APOCALYPSE the Battle of Verdun (2016–…): Season 0, Episode 0 - The Carnage - full transcript
The Germans launch a massive attack on a fort covered area in what was to become the longest battle of World War I.
(film clacking)
(birds chirping)
(eerie music)
From 1914 to 1918,
Europe was at war with herself.
Just one year after the outbreak of war,
two million men have already died
and many more have been amputated,
gassed, or as the men shown here,
shellshocked and damaged for life
by the deadly machine gun attacks.
(whistles whistling)
(men shouting)
(guns firing)
(bombs exploding)
By late 1915, the French and British chiefs of staff
and their German and Austro-Hungarian enemies
all believe that only more cannons and shells
will break the stalemate.
(cannon firing)
(explosions booming)
In 1916, with the battles of Verdun and of the Somme,
the war enters the industrial era
and the 20th Century is drawn into unprecedented horror.
(explosion booming)
(men shouting)
In Verdun, French soldier Henri Evain,
66th Infantry Regiment, writes,
(tense music)
"We are in the kingdom of the dead.
Lightning flashes atop the ridges.
(cannons firing)
The night blazes with the flames of hell.
Suddenly, the darkness is torn in two.
Across the horizon burst forth
the lights of the apocalypse."
(dramatic music)
(explosions booming)
(tense drumming music)
During the Battle of Verdun,
Joseph Abadie, a 33-year-old French soldier,
writes a last to his wife before he is killed.
"Who knows what to expect.
The slaughter will begin again.
(guns firing)
Good luck to he who will resume his life after battle.
Kiss our child for me.
Be brave, my darling Sophie.
A thousand farewells."
(explosions booming)
34-year-old German soldier Fritz Moseler writes,
(tense music)
"My dearest sister,
I can take no more of the horror and the fatigue.
I don't want to describe what I have lived through here.
At times, I'm not sure if I'm dead or alive.
Those who make it home safe and sound
will owe thanks to God."
(men chattering)
Has God abandoned these men?
(somber music)
(guns firing)
Did they have a choice?
How did they continue?
How did they manage to hold onto their humanity?
Through their love of country,
pride,
or their daily ration of wine?
What kept them alive?
(men chattering)
Was it the long awaited mail that brought a glimmer of hope?
Was it the comradery?
Was it simply luck?
Why does this particular battle,
the Battle of Verdun, where over 300,000 perished,
still resonate so loudly 100 years later?
(tense music)
Six months before the battle, the summer of 1915.
The German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires
confront the Russian Empire, the United Kingdom,
Italy, Serbia, and particularly France,
where the front has settled into a stalemate
across 700 kilometers of trenches
from occupied Belgium to Alsace.
The Germans occupy 10 French departments,
(bells tolling)
like here in Lubine, a small village the Vosges,
where the German commanding officer
organizes two Sunday masses.
One for the French civilian population,
the other for the German troops.
(tense music)
Rare footage of the Prussian Order.
The invader takes over the resources
belonging to the population with whom he maintains
good or bad relations.
Here a family provides a German officer with accommodations.
Behind a careful smile, Clemence Martin complains
of unwillingly contributing to the German war effort.
In her words, "We live like exiles.
(people chattering)
We are forced to work for the Germans.
Everything is requisitioned.
What are we to say when our poor children cry out,
Mother, I'm hungry?"
(baby crying)
In France, behind the lines,
everything is done to compensate the loss
of the north's industries and to make up the backlog
in German armament production.
The factories run day and night.
The men have been replaced by women.
Trade unionist, Marcel Kapie,
describes their hell to perfection.
"Women in their 20s with pretty faces and frail figures,
fire, smoke, and the deafening rumble of the towers.
Pale arms suddenly appear from under a rolled up sleeve.
The worker always standing lifts the shell.
It weighs seven kilos.
2,500 shells are lifted twice a day, 35,000 kilos.
In one year, she's lifted 900,000 shells,
seven million kilos.
Once strong and healthy,
now she's just a thin, exhausted young woman.
One, two, three in the morning,
dawn washes across the windows.
Crumbled faces, sunken eyes, hollowed cheeks,
bruised arms begging for mercy."
(machines clanging)
(tense music)
In 1915, the women of the warring nations
unite to demand peace.
"We protest against the madness and the horror of war
involving as it does a reckless sacrifice
of human life and the destruction of so much
that humanity has labored through centuries to build.
War is commonly brought about not by the mass of the people
but by groups representing particular interests."
To placate public opinion,
a munition factory's childcare center
is featured in the newsreels.
However, many of these children are abandoned
and raised in poverty like one million other war orphans.
(somber music)
In those days, France's school children
parade behind the flag.
They march in step, brought up to hate the German,
the kraut, who stole Alsace and Lorraine in 1871.
The lost provinces must be recovered.
This idea is drummed into the heads of France's youth.
We must be ready to die for our country.
(singing in foreign language)
Children lie about their age and find themselves
in the trenches.
(patriotic music)
Like 15-year-old Jean Fendrich,
a young man from Lorraine,
who was wounded five times and received the War Cross.
(people chattering)
(tense music)
The German troops celebrate Christmas of 1915.
They're on their home turf in Alsace.
They feel justified because Alsace and the Moselle
have been annexed.
This land is now part of the Reich, the German Empire,
where it belongs.
The Germans build better trenches than the French
because now they're in a defensive position.
Their leader is a cautious, respected Prussian aristocrat,
(somber music)
54-year-old General Erich von Falkenhayn.
He speaks French and admires French culture
but he considers France to be a second-rate military power.
To him, England is the real enemy.
He wants to dissociate the two allied adversaries,
defeat them separately, and negotiate.
Falkenhayn's spies have informed him
that the English and the French are preparing
a huge offensive in the Somme.
(tense music)
His best play is to attack first,
somewhere else along the front.
He chooses Verdun,
a quiet, poorly-defended zone.
Falkenhayn has gathered his information
through a series of reconnaissance flights.
The Zeiss lens factory supplies photographic equipment
to fearless aviators like Lieutenant Hermann Goering
who will become the highest official
in Hitler's Reich 20 years down the line.
At 22, Goering receives the Iron Cross
in honor of his reconnaissance work
in the Verdun area and on the Meuse River.
Falkenhayn feels confident of his plan to attack at Verdun.
(wind whistling)
His starting positions are ideal.
