World War 1 1914–1919
A Source-based Study
Part 2
The home fronts in Britain and
Germany
World War 1 1914–1919
A Source-based Study
Part 2.1
Total war
Contents
Total war – introduction
3
Military action
6
Part 2.1 Exercise 1
11
Political and economic control
15
Political centralisation
15
Economic regimentation
18
Part 2.1 Exercise 2
29
Daily life
33
Food shortages
33
Other effects
39
Reasons for total war
41
Part 2.1 Exercise 3
43
Censorship and propaganda
45
Censorship
45
Propaganda
49
Part 2.1 Exercise 4
59
Recruitment
63
Main methods
63
Main themes
65
Effectiveness of recruitment
68
Part 2.1 Exercise 5
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
71
1
Total war – introduction
World War I was the first example of what has been called ‘total war’.
Below are some descriptions of the meaning of this term. Read them and
then do the activity which follows.
Unlike previous wars, the Great War was the first ‘total war’ in which
whole nations, and not just professional armies, were locked in mortal
combat. The war served to increase the level of public interest and
participation in the affairs of state [the government of the nation].
The gap between the soldiers at the front and the civilians at home was
narrowed substantially in that the entire resources of the state – military,
economic and psychological – had to be mobilised. ‘Total war’ …
requires civilians to participate in the war effort …
Source:
David Welch, 2000, Germany, Propaganda and Total War, 1914–18,
The Athlone Press, p. 1.
… in the world wars of the twentieth century, civilians were scarcely less
central than soldiers to the prosecution of war; and their pivotal roles in
these wars made them just as vulnerable to systematic and calculated acts
of enemy action, whether by means of commercial warfare or strategic
bombardment from the air.
Source:
Roger Chickering, 1998, Imperial Germany and the Great War,
1914–1918, Cambridge University Press, p. 65.
… World War I was the first total war in modern history, in the sense that
its rigors were apt to be visited upon all citizens of the participating
powers, however remote they might be from the battle area ... The
fortunes of war influenced or determined their freedom of action, their
employment, their diet, and even what they were allowed to think and say.
It subjected every aspect of their lives to an increasing degree of control
and regimentation and had effects that persisted even after the war was
over.
Source:
Gordon A Craig, 1974, Europe Since 1815, Alternate edition, Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, p. 342.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
3
Using the sources above, tick which of the following you think is the best
definition of ‘total war’.
❒
Total war means that all the people (both soldiers and civilians)
and all the material resources of a country were used to fight the
war, and that every aspect of people’s lives was affected by the
war, including that civilians could be harmed by enemy action even
if they were a long way from the battlefield.
❒
Total war means that all the people of a country were totally
committed to fighting and winning the war.
❒
Total war means that all the people and all the material resources of
a country were used in the war effort, which was necessary if the
country was going to win.
❒
Total war means that every aspect of people’s lives was affected by
the war, including the civilians who were actually a long way from
the battlefield.
Did you answer?
Total war means that all the people (both soldiers and civilians) and all the
material resources of a country were used to fight the war, and that every aspect of
people’s lives was affected by the war, including that civilians could be harmed by
enemy action even if they were a long way from the battlefield.
4
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
In the table below, tick which of the following you think would have been
features of total war during World War I. There may be more than one
correct answer.
Civilians were encouraged to make or buy items such as socks and chocolate to
send to the soldiers.
Men were conscripted into the armed forces, in other words forced to join the
armed forces even if they didn’t want to.
More people, especially women, worked in the labour force.
People were encouraged to grow food in their gardens.
People were encouraged to lend money to the government to help pay for the war.
Planes and other aircraft bombed enemy countries.
Propaganda was used to create and maintain people’s support for the war.
The British blockade of the German coast and German unrestricted submarine
warfare caused shortages of products.
The freedom of ‘aliens’ [people of one nationality living in an enemy country] was
restricted.
The government increased its control over what was produced in factories and on
farms.
The homes and farms of people in northern France and Belgium were used as
‘billets’ by soldiers.
There was censorship of bad news about the war in newspapers and magazines.
Did you answer?
All of these were features of total war in World War I.
French leaders were the first to use the term ‘la guerre intégrale’ – ‘total
war’ – in 1917. However all the participating countries adopted this
approach once it became clear in 1914 that the war was not going to be
‘over by Christmas’ as they had expected, and that it could instead drag on
for years. Certainly the Germans and the French increased their use of total
war in 1916 and 1917 respectively but this was merely an intensification of
a policy that they had been following for some time.
Total war was the almost inevitable result of the nature of trench warfare.
It soon became clear that a war of attrition such as had developed on the
Western Front would be won by the side that possessed the greatest
resources, both human and material, and that was able to make the most
effective use of those resources. Clearly whichever side had more men and
military supplies and was able to wear down the men and supplies of the
other was likely to be victorious. The needs of modern armies were much
greater than those of armies in earlier times. In addition, new technology
such as aircraft made it possible for war to be carried on quite some distance
away from the main battlefield where the armies were in conflict.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
5
Military action
Conscription
In a war of attrition as the fighting on the Western Front became, the most
important requirement of all is soldiers. There are two main ways in which
an army gets the soldiers that it needs:
•
•
voluntary enlistment, where men (and later women) volunteer to join
the army
conscription where people are forced to join the army, even if they
don’t wish to.
Find the ‘Total war – introduction’ Source sheet.
Read Source 1.
1
Do you think this statement by King George V is about voluntary
enlistment or conscription? ______________________
2
Underline or highlight the words in the statement that indicate this.
Did you answer?
1 conscription
2 necessary to enrol every able-bodied man
Great Britain
For about the first year and a half of World War I, all British soldiers were
volunteers. Later in this Part we will look at how the British government
recruited men for the army during that time, in other words how they
encouraged men to enlist.
In 1915 Lord Derby introduced a scheme, not surprisingly called the Derby
Scheme, in which men could register for military service so that they could
be quickly called up into the army and trained if necessary.
However by the beginning of 1916, the government had reached the
conclusion that not enough men were volunteering to fight and that the
Derby Scheme was not sufficient. There were still two million out of five
million of military age who had not volunteered. The government therefore
decided to introduce conscription. They did this in two stages:
6
•
January 1916 – Military Service Act – conscription for single men and
for widowers without children, aged between 18 and 41.
•
May 1916 – Universal Conscription Act – conscription for all men aged
between 18 and 41.
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
Which of these two Acts is King George V referring to in Source 1 on the
‘Total war – introduction’ Source sheet?
___________________________________________________________
Did you answer?
Universal Conscription Act
These Acts included provisions for men to be exempt from military service
under certain circumstances. Exemptions included men who did certain
jobs which were considered essential for the ‘national interests’ such as
miners and engineers, and conscientious objectors. These were men who
objected to being in the army as a result of their beliefs, generally their
moral, religious or political beliefs. One group which objected to military
service on religious grounds was the Society of Friends, or Quakers, who
were pacifists, in other words totally opposed to war.
After the war, the No-Conscription Fellowship stated that 6312 men had
resisted military service during the war. Men had to apply for an exemption
to a Local Tribunal which had a military representative.
Do you think the presence of a military representative on each Tribunal
would have made it more likely or less likely that men would be granted
an exemption from military service?
_________________________________________________________
Did you answer?
less likely
Most applications for exemption as conscientious objectors were refused.
The men then had to decide what to do. Some decided that they would after
all enter the army. Some chose to go to prison where they often had to
endure solitary confinement. A Quaker, Len Payne, wrote, ‘I was in [a] cell
23 hours out of every 24. There was a tiny window high up, a hard wooden
plank bed, a bucket for a toilet and dreadful food’ (Liddle, 1977: 4). Others
did non-military government work including agricultural labour at places
such as Dartmoor in the south-west of England where the living conditions
were very poor. Others joined organisations including the Quaker Friends
Ambulance Unit and the Quaker War Victims Relief Service in France.
Many of the men in these organisations, especially the Ambulance Unit,
worked at the battle front and showed great courage. In fact some were
killed.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
7
Germany
Germany had conscription throughout the war. Indeed it had been
introduced before the war. Because of this and the fact that Germany had a
strong tradition of militarism dating back several decades, there was little
conscientious objection to military service during World War I.
Find the ‘Total war – introduction’ Source sheet and read Source 4.
It consists of extracts from three letters written by Ethel Cooper, an
Australian living in Germany, to her sister in Adelaide. You have read
some extracts from her letters earlier in this module.
1
According to this source, were all German soldiers conscripted or
were some volunteers?
_____________________________________________________
2
What two pieces of evidence are there in this source that, as the war
went on, Germany found it more and more difficult to have enough
soldiers? You will need to write your answer to this question in your
own words. You cannot just copy from the source.
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
Did you answer?
1
Some were volunteers.
2
Younger men were conscripted. At first the minimum age was 20 but later it
was dropped to 18.
At first conscripted soldiers had to be fit. Later men with all sorts of health
problems were conscripted into the army.
All in all, 13 123 011 German men served in the army between 1914 and
1918.
Attacks on the home front
In previous wars military action had only taken place on the battlefield
itself. The available technology did not enable countries to attack each
other’s home front. World War I was different. New technology meant that
civilians living in their own countries were no longer free from attack.
8
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
The main weapon used by both sides to attack each other’s home front was
aircraft.
Look at Source 3 (the photo) on the ‘Total war – introduction’ Source sheet.
What kind of aircraft is shown in this photo and which country used
them? Hint: if you’re not sure, look back at the Section on ‘Submarines
and planes’.
