Bullets, Boots and Bandages: How to Really Win at War

'From the armies of the Romans...

'..to the modern, global conflicts of today.

'I'm Saul David and I'm a military historian.

'What history tells us again and again is that'

beyond the derring-do of military commanders,

it's the nuts and bolts of how you house and feed your army,

how you move it and how you kit it ready for battle,

that's the real key to winning wars.

'Today, military logistics dominates modern warfare

'with entire branches of specialists dedicated to feeding, moving,

'and kitting out frontline soldiers ready for battle.'

This is the story of how this elaborate, high-tech world came to be,

because throughout history, the greatest challenges

faced by any military commander have remained the same.

'If you don't keep your soldiers fed,

'they'll never even make it to the battlefield.'

Think about it this way,

you're slaughtering for 80,000 men a minimum of 300 animals per day.

'If you can't move your men, and fast,

'you'll never steal a march on the enemy.'

US General George C Marshall once described

the Jeep as America's greatest contribution to modern warfare.

And don't forget, America invented the atomic bomb.

'Any army that isn't equipped with the latest technology

'has literally been cut to shreds.'

Some of the greatest failures and victories in history

have come down to the detail of military logistics -

the real story of how wars are won and lost.

Throughout history, armies have faced certain constant and highly-destructive enemies

but I'm not talking about physical opponents,

rather hunger, thirst and disease.

Even today, a general's main task is to house his men,

feed them and keep them fit for combat,

because if he gets that wrong, he's sunk even before a shot is fired.

'This film is about health, housing and food,

'and the kit armies have used to stay alive throughout history.

'We'll see how Wellington had to take an entire herd of cows with him on campaign...

'..how a supply disaster in the Crimea

'led to a turning point in military history...

'..and how the humble tin can

'made possible the entrenched warfare of World War One...

'..because any general's primary challenge is that of basic survival.

'Quite simply of keeping your men alive and well enough to fight.'

'Camp Bastion,

'the logistics hub for operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

'This is Britain's largest overseas military camp since World War Two,

'home to over 30,000 soldiers and contractors.

'Fresh food is flown in.

'Four tonnes of fruit and salad are eaten every single day.

'Water comes from the ground, a million litres a week of it.

'In this heart of a bleak desert,

'a base has been created from nothing.

'But setting up giant camps on this massive scale is far from new.'

'2,000 years ago, the Roman Empire was built and sustained by a vast army.

'At its peak, 450,000 men patrolled Pax Romana

'from Egypt all the way to Britain.'

In AD 122, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian,

the construction of this wall began,

to separate the Romans from the barbarians.

'This marked the very limit of the vast Roman Empire.

'And the 10,000 soldiers stationed on this bleak, northern frontier

'had to be kept housed, fed and healthy

'just like today's troops in Afghanistan.

'Vindolanda is one of the best preserved of all the forts the Romans created,

'home to over 2,000 soldiers and families.'

So here we are at the barrack blocks where the soldiers actually lived.

If you come inside, you'll get a sense of space.

This was state-of-the-art. You would have had insulated walls.

At the front of each block, was a fireplace to keep them warm in winter

and crucially and most extraordinary, I think,

there would have been glass in the windows.

Civilian houses here didn't have glass for another 1,000 years

and then only people who could afford it.

It's astonishing to think of the level of detail the Romans were prepared to go to.

'Excavations here are still revealing the life and kit of Roman soldiers.

'The site's director is Andrew Birley.'

When on the move, they put a modern camping expedition to total shame.

The sheer volume of kit these guys take with them.

The sort of things they may carry over their shoulders

are their dolabras, their trenching tools, extra weapons,

a few wooden stakes to put in the ground for their camp at night time,

a water can, or something like that.

The other things that they carry are intensely personal.

You've got your wooden combs to keep yourself looking neat and tidy,

your spatula, palettes and things to make medicine.

The thing that every Roman soldier would carry bar none

are these lovely little knives.

They can double up as weapons but essentially they're for eating.

No knives and forks, they use knives for everything.

Every Roman soldier would have one of these slung on his belt.

Beautiful things. Wickedly sharp after all those years.

This would be standard issue, would it?

Every soldier has one of those and is expected to keep it in good order

and replace it if it breaks.

What they don't carry are things like this, huge millstones.

They don't carry them on their backs but they take them with them.

The worst case scenario is you get out into the field,

you run out of grain that's processed and you have to get some more.

There are always farmers around who you can pinch things from or buy them from if they're friendly

but you've got to process foodstuffs into things you can eat.