(tense music)
He has the benefit
of excellent natural observation posts
such as the Romagna crest
hidden from sight by the forests.
He will be able to transport his troops and artillery,
displace the French, scale the hills,
and seize the highest spots defended
by forts like Douaumont.
Falkenhayn knows that these forts have been disarmed
to provide additional artillery for the Somme.
He will be able to push the French back
to the Verdun Citadel and the Meuse River
where they will trapped and cut off
from their backup.
The name of Falkenhayn's plan
is Gericht, Operation Judgment.
(tense music)
This will clear the way to Paris,
only 230 kilometers away.
(wind whistling)
Germany is fighting on two fronts,
in the east and the west.
She will have to use her troops sparingly
and destroy the French in one shot
in an unprecedented avalanche of millions of shells.
Falkenhayn has the necessary resources.
His artillery is the best in the world,
much improved since 1914.
The 100,000 workers in steel factories like Krupp
produce hundreds of highly-powerful heavy cannons per month.
(train whistle tooting)
The German High Command
also has access to a very elaborate railway network
unlike the French in Verdun who are very isolated.
In order to come as close as possible to the attack zone,
the German train tracks are extended by several kilometers,
enabling hundreds of trains to continuously supply
the first lines of battle.
(train rumbling)
(tense music)
2 1/2 million shells are hidden two kilometers
from the French front lines,
enough for six days of uninterrupted artillery bombing.
(tense drumming music)
140,000 soldiers are assembled in small, discrete groups.
They are wearing the new steel helmet,
the famous Stahlhelm
which will come to symbolize the invading German soldier.
The army's schedule to attack Verdun is led by the son
of Emperor Wilhelm II,
(lively classical music)
The Kronprinz Wilhelm of Prussia.
Despite the intimidating skull and crossbones,
which are actually the Hussar's emblem,
the Kronprinz isn't a fearsome warrior.
He has spent his life in lavish parlors
and has only used a rifle to shoot pheasants.
(wings flapping)
(rifle firing)
20 years later, he will actively support Hitler.
(tense music)
Emperor Wilhelm II braves the cold winter of 1916
and comes to Verdun to congratulate his son in person
and to make sure he is surrounded
by highly competent generals.
(wind whistling)
A victory at Verdun will strengthen his stature
and the prestige of the German Empire.
But all preparations for this campaign
must remain secret.
In the German-occupied villages around Verdun,
French civilians are evacuated to dispel rumors
of an impending assault.
(somber music)
The German troops are exhausted
from building gigantic underground shelters.
These can accommodate up to 4,000 men
undetected by the French until the very end.
(tense music)
A German propaganda film
shows the Kronprinz hammering home a message
to his troops, the (speaking in foreign language).
Their mission is crucial
to the (speaking in foreign language),
the Fatherland, the nation.
In order to destroy whoever survives the bombings,
a new and terrifying weapon is now at their disposal,
the flame thrower.
(eerie music)
Late January 1916, one month before the battle,
German troops continue to arrive.
The atmosphere is increasingly tense.
Everyone senses something decisive is in the works
and everyone hopes it will end the war.
26-year-old Lieutenant Werner Beumelburg writes,
(tense music)
"Like beasts of burden, the men are loaded down
with grenades, their rifle, tools, helmet,
and bandoliers full of ammunition.
Not a word is spoken."
(suspenseful music)
The attack is set for February 11th, 1916, at dawn.
A few kilometers away, on the banks of the Meuse,
the French, behind their camouflage netting,
seem unaware of what the Germans have in store.
(eerie music)
(suspenseful music)
Verdun is calm like the waters of the Meuse.
Most of its inhabitants left at the onset of the war
to seek refuge in the countryside.
These units have a quiet station where they can rest.
This sense of security has prompted the commander
to set up close to town a big hospital
specifically for treating the diseases
brought back by soldiers
(somber music)
who have spent too much time in the trenches,
such as frostbitten feet requiring amputation
or dysentery caused by dirty water
where corpses have been left to rot.
Arrogant military doctors with inflated male egos
avoid treating these cases of bloody diarrhea.
They have handed this task
over to the French Army's only female doctor,
Dr. Nicole Mangin.
This 30-year-old Parisian woman successfully achieved
a feminist tour de force by getting herself drafted
into the army.
She explains, "I spend weeks with people
who treat me like I have the plague."
At the of the war, Nicole Mangin commits suicide
out of fatigue and despair.
In 1916, on the Verdun front,
she checks up relentlessly on the soldiers,
accompanied by her dog Dun, for Verdun,
who occasionally protects her from the men.
(singing in foreign language)
These soldiers are so sexually deprived
that they perform sketches
using pathetic female substitutes.
With no Germans to kill, they kill time instead.
They occupy themselves by practicing their trade
like this craftsman who uses
the bronze shell casings
(singing in foreign language)
to make rings for faraway wives.
(men laughing and chattering)
(tense music)
North of Verdun, 10 kilometers before Fort Douaumont,
the Caures forest is on the French front line.
Like the rest of this forgotten front,
the Caures forest isn't heavily defended.
The French soldiers wander around carefree,
mere meters from the German lines.
Their leader is 61-year-old Colonel Emile Driant,
who will play a crucial role in upcoming events.
After leaving the army, Driant became deputy
for the part of the Lorraine region that remained French.
A devoted patriot, he has volunteered to fight
along with 200 other deputies.
17 will be killed.
Many others will be wounded.
(men chattering)
Driant is stationed in the quiet Verdun sector.
In February 1916, he commands 2,200 infantrymen
known as Chasseurs.
He lives among them and they all call him Father Driant.
He has adopted a war orphan, 14-year-old Germain Baron,
who is the battalion's mascot.
Driant notices suspicious activity
on the German lines in the woods.
(bird cawing)
(man shouting)
He is convinced
that they are related
(tense music)
to the preparation of a widespread attack on Verdun.
He attempts to reinforce his defensive line
with whatever means are at his disposal.
New communication trenches are dug
and makeshift shelters are constructed.
On several occasions, Driant shares his concerns
about Verdun's weak defenses with headquarters.
But his warnings go unheeded.
So he decides to abandon his post
and don his deputy's attire so that he can alert
the army commission.
(tense music)
The war minister demands explanations
of Commander-in-Chief General Joffre.
In the public eye, 64-year-old Joseph Joffre
is the man who won the Battle of the Marne
which saved Paris.
He appears to wield more power than Raymond Poincare,
President of the French Republic.