____________________________________________________________
Did you answer?
Zeppelins (airships) – Germany
The Germans used Zeppelins and Gotha planes to bomb towns and cities in
Britain, especially London. On 2 September 1916, an Australian soldier,
Private Don Maloney, wrote in a letter to his family:
The German Zeppelins came to visit some part of England pretty near
every night lately. They reached one of the suburbs of London the other
night and killed a good few people.
During the war 1117 British people were killed in these air raids. Similarly
the Germans attacked civilian targets in France.
French and British planes made a series of bombing raids on towns and
cities in the west of Germany. The university town of Freiburg was attacked
twenty five times. A total of 768 Germans died in Allied air raids
throughout the war.
Other attacks on the home fronts which caused deaths and injuries included
shells fired from German warships on the British North Sea (east) coast
during 1914 and 1915, and bombs fired on Paris by the enormous German
cannon nicknamed ‘Big Bertha’.
Bad news
Probably the worst way in which civilians were affected by the war was
when they received notification that a family member had been killed. This
happened all too often.
Look carefully at Source 2 on the ‘Total war – introduction’ Source sheet.
It is a letter informing a woman about the death of her husband.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
9
Now use the source to answer the following questions.
1
What was the name of the soldier who was killed?
______________________________________________________
2
When and how did he die?
______________________________________________________
3
What words are used in the letter to express the army’s sorrow about
the death of the soldier?
______________________________________________________
4
Circle which of the following words you think best describes the
general tone of the letter: formal / informal / friendly / unfriendly.
Did you answer?
1
Private Peter McGregor
2
13 September 1916 – killed in action (in other words, in a battle, a raid, etc)
3
painful duty, sympathy and regret
4
formal
Now would be an appropriate time to do Exercise 1.
10
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
Part 2.1 Exercise 1
Name:
Total war – introduction
1
Use the information on conscription to circle the correct answer for
each of the following questions.
Forcing people to join the army is called:
a
b
c
d
conscription
enlistment
recruitment
volunteering
The British law which introduced conscription for all men aged
between 18 and 41 was the:
a
b
c
d
Military Service Act of January 1916
Universal Service Act of January 1916
Military Conscription Act of May 1916
Universal Conscription Act of May 1916
In Britain, conscientious objectors were all:
a
b
c
d
cowards
members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers
sent to prison
unwilling to do military service
In Germany, conscription was introduced:
a
b
c
d
before World War I
in August 1914
just before the Battle of Verdun
at the beginning of 1918
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
11
Zeppelins were used by:
a
b
c
d
Belgium
France
Germany
Great Britain
The total number of British and German people killed in air raids during
World War I was:
a
b
c
d
2
25
768
1 117
1 885
As you have seen in this section, a relatively small number of people
were killed by air raids in Britain and Germany during World War I.
Why do you think the different countries went to all the effort and
expense of these air raids when they caused so few deaths on the home
front of their enemy?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
12
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
3
As you have seen in this section, ‘total war’ means that all the people
(both soldiers and civilians) and all the material resources of a country
were used to fight the war, and that every aspect of people’s lives was
affected by the war, including that civilians could be harmed by enemy
action even if they were a long way from the battlefield.
Below is a list of some features of total war. You have also seen them
earlier in this section.
Choose three of these features and, on the lines on the following page,
explain in what way each feature was part of total war. Remember that
‘explain’ means ‘make the relationships between things evident’.
1
Civilians were encouraged to make or buy items such as socks and chocolate
to send to the soldiers.
2
Men were conscripted into the armed forces, in other words forced to join the
armed forces even if they didn’t want to.
3
More people, especially women, worked in the labour force.
4
People were encouraged to grow food in their gardens.
5
People were encouraged to lend money to the government to help pay for the
war.
6
Planes and other aircraft bombed enemy countries.
7
Propaganda was used to create and maintain people’s support for the war.
8
The British blockade of the German coast and German unrestricted submarine
warfare caused shortages of products.
9
The freedom of ‘aliens’ [people of one nationality living in an enemy
country] was restricted.
10
The government increased its control over what was produced in factories and
on farms.
11
The homes and farms of people in northern France and Belgium were used as
‘billets’ by soldiers.
12
There was censorship of bad news about the war in newspapers and
magazines
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
13
Number of feature: __________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
Number of feature: __________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
Number of feature: __________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
14
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
Political and economic control
The demands of total war led to significant changes in how political power
was exercised and how the economy operated in the major European
countries. In this Section we will look at some of the most important
changes.
Political centralisation
The historian Gordon A Craig has written of ‘an increasing centralisation of
power, which assumed the appearance of government dictatorship in more
than one of the great European states [countries]’ (Craig, 1974: 342).
Which of the following statements do you think best indicates what
Gordon Craig means by this?
❒
Central governments became more powerful and state
governments less powerful during World War I.
❒
❒
Governments became more powerful during World War I.
❒
More than one of the major European countries became
dictatorships during World War I.
Governments gained so much extra power during World
War I that they became similar to dictatorships.
Did you answer?
Governments gained so much extra power during World War I that they became
similar to dictatorships.
For the next question, recall what you already know about the political
systems in the different European major powers.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
15
1
In the table below, write ‘autocracy’ or ‘democracy’ to indicate the
political system of each of the following countries before World
War I. Remember that autocracy means a government where most
power is in the hands of one person and democracy means
government by the people.
Austria-Hungary
France
Germany
Great Britain
Russia
2
During World War I, do you think there would have been more
‘centralisation of power’ in the autocracies or in the democracies?
__________________________________
Did you answer?
1
2
autocracy
Austria-Hungary
democracy
autocracy
France
Germany
democracy
autocracy
Great Britain
Russia
autocracies
Germany
The two main characteristics of the ‘centralisation of power’ in Germany
were a reduction in the (already very limited) role of the parliament, and an
increase in the political role of the military. Two examples of the latter are:
16
•
Local army commanders were given the right to intervene in local
government or in some cases to replace the civilian authorities
completely.
•
At a national level, the military increasingly dominated government
decision-making, especially after Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg
became Chief of the General Staff in September 1916, with General
Erich Ludendorff as his deputy. Not only did they make the important
military decisions but they also had a strong influence on economic and
diplomatic (foreign affairs) policy. For example, along with the
admirals of the navy, they persuaded the government to introduce
unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917. You learnt about this in the
section on ‘Submarines and planes’ in Part 1.3. The military leaders
were also largely responsible for the terms of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty
which Germany signed with Russia in March 1918 following the
Russian withdrawal from the war after the communist October
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
Revolution of 1917. You will learn more about the Russian withdrawal
from the war in Part 4. Moreover, the German military leaders
dismissed government ministers virtually whenever they wanted to,
even though this was meant to be the role of the Chancellor and the
Kaiser.
•
The involvement of Hindenburg and in particular Ludendorff in
decision-making was such that the historian Koppel S Pinson has
written:
The real ruler in Germany during the greater part of the war years was
Ludendorff, the ruthless, stubborn, and dynamic member of the
Supreme Command. Ludendorff was not content with guiding the
military conduct of the war. He intervened in all aspects of civilian
rule … [He] rejected emphatically the idea of subordination to the
civil government and instead was able to force the political leaders to
bend to his will.
Source:
Koppel S Pinson, 1966, Modern Germany Its History and Civilization
(2nd edition), The Macmillan Company, p. 318.
The Allies
Parliament remained important in Great Britain and France during the war
but in some ways the operation of the government in those countries was
similar to that of Germany. In May 1915, a loose coalition government
was formed in Britain but by the end of the war, decision-making was in the
hands of a small, powerful war cabinet dominated by the Liberal, David
Lloyd George. He became Prime Minister in December 1916 when he
combined with the Conservative Party to overthrow the Liberal Herbert
Asquith claiming that he was the best person to prosecute the war more
vigorously.
For more than three years following the outbreak of war in August 1914,
major decisions in France on both military and civil matters were made by
members of the military high command and then implemented by decrees
of the President. In November 1917, Georges Clemenceau became premier,
or prime minister, and he restored civilian control of decision-making.
However, in the words of Gordon A Craig, ‘his government, by normal
standards, was dictatorial in its own right’ (Craig, 1974: 343).
What do you think Craig means by this statement?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
17
Did you answer?
Even though Clemenceau was not a dictator, many of the actions of his
government were similar to those of a dictatorship.
In all three of Germany, Britain and France, the government gained extra
powers during the war years. These involved in particular increased control
of the economy and of the daily lives of civilians. In the rest of this section,
we will look at what Gordon Craig calls ‘economic regimentation’. In the
next section, we will consider the ways in which the lives of civilians were
affected by the war, including by greater government control.
Economic regimentation
When the war first started, some of the nations didn’t realise how important
their economies would be in the waging of the war. France, for example,
initially closed down factories producing war goods so that workers could
join the army. However it wasn’t long before governments decided that it
was necessary for them to increase their control over the economic activity
of their countries. As early as 8 August 1914, Great Britain introduced the
Defence of the Realm Act, which became known as DORA. It gave the
government extensive powers such as controlling railways and shipping.
The conclusion that the governments had quickly reached that they needed
to increase their control over their economies was reinforced by the
discovery in the first few months of the war that they were running out of
ammunition especially artillery shells. They therefore became determined
to gain full control of the production of military supplies. It wasn’t long
before the governments decided to further extend their authority and to fully
control all aspects of the economy, to such an extent that the phrase ‘war
socialism’ was sometimes used to describe their policies. This increased
government control of the economy happened in all countries but in
Germany most of all.
