WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.359 Welcome to today's deep dive. We know you are 00:00:03.359 --> 00:00:05.820 someone who loves gaining thorough knowledge 00:00:05.820 --> 00:00:08.779 without all the overwhelm. Right. You're looking 00:00:08.779 --> 00:00:11.140 for this fascinating aha moment. Exactly. And 00:00:11.140 --> 00:00:13.560 you want a narrative that balances those meticulous 00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:16.739 details with big picture clarity. Today we have 00:00:16.739 --> 00:00:19.640 a truly incredible story for you. We are looking 00:00:19.640 --> 00:00:22.179 at a comprehensive historical breakdown of the 00:00:22.179 --> 00:00:25.739 Battle of Eris. Which was a massive and just 00:00:25.739 --> 00:00:28.120 highly pivotal clash on the Western Front in 00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:30.850 the spring of 1917. Yeah. And our mission for 00:00:30.850 --> 00:00:33.570 this deep dive is to explore a rather profound 00:00:33.570 --> 00:00:36.409 concept hidden within the source material. We 00:00:36.409 --> 00:00:39.369 want to see how extreme pressure breeds incredible 00:00:39.369 --> 00:00:42.070 and sometimes truly terrifying innovation. Because 00:00:42.070 --> 00:00:44.289 we are going to look way beyond the mud and the 00:00:44.289 --> 00:00:47.630 static trenches that usually dominate our collective 00:00:47.630 --> 00:00:49.189 memory of the First World War. We're going to 00:00:49.189 --> 00:00:51.390 uncover secret underground cities, the literal 00:00:51.390 --> 00:00:54.350 birth of modern squad tactics and just the sheer 00:00:54.350 --> 00:00:57.009 human scale of a battle that completely redefined 00:00:57.009 --> 00:01:00.289 warfare. OK, let's unpack this. early 1917 was 00:01:00.289 --> 00:01:02.429 an absolute geopolitical pressure cooker. It 00:01:02.429 --> 00:01:04.489 really was. The British and French politicians 00:01:04.489 --> 00:01:06.810 were desperate for a breakthrough, and I mean, 00:01:07.049 --> 00:01:09.390 they needed it yesterday. Yeah, to understand 00:01:09.390 --> 00:01:11.849 that desperation, we really need to look at the 00:01:11.849 --> 00:01:14.730 grim reality facing the Allies in the spring 00:01:14.730 --> 00:01:19.319 of 1917. The Western Front was completely stalemated. 00:01:19.480 --> 00:01:22.379 Just totally locked up. Right. You had this continuous 00:01:22.379 --> 00:01:25.459 unbroken line of fortified trenches stretching 00:01:25.459 --> 00:01:27.819 all the way from the Belgian coast down to the 00:01:27.819 --> 00:01:30.799 Swiss border. And politicians in London and Paris 00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:34.400 were facing mounting, almost unbearable public 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:37.159 pressure. Because they had just endured the unimaginable 00:01:37.159 --> 00:01:39.780 bloodbaths of Gallipoli, the Somme and Verdun 00:01:39.780 --> 00:01:42.840 the previous year. Exactly. We are talking about 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:45.319 hundreds of thousands of casualties. And for 00:01:45.319 --> 00:01:47.540 what? Practically zero strategic gains on the 00:01:47.540 --> 00:01:50.459 map. Yeah, the British Prime Minister H .H. Asquith 00:01:50.459 --> 00:01:53.859 had actually resigned in December 1916. He was 00:01:53.859 --> 00:01:55.859 replaced by David Lode George. And the French 00:01:55.859 --> 00:01:58.099 government was navigating its own domestic crises, 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:00.680 too. And meanwhile, the United States has just 00:02:00.680 --> 00:02:03.379 declared war on Germany on April 6th. Which sounds 00:02:03.379 --> 00:02:05.900 like a massive victory for the allies on paper. 00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:09.259 Right, on paper. But the reality on the ground 00:02:09.259 --> 00:02:12.250 was far different. An American army was still 00:02:12.250 --> 00:02:14.210 more than a year away from actually arriving 00:02:14.210 --> 00:02:17.629 in France in any meaningful numbers. So the Allies 00:02:17.629 --> 00:02:19.349 simply couldn't afford to sit on their hands 00:02:19.349 --> 00:02:21.050 and wait for the Americans to cross the Atlantic? 