Joffre threatens to resign.
He replies contemptuously to Driant's accusations.
"I will not tolerate military officers
informing the government of complaints or claims
pertaining to the execution of my orders."
The French Army's main headquarters at Chantilly
in the north of Paris is truly a state within a state.
Joffre has decided to ignore the warnings
which have increased in numbers.
Such as this one, expressed by the head of secret services,
General Charles Dupont.
"Our intelligence is formal.
The Germans are constantly increasing their numbers
and strengthening their artillery.
I am struggling to persuade General Joffre
of the imminence of a tremendous attack on Verdun
and yet, I've never had such trouble convincing him before."
(tense drumming music)
Why?
Because an alert of this kind is common
on a 700-kilometer-long front.
For Joffre, the real battle is in the Somme.
Nothing must overshadow this great offensive.
(military trumpet music)
(men chattering)
(wind whistling)
(plane engine rumbling)
On the other side of the front,
on the evening of February 10th,
the Germans are awaiting the signal
to launch their offensive on Verdun.
(tense music)
The Kronprinz, the Emperor's son, appears one last time
to motivate his troops.
At that very moment, a small group of Alsatians desert
including Emile Didier of Germany's 143rd Infantry Regiment.
He successfully makes it to the French trenches
and alerts the troops.
(suspenseful music)
"By 5 am, the Prussians will be here."
These Alsatian deserters are taken in by Driant's soldiers.
Driant immediately grasps the urgency of the situation.
He decides to evacuate a few men.
He sadly bids farewell to his mascot, young Germain Baron
and entrusts his wedding band to his secretary
to deliver to his wife.
But a storm
(wind whistling)
delays the German offensive.
Over a two-day period, the forest is engulfed
in 50 centimeters of snow,
providing Driant's Chasseurs
and all those defending Verdun with an unexpected reprieve.
Joffre finally decides to react.
All available units around Verdun receive the order
to make their way
(somber music)
to the front lines.
(wind whistling)
(men chattering)
A French soldier from the 288th Infantry Regiment,
Anatol Kasteks, writes,
"Here we are since last night
right next to the krauts who are just 80 meters away.
The weather is awful.
We are here as backup because an attack is expected.
(suspenseful music)
All furloughs have been suspended.
Every night we dig trenches
and plant barbed wire everywhere."
On the other side, German soldiers
who were prepared to attack are depleting their rations
in order to withstand the cold.
Paul Ettighoffer, a young Alsatian serving Germany
describes the scene.
"Water runs off our helmets
spreading an unbearable cold throughout the body.
The drops fall mercilessly
wetting our hands and faces,
bouncing off the cans of food.
The monotonous sound
feels like the ticking of death's clock."
Driant tells his men,
(suspenseful music)
"Tomorrow a massive German assault is likely to be launched.
We must be prepared to die where we stand."
(clock ticking)
The day of the attack, 7:15 am, February 21st, 1916.
The sun is shining.
The great German offensive designed to change
the course of the war is unleashed.
(man shouting)
(artillery firing)
A storm of steel and a tornado of fire
rage for 10 straight hours.
1,300 cannons fire one million shells
over a 20-kilometer front,
destroying the entire Caures forest zone.
(explosions booming)
At 5 pm on February 21st, 1916,
the bombing stops.
The German assault troops advance,
taking possession of a stretch of land
that should be devoid of all living beings.
But against all odds, some French soldiers have survived.
Amongst them, Driant's Chasseurs.
Despite terrible losses,
(guns firing)
the survivors rally courageously
and resist with all their might.
The flame throwers force the French out into the open.
Running from one ditch to the next,
they relentlessly retaliate.
(explosion booming)
By nightfall, practically all the trenches
overtaken by the Germans are now back in French hands.
(artillery firing)
(men shouting)
The following day, on February 22nd, 1916, at 5 am,
Driant's infantry men endure another crushing attack.
The assault is just as violent
but this time the Germans have added gas shells.
Suffocating and overpowered,
the defenders are unable to stop the German offensive.
(guns firing)
Driant sends out a final message.
"I'm down to my last reserves.
Send backup.
I'll defend my line to the very end."
(explosions booming)
Following a final counterattack,
Driant orders the retreat and leaves last
to protect his men.
(guns firing)
(artillery firing)
A few survivors make their way back.
(men chattering)
They manage to reach the aid station
where Dr. Nicole Mangin is waiting.
She recalls,
(tense music)
"They came from all sides,
pointing to their injured limbs and faces.
They claimed that the Caures forest had fallen
into enemy hands and that Driant's men
had been exterminated.
Colonel Driant was dead according to some,
or a prisoner according to others.
We didn't know what to think."
Emile Driant was shot in the head.
(somber music)
Like him, these men that he photographed
a few days prior to the attack did not survive.
Out of 2,200 men, 1,700 died.
Their sacrifice made the Germans lose an entire day.
Was this delay decisive?
Thanks to the heroes of the Caures forest,
the first backups were able to get there
and France's artillery is now concentrated in the area.
(artillery firing)
300 French cannons let loose.
The artillery me don't bother to aim.
They just shower the Kronprinz's troops with shells.
(men shouting)
German soldier Richard Muller writes,
"We're caught in the crossfire.
Retreating is as dangerous as advancing.
We're surrounded by a horrifying chaos of human debris.
We hear moaning that seems to come
from the bowels of the Earth.
It's the poor souls who have been buried alive.
How can we escape the French artillery fire?"
(artillery firing)
Despite the terrible losses,
the Germans continue
(suspenseful music)
their relentless progression.
On the second day of the attack, February 23rd, 1916,
they storm the Cote-du-Poivre.
They are only five kilometers
from the impenetrable Fort Douaumont,
the highest point from which they would dominate
the entire battlefield.
Fort Douaumont is gigantic.
(tense drumming music)
It's a 400-meter-wide hexagon,
spanning 7.5 acres, surrounded by six-meter-thick walls.
Its underground passages, built at various depths,
run several kilometers long and can provide shelter
to 3,000 soldiers, although there are only four toilets.
The tunnels are lit by gas lamps and candles.
(footsteps clacking)
The men defending it are a few territorials,
older soldiers who have been called back up.
These forts, built to defend France
after the defeat of 1870, are still imposing.
French propaganda turns them into strongholds
that can block the access to Paris.
But for how long?
The French are very worried
about the fall of the Cote-du-Poivre
and the threat to Fort Douaumont.