Control of production
Not surprisingly, the main concern of the governments of all the combatant
nations in the war was to ensure that sufficient military supplies were
produced.
Find the ‘Increased government control’ Source sheet.
18
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
Read Source 1. It is by David Lloyd George who was in charge of the
British Ministry of Munitions from July 1915 to December 1916 when he
became Prime Minister. It comes from his memoirs which were written
in 1938 but it appears to be based on something (perhaps a diary entry, a
speech or a newspaper article) that he wrote, probably in 1915.
Now use the source to answer the following questions.
1
According to David Lloyd George, which is ‘the best-organised
community in the world’? ________________________________
2
According to Lloyd George, which country has been adopting
‘haphazard, leisurely, go-as-you-please methods’? _____________
3
Which phrase in the source most strongly suggests the idea of ‘total
war’ (in other words, that all the people and resources will be used to
fight the war)? __________________________________________
4
Tick which of the following statements you think are correct about the
usefulness and reliability of this source.
5
❒
It is useful because it tells us what the aims of the Ministry of
Munitions were.
❒
It is useful and reliable because it appears to be based on
something that Lloyd George wrote at the time and he was not
just relying on his memory when he wrote the source.
❒
It is reliable because David Lloyd George was in charge of the
Ministry of Munitions and he was therefore in the best position to
know what the aims of the Ministry were.
❒
We need to be a bit careful about the reliability of the source
because Lloyd George may be trying to claim some of the credit
for the ultimate Allied victory and he therefore may be
exaggerating his role in the war effort.
Tick which of the following statements you think is correct about
whether the source is a primary source or a secondary source.
❒
The source is a primary source because it appears to be based
on something that he wrote in 1915 when he was in charge of
the Ministry of Munitions.
❒
The source is a secondary source because it comes from Lloyd
George’s memoirs which were written in 1938, more than
twenty years after he was in charge of the Ministry of
Munitions.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
19
Did you answer?
1 Germany
2 Great Britain
3 everyone to the utmost
4 All of these statements are correct.
5 You can tick either or indeed both of these statements.
This is an example of a source which can be viewed, in one way, as a
primary source and, in another way, as a secondary source. If there is a
source like this in an assessment task or an exam, you can describe it as
either a primary source or a secondary source as long as you give a correct
reason for that description.
The British Ministry of Munitions was set up in May 1915 under the
Munitions of War Act. It gave the government control of the production and
supply of a very wide range of goods:
not only of ammunition [including shells] and guns, of rifles and machineguns, but also of mechanical transport, trench warfare stores, optical
munitions and glassware, metals, tanks, bombs, poison gas, railway
material, machine tools, timber, electrical power, agricultural machinery,
mineral oils and building materials.
Source:
David Lloyd George quoted in David Stewart et al, 1995, The Great
War: Sources and Evidence (2nd edition), Thomas Nelson, p. 217.
The German government set up a similar organisation called the War Raw
Materials Department, led by the industrialist Walter Rathenau, in August
1914. It established a number of War Industries Companies which bought
up all supplies of the raw materials needed for the production of munitions
and then sold them to the manufacturers who actually made the war goods.
These raw materials included metals, wool, leather, cotton, rubber,
chemicals, and in particular saltpetre which was used to make explosives.
The job of the War Raw Materials Department was made more difficult by
the British blockade of Germany which caused shortages of many of the
products that Germany most needed. Several methods were used in an
attempt to overcome these shortages:
20
•
Resources, such as coal and iron ore, were obtained from Belgium and
the parts of northern France which the German army was occupying.
•
Substitute products (ersatz) were used, for example synthetic rubber
and textiles made from wood pulp.
•
New manufacturing processes were developed, including making
nitrates for explosives by extracting nitrogen from the atmosphere.
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
In October 1916 Hindenburg and Ludendorff convinced the government to
create the Supreme War Office (Kriegsamt). This took government control of
the economy one step further because the Kriegsamt was in charge, not just of
war raw materials, but of all areas of the economy, including manufacturing,
transport and labour. It controlled organisations such as the War Raw
Materials Department and the Arms Munitions Procurement Bureau.
One of the main aims of the War Office was to dramatically expand
armaments production; for example machine gun production was to be
trebled. This was part of what was called the Hindenburg Program.
Factories producing non-essential goods were closed and their machinery
was transferred to factories making war goods.
The historian Roger Chickering has described the actions of Hindenburg and
Ludendorff as aiming to achieve ‘the total mobilisation of society’s
resources and energies … [and as bringing about] the brutal reorganisation
of the economy for the purposes of making war’ (Chickering, 1998: 65).
An important feature of the Supreme War Office is that it was to be headed
by a military figure, General Groener, rather than by a civilian. This is
further evidence of the increasing military influence over matters such as the
running of the national economy that had previously been the responsibility
of the civilian government.
Why do you think Hindenburg and Ludendorff wanted a military figure
rather than a civilian to be in charge of the Supreme War Office?
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Did you answer?
They thought that they would be able to influence the military figure which
would give them more control over the War Office.
The War Office was not a great success. In particular it had great difficulty
in bringing about increases in production of either military or non-military
goods. Most of its armaments production targets were never met. In some
cases the situation was even worse, for example less steel was produced in
February 1917 than six months earlier.
Both the British and German governments intervened, not only in the
overall economies of their countries, but also in the operation of individual
manufacturing companies. For example, the British Ministry of Munitions
took over control of some factories from the owners to whom it paid a
percentage of the profits. The two governments also organised the
establishment of new factories. The Ministry set up its own National
Factories and the German War Raw Materials Department provided
government subsidies to private enterprise to build large saltpetre factories.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
21
In both Britain and Germany the governments also took action to control the
production, importation, distribution and sale of food. A War Wheat
Corporation was established in Germany in November 1914. Organisations
were subsequently set up for a whole range of other types of food and two
years later they all became part of the War Foodstuffs Office which was
overseen by the Supreme War Office. In Britain, a Women’s Land Army
was created and County War Agricultural Committees began to direct farm
work in early 1917.
Numerous regulations were imposed in both Britain and Germany.
For example, in Britain the use of sugar in sweets was banned and in
Germany from October 1915 people were not allowed to eat meat on two
days each week. By 1916 there were in fact 258 laws in Germany regarding
the supply and distribution of food. Rationing was introduced in both
countries and we will look further at this in the next Section.
On the right hand side below, there are six names and words you have
learnt about in the information on ‘Control of production’ and, on the left
hand side, there are descriptions of names and words.
Draw lines to connect the names words and their descriptions.
22
British government department
in charge of production of
ammunition, guns, etc
General Groener
a product used in the
manufacture of explosives
Subsidy
in charge of the German
Supreme War Office
Walter Rathenau
in charge of the German War
Raw Materials Department
Supreme War Office
money given by the
government to a private
company or organisation
Ministry of Munitions
government organisation with
control of the whole German
economy
saltpetre
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
Did you answer?
British government department in
charge of production of
ammunition, guns, etc
General Growner
a product used in the manufacture
of explosives
subsidy
in charge of the German Supreme
War Office
Walter Rathenau
in charge of the German War
Raw Materials Department
Supreme War Office
money given by the government
to a private company or oganisation
Ministry of Munitions
government organisation with
control of the whole German
economy
saltpetre
Control of labour
Because so many men had gone to fight on the battlefield, either voluntarily
or by conscription, there were increasing labour shortages in both Britain
and Germany. The situation was made worse by the fact that in both
countries the military, at least to begin with, rejected requests for some
skilled workers to be released from the army to return home to work in key
industries. Eventually, in September 1916, the German army realised that
the economy was in such a desperate state that they had to allow 1.2 million
soldiers to leave so they could work in the factories and the mines. Another
1.9 million were released from the army in July 1917. The British army was
more hesitant to release men.
Both governments took various actions to try to overcome the labour
shortages. These included:
•
The Germans encouraged civilians from Belgium, northern France and
Poland to move to Germany to work, especially in the factories. Later
people from these countries were forcibly deported to Germany,
although this policy was stopped in February 1917 because it had
proved to be of limited economic value.
•
Prisoners of war were forced to work in agriculture in both countries.
•
The British implemented a scheme of voluntary national service for
civilian workers but it had limited success: only 35 000 men and
women volunteered.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
23
•
Women were strongly encouraged to join the work force in both
countries.
•
Children were also encouraged to collect any materials that could be
recycled or used in manufacturing. These included scrap metal, waste
paper, rags, bones, bottles, and kitchen scraps for animal feed. In
Germany children even received a day off school for successful
collecting.
•
In both Britain and Germany, the governments were keen to ensure that
there was industrial peace. In Germany, an agreement was signed
between the employers and the trade unions on 2 August 1914 to stop
struggling about wages and working conditions during the war. This
was part of what was known as the ‘fortress truce’ (Burgfrieden) which
was designed to create unity among the various groups and classes in
German society for what was assumed would be a short war.
In 1915 the British government persuaded the trade union leaders to
give up the right to strike and to accept arbitration of disputes with
employers. However industrial trouble including strikes continued in
both countries. Workers were angry that prices and their employers’
profits were going up faster than their wages were. This was despite
government control of prices and promises that profits would be
limited. Working conditions also declined, for example many workers
had to work more hours each week.
In Germany the Patriotic Auxiliary Service Law of December 1916
introduced compulsory war-related labour service for all men aged between
17 and 60. They worked in areas such as agriculture, forestry, the
manufacture of munitions and transport, under the control of the Supreme
War Office. This Law was the centrepiece of the Hindenburg Program. It
was not a great success, for one simple reason: in the words of the historian
Roger Chickering, ‘there was little additional (male) labor to mobilise’
(Chickering, 1998: 81) because almost all the men were in the army.
