiser Wilhelm II 00:05:09.740 --> 00:05:11.680 isn't going to just hand over his prized colony. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:13.980 I was reading through the source material and 00:05:13.980 --> 00:05:16.600 he actually sent a telegraph stating that it 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:19.259 would shame him more to surrender Tsingtao to 00:05:19.259 --> 00:05:21.639 the Japanese than it would to surrender Berlin 00:05:21.639 --> 00:05:24.120 to the Russians. It's a wild statement. He orders 00:05:24.120 --> 00:05:26.500 them to defend it to the last man. Which was 00:05:26.500 --> 00:05:28.379 essentially a death sentence for the garrison. 00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:31.740 The German commander in Singtau, Captain Alfred 00:05:31.740 --> 00:05:35.000 Meyer Waldeck, was a deeply pragmatic man. He 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:37.740 knew he was completely isolated. He had to know. 00:05:38.180 --> 00:05:41.079 The main German East Asia Squadron, commanded 00:05:41.079 --> 00:05:44.740 by Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee, had already 00:05:44.740 --> 00:05:47.939 recognized the trap. Spee took his heavy cruisers 00:05:47.939 --> 00:05:50.519 and fled across the Pacific towards South America, 00:05:50.899 --> 00:05:53.480 knowing that staying in port meant annihilation. 00:05:53.870 --> 00:05:56.649 Smart move by speed. So Meyerwaldeck is left 00:05:56.649 --> 00:06:00.189 behind. Yes. He's left with roughly 3 ,600 men. 00:06:00.490 --> 00:06:03.189 This wasn't even a cohesive army. It was a hodgepodge 00:06:03.189 --> 00:06:06.529 of Marines, naval personnel whose ships were 00:06:06.529 --> 00:06:09.589 undergoing repairs, Chinese colonial troops, 00:06:09.610 --> 00:06:12.410 and even a contingent of Austro -Hungarian sailors 00:06:12.410 --> 00:06:14.490 from a cruiser called the Kaiser in Elizabeth 00:06:14.490 --> 00:06:16.389 that happened to be trapped in the harbor. So 00:06:16.389 --> 00:06:19.970 you have 3 ,600 isolated cutoff defenders. And 00:06:19.970 --> 00:06:22.189 marching toward them is an incredibly well -equipped 00:06:22.189 --> 00:06:25.529 Japanese force. of over 23 ,000 men. Vastly outnumbered. 00:06:25.709 --> 00:06:28.050 Eventually joined by a token British force of 00:06:28.050 --> 00:06:30.970 about 1 ,500. But here's where it gets really 00:06:30.970 --> 00:06:33.769 interesting. This isn't just a standard 19th 00:06:33.769 --> 00:06:36.769 century colonial skirmish. The Siege of Tsingtao 00:06:36.769 --> 00:06:40.250 is actually a battle of massive technological 00:06:40.250 --> 00:06:43.449 firsts. Huge firsts. I mean, we're talking about 00:06:43.449 --> 00:06:46.769 aviation, which is in its absolute infancy in 00:06:46.769 --> 00:06:50.209 1914. Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk was barely 00:06:50.209 --> 00:06:54.180 a decade prior. And yet, We see the Japanese 00:06:54.180 --> 00:06:57.000 utilizing a ship called the Wakamiya. Yes, the 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:59.180 Wakamiya. Can you explain what this ship was 00:06:59.180 --> 00:07:03.180 actually doing? Because the idea of a 1914 aircraft 00:07:03.180 --> 00:07:05.959 carrier is just blowing my mind. It really challenges 00:07:05.959 --> 00:07:08.180 our timeline of military aviation, doesn't it? 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:10.920 The Guacamea wasn't an aircraft carrier in the 00:07:10.920 --> 00:07:12.920 modern sense. It didn't have a flat flight deck. 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:15.819 Right. It was a seaplane tender. It carried four 00:07:15.819 --> 00:07:18.620 Maurice Farman seaplanes. These were incredibly 00:07:18.620 --> 00:07:21.699 fragile wire and canvas biplanes with pontoons 00:07:21.699 --> 00:07:23.759 attached to the bottom. Wire and canvas. Exactly. 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:26.060 The crew of the Guacamea would literally use 00:07:26.060 --> 00:07:28.800 a heavy derrick crane to hoist these planes over 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:30.579 the side of the ship and lower them down into 00:07:30.579 --> 00:07:32.959 the ocean swells. Oh, wow. The pilots would then 00:07:32.959 --> 00:07:35.040 start the engines, taxi across the water and 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:38.620 take off right from the sea. That sounds incredibly 00:07:38.620 --> 00:07:40.860 dangerous just on a mechanical level, let alone 00:07:40.860 --> 00:07:43.240 in a combat zone. It was incredibly risky, but 00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:46.199 the strategic advantage was unprecedented. Beginning 00:07:46.199 --> 00:07:50.079 in early September 1914, these Japanese seaplanes 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:53.319 conducted the world's very first naval -launched 00:07:53.319 --> 00:07:57.100 air raids. The first ever? Yes. They flew over 00:07:57.100 --> 00:07:59.579 the fortified German harbor, scouting artillery 00:07:59.579 --> 00:08:02.019 positions and dropping explosives on the trapped 00:08:02.019 --> 00:08:04.339 German ships, including the Austro -Hungarian 00:08:04.339 --> 00:08:07.240 cruiser Kaiser and Elizabeth and the German gunboat 00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:10.019 Jaguar. That's insane. They even conducted the 00:08:10.019 --> 00:08:12.600 first recorded nighttime bombing raid in history. 00:08:12.699 --> 00:08:15.870 At night. in 1914. The psychological impact on 00:08:15.870 --> 00:08:18.329 the German defenders, having explosives dropped 00:08:18.329 --> 00:08:20.209 on them from the sky in the middle of the night, 00:08:20.370 --> 00:08:23.470 was profound. It fundamentally changed the rules 00:08:23.470 --> 00:08:26.569 of naval engagement. We are seeing a stark foreshadowing 00:08:26.569 --> 00:08:28.889 of the Pacific theater that would play out decades 00:08:28.889 --> 00:08:31.769 later in the Second World War. Japan was actively 00:08:31.769 --> 00:08:34.309 testing, improving the concept of modern carrier 00:08:34.309 --> 00:08:36.889 style warfare. And what's wild is that the Germans 00:08:36.889 --> 00:08:39.679 weren't completely blind in the sky either. But 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:42.000 their situation was so much more desperate. They 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:45.080 had exactly one operational airplane left in 00:08:45.080 --> 00:08:47.720 the entire colony. Just one. It was an Ettrich 00:08:47.720 --> 00:08:50.720 Taub, which, if you look at pictures of it, literally 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:54.059 looks like a giant mechanical bird with these 00:08:54.059 --> 00:08:56.799 swept back dove -like wings. A very striking 00:08:56.799 --> 00:08:59.759 design. And it was flown by a single guy, Lieutenant 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:02.470 Gunther Plucho. Plucho's story is one of the 00:09:02.470 --> 00:09:05.450 most romanticized yet objectively terrifying 00:09:05.450 --> 00:09:08.590 narratives of the early war. He was entirely 00:09:08.590 --> 00:09:11.389 alone up there. Entirely. He was flying this 00:09:11.389 --> 00:09:14.750 fragile unarmed monoplane over a besieging army 00:09:14.750 --> 00:09:17.409 of tens of thousands of men constantly taking 00:09:17.409 --> 00:09:20.450 ground fire. He was acting as the sole set of 00:09:20.450 --> 00:09:23.470 eyes for the German artillery commanders. desperately 00:09:23.470 --> 00:09:25.889 trying to map out the Japanese trench networks. 00:09:26.330 --> 00:09:28.370 And he wasn't just scouting. The sources say 00:09:28.370 --> 00:09:30.629 he was dropping improvised bombs out of the cockpit 00:09:30.629 --> 00:09:33.350 by hand, just leaning over the side of the fuselage 00:09:33.350 --> 00:09:36.029 and tossing explosives. Yeah. And then he supposedly 00:09:36.029 --> 00:09:38.750 claims the first aerial victory in aviation history. 00:09:38.990 --> 00:09:41.409 Not with a mounted machine gun, because they 00:09:41.409 --> 00:09:43.990 didn't have those yet, but by pulling out his 00:09:43.990 --> 00:09:47.049 personal service pistol and shooting at a Japanese 00:09:47.049 --> 00:09:50.169 farm and sea plane midair. Incredible. I'm struggling 00:09:50.169 --> 00:09:53.470 to picture the sheer adrenaline of two pilots 00:09:53.470 --> 00:09:56.350 taking pot shots at each other with handguns 00:09:56.350 --> 00:09:58.769 thousands of feet in the air. It highlights the 00:09:58.769 --> 00:10:01.490 improvised, almost experimental nature of this 00:10:01.490 --> 00:10:04.450 siege. Plusho became a massive annoyance to the 00:10:04.450 --> 00:10:07.169 Japanese command. But ultimately, one man in 00:10:07.169 --> 00:10:09.929 a town couldn't stop an empire. As the Japanese 00:10:09.929 --> 00:10:12.529 closed in, Meyer Waldeck, the German commander, 00:10:12.870 --> 00:10:15.409 realized the fortress was going to fall. On November 00:10:15.409 --> 00:10:18.149 6th, literally the day before the final Japanese 00:10:18.149 --> 00:10:21.429 assault, he gave Plusho his final orders. Escape. 00:10:21.610 --> 00:10:23.919 Get out of there. Plucho strapped the governor's 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:26.279 final dispatches to his body, took off in the 00:10:26.279 --> 00:10:28.740 Taub, and flew deep into Chinese territory until 00:10:28.740 --> 00:10:31.039 he ran out of fuel, eventually making his way 00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:34.320 back to Germany after an insane multi -year journey. 00:10:34.700 --> 00:10:36.779 But back on the ground, the siege was grinding 00:10:36.779 --> 00:10:39.600 toward its inevitable conclusion. And before 00:10:39.600 --> 00:10:41.940 we move on from Tsingtao, we have to talk about 00:10:41.940 --> 00:10:44.509 the British involvement. because it perfectly 00:10:44.509 --> 00:10:46.950 illustrates the messy reality of these newly 00:10:46.950 --> 00:10:50.370 formed global alliances. Britain sent a relatively 00:10:50.370 --> 00:10:53.870 small force, the South Wales borderers and the 00:10:53.870 --> 00:10:56.909 36 Sikhs, but they weren't really there to help 00:10:56.909 --> 00:10:58.970 Japan win. They were there to keep an eye on 00:10:58.970 --> 00:11:02.309 them, right? Exactly. Britain was deeply uncomfortable 00:11:02.309 --> 00:11:05.149 with the idea of Japan taking over a massive 00:11:05.149 --> 00:11:08.429 fortified deepwater port in China, essentially 00:11:08.429 --> 00:11:11.690 replacing German imperialism with Japanese imperialism 00:11:11.690 --> 00:11:13.889 right next to British spheres of influence. Right 00:11:13.889 --> 00:11:15.690 in their backyard. The British troops were sent 00:11:15.690 --> 00:11:18.149 as a political statement. We are here, we are 00:11:18.149 --> 00:11:20.389 watching, and we expect a say in what happens 00:11:20.389 --> 00:11:22.549 to this territory after the battle. Which led 00:11:22.549 --> 00:11:25.529 to a massive problem on the battlefield. The 00:11:25.529 --> 00:11:28.289 source mentions a severe friendly fire issue. 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:30.899 The Japanese sentries kept shooting at the British 00:11:30.899 --> 00:11:33.120 troops. You have to consider the conditions. 00:11:33.820 --> 00:11:36.659 You are operating in heavy rain, in muddy trenches 00:11:36.659 --> 00:11:40.570 often at night or in thick fog. The standard 00:11:40.570 --> 00:11:43.629 British khaki uniforms, when caked in dark mud 00:11:43.629 --> 00:11:46.070 and seen from a distance, didn't look drastically 00:11:46.070 --> 00:11:48.409 different from the German uniforms to a Japanese 00:11:48.409 --> 00:11:50.570 sentry who had never fought alongside British 00:11:50.570 --> 00:11:52.610 troops before. That makes sense. The friction 00:11:52.610 --> 00:11:54.850 of this newly formed coalition was resulting 00:11:54.850 --> 00:11:57.309 in lethal mistakes. And the solution they came 00:11:57.309 --> 00:12:01.350 up with is so absurdly pragmatic. The British 00:12:01.350 --> 00:12:04.549 command literally had to issue Japanese military 00:12:04.549 --> 00:12:07.070 raincoats to the British soldiers. Yes. They 00:12:07.070 --> 00:12:09.960 told the South Wales borders to wear these specific 00:12:09.960 --> 00:12:12.840 Japanese raincoats over their own uniforms so 00:12:12.840 --> 00:12:14.820 that their allies would recognize the silhouette 00:12:14.820 --> 00:12:17.799 and stop shooting at them. It's such a tiny, 00:12:17.879 --> 00:12:20.620 bizarre detail, but it speaks volumes about how 00:12:20.620 --> 00:12:23.179 messy this war was from day one. It truly does. 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:25.759 And the ultimate outcome at Tsingtao, which fell 00:12:25.759 --> 00:12:28.320 on November 7th after a methodical, overwhelming 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:31.039 Japanese artillery bombardment, proved a crucial 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:34.100 military doctrine. Japan's use of parallel siege 00:12:34.100 --> 00:12:36.779 trenches and massive 11 -inch howitzers. Tactics 00:12:36.779 --> 00:12:39.179 they knew well. Tactics they had perfected just 00:12:39.179 --> 00:12:41.460 nine years earlier during the Russo -Japanese 00:12:41.460 --> 00:12:45.039 War at Port Arthur. It proved that modern, heavy 00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:47.799 artillery could systematically reduce and destroy 00:12:47.799 --> 00:12:50.299 any static fortress no matter how well -built. 