Commander-in-chief General Joffre
gives the order to hold position.
(tense drumming music)
He writes, "Any commander who, in our current situation
gives an order to retreat, will be summoned to appear
before a war council."
Reinforcements converge on the great slaughterhouse.
Joffre is now ready to sacrifice any number of men
to block the road to Paris.
(tense music)
Five days after the beginning of the German attack,
February 26th, 1916,
200 kilometers from Verdun,
Clemence Martin is in her village,
occupied by the Germans.
She understands that serious events are taking place.
She writes, "We can hear the cannons.
The Germans tell us it's coming from Verdun.
I can't believe it.
That's 200 kilometers away.
(lively victory music)
They're celebrating.
Their flags are hoisted in victory.
They ring the bells at noon to sing their joy.
To me it sounds like a death knell.
(men chattering)
(bells tolling)
They claim one of the Verdun forts has been seized
which seems unbelievable.
Is that even possible?"
(dramatic music)
Douaumont.
This famous German propaganda film
celebrates the great feat, the taking of the fort,
even though there was no real resistance
because it wasn't heavily defended.
But conquering Fort Douaumont has huge repercussions.
(men chattering)
German soldier Paul Ettighoffer writes,
(somber music)
(artillery booming)
"To us, the fall of Douaumont is the symbol of victory,
and hopefully, peace."
(tense music)
Emperor Wilhelm II has the press publish
a communique announcing,
"Verdun's main fort has fallen."
It makes the headlines of the world's newspapers.
The "Sunday Pictorial",
the most important English newspaper of the time,
with a circulation of two million,
runs the headline
"Will the Germans Break Through in Verdun?"
(somber music)
English public opinion and King George V
both believe that if the French front gives way,
the war may be is lost.
(crowd cheering)
As it is, so many men have left their families
to fight in the Somme.
The French press purposely doesn't report
on the status of Douaumont
so as not to discourage the population.
Instead, it announces
(tense music)
the arrival of the Emperor, the Kaiser, on the Verdun front.
Wilhelm II must be concerned about the many losses
suffered by his army, 20,000 men in less than one week.
"We must persevere," pleads his son the Kronprinz.
According to German Command,
the artillery now set up in the hills of Douaumont,
less than 10 kilometer from Verdun,
will be able to reach the city.
(artillery firing)
(tense music)
Verdun has been hit hard.
Its cathedral was 1,000 years old.
(suspenseful music)
The city has been partially evacuated
and the German shells don't claim many victims.
But the French High Command
(somber music)
understands the gravity of the situation.
The protective ring of forts is about to give way.
The villagers around Verdun are forced to leave their homes.
They pass by soldiers and medics under terrible stress
going in the opposite direction.
(people chattering)
Surgeon Georges Duhamel will become
one of the greatest French authors.
He writes, "They push wretched animals
and shaky carts carrying mattresses, quilts,
whatever is needed to sleep and eat.
From village to village, they look for accommodations
that don't exist, yet they never complain.
Groups of people with minor injuries limp
towards the ambulance, a doctor approaches us.
(bombs whistling)
We are immediately struck by the stench
and the complaints of the wounded.
(artillery firing)
A wave of formaldehyde tears at our throats
but can't mask the vile odor of men crowded together.
(man coughing)
We see them in different rooms, huddled around frying pans
or stretched out on cots and hallway tiles.
(men shouting)
We hurry to divide up the work and allocate roles.
(men screaming)
The cries and the suffering overpower the explosions
of the tremendous cannonade."
Georges Duhamel
(somber music)
and the three other surgeons
of Ambulance 93 carry out
over a hundred emergency operations per day.
They sort the wounded by the seriousness of their injuries,
amputating wherever gangrene has developed.
They see to the burial of those they couldn't save.
Six days after the attack on February 27th, 1916,
while Georges Duhamel is trying to save lives
in the suburbs of Verdun,
the situation on the battlefield remains critical.
The French have lost Douaumont
but they desperately try to hold onto the village
behind the fort.
(artillery firing)
The 95th Infantry Regiment tries to resist
and even attempts to attack.
(guns firing)
(artillery firing)
The soldiers await their turn in the central trench
that leads to the front line.
(men shouting)
(guns firing)
(eerie piercing music)
The regiment loses 800 men out of 1,000 in a single day.
Eugene Lemercier, a French fighter,
describes this never-ending hell
in a letter to his mother.
(tense music)
"You have no idea what man can do to his fellow man.
My feet are covered with human brain matter.
I crush thoraxes and walk over entrails.
The regiment was heroic,
but we have no more officers.
When all the officers have died, one after the other,
the noncommissioned officers take command
and the combat continues until no man is left standing."
Those who survive are the ones
who have been there the longest.
They have been fighting for almost two years
and have learned their trade.
Even in the shell holes and humidity,
in the cold and ice,
they know small ways to create
a semblance of comfort.
(suspenseful music)
They've been ordered to hold their position.
Above all, their commanding general
wants to reassure the allies.
Joffre sends as many reinforcements as he can.
To lead the defense of Verdun,
he names a recognized and available leader, Philippe Petain.
The problem is that Petain is in Paris and can't be located.
One of his officers familiar with his habits
goes round to the brothels and hotels
that Petain frequently visits.
(lively French music)
Petain is found in a room
at the Hotel Terminus Gare du Nord
in the company of Eugenie Hardon,
a 39-year-old divorcee.
She's considered his steady girl
because there are others too
just as pretty but younger.
One week after the onset
(tense music)
of the German attack,
Petain and his general staff settle into the City Hall
at Souilly, 20 kilometers from Verdun.
General Petain is 60, a farmer's son.
Heavily affected by the defeat of 1870,
he establishes his authority through his composure
and sense of leadership.
But will he succeed in turning the situation around?
His men claim he has the spirit of a foot soldier.
He is concerned about their existence.
He dares to say, "Firepower kills,"
which is rare for a general.
He also advises his men,
"Be heroic by all means,
but most importantly, stay alive."
(men chattering)
(horse snorting)
He does everything in his power to improve
the daily existence of the Poilus, or hairy beasts.
He is concerned with irregularity
and the quality of the meals
and never skimps on the red wine.
There is always more wine than water
which is in serious shortage.
(lively music)
(singing in foreign language)
The red wine is brought all the way to the front,
bringing courage to these men ready to die for the homeland.