Ludendorff had originally wanted to include women in the compulsory
labour service but by the time the Law was passed by the Reichstag
(parliament) they had been excluded.
From what you have just read about the British voluntary labour service
scheme and the German compulsory one, do you think that control of the
economy and of the people was more extensive and stricter in Germany
or in Britain? ________________
Did you answer?
in Germany
24
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
Control of money
Waging a war of attrition, such as World War I quickly became,
is enormously expensive, particularly for governments. It is estimated that
the cost of the war to Germany was approximately 155 billion marks. One
of the main ways in which both Britain and Germany sought to meet the
costs of the war was by gaining control of a larger proportion of the
country’s money. They did this by encouraging people to lend money to the
government in the form of war bonds, and by increasing taxes. In this way
the people had less money to spend and the government had more with
which to fight the war.
Germany
Germany raised about 60 per cent of its war costs by nine issues of war
bonds. The first four were successful, with 2 500 000 Germans subscribing
to the second war loan in 1915. The amount of money raised by the other
five loans increasingly declined. In particular there was a fall in the number
of small investors who contributed 5000 marks or less.
Find the ‘Increased government control’ Source sheet again. Look carefully
at both the picture and the words in the poster in Source 4.
1
The first words in the caption of the poster mean ‘Subscribe to War
Loans’. What do you think the other words might mean?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
2
In what year do you think this poster was probably created?
Give reasons for your answer.
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
Did you answer?
1
The rest of the caption said, ‘and Help in the U-Boat [submarine] War
Against England’. Of course you may have used different words to express
the same idea.
2
The poster comes from 1917, when unrestricted submarine warfare was
introduced, but it could also date from the first period of submarine warfare
in 1915.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
25
Another 16 per cent of Germany’s war costs were raised by taxation.
Read Source 2 on the ‘Increased government control’ Source sheet and
then answer the following questions.
1
What three taxes does Ethel Cooper mention that were increased
during the war? _________________________________________
2
What tax does she mention that was imposed for the first time during
the war? ________________
3
What do you think she was implying when she underlined the word
‘begin’? ______________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Did you answer?
1 postage, tobacco, paper
2 income taxes
3 that in the future, income taxes would be increased
This was the first time that the German national government imposed
income taxes. Previously only the state governments had collected them.
Taxes were a cause of much dissatisfaction and unrest in Germany during
the war. Ordinary workers were taxed more heavily than were the middle
and upper classes as well as companies. In fact there was no tax at all on
profits made by companies involved in war production until 1916.
The money raised by war loans and taxes was not sufficient to cover the
costs of the war. By the end of the last fiscal year of the war (1 July 1918 –
30 June 1919), the German national government debt was 156.1 billion
marks, which was an increase of 150.7 billion marks since March 1914.
Therefore, what was the national government debt in March 1914?
________________________________________________
Did you answer?
5.4 billion marks
26
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
Great Britain
Great Britain also raised revenue by means of war loans and taxation. The
latter took three main forms:
•
income tax which was raised from 6.25 per cent to 30 per cent
•
indirect taxes such as import duties, or tariffs, which were introduced in
1915
•
an excess profits duty which was implemented by the Munitions of War
Act of July 1915.
Now would be an appropriate time to do Exercise 2.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
27
Part 2.1 Exercise 2
Name:
Political and economic control
1
Use the information in this Section to decide whether the statements
below are true or false.
Governments became more powerful during the war.
T/F
In Germany the military had less influence over
government decision-making as the war went on.
T/F
David Lloyd George was in charge of the British
Ministry of Munitions before he became Prime Minister
in November 1916.
T/F
Ersatz is German for ‘substitute products’.
T/F
The Hindenburg Program aimed to ensure that Germany
greatly increased its production of weapons.
T/F
The German Supreme War Office was highly successful. T / F
People could eat whatever they wanted during the war.
T/F
Germany introduced compulsory labour service in the
war.
T/F
There were no industrial disputes during the war.
T/F
Germany and Great Britain used both war loans and
increased taxation to meet the costs of World War I.
T/F
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
29
2
Look carefully at the poster below. Then answer the question which
follows.
Source:
In David Welch, 2000, Germany, Propaganda and Total War,
1914–1918, The Athlone Press, p. 213.
The poster is encouraging Germans to ‘Subcribe to War Loans’.
What ideas are presented in the poster to encourage people to do this?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
30
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
3
Use the information in this Section to answer the following question.
Explain how World War I caused changes in the role of the government
in Germany and Great Britain.
Remember that ‘explain’ means, ‘relate cause and effect; make the
relationships between things evident; provide why and / or how’.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
31
Daily life
In the previous section, you looked at the increasing political and economic
control exercised by governments in Great Britain and Germany during
World War I. In this section, you will examine how World War I affected
the daily lives of people, especially with regard to food supplies. You will
learn that this is another matter over which the government increased its
control during World War I.
Food shortages
You have already read some extracts from the letters written by the
Australian woman, Ethel Cooper, who lived in Germany throughout the
war, to her sister Emmie in Adelaide.
Germany
The feature of life in Germany that she mentions most frequently in these
letters is the food shortages.
Tick which of the following were the reasons for the food shortages in
Germany during World War I. There may be more than one correct
answer.
❒
Many farmers and agricultural workers joined the army and there
was therefore a shortage of skilled workers on the farms.
❒
There were shortages of farm machinery and fertilisers because
most iron and steel, engines, chemicals and other resouces were
used to make war materials such as guns and ammunition.
❒
There was insufficient transport available for food because
vehicles were primarily needed to transport war materials both in
Germany and on the Western Front.
❒
High prices for meat encouraged farmers to sell their pigs and
cattle rather than keeping them for breeding. This led to a
decline in the number of animals for both meat and milk.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
33
❒
There were major problems with the crops in 1915, 1916 and
1917. In 1915 heavy rains severely reduced the harvest. The
following years saw virtual crop failures also because of bad
weather. The production of grain fell from 22.2 million tonnes to
5.2 million tonnes.
❒
The government and the army considered the soldiers to be the
number 1 priority and therefore made sure that they got food
before the civilians did.
❒
The blockade of the German coast by the British navy.
Did you answer?
All of these were causes of the food shortages in Germany. The blockade was
less important than some of the others because Germany did not import much of
its food from overseas.
The German government adopted a number of measures in an attempt to
overcome the food shortages which became a major problem towards the
end of 1915. The most important of these was rationing, which meant that
there were restrictions on the amounts of food that people could buy. Bread
was the first product that was rationed, in 1916. Later, foods such as butter,
milk, meat, eggs and sugar were also rationed. Some of the amounts that
people could buy were quite small, for example one egg each week.
Moreover in many cases the amount was reduced as time went by. For
example, the meat ration started at over 1 lb (about 450 grams) per week,
and was then reduced to 1/2 lb and later to 1/4 lb. Rationing included
restaurants and hotels which were limited in the hours they could open and
the food they could serve.
Another method used to overcome the food shortages was the use of
substitute products. These included bread made from potato, rye and flour
(known as ‘K’ bread or war bread – Kriegsbrot), eggs from powdered potato
with yellow colouring, coffee from ground acorns and beech nuts, and
pepper from ashes. People had to be careful with what they ate. On 16
April 1916, Ethel Cooper reported that she had ‘found two chips of wood in
my breakfast roll lately, which looks as if they [the manufacturers] were
being driven to mix the flour with sawdust or something woody’ (Denholm,
1982: 136).
Every possible place for growing food was made use of. Public parks and
gardens were sown with crops and people were encouraged to grow food
instead of flowers in their own gardens.
34
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
Public kitchens were set up where people could go and get food if they
needed to. Some of these were mobile and travelled round to different parts
of towns and cities. In June 1916, 25 000 meals were served each day in the
German capital, Berlin, alone.
Moreover, as the shortages became more acute, the prices of the food that
was available continued to rise until they were beyond the reach of many
people.
The situation with food did improve somewhat in 1918 following the
signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia which led to Germany
occupying the food-growing area of the Ukraine. In fact the bread ration
was increased twice after having previously been reduced. Despite this, the
German people’s diet remained inadequate. For example during the last six
months of 1918, the people of the town of Bonn ate the following
percentages of their 1914 consumption:
meat 12%
eggs 13%
lard (pig fat) 7%
butter 28%
cheese 15%
sugar 80%
potatoes 94%
flour 48%
The amount of food that the German people could buy was generally below
the subsistence level. In other words it was insufficient for people to live in
a healthy manner. In some cases it was not enough to live on at all. Illness
became a major problem including major diseases such as smallpox and
scarlet fever.
Why do you think the food shortages led to an increase in illness and
disease?
___________________________________________________________
Did you answer?
Because people were less healthy, they had less resistance to illness and disease.
Not surprisingly, the shortages of food caused a decline in the morale of the
German civilians. However there is conflicting evidence about what this led
to.
Read the two sources on the next page. The first is an account by the
Portuguese Ambassador to Germany just before he left Berlin in 1916 and
the second is extracts from Ethel Cooper’s letters of 30 April and 14 May
1916. Then answer the questions which follow.
1 The German people are feeling the pinch of war. The lack of butter,
bread and other necessary commodities is severely felt. But the people
are far too disciplined to do more than grumble, for a long time to come.