00:02:21.349 --> 00:02:23.569 No, they couldn't. So a new French commander 00:02:23.569 --> 00:02:26.270 in chief, General Robert Nivelle, steps into 00:02:26.270 --> 00:02:30.509 this void with remarkably bold claim. He assures 00:02:30.509 --> 00:02:33.189 the politicians that he can win the war in 48 00:02:33.189 --> 00:02:36.909 hours. Which is just wild. A 48 -hour victory 00:02:36.909 --> 00:02:39.409 in the middle of the First World War sounds almost 00:02:39.409 --> 00:02:42.129 delusional when we look back at it. It was incredibly 00:02:42.129 --> 00:02:45.629 ambitious, borderline hubris. But his strategy 00:02:45.629 --> 00:02:48.009 is to combine overwhelming artillery fire with 00:02:48.009 --> 00:02:50.449 swift infantry assaults to shatter the German 00:02:50.449 --> 00:02:53.129 lines on the Ains River. But for Nivelle's massive 00:02:53.129 --> 00:02:55.169 offensive to have any chance of success, the 00:02:55.169 --> 00:02:57.370 French needed the Germans looking in the opposite 00:02:57.370 --> 00:03:00.310 direction. Exactly. The British attack at Arras 00:03:00.310 --> 00:03:03.490 was, in its grand strategic conception, purely 00:03:03.490 --> 00:03:05.830 a diversionary tactic. Just a distraction. Right. 00:03:06.069 --> 00:03:08.629 The goal was to attack a week prior to the French, 00:03:09.009 --> 00:03:11.590 capture the high ground of Vimy Ridge, advance 00:03:11.590 --> 00:03:14.069 towards Cambrai, and basically force the German 00:03:14.069 --> 00:03:16.669 high command to frantically draw their reserves 00:03:16.669 --> 00:03:19.110 away from the French sector. But preparing for 00:03:19.110 --> 00:03:22.090 a diversion of that scale requires an unprecedented 00:03:22.090 --> 00:03:24.550 level of intelligence gathering. I mean, if you're 00:03:24.550 --> 00:03:26.689 building up hundreds of thousands of men and 00:03:26.689 --> 00:03:29.430 artillery pieces, how do you map the battlefield 00:03:29.430 --> 00:03:32.030 without tipping your hand? And that brings us 00:03:32.030 --> 00:03:35.129 to the horrifying reality of the air war. Yeah. 00:03:35.349 --> 00:03:38.830 April 1917 goes down in aviation history as bloody 00:03:38.830 --> 00:03:41.669 April. The Royal Flying Corps, the British RFC, 00:03:41.889 --> 00:03:44.210 had to map the trench systems and spot German 00:03:44.210 --> 00:03:46.789 artillery using observation planes. But to get 00:03:46.789 --> 00:03:49.139 usable photographs, they had to fly low. And 00:03:49.139 --> 00:03:52.159 they had to fly incredibly slow, right over the 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:54.159 teeth of the German defenses. What's fascinating 00:03:54.159 --> 00:03:56.599 here is how that technological limitation forced 00:03:56.599 --> 00:03:58.879 a brutally asymmetric conflict in the skies. 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:01.460 Yes. The British were flying technically inferior 00:04:01.460 --> 00:04:03.840 aircraft compared to the German loose trade craft 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:06.580 at that time. Because the RFC had to fly these 00:04:06.580 --> 00:04:09.979 slow, highly predictable flight paths for their 00:04:09.979 --> 00:04:12.639 reconnaissance cameras to work, they were essentially 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:16.360 serving themselves up as targets for elite German 00:04:16.360 --> 00:04:18.139 Fighter Squadron. And they weren't just going 00:04:18.139 --> 00:04:21.120 up against average pilots. They were flying directly 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:24.139 into the hunting grounds of Manfred von Richthofen. 00:04:24.319 --> 00:04:26.600 The Red Baron himself. The Red Baron and his 00:04:26.600 --> 00:04:29.740 notorious Jasta 11 Squadron. The statistics from 00:04:29.740 --> 00:04:32.120 the source material are chilling. The average 00:04:32.120 --> 00:04:35.319 flying life of a British RSC pilot at Arras in 00:04:35.319 --> 00:04:39.480 April of 1917 was just 18 hours. 18 hours. Imagine 00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:41.319 being a young pilot knowing you have less than 00:04:41.319 --> 00:04:43.220 a day of flight time before the odds catch up 00:04:43.220 --> 00:04:45.779 with you. It's terrifying. And the German infantry 00:04:45.779 --> 00:04:48.319 on the ground actually treated these one -sided 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:51.759 aerial battles as a grim spectacle. The source 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:54.000 includes a striking quote from a German officer, 00:04:54.180 --> 00:04:57.060 Ernst Jünger, who described watching these encounters 00:04:57.060 --> 00:04:59.019 from the relative safety of the trenches. What 00:04:59.019 --> 00:05:01.060 did he say? He wrote about observing a whole 00:05:01.060 --> 00:05:03.379 series of dogfights that almost invariably ended 00:05:03.379 --> 00:05:05.680 in British defeat because they were up against 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:08.870 Rifthofen's highly organized units. Junger noted 00:05:08.870 --> 00:05:11.750 that often five or six British planes in succession 00:05:11.750 --> 00:05:14.610 would be chased away or shot down in flames. 