(lively music)
(wind whistling)
(somber music)
(dramatic somber music)
(dramatic music)
(tense drumming music)
(gentle music)
(birds chirping)
(eerie music)
From 1914 to 1918,
Europe was at war with herself.
Just one year after the outbreak of war,
two million men have already died
and many more have been amputated,
gassed, or as the men shown here,
shellshocked and damaged for life
by the deadly machine gun attacks.
(whistles whistling)
(men shouting)
(guns firing)
(bombs exploding)
By late 1915, the French and British chiefs of staff
and their German and Austro-Hungarian enemies
all believe that only more cannons and shells
will break the stalemate.
(cannon firing)
(explosions booming)
In 1916, with the battles of Verdun and of the Somme,
the war enters the industrial era
and the 20th Century is drawn into unprecedented horror.
(explosion booming)
(men shouting)
In Verdun, French soldier Henri Evain,
66th Infantry Regiment, writes,
(tense music)
"We are in the kingdom of the dead.
Lightning flashes atop the ridges.
(cannons firing)
The night blazes with the flames of hell.
Suddenly, the darkness is torn in two.
Across the horizon burst forth
the lights of the apocalypse."
(dramatic music)
(explosions booming)
(tense drumming music)
During the Battle of Verdun,
Joseph Abadie, a 33-year-old French soldier,
writes a last to his wife before he is killed.
"Who knows what to expect.
The slaughter will begin again.
(guns firing)
Good luck to he who will resume his life after battle.
Kiss our child for me.
Be brave, my darling Sophie.
A thousand farewells."
(explosions booming)
34-year-old German soldier Fritz Moseler writes,
(tense music)
"My dearest sister,
I can take no more of the horror and the fatigue.
I don't want to describe what I have lived through here.
At times, I'm not sure if I'm dead or alive.
Those who make it home safe and sound
will owe thanks to God."
(men chattering)
Has God abandoned these men?
(somber music)
(guns firing)
Did they have a choice?
How did they continue?
How did they manage to hold onto their humanity?
Through their love of country,
pride,
or their daily ration of wine?
What kept them alive?
(men chattering)
Was it the long awaited mail that brought a glimmer of hope?
Was it the comradery?
Was it simply luck?
Why does this particular battle,
the Battle of Verdun, where over 300,000 perished,
still resonate so loudly 100 years later?
(tense music)
Six months before the battle, the summer of 1915.
The German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires
confront the Russian Empire, the United Kingdom,
Italy, Serbia, and particularly France,
where the front has settled into a stalemate
across 700 kilometers of trenches
from occupied Belgium to Alsace.
The Germans occupy 10 French departments,
(bells tolling)
like here in Lubine, a small village the Vosges,
where the German commanding officer
organizes two Sunday masses.
One for the French civilian population,
the other for the German troops.
(tense music)
Rare footage of the Prussian Order.
The invader takes over the resources
belonging to the population with whom he maintains
good or bad relations.
Here a family provides a German officer with accommodations.
Behind a careful smile, Clemence Martin complains
of unwillingly contributing to the German war effort.
In her words, "We live like exiles.
(people chattering)
We are forced to work for the Germans.
Everything is requisitioned.
What are we to say when our poor children cry out,
Mother, I'm hungry?"
(baby crying)
In France, behind the lines,
everything is done to compensate the loss
of the north's industries and to make up the backlog
in German armament production.
The factories run day and night.
The men have been replaced by women.
Trade unionist, Marcel Kapie,
describes their hell to perfection.
"Women in their 20s with pretty faces and frail figures,
fire, smoke, and the deafening rumble of the towers.
Pale arms suddenly appear from under a rolled up sleeve.
The worker always standing lifts the shell.
It weighs seven kilos.
2,500 shells are lifted twice a day, 35,000 kilos.
In one year, she's lifted 900,000 shells,
seven million kilos.
Once strong and healthy,
now she's just a thin, exhausted young woman.
One, two, three in the morning,
dawn washes across the windows.
Crumbled faces, sunken eyes, hollowed cheeks,
bruised arms begging for mercy."
(machines clanging)
(tense music)
In 1915, the women of the warring nations
unite to demand peace.
"We protest against the madness and the horror of war
involving as it does a reckless sacrifice
of human life and the destruction of so much
that humanity has labored through centuries to build.
War is commonly brought about not by the mass of the people
but by groups representing particular interests."
To placate public opinion,
a munition factory's childcare center
is featured in the newsreels.
However, many of these children are abandoned
and raised in poverty like one million other war orphans.
(somber music)
In those days, France's school children
parade behind the flag.
They march in step, brought up to hate the German,
the kraut, who stole Alsace and Lorraine in 1871.
The lost provinces must be recovered.
This idea is drummed into the heads of France's youth.
We must be ready to die for our country.
(singing in foreign language)
Children lie about their age and find themselves
in the trenches.
(patriotic music)
Like 15-year-old Jean Fendrich,
a young man from Lorraine,
who was wounded five times and received the War Cross.
(people chattering)
(tense music)
The German troops celebrate Christmas of 1915.
They're on their home turf in Alsace.
They feel justified because Alsace and the Moselle
have been annexed.
This land is now part of the Reich, the German Empire,
where it belongs.
The Germans build better trenches than the French
because now they're in a defensive position.
Their leader is a cautious, respected Prussian aristocrat,
(somber music)
54-year-old General Erich von Falkenhayn.
He speaks French and admires French culture
but he considers France to be a second-rate military power.
To him, England is the real enemy.
He wants to dissociate the two allied adversaries,
defeat them separately, and negotiate.
Falkenhayn's spies have informed him
that the English and the French are preparing
a huge offensive in the Somme.
(tense music)
His best play is to attack first,
somewhere else along the front.
He chooses Verdun,
a quiet, poorly-defended zone.
Falkenhayn has gathered his information
through a series of reconnaissance flights.
The Zeiss lens factory supplies photographic equipment
to fearless aviators like Lieutenant Hermann Goering
who will become the highest official
in Hitler's Reich 20 years down the line.
At 22, Goering receives the Iron Cross
in honor of his reconnaissance work
in the Verdun area and on the Meuse River.
Falkenhayn feels confident of his plan to attack at Verdun.
(wind whistling)
His starting positions are ideal.
(tense music)
He has the benefit
of excellent natural observation posts
such as the Romagna crest
hidden from sight by the forests.