Source:
In David Stewart et al, 1995, The Great War: Sources and Evidence
(2nd edition), Thomas Nelson, p. 259.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
35
2 the shops for food open for an hour or two on Sunday and she [Frau
von Bose, a friend of Ethel Cooper’s] had gone to try and get
meat–they all said they were sold out, but the people before one
butcher’s shop said they knew there were large stores in the cellar.
They broke the windows, then the police came, and they went for the
police and a couple of passing soldiers, and then Frau von Bose fled
home. … There has been a good deal of rioting during the last few
days … shops smashed up, and a few people killed …
Source:
1
Decie Denholm (ed), 1982, Behind the Lines One Woman’s War
1914-18, Collins, pp. 138–40.
What is the main difference between the accounts in these two
sources?
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
2
Tick which of the following statements you think is the best about the
relative (comparative) reliability of the two sources.
❒
The source by the Portuguese Ambassador is the more reliable
because he is an official government representative whereas
Ethel Cooper is just a private citizen.
❒
The source by Ethel Cooper is the more reliable because she
lived in Germany throughout the war whereas the Portuguese
Ambassador left Germany in 1916.
❒
The two sources are equally unreliable because they contradict
each other.
❒
The two sources are equally reliable because they were both
written by people who actually lived in Germany during the war
and were therefore aware of what was happening there. The
differences between their accounts were because they had
different experiences and also the situation varied from place to
place.
Did you answer?
1
2
36
The Portuguese Ambassador said that the German people did nothing more than
complain about the shortages whereas Ethel Cooper said that there were riots
about food.
The two sources are equally reliable because they were both written by people
who actually lived in Germany during the war and were therefore aware of what
was happening there. The differences between their accounts were because they
had different experiences and also the situation varied from place to place.
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
This demonstrates that, if two sources contradict each other, one is not
necessarily more reliable than the other. They can be equally reliable.
In fact, in some ways, two sources that contradict each other are more useful
to an historian than two sources which say the same thing because they
show us that people’s experiences and views differed and that the situation
was not the same everywhere.
Other shortages
As well as food, Germany faced shortages of a wide variety of products.
These included:
•
goods used for heating, lighting and cooking such as kerosene,
methylated spirits, coal, gas, electricity and candles
•
goods for clothing such as cotton, wool and leather
•
various types of metal, including copper, nickel, aluminium and gold
•
personal hygiene items such as soap
•
paper.
As with food, various methods were used to overcome these shortages. For
example, people wore shoes made of wood, gas and electricity were only
available certain hours of the day, and the government collected all
aluminium pots and pans.
What do you think the government would have wanted metals such as
aluminium for?
___________________________________________________________
Did you answer?
for making weapons and ammunition
Great Britain
There were also food shortages in Great Britain beginning in 1916 although
they weren’t as severe as they were in Germany.
The causes of the shortages in Britain were similar to those in Germany:
•
many farmers and agricultural workers joined the army
•
there were shortages of farm machinery, fertilisers and transport
•
the weather caused reduced harvests, especially in 1916
•
the soldiers were considered the number 1 priority for food
•
German submarine warfare which destroyed both ships and food
supplies.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
37
The British used some of the same methods as the Germans to try to
overcome the food shortages, in particular rationing and the use of public
parks and both public and private gardens for growing crops.
Rationing in Britain was initially voluntary but it was later made
compulsory for what were considered to be the ‘staple foods’: bread and
other cereals; meat; butter, margarine and lard; and sugar.
As in Germany, the amount of food that people were entitled to buy varied
from person to person according to factors such as age and occupation.
Find the Source sheet ‘Increased government control’.
Look at Source 3.
Use the source to answer the following questions by circling the correct
response (Yes or No).
Were men on heavy industrial work entitled to 7.0 lbs
of bread per week?
Yes/No
Was a woman who did agricultural work entitled to
more bread than a woman who worked in an office?
Yes/No
In general were men entitled to more bread than
women?
Yes/No
Were men and women entitled to different amounts of
meat?
Yes/No
Do you think children would normally have been
entitled to the same amounts as adults?
Yes/No
Did you answer?
No; Yes; Yes: No; No
Restaurants and hotels also had to participate in rationing as they did in
Germany. One example is that hotels were not allowed to serve meat one
day a week.
Rationing was another example of the control that governments exercised
during World War I over the lives of their people, in something as basic as
what and how much they were allowed to eat.
As mentioned above, the food shortages in Britain were not as bad as they
were in Germany. In fact, whereas the situation in Germany got worse as
the war continued, in Britain it improved. For example, in 1918 British
wheat production was 60 per cent higher than it had been in 1914.
38
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
This meant that the British people did not have to make use of substitute
products as the Germans did and there was much less illness and disease
than there was in Germany.
Furthermore Britain did not experience shortages of other products to the
same extent that Germany did. The main exception was coal, of which there
were significant shortages.
Other effects
Alcohol consumption
In both Germany and Great Britain, the governments took action to reduce
the consumption of alcohol. The opening hours of hotels were limited, the
alcoholic strength of drinks was reduced and the price of liquor was
increased. In Britain people were not even allowed to buy a round of drinks.
They could only buy a drink for themselves.
All of this was done partly because drunkenness began to interfere with the
production of war goods (as a result of increased absenteeism and poorer
quality work) and partly because the manufacture of alcoholic drinks
involved the use of products especially yeast which the authorities thought
would be better used in the making of other items such as bread.
These government actions proved successful. For example, in Britain the
consumption of alcohol and the number of arrests for drunkenness fell by
more than two thirds between 1913, the year before the war began, and
1917.
‘Aliens’
The term ‘aliens’ was used to describe people who were citizens of one of
the combatant nations, or whose family had come originally from one of
those nations, but who were now living in an ‘enemy’ country.
For example, Ethel Cooper, an Australian living in Germany, was described
as an ‘alien’. The ironic thing is that many so-called ‘aliens’ were members
of families who had lived in these countries for several generations and in
some cases, husbands and brothers were fighting and dying for the countries
in the war.
Governments placed a number of restrictions on these ‘aliens’. Below are
some examples from the letters of Ethel Cooper.
The police came here today–they were quite civil, but forbad one to
telephone in English, to speak English in the streets or to leave the
town–an unnecessary precaution, for at every railway station one is
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
39
obliged to show one’s pass, and every bridge and highway is guarded, so
that it is impossible for a foreigner to pass. (14 August 1914)
… all our men [from Allied countries] were arrested yesterday and today.
(6 September 1914)
The [English] men were all taken to a concentration camp in Ruhleben,
near Berlin, all but the colonials [people from different parts of the British
Empire]–and they and all the women have to report themselves twice a
day to the police. (8 November 1914)
N B The Australian men were later also taken to this camp.
[I experienced] a sudden police-raid, which turned my flat simply inside
out, in search of compromising papers and a diary …
(10 September 1916)
My letters are certainly being held back again–it can’t only be chance that
I so often find that they are delayed or go astray. (2 September 1917)
Source:
Decie Denholm (ed), 1982, Behind the Lines One Woman’s War
1914–18, Collins, pp. 25, 29, 39, 158, 218.
1
In the above extracts from Ethel Cooper’s letters, highlight or
underline the restrictions that were placed on her or other ‘aliens’.
2
Why do you think the German government placed these sorts of
restrictions on ‘aliens’?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Did you answer?
1 forbad one to telephone in English, to speak English in the streets or to leave the
town; one is obliged to show one’s pass
all our men [from Allied countries] were arrested
The [English] men were all taken to a concentration camp; have to report
themselves twice a day to the police
a sudden police-raid
My letters are certainly being held back again
2 because they were afraid that ‘aliens’ might spy for the Allies or might carry out acts
of sabotage against German factories, etc
Germans living in Britain (and indeed also in Australia) faced similar
restrictions including placement in internment camps, also known as
detention camps.
40
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
‘Aliens’ in both Germany and Britain also sometimes faced discrimination
and harassment from non-government organisations and individuals. On 6
August 1914, Ethel Cooper reported that, ‘My milk-woman refused to serve
me this morning!’ and about six weeks later that, ‘This week the banks have
begun to stop payment to English people’ (Denholm, 1982: pp 24, 32).
‘Aliens’ were sometimes sacked from their jobs and people refused to buy
things from their shops. In extreme cases, they and their property, including
houses and businesses, were attacked and robbed.
Daylight saving
In May 1916 both Germany and Great Britain introduced daylight saving.
Tick the main reason why you think the governments did this.
❒
❒
❒
❒
to increase the amount of time for recreation in daylight
to increase the number of working hours in daylight, especially
for people in the towns and cities
to please the farmers who preferred to start work before sunrise
to save on electricity and gas
Did you answer?
to increase the number of working hours in daylight, especially for people
in the towns and cities
Reasons for total war
We have seen that one important feature of total war was that governments
gained extra powers which often involved placing restrictions on people’s
freedoms, including in matters that had previously been considered to be
purely private. Examples of these powers included:
•
telling businesses what goods they could produce, where they could get
their raw materials from, what prices they could charge and so on.
•
seizing people’s land even if they didn’t want to sell it
•
taking away people’s freedom to decide whether and where they would
work
•
determining what and how much people could eat and drink
•
restricting where ‘aliens’ could live and go and what languages they
could speak in public.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
41
We will see in the next section that governments also limited people’s
freedom of speech and assembly as well as freedom of the press.
Tick which of the following you think were reasons why World War I
became a ‘total war’. There may be more than one correct answer.
❒
The nature of trench warfare, in particular World War I as a war
of attrition, meant that whichever side had more men and
military supplies was likely to win.