00:05:15.110 --> 00:05:17.269 Wow. But while the British were being battered 00:05:17.269 --> 00:05:19.490 in the sky, they were simultaneously pulling 00:05:19.490 --> 00:05:21.750 off something mind -blowing right beneath the 00:05:21.750 --> 00:05:24.759 earth. deep underneath the city of Eris. Yes, 00:05:24.980 --> 00:05:27.519 the subterranean preparations. We know you, the 00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:30.220 listener, appreciate learning about massive logistical 00:05:30.220 --> 00:05:32.860 undertakings, and this is one of the most remarkable 00:05:32.860 --> 00:05:35.540 engineering feats of the entire war. It really 00:05:35.540 --> 00:05:38.699 is a master class in covert infrastructure. Underneath 00:05:38.699 --> 00:05:41.759 Eris were these ancient chalk caves and cellars, 00:05:41.959 --> 00:05:44.160 alongside a vast underground network called the 00:05:44.160 --> 00:05:47.139 Crenshon Sewer. So the British brought in tunneling 00:05:47.139 --> 00:05:49.519 companies. Specifically, they relied heavily 00:05:49.519 --> 00:05:51.579 on the New Zealand tunnelers to expand these 00:05:51.579 --> 00:05:54.160 existing disparate structures into a secret, 00:05:54.519 --> 00:05:56.779 interconnected underground city. And they managed 00:05:56.779 --> 00:05:59.680 to create a subterranean space capable of hiding 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:03.699 24 ,500 troops right under the Germans' noses. 00:06:03.920 --> 00:06:05.879 Completely safe from the artillery bombardment 00:06:05.879 --> 00:06:08.720 thundering above. And the level of infrastructure 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:11.720 within this network was staggering. It wasn't 00:06:11.720 --> 00:06:14.420 just a damp, dark cave system where men huddled 00:06:14.420 --> 00:06:17.240 in the mud waiting for zero hours. No, not at 00:06:17.240 --> 00:06:20.120 all. They wired the entire complex for electricity. 00:06:20.220 --> 00:06:23.240 They put in piped water. They built a fully functioning 00:06:23.240 --> 00:06:26.040 underground hospital to treat the wounded out 00:06:26.040 --> 00:06:28.500 of the line of fire. They even installed a tram 00:06:28.500 --> 00:06:31.220 system running from the sewer to the caves to 00:06:31.220 --> 00:06:33.879 move supplies and men quickly through the network. 00:06:34.250 --> 00:06:36.329 Put yourself in the boots of a soldier sitting 00:06:36.329 --> 00:06:39.290 in that cave. You have telephone cables buzzing 00:06:39.290 --> 00:06:42.310 with command exchanges, gas -proof doors protecting 00:06:42.310 --> 00:06:44.970 the entrances, and light bulbs illuminating the 00:06:44.970 --> 00:06:47.610 chalk walls. You are part of a hidden metropolis, 00:06:47.949 --> 00:06:50.649 but you know that in a few days, you have to 00:06:50.649 --> 00:06:53.310 walk up a set of stairs into a blizzard of machine 00:06:53.310 --> 00:06:56.560 gun fire. It's a surreal contrast. And if we 00:06:56.560 --> 00:06:58.480 connect this to the bigger picture of tactical 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:00.899 evolution, the British were diligently learning 00:07:00.899 --> 00:07:03.079 hard lessons from the disasters of the zone. 00:07:03.240 --> 00:07:06.399 Right. During the zone offensive in 1916, the 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:09.040 standard tactic was often to attack in massive, 00:07:09.100 --> 00:07:11.959 slow -moving waves of infantry. Which was rigid, 00:07:12.500 --> 00:07:16.339 inflexible, and ultimately deadly. Over the winter, 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:18.680 the British military digested those failures 00:07:18.680 --> 00:07:22.000 and produced a revolutionary new training manual 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:25.680 known as SS -143. This document essentially represents 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:28.379 the birth of modern platoon tactics. Let's delve 00:07:28.379 --> 00:07:31.920 into SS -143. Instead of just a broad line of 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:34.199 riflemen walking forward shoulder to shoulder, 00:07:34.699 --> 00:07:37.300 the infantry platoon was divided into highly 00:07:37.300 --> 00:07:39.959 specialized sections. Yes. You had your standard 00:07:39.959 --> 00:07:42.980 riflemen, but you also had a section of trained 00:07:42.980 --> 00:07:45.600 grenade throwers. You had a section operating 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:48.279 a Lewis machine