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:53.600 The era of the impenetrable walled city was officially 00:12:53.600 --> 00:12:56.139 over. So Tsingkau proves that if you sit still 00:12:56.139 --> 00:12:58.539 in a fortress, modern artillery will eventually 00:12:58.539 --> 00:13:01.299 crush you. But what happens when armies refuse 00:13:01.299 --> 00:13:03.940 to sit still? What happens when millions of men 00:13:03.940 --> 00:13:06.019 are moving rapidly trying to outflank each other? 00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:08.919 A very different kind of war. Because just a 00:13:08.919 --> 00:13:10.980 few weeks later, and thousands of miles away 00:13:10.980 --> 00:13:13.059 in Europe, the Germans and the Russians were 00:13:13.059 --> 00:13:15.639 testing a completely different, infinitely more 00:13:15.639 --> 00:13:18.159 chaotic type of war. This is where the concept 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:20.340 of the laboratory really becomes terrifying. 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:23.360 We are moving from the calculated methodical 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:26.440 siege warfare of the coast of China to the sheer 00:13:26.440 --> 00:13:29.299 freezing chaos of maneuver warfare on the eastern 00:13:29.299 --> 00:13:31.620 front. Which brings us to the Battle of Udu, 00:13:31.779 --> 00:13:34.279 taking place in November and December of 1914. 00:13:35.100 --> 00:13:38.220 To set the scene for you, we are in the freezing 00:13:38.220 --> 00:13:40.799 plains of Poland. The Russian Empire is feeling 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:43.220 confident. They are amassing a massive army, 00:13:43.519 --> 00:13:45.840 preparing for a devastating invasion of Silesia. 00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:48.419 A huge threat. Now, Silesia is the industrial 00:13:48.419 --> 00:13:51.059 heartland of the German Empire. If the Russians 00:13:51.059 --> 00:13:53.940 get into Silesia, the German war machine loses 00:13:53.940 --> 00:13:57.240 its coal, its steel, its factories. The war could 00:13:57.240 --> 00:13:59.360 literally be over in months. Germany couldn't 00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:01.940 let that happen. To prevent this, the German 00:14:01.940 --> 00:14:04.320 high command, specifically Paul von Hindenburg 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:06.740 and Erich Ludendorff, have to pull off a logistical 00:14:06.740 --> 00:14:09.389 miracle. They decide to preemptively strike. 00:14:09.990 --> 00:14:12.149 They pull their entire 9th Army out of southern 00:14:12.149 --> 00:14:14.610 Poland and shift it hundreds of miles north. 00:14:14.889 --> 00:14:16.909 And they do this by running 80 trains a day. 00:14:17.049 --> 00:14:20.120 80 trains. I have to pause here. How do you coordinate 00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:24.000 80 massive steam trains a day on 1914 rail infrastructure 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:27.080 without modern computers or radios? The logistics 00:14:27.080 --> 00:14:29.639 of the German railway system in 1914 cannot be 00:14:29.639 --> 00:14:32.360 overstated. It was the secret weapon of the German 00:14:32.360 --> 00:14:34.879 general staff. The secret weapon. They had a 00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:37.159 dedicated railway department within the military 00:14:37.159 --> 00:14:40.539 that spent decades prior to the war meticulously 00:14:40.539 --> 00:14:42.600 planning train schedules down to the minute. 00:14:42.830 --> 00:14:45.629 Every station, every sighting, every water tower 00:14:45.629 --> 00:14:47.629 was mapped out. Just mathematical precision. 00:14:47.929 --> 00:14:50.590 When Hindenburg and Ludendorff ordered the 9th 00:14:50.590 --> 00:14:53.690 Army north, they were executing pre -calculated 00:14:53.690 --> 00:14:57.370 timetables. They moved an entire army, hundreds 00:14:57.370 --> 00:15:00.190 of thousands of men, thousands of horses, field 00:15:00.190 --> 00:15:03.009 artillery, and ammunition laterally across their 00:15:03.009 --> 00:15:05.629 own front lines in a matter of days. The goal 00:15:05.629 --> 00:15:08.450 was to achieve absolute operational surprise. 00:15:08.809 --> 00:15:10.970 And the plan was to smash into the right flank 00:15:10.970 --> 00:15:13.250 of the Russian Second Army, right near the city 00:15:13.250 --> 00:15:15.750 of Udu. The sources describe this as an attempt 00:15:15.750 --> 00:15:18.320 at a double envelopment. I know that's a classic 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:19.980 military term, but I'm struggling to picture 00:15:19.980 --> 00:15:22.340 exactly how that looks on the ground. Can you 00:15:22.340 --> 00:15:23.940 break down what a double envelopment actually 00:15:23.940 --> 00:15:26.019 means for the soldiers involved? Think of it 00:15:26.019 --> 00:15:28.940 like a giant pair of pincers or a crab's claws. 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:32.080 A single envelopment is flanking your enemy, 00:15:32.659 --> 00:15:34.759 moving around one side of their line to attack 00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:37.139 them from the side and the front simultaneously. 00:15:37.320 --> 00:15:39.720 OK, got it. A double envelopment is the holy 00:15:39.720 --> 00:15:43.149 grail of maneuver warfare. You smash through 00:15:43.149 --> 00:15:45.409 the enemy lines on both the extreme left and 00:15:45.409 --> 00:15:48.610 the extreme right simultaneously. Your two attacking 00:15:48.610 --> 00:15:51.710 wings then hook inward behind the enemy army, 00:15:52.190 --> 00:15:54.350 linking up in their rear. So you surround them. 00:15:54.529 --> 00:15:57.029 If you successfully close the pincers, you have 00:15:57.029 --> 00:15:59.409 completely surrounded the enemy army. They have 00:15:59.409 --> 00:16:02.350 no supply lines, no way to retreat, and they 00:16:02.350 --> 00:16:06.690 are taking fire from 360 degrees. This is exactly 00:16:06.690 --> 00:16:08.570 what the Germans had done to a different Russian 00:16:08.570 --> 00:16:11.090 army at the Battle of Tannenberg just a few months 00:16:11.090 --> 00:16:13.289 prior. prior, destroying it completely. They 00:16:13.289 --> 00:16:16.590 were trying to recreate that masterpiece at Udu. 00:16:26.179 --> 00:16:28.580 specifically Grand Duke Nicholas, isn't totally 00:16:28.580 --> 00:16:31.240 incompetent. He realizes the severity of the 00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:34.279 danger. He saw it coming. He immediately cancels 00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:36.779 the invasion of Silesia and orders the Russian 00:16:36.779 --> 00:16:39.360 Fifth Army, commanded by General Pavel Plav, 00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:41.720 to abandon their positions and march north to 00:16:41.720 --> 00:16:44.480 save the Second Army. And they move with insane 00:16:44.480 --> 00:16:48.159 speed, covering 72 miles in just two days on 00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:51.190 foot. Which is an agonizing forced march, especially 00:16:51.190 --> 00:16:53.090 when you factor in the environment. We have to 00:16:53.090 --> 00:16:54.830 discuss the weather because the weather at Odu 00:16:54.830 --> 00:16:58.389 wasn't just a backdrop. It was an active, lethal 00:16:58.389 --> 00:17:00.990 participant in the battle. The temperatures were 00:17:00.990 --> 00:17:03.190 plummeting to 10 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 00:17:03.190 --> 00:17:06.089 minus 12 Celsius. And it wasn't just cold. It 00:17:06.089 --> 00:17:09.650 was freezing, dense fog. Imagine the sensory 00:17:09.650 --> 00:17:12.400 deprivation. You have hundreds of thousands of 00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:15.099 men marching through unfamiliar Polish countryside. 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:17.799 The roads are turning into frozen ruts of mud. 00:17:18.279 --> 00:17:20.359 The fog is so thick you can't see 50 feet in 00:17:20.359 --> 00:17:22.180 front of you. You can't see anything. And remember, 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:26.099 in 1914, armies relied on visual signals. Flags, 00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:28.980 flares, and dispatch riders on horseback. The 00:17:28.980 --> 00:17:31.460 fog effectively blinds the commanders of both 00:17:31.460 --> 00:17:34.279 armies. It severs the nervous system of the military 00:17:34.279 --> 00:17:37.259 structure. And because of this fog, and because 00:17:37.259 --> 00:17:39.440 the Russian Fifth Army arrives so incredibly 00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:42.640 fast after that forced march, the entire battle 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:45.579 geometry violently flips in a matter of hours. 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:48.380 It's a total reversal. The German pincers that 00:17:48.380 --> 00:17:50.160 were trying to surround the Russian Second Army 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:52.339 suddenly find themselves slamming into the Russian 00:17:52.339 --> 00:17:54.900 Fifth Army. The Germans who had broken through 00:17:54.900 --> 00:17:56.940 into the Russian rear are now cut off from their 00:17:56.940 --> 00:17:59.380 own lines. The Hunters have become the hunted. 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:02.380 It turns from a double envelopment into a massive 00:18:02.380 --> 00:18:05.799 chaotic cauldron battle. The focal point of this 00:18:05.799 --> 00:18:08.460 chaos falls on the German 25th Reserve Corps. 00:18:08.940 --> 00:18:11.980 This unit was commanded by General Reinhard von 00:18:11.980 --> 00:18:14.660 Schäfer -Boyedal. Sheffer Boyadal. Now Sheffer 00:18:14.660 --> 00:18:17.839 Boyadal was a 63 year old general who had been 00:18:17.839 --> 00:18:20.380 recalled from retirement. He was an old school 00:18:20.380 --> 00:18:23.539 Prussian officer. And suddenly he finds his entire 00:18:23.539 --> 00:18:26.660 corps, tens of thousands of men, completely surrounded 00:18:26.660 --> 00:18:29.920 southeast of Odu by an overwhelming Russian force. 00:18:30.220 --> 00:18:33.339 The Russians are ecstatic. They are so absolutely 00:18:33.339 --> 00:18:35.400 certain that they have trapped and destroyed 00:18:35.400 --> 00:18:38.740 this German corps that the Russian command literally 00:18:38.740 --> 00:18:41.119 orders trains to be brought up to the front lines 00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:44.250 to accommodate up to 20 2 ,000 anticipated German 00:18:44.250 --> 00:18:47.109 prisoners of war they're celebrating before the 00:18:47.109 --> 00:18:49.670 battles even over but they fundamentally miscalculated 00:18:49.670 --> 00:18:52.880 two things the sheer disciplined desperation 00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:55.900 of the trapped German troops and the catastrophic 00:18:55.900 --> 00:18:58.240 fragility of their own Russian command structure 00:18:58.240 --> 00:19:01.019 under pressure. Right. Sheffer Boydell evaluates 00:19:01.019 --> 00:19:03.700 the situation. He has no supplies. The temperature 00:19:03.700 --> 00:19:06.660 is lethal and he is surrounded. He decides that 00:19:06.660 --> 00:19:09.619 surrender is not an option. He orders his corps 00:19:09.619 --> 00:19:12.220 to turn around, face the Russian lines that trapped 00:19:12.220 --> 00:19:14.640 them and break out by force. This leads to what 00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:17.119 has to be one of the most terrifying cinematic 00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:20.269 moments of the entire war. The Vanguard, the 00:19:20.269 --> 00:19:22.329 tip of the spear leading this breakout attempt, 00:19:22.690 --> 00:19:25.829 is a cavalry unit commanded by a man named Manfred 00:19:25.829 --> 00:19:28.369 von Richthofen. Yes, the uncle. Who, for the 00:19:28.369 --> 00:19:30.490 aviation buffs out there, is the great uncle 00:19:30.490 --> 00:19:33.390 of the famous Red Baron? They are tasked with 00:19:33.390 --> 00:19:35.130 punching a hole through the Russian lines at 00:19:35.130 --> 00:19:37.529 night. And because the fog is so thick and the 00:19:37.529 --> 00:19:40.230 Russian lines are so close, Richtofen issues 00:19:40.230 --> 00:19:43.089 an incredible order. He tells his men to fix 00:19:43.089 --> 00:19:45.650 bayonets and then he orders them to completely 00:19:45.650 --> 00:19:47.869 unload the ammunition from their rifles. It's 00:19:47.869 --> 00:19:50.630 a brilliant, if terrifying, tactical decision. 