❒
Millions of men went to the battle fronts and it was vital that
those people who remained at home were involved in keeping
the economy operating fully and efficiently.
❒
The governments believed that it was necessary for them to
control the economy in order to ensure that the most efficient
use was made of all the nation’s resources, both human and
material.
❒
The leaders of the governments , and especially in Germany the
military leaders, believed that they needed more power so that
they could make and implement effective decisions.
❒
New technology such as aircraft, submarines and enormous
cannons made it possible for countries to attack the home fronts
of their enemies.
Did you answer?
All of these were reasons why World War I became a ‘total war’.
Now would be an appropriate time to do Exercise 3.
42
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
Part 2.1 Exercise 3
Name:
Daily life
1
Use the information in this section to complete the following sentences.
In Germany and Great Britain, there were serious food
______________ during World War I. Both countries introduced
_______________ in order to limit the amounts of food that people
could buy. In Germany a large number of _________________
products were used such as _______ made from powdered potato and
yellow colouring. In both Germany and Britain, there was insufficient
_______ which was used especially for heating.
Action was taken to reduce ___________________ by limiting the
amount of alcohol that people consumed. Various restrictions were
placed on the freedom of __________ who were living in ‘enemy’
countries. In May 1916 both Germany and Britain introduced daylight
__________.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
43
2
The British Defence of the Realm Act made a number of actions illegal.
Below are four of these.
For each one, write why you think the government decided to make it
illegal.
a
talking about military matters in public ___________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
b
using a code when writing letters overseas ________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
c
lighting fireworks ___________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
d
buying a pair of binoculars ____________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
3
Imagine you are a mother or a father of two children living in either
Germany or Great Britain during World War I.
Using the information in this section as well as anything else you can
think of, list six things you might do on a typical day to try to ensure
that you and your children had enough to eat.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
44
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
Censorship and propaganda
You have learnt about how the governments of Germany and Great Britain
increased their powers especially over the economy. In this Section you
will examine how they also controlled the information that their people,
both soldiers and civilians, received about the war. They did this by means
of censorship and propaganda.
Censorship
Censorship is when someone, normally a member or representative of the
government, removes items from newspapers, books and films which that
person or government thinks are unsuitable or dangerous for the people of
the country to know about. In the army there were also censors who
removed items from soldiers’ letters and postcards.
Civilians
Below is another series of extracts from letters written by Ethel Cooper in
Germany. They provide a very good indication of the forms that censorship
took on the home front and of the topics that were censored. Censorship
was similar in Great Britain.
Read the extracts and then answer the questions which follow.
We hear nothing of the German [battle] losses, indeed we hear nothing at
all that is disadvantageous to Germany … (21 August 1914)
The censure is very strict and everything is sent back that is in any
language but German, or that even mentions war and movements of troops
or so on. (11 September 1914)
There has been a good deal of rioting during the last few days … not a
word of it is allowed to get into the papers … (14 May 1916)
The papers today don’t even mention [last night’s] storm, from which I
gather that the damage to the crops and fruit is so great that they are not
allowed to refer to it … (2 July 1916)
The Volkszeitung, the Leipzig people’s paper and one of the most decent
in Germany, has been indefinitely confiscated too. (20 August 1916)
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
45
… nothing about food or such things is allowed by the censor. If I said
that I wear wooden shoes because leather is unobtainable or unbuyable,
you would not get the card … my letters from Leipzig or Berlin are often
opened before they are delivered [to me]–of course I am very much on the
black lists here. (12 November 1916)
We had an excitement on Thursday at midday when the great Leipzig
airship sheds were blown up. Till last night no paper mentioned it. Then
came an official report from Wolff’s Bureau to say that owing to an
accumulation of snow on the roof it had fallen in, pulling down the walls,
and wounding 30 workmen who were having dinner in the shed!! Now
those great sheds were of solid concrete, and though there is a lot of snow
lying about, yet it has neither broken down the roofs and walls of any
other building in Leipzig, nor even of my little wooden summerhouse. Do
they really expect people to believe such things when they print them
officially? (11 February 1917)
Source:
Decie Denholm (ed), 1982, Behind the Lines One Woman’s War
1914–18, Collins, pp 27, 30, 139, 146, 156, 167, 182.
1
Underline or highlight the topics that Ethel Cooper said were
censored.
2
List the different forms that censorship took which she mentions.
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
Did you answer?
1 German [battle] losses
any language but German … war and movements of troops
rioting
damage to the crops and fruit
food
I wear wooden shoes because leather is unobtainable or unbuyable
the great Leipzig airship sheds were blown up
2 letters she had written were returned to her
things were not mentioned in the newspapers
a newspaper was closed down
letters were opened and read by the censor before she received them
46
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
The authorities in both Germany and Britain were particularly concerned to
avoid the spread of information about the shortages of food and other
products because of the effect that this might have on the morale of their
people.
Soldiers
As we have seen, letters written by civilians were censored. This included
letters which they wrote to soldiers in the trenches. Letters written by
soldiers to family and friends on the home front were also censored by the
army. And of course the soldiers received the same censored newspapers
and magazines from the home front that the civilians read. The army
newspapers were even more rigorously controlled! The Australian, Private
Bert Bishop commented, ‘And we knew that the papers did not tell the truth
when the truth made unpleasant reading’ (Bishop, 1991: 79). This meant
that the soldiers often didn’t have a clear idea of what was happening in the
war. Some didn’t mind this but others found it frustrating.
In the table below, tick which of the following items you think would
have been censored in a letter or postcard written by a soldier.
a description of how bad the conditions in the trenches
were
a description of what he did while he was ‘at rest’ away
from the trenches
a statement that he was healthy and really enjoying life in
the trenches
an admission that his unit had been defeated in a big battle
an expression of love towards a family member
an indication of where he was stationed
information about how many soldiers in his unit had been
killed or wounded
information about preparations for an attack on the enemy
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
47
Did you answer?
✓
a description of how bad the conditions in the trenches were
a description of what he did while he was ‘at rest’ away from the trenches
a statement that he was healthy and really enjoying life in the trenches
✓
an admission that his unit had been defeated in a big battle
an expression of love towards a family member
✓
an indication of where he was stationed
✓
information about how many soldiers in his unit had been killed or
wounded
✓
information about preparations for an attack on the enemy
Find the Source sheet ‘Censorship and propaganda’.
Look at Source 1. It is the picture on a postcard sent by a British soldier,
Sid Lewis, to his fiancée Rose on 6 August 1916. If you look carefully, you
can see where the army censor has rubbed out some writing in the top lefthand corner.
Which of the following five items you looked at in the previous question
do you think has been censored on this postcard?
a description of how bad the conditions in the trenches were
an admission that his unit had been defeated in a big battle
an indication of where he was stationed
information about how many soldiers in his unit had been
killed or wounded
information about preparations for an attack on the enemy
Did you answer?
an indication of where he was stationed. The censor has rubbed out the
name of the town on the postcard.
48
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
Aims of censorship
Censorship had four main aims in Germany and Great Britain. They were:
•
to ensure that both soldiers and civilians had high morale and
confidence that their side would win the war. This was an attempt to
prevent the development of defeatism, the belief that they were going to
lose the war. People could even be punished for spreading negative
gossip and rumours about how their side was faring in the war.
•
to maintain people’s determination to keep waging the war, on both the
battlefield and the home front. Many people were becoming
disillusioned with the war and wanted it to end sooner rather than later.
•
to prevent the enemy gaining useful information
•
to prevent people on the home front finding out exactly what trench
warfare was like.
Censorship involved placing restrictions on people’s freedom of speech and
on freedom of the press. It was an attempt to control people’s thoughts.
Propaganda
Propaganda is information and ideas that are presented in such a way as to
persuade people to adopt a certain point of view about a particular matter. It
is most commonly used by governments including by organisations such as
the army.
During World War I propaganda took various forms including newspaper
articles, posters, cartoons and films, and was directed to both soldiers and
civilians. The German army even sent mobile cinemas to tour the trenches
showing propaganda films to the troops.
In the war, propaganda commonly misrepresented the facts or even lied,
made their country’s successes seem greater and their opponents’ successes
seem more minor than they really were, and tried to give the impression that
their side was close to victory.
Propaganda was an important part of total war in World War I. The
historian, David Welch, has written:
Clearly in total war … it is necessary to mobilize all national resources,
including public opinion … [General Ludendorff] recognised the
importance of industry, technology and propaganda in modern warfare …
Source:
David Welch, 2000, Germany, Propaganda and Total War, 1914–18,
The Athlone Press, pp 64, 196.
In both Germany and Great Britain, government departments were
established early in the war to develop and circulate propaganda, which they
often claimed was ‘information’ or ‘patriotic instruction’ rather than
propaganda. Germany had the War Press Office and Britain had several
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
49
organisations which were consolidated into the Ministry of Information in
1918. This Ministry stated that:
Propaganda is the task of creating and directing public opinion …
Since strength for the purposes of [this] war was the total strength of
each belligerent nation, public opinion was as significant as fleets and
armies …
Source:
In Cate Haste, 1977, Keep the Home Fires Burning Propagands in
the First World War, Allen Lane, p 21.
Aims of propaganda
Some of the aims of propaganda during World War I were the same as those
of censorship. These were:
•
to prevent defeatism and to strengthen the morale and confidence of
both soldiers and civilians
•
to stop people becoming disillusioned about the war and to maintain
their determination to keep fighting and working until victory was
achieved. Included in this was a portrayal of pacifists who wanted to
end the war as friends of the enemy.
However there were additional aims that were peculiar to propaganda.
