Unknown Warriors

EPISODE 10: PROFESSOR MARK CONNELLY shows how memory and remembrance have played a key role in the way later generations have interpreted the First World War. Memories of the past tend to mirror the concerns of the present: Britain, Germany and other nations have largely shaped their view of the Great War in response to their own immediate agendas rather than any quest for the truth.

EPISODE 9: Most general histories of the First World War are narrative-driven or told from a national perspective. PROFESSOR WILLIAM PHILPOTT analyses the conflict as a coherent phenomenon, showing how the combatant nations had to evolve a strategy of attrition in which all the resources of the state were harnessed to support the armies in the field. In short, a war for survival where defeat for the losers meant national destruction.

EPISODE 8: We think of the First World War as 1914-18 but, as PROFESSOR ROBERT GERWARTH shows, 1918 did not end the war in much of Europe and beyond, violence continuing well into the 1920s as new nation states emerged out of the chaos of collapsed empires.

EPISODE 7: In the popular British narrative, 1918 is the ‘forgotten year’ of the First World War. PETER HART explains how, in fact, it was vital to turning stalemate into Allied victory. After the Germans failed in their last great gamble to win the war in massive spring offensives, the Allied coalition relentlessly pressed home its growing advantage in men and resources to force a final German retreat.

EPISODE 6: 1.5 million Indians volunteered to fight for Britain during the First World War. As GEORGE MORTON JACK reveals, their story has too often been ignored or misunderstood. For Britain, the conflict was partly about defending its huge empire, and the Indians, colonial subjects vulnerable to growing nationalism at home, were critical to this struggle.

EPISODE 5: Shell shock was unknown before the First World War. TAYLOR DOWNING shows how it reached crisis levels at the battle of the Somme, drawing a brutal response from the British Army. The medical establishment were divided over how to deal with it and the military were terrified that it would undermine morale and effectiveness.

EPISODE 4: Before 1914 international rules were established to govern the conduct of warfare. DIANA PRESTON explains how all sides in the First World War rapidly overran key red lines as they sought to secure a military advantage. In the course of a mere six weeks in 1915, the world changed forever.

EPISODE 3: Trans-national and comparative history has deepened our understanding of the First World War. DR JONATHAN BOFF looks at the Western Front from the German perspective, throwing new light on the major campaigns of this trench-bound struggle and on the final German collapse in 1918.

EPISODE 2: The popular British narrative depicts the war on the Western Front as wasteful and futile. PROFESSOR GARY SHEFFIELD shows such a view is misplaced: this war had to be fought and won. The Allies learned the hard way how to cope in unprecedented battle conditions, but ultimately overcame their mistakes to inflict a decisive defeat on the Germans.

EPISODE 1: The popular British view of the First World War is now very outdated. PROFESSOR HEATHER JONES explains how professional historians have transformed the landscape since the 1960s. What’s emerging, at the centenary, is a much more complex and diverse picture.