00:19:51.339 --> 00:19:54.359 In the pitch black and freezing fog, a single 00:19:54.359 --> 00:19:57.640 accidental gunshot from a nervous freezing soldier 00:19:57.640 --> 00:20:00.259 would instantly give away their position and 00:20:00.259 --> 00:20:02.420 bring down the entire weight of Russian artillery 00:20:02.420 --> 00:20:05.380 on their heads. By unloading the rifles, Richtofen 00:20:05.380 --> 00:20:08.759 ensured absolute silence. It forced his men to 00:20:08.759 --> 00:20:12.000 rely entirely on cold steel. So you have thousands 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:14.740 of freezing German soldiers armed only with bayonets 00:20:14.740 --> 00:20:16.900 sneaking through the icy night, and they literally 00:20:16.900 --> 00:20:19.039 stumble right into the town of Brissini, which 00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:21.099 is currently occupied by the sleeping Russian 00:20:21.099 --> 00:20:23.799 6th Siberian Division. The historical accounts 00:20:23.799 --> 00:20:25.940 of this breakout are surreal. Because of the 00:20:25.940 --> 00:20:28.140 absolute silence and the sheer audacity of the 00:20:28.140 --> 00:20:30.700 move, the German troops actually managed to occupy 00:20:30.700 --> 00:20:33.519 large sections of the town of Brzeni before a 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:36.200 single shot was fired. It's unbelievable. The 00:20:36.200 --> 00:20:38.980 Russian sentries were either frozen, asleep, 00:20:39.420 --> 00:20:42.210 or completely caught off guard. But wait, how 00:20:42.210 --> 00:20:44.630 does a sleeping division of Siberians not wake 00:20:44.630 --> 00:20:46.970 up and immediately annihilate the Germans once 00:20:46.970 --> 00:20:49.710 the alarm is finally raised? Where was the Russian 00:20:49.710 --> 00:20:52.309 command? The Russian command was experiencing 00:20:52.309 --> 00:20:56.250 a total cascading structural collapse. General 00:20:56.250 --> 00:20:58.430 Nikolai Ruski, who was overseeing the sector, 00:20:58.910 --> 00:21:01.150 completely lost his nerve. Shift broke down. 00:21:01.349 --> 00:21:03.549 The short winter days, the blinding fog and the 00:21:03.549 --> 00:21:05.809 conflicting reports coming in from his terrified 00:21:05.809 --> 00:21:08.859 frontline commanders broke him. He was literally 00:21:08.859 --> 00:21:11.500 issuing orders via telegraph and then immediately 00:21:11.500 --> 00:21:13.819 sending a second telegraph contradicting the 00:21:13.819 --> 00:21:16.359 first one. The local Russian commanders in Brasini 00:21:16.359 --> 00:21:18.819 were completely paralyzed, unsure of whether 00:21:18.819 --> 00:21:21.740 to attack, retreat or hold their ground. And 00:21:21.740 --> 00:21:24.339 because of this absolute paralysis at the top, 00:21:24.559 --> 00:21:27.160 Sheffer Boydell pulls off the impossible. His 00:21:27.160 --> 00:21:30.079 63 year old retired general manages to march 00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:32.920 his entire trapped corps right through the Russian 00:21:32.920 --> 00:21:36.299 lines. And he doesn't just escape. No. The sources 00:21:36.299 --> 00:21:38.619 say he brought his wounded with him. He dragged 00:21:38.619 --> 00:21:41.420 out 12 ,000 Russian prisoners that he had captured 00:21:41.420 --> 00:21:44.059 while he was surrounded, and he even hauled away 00:21:44.059 --> 00:21:47.680 64 captured Russian artillery pieces. It is the 00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:50.579 great escape of World War One. It is a stunning 00:21:50.579 --> 00:21:53.319 tactical achievement, but it leaves us with a 00:21:53.319 --> 00:21:56.680 fascinating, almost contradictory strategic outcome. 00:21:57.460 --> 00:22:00.019 Historians often debate who actually won the 00:22:00.019 --> 00:22:03.460 Battle of Yodu. How is it a debate? The Germans 00:22:03.460 --> 00:22:06.059 escaped a trap and took prisoners. Doesn't that 00:22:06.059 --> 00:22:08.400 make it a German victory? Tactically, you could 00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:10.960 argue it was a Russian victory. The Russian army 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:13.059 successfully recognized the double -envelopment 00:22:13.059 --> 00:22:15.759 trap, rushed reinforcements to the sector, broke 00:22:15.759 --> 00:22:17.960 the German encirclement, saved their second army 00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:20.779 from being destroyed, and avoided suffering another 00:22:20.779 --> 00:22:23.619 Tannenberg -level disaster. The German 9th Army 00:22:23.619 --> 00:22:25.880 failed to destroy the Russians. Oh, I see. But 00:22:25.880 --> 00:22:28.950 the original Russian plan? Exactly. Strategically, 00:22:28.950 --> 00:22:31.569 it was a massive, decisive victory for the German 00:22:31.569 --> 00:22:34.490 Empire. Why? Because the original Russian objective, 00:22:34.569 --> 00:22:36.789 that massive invasion of the German industrial 00:22:36.789 --> 00:22:39.230 heartland of Silesia, was permanently derailed. 00:22:39.329 --> 00:22:41.789 They stopped the invasion. The sheer chaos and 00:22:41.789 --> 00:22:44.029 heavy casualties of the battle forced the Russians 00:22:44.029 --> 00:22:46.609 to abandon the offensive and fall back to more 00:22:46.609 --> 00:22:49.390 defensible lines closer to Warsaw. The Russian 00:22:49.390 --> 00:22:52.289 army never threatened deep German soil so closely 00:22:52.289 --> 00:22:55.490 for the rest of the entire war. The German preemptive 00:22:55.490 --> 00:22:57.960 strike achieved its ultimate strategic goal even 00:22:57.960 --> 00:23:00.259 if the tactical execution devolved into freezing 00:23:00.259 --> 00:23:03.119 chaos. It's deeply unsettling when you try to 00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:05.539 visualize the reality of maneuver warfare on 00:23:05.539 --> 00:23:08.579 the Eastern Front. No static trenches to hide 00:23:08.579 --> 00:23:11.380 in. Just millions of men stumbling into each 00:23:11.380 --> 00:23:13.740 other in freezing fog where the lines between 00:23:13.740 --> 00:23:15.920 attacker and defender dissolve instantly. It's 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:19.640 a nightmare. But as 1914 bleeds into 1915, this 00:23:19.640 --> 00:23:22.200 rapid maneuver warfare begins to grind to a halt 00:23:22.200 --> 00:23:24.720 in certain sectors. And the consequences of that 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:26.839 halt were arguably even more horrific than the 00:23:26.839 --> 00:23:29.579 chaos of Iudu. We are moving from the agility 00:23:29.579 --> 00:23:32.740 of armies moving 80 trains a day to the agonizing 00:23:32.740 --> 00:23:35.299 slow deaths of absolute stagnation. We are going 00:23:35.299 --> 00:23:38.079 to look at the siege of Pridjiel. Pridjimiel. 00:23:38.410 --> 00:23:40.369 represents a completely different nightmare. 00:23:40.829 --> 00:23:44.029 It was a massive Austro -Hungarian fortress complex 00:23:44.029 --> 00:23:47.309 located along the San River in what is now southeastern 00:23:47.309 --> 00:23:50.589 Poland. Unlike the fast moving armies at Udu, 00:23:51.009 --> 00:23:53.410 this was a stationary target. They weren't going 00:23:53.410 --> 00:23:55.390 anywhere. And when the Russian armies advanced 00:23:55.390 --> 00:23:58.029 through the region in the fall of 1914, they 00:23:58.029 --> 00:24:00.349 didn't want to get bogged down in a costly urban 00:24:00.349 --> 00:24:03.569 assault. So, they simply bypassed the fortress 00:24:03.569 --> 00:24:06.390 and circled it with a ring of troops, cut off 00:24:06.390 --> 00:24:09.029 all supply lines, and settled in to starve the 00:24:09.029 --> 00:24:12.569 defenders out. This siege lasted for a staggering 00:24:12.569 --> 00:24:16.150 133 days. It was the longest siege in Europe 00:24:16.150 --> 00:24:19.450 during the entire First World War. To truly understand 00:24:19.450 --> 00:24:21.670 the horror of Prismule, you have to understand 00:24:21.670 --> 00:24:24.069 who was locked inside. Because it wasn't just 00:24:24.069 --> 00:24:26.630 a military base. Inside this ring of Russian 00:24:26.630 --> 00:24:30.500 steel, You had a sprawling garrison of 127 ,000 00:24:30.500 --> 00:24:33.039 Austro -Hungarian soldiers. That's a massive 00:24:33.039 --> 00:24:36.500 force. But you also had 18 ,000 civilians trapped 00:24:36.500 --> 00:24:39.980 with them. And this garrison was a perfect tragic 00:24:39.980 --> 00:24:43.059 microcosm of the Austro -Hungarian Empire itself. 00:24:43.400 --> 00:24:46.519 The sources explicitly note that because the 00:24:46.519 --> 00:24:49.460 empire was such a massive disjointed patchwork 00:24:49.460 --> 00:24:52.400 of different nationalities and ethnicities, the 00:24:52.400 --> 00:24:55.339 daily military orders within the fortress had 00:24:55.339 --> 00:24:58.839 to be issued in 15 different languages. 15 languages. 00:24:59.380 --> 00:25:01.700 Just pause and think about the sheer friction 00:25:01.700 --> 00:25:04.599 that introduces to a chain of command. How does 00:25:04.599 --> 00:25:07.460 an Austrian general efficiently convey a complex 00:25:07.460 --> 00:25:10.680 defensive order down to a Hungarian colonel who 00:25:10.680 --> 00:25:13.099 passes it to a Polish captain who has to give 00:25:13.099 --> 00:25:15.579 it to a squad of Ukrainian or Romanian peasant 00:25:15.579 --> 00:25:17.819 conscripts? It's a recipe for disaster. The potential 00:25:17.819 --> 00:25:20.319 for mistranslation, confusion, and deep -seated 00:25:20.319 --> 00:25:23.319 suspicion was woven into the very fabric of their 00:25:23.319 --> 00:25:25.839 army. And as the siege dragged on from the autumn 00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:28.240 of 1914 to the bitter winter and into the spring 00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:31.740 of 1915, that friction ignited. Whatever initial 00:25:31.740 --> 00:25:33.779 patriotic fervor existed at the start of the 00:25:33.779 --> 00:25:36.400 war completely evaporated. As the food supplies 00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:38.920 dwindled, the multi -ethnic society inside the 00:25:38.920 --> 00:25:41.259 fortress began to aggressively devour itself. 00:25:41.380 --> 00:25:43.440 They turned on each other. We aren't just guessing 00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:45.980 about this, either. We have primary sources. 00:25:46.440 --> 00:25:48.400 The sources point out that surviving diaries 00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:51.160 from people trapped inside paint a devastating 00:25:51.160 --> 00:25:54.200 picture of civil and moral collapse. The diary 00:25:54.200 --> 00:25:56.980 of Dr. Joseph Toman is particularly harrowing. 00:25:57.119 --> 00:26:00.200 He was an Austrian junior doctor, a medical officer 00:26:00.200 --> 00:26:02.960 serving in the fortress hospitals. His entries 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:05.720 are not the stoic, heroic accounts you expect 00:26:05.720 --> 00:26:08.380 from wartime propaganda. They are dripping with 00:26:08.380 --> 00:26:11.240 absolute disgust, primarily aimed at his own 00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:13.819 superior officers. The sources say he writes 00:26:13.819 --> 00:26:15.720 about the hospital system, which was completely 00:26:15.720 --> 00:26:18.480 overwhelmed. They were dealing with typhus, cholera, 00:26:18.779 --> 00:26:21.819 and rampant malnutrition. To cope, the military 00:26:21.819 --> 00:26:23.819 administration began recruiting local teenage 00:26:23.819 --> 00:26:25.900 girls from the civilian population to work as 00:26:25.900 --> 00:26:28.900 nurses. The military offered them 120 crowns 00:26:28.900 --> 00:26:32.500 a month and, crucially, free meals. Free food 00:26:32.500 --> 00:26:35.220 during a starvation siege. In a starting city, 00:26:35.400 --> 00:26:37.599 that is an offer you cannot refuse. But the sources 00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:40.079 note, Thoman explicitly, furiously writes in 00:26:40.079 --> 00:26:42.220 his diary that these young girls were essentially 00:26:42.220 --> 00:26:44.559 being drafted into institutionalized exploitation. 00:26:45.279 --> 00:26:47.259 He writes that they were primarily there to be 00:26:47.259 --> 00:26:49.660 used by the officers. The medical realities he 00:26:49.660 --> 00:26:52.880 recorded reflect the moral decay. Toman documents 00:26:52.880 --> 00:26:55.960 the explosive spread of venereal diseases, syphilis 00:26:55.960 --> 00:26:58.099 and gonorrhea running rampant through the officer 00:26:58.099 --> 00:27:00.359 corps and the newly recruited nursing staff. 00:27:00.880 --> 00:27:04.160 He refers to his own superiors as pestilent pigs 00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:07.480 in their spotless uniforms. Pestilent pigs. He 00:27:07.480 --> 00:27:09.539 was furiously noting that while the enlisted 00:27:09.539 --> 00:27:11.640 men and the civilians were literally starving 00:27:11.640 --> 00:27:14.319 in the streets, the officers were hoarding what 00:27:14.319 --> 00:27:16.779 little high -quality food remained and exploiting 00:27:16.779 --> 00:27:19.460 desperate young women. It is a complete breakdown 00:27:19.460 --> 00:27:22.460 of military discipline and basic human decency. 