He will be able to transport his troops and artillery,
displace the French, scale the hills,
and seize the highest spots defended
by forts like Douaumont.
Falkenhayn knows that these forts have been disarmed
to provide additional artillery for the Somme.
He will be able to push the French back
to the Verdun Citadel and the Meuse River
where they will trapped and cut off
from their backup.
The name of Falkenhayn's plan
is Gericht, Operation Judgment.
(tense music)
This will clear the way to Paris,
only 230 kilometers away.
(wind whistling)
Germany is fighting on two fronts,
in the east and the west.
She will have to use her troops sparingly
and destroy the French in one shot
in an unprecedented avalanche of millions of shells.
Falkenhayn has the necessary resources.
His artillery is the best in the world,
much improved since 1914.
The 100,000 workers in steel factories like Krupp
produce hundreds of highly-powerful heavy cannons per month.
(train whistle tooting)
The German High Command
also has access to a very elaborate railway network
unlike the French in Verdun who are very isolated.
In order to come as close as possible to the attack zone,
the German train tracks are extended by several kilometers,
enabling hundreds of trains to continuously supply
the first lines of battle.
(train rumbling)
(tense music)
2 1/2 million shells are hidden two kilometers
from the French front lines,
enough for six days of uninterrupted artillery bombing.
(tense drumming music)
140,000 soldiers are assembled in small, discrete groups.
They are wearing the new steel helmet,
the famous Stahlhelm
which will come to symbolize the invading German soldier.
The army's schedule to attack Verdun is led by the son
of Emperor Wilhelm II,
(lively classical music)
The Kronprinz Wilhelm of Prussia.
Despite the intimidating skull and crossbones,
which are actually the Hussar's emblem,
the Kronprinz isn't a fearsome warrior.
He has spent his life in lavish parlors
and has only used a rifle to shoot pheasants.
(wings flapping)
(rifle firing)
20 years later, he will actively support Hitler.
(tense music)
Emperor Wilhelm II braves the cold winter of 1916
and comes to Verdun to congratulate his son in person
and to make sure he is surrounded
by highly competent generals.
(wind whistling)
A victory at Verdun will strengthen his stature
and the prestige of the German Empire.
But all preparations for this campaign
must remain secret.
In the German-occupied villages around Verdun,
French civilians are evacuated to dispel rumors
of an impending assault.
(somber music)
The German troops are exhausted
from building gigantic underground shelters.
These can accommodate up to 4,000 men
undetected by the French until the very end.
(tense music)
A German propaganda film
shows the Kronprinz hammering home a message
to his troops, the (speaking in foreign language).
Their mission is crucial
to the (speaking in foreign language),
the Fatherland, the nation.
In order to destroy whoever survives the bombings,
a new and terrifying weapon is now at their disposal,
the flame thrower.
(eerie music)
Late January 1916, one month before the battle,
German troops continue to arrive.
The atmosphere is increasingly tense.
Everyone senses something decisive is in the works
and everyone hopes it will end the war.
26-year-old Lieutenant Werner Beumelburg writes,
(tense music)
"Like beasts of burden, the men are loaded down
with grenades, their rifle, tools, helmet,
and bandoliers full of ammunition.
Not a word is spoken."
(suspenseful music)
The attack is set for February 11th, 1916, at dawn.
A few kilometers away, on the banks of the Meuse,
the French, behind their camouflage netting,
seem unaware of what the Germans have in store.
(eerie music)
(suspenseful music)
Verdun is calm like the waters of the Meuse.
Most of its inhabitants left at the onset of the war
to seek refuge in the countryside.
These units have a quiet station where they can rest.
This sense of security has prompted the commander
to set up close to town a big hospital
specifically for treating the diseases
brought back by soldiers
(somber music)
who have spent too much time in the trenches,
such as frostbitten feet requiring amputation
or dysentery caused by dirty water
where corpses have been left to rot.
Arrogant military doctors with inflated male egos
avoid treating these cases of bloody diarrhea.
They have handed this task
over to the French Army's only female doctor,
Dr. Nicole Mangin.
This 30-year-old Parisian woman successfully achieved
a feminist tour de force by getting herself drafted
into the army.
She explains, "I spend weeks with people
who treat me like I have the plague."
At the of the war, Nicole Mangin commits suicide
out of fatigue and despair.
In 1916, on the Verdun front,
she checks up relentlessly on the soldiers,
accompanied by her dog Dun, for Verdun,
who occasionally protects her from the men.
(singing in foreign language)
These soldiers are so sexually deprived
that they perform sketches
using pathetic female substitutes.
With no Germans to kill, they kill time instead.
They occupy themselves by practicing their trade
like this craftsman who uses
the bronze shell casings
(singing in foreign language)
to make rings for faraway wives.
(men laughing and chattering)
(tense music)
North of Verdun, 10 kilometers before Fort Douaumont,
the Caures forest is on the French front line.
Like the rest of this forgotten front,
the Caures forest isn't heavily defended.
The French soldiers wander around carefree,
mere meters from the German lines.
Their leader is 61-year-old Colonel Emile Driant,
who will play a crucial role in upcoming events.
After leaving the army, Driant became deputy
for the part of the Lorraine region that remained French.
A devoted patriot, he has volunteered to fight
along with 200 other deputies.
17 will be killed.
Many others will be wounded.
(men chattering)
Driant is stationed in the quiet Verdun sector.
In February 1916, he commands 2,200 infantrymen
known as Chasseurs.
He lives among them and they all call him Father Driant.
He has adopted a war orphan, 14-year-old Germain Baron,
who is the battalion's mascot.
Driant notices suspicious activity
on the German lines in the woods.
(bird cawing)
(man shouting)
He is convinced
that they are related
(tense music)
to the preparation of a widespread attack on Verdun.
He attempts to reinforce his defensive line
with whatever means are at his disposal.
New communication trenches are dug
and makeshift shelters are constructed.
On several occasions, Driant shares his concerns
about Verdun's weak defenses with headquarters.
But his warnings go unheeded.
So he decides to abandon his post
and don his deputy's attire so that he can alert
the army commission.
(tense music)
The war minister demands explanations
of Commander-in-Chief General Joffre.
In the public eye, 64-year-old Joseph Joffre
is the man who won the Battle of the Marne
which saved Paris.
He appears to wield more power than Raymond Poincare,
President of the French Republic.
Joffre threatens to resign.
He replies contemptuously to Driant's accusations.
