The Great War in Numbers

S01E06

Endgame

Episode six tells how the numbers will favoured one side, then the other in 1918. When the Bolsheviks took Russia out of the war, millions of German and Austro-Hungarian troops were freed up to attack Britain and Belgium, France and Italy. But across the Atlantic, America was training an army of two-million men. The German commanders, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, knew that if they didn't achieve victory in 1918, they faced defeat in 1919. In 100 days what had looked like a German victory was turned into defeat, and Germany's politicians were forced to ask for an armistice. The blood-letting lasted until the very last minute. Eleven-thousand men were killed or injured on 11th November 1918, the last day of the war, but the peace settlement demanded by the victorious Allies did not bring peace. The war to end all wars was over, but the anger and hatred it had generated found new outlets, and the rise of fascism and communism soon plunged Europe into war again in the decades to come.