00:27:22.859 --> 00:27:24.839 And that class and moral divide is echoed in 00:27:24.839 --> 00:27:27.240 another incredible source provided here, the 00:27:27.240 --> 00:27:29.910 diary of Helena Jablonska. She was a wealthy, 00:27:29.970 --> 00:27:32.309 middle -aged Polish woman living inside the city. 00:27:32.730 --> 00:27:34.930 Her diary gives us a window into the civilian 00:27:34.930 --> 00:27:37.730 nightmare. And the sources point out it exposes 00:27:37.730 --> 00:27:40.369 the visceral, ugly anti -Semitism that rapidly 00:27:40.369 --> 00:27:42.410 boiled to the surface as the society collapsed. 00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:45.200 Yes, the source material explicitly documents 00:27:45.200 --> 00:27:48.480 how she blamed others. Jablonska's diary is difficult 00:27:48.480 --> 00:27:51.140 to read, but historically vital. As the caloric 00:27:51.140 --> 00:27:53.200 intake of the city plummeted, the black market 00:27:53.200 --> 00:27:56.200 thrived. Jablonska, writing from a position of 00:27:56.200 --> 00:27:59.099 relative privilege, complains bitterly and constantly 00:27:59.099 --> 00:28:01.480 about Jewish merchants in the city. She outright 00:28:01.480 --> 00:28:03.859 accuses them of hoarding supplies and malicious 00:28:03.859 --> 00:28:07.000 price gouging. She essentially scapegoats the 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:09.099 Jewish population for the structural failure 00:28:09.099 --> 00:28:11.579 of the Austro -Hungarian military logistics. 00:28:12.019 --> 00:28:14.480 And that simmering hatred has a brutal, horrific 00:28:14.480 --> 00:28:18.200 climax in the texts. In March 1915, the garrison 00:28:18.200 --> 00:28:20.700 is finally broken. They have eaten all the cavalry 00:28:20.700 --> 00:28:22.920 horses. They have eaten the stray dogs and cats. 00:28:23.099 --> 00:28:25.660 Everything was gone. The commander, General Herman 00:28:25.660 --> 00:28:28.450 Kuzmanek, orders the destruction of the fortress's 00:28:28.450 --> 00:28:30.569 own artillery, so the Russians can't use it. 00:28:30.670 --> 00:28:32.910 And on March 22nd, he officially surrenders the 00:28:32.910 --> 00:28:36.809 city. Over 117 ,000 starving Austro -Hungarian 00:28:36.809 --> 00:28:39.769 soldiers march out into captivity. But the tragedy 00:28:39.769 --> 00:28:42.250 doesn't end with the surrender. When the Russian 00:28:42.250 --> 00:28:44.849 Imperial Army, specifically the Tsarist Cossack 00:28:44.849 --> 00:28:48.109 cavalry units, enter the fallen city, they bring 00:28:48.109 --> 00:28:50.569 their own virulent anti -Semitism with them. 00:28:50.710 --> 00:28:53.069 They find a city already fractured by ethnic 00:28:53.069 --> 00:28:57.000 hatred, and they ignite it. The texts note Jablonska's 00:28:57.000 --> 00:28:59.480 diary captures this exactly. The Cossacks unleash 00:28:59.480 --> 00:29:02.299 a violent systemic pogrom against the Jewish 00:29:02.299 --> 00:29:05.940 population of Przysztof. She coldly notes how 00:29:05.940 --> 00:29:08.079 the confects deliberately waited until the Jewish 00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:10.200 residents gathered at the synagogue for prayers 00:29:10.200 --> 00:29:12.619 and then set upon them with whips and sabers, 00:29:12.759 --> 00:29:14.940 beating them in the streets. It's awful. The 00:29:14.940 --> 00:29:16.819 fact that she writes about this with an almost 00:29:16.819 --> 00:29:19.720 detached, grim satisfaction just underlines how 00:29:19.720 --> 00:29:22.460 deeply the societal rot had set in. The fortress 00:29:22.460 --> 00:29:25.000 didn't just fall to Russian artillery. It collapsed 00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:26.940 internally under the weight of starvation and 00:29:26.940 --> 00:29:28.920 ethnic hatred. If we connect this to the bigger 00:29:28.920 --> 00:29:32.559 picture, the physical isolation of those 133 00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:35.220 days was absolutely absolute. The only way the 00:29:35.220 --> 00:29:37.319 garrison communicated with the outside world 00:29:37.319 --> 00:29:40.259 was by sending up unmanned paper balloons, hoping 00:29:40.259 --> 00:29:42.140 the wind would carry them over the Russian siege 00:29:42.140 --> 00:29:46.000 lines or by releasing carrier pigeons. But the 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:48.619 true horror of Przemysl isn't just what happened 00:29:48.619 --> 00:29:51.180 inside the walls. It is what happened in the 00:29:51.180 --> 00:29:53.259 mountains outside. You're talking about the relief 00:29:53.259 --> 00:29:56.500 efforts. Yes. The chief of the Austro -Hungarian 00:29:56.500 --> 00:29:59.440 General Staff was a man named Franz Conrad von 00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:03.339 Hutzendorf. Conrad became strategically and psychologically 00:30:03.339 --> 00:30:06.500 obsessed with breaking the siege. He viewed the 00:30:06.500 --> 00:30:09.299 potential fall of Przemysl as a fatal blow to 00:30:09.299 --> 00:30:11.619 the prestige of the Habsburg monarchy. He couldn't 00:30:11.619 --> 00:30:14.240 let it go. So, throughout the brutal winter of 00:30:14.240 --> 00:30:17.880 1914 and early 1915, he ordered offensive after 00:30:17.880 --> 00:30:20.680 offensive. He hurled hundreds of thousands of 00:30:20.680 --> 00:30:22.640 Austro -Hungarian soldiers against the Russian 00:30:22.640 --> 00:30:24.839 lines in the frozen, treacherous terrain of the 00:30:24.839 --> 00:30:27.319 Carpathian Mountains, desperately trying to punch 00:30:27.319 --> 00:30:30.480 a hole through to the fortress. listeners to 00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:32.299 brace themselves for this next number, because 00:30:32.299 --> 00:30:33.779 when I read it in the source material I had to 00:30:33.779 --> 00:30:35.819 stop and reread it to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. 00:30:36.559 --> 00:30:39.259 The cost of Conrad's obsessive rescue attempts. 00:30:40.099 --> 00:30:43.740 The Austro -Hungarian army suffered 800 ,000 00:30:43.740 --> 00:30:46.059 casualties in the Carpathian winter offensive. 00:30:46.640 --> 00:30:49.880 800 ,000 men. It is a casualty figure that defies 00:30:49.880 --> 00:30:52.480 human comprehension. Nearly a million men wiped 00:30:52.480 --> 00:30:54.779 off the board in a matter of months. And the 00:30:54.779 --> 00:30:57.480 most tragic aspect of this is that the vast majority 00:30:57.480 --> 00:31:00.680 of those 800 ,000 casualties were not killed 00:31:00.680 --> 00:31:03.099 by Russian bullets or artillery. They weren't. 00:31:03.319 --> 00:31:05.940 No, they were killed by the environment. Conrad 00:31:05.940 --> 00:31:08.359 ordered men to assault fortified mountain passes 00:31:08.359 --> 00:31:10.880 in the dead of winter without adequate winter 00:31:10.880 --> 00:31:13.660 clothing, without proper supply lines, and without 00:31:13.660 --> 00:31:16.960 sufficient shelter. They died of severe frostbite, 00:31:17.240 --> 00:31:20.619 exposure, typhus, and exhaustion. Entire battalions 00:31:20.619 --> 00:31:23.460 simply froze to death in the snowdrifts. It is 00:31:23.460 --> 00:31:25.920 a staggering monument to military incompetence. 00:31:26.559 --> 00:31:29.400 To lose 800 ,000 men trying to save a fortress 00:31:29.400 --> 00:31:33.509 of 120 ,000 men, it just breaks the brain. Historians 00:31:33.509 --> 00:31:36.170 frequently refer to the Siege of Presimus as 00:31:36.170 --> 00:31:39.470 Austria -Hungary's Stalingrad. The loss of the 00:31:39.470 --> 00:31:42.289 garrison itself was a severe blow, but the loss 00:31:42.289 --> 00:31:45.650 of those 800 ,000 men in the relief efforts fundamentally 00:31:45.650 --> 00:31:48.390 broke the back of the Austro -Hungarian Imperial 00:31:48.390 --> 00:31:50.869 Army. It broke them completely. From the spring 00:31:50.869 --> 00:31:54.269 of 1915 onward, the Habsburg Empire ceased to 00:31:54.269 --> 00:31:56.990 function as a truly independent military power. 00:31:57.509 --> 00:32:00.190 Their army was so gutted by the Carpathians that 00:32:00.190 --> 00:32:02.490 they had to rely entirely on the German Empire 00:32:02.490 --> 00:32:05.430 to supply them, reinforce them, and essentially 00:32:05.430 --> 00:32:08.190 command them for the remainder of the war. Presimal 00:32:08.190 --> 00:32:10.849 was the wound that slowly bled the Empire to 00:32:10.849 --> 00:32:12.849 death. That is just, it's an overwhelming amount 00:32:12.849 --> 00:32:15.490 of human suffering caused by sheer logistical 00:32:15.490 --> 00:32:18.269 and command failure. And as the years dragged 00:32:18.269 --> 00:32:22.650 on as 1915 turned into 1916 with the bloody stalemates 00:32:22.650 --> 00:32:25.029 of Verdun and the Somme, the armies of Europe 00:32:25.029 --> 00:32:27.190 realized that neither freezing maneuver warfare 00:32:27.190 --> 00:32:29.549 nor starving sieges were winning the war. They 00:32:29.549 --> 00:32:31.490 needed a strategic breakthrough. They needed 00:32:31.490 --> 00:32:33.589 something completely new. And on the Western 00:32:33.589 --> 00:32:35.529 Front, they decided that the only way to break 00:32:35.529 --> 00:32:38.069 the deadlock of the trenches was to fundamentally 00:32:38.069 --> 00:32:41.309 engineer a new way of fighting. Which brings 00:32:41.309 --> 00:32:44.910 us to the spring of 1917 and the Battle of Arras. 00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:48.259 By early 1917, the strategic situation for the 00:32:48.259 --> 00:32:50.839 Allies on the Western Front was bleak. The French 00:32:50.839 --> 00:32:53.099 Army was exhausted and on the verge of mutiny. 00:32:53.539 --> 00:32:55.880 The plan for 1917 was for the French commander, 00:32:56.160 --> 00:32:58.799 Robert Nivelle, to launch a massive war -winning 00:32:58.799 --> 00:33:01.519 offensive to the South. But to ensure the French 00:33:01.519 --> 00:33:04.480 had a chance, the British Expeditionary Force 00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:06.980 needed to launch a massive diversionary attack 00:33:06.980 --> 00:33:09.980 further north, at the city of Arras. So it was 00:33:09.980 --> 00:33:12.319 a distraction, essentially. The goal was to draw 00:33:12.319 --> 00:33:14.640 the German reserves away from the French sector 00:33:14.640 --> 00:33:17.319 and, if possible, punch a hole straight through 00:33:17.319 --> 00:33:19.880 the German trench network. But to do that, the 00:33:19.880 --> 00:33:21.940 British couldn't just rely on walking slowly 00:33:21.940 --> 00:33:24.519 across no man's land. they needed to innovate. 00:33:24.819 --> 00:33:27.019 And the scale of that innovation is breathtaking. 00:33:27.420 --> 00:33:29.480 When we think of trenches, we think of ditches 00:33:29.480 --> 00:33:32.660 dug six feet into the mud. But at Eras, the British 00:33:32.660 --> 00:33:35.420 didn't just dig trenches, they built an entire 00:33:35.420 --> 00:33:38.059 underground subterranean city. A literal city 00:33:38.059 --> 00:33:40.799 underground. The city of Eras is built on a foundation 00:33:40.799 --> 00:33:43.759 of chalk. For centuries, going back to the Roman 00:33:43.759 --> 00:33:46.160 era, people had quarried this chalk, leaving 00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:49.519 a vast network of ancient, disconnected caves 00:33:49.519 --> 00:33:52.480 beneath the city. The British military realized 00:33:52.480 --> 00:33:55.180 the potential of this they brought in specialized 00:33:55.180 --> 00:33:58.220 mining units Primarily the New Zealand tunneling 00:33:58.220 --> 00:34:00.180 company men who knew what they were doing men 00:34:00.180 --> 00:34:02.740 who had spent their civilian lives digging gold 00:34:02.740 --> 00:34:05.559 and coal mines in New Zealand and Tasked them 00:34:05.559 --> 00:34:07.819 with secretly connecting these ancient caves 00:34:07.819 --> 00:34:10.699 into a massive continuous underground staging 00:34:10.699 --> 00:34:13.880 ground The engineering logistics are phenomenal. 00:34:14.320 --> 00:34:16.860 The New Zealanders working alongside British 00:34:16.860 --> 00:34:19.980 and working class bantams. Bantams. Yes, soldiers 00:34:19.980 --> 00:34:22.119 who are traditionally too short to meet the height 00:34:22.119 --> 00:34:24.219 requirements of the regular army but were perfect 00:34:24.219 --> 00:34:27.719 for tunnel work. They dug over 12 miles of subways. 00:34:28.199 --> 00:34:30.659 They carved out an underground labyrinth capable 00:34:30.659 --> 00:34:34.260 of hiding 24 ,500 allied troops. And it wasn't 00:34:34.260 --> 00:34:37.239 just a dark damn cave. They fully modernized 00:34:37.239 --> 00:34:40.000 it. They ran electrical cables to provide lighting. 00:34:40.360 --> 00:34:42.659 They piped in fresh running water. They built 00:34:42.659 --> 00:34:44.880 fully functioning underground hospitals with 00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:47.860 operating theaters. They even laid down miniature 00:34:47.860 --> 00:34:50.639 railway tracks so they could use hand -drawn 00:34:50.639 --> 00:34:53.599 tramways to quietly move thousands of tons of 00:34:53.599 --> 00:34:56.320 ammunition and high explosives right up to the 00:34:56.320 --> 00:34:58.840 front lines without ever being exposed to the 00:34:58.840 --> 00:35:02.269 surface. Brilliant. It was a secret city. designed 00:35:02.269 --> 00:35:04.909 to protect the assault force from the devastating 00:35:04.909 --> 00:35:07.969 German artillery bombardments that usually decimated 00:35:07.969 --> 00:35:10.389 troops massing in surface trenches before an 00:35:10.389 --> 00:35:13.130 attack. It provided a massive tactical advantage. 