gun. And you had a section equipped 00:07:48.279 --> 00:07:50.639 with rifle grenade launchers. So how did they 00:07:50.639 --> 00:07:52.560 actually deploy these different elements on the 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:54.709 battlefield? They deployed these specialists 00:07:54.709 --> 00:07:57.509 in a highly coordinated diamond pattern. The 00:07:57.509 --> 00:07:59.430 riflemen would advance at the front to probe 00:07:59.430 --> 00:08:02.089 and engage, the Lewis machine gunners would provide 00:08:02.089 --> 00:08:04.170 heavy suppressing fire from the rear of the diamond, 00:08:04.529 --> 00:08:06.430 and the grenadiers and rifle grenadiers would 00:08:06.430 --> 00:08:08.949 protect the flanks and lob explosives into fortified 00:08:08.949 --> 00:08:11.750 positions. This specific formation meant a small 00:08:11.750 --> 00:08:14.490 unit could independently maneuver, suppress a 00:08:14.490 --> 00:08:16.610 German defensive strong point, and then flank 00:08:16.610 --> 00:08:19.930 it. Exactly. They possessed the organic firepower 00:08:19.930 --> 00:08:22.470 to fight their own localized battles without 00:08:22.470 --> 00:08:24.930 needing to wait for permission or new orders 00:08:24.930 --> 00:08:28.089 from a general a mile behind the lines. The devolution 00:08:28.089 --> 00:08:31.129 of command, giving the power of tactical decision 00:08:31.129 --> 00:08:33.409 -making to the men actually facing the bullets. 00:08:33.549 --> 00:08:36.490 It was a massive shift. But the infantry didn't 00:08:36.490 --> 00:08:39.450 do it alone. The artillery innovations at Eris 00:08:39.450 --> 00:08:42.299 were just as revolutionary. They introduced the 00:08:42.299 --> 00:08:46.179 No. 106 fuse. Right. Previously, artillery shells 00:08:46.179 --> 00:08:48.620 would bury themselves deep in the soft mud before 00:08:48.620 --> 00:08:51.899 exploding, effectively muffling the blast and 00:08:51.899 --> 00:08:54.159 doing very little to clear out barbed wire. But 00:08:54.159 --> 00:08:57.100 the No. 106 was an instantaneous impact fuse. 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:00.039 The millisecond it touched the wire or the ground, 00:09:00.340 --> 00:09:03.200 it detonated. It expanded its destructive force 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:05.820 outward and vaporized the German defensive belts. 00:09:06.019 --> 00:09:08.200 And building on that, they also implemented the 00:09:08.200 --> 00:09:10.480 Kreting Barrage. Which wasn't a brand new concept. 00:09:10.350 --> 00:09:13.169 but the British perfected its execution at Arras. 00:09:13.409 --> 00:09:15.549 They created a literal moving curtain of high 00:09:15.549 --> 00:09:17.950 explosives and shrapnel that walked across the 00:09:17.950 --> 00:09:20.789 battlefield exactly 100 meters ahead of the advancing 00:09:20.789 --> 00:09:23.409 British infantry. It forced the German defenders 00:09:23.409 --> 00:09:26.250 to stay pinned deep in their underground dugouts 00:09:26.250 --> 00:09:28.629 until the British troops were practically standing 00:09:28.629 --> 00:09:31.370 on top of their trenches. But to ensure the German 00:09:31.370 --> 00:09:33.769 artillery couldn't simply fire back and break 00:09:33.769 --> 00:09:36.190 up the infantry advance, the British utilized 00:09:36.190 --> 00:09:38.809 scientific techniques known as sound ranging. 00:09:39.049 --> 00:09:42.509 and flash spotting. Royal Flying Corps observers 00:09:42.509 --> 00:09:44.990 would mark the telltale flashes of German guns, 00:09:45.610 --> 00:09:48.169 and specialized engineer units would use microphones 00:09:48.169 --> 00:09:51.549 spread across the front to mathematically triangulate 00:09:51.549 --> 00:09:54.970 the exact origin of the sound of a firing gun. 00:09:55.509 --> 00:09:57.549 Because of this applied mathematics and careful 00:09:57.549 --> 00:10:00.809 observation, The British neutralized over 80 00:10:00.809 --> 00:10:03.929 % of the German heavy guns before the infantry 00:10:03.929 --> 00:10:06.549 even stepped out of their trenches. 80%. That 00:10:06.549 --> 00:10:08.330 is incredible. Now consider what the Germans 00:10:08.330 --> 00:10:10.110 were doing on the other side of No Man's Land. 00:10:10.190 --> 00:10:12.789 Right. The German High Command had recently introduced 00:10:12.789 --> 00:10:15.850 a new defensive doctrine called Defense in Depth. 