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The First World War - carnage on a scale never-before seen. But how did it all start? And how did some key figures of WWII fare in the earlier war?

Episode 2: Purgatory
 
Despite superior artillery to deal quickly with allied forts, the German offensive is quickly bogged down roughly over the French borders, while the czar resorts to scorched earth retreat. The Western front is transformed into a long hell of opposing trenches, sites of endless bombardments and bloody assaults, producing millions of victims, often dying or crippled, and the arsenal of industrialized horror grows, extending to toxic gasses and aircraft. The home front suffers, deprived of unprecedented supplies needed for the front, war production with women filling in, millions of POWs, bombardments by zeppelin, naval blockades. Despite propaganda and moral boosts, the years of increasing suffering spells revolutions, which will bring down the Russian empire first, ultimately Germany and Austria-Hungary too.