00:35:13.730 --> 00:35:15.989 The German military also had mining units, but 00:35:15.989 --> 00:35:18.090 they were completely outmatched in the air sector 00:35:18.090 --> 00:35:20.889 by the allied tunnelers. The element of surprise 00:35:20.889 --> 00:35:23.670 on the ground was secured. However, to make the 00:35:23.670 --> 00:35:26.409 ground assault work, the British needed absolute 00:35:26.409 --> 00:35:28.570 superiority in the air, which was a problem. 00:35:28.710 --> 00:35:30.789 They needed airplanes to fly over the German 00:35:30.789 --> 00:35:33.250 lines, map out the artillery positions using 00:35:33.250 --> 00:35:35.670 aerial photography, and spot targets for the 00:35:35.670 --> 00:35:39.250 British guns. But the airspace over Eris in April 00:35:39.250 --> 00:35:42.429 1917 was arguably the most lethal environment 00:35:42.429 --> 00:35:45.050 in the world. Yes, the infamous Bloody April. 00:35:45.909 --> 00:35:48.510 This is where the grim reality of rapid technological 00:35:48.510 --> 00:35:51.150 advancement rears its head. The Royal Flying 00:35:51.150 --> 00:35:53.969 Corps was tasked with this vital reconnaissance, 00:35:54.570 --> 00:35:56.710 but they were flying aircraft that were technologically 00:35:56.710 --> 00:35:58.730 obsolete compared to what the Germans were putting 00:35:58.730 --> 00:36:01.730 in the sky. The British were flying planes like 00:36:01.730 --> 00:36:04.809 the BE -2, which was a staple, slow, two -seater 00:36:04.809 --> 00:36:07.119 reconnaissance plane. It was great for taking 00:36:07.119 --> 00:36:09.460 photographs, but it was basically a sitting duck 00:36:09.460 --> 00:36:11.820 in a dog fight. And waiting for them was the 00:36:11.820 --> 00:36:14.519 German Lissstreitkraftus, specifically the elite 00:36:14.519 --> 00:36:17.219 hunting squadrons like Jasta 11, commanded by 00:36:17.219 --> 00:36:20.099 a man who needs almost no introduction, Manfred 00:36:20.099 --> 00:36:22.280 von Richthofen, the Red Baron. The Red Baron 00:36:22.280 --> 00:36:24.739 himself. We mentioned his cavalry uncle earlier, 00:36:24.860 --> 00:36:27.019 but Manfred had transferred to the air service 00:36:27.019 --> 00:36:29.920 and he, along with his pilots, were flying the 00:36:29.920 --> 00:36:33.199 new Albatross D III fighters. These planes had 00:36:33.199 --> 00:36:36.119 twin synchronized machine guns that fired directly 00:36:36.119 --> 00:36:38.539 through the propeller arc. They were faster, 00:36:38.780 --> 00:36:41.480 heavier armed and more maneuverable. It was an 00:36:41.480 --> 00:36:44.199 absolute slaughter. The Juran fighters decimated 00:36:44.199 --> 00:36:46.690 the Royal Flying Corps. The British commanders 00:36:46.690 --> 00:36:49.409 knew their planes were inferior, but the strategic 00:36:49.409 --> 00:36:52.030 need for aerial photography to support the infantry 00:36:52.030 --> 00:36:54.630 attack was so critical that they simply ordered 00:36:54.630 --> 00:36:57.269 the pilots to keep flying, accepting the horrific 00:36:57.269 --> 00:37:00.489 losses. The statistics from Bloody April are 00:37:00.489 --> 00:37:03.170 dishelling. They really are. The average life 00:37:03.170 --> 00:37:05.510 expectancy of a new British pilot arriving in 00:37:05.510 --> 00:37:09.449 the Aerith sector in April 1917 was just 18 hours 00:37:09.449 --> 00:37:12.389 of flight time. 18 hours. It's hard to fathom. 00:37:12.730 --> 00:37:14.550 They were taking teenagers fresh out of flight 00:37:14.550 --> 00:37:16.929 school in England with barely a dozen hours of 00:37:16.929 --> 00:37:19.289 solo flying and throwing them straight into a 00:37:19.289 --> 00:37:21.769 meat grinder against seasoned German aces. It's 00:37:21.769 --> 00:37:24.389 heartbreaking. But despite the total loss of 00:37:24.389 --> 00:37:27.030 air superiority, the British commanders pushed 00:37:27.030 --> 00:37:29.989 forward with the ground assault. And the artillery 00:37:29.989 --> 00:37:33.130 plan they devised was revolutionary. Because 00:37:33.130 --> 00:37:35.449 they had realized that simply bombing the enemy 00:37:35.449 --> 00:37:37.909 trenches for a week straight didn't work. It 00:37:37.909 --> 00:37:40.869 just churned the ground into impassable mud and 00:37:40.869 --> 00:37:43.110 gave the enemy plenty of warning to bring up 00:37:43.110 --> 00:37:46.710 reserves. So they changed tactics. Instead, at 00:37:46.710 --> 00:37:49.929 Arris, they perfected the creeping barrage. Can 00:37:49.929 --> 00:37:52.130 you explain how this creeping barrage actually 00:37:52.130 --> 00:37:55.750 works? Because the timing required seems impossibly 00:37:55.750 --> 00:37:58.570 dangerous to me. The Creeping Barrage is a masterpiece 00:37:58.570 --> 00:38:01.110 of lethal choreography. Instead of just firing 00:38:01.110 --> 00:38:04.090 at the enemy trenches, the artillery fires continuous 00:38:04.090 --> 00:38:06.409 curtain of high explosives and shrapnel into 00:38:06.409 --> 00:38:09.289 no man's land, landing roughly 100 meters in 00:38:09.289 --> 00:38:11.710 front of their own advancing infantry. Every 00:38:11.710 --> 00:38:14.190 minute or so, the artillery gunners meticulously 00:38:14.190 --> 00:38:16.949 adjust their elevation, lifting the barrage and 00:38:16.949 --> 00:38:19.909 moving it forward another 50 meters. The infantry 00:38:19.909 --> 00:38:22.409 is trained to walk literally right behind this 00:38:22.409 --> 00:38:24.889 wall of exploding shells. So you have thousands 00:38:24.889 --> 00:38:28.170 of men walking slowly across a muddy field while 00:38:28.170 --> 00:38:30.469 their own artillery is dropping high explosives 00:38:30.469 --> 00:38:33.489 of football field away from their faces. If an 00:38:33.489 --> 00:38:36.070 artillery crew mathematically miscalculates the 00:38:36.070 --> 00:38:38.570 wind or the powder charge by a fraction of an 00:38:38.570 --> 00:38:41.130 inch, they are dropping shells directly onto 00:38:41.130 --> 00:38:43.690 the heads of their own men. Exactly. It required 00:38:43.690 --> 00:38:45.829 immense discipline from the infantry to stay 00:38:45.829 --> 00:38:48.250 close to the barrage and immense mathematical 00:38:48.250 --> 00:38:50.989 precision from the gunners. The goal of the creeping 00:38:50.989 --> 00:38:53.650 barrage wasn't necessarily to kill the Germans 00:38:53.650 --> 00:38:56.190 in their deep dugouts. it was to force them to 00:38:56.190 --> 00:38:58.969 keep their heads down. The barrage rolls over 00:38:58.969 --> 00:39:01.230 the trench and before the German defenders can 00:39:01.230 --> 00:39:03.250 climb up the stairs from their deep bunkers to 00:39:03.250 --> 00:39:05.449 man their machine guns, the British infantry 00:39:05.449 --> 00:39:07.449 is already standing on the lip of the trench 00:39:07.449 --> 00:39:10.550 looking down at them. But a barrage is only effective 00:39:10.550 --> 00:39:12.570 if it can clear the obstacles in front of the 00:39:12.570 --> 00:39:15.670 trench, specifically the dense belts of barbed 00:39:15.670 --> 00:39:18.949 wire. And this is where another massive technological 00:39:18.949 --> 00:39:21.639 leap comes in. In previous battles, like the 00:39:21.639 --> 00:39:24.000 Somme, the British artillery had fired millions 00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:26.739 of shells, but the shells had delayed action 00:39:26.739 --> 00:39:29.639 fuses, so they would plunge deep into the soft, 00:39:29.639 --> 00:39:31.840 churned -up mud before exploding. Which just 00:39:31.840 --> 00:39:33.880 threw geysers of dirt into the air. It didn't 00:39:33.880 --> 00:39:35.559 destroy the barbed wire sitting on the surface, 00:39:35.719 --> 00:39:38.239 it just tangled it worse. The infantry would 00:39:38.239 --> 00:39:41.440 advance expecting a clear path and find impenetrable 00:39:41.440 --> 00:39:43.619 walls of wire waiting for them, and they would 00:39:43.619 --> 00:39:46.519 be massacred by machine gun fire. To solve this 00:39:46.519 --> 00:39:49.539 at Arras, the British mass produced a terrifyingly 00:39:49.539 --> 00:39:53.699 simple innovation. the known 10A6 fuse. Instead 00:39:53.699 --> 00:39:56.679 of a delayed timer, the number 106 had a highly 00:39:56.679 --> 00:39:58.699 sensitive striker plate projecting from the nose 00:39:58.699 --> 00:40:01.840 of the shell. It was designed to detonate instantaneously 00:40:01.840 --> 00:40:04.300 upon the absolute slightest impact. If it hit 00:40:04.300 --> 00:40:06.860 the ground, it exploded. If it brushed against 00:40:06.860 --> 00:40:09.619 a strand of barbed wire, it exploded above ground. 00:40:10.159 --> 00:40:13.059 This created a horizontal blast of shrapnel that 00:40:13.059 --> 00:40:15.639 literally vaporized the German wire entanglements, 00:40:15.980 --> 00:40:18.719 leaving clear paths for the infantry. The combination 00:40:18.719 --> 00:40:21.539 of the subterranean surprise, the creeping barrage, 00:40:21.699 --> 00:40:24.440 and the No. 106 fuse created a perfect storm 00:40:24.440 --> 00:40:27.019 for the opening day of the battle. Zero Hour 00:40:27.019 --> 00:40:31.090 was set for 5 .30 a .m. on April 9, 1917. And 00:40:31.090 --> 00:40:33.349 once again, as we saw at Odoo, weather plays 00:40:33.349 --> 00:40:35.550 a critical, chaotic role. The weather again. 00:40:35.710 --> 00:40:38.469 It was freezing cold and a heavy squall of sleet 00:40:38.469 --> 00:40:40.829 and snow was blowing from the west. This meant 00:40:40.829 --> 00:40:43.090 the wind was blowing the snow directly into the 00:40:43.090 --> 00:40:45.090 faces of the German defenders, blinding them 00:40:45.090 --> 00:40:47.110 while pushing at the backs of the advancing British 00:40:47.110 --> 00:40:49.610 and Canadian troops. The initial assault is a 00:40:49.610 --> 00:40:52.869 spectacular shock that tens of thousands of troops 00:40:52.869 --> 00:40:55.090 hiding in the subterranean caves burst out onto 00:40:55.090 --> 00:40:58.170 the surface. The creeping barrage rolls forward, 00:40:58.630 --> 00:41:01.309 vaporizing the wire. The blinded German troops 00:41:01.309 --> 00:41:04.329 are completely caught off guard. The historical 00:41:04.329 --> 00:41:06.809 accounts of that morning are incredible. They 00:41:06.809 --> 00:41:09.210 really are. Because the bombardment was so sudden 00:41:09.210 --> 00:41:11.710 and effective, British troops captured hundreds 00:41:11.710 --> 00:41:13.869 of German soldiers who were still half dressed, 00:41:14.289 --> 00:41:16.190 scrambling up the stairs of their deep dugouts. 00:41:16.719 --> 00:41:18.800 Some Germans were captured without their boots, 00:41:19.300 --> 00:41:21.300 stuck knee deep in the freezing mud trying to 00:41:21.300 --> 00:41:23.980 run away in their socks. It was a massive initial 00:41:23.980 --> 00:41:26.780 triumph. The Canadian Corps famously executed 00:41:26.780 --> 00:41:29.119 a brilliantly coordinated assault on the northern 00:41:29.119 --> 00:41:31.539 flank, capturing the heavily fortified heights 00:41:31.539 --> 00:41:34.460 of Vivini Ridge in a single day. An achievement 00:41:34.460 --> 00:41:36.559 that is still celebrated as a defining moment 00:41:36.559 --> 00:41:39.260 of Canadian national identity. The success on 00:41:39.260 --> 00:41:41.500 the first day wasn't just due to shock and awe. 00:41:41.719 --> 00:41:43.639 The British infantry themselves had evolved. 00:41:43.719 --> 00:41:45.239 They weren't fighting the same way they fought 00:41:45.239 --> 00:41:47.820 at the Somme a year earlier. The British High 00:41:47.820 --> 00:41:50.219 Command had analyzed their failures and issued 00:41:50.219 --> 00:41:53.280 a new revolutionary training manual known as 00:41:53.280 --> 00:41:56.780 SS -143. Which fundamentally changed the structure 00:41:56.780 --> 00:41:59.239 of the infantry platoon. Can you break down why 00:41:59.239 --> 00:42:03.519 SS -143 was such a big deal? Before 1917, the 00:42:03.519 --> 00:42:06.280 standard British infantry tactic was to advance 00:42:06.280 --> 00:42:09.280 in rigid, long lines of riflemen. The idea was 00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:11.360 to overwhelm the enemy with a continuous wave 00:42:11.360 --> 00:42:14.320 of bayonets and rifle fire. But a single machine 00:42:14.320 --> 00:42:17.639 gun can mow down a rigid line in seconds. SS 00:42:17.639 --> 00:42:21.219 -143 abolished the rigid line. It decentralized 00:42:21.219 --> 00:42:23.900 command down to the platoon level, giving junior 00:42:23.900 --> 00:42:26.559 officers and sergeants the autonomy to make tactical 00:42:26.559 --> 00:42:29.179 decisions on the fly. That's a huge shift in 00:42:29.179 --> 00:42:31.869 doctrine. More importantly, it changed the composition 00:42:31.869 --> 00:42:34.170 of the platoon. A platoon was no longer just 00:42:34.170 --> 00:42:36.809 30 guys with rifles. It was divided into four 00:42:36.809 --> 00:42:39.269 specialized interdependent sections. You had 00:42:39.269 --> 00:42:42.030 a section equipped with a Lewis gun, a portable 00:42:42.030 --> 00:42:44.409 drum fed light machine gun that one or two men 00:42:44.409 --> 00:42:47.130 could carry. You had a section of rifle grenadiers 00:42:47.130 --> 00:42:49.650 who could launch explosives in a high arc. You 00:42:49.650 --> 00:42:51.929 had a section of hand bombers trained to clear 00:42:51.929 --> 00:42:54.590 trenches with hand grenades. And finally, a section 00:42:54.590 --> 00:42:57.710 of traditional riflemen. So how does that specialization 00:42:57.710 --> 00:43:00.369 change a firefight? Let's say this new platoon 00:43:00.369 --> 00:43:03.110 encounters a surviving German machine gun nest 00:43:03.110 --> 00:43:06.690 in a ruined farmhouse. What do they do? In 1915 00:43:06.690 --> 00:43:08.230 they would have been ordered to charge it and 00:43:08.230 --> 00:43:13.170 probably died. In 1917, under SS 143, they execute 00:43:13.170 --> 00:43:16.809 fire and maneuver. The Lewis gun section drops 00:43:16.809 --> 00:43:19.369 down and lays down a heavy base of suppressing 00:43:19.369 --> 00:43:21.849 fire, forcing the German gunners to keep their 00:43:21.849 --> 00:43:24.829 heads down. While the enemy is pinned, the rifle 00:43:24.829 --> 00:43:27.349 grenadiers launch explosives over the walls. 