00:10:16.169 --> 00:10:19.129 The foundational idea was to abandon the rigid, 00:10:19.389 --> 00:10:21.570 packed defense of the very front line, which 00:10:21.570 --> 00:10:23.870 usually just resulted in massive casualties from 00:10:23.870 --> 00:10:26.330 enemy artillery. Instead, you hold the front 00:10:26.330 --> 00:10:29.440 lightly. with scattered outposts. You let the 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:31.320 attacking enemy advance, let them stretch their 00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:33.659 supply lines, let them exhaust themselves navigating 00:10:33.659 --> 00:10:36.139 the craters, and then you hit them with an immediate, 00:10:36.840 --> 00:10:38.759 overwhelming counter -attack. The source refers 00:10:38.759 --> 00:10:41.639 to that counter -attack as the Gigenstoss. Correct. 00:10:42.019 --> 00:10:44.120 The Gigenstoss was to be carried out by reserve 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:47.220 divisions held just behind the lines. The Germans 00:10:47.220 --> 00:10:50.039 called these specific units Oblussumsdivision. 00:10:50.740 --> 00:10:55.019 Essentially, elite, fresh divisions held in readiness 00:10:55.019 --> 00:10:58.419 specifically to rush forward and crush a tired, 00:10:58.860 --> 00:11:01.340 disorganized attacking force. So if the Germans 00:11:01.340 --> 00:11:03.580 knew a massive British buildup was happening, 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:06.879 why did the Gegenstos fail so spectacularly on 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:09.559 the first day of Arras? The failure rests squarely 00:11:09.559 --> 00:11:11.279 on the shoulders of the commander of the German 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:14.379 6th Army, General Ludwig von Falkenhausen. He 00:11:14.379 --> 00:11:16.659 fundamentally botched the implementation of the 00:11:16.659 --> 00:11:19.460 new doctrine. He really did. Falkenhausen was 00:11:19.460 --> 00:11:21.960 so intensely terrified of the devastating power 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:24.460 of the British artillery, with good reason given 00:11:24.460 --> 00:11:26.840 the preliminary bombardments, that he kept his 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:29.240 elite reserve divisions up to 15 miles away from 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:32.370 the front line. 15 miles. You cannot launch an 00:11:32.370 --> 00:11:34.509 immediate counter -attack if your heavily armed 00:11:34.509 --> 00:11:37.830 troops have to march 15 miles through a pulverized 00:11:37.830 --> 00:11:40.870 war zone just to reach the battle. No, you can't. 00:11:41.429 --> 00:11:44.090 Volkenhausen misunderstood the spatial and temporal 00:11:44.090 --> 00:11:45.909 requirements of his own army's new doctrine. 00:11:46.409 --> 00:11:48.870 That single logistical oversight was about to 00:11:48.870 --> 00:11:51.529 cost the German army dearly. And that brings 00:11:51.529 --> 00:11:55.440 us to Zero Hour. It is 530 a .m. on April 9th, 00:11:55.500 --> 00:11:59.220 1917. The British unleash a hurricane bombardment 00:11:59.220 --> 00:12:03.179 of 2 .6 million shells. They utilize poison gas 00:12:03.179 --> 00:12:05.559 shells at the very end to specifically disrupt 00:12:05.559 --> 00:12:07.860 the German horse transports and communication 00:12:07.860 --> 00:12:10.399 lines in the rear. And as if the artillery wasn't 00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:13.019 enough, nature decides to drastically alter the 00:12:13.019 --> 00:12:15.720 battlefield. It is freezing cold and a westerly 00:12:15.720 --> 00:12:18.860 wind is howling, blowing a severe squall of blinding 00:12:18.860 --> 00:12:21.279 snow and sleet directly into the faces of the 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:23.639 German defenders. Despite the days of preliminary 00:12:23.639 --> 00:12:26.220 bombardment, the sheer intensity of the final 00:12:26.220 --> 00:12:28.500 hurricane barrage, combined with the whiteout 00:12:28.500 --> 00:12:30.840 conditions of the sudden snowstorm, caught the 00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:32.940 German troops completely off guard. The element 00:12:32.940 --> 00:12:35.340 of surprise was near total. The source material 00:12:35.340 --> 00:12:38.360 paints a visit picture of German soldiers being 00:12:38.360 --> 00:12:41.159 taken prisoner, half dressed, clamoring out of 00:12:41.159 --> 00:12:44.220 their deep dugouts in absolute shock as British 00:12:44.220 --> 00:12:46.799 soldiers appeared out of the snow. Others were 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:49.120 captured without their boots on, stuck in knee 00:12:49.120 --> 00:12:51.600 deep mud in the communication trenches, desperately 00:12:51.600 --> 00:12:55.000 trying to fall back. The defense in depth simply 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:57.360 collapsed because the front line was overrun 00:12:57.360 --> 00:13:00.840 instantly. And as we discussed, those vital reserves 00:13:00.840 --> 00:13:03.929 were a 15 mile march away. This systemic collapse 00:13:03.929 --> 00:13:06.509 was most vividly demonstrated at Vimy Ridge. 