NaN/100 votesLoading...#1 - The Outbreak of WWI - How Europe Spiraled Into the GREAT WAR - Week 1
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 7/28/2014
After the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary is determined to put a lid on Serbia once and for all. Germany wanted to go to war with Russia sooner than later, because it was a afraid of a strong Tsar Nicholas II. In the first episode, Indy explains how the various European conflicts spiralled into a world war.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#2 - Germany in Two-Front War and the Schlieffen-Plan - Week 2
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 8/7/2014
Austria-Hungary starts the bombardment of Belgrade. What follows is a deployment race of armies between all major powers in Europe. Nobody wants to be unprepared in case of an attack. Germany is implementing the Schlieffen-Plan. The idea is to avoid a two front war by conquering Paris via Belgium. After that the full attention would be diverted to Russia. One thing gets clear in the first days at the Western Front: This war is going to be different - this was modern warfare.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#3 - To Arms! The Deployment of Troops - Week 3
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 8/14/2014
The first few days of war were a combination of failed organisation and chaos. The Austro-Hungarian supreme command lacks combat experience, and their irrational actions in Serbia are causing turmoil among the Germans. At the Eastern and Western Front, early signs of problems can be seen, too, which the armies will pay a terrible price for, in the upcoming weeks.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#4 - A New War with Old Generals – Carnage on the Western Front - Week 4
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 8/21/2014
In the early days of World War 1, warfare is still based on ideas and ideals of 19th century generals. The technological progress during industrialisation clashes with obsolete war tactics (Plan XVII). Tens of thousands of soldiers lose their lives in carnage at the Western Front. The French Army marches into battle in bright uniforms, where the German Army awaits them with machine guns. Artillery already shows how brutal and effective it's going to be during the rest of World War 1.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#5 - The Rape of Belgium and the Battle of Tannenberg - Week 5
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 8/28/2014
During their advance through Belgium, the German Army is committing atrocities against Belgian civilians - justified as response to resistance and sabotage against their advancement. The Austro-Hungarian Army is perpetrating massacres against the Serbian civilian population to retaliate against Serbian guerrilla warfare. At the Eastern Front, German generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff succeed in one of the most important battles of World War I: The Battle of Tannenberg.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#6 - Plans Are Doomed to Fail - The Battle of Galicia - Week 6
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 9/4/2014
While the Germans on the Western Front are very close to reaching Paris, the Eastern Front proves to become a disastrous failure for the Austro-Hungarian forces. Conrad von Hötzendorf overestimated his skills and the strength of his troops. And after his too complicated plan in Galicia failed, the town of Lemberg falls into the hands of the Russians. Meanwhile, the war starts spreading into Asia, as Japan is besieging Tsingtao and New Zealand conquers German Samoa.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#7 - Taxi to the Front – The First Battle of the Marne - Week 7
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 9/11/2014
The German Army is so close to Paris that French soldiers are brought to the front by taxis. Together with the British Expeditionary Forces, the French are fighting the German advance near the Marne river. Meanwhile, the Austro-Hungarian army is retreating to the Carpathian Mountains after a catastrophic defeat against Russia with hundreds of thousands of casualties.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#8 - Welcome to the Dirt – The Beginning of Trench Warfare - Week 8
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 9/18/2014
After the advances and retreats during the early weeks of war, the front is coming to a grinding hold after the Battle of the Aisne. The German Army is digging itself in on one side of the river and a new, horrible chapter of World War One begins: trench warfare. To be prepared for this new kind of war, the British Army is recruiting over 400.000 soldiers still believing that the war will be over by Christmas.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#9 - The Russian War Machine and the Race to the Sea - Week 9
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 9/25/2014
parked by the desperate state of the Austrians, the Russian army goes on the offensive. General Ivanov even tries to use his numerical superiority to make up for the German victories a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, the armies of the Western Front try to outflank each other as they race north to the sea. And in the North Sea itself, submarine warfare really gets going while in the air, we see airplanes used in large military operations for the first time in history.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#10 - Dying in the Mud - Autumn Is Taking Its Toll - Week 10