00:43:27.949 --> 00:43:30.190 Meanwhile, the hand bombers and riflemen use 00:43:30.190 --> 00:43:32.329 the terrain to infiltrate around the flanks, 00:43:32.590 --> 00:43:34.269 creeping up on the blind sides of the bunker. 00:43:34.449 --> 00:43:36.670 It's a coordinated team. Once they are close 00:43:36.670 --> 00:43:38.329 enough, they throw hand grenades through the 00:43:38.329 --> 00:43:41.030 firing slits and clear the position. It is small 00:43:41.030 --> 00:43:43.750 unit combined arms tactics. The manual taught 00:43:43.750 --> 00:43:46.269 them to leapfrog past resistance, flowing around 00:43:46.269 --> 00:43:48.150 strong points like water to keep the momentum 00:43:48.150 --> 00:43:50.630 of the attack going. So the British have completely 00:43:50.630 --> 00:43:52.820 overhauled their approach. They have underground 00:43:52.820 --> 00:43:56.260 logistics, instantaneous feases, creeping barrages, 00:43:56.639 --> 00:43:59.280 and specialized economist platoons. It sounds 00:43:59.280 --> 00:44:01.619 like they have finally solved the riddle of trench 00:44:01.619 --> 00:44:03.860 warfare. But the Germans aren't just sitting 00:44:03.860 --> 00:44:06.239 there passively taking the punches, they are 00:44:06.239 --> 00:44:09.019 actively studying the war too. And during Eris, 00:44:09.280 --> 00:44:11.860 The German High Command is undergoing a massive, 00:44:12.159 --> 00:44:14.960 violent, doctrinal crisis of their own on how 00:44:14.960 --> 00:44:17.639 to defend against these new tactics, right? Exactly. 00:44:18.239 --> 00:44:20.360 The German military was deeply divided in early 00:44:20.360 --> 00:44:22.920 1917. The commander of the German Sixth Army 00:44:22.920 --> 00:44:26.079 defending Eris was General Ludwig von Falkenhausen. 00:44:26.420 --> 00:44:28.719 He was a traditionalist. He firmly believed in 00:44:28.719 --> 00:44:32.019 a rigid, unyielding frontline defense. His philosophy 00:44:32.019 --> 00:44:34.500 was that every single inch of German -held territory 00:44:34.500 --> 00:44:36.699 was sacred and must be defended to the death. 00:44:36.809 --> 00:44:39.269 hold at all costs. He packed his infantry densely 00:44:39.269 --> 00:44:41.170 into the forward trench lines telling them to 00:44:41.170 --> 00:44:44.550 hold at all costs. Crucially, he kept his reinforcement 00:44:44.550 --> 00:44:47.730 divisions, his reserves, up to 15 miles behind 00:44:47.730 --> 00:44:50.269 the front lines so they wouldn't get hit by artillery. 00:44:50.369 --> 00:44:53.010 Which, against the new British tactics, proved 00:44:53.010 --> 00:44:56.530 to be catastrophically obsolete. Precisely. Because 00:44:56.530 --> 00:44:58.670 Falkenhausen packed his men into the front lines, 00:44:59.110 --> 00:45:01.809 the British creeping barrage and the No. 106 00:45:01.809 --> 00:45:04.849 fuses simply vaporized them. And because his 00:45:04.849 --> 00:45:07.530 reserves were 15 miles away, by the time they 00:45:07.530 --> 00:45:09.639 received orders to march forward, The British 00:45:09.639 --> 00:45:11.840 had already broken through, captured the trenches, 00:45:12.059 --> 00:45:14.480 and set up their own machine guns. The reserves 00:45:14.480 --> 00:45:17.400 arrived exhausted, marching through mud and artillery 00:45:17.400 --> 00:45:20.519 fire only to be cut down. But there was an alternative 00:45:20.519 --> 00:45:22.719 theory of defense circulating in the German high 00:45:22.719 --> 00:45:25.579 command, championed by a very influential staff 00:45:25.579 --> 00:45:28.699 officer named Colonel Fritz von Loosberg. Loosberg 00:45:28.699 --> 00:45:30.460 saw what happened on the first days of Eris, 00:45:30.760 --> 00:45:32.940 and he forcefully argued that Falkenhausen's 00:45:32.940 --> 00:45:36.199 rigid front line was suicide. He had a completely 00:45:36.199 --> 00:45:38.960 different vision. I want to dig into Losberg's 00:45:38.960 --> 00:45:41.000 theory because it seems completely counterintuitive 00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:43.820 to military tradition. He championed a concept 00:45:43.820 --> 00:45:45.780 called defense in depth. Can you explain this 00:45:45.780 --> 00:45:48.320 to me? Because the core idea of defense in depth 00:45:48.320 --> 00:45:50.239 is that you voluntarily give up ground to the 00:45:50.239 --> 00:45:52.340 enemy, right? Wouldn't telling your army, hey, 00:45:52.460 --> 00:45:53.800 we're just going to let them capture our front 00:45:53.800 --> 00:45:56.300 line completely destroy the morale of soldiers 00:45:56.300 --> 00:45:58.619 who had bled for years to hold that mud? It was 00:45:58.619 --> 00:46:00.980 highly controversial, and it required immense 00:46:00.980 --> 00:46:04.000 psychological discipline from the troops. Losberg 00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:06.719 argued that trying to hold a thin, rigid line 00:46:06.719 --> 00:46:09.179 against modern massed artillery was impossible. 00:46:09.679 --> 00:46:11.440 It was like trying to stop a tidal wave with 00:46:11.440 --> 00:46:14.619 a brick wall. The wall will shatter. Instead, 00:46:14.800 --> 00:46:17.179 Losberg proposed building a defense that acted 00:46:17.179 --> 00:46:20.559 like a sponge. A sponge. He abolished the idea 00:46:20.559 --> 00:46:24.179 of a single, heavily manned front line. Instead, 00:46:24.360 --> 00:46:27.119 he organized the defense into deep zones. The 00:46:27.119 --> 00:46:29.980 very front, facing no man's land, was designated 00:46:29.980 --> 00:46:33.420 the outpost zone. It was very lightly held, just 00:46:33.420 --> 00:46:35.840 a few scattered machine gun nests and snipers 00:46:35.840 --> 00:46:38.420 hiding in shell craters. Their job wasn't to 00:46:38.420 --> 00:46:40.539 stop the British attack. Their job was simply 00:46:40.539 --> 00:46:43.119 to break up the cohesion of the British platoons, 00:46:43.460 --> 00:46:45.519 inflict some casualties, and slow them down. 00:46:45.619 --> 00:46:48.340 So they're basically speed bumps. Exactly. Behind 00:46:48.340 --> 00:46:50.699 the outpost zone, sometimes a mile or two back, 00:46:50.800 --> 00:46:52.719 was the main battle zone. This is where the real 00:46:52.719 --> 00:46:55.159 defense was. And crucially, Lowesburg placed 00:46:55.159 --> 00:46:57.380 the main battle zone on the reverse slopes of 00:46:57.380 --> 00:46:59.599 hills. Reverse slopes. This meant that British 00:46:59.599 --> 00:47:01.960 artillery observers looking from their own lines 00:47:01.960 --> 00:47:04.480 couldn't see the German bunkers. They couldn't 00:47:04.480 --> 00:47:07.639 accurately target them. The genius of defense 00:47:07.639 --> 00:47:10.780 in depth relies on exhaustion and friction. You 00:47:10.780 --> 00:47:13.730 let the British attack. They easily overrun the 00:47:13.730 --> 00:47:16.869 lightly held outpost zone. They cheer, thinking 00:47:16.869 --> 00:47:19.130 they have broken the line. But as they advance, 00:47:19.250 --> 00:47:21.449 they move out of range of their own supporting 00:47:21.449 --> 00:47:24.210 artillery. They are dragging heavy Lewis guns 00:47:24.210 --> 00:47:27.110 through miles of churned up mud. They are exhausted, 00:47:27.329 --> 00:47:29.190 their command structure is confused, and they 00:47:29.190 --> 00:47:31.210 are disorganized. And right when the British 00:47:31.210 --> 00:47:34.250 are at their absolute most vulnerable, exhausted, 00:47:34.690 --> 00:47:37.070 disorganized, and without artillery cover, they 00:47:37.070 --> 00:47:39.530 crest the hill and slam into the untouched German 00:47:39.530 --> 00:47:42.150 main battle zone. Yes. And that is exactly when 00:47:42.150 --> 00:47:44.829 Losburg unleashed the final lethal component 00:47:44.829 --> 00:47:47.710 of his system, the Eingreif divisions. These 00:47:47.710 --> 00:47:50.570 were fresh, highly trained, fully equipped counterattack 00:47:50.570 --> 00:47:53.130 divisions. Unlike Falkenhausen, who kept his 00:47:53.130 --> 00:47:56.269 reserves 15 miles away, Losburg kept his Eingreif 00:47:56.269 --> 00:47:58.510 divisions hidden just behind the main battle 00:47:58.510 --> 00:48:00.309 zone, ready to spring. Waiting in the wings. 00:48:00.610 --> 00:48:02.849 The moment the exhausted British attack bogged 00:48:02.849 --> 00:48:05.590 down, the Eingreif divisions would surge forward 00:48:05.590 --> 00:48:08.570 in a massive coordinated counterattack, hitting 00:48:08.570 --> 00:48:10.820 the disorganized British and violent pushing 00:48:10.820 --> 00:48:12.719 them all the way back to their starting lines. 00:48:12.960 --> 00:48:16.500 It's an incredibly brutal mathematical approach 00:48:16.500 --> 00:48:19.340 to warfare. You are trading space for time and 00:48:19.340 --> 00:48:21.440 absorbing the enemy's energy until they collapse. 00:48:21.739 --> 00:48:24.159 And we see this play out in real time at Eris. 00:48:24.599 --> 00:48:26.800 Because Falkenhausen kept his reserves too far 00:48:26.800 --> 00:48:29.630 away on April 9th, The British made those spectacular 00:48:29.630 --> 00:48:32.250 historic gains on the first two days. They took 00:48:32.250 --> 00:48:34.809 Vimy Ridge. They advanced miles deep into the 00:48:34.809 --> 00:48:37.409 German lines. But then Lohsberg arrives. Right. 00:48:37.550 --> 00:48:40.210 When the German Supreme Command Ludendorff realized 00:48:40.210 --> 00:48:43.170 the disaster that was unfolding, he fired Volkenhausen's 00:48:43.170 --> 00:48:45.369 chief of staff. He immediately dispatched Colonel 00:48:45.369 --> 00:48:48.050 von Lohsberg to the air sector with emergency 00:48:48.050 --> 00:48:51.300 dictatorial powers over the defense. Lowesburg 00:48:51.300 --> 00:48:53.739 arrived, immediately implemented defense in depth, 00:48:54.059 --> 00:48:55.980 brought the Eingriff divisions forward, and the 00:48:55.980 --> 00:48:58.460 British advance simply slammed into a brick wall. 00:48:58.719 --> 00:49:01.039 The battle raged on for over a month, grinding 00:49:01.039 --> 00:49:04.039 into mid -May, but the initial spectacular momentum 00:49:04.039 --> 00:49:06.199 of those first two days was completely lost. 00:49:06.440 --> 00:49:08.980 So what does this all mean? The British implemented 00:49:08.980 --> 00:49:11.539 a subterranean city, perfect artillery fuses, 00:49:11.900 --> 00:49:15.000 and decentralized platoon tactics. They achieved 00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:17.000 the longest continuous advance on the Western 00:49:17.000 --> 00:49:19.880 Front since the trench lines were dug in 1914. 00:49:20.349 --> 00:49:24.309 They captured Vimy Ridge. But did they win? That's 00:49:24.309 --> 00:49:26.690 the tragic question. The agonizing reality is 00:49:26.690 --> 00:49:28.670 that they couldn't achieve a strategic breakthrough. 00:49:29.409 --> 00:49:31.329 Losberg's defense and depth proved that no matter 00:49:31.329 --> 00:49:33.510 how perfectly you engineered the initial assault, 00:49:33.929 --> 00:49:35.809 no matter how brilliantly your tunnelers worked 00:49:35.809 --> 00:49:38.409 or your gunners aimed, a disciplined enemy could 00:49:38.409 --> 00:49:40.610 absorb the punch, stretch your supply lines, 00:49:40.889 --> 00:49:43.269 and hit back with fresh reserves. It was a tactical 00:49:43.269 --> 00:49:46.630 stalemate. The final human cost of this technological 00:49:46.630 --> 00:49:49.889 duel is sickening. The British suffered nearly 00:49:49.889 --> 00:49:53.590 158 ,000 casualties in just over a month. The 00:49:53.590 --> 00:49:57.849 Germans lost roughly 120 ,000 to 130 ,000 men. 00:49:58.409 --> 00:50:01.730 Nearly 300 ,000 human beings killed, maimed, 00:50:01.849 --> 00:50:04.829 or missing, all to move the line on a map a few 00:50:04.829 --> 00:50:08.090 miles east across a landscape of poisoned, churned 00:50:08.090 --> 00:50:11.150 -up mud. The Battle of Arras proved that even 00:50:11.150 --> 00:50:14.150 with maximum technological innovation, the tactical 00:50:14.150 --> 00:50:17.190 stalemate of the Western Front was almost unbreakable. 