Characters

"Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause each one of us must fight on to the end."

Commander of British forces from late 1915 through the war's end, Haig remains the most controversial figure of WWI. Critics call him 'Butcher Haig' for the catastrophic losses at the Somme and Passchendaele; defenders point out he commanded the army that ultimately won the war. He adapted, eventually, but slowly — and at enormous human cost.

"This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years."

Named Supreme Allied Commander in March 1918 after the German Spring Offensive threatened to split the Allied armies, Foch immediately coordinated the counteroffensives that ended the war. His Hundred Days Offensive from August to November 1918 was the decisive campaign. His prophetic warning about Versailles proved accurate to the year.

"The war will be decided in the next few weeks. I appeal to the patriotism of everyone."

The true military brain behind Germany's war effort. With Hindenburg, Ludendorff effectively ruled Germany by 1917. He devised stormtrooper infiltration tactics that revolutionized warfare, and the Spring Offensive of 1918 was his last gamble. When it failed he suffered a breakdown, urged the armistice, then embraced the 'stab in the back' myth that paved the way for Hitler.

"They shall not pass."

The hero of Verdun — the general who held France's most sacred fortress when it seemed about to fall. Pétain understood his men's suffering and prioritized rotating units out of the front. After the mutinies of 1917, he restored the army through a combination of justice and reform. His WWI heroism made his WWII collaboration with Nazi Germany as Vichy leader all the more tragic.

"I am ordering you to die. In the time which passes until we die, other troops and commanders can come forward and take our places."

The officer who stopped the ANZAC advance at Gallipoli and became a national hero overnight. His order to his troops — essentially to die in place to buy time — held the heights and determined the battle's outcome. After the war he abolished the Ottoman sultanate, founded the Republic of Turkey, and modernized the country as its first President.

"Lafayette, we are here."

Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces who refused to allow his divisions to be used as replacements for exhausted French and British units — insisting they fight as an independent American army. His stubbornness frustrated Allied commanders but preserved American national pride. The arrival of 2 million fresh American troops tipped the scales in 1918.

"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible."

British intelligence officer who became the legendary 'Lawrence of Arabia' by organizing and leading the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans. Using guerrilla tactics — dynamiting railways, ambushing convoys — he tied down large Ottoman forces with a small mobile force. His memoir 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' is a masterpiece. He felt profound guilt about the broken British promises to Arab leaders.

"We stand at the end of a great struggle which our enemies forced upon us."

Brought out of retirement in 1914 to command in the East, Hindenburg — with Ludendorff doing the real thinking — annihilated two Russian armies at Tannenberg. He became a towering national symbol of German military prowess. As President of the Weimar Republic, his fatal decision to appoint Hitler Chancellor in January 1933 changed history.

"The soldier must know why he fights."

The most innovative Allied general of WWI. His 1916 offensive used simultaneous attacks across a wide front to prevent the enemy from concentrating reserves — a revolutionary departure from the single-point assaults that had defined the war. His tactics were studied worldwide and influenced armies for decades. After the Revolution he served in the Red Army.

"I had no idea how many tares had been sown during the years of my youth."

As First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill championed the Gallipoli campaign as a brilliant strategic stroke to bypass the deadlocked Western Front. Its failure forced his resignation and a spell commanding troops in France. He rebuilt his career as Minister of Munitions, championing tank production. The humiliation of Gallipoli haunted him for decades.