"I will not tolerate military officers
informing the government of complaints or claims
pertaining to the execution of my orders."
The French Army's main headquarters at Chantilly
in the north of Paris is truly a state within a state.
Joffre has decided to ignore the warnings
which have increased in numbers.
Such as this one, expressed by the head of secret services,
General Charles Dupont.
"Our intelligence is formal.
The Germans are constantly increasing their numbers
and strengthening their artillery.
I am struggling to persuade General Joffre
of the imminence of a tremendous attack on Verdun
and yet, I've never had such trouble convincing him before."
(tense drumming music)
Why?
Because an alert of this kind is common
on a 700-kilometer-long front.
For Joffre, the real battle is in the Somme.
Nothing must overshadow this great offensive.
(military trumpet music)
(men chattering)
(wind whistling)
(plane engine rumbling)
On the other side of the front,
on the evening of February 10th,
the Germans are awaiting the signal
to launch their offensive on Verdun.
(tense music)
The Kronprinz, the Emperor's son, appears one last time
to motivate his troops.
At that very moment, a small group of Alsatians desert
including Emile Didier of Germany's 143rd Infantry Regiment.
He successfully makes it to the French trenches
and alerts the troops.
(suspenseful music)
"By 5 am, the Prussians will be here."
These Alsatian deserters are taken in by Driant's soldiers.
Driant immediately grasps the urgency of the situation.
He decides to evacuate a few men.
He sadly bids farewell to his mascot, young Germain Baron
and entrusts his wedding band to his secretary
to deliver to his wife.
But a storm
(wind whistling)
delays the German offensive.
Over a two-day period, the forest is engulfed
in 50 centimeters of snow,
providing Driant's Chasseurs
and all those defending Verdun with an unexpected reprieve.
Joffre finally decides to react.
All available units around Verdun receive the order
to make their way
(somber music)
to the front lines.
(wind whistling)
(men chattering)
A French soldier from the 288th Infantry Regiment,
Anatol Kasteks, writes,
"Here we are since last night
right next to the krauts who are just 80 meters away.
The weather is awful.
We are here as backup because an attack is expected.
(suspenseful music)
All furloughs have been suspended.
Every night we dig trenches
and plant barbed wire everywhere."
On the other side, German soldiers
who were prepared to attack are depleting their rations
in order to withstand the cold.
Paul Ettighoffer, a young Alsatian serving Germany
describes the scene.
"Water runs off our helmets
spreading an unbearable cold throughout the body.
The drops fall mercilessly
wetting our hands and faces,
bouncing off the cans of food.
The monotonous sound
feels like the ticking of death's clock."
Driant tells his men,
(suspenseful music)
"Tomorrow a massive German assault is likely to be launched.
We must be prepared to die where we stand."
(clock ticking)
The day of the attack, 7:15 am, February 21st, 1916.
The sun is shining.
The great German offensive designed to change
the course of the war is unleashed.
(man shouting)
(artillery firing)
A storm of steel and a tornado of fire
rage for 10 straight hours.
1,300 cannons fire one million shells
over a 20-kilometer front,
destroying the entire Caures forest zone.
(explosions booming)
At 5 pm on February 21st, 1916,
the bombing stops.
The German assault troops advance,
taking possession of a stretch of land
that should be devoid of all living beings.
But against all odds, some French soldiers have survived.
Amongst them, Driant's Chasseurs.
Despite terrible losses,
(guns firing)
the survivors rally courageously
and resist with all their might.
The flame throwers force the French out into the open.
Running from one ditch to the next,
they relentlessly retaliate.
(explosion booming)
By nightfall, practically all the trenches
overtaken by the Germans are now back in French hands.
(artillery firing)
(men shouting)
The following day, on February 22nd, 1916, at 5 am,
Driant's infantry men endure another crushing attack.
The assault is just as violent
but this time the Germans have added gas shells.
Suffocating and overpowered,
the defenders are unable to stop the German offensive.
(guns firing)
Driant sends out a final message.
"I'm down to my last reserves.
Send backup.
I'll defend my line to the very end."
(explosions booming)
Following a final counterattack,
Driant orders the retreat and leaves last
to protect his men.
(guns firing)
(artillery firing)
A few survivors make their way back.
(men chattering)
They manage to reach the aid station
where Dr. Nicole Mangin is waiting.
She recalls,
(tense music)
"They came from all sides,
pointing to their injured limbs and faces.
They claimed that the Caures forest had fallen
into enemy hands and that Driant's men
had been exterminated.
Colonel Driant was dead according to some,
or a prisoner according to others.
We didn't know what to think."
Emile Driant was shot in the head.
(somber music)
Like him, these men that he photographed
a few days prior to the attack did not survive.
Out of 2,200 men, 1,700 died.
Their sacrifice made the Germans lose an entire day.
Was this delay decisive?
Thanks to the heroes of the Caures forest,
the first backups were able to get there
and France's artillery is now concentrated in the area.
(artillery firing)
300 French cannons let loose.
The artillery me don't bother to aim.
They just shower the Kronprinz's troops with shells.
(men shouting)
German soldier Richard Muller writes,
"We're caught in the crossfire.
Retreating is as dangerous as advancing.
We're surrounded by a horrifying chaos of human debris.
We hear moaning that seems to come
from the bowels of the Earth.
It's the poor souls who have been buried alive.
How can we escape the French artillery fire?"
(artillery firing)
Despite the terrible losses,
the Germans continue
(suspenseful music)
their relentless progression.
On the second day of the attack, February 23rd, 1916,
they storm the Cote-du-Poivre.
They are only five kilometers
from the impenetrable Fort Douaumont,
the highest point from which they would dominate
the entire battlefield.
Fort Douaumont is gigantic.
(tense drumming music)
It's a 400-meter-wide hexagon,
spanning 7.5 acres, surrounded by six-meter-thick walls.
Its underground passages, built at various depths,
run several kilometers long and can provide shelter
to 3,000 soldiers, although there are only four toilets.
The tunnels are lit by gas lamps and candles.
(footsteps clacking)
The men defending it are a few territorials,
older soldiers who have been called back up.
These forts, built to defend France
after the defeat of 1870, are still imposing.
French propaganda turns them into strongholds
that can block the access to Paris.
But for how long?
The French are very worried
about the fall of the Cote-du-Poivre
and the threat to Fort Douaumont.
Commander-in-chief General Joffre
gives the order to hold position.
