THE GREAT WAR 5 : This Business May Take a Long Time (Rudolf Binding) [Main Title]

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  • Title: THE GREAT WAR 5 : This Business May Take a Long Time (Rudolf Binding) [Main Title]
  • Film Number: IWM 1065-5
  • Other titles: THIS BUSINESS MAY TAKE A LONG TIME (Rudolf Binding) [Alternative Title]
  • Summary: Military operations on the Western, Eastern and Serbian Fronts from the Battle of the Marne to Christmas Day, September-December 1914.
  • Description: At the end of the retreat from Mons the Germans were only twenty miles from Paris. General Joffre ordered his forces from Verdun to the Marne to hold, his new Sixth Army and the Paris garrison to engage the German First Army frontally, and the Fifth Army and BEF to move into the gap between the German First and Second Armies. With some emotion, Sir John French agreed. The Battle of the Marne was an Allied victory, but the pursuit was too slow to trap the Germans. By 16th September the front was stabilising on the Aisne, and the Race to the Sea began. Meanwhile the Belgians, with British support, held onto Antwerp until 7th October. General Foch, commanding Allied forces in the north, tried to break through at Ypres. Von Moltke's replacement as German commander, Eric von Falkenhayn, planned a long war of air and submarine attacks against Britain, but first needed a victory against France and also attacked at Ypres. Both sides lost heavily, the Germans their untrained forces, the British the last of their professional Army. The first Territorials and Indian troops joined in the battle. When the front finally stabilised the British alone had lost over 60,000 casualties. Meanwhile the Austro-Hungarians twice invaded Belgrade and were twice repulsed, losing 227,000 men. Field Marshal Conrad von Hötzendorf, the Austro-Hungarian commander, engaged the Russians on 6th September at Lemberg in the Carpathians, but fell back losing over 100,000 prisoners. Many Austro-Hungarian troops were Slavs with little enthusiasm for the war, and Austro-Hungarian incompetence distorted German strategy. Allied losses were high in 1914, over 995,000 French and even more Russians. Despite censorship, people reacted with war hysteria: in Britain Lord Haldane was attacked as pro-German, German-owned shops were looted and Prince Louis of Battenberg, First Sea Lord, hounded from office. Over a million men volunteered for the Army. Canada offered 40,000 men, Australia 20,000 and New Zealand 8,000, together with the colonies and India, "the Empire was at war", which the Germans had not anticipated. They blamed Britain for their failure to win victory in 1914, and prepared to fight to the bitter end. At Christmas 1914 there were unofficial truces between soldiers in the front line trenches on the Western Front. A veteran recalls that German crosses read "for Fatherland and Freedom" and that Germans believed God was on their side - something he could not understand.
  • Alternative Title: THIS BUSINESS MAY TAKE A LONG TIME (Rudolf Binding) [Alternative Title]
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised: No
  • Object_Number: IWM 1065-5
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: NON-IWM: PROJECTION PRINT ONLY - NOT FOR PRODUCTION USE
  • Featured Period: 1914-1918
  • Production Date: 1964
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Production sponsor) Imperial War Museum (Production sponsor) Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Production sponsor) BBC (Production company) Essex, Tony (Production individual) Watkins, Gordon (Production individual) Terraine, John Alfred1921-01-152003-12-27 (Production individual) Rollins, Ed (Production individual) Manefield, Tom (Production individual) Terraine, John Alfred1921-01-152003-12-27 (Production individual) Jarvis, Anne (Production individual) Hipple, Rex (Production individual) Kay Film Laboratories (Production individual) Bigman, Richard (Production individual) Caravel Films (Production individual) McWatt, John (Production individual) Garland, Nicholas1935 (Production individual) Saunders, Robert (Production individual) Read, Bill (Production individual) Keene, Brian (Production individual) Callaway, Ian (Production individual) Bosworth, Pam (Production individual) Carr, Norman (Production individual) Heelas, Peter (Production individual) Toovey, Barry (Production individual) Cave, Julia (Production individual) Broadway, Anne (Production individual) Bryen, Doris (Production individual) Kersey, Jill (Production individual) Davidson, Eric (Production individual) Vigne, Jean (Production individual) Mendelsohn, Robyn (Production individual) Maloney, William (Production individual) Macloughlin, Marya (Production individual) Maros, Basil (Production individual) Virgo, Myrtle (Production individual) Descendre, Anne (Production individual) Edwards, Jeffrey (Production individual) Parry, Audrey (Production individual) Shukman, Harold (Production individual) Kuehl, Jerome (Production individual) Barrie, Alexander (Production individual) Hastings, Max Hugh Macdonald1945-12-28Researcher, BBC TV Great War series, 1963–64; Reporter, Evening Standard, 1965–67; Fellow, US World Press Inst., 1967–68; Roving Correspondent, Evening Standard, 1968–70; Reporter, BBC TV Current Affairs, 1970–73; Editor, Evening Standard Londoner’s Diary, 1976–77; Columnist, Daily Express, 1981–83; contributor, Sunday Times, 1985–86; Editor, The Daily Telegraph, 1986–95; Dir, 1989–95, Editor-in-Chief, 1990–95, The Daily Telegraph plc; Editor, The Evening Standard, 1996–2002; contributor, Daily Mail, 2002–; Contrib. Ed., Financial Times, 2009–13. As War Correspondent, covered Middle East, Indochina, Angola, India-Pakistan, Cyprus, Rhodesia and S Atlantic. Mem., Press Complaints Commn, 1991–92. Churchill Fellow, Westminster Coll., Fulton, Mo, 2011. TV documentaries: Ping-Pong in Peking, 1971; The War about Peace, 1983; Alarums and Exercursions, 1984; Cold Comfort Farm, 1985; The War in Korea (series), 1988; We Are All Green Now, 1990; Spies, in series Cold War, CNN, 1998; Hitler’s Germany, 2000; The Falklands: reluctant heroes, 2002; Winston’s War, 2003; The Falklands Legacy, 2012; The Necessary War, 2014. A Vice Pres., Game Conservancy, 1992–; President: CPRE, 2002–07; Sir Walter Scott Soc. of Edinburgh, 2012–13. Trustee: Nat. Portrait Gall., 1995–2004; Game Conservancy, 2014–. Liddell-Hart Lecture, KCL, 1994; Mountbatten Lecture, Edinburgh Univ., 2004; Leonard Stein Lectures, Oxford Univ., 2009. FRHistS 1988; FRSL 1996. Hon FKC, 2004. Hon. DLitt: Leicester, 1992; Nottingham, 2005. Journalist of the Year, British Press Awards, 1982 (cited 1973 and 1980); What The Papers Say, Granada TV: Reporter of the Year, 1982; Editor of the Year, 1988; Duke of Westminster Medal for military literature, RUSI, 2008; Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement, Chicago Pritzker Library, 2012; Friuladria Prize, Gorizia Internat. Hist. Fest., 2014 (Production individual) Liddell Hart, Basil Henry1895-10-311970-01-29 (Production individual) Terraine, John Alfred1921-01-152003-12-27 (Production individual) Barnett, Correlli Douglas (Production individual) Pitt, Barrie (Production individual) Horne, Alistair1925Trustee of the Imperial War Museum (Production individual) Bonham-Carter, Victor (Production individual) Williams, John (Production individual) Josephs, Wilfred (Production individual) BBC Northern Orchestra (Production individual) Hurst, George (Production individual) Redgrave, Michael (Sir) (Production cast) Richardson, Ralph (Sir) (Production cast) Williams, Emlyn (Production cast) Goring, Marius (Production cast) Luckman, Cyril (Production cast) Shaw, Sebastian (Production cast)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:
  • Keywords: 01/3(4-15).22 (event) 01/3(4-15).27 (event) 01/3(4-15).29 (event) 01/3(4-15).27 [1914 Ypres] (event) 01/3(4-11).21 [1914 Lemberg 2] (event) 01/3(497) [1914 Belgrade 1] (event) 01/3(497) [1914 Belgrade 2] (event)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English Title language: English Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 16mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 1514 ft; Running time: 45 mins
  • HD Media:
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