00:13:06.769 --> 00:13:09.370 Yes. This crucial commanding sector was assigned 00:13:09.370 --> 00:13:12.450 to the Canadian Corps, commanded by General Julian 00:13:12.450 --> 00:13:15.820 Vang and his subordinate, Arthur Curry. The assault 00:13:15.820 --> 00:13:18.379 on Bai Mi Ridge remains a historical masterclass 00:13:18.379 --> 00:13:21.460 in meticulous preparation and decentralized command. 00:13:21.879 --> 00:13:23.980 Here's where it gets really interesting. Bing 00:13:23.980 --> 00:13:26.179 and Curry didn't just issue broad directives 00:13:26.179 --> 00:13:28.460 to their senior officers. No, they gave every 00:13:28.460 --> 00:13:31.200 single platoon an independent objective. They 00:13:31.200 --> 00:13:33.519 built massive scale models of the ridge behind 00:13:33.519 --> 00:13:35.980 the lines. They rehearsed the assault endlessly 00:13:35.980 --> 00:13:38.039 with the actual men who would be making the climb. 00:13:38.250 --> 00:13:40.629 Because of that rigorous, repetitive training, 00:13:41.070 --> 00:13:42.929 the structural integrity of the Canadian assault 00:13:42.929 --> 00:13:45.889 remained intact even when leadership broke down. 00:13:46.429 --> 00:13:48.830 If an officer fell in combat, which happened 00:13:48.830 --> 00:13:50.970 frequently in the chaos of the creeping barrage, 00:13:51.470 --> 00:13:53.850 the privates knew exactly what the next objective 00:13:53.850 --> 00:13:57.049 was. There was no stalling, no waiting for a 00:13:57.049 --> 00:13:59.710 runner to bring new instructions. They advanced 00:13:59.710 --> 00:14:02.289 relentlessly behind that moving wall of artillery, 00:14:02.570 --> 00:14:05.110 utilizing their Lewis guns and grenades, just 00:14:05.110 --> 00:14:08.679 as SS -143 instructed. the commanding crest of 00:14:08.679 --> 00:14:12.480 the ridge by 1 .00 p .m. that very same day. 00:14:12.700 --> 00:14:15.399 The sheer speed of the British and Canadian advance 00:14:15.399 --> 00:14:18.580 on that first day shattered the records for positional 00:14:18.580 --> 00:14:20.639 warfare that had been set during the Somme. They 00:14:20.639 --> 00:14:23.200 drove miles deep into German territory. It looked 00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:25.820 for a brief shining moment like the impossible 00:14:25.820 --> 00:14:28.059 breakthrough had finally happened. But warfare 00:14:28.059 --> 00:14:30.659 on this industrial scale is rarely that simple. 00:14:30.860 --> 00:14:33.340 This raises an important question. Why didn't 00:14:33.340 --> 00:14:35.700 the allies just maintain that momentum, keep 00:14:35.700 --> 00:14:37.779 pushing forward and win the war right there? 00:14:37.980 --> 00:14:40.000 And the answer lies in the sheer friction of 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:43.379 war, specifically the unforgiving nature of logistics. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:46.940 Right. You have just blasted the earth with 2 00:14:46.940 --> 00:14:50.440 .6 million shells. You have created a lunar landscape 00:14:50.440 --> 00:14:54.179 of deep craters, bottomless mud and pulverized 00:14:54.179 --> 00:14:56.539 wire. And now you have to seamlessly move an 00:14:56.539 --> 00:15:00.120 entire modern army across it. The British simply 00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:03.200 couldn't physically move their roads, their heavy 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:05.919 artillery pieces, and their massive food supplies 00:15:05.919 --> 00:15:08.820 fast enough across that churned -up crater field 00:15:08.820 --> 00:15:11.659 to keep pace with their advancing infantry. The 00:15:11.659 --> 00:15:14.200 infantry eventually outran their own protective 00:15:14.200 --> 00:15:16.620 artillery umbrella. And when you lose momentum 00:15:16.620 --> 00:15:19.159 in positional warfare, you hand your enemy the 00:15:19.159 --> 00:15:22.230 most valuable resource of all time. The Germans 00:15:22.230 --> 00:15:25.190 desperately needed time to react. There is a 00:15:25.190 --> 00:15:27.269 deeply cinematic anecdote from the German High 00:15:27.269 --> 00:15:29.730 Command regarding this exact moment. General 00:15:29.730 --> 00:15:31.809 Erich Ludendorff, essentially the mastermind 00:15:31.809 --> 00:15:33.850 of the German war effort, was actually celebrating 00:15:33.850 --> 00:15:36.649 his 52nd birthday at his headquarters when the 00:15:36.649 --> 00:15:39.990 disastrous news from Eris finally arrived. Ludendorff 00:15:39.990 --> 00:15:42.009 later wrote that he was deeply depressed by the 00:15:42.009 --> 00:15:44.129 news, completely ruining his birthday celebrations. 