They included:
50
•
to create unity in the country and to encourage people to make
sacrifices if necessary, for example putting up with food shortages
•
to develop hatred of the enemy, portraying them as evil and barbaric
and blaming them for the war
•
to convince people that their side was fighting for right, justice and
‘civilisation’, and that God was on their side
•
to encourage men to enlist in the armed forces and people to volunteer
to work in the factories, on the farms, etc
•
to help raise war loans
•
to justify breaches of international law such as invading a neutral
country like Belgium
•
to promote their country’s war aims or, according to David Welch, ‘in
the case of Germany to obscure official war aims’. Welch believes that,
‘In many ways the propaganda of World War I was
pre-eminently a propaganda of war aims’ (Welch, 2000: 64-5).
He argues that, despite opposition from socialist groups in Germany
who believed that the war should be purely for self-defence, the aims of
the government and military leaders were to increase Germany’s world
power by annexing territory in Europe. He suggests that German
propaganda was designed to hide this reality and to pretend instead that
all Germany was trying to do was to protect itself from aggression by
the Allies.
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
•
in the case of the Allies, to persuade the United States to enter the war
•
to reduce the morale of the enemy, to create disunity among them and
to convince them that they were going to lose the war
•
to increase support for the government and its policies such as
increasing taxes.
Examples of propaganda
We will now look at some examples of propaganda and consider what their
aims were.
The following chorus from the ‘Hymn of Hate’ by Ernst Lissauer appeared
frequently in German newspapers and, on the orders of the Kaiser, was
published among the troops and learned in the schools.
Hate by water and hate by land;
Hate by heart and hate of the hand;
We love as one and hate as one;
We have but one enemy alone – England.
Source:
In David Welch, 2000, Germany, Propaganda and Total War,
1914–18, The Athlone Press, p. 59.
Similar sentiments were expressed in the following poem published in the
London Daily Graphic paper in early 1915.
Down with the Germans, down with them all!
O Army and Navy, be sure of their fall!
Spare not one, the deceitful spies,
Cut out their tongues, pull out their eyes!
Down, down with them all!
Source:
In Decie Denholm (ed), 1982, Behind the Lines One Woman’s War
1914-18, Collins, p. 60.
Which of the aims of propaganda that you have just read about on the
previous page do these sources demonstrate? Hint: there are two.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Did you answer?
to create unity in the country; to develop hatred of the enemy
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
51
Ethel Cooper includes quotes from German newspapers in her letters. The
first two refer to unrestricted submarine warfare, the next four are about
fighting on the Western Front, and the final one is clearly about food
production.
56 000 tonnes [of Allied and neutral ships] sunk daily; Nothing that
enters the prohibited waters left afloat.
English offensive brought to a standstill; Last great success! English
attack brilliantly repulsed!; [Our] movements have, according to plan,
been carried out with complete success.
Very good average harvest.
Source:
Decie Denholm (ed), 1982, Behind the Lines One Woman’s War
1914-18, Collins, pp 149, 183, 195, 203, 269.
Which aim of propaganda do these quotes demonstrate?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
Did you answer?
to prevent defeatism and to strengthen the morale and confidence of both soldiers
and civilians
Find the ‘Censorship and propaganda’ Source sheet again.
Look at Source 4. The handshake between the soldier and the worker
represents cooperation between the battle front and the home front.
Which aims of propaganda does this poster demonstrate?
Hint : there are four.
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
52
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
Did you answer?
to prevent defeatism and to strengthen the morale and confidence of both soldiers
and civilians
to maintain [people’s] determination to keep fighting and working until victory was
achieved.
to create unity in the country
to encourage men to enlist in the armed forces and people to volunteer to work in the
factories, on the farms and so on.
Now look at Source 3 on the ‘Censorship and propaganda’ Source sheet.
It is a leaflet dropped from Allied aircraft over Germany and in particular
over German trenches on the Western Front. It shows the Kaiser and his six
sons in full military uniform.
1
What do you think is the meaning of this leaflet? Hint: make sure
you read the caption of the drawing very carefully.
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
2
Which aim of propaganda does this leaflet demonstrate?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
Did you answer?
1 While at least one member of many, perhaps most, German families had died
in the war, none of the Kaiser’s six sons had been killed. The implication is
that, unlike other families, his sons had somehow been kept away from danger.
2 to reduce the morale of the enemy, to create disunity among them
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
53
Reliability of propaganda
On 16 September 1914 The Star newspaper in Great Britain contained the
following report. It was typical of the reports published in both countries
about enemy ‘atrocities’ during World War I.
News has reached Dumfries of the shocking death of a Dumfries young
woman, Nurse Grace Hume, who went out to Belgium at the outbreak of
war. Nurse Hume was engaged at the camp hospital at Vilvorde, and she
was the victim of horrible cruelty at the hands of German soldiers. Her
breasts were cut off and she died in great agony. Nurse Hume’s family
received a note shortly before she died. It was dated September 6, and
ran: ‘Dear Kate, this is to say goodbye. Have not long to live. Hospital
has been set on fire. Germans cruel. A man here had his head cut off.
My right breast has been taken away. Give my love to _________.
Good-bye, Grace.’
Source:
1
In R E Ringer, 1997, Modern History Outlines World War I (2nd
edition), A S Wilson, p. 167.
What evidence is there in this source that the claim that Nurse Grace
Hume was the victim of German atrocities is true?
_____________________________________________________
2
On the basis of this evidence only, do you think that this newspaper
report is a reliable source of information about what happened to
Nurse Hume? Yes / No
Did you answer?
1 The note that she sent to her family before she died.
2 Yes
The following report was published in The Times newspaper two weeks
later.
Kate Hume, seventeen, was charged at Dumfries yesterday, before the
Sheriff Substitute Primrose, with having uttered a forged letter purporting
to have been written by her sister, Nurse Grace Hume … She declined to
make any statement, on the advice of her agent, and was committed to
prison to await trial.
Source:
In R E Ringer, 1997, Modern History Outlines World War I (2nd
edition), A S Wilson, p. 167.
Now that you have read this report, do you still think that the report
written two weeks earlier is a reliable source of information about what
happened to Nurse Hume? Yes / No
Did you answer?
No
54
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
The activity you have just done demonstrates clearly that when you are
using a source you must be careful not to simply accept it ‘at face value’. In
other words, don’t just assume that the evidence contained in the source is
correct. If possible, you need to investigate the source thoroughly in order
to decide whether or not you should believe the evidence.
What questions do you think an historian should ask about a source in
order to assess its reliability?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Did you answer?
Who created it? (In other words, who wrote, said or photographed it?)
When was it created?
Why was it created? (In other words, what was its motive, or purpose?)
For whom was it created? (In other words, what was its intended audience?)
What do other sources say about the same topic?
You should remember these questions or similar ones from your previous
work in Modern History.
We have reached the conclusion that the newspaper report in The Star on
16 September is not a reliable source about what happened to Nurse Grace
Hume.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
55
1
At the same time, do you think that this report is a reliable example
of the sort of propaganda that was used during World War I?
In other words, can we conclude that it shows us the type of
information that was contained in propaganda in the war? Yes / No
2
Give a reason for your answer.
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Did you answer?
1
2
Yes
because it was written during the war
As we have seen before in Modern History, sources can in one sense be
reliable (for example, they show us what things such as propaganda were
actually like in the past) and at the same time be unreliable in another sense
(for example, they contain information which is not accurate or is highly
exaggerated or biased). This in no way reduces their usefulness. In fact it
may even increase their usefulness because it shows an historian what sorts
of incorrect, exaggerated and biased information were included in sources
that actually come from the period of time they are studying about.
Propaganda is biased in favour of the country creating it and against their
enemy. People often assume that this bias means that propaganda is not
useful or reliable. That is wrong. Propaganda in World War I is useful and
reliable to an historian because it gives us valid information about what
countries were saying about themselves and their opponents during the war.
A similar conclusion can be drawn about any source that contains bias.
Effects of propaganda
Overall propaganda was very successful during World War I. Despite all
the hardships faced by both soldiers and civilians, morale remained high and
people continued to fight and work for victory. This was true even in
Germany, where the difficulties were the greatest, at least until the last
couple of months of the war when, among other things, the Allied
propaganda began to have an effect. This propaganda contributed to
increasing numbers of German soldiers deserting to the Allies as well as
growing unrest in Germany itself, including strikes and demonstrations.
Allied propaganda also played a part in the decision of the United States to
enter the war in April 1917.
56
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
Occasionally the effects of propaganda were disastrous. In Germany,
government and army propaganda created a confidence among the people
that they were going to win the war and when it became clear towards the
end of the war that they were in fact going to lose, most Germans were
shocked. This contributed to the widespread unrest which ultimately led to
the November Revolution of 1918 in which the Kaiser fled to Holland and
Germany became a democratic republic.
In this Section we have focused on official government propaganda during
World War I. There was, however, also propaganda used by groups such as
pacifists who were trying to bring the war to an end. This propaganda was
of course very different from the examples that we have looked at in this
Section.
Now would be an appropriate time to do Exercise 4.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
57
Part 2.1 Exercise 4
Name:
Censorship and propaganda
1
In your own words, describe the main differences between ‘censorship’
and ‘propaganda’.
Remember that ‘describe’ means ‘provide characteristics and features’.
