On October 4th, the Big Red One,
along with Sergeant Ellis and the 28th Regiment,
are committed to battle.
- It's the most experienced division
in the United States Army,
'cause they've been at this longer than anyone else,
and it's the best unit to go into the attack.
- But Mother Nature has made this a natural fortress.
So the doughboys are not only fighting a determined foe,
but they're also fighting a determined foe
who has used the terrain to their best advantage.
[suspenseful music]
- Take a moment, men.
[ominous music]
[rifle fires]
- Get down!
[rifles firing]
[machine gun firing]
Take cover! Boys, take the fight to the bastards!
Forward!
[sergeant shouts indistinctly]
Let's go!
[machine gun firing]
- Keep advancing!
- Lieutenant Sawyer! Lieutenant Sawyer!
- Keep advancing! - Lieutenant Sawyer!
- Keep advancing! - We can't go straight at them!
- [Sawyer] I can't hear you!
- They'll cut us to ribbons!
Sir, we need to flank them!
[artillery shell explodes]
[dramatic music]
[soldier groaning]
- I'm fine, I'm fine. - Are you okay?
- Go, just go. Go!
- During World War I,
you are fighting for the person to your right and left.
Not for the division, not for General Pershing,
not to make the world safe for democracy.
You are fighting for that person
that you know and care about.
[artillery blasting]
- For soldiers like Michael Ellis or Horace Pippin,
after almost 200 days of continuous fire,
they had seen a lot of men die.
And on the one hand, that takes a real toll.
On the other hand, it gave them a sense of determination
to see this battle through to its completion.
[machine gun firing]
[Ellis breathing heavily]
- And so Ellis was basically improvising.
He was paying attention to where the enemy was located,
looking at the landscape,
figuring out how he could get into a position
to attack these Germans.
- As American soldiers develop experience
on the battlefield, they learn that
you can't just run up a hill
directly at a machine gun.
You have to run around it.
[machine gun firing] [ominous music]
[rifle fires]
- Out now!
Out now!
[Ellis panting]
Out now!
Where's your officer?
[soldier speaks in German]
[officer speaks in German]
- Your friends, where are they?
Hands up!
[soldier whistles]
[dramatic music]
- Michael Ellis puts himself in the history pages
by personally clearing six German machine gun positions
and capturing over 50 of the enemy,
essentially single-handedly.
In World War I,
there are so many individual acts of bravery.
It's so many times where a soldier picks up the flag
and moves it forward.
That kind of pluck, that kind of valor,
is not uncommon in the AEF.
And it can be a private, it can be Henry Johnson,
it can be Sergeant Michael Ellis.
- When you hear a story like Michael Ellis
that he's able to neutralize multiple machine gun positions,
it seems impossible
In our mind's eyes, we think about that.
But when you think about the state of the German soldier
at this point in the war,
they've been on the line for four years.
They have suffered through miserable conditions.
They are starving, in many cases.
And when they realize that, for them, the war is over,
there's nothing left to fight for,
German soldiers begin to surrender in waves.
- Is this the force that we feared so much?
Is this the monster that we were so afraid of?
We didn't expect this.
We thought that perhaps this would drag on
to the bitter end.
And what they discover is that the monster
is actually just a man.
- Take them back to our reserves.
Ellis!
Good job.
[prisoners of war shouting]
- On November 8th, 1918,
the Germans officially requested armistice negotiations.
And the story goes that Foch said,
"If you wish an armistice,
here are the terms by which you can get them.
But there will be no negotiation."
- The Germans are going to have to hand over
all of their weapons, all of their navy.
They're going to have to pull out
of the western part of their own country.
They're gonna have to surrender all of the gains
that they've made.
It is a surrender in all but name.
- Terms of the armistice are severe for Germany,
and Germany has three days to think about it.
It's not giving the Germans much wiggle room at all.
- As Ferdinand Foch and the politicians
are trying to figure out what terms would be acceptable,
the soldiers keep fighting.
Their job is to make sure
that the Germans do not get a minutes rest.
So the fighting goes up right until the 11th day
of the 11th month, November 11th, 1918.
[tense pulsating music]
- [whispers] You hear that?
- No, nothing. - Exactly.
[hens clucking]
[soldiers chattering faintly]
[mysterious music]
- We have won the war!
- I heard there was a rumor. Is it true?
- It is over!
[civilians shouting]
- What? We won?
- I guess so.
- We made it?
- I guess we did.