00:15:44.769 --> 00:15:47.389 He realized instantly that Volkenhausen had entirely 00:15:47.389 --> 00:15:50.059 mismanaged the defense in -depth strategy. So 00:15:50.059 --> 00:15:52.679 Ludendorff immediately fired Falkenhausen's chief 00:15:52.679 --> 00:15:55.539 of staff and dispatched a man named Colonel Fritz 00:15:55.539 --> 00:15:58.000 von Lohsberg to stabilize the collapsing front. 00:15:58.500 --> 00:16:02.159 And Lohsberg isn't sent as a mere advisor. Ludendorff 00:16:02.159 --> 00:16:04.740 gives him fullmacht, which translates to full 00:16:04.740 --> 00:16:08.200 power. He has the absolute authority to issue 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:10.639 binding orders in the army commander's name. 00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:13.899 Losberg was widely considered a defensive genius. 00:16:14.379 --> 00:16:16.700 Within hours of arriving at the front, he began 00:16:16.700 --> 00:16:19.179 completely restructuring the German defense, 00:16:19.700 --> 00:16:22.440 frantically bringing up the DeLeon reserves and 00:16:22.440 --> 00:16:25.740 plugging the bleeding gaps in the line. As Losberg's 00:16:25.740 --> 00:16:28.659 reorganized German defense stiffened, the continued 00:16:28.659 --> 00:16:30.980 British attempts to force momentum led to some 00:16:30.980 --> 00:16:33.600 truly tragic encounters. The most heartbreaking 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:36.200 of these was the Australian assault at a heavily 00:16:36.200 --> 00:16:38.320 fortified village called Bullecourt. The attack 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:41.039 at Bullecourt serves as the dark mirror to the 00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:43.799 overwhelming success at Vimy Ridge. It perfectly 00:16:43.799 --> 00:16:45.980 illustrates that friction of war we were talking 00:16:45.980 --> 00:16:48.679 about. The plan called for a massive Dawn attack 00:16:48.679 --> 00:16:52.139 spearheaded by this brand new terrifying technology 00:16:52.139 --> 00:16:54.779 tanks. But the friction started immediately. 00:16:55.200 --> 00:16:57.600 The tanks arrived late to their starting positions. 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:00.299 As they were rushing to the front in the predawn 00:17:00.299 --> 00:17:03.159 darkness, their massive roaring engines were 00:17:03.159 --> 00:17:06.119 easily heard by the German defenders, completely 00:17:06.119 --> 00:17:08.680 ruining any element of surprise. When the delayed 00:17:08.680 --> 00:17:11.319 tanks finally did attack, the execution was a 00:17:11.319 --> 00:17:14.440 disaster. Some veered wildly off course in the 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:17.599 confusion. Some became irrevocably snagged in 00:17:17.599 --> 00:17:20.740 the massive unbroken belts of barbed wire. Furthermore, 00:17:21.220 --> 00:17:23.339 the Germans had already adapted to this new armored 00:17:23.339 --> 00:17:26.960 threat. They utilized machine guns firing specialized 00:17:27.150 --> 00:17:29.869 piercing ammunition known as K bullets which 00:17:29.869 --> 00:17:32.269 easily tore right through the relatively thin 00:17:32.269 --> 00:17:34.650 plating of these early tanks knocking them out 00:17:34.650 --> 00:17:37.450 one by one the Australian infantry had dutifully 00:17:37.450 --> 00:17:39.509 followed the surviving tanks into the German 00:17:39.509 --> 00:17:42.299 trench system Suddenly, they found themselves 00:17:42.299 --> 00:17:45.480 entirely cut off. The tanks were dead, the element 00:17:45.480 --> 00:17:47.799 of surprise was gone, and the German artillery 00:17:47.799 --> 00:17:50.019 cleverly dropped a curtain of high -explosive 00:17:50.019 --> 00:17:52.400 fire directly behind the Australians, sealing 00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:54.980 them off in no man's land. The Australians were 00:17:54.980 --> 00:17:57.420 trapped within the German trenches. They couldn't 00:17:57.420 --> 00:17:59.660 scavenge enough ammunition or grenades from the 00:17:59.660 --> 00:18:02.400 dead to hold off the continuous, well -organized 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:05.430 German counterattacks. Eventually, recognizing 00:18:05.430 --> 00:18:08.089 the hopelessness of the situation, they had absolutely 00:18:08.089 --> 00:18:10.430 no choice but to retreat. That meant running 00:18:10.430 --> 00:18:12.930 back across a bullet -swept no -man's land in 00:18:12.930 --> 00:18:15.650 broad daylight. under intense machine gunfire. 