00:50:17.480 --> 00:50:20.840 It is a profoundly tragic testament to the overwhelming 00:50:20.840 --> 00:50:24.480 supremacy of the defensive in 1917. The technology 00:50:24.480 --> 00:50:27.179 to kill had far outpaced the technology to move. 00:50:27.599 --> 00:50:29.619 However, the tactical lessons learned at Arras, 00:50:29.920 --> 00:50:32.500 the decentralized small unit platoon tactics 00:50:32.500 --> 00:50:35.880 of SS -143, and the elastic absorbing sponge 00:50:35.880 --> 00:50:38.539 of Losberg's defense in depth would define how 00:50:38.539 --> 00:50:40.719 armies fought for the rest of the war. Yes, it 00:50:40.719 --> 00:50:42.980 set the standard. In fact, we see those exact 00:50:42.980 --> 00:50:45.300 concepts perfectly mirrored and ironically flipped 00:50:45.300 --> 00:50:47.510 in our final battle. We're going to see what 00:50:47.510 --> 00:50:49.849 happens when the very tactics the Germans perfected 00:50:49.849 --> 00:50:51.909 at Arras are used against their own allies to 00:50:51.909 --> 00:50:54.010 destroy an empire. Which brings us to section 00:50:54.010 --> 00:50:56.269 five, or rather our final theater of the war. 00:50:56.869 --> 00:50:58.849 We are moving away from the mud of France and 00:50:58.849 --> 00:51:01.829 heading south. We are traveling to June 1918 00:51:01.829 --> 00:51:05.449 to the Italian front, specifically the second 00:51:05.449 --> 00:51:08.449 battle of the Piave River. In Italy, this is 00:51:08.449 --> 00:51:10.869 famously known as the Battaglia del Solstizio, 00:51:11.230 --> 00:51:13.469 the Battle of the Solstice, and it represents 00:51:13.469 --> 00:51:16.909 the final desperate gasping offensive of the 00:51:16.909 --> 00:51:19.710 Austro -Hungarian Empire. The very end for them. 00:51:19.949 --> 00:51:21.909 To give you the crucial context of why this battle 00:51:21.909 --> 00:51:24.409 is so important, we have to look back a few months 00:51:24.409 --> 00:51:28.150 to late 1917. The Italian army had suffered an 00:51:28.150 --> 00:51:30.909 absolutely catastrophic, apocalyptic defeat at 00:51:30.909 --> 00:51:33.230 the Battle of Caporetto. A combined German and 00:51:33.230 --> 00:51:35.190 Austro -Hungarian offensive had shattered the 00:51:35.190 --> 00:51:37.369 Italian lines. Caporetto wasn't just a defeat. 00:51:37.530 --> 00:51:39.690 It was a total collapse of morale and structure. 00:51:39.920 --> 00:51:42.400 The Italian army literally routed, fleeing in 00:51:42.400 --> 00:51:44.880 a disorganized panic. They lost hundreds of thousands 00:51:44.880 --> 00:51:47.880 of men, mostly as prisoners, and abandoned vast 00:51:47.880 --> 00:51:50.440 stockpiles of artillery and supplies. They retreated 00:51:50.440 --> 00:51:52.920 for miles and miles, finally stopping only when 00:51:52.920 --> 00:51:55.380 they reached the natural geographic barrier of 00:51:55.380 --> 00:51:57.519 the Piave River. The river was their last hope. 00:51:57.880 --> 00:52:00.519 The Piave became the absolute last line of defense 00:52:00.519 --> 00:52:03.239 protecting the heart of Italy. If the Austro 00:52:03.239 --> 00:52:05.599 -Hungarians crossed the Piave, they marched directly 00:52:05.599 --> 00:52:08.960 into Venice, Padua and Verona. Italy would be 00:52:08.960 --> 00:52:11.280 knocked out of the war entirely. And the Central 00:52:11.280 --> 00:52:14.460 Powers, Germany and Austria -Hungary desperately 00:52:14.460 --> 00:52:18.139 need Italy out of the war. By June 1918, Germany 00:52:18.139 --> 00:52:20.179 is launching its massive spring offensives on 00:52:20.179 --> 00:52:22.440 the Western Front, trying to win the war before 00:52:22.440 --> 00:52:24.440 the millions of fresh American troops can arrive 00:52:24.440 --> 00:52:27.090 in force. The German High Command demands that 00:52:27.090 --> 00:52:29.230 their Austro -Hungarian allies launch a massive 00:52:29.230 --> 00:52:31.710 attack across the Piave to pin down the Italians 00:52:31.710 --> 00:52:34.369 and ideally force a surrender, freeing up troops 00:52:34.369 --> 00:52:37.210 to move to France. Emperor Karl of Austria -Hungary 00:52:37.210 --> 00:52:40.190 agrees. But behind the scenes, the Austro -Hungarian 00:52:40.190 --> 00:52:42.150 military leadership is tearing itself apart, 00:52:42.250 --> 00:52:44.690 aren't they? The dysfunction in the Austro -Hungarian 00:52:44.690 --> 00:52:47.389 High Command was paralyzing. You have an empire 00:52:47.389 --> 00:52:50.170 fighting for its very survival, and its top generals 00:52:50.170 --> 00:52:54.199 are engaged in bitter, petty rivalries. The chief 00:52:54.199 --> 00:52:56.719 of the general staff, Arthur Arz von Strausenberg, 00:52:56.980 --> 00:52:59.519 wanted a coordinated plan, but he was dealing 00:52:59.519 --> 00:53:02.519 with Field Marshal Svetozar Borovich, who commanded 00:53:02.519 --> 00:53:05.099 the southern sector near the coast, and our old 00:53:05.099 --> 00:53:08.000 acquaintance from the frozen disaster at Przemyja, 00:53:08.199 --> 00:53:10.519 Field Marshal Konrad von Huttsendorf. Konrad 00:53:10.519 --> 00:53:12.840 again? Yes, Konrad, who commanded the northern 00:53:12.840 --> 00:53:15.659 mountain sector. Borovich wanted to concentrate 00:53:15.659 --> 00:53:19.300 all their forces for a single massive punch across 00:53:19.300 --> 00:53:22.719 the lower river. Conrad, still driven by ego, 00:53:23.320 --> 00:53:25.360 vehemently demanded that the main attack be launched 00:53:25.360 --> 00:53:27.599 from his sector in the mountains aiming for the 00:53:27.599 --> 00:53:30.559 Asiago Plateau. Because the high command lacked 00:53:30.559 --> 00:53:32.820 the authority to impose a single vision, they 00:53:32.820 --> 00:53:35.659 compromised in the absolute worst, most mathematically 00:53:35.659 --> 00:53:37.760 foolish way possible. They split the difference. 00:53:38.119 --> 00:53:40.559 They split the army. Instead of massing their 00:53:40.559 --> 00:53:43.179 forces for a decisive breakthrough, they diluted 00:53:43.179 --> 00:53:45.639 their strength, spreading their infantry and 00:53:45.639 --> 00:53:48.199 artillery thinly along the entire length of the 00:53:48.199 --> 00:53:52.000 riverfront, ordering a massive, rigid, simultaneous 00:53:52.000 --> 00:53:54.920 frontal assault everywhere at once. It violated 00:53:54.920 --> 00:53:57.519 every fundamental rule of concentration of force. 00:53:58.059 --> 00:53:59.619 waiting for them on the opposite bank of the 00:53:59.619 --> 00:54:02.519 river, is a completely revitalized Italian army. 00:54:03.099 --> 00:54:05.340 After the disaster of Caporetto, the Italian 00:54:05.340 --> 00:54:07.820 government fired their old, brutal commander, 00:54:08.039 --> 00:54:10.619 Luigi Cadorna, and replaced him with a much more 00:54:10.619 --> 00:54:13.400 pragmatic, intelligent general named Armando 00:54:13.400 --> 00:54:16.159 Diaz. Diaz spent the winter completely overhauling 00:54:16.159 --> 00:54:18.639 the Italian military. He improved rations, he 00:54:18.639 --> 00:54:20.820 instituted better leave policies to repair morale, 00:54:21.019 --> 00:54:23.780 but most importantly, he revolutionized Italian 00:54:23.780 --> 00:54:26.380 tactics. And guess whose textbook he read? He 00:54:26.380 --> 00:54:29.239 studied the Germans. Diaz implemented a brilliant 00:54:29.239 --> 00:54:31.940 variation of the exact defense -in -depth tactics 00:54:31.940 --> 00:54:34.019 that Colonel von Losberg had perfected against 00:54:34.019 --> 00:54:37.460 the British at Arras. It is an incredible historical 00:54:37.460 --> 00:54:41.420 irony. Diaz looks at the Piave River and abolishes 00:54:41.420 --> 00:54:43.579 the old Italian doctrine of packing all his men 00:54:43.579 --> 00:54:46.219 into a rigid trench line on the riverbank. He 00:54:46.219 --> 00:54:48.719 knows that if the Austrians bombard a rigid line, 00:54:49.059 --> 00:54:51.670 his men will die. Instead, he implements the 00:54:51.670 --> 00:54:54.389 sponge. He leaves the riverbank lightly defended 00:54:54.389 --> 00:54:57.309 by outpost troops. He constructs his main battle 00:54:57.309 --> 00:54:59.849 zones further back, out of range of the initial 00:54:59.849 --> 00:55:02.510 Austrian artillery. He gives his smaller units, 00:55:02.769 --> 00:55:05.269 his platoons, and companies the autonomy to fight 00:55:05.269 --> 00:55:08.329 flexibly, to fall back if necessary, and to counterattack 00:55:08.329 --> 00:55:10.750 locally without waiting for orders from headquarters. 00:55:11.179 --> 00:55:14.320 And crucially, Diaz understood the vital necessity 00:55:14.320 --> 00:55:16.659 of the Eingrave divisions. He didn't just spread 00:55:16.659 --> 00:55:20.000 his men out, he organized a massive, highly mobile, 00:55:20.059 --> 00:55:23.559 central strategic reserve. He held back 13 fully 00:55:23.559 --> 00:55:25.860 equipped divisions and he centralized a fleet 00:55:25.860 --> 00:55:28.559 of 6 ,000 motor trucks. Six thousand trucks. 00:55:28.820 --> 00:55:31.019 This meant that the moment the Austro -Hungarians 00:55:31.019 --> 00:55:33.320 managed to cross the river and bog down in the 00:55:33.320 --> 00:55:35.780 Italian defense in depth, Diaz could physically 00:55:35.780 --> 00:55:38.099 rush tens of thousands of fresh troops in trucks 00:55:38.099 --> 00:55:40.059 directly to the exact point of the breakthrough 00:55:40.059 --> 00:55:42.739 to smash the exhausted attackers. So you have 00:55:42.739 --> 00:55:45.480 the Austro -Hungarians repeating the arrogant, 00:55:45.800 --> 00:55:49.000 rigid, wide front mistakes of 1915, marching 00:55:49.000 --> 00:55:52.179 blindly into a modern, flexible elastic trap 00:55:52.179 --> 00:55:55.300 designed in 1918. It was a disaster waiting to 00:55:55.300 --> 00:55:58.300 happen. The battle begins on June 15. The Austro 00:55:58.300 --> 00:56:01.039 -Hungarian artillery opens up, firing gas and 00:56:01.039 --> 00:56:03.800 high explosives. And despite the sheer logistical 00:56:03.800 --> 00:56:06.420 incompetence of their commanders, the individual 00:56:06.420 --> 00:56:09.000 Austro -Hungarian soldiers fight with desperate 00:56:09.000 --> 00:56:12.099 bravery. They actually manage to force crossings 00:56:12.099 --> 00:56:14.440 across the Piave River in several locations. 00:56:14.760 --> 00:56:17.420 They throw down pontoon bridges, paddle across 00:56:17.420 --> 00:56:20.079 in boats, and carve out a bridgehead on the Italian 00:56:20.079 --> 00:56:22.849 side. For a brief, terrifying moment, it looks 00:56:22.849 --> 00:56:25.590 like the Italian line might crack. But Diaz's 00:56:25.590 --> 00:56:28.030 defense in depth works exactly as designed. The 00:56:28.030 --> 00:56:30.230 Austro -Hungarians push past the riverbank, but 00:56:30.230 --> 00:56:32.449 they immediately lose momentum as they hit the 00:56:32.449 --> 00:56:35.920 Italian main battle zones. The fighting is incredibly 00:56:35.920 --> 00:56:37.920 fierce, devolving into brutal hand -to -hand 00:56:37.920 --> 00:56:40.340 combat in the vineyards and ruined farmhouses 00:56:40.340 --> 00:56:42.860 along the river. But because the Austro -Hungarians 00:56:42.860 --> 00:56:45.780 spread their artillery too thin, they can't effectively 00:56:45.780 --> 00:56:48.320 support their infantry. They become bogged down, 00:56:48.559 --> 00:56:51.079 exhausted, and disorganized. And right at the 00:56:51.079 --> 00:56:53.440 critical moment, when the Austro -Hungarians 00:56:53.440 --> 00:56:55.739 are trapped on the Western bank, desperately 00:56:55.739 --> 00:56:59.079 trying to push forward, nature steps in to deliver 00:56:59.079 --> 00:57:02.139 the final lethal blow. The environment acts again. 00:57:02.300 --> 00:57:05.320 We talked about the freezing fog at Udu and the 00:57:05.320 --> 00:57:08.300 snow squalls at Eris. The weather at the Piave 00:57:08.300 --> 00:57:11.260 River was arguably the most decisive environmental 00:57:11.260 --> 00:57:14.239 intervention of the war. Massive rainstorms hit 00:57:14.239 --> 00:57:17.300 the Alps to the north. This heavy rainfall, combined 00:57:17.300 --> 00:57:20.139 with late spring snowmelt, surges down the mountains 00:57:20.139 --> 00:57:22.800 and violently swells the Piave River. The river 00:57:22.800 --> 00:57:25.260 essentially turns into a raging torrent overnight. 00:57:25.659 --> 00:57:27.579 The water levels rise drastically, the current 00:57:27.579 --> 00:57:30.920 accelerates, and it simply tears the Austro -Hungarian 00:57:30.920 --> 00:57:34.239 logistical network apart. The flood waters violently 00:57:34.239 --> 00:57:36.760 rip away the wooden pontoon bridges that the 00:57:36.760 --> 00:57:39.239 Austro -Hungarians had painstakingly built to 00:57:39.239 --> 00:57:41.460 cross the river. It creates a logistical nightmare 00:57:41.460 --> 00:57:44.019 that is almost hard to fathom. Suddenly, you 00:57:44.019 --> 00:57:46.739 have tens of thousands of Austro -Hungarian soldiers 00:57:46.739 --> 00:57:48.940 who have crossed the river, fighting fiercely 00:57:48.940 --> 00:57:51.079 against the Italians. But they look behind them 00:57:51.079 --> 00:57:53.780 and their bridges are gone. The river is impassable. 