That's why this big millstone is the sort of thing you carry on your mule

at the back of the wagon train.

Perhaps an ox wagon would carry these travelling with the army.

'As a permanent camp,

'Vindolanda had to provide for the welfare of soldiers all year round.

'At the very heart of its supply operation was the granary.'

The floor level would have been here

and I'm walking along a duct which enabled air to circulate,

which of course prevents the grain from going off.

The whole building would have held a year's supply of grain

and this was crucial because it meant harvest to harvest

the fort could have held out even if it was besieged.

'While the grain came from local British farms,

'other rations had to be brought from much further afield.'

This fragment of pottery was actually from a Roman amphora.

It doesn't look like much in its current state,

but if you can imagine, it would have been a huge bulbous container

filled with olive oil.

The most revealing thing about the amphora is this inscription here.

It's the names of the proprietors of the farm

that actually produced this amphora and the olive oil.

It says Aemiliae and casae.

That doesn't mean much in itself until you realise that this farm

was in Seville in Spain.

The quartermaster in the camp would have ordered this olive oil

and had it transported 1,000 miles across the Empire

for the consumption of the troops at Vindolanda.

'Staying well-housed and fed is one thing,

'but it's also vital to stay healthy.

'No army can survive long without being able to wash.'

Now, why would they have used a hot room like this?

It's partly recreational, of course, to chill out.

But more importantly than that it was for hygiene.

As all great generals know, to get a soldier able to fight,

you have to keep him healthy and the caldarium did that.

'Hot air would have come through ducts,

'heating a floor of stone flags topped with concrete.

'Ladles of cold water would have been poured onto it

'to fill the room with steam like a modern sauna.'

What's great about coming to Vindolanda for a military historian like me

is that previously I'd only really looked at the Roman army at war

but when you come here you begin to understand how the Roman soldier actually lived

and what's astonishing about this site

is its attention to detail in all aspects of daily life.

You get a sense of the lengths the Roman army was prepared to go

to keep its troops not only healthy but also happy.

'Soldiers arriving in a new theatre of war such as Afghanistan

'have to have their basic needs met before they can do anything else.

'It's the most fundamental duty of any commander.'

Without keeping soldiers fed and watered,

without keeping them housed and dry,

and without keeping them clean and healthy, you're in trouble.

All of these things are hard enough to manage in fixed bases,

but when an army is on campaign, often in foreign and distant lands,

the challenge becomes even tougher.

'And when it goes wrong the price is high,

'for kingdoms as well as men.

'In 1415, the English King, Henry V, set off to invade France

'with over 10,000 men in a bid to take the French throne.

'Tim Sutherland is an expert in medieval warfare

'and has studied the type of kit Henry V's men would have taken on the campaign.'

People at the lower scale

would have walked onto the battlefield

with minimal amounts of equipment.

Mostly they would have been wearing very thick protective clothing,

anything that was based on linen and wool.

The more layers a jacket like this has,

the more protected it is against weapon blows.

Also it's warmer. The problem with this is when it gets wet

it becomes like a sponge and it becomes incredibly heavy.

It weighs you down enough to drown you, even in shallow water.

You had to be able to feed yourself,

because nobody else would have fed you.

You picked berries, found rabbits,

you'd be hunting things with a bow and arrow or trapping them.

What they also need to do is cook.

So maybe they would have had between five, 10, 15 people, a cooking pot.

This is an iron one, which is probably a later design,

but the bronze cauldrons of the time would have been very similar

and round about this size.

Everybody needs to drink, so you need something to drink from,

whether it's a bowl, such as a wooden bowl like this to scoop water up,

or whether it's something like a pottery mug.

What happens is you get small numbers of people who can look after themselves

and this is the sort of kit they would have used as a small, cohesive group.

'Henry's lightly-equipped force sailed to Normandy

'and his first objective was the strategic port of Harfleur,

'but he was stopped in his tracks by the town's huge defensive walls.

'Henry settled in for a lengthy siege,

'the worst-case scenario for any army reliant on foraging and fresh water to survive.

'The French were well aware of the English vulnerability

'and had a plan - to wreak havoc on the British camp

'and leave it wide open to the spread of disease.'

The French opened the locks to the river so this whole area was filled with stagnant water.

You can only imagine what this meant for Henry

and his army of 10,000 soldiers and 20,000 horses.

With nowhere to bury human or animal waste, with the weather unseasonably hot,

this area became a perfect breeding ground for disease.

'Sharing kit, living in what was to become an open sewer,

'led to a contagious wave of vomiting and diarrhoea.