dimitrios karagiannis Imagine if someone was making a documentary for the First Civil War without even mentioning Belgium ,what kind of documentary would that be deemed? Now the producers managed to achieve no mention of Greece, whilst having the opportunity to do so for 10 episodes!And no, we are not talking about interpretations of facts (the Armenian/Pontian genocide is 'disputed' according to the authors) , we are talking about just mentioning Greece (!) despite the fact that Greece participated in the First World WarIf someone didn't know anything about the First World War ,this documentary gives the impression that Greece didn't participate at all!!That's an utter disgrace and the explanation is simple.Either the producers did that one deliberately , or they are incompetentAnd whilst the documentary is in general well produced , they managed to fail spectacularly by NOT including one of the main countries who participated in the First World War

Miles-10 You would not recommend reading only one history book, so why would anyone recommend only one documentary about World War I? This is a good documentary because it covers a great deal and very engagingly, but sometimes it tries to cover too much and necessarily leaves gaps. If you watch other documentaries, you will find out that the first great tank breakthrough was preceded by a tank failure and that the British Expeditionary Force was so unprepared for the breakthrough when it came that they failed to send enough troops into the breach to secure it, leading to the German recapture of the temporarily lost territory.There is confusion, too, as when it is said that German commander von Hutier's attack on Amiens, France had no purpose, but a few minutes later it is said that when Ludendorff decided to attack Amiens he had an objective of smashing the railroad nexus there. Had Hutier succeeded, wouldn't that have served the same purpose even if accidentally?A mass of information is presented that dizzies the old hand let alone the beginner, but even so, I was glad that this documentary offers a wealth of stimulating information about all sides of the conflict. The fact that it is British-made gives it an unavoidable bias that is made up for by its attempt to bring other nation's voices into the narrative, using the accounts of both well-known and relatively unknown participants.There are many documentaries about World War I that are also good. Some, for example, focus more than this one on the war from the point of view of those outside of Europe. This one gives a lot of information about that aspect of the war even though it tries to cover too much ground to tell the viewer all the details. This is a survey, and a pretty good starting point. Learn more about World War I, and you will come to see that there are other opinions on some of the topics. There is more subject matter than this documentary had time to cover, and you might even think that what they left out is awfully important. You might, nevertheless, always remember "The First World War" fondly as an equally informative and moving introduction.

Mark Adams Episode six 'Breaking the Deadlock' claims that technical innovations were created to bring a speedy end to the war, but instead they were quickly countered. That war then dragged on into a war of attrition. The middle of the segment shows that the soldiers from both sides didn't always try to kill each other and had to be encouraged to do so. The episode makes an effort to refute the saying about British soldiers being 'Lions lead by Donkeys' by quoting how many German, French and British generals died during the war and how the generals had to face the reality of trench warfare. The soldiers could see that it didn't make much sense to stop machine gun bullets with your chest. The British High command was still believing in the superiority of horse cavalry. The horses didn't do well against bullets either.This episode is a smoke screen for the military incompetence of the British High Command, particularly General Haig. Haig's premature application of the first few tanks lead to the German Army development of anti-tank gun crews which were able to decimate many tanks when they were used in strength and did have a breakthrough at Cabrai. Haig and his staff ignored intelligence reports of the Germans massing reinforcements for a counter-offensive that took back the five miles of ground gained by the breakthrough. The show neglects to mention that Haig's headquarters was far behind the front lines.Also neglected is Sir John French's headquarters was 35 miles behind the lines at the battle of Le Cateau in August 1914 when he would have lost the whole British Expeditionary Force if the commander of 2nd Corps, General Smith-Dorrien, had not disregarded an order to retreat. Smith-Dorrien was congratulated by the King for saving the B.F.E. but General French had him relieved nine months later.

Robert J. Maxwell I guess I'll simply echo UnionMan's sentiments. It's a well-balanced presentation of what used to be called The Great War before we learned to number them.It covers all aspects of the war and pulls no punches.There is footage here that you are guaranteed not to have seen before. A distant column of cavalrymen ride their horses along a dirt road. A huge explosion covers the center of the column with a cloud of dust. The last part of the column rides around the smoke. When, finally, the dust clears we see the column has halted and is looking back at the debris, which includes a couple of smudgy black figures flat on the ground, one of them a thrashing horse.Personalities are explored and politics brought in just enough to illuminate the battles that form the centerpiece of the film. Enough for us to see the seeds of the next war being sown.The images are finely defined in crisp black and white. The motion is smoothed out and takes place in real time, adjusted for the change in camera speed since the early days of cinema.What a bitter thing war is. The film prompts one to wonder why we rush to embrace another one every twenty years or so.There will probably not be another documentary dealing with World War I that will be the equal of this one.