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 10/2/2014
he autumn rain turns the battlefields into muddy landscapes. Mud in which the soldiers are hardly able to dig trenches and in which no artillery gun will stand. The first change of seasons is proving to be a big new challenge for the armies in Europe. While at the time, the longest siege of the war is starting, we can also see the first major African battles of World War 1.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#11 - Back for Christmas? - The Illusion of a Short War - Week 11
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 10/9/2014
In the trenches on the Western Front and in the mud on the Eastern Front, hundreds of thousands of soldiers die and with them dies the illusion of a short war. After heavy casualties, the armies are adapting to a longer conflict and are looking for new recruits. To convince them to fight they are taking advantage of national minorities and their hope of equal rights and self-determination.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#12 - Learning From Napoleon – Russia, The Underestimated Enemy - Week 12
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 10/16/2014
After defeating the Russian Army in the early weeks of the war, the German and Austrian generals hope to push the Russians back with combined forces. But, like Napoleon 100 years earlier, they underestimate their enemy and his tactics and so the tides are turning on the Eastern Front. On the Western Front, the last frontline gaps are closed and the British army is entering a small town called Ypres, which will eventually be the symbol for the carnage in Flanders for the next four years.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#13 - A War to End All Wars - Home Front Propaganda - Week 13
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 10/23/2014
The first weeks of war already took hundreds of thousands of lives and the daily struggle to survive in the trenches on the Western Front has nothing to do with the promised glory. Back home, propaganda is already working and grotesquely distorting the public's opinion about the war. While the British civilians feared a German invasion, some of the leading German scientists and intellectuals published the "Manifesto Of The 93" in which they rallied for solidarity with the Germans
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#14 - Fresh Meat - The Search For New Recruits - Week 14
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 10/30/2014
After some heavy casualties during the first months of war, the armies had to look for new recruits. While Great Britain undertook soldiers in military service to fill up their ranks, Germany was relying on reservists and inexperienced recruits. This fatal German mix was sent against smaller, but much more experienced British and French troops. The resulting carnage had no military effect, but was later on idolized by the German propaganda and is today known as the "Kindermord" (child murder) or Massacre of the Innocent.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#15 - The World at War - The Ottoman Empire Enters the Stage - Week 15
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 11/6/2014
Three months after the outbreak of the war, another world power enters the conflict: The Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman war minister Enver Pascha, a supporter of a new Turkish self confidence, wants to gain advantages for a future Turkey by declaring war. Meanwhile, another ship of the German East Asian Squadron is surprising the Royal Navy by sinking two of their ships near Coronel, Chile. Regardless, the battles on the Eastern Front, Western Front and in Serbia are continuing.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#16 - The Defensive War on the Western Front - Week 16
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 11/13/2014
The German army dug in at the Western Front and waited for the next Russian attack at the Eastern Front. Even though the Germans outnumbered their opponents, they barely stood a chance against machine guns in No Man's Land. They realize: to defend a position is a lot easier than to attack and conquer. Especially while fighting near Ypres. At the Eastern Front, things are going better for Chief of Staff Ludendorff: he breaks through outstretched Siberian lines. At the same time, Russian soldiers are faced with a new enemy and start the Bergmann Offensive in today's East-Turkey.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#17 - The Enemy Within - The German Army's Power Play - Week 17
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 11/20/2014
The commanders of the German army blame each other for the missing victories. Erich von Falkenhayn and Paul von Hindenburg both believe that they have the only solution to the problem. The German emperor Wilhelm II feels more and more excluded when it comes to military decisions. His soldiers become pieces on a chessboard and the war of the 20th century also takes its toll on some of the best commanders of World War 1. The situation at the Western Front stays unaltered: the French and Germans fight each other between the trenches. On the contrary, at the Eastern Front the Russians and the Germans are battling in a heavy fight.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#18 - Iron, Steel and Oil - The Fight for Resources - Week 18
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 11/27/2014