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
59
2
Below are the four main aims of censorship that you read about in this
section. For each of these aims, write an example of an item that would
have been censored during World War I in order to meet that aim. You
may find your examples in this section or you may be able to think of
your own.
a
to ensure that both soldiers and civilians had high morale and
confidence that their side was going to win the war
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
b
to maintain people’s determination to keep waging the war, on both
the battlefield and the home front
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
c
to prevent the enemy gaining useful information
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
d
to prevent people on the home front finding out exactly what trench
warfare was like
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
60
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
3
Find the ‘Censorship and propaganda’ Source sheet.
Look at Source 2. It is a still photo which was taken from a film that
was used as propaganda.
On the lines below, answer the following question.
How reliable do you think this source is to an historian who is studying
the Battle of the Somme? Give reasons for your answer.
Hint: before you start writing your answer, look carefully at what is
shown in the photo, remember what you learnt about the Battle of the
Somme and trench warfare and re-read the information about
‘Reliability of propaganda’ in this section.
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
61
Recruitment
In the previous section you looked at the propaganda used by both
Germany and Great Britain during World War I. One of the main topics in
that propaganda was recruitment, which primarily means encouraging
people to enlist in (volunteer for) the armed forces. However, in World
War I it also involved encouraging people, especially women, to work in
factories and on farms.
Germany had military conscription throughout World War I and Britain
introduced it in 1916. Therefore Germany did not need to recruit soldiers
for the war and Britain only needed to for about one year and ten months.
The person who was mainly responsible for recruiting soldiers in Britain
before the introduction of conscription was Lord Horatio Kitchener.
He was Minister for War and head of the War Office from August 1914
until his death on 5 June 1916 when the cruiser Hampshire on which he
was travelling to Russia hit a mine and Kitchener along with nearly all the
crew drowned. However, by this time he had had disagreements with
many political and military leaders and his influence on decision-making
had been greatly reduced.
At the beginning of the war Britain had a small Regular Army of
professional soldiers. Many of these soldiers went to the Western Front in
August 1914 as part of the British Expeditionary Force. There was also a
Territorial Force which was mainly intended for the defence of Britain
itself. Kitchener had little confidence in the Territorial Force which he
described as ‘weekend soldiers’ and ‘a town clerk’s army’. He therefore
decided to set up a new force called the New Armies which quickly came
to be known as Kitchener’s Armies.
Main methods
Various methods were used to encourage men to enlist in the army. These
activities were organised by army recruiting officers, local government
councils, the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee and private individuals.
An example of a private recruiter was Horatio Bottomley who was the editor
of the popular newspaper Peoples’ Tribune. His own lawyer in a
bankruptcy trial described him as ‘the cleverest thief in Europe’. He was
paid a sum of money called a bounty for each soldier that he recruited.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
63
One common method used in the recruitment of soldiers was the holding of
meetings and rallies. These featured speakers including soldiers who were
on leave from the trenches and ministers of religion, performances by
popular music hall artists who sang songs such as ‘We don’t want to lose
you but we think you ought to go’, and the waving of national flags by the
audience.
Find the Source sheet ‘Recruitment’. Look at the photo in Source 3.
Tick why you think women were often speakers at recruiting meetings.
There may be more than one correct answer.
❒
❒
❒
It was thought that men were more likely to respond positively to
a message from a woman rather than a man.
❒
Women were the only ones confident enough to speak in public.
There weren’t any men available to speak.
Women were able to focus more effectively on the idea that men
should join the army in order to protect their wives, mothers,
sisters and children.
Did you answer?
It was thought that men were more likely to respond positively to a
message from a woman rather than a man.
✓
Women were able to focus more effectively on the idea that men
should join the army in order to protect their wives, mothers, sisters
and children.
✓
Other methods used to encourage men to volunteer included:
•
processions through the streets of towns and suburbs. For example, in
the town of Guildford, regular processions were held, led by Boy Scout
torch bearers and the Lord Mayor in his official robes.
•
recruiters going from house to house to persuade men to volunteer
•
pamphlets, leaflets and posters. In January 1915 the journalist on
The Times newspaper reported that in London:
Posters appealing to recruits are to be seen on every hoarding, in most
shop windows, in omnibuses, tramcars and commercial vans. The great
base of Nelson’s Pillar is covered with them. Their number and variety
are remarkable.
Source:
64
In Cate Haste, 1977, Keep the Home Fires Burning Propaganda in
the First World War, Allen Lane, p. 55.
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
This was also the main method used to encourage women to join the
workforce.
•
the printing of the names of volunteers in local newspapers
•
women would sometimes pin white feathers on men who were in
civilian clothes to suggest that they were cowards. Not surprisingly this
angered soldiers who were on leave from the trenches.
Main themes
A number of themes were presented in the various activities to encourage
men to enlist. One of the most important of these was to fight for your
country. This idea was frequently presented, including in posters. Probably
the most famous poster of the war featured Lord Kitchener himself staring
straight ahead and pointing, with the caption, ‘Your country needs YOU’.
Look now at the poster in Source 2 on the ‘Recruitment’ Source sheet and
answer the questions on the next page.
1
Whom do you think the main figure in the poster represents?
_______________________________________________________
2
What tells you this?
_______________________________________________________
3
What features of the poster are designed to put pressure on the reader
to enlist?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Did you answer?
1
2
3
the British people
He is wearing a waistcoat with the Union Jack flag on it.
The figure is pointing directly at the reader and the word ‘You’ is larger than
the two words before it and is also underlined.
Countries and their people are often represented by symbols especially in
posters and cartoons. For example, Russia is sometimes shown as a bear,
France as a young woman or a rooster, the United States as Uncle Sam or a
bald-headed eagle, and Great Britain as a bulldog, a lion or John Bull, the
figure in the poster you have just looked at.
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
65
This poster can be found on the NSW HSC ONLINE web site. If you have
access to the Internet, you can find it and two other British recruitment
posters in a tutorial on ‘Primary sources for World War I: recruitment and
propaganda posters’ beginning at
http://www.hsc.csu.edu.au/modern_history/core_study/ww1/posters/page66.
htm
Note however that this tutorial contains two Australian posters which are
not relevant to the 2004 Modern History syllabus which specifies that you
look at recruitment in Germany and Britain only.
Other themes that were commonly used in recruitment included:
•
to fight for ‘justice’ and ‘civilisation’ against the ‘evil’ and ‘barbaric’
enemy. The British frequently portrayed Germany as a bully, especially
with regard to its invasion of Belgium and the Germans showed the
British as warmongers. In one German postcard the British Foreign
Secretary (Minister for Foreign Affairs), Lord Edward Grey, was
described as a ‘War Monger and Mass Murderer’ and the caption had
the devil saying, ‘Even I can learn from this man!’. Associated with
this theme was the promotion of the idea of revenge against the actions
of the enemy such as the sinking of the Lusitania.
•
to protect women and children. One poster asked, ‘Have YOU any
women-folk worth defending?’.
•
to suggest that if men didn’t go to fight they were not only cowards but
they were also prolonging the war and letting down their countrymen
who were already in the trenches
•
to stress that it was men’s duty to go to war and that they were being
selfish ‘shirkers’ if they didn’t enlist
•
to encourage men to enlist as groups of workmates and as members of,
or supporters of, sporting teams and recreation clubs. In September
1914 the Northern Foxes Football Team of Leeds met to elect club
leaders and to arrange games for the coming season but instead all
decided to enlist in the army. The only member that they excused was a
Quaker. A leaflet exhorted the supporters of the Millwall Football Club
to, ‘Join and be in at THE FINAL and give them [the enemy] a KICK
OFF THE EARTH’ (in Haste, 1977: 60).
Women were the focus of a lot of the recruitment material.
Now look at the leaflet in Source 4, ‘Recruitment’ Source sheet.
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World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
This leaflet contains four reasons why women should ‘send a man to join
the army to-day’. In the table below are four statements which mean the
same thing as the four reasons in the table but they use different words.
Next to each of these statements write the number ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’ or ‘4’ to
indicate which reason on the leaflet that statement corresponds to.
If more men don’t volunteer, British families will be in grave
danger.
Women can have a great influence on how many men
volunteer.
If you prevent a man joining the army, you will cause him to
feel ashamed at the end of the war that he didn’t do his fair
share.
We need to make sure that we have enough soldiers so that
the Germans can’t attack Britain and do the sorts of dreadful
things that they have done elsewhere.
Did you answer?
3
Women can have a great influence on how many men volunteer.
2
If more men don’t volunteer, British families will be in grave danger.
4
If you prevent a man joining the army, you will cause him to feel ashamed at
the end of the war that he didn’t do his fair share.
1
We need to make sure that we have enough soldiers so that the Germans can’t
attack Britain and do the sorts of dreadful things that they have done
elsewhere.
The main idea used to recruit women for the workforce, to work in factories
(especially those making munitions) and on farms, was that this was their
way of helping their country. In particular it would support the soldiers to
ensure that the war ended as soon as possible and that their loved ones
returned home safely.
The historian Cate Haste has written, ‘The feature which was most
noticeably absent from all recruitment posters was any explicit description
of the war’ (Haste, 1977: 55).
Why do you think this was? ___________________________________
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Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
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Did you answer?
The authorities were afraid that, if the information about the war was realistic, men
would not volunteer.
And even when artists such as Frank Brangwyn did show what the fighting
was really like, they were criticised for being ‘too artistic’ and for ‘showing
the seamy side of the war’.
Effectiveness of recruitment
The recruitment methods had the desired effect on many men. George Coppard
was a typical example. He wrote:
News placards screamed out at every corner and military bands blared out
their martial music in the main streets of Croydon. This was too much for me
to resist, and as if drawn by a magnet I knew I had to enlist straight