(tense drumming music)
He writes, "Any commander who, in our current situation
gives an order to retreat, will be summoned to appear
before a war council."
Reinforcements converge on the great slaughterhouse.
Joffre is now ready to sacrifice any number of men
to block the road to Paris.
(tense music)
Five days after the beginning of the German attack,
February 26th, 1916,
200 kilometers from Verdun,
Clemence Martin is in her village,
occupied by the Germans.
She understands that serious events are taking place.
She writes, "We can hear the cannons.
The Germans tell us it's coming from Verdun.
I can't believe it.
That's 200 kilometers away.
(lively victory music)
They're celebrating.
Their flags are hoisted in victory.
They ring the bells at noon to sing their joy.
To me it sounds like a death knell.
(men chattering)
(bells tolling)
They claim one of the Verdun forts has been seized
which seems unbelievable.
Is that even possible?"
(dramatic music)
Douaumont.
This famous German propaganda film
celebrates the great feat, the taking of the fort,
even though there was no real resistance
because it wasn't heavily defended.
But conquering Fort Douaumont has huge repercussions.
(men chattering)
German soldier Paul Ettighoffer writes,
(somber music)
(artillery booming)
"To us, the fall of Douaumont is the symbol of victory,
and hopefully, peace."
(tense music)
Emperor Wilhelm II has the press publish
a communique announcing,
"Verdun's main fort has fallen."
It makes the headlines of the world's newspapers.
The "Sunday Pictorial",
the most important English newspaper of the time,
with a circulation of two million,
runs the headline
"Will the Germans Break Through in Verdun?"
(somber music)
English public opinion and King George V
both believe that if the French front gives way,
the war may be is lost.
(crowd cheering)
As it is, so many men have left their families
to fight in the Somme.
The French press purposely doesn't report
on the status of Douaumont
so as not to discourage the population.
Instead, it announces
(tense music)
the arrival of the Emperor, the Kaiser, on the Verdun front.
Wilhelm II must be concerned about the many losses
suffered by his army, 20,000 men in less than one week.
"We must persevere," pleads his son the Kronprinz.
According to German Command,
the artillery now set up in the hills of Douaumont,
less than 10 kilometer from Verdun,
will be able to reach the city.
(artillery firing)
(tense music)
Verdun has been hit hard.
Its cathedral was 1,000 years old.
(suspenseful music)
The city has been partially evacuated
and the German shells don't claim many victims.
But the French High Command
(somber music)
understands the gravity of the situation.
The protective ring of forts is about to give way.
The villagers around Verdun are forced to leave their homes.
They pass by soldiers and medics under terrible stress
going in the opposite direction.
(people chattering)
Surgeon Georges Duhamel will become
one of the greatest French authors.
He writes, "They push wretched animals
and shaky carts carrying mattresses, quilts,
whatever is needed to sleep and eat.
From village to village, they look for accommodations
that don't exist, yet they never complain.
Groups of people with minor injuries limp
towards the ambulance, a doctor approaches us.
(bombs whistling)
We are immediately struck by the stench
and the complaints of the wounded.
(artillery firing)
A wave of formaldehyde tears at our throats
but can't mask the vile odor of men crowded together.
(man coughing)
We see them in different rooms, huddled around frying pans
or stretched out on cots and hallway tiles.
(men shouting)
We hurry to divide up the work and allocate roles.
(men screaming)
The cries and the suffering overpower the explosions
of the tremendous cannonade."
Georges Duhamel
(somber music)
and the three other surgeons
of Ambulance 93 carry out
over a hundred emergency operations per day.
They sort the wounded by the seriousness of their injuries,
amputating wherever gangrene has developed.
They see to the burial of those they couldn't save.
Six days after the attack on February 27th, 1916,
while Georges Duhamel is trying to save lives
in the suburbs of Verdun,
the situation on the battlefield remains critical.
The French have lost Douaumont
but they desperately try to hold onto the village
behind the fort.
(artillery firing)
The 95th Infantry Regiment tries to resist
and even attempts to attack.
(guns firing)
(artillery firing)
The soldiers await their turn in the central trench
that leads to the front line.
(men shouting)
(guns firing)
(eerie piercing music)
The regiment loses 800 men out of 1,000 in a single day.
Eugene Lemercier, a French fighter,
describes this never-ending hell
in a letter to his mother.
(tense music)
"You have no idea what man can do to his fellow man.
My feet are covered with human brain matter.
I crush thoraxes and walk over entrails.
The regiment was heroic,
but we have no more officers.
When all the officers have died, one after the other,
the noncommissioned officers take command
and the combat continues until no man is left standing."
Those who survive are the ones
who have been there the longest.
They have been fighting for almost two years
and have learned their trade.
Even in the shell holes and humidity,
in the cold and ice,
they know small ways to create
a semblance of comfort.
(suspenseful music)
They've been ordered to hold their position.
Above all, their commanding general
wants to reassure the allies.
Joffre sends as many reinforcements as he can.
To lead the defense of Verdun,
he names a recognized and available leader, Philippe Petain.
The problem is that Petain is in Paris and can't be located.
One of his officers familiar with his habits
goes round to the brothels and hotels
that Petain frequently visits.
(lively French music)
Petain is found in a room
at the Hotel Terminus Gare du Nord
in the company of Eugenie Hardon,
a 39-year-old divorcee.
She's considered his steady girl
because there are others too
just as pretty but younger.
One week after the onset
(tense music)
of the German attack,
Petain and his general staff settle into the City Hall
at Souilly, 20 kilometers from Verdun.
General Petain is 60, a farmer's son.
Heavily affected by the defeat of 1870,
he establishes his authority through his composure
and sense of leadership.
But will he succeed in turning the situation around?
His men claim he has the spirit of a foot soldier.
He is concerned about their existence.
He dares to say, "Firepower kills,"
which is rare for a general.
He also advises his men,
"Be heroic by all means,
but most importantly, stay alive."
(men chattering)
(horse snorting)
He does everything in his power to improve
the daily existence of the Poilus, or hairy beasts.
He is concerned with irregularity
and the quality of the meals
and never skimps on the red wine.
There is always more wine than water
which is in serious shortage.
(lively music)
(singing in foreign language)
The red wine is brought all the way to the front,
bringing courage to these men ready to die for the homeland.
(lively music)
(wind whistling)
(somber music)
(dramatic somber music)
(dramatic music)
(tense drumming music)
(gentle music)