00:57:53.949 --> 00:57:56.690 They are completely hopelessly trapped. They 00:57:56.690 --> 00:57:59.329 cannot receive artillery ammunition. They cannot 00:57:59.329 --> 00:58:01.690 receive food or fresh water. They cannot evacuate 00:58:01.690 --> 00:58:03.670 their mounting thousands of wounded soldiers. 00:58:03.989 --> 00:58:07.650 And most terrifyingly, they cannot retreat. They 00:58:07.650 --> 00:58:10.550 are pinned between a heavily armed, highly motivated 00:58:10.550 --> 00:58:13.710 Italian army utilizing defense in depth on one 00:58:13.710 --> 00:58:16.670 side and a raging flooded river on the other. 00:58:16.989 --> 00:58:19.510 They are sitting ducks. The Italian artillery 00:58:19.510 --> 00:58:21.570 commanders realize exactly what has happened. 00:58:21.769 --> 00:58:23.710 They stop firing at the Austrian infantry and 00:58:23.710 --> 00:58:25.809 focus every gun they have on the river crossings, 00:58:25.969 --> 00:58:27.929 blasting any attempt by the Austrian engineers 00:58:27.929 --> 00:58:30.570 to rebuild the bridges. The slaughter on the 00:58:30.570 --> 00:58:33.650 riverbanks is absolute carnage. The historical 00:58:33.650 --> 00:58:36.170 sources grimly note that as the Italian counterattacks 00:58:36.170 --> 00:58:38.690 those mobile reserve divisions, DS had kept ready 00:58:38.690 --> 00:58:41.150 and the trucks finally swept forward. Thousands 00:58:41.150 --> 00:58:43.570 of panicked Austro -Hungarian soldiers drowned 00:58:43.570 --> 00:58:45.690 in the flooded waters of the Piave, trying to 00:58:45.690 --> 00:58:47.909 swim back to the eastern bank to escape the slaughter. 00:58:47.789 --> 00:58:51.010 The battle is a decisive, annihilating victory 00:58:51.010 --> 00:58:53.889 for Italy. The Austro -Hungarians are completely 00:58:53.889 --> 00:58:56.630 pushed back across the river by June 23rd. And 00:58:56.630 --> 00:58:59.030 the cultural footprint of this battle is massive. 00:58:59.590 --> 00:59:01.809 It's famous for a few incredible pop culture 00:59:01.809 --> 00:59:04.710 cameos that really anchor it in the 20th century 00:59:04.710 --> 00:59:07.269 consciousness. For instance, there was an 18 00:59:07.269 --> 00:59:09.510 -year -old American volunteer working for the 00:59:09.510 --> 00:59:12.309 Red Cross driving an ambulance on the Italian 00:59:12.309 --> 00:59:14.760 front during this period. He gets caught in the 00:59:14.760 --> 00:59:16.920 fighting and gets severely wounded by an exploding 00:59:16.920 --> 00:59:19.980 Austrian trench mortar shell, taking dozens of 00:59:19.980 --> 00:59:22.699 pieces of shrapnel to his legs. He survives, 00:59:23.059 --> 00:59:25.199 falls in love with his nurse in the Milan hospital, 00:59:25.519 --> 00:59:27.719 and uses the profound trauma of the Italian front 00:59:27.719 --> 00:59:29.780 to write one of the greatest novels of the 20th 00:59:29.780 --> 00:59:33.000 century. That 18 -year -old was Ernest Hemingway, 00:59:33.480 --> 00:59:35.579 and the experience directly inspired a farewell 00:59:35.579 --> 00:59:38.340 to arms. It's a prime example of how the visceral 00:59:38.340 --> 00:59:41.099 reality of this war birthed the modern literary 00:59:41.099 --> 00:59:44.159 movement. We also see the intersection of war 00:59:44.159 --> 00:59:47.000 and early mass propaganda. The famous Italian 00:59:47.000 --> 00:59:49.539 nationalist poet Gabriele D 'Annunzio took to 00:59:49.539 --> 00:59:51.940 the skies shortly after the battle. He actually 00:59:51.940 --> 00:59:55.280 flew a daring long -range airplane mission all 00:59:55.280 --> 00:59:57.099 the way over the Austrian capital of Vienna. 00:59:57.519 --> 00:59:59.579 But he didn't drop bombs. He dropped hundreds 00:59:59.579 --> 01:00:01.920 of thousands of propaganda leaflets written in 01:00:01.920 --> 01:00:04.199 Italian and German, mocking the Austrian defeat 01:00:04.199 --> 01:00:06.460 at the Piave and praising the invincible spirit 01:00:06.460 --> 01:00:09.400 of the Italian army. It was a massive psychological 01:00:09.400 --> 01:00:12.139 blow to an already crumbling empire. You can 01:00:12.139 --> 01:00:15.059 feel that soaring, desperate Italian morale in 01:00:15.059 --> 01:00:17.079 the artifacts left behind on the battlefield. 01:00:17.679 --> 01:00:19.400 I was reading about the graffiti scrawled by 01:00:19.400 --> 01:00:22.179 the Italian soldiers. On the ruined walls of 01:00:22.179 --> 01:00:24.719 bullet -packed, destroyed rural farmhouses along 01:00:24.719 --> 01:00:27.699 the river, these peasant conscripts wrote mottos 01:00:27.699 --> 01:00:29.699 in charcoal and paint that are still preserved 01:00:29.699 --> 01:00:32.440 in museums today. My absolute favorite, which 01:00:32.440 --> 01:00:34.360 encapsulates the entire spirit of the Italian 01:00:34.360 --> 01:00:37.239 defense, reads, It is better to live one single 01:00:37.239 --> 01:00:40.119 day as a lion than a hundred years as a sheep. 01:00:40.489 --> 01:00:43.170 You can literally hear the fierce defiance, the 01:00:43.170 --> 01:00:46.119 absolute refusal to break in those words. That 01:00:46.119 --> 01:00:48.519 defiance held the line, but it came at a terrible 01:00:48.519 --> 01:00:51.099 cost to the attackers. This raises an important 01:00:51.099 --> 01:00:53.699 question, one that historians grapple with constantly. 01:00:54.239 --> 01:00:56.480 How much of global history is decided not by 01:00:56.480 --> 01:00:59.039 grand strategy or diplomatic maneuvering, but 01:00:59.039 --> 01:01:02.559 by sheer total physiological and psychological 01:01:02.559 --> 01:01:04.800 exhaustion? That's a profound thought. The Second 01:01:04.800 --> 01:01:07.099 Battle of the Piave River wasn't just a military 01:01:07.099 --> 01:01:09.760 defeat. It was the structural and spiritual death 01:01:09.760 --> 01:01:12.219 of the Austro -Hungarian Empire. They suffered 01:01:12.219 --> 01:01:15.929 nearly 120 ,000 casualties in just over a week. 01:01:16.369 --> 01:01:19.610 They expended the absolute last reserves of their 01:01:19.610 --> 01:01:22.849 artillery, ammunition, and food. The morale of 01:01:22.849 --> 01:01:25.610 their soldiers was completely obliterated. The 01:01:25.610 --> 01:01:27.530 diverse nationalities within their army that 01:01:27.530 --> 01:01:29.889 checks the Poles, the Hungarians, the Croats, 01:01:30.070 --> 01:01:32.849 finally realized the empire was doomed and began 01:01:32.849 --> 01:01:35.590 actively fracturing, with entire units refusing 01:01:35.590 --> 01:01:38.110 orders or deserting. The realization of that 01:01:38.110 --> 01:01:40.230 collapse echoed all the way up the chain of command, 01:01:40.530 --> 01:01:42.349 right to the very top of the Central Powers. 01:01:42.650 --> 01:01:46.019 It did. When Erich Ludendorff, the supreme commander 01:01:46.019 --> 01:01:48.260 of the German military, who was currently bogged 01:01:48.260 --> 01:01:50.280 down in his own failing offensives in France, 01:01:50.860 --> 01:01:53.039 received the telegraph detailing the absolute 01:01:53.039 --> 01:01:55.900 disaster at the Piave River, his reaction was 01:01:55.900 --> 01:01:58.900 chilling. He later wrote in his memoirs that 01:01:58.900 --> 01:02:01.159 upon hearing the news, he had the sensation of 01:02:01.159 --> 01:02:04.300 defeat for the first time. The sheer scale of 01:02:04.300 --> 01:02:06.860 the Austro -Hungarian collapse made it mathematically 01:02:06.860 --> 01:02:09.019 clear to the German high command that the war 01:02:09.019 --> 01:02:12.389 was lost. They no longer had an ally. They had 01:02:12.389 --> 01:02:14.769 a collapsing corpse tethered to their southern 01:02:14.769 --> 01:02:18.130 flank. The Austro -Hungarian Army essentially 01:02:18.130 --> 01:02:19.849 disintegrated a few months later at the Battle 01:02:19.849 --> 01:02:22.690 of Vitoria Veneto, and the First World War ended 01:02:22.690 --> 01:02:25.590 shortly after. It is an incredible, sprawling, 01:02:25.929 --> 01:02:27.940 terrifying narrative. Let's take a deep breath 01:02:27.940 --> 01:02:29.639 and synthesize the immense ground we've covered 01:02:29.639 --> 01:02:31.360 today because it has been a massive journey. 01:02:31.820 --> 01:02:33.679 We started our deep dive by looking at the very 01:02:33.679 --> 01:02:36.280 first naval airstrikes in human history launched 01:02:36.280 --> 01:02:39.239 from primitive seaplane carriers against a besieged, 01:02:39.619 --> 01:02:41.599 isolated German colony on the coast of China. 01:02:41.739 --> 01:02:44.510 We covered so much. We then travel to Europe 01:02:44.510 --> 01:02:47.809 to witness the freezing, chaotic, blind cat and 01:02:47.809 --> 01:02:50.389 mouse breakouts in the blinding winter fogs of 01:02:50.389 --> 01:02:53.190 Poland, where armies moved by train and fought 01:02:53.190 --> 01:02:56.309 with unloaded rifles. We examine the horrifying 01:02:56.309 --> 01:02:58.889 societal collapse, starvation, and ethnic violence 01:02:58.889 --> 01:03:02.110 inside a polylot fortress in the east, and mourn 01:03:02.110 --> 01:03:04.849 the 800 ,000 men who froze to death trying to 01:03:04.849 --> 01:03:07.900 save it. We explore the desperate, highly engineered 01:03:07.900 --> 01:03:10.440 subterranean cities carved out of chalk by New 01:03:10.440 --> 01:03:13.159 Zealanders beneath the mud of France, where new 01:03:13.159 --> 01:03:15.440 infantry tactics clash with the brutal logic 01:03:15.440 --> 01:03:18.320 of defense in depth. And finally, we ended with 01:03:18.320 --> 01:03:20.760 the flooded, raging rivers of Italy, washing 01:03:20.760 --> 01:03:23.340 away the pontoon bridges, the logistics, and 01:03:23.340 --> 01:03:25.820 ultimately the final remnants of a centuries 01:03:25.820 --> 01:03:28.019 -old European empire. It's a lot to process. 01:03:28.280 --> 01:03:30.000 When you take a step back and look at the First 01:03:30.000 --> 01:03:32.260 World War through these five distinct, incredibly 01:03:32.260 --> 01:03:34.820 detailed lenses, it completely shatters the illusion 01:03:34.670 --> 01:03:38.010 of a single uniform war of static trenches. It 01:03:38.010 --> 01:03:40.550 was not one type of conflict. It was a fluid, 01:03:40.750 --> 01:03:43.030 terrifying global laboratory of human endurance, 01:03:43.590 --> 01:03:46.110 rapid technological adaptation, and military 01:03:46.110 --> 01:03:49.489 science. It absolutely was. And looking at the 01:03:49.489 --> 01:03:51.590 sheer friction that defined every single one 01:03:51.590 --> 01:03:53.869 of these engagements, I want to leave you with 01:03:53.869 --> 01:03:56.929 a lingering concept to mull over long after you 01:03:56.929 --> 01:03:59.949 finish listening. We've seen today how meticulous 01:03:59.949 --> 01:04:02.769 military manuals, beautifully drafted railway 01:04:02.769 --> 01:04:05.059 timetables, perfectly synchronized, creeping 01:04:05.059 --> 01:04:07.920 artillery barrages and grand imperial strategies 01:04:07.920 --> 01:04:10.840 constantly inevitably fell apart the exact moment 01:04:10.840 --> 01:04:13.659 they met reality. Whether that friction was an 01:04:13.659 --> 01:04:16.260 unexpected squall of snow at Arras, a freezing 01:04:16.260 --> 01:04:18.860 fog bank in Poland, a suddenly flooded river 01:04:18.860 --> 01:04:21.539 in Italy, or simply the absolute limit of human 01:04:21.539 --> 01:04:24.400 exhaustion and starvation in Przemysl, the plan 01:04:24.400 --> 01:04:26.300 never survives contact with the environment. 01:04:26.460 --> 01:04:29.010 Never. So it makes you wonder, in our modern 01:04:29.010 --> 01:04:31.429 era right now, where we rely so heavily on hyper 01:04:31.429 --> 01:04:33.889 -advanced predictive algorithms, satellite intelligence, 01:04:34.110 --> 01:04:36.789 AI targeting, and remote drone warfare, have 01:04:36.789 --> 01:04:39.050 we actually eliminated that friction? Or are 01:04:39.050 --> 01:04:41.590 we arrogantly fooling ourselves? Our modern military 01:04:41.590 --> 01:04:43.590 is still just one unexpected extreme weather 01:04:43.590 --> 01:04:46.130 event, one flooded river, or one massive communications 01:04:46.130 --> 01:04:48.610 blackout away from experiencing the exact same 01:04:48.610 --> 01:04:50.909 chaotic, uncontrollable collapse of the plan 01:04:50.909 --> 01:04:53.210 that those soldiers experienced a century ago. 01:04:53.489 --> 01:04:56.610 Wow. That is an incredibly sobering, chilling 01:04:56.610 --> 01:04:59.210 thought to leave on. The technology of killing 01:04:59.210 --> 01:05:02.030 changes rapidly, but the fundamental chaos and 01:05:02.030 --> 01:05:04.030 friction of human conflict remains stubbornly 01:05:04.030 --> 01:05:06.150 the same. Thank you so much for joining us on 01:05:06.150 --> 01:05:08.650 this deep dive. We truly hope this journey into 01:05:08.650 --> 01:05:10.750 the fringes and extremes of the conflict has 01:05:10.750 --> 01:05:13.369 completely reframed how you view the First World 01:05:13.369 --> 01:05:15.969 War. We want you to keep asking these hard questions, 01:05:16.170 --> 01:05:18.250 stay insanely curious about the past, and always 01:05:18.250 --> 01:05:21.010 remember that history is never as simple or as 01:05:21.010 --> 01:05:23.150 neatly confined as the textbooks make it seem. 01:05:23.650 --> 01:05:24.329 Until next time.