Four months after the outbreak of the war, a new objective develops: the fight for the most valuable resources. The modern warfare and its war machines need one thing more than anything: Oil, iron, steel or cole can be a matter of life and death. The British advance into the Ottoman Empire and conquer the city Basra. Their goal is to secure their drilling facilities at the Arab Gulf. Meanwhile, the situation at the front is gridlocked, especially in the trenches on the Western Front.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#19 - Mission Accomplished? - The Austro-Hungarian Empire Conquers Belgrade - Week 19
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 12/4/2014
During the first week of December, Austria manages to capture Belgrade. Thereby Austria is the first nation to achieve one of its war aims. The victorious Austrians are joyful, but the Serbs strike back and the Austrian euphoria takes a sudden end. Meanwhile, the Russians fight against the German and Austrian troops in front of Cracow. But the Austrians are able to stop the Russian offensive and achieve yet another victory.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#20 - The Battle at the Falkland Islands - The Death of Maximilian von Spee - Week 20
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 12/11/2014
Near the far away Falkland Islands the story of the German East Asia Squadron is coming to an end: in a naval battle nearly the entire squadron is sunk and Maximilian von Spee dies together with over 2000 German seamen. Meanwhile, the war of attrition is still going on in Europe and Austria-Hungary has to learn that their conquest of Belgrade is not putting a lid on the Serbian resistance.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#21 - The Raid On Scarborough - A Failed Attempt at Intimidation - Week 21
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 12/18/2014
German admiral Franz von Hipper reluctantly carries out his orders to bomb British costal towns. And indeed, this attempt to intimidate British civilians only unites them. British propaganda gets another opportunity to portray Germans as bloodthirsty and brutal. Meanwhile, the French start a new offensive near Vimy on the Western Front.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#22 - The First Battle of Champagne - Dying in Caucasus Snow - Week 22
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 12/25/2014
Right before Christmas the allied powers begin the Champagne offensive, which will last several months. In snow, mud,and under horrible living conditions not only the soldiers suffer. The images of a war fought with honour and glory are finally over as even the white flag is used for ambushes now. Far away in the mountains of the Caucasus, Russia and the Ottoman Empire are fighting a grim battle, too, in which many soldiers die during interminable marches in the snow wearing summer uniforms.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#23 - The Ottoman Disaster - The Battle of Sarikamish - Week 23
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 1/1/2015
The Champagne offensive is still going on the Western Front without any side gaining a decisive advantage. In the Caucasus, Enver Pasha is showing how far he's willing to go to achieve his goals. Against his military advisors’ recommendations, he decides to send more and more troops to Sarikamish. Without supplies and with temperatures constantly below -20 degrees, thousands of Ottoman soldiers freeze to death before even reaching the frontline. When the Russians finally encircle the Ottoman troops, defeat is inevitable.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#24 - In Dire Straits - Russia on Austro-Hungary's Doorstep - Week 24
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 1/8/2015
The Austro-Hungarian army resembles a better militia after six months into the war. The defeats against Serbia and Russia and still under siege in Galicia - the forces are in dire straits. Many casualties, especially among the officers, mean that an effective warfare is impossible. And all this while the Russians are close to entering the Hungarian plains. On another front, the Rtussians are winning the battle of Sarikamish which ends in a disaster for the Ottoman Empire. On the Western Front, each side still tries to gain a decisive advantage.
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NaN/100 votesLoading...#25 - Onwards! - The Western Front Of Early 1915 - Week 25
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 1/15/2015
French general Joseph Joffre is stuck in a dilemma: the Champagne offensive has been going on for weeks now - without any of the expected results. Should he dig in and tolerate the enemy on French soil? Or should his soldiers continue to run up against the impenetrable German defences? Meanwhile, South African troops attack German South West Africa and in London, Winston Churchill's plan for an invasion of the Dardanelles has been approved.
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The Best Episodes of The Great War
Every episode of The Great War ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of The Great War!
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Genres:DocumentaryWar & Politics
Network:YouTube
Best Episodes Summary
"The Outbreak of WWI - How Europe Spiraled Into the GREAT WAR - Week 1" is the best rated episode of "The Great War". It scored N/A/10 based on 0 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 7/28/2014. This episode scored NaN points higher than the second highest rated, "Germany in Two-Front War and the Schlieffen-Plan - Week 2".