00:18:15.970 --> 00:18:18.789 It was a devastating heavy loss. The momentum 00:18:18.789 --> 00:18:21.630 of April 9th had entirely evaporated. The battle 00:18:21.630 --> 00:18:24.150 ground down into a series of brutal localized 00:18:24.150 --> 00:18:26.069 attacks and fierce counter -attacks throughout 00:18:26.069 --> 00:18:28.750 the rest of April and well into May. When the 00:18:28.750 --> 00:18:31.190 battle was finally officially called off on May 00:18:31.190 --> 00:18:34.799 16th, the human toll was staggering. In just 00:18:34.799 --> 00:18:36.559 over a month of fighting, the British suffered 00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:39.740 around 158 ,000 casualties. And the German losses 00:18:39.740 --> 00:18:43.240 were estimated to be between 120 ,000 and 130 00:18:43.240 --> 00:18:45.660 ,000. Over a quarter of a million men killed, 00:18:45.700 --> 00:18:47.759 wounded, or missing in just a few weeks. The 00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:51.279 heroism on display was unimaginable. 25 Victoria 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:53.799 Crosses were awarded to Allied soldiers for their 00:18:53.799 --> 00:18:56.299 actions during the battle. So what does this 00:18:56.299 --> 00:18:58.759 all mean? Why are we digging so deeply into a 00:18:58.759 --> 00:19:01.039 battle that happened over a century ago? Well, 00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:03.680 for you, the listener, the Battle of Eris... 00:19:03.829 --> 00:19:06.529 serves as the ultimate historical case study 00:19:06.529 --> 00:19:09.890 in how massive organizations adapt to failure. 00:19:10.150 --> 00:19:11.970 It proves that you can have brilliant planning. 00:19:12.569 --> 00:19:15.049 You can literally carve a fully functioning city 00:19:15.049 --> 00:19:18.250 for 25 ,000 people out of the chalk beneath the 00:19:18.250 --> 00:19:20.430 earth. You can calculate the mathematics of the 00:19:20.430 --> 00:19:23.049 creeping barrage. You can perfectly time your 00:19:23.049 --> 00:19:26.170 infantry assault to a snowstorm and create incredible 00:19:26.170 --> 00:19:28.609 historic initial success. But the friction of 00:19:28.609 --> 00:19:31.619 reality the bottomless mud, the failing logistics, 00:19:32.140 --> 00:19:34.839 the unpredictable weather, and a smart opponent 00:19:34.839 --> 00:19:37.660 adapting to your moves in real time will always 00:19:37.660 --> 00:19:39.900 test the absolute limits of that success. It 00:19:39.900 --> 00:19:42.720 serves as a humbling reminder that in complex, 00:19:42.880 --> 00:19:45.200 highly dynamic systems, whether we are discussing 00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:47.980 global warfare or modern organizational logistics, 00:19:48.559 --> 00:19:50.400 initial velocity does not guarantee reaching 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:52.440 the final destination. The environment always 00:19:52.440 --> 00:19:54.390 pushes back. I want to leave you with a lingering 00:19:54.390 --> 00:19:56.690 thought today, something that builds on the sheer 00:19:56.690 --> 00:19:58.930 scale of the engineering we discussed earlier. 00:19:59.690 --> 00:20:01.970 The source material notes a fascinating detail. 00:20:02.950 --> 00:20:06.309 Those massive ancient caves under Eris were actually 00:20:06.309 --> 00:20:10.210 rediscovered by accident in 1916 before the tunnelers 00:20:10.210 --> 00:20:12.710 expanded them. Rediscovered entirely by accident. 00:20:12.990 --> 00:20:15.990 Yes. Think about that for a second. If an underground 00:20:15.990 --> 00:20:18.970 city capable of housing 25 ,000 people could 00:20:18.970 --> 00:20:21.809 be forgotten and then accidentally stumbled upon 00:20:21.809 --> 00:20:24.470 just decades after it was originally carved out. 00:20:24.789 --> 00:20:26.869 What else is down there? It's a haunting prospect. 00:20:27.269 --> 00:20:29.930 How many other vast subterranean worlds are lying 00:20:29.930 --> 00:20:32.569 completely dormant and forgotten right now beneath 00:20:32.569 --> 00:20:35.769 the quiet, modern suburbs of Europe, just holding 00:20:35.769 --> 00:20:37.869 the ghosts of past eras, waiting for someone 00:20:37.869 --> 00:20:40.289 to break through the right cellar wall? A fascinating 00:20:40.289 --> 00:20:42.670 and sobering historical reality to consider. 00:20:42.849 --> 00:20:44.890 Thanks for taking this deep dive with us. Keep 00:20:44.890 --> 00:20:47.150 questioning, keep exploring, and we will see 00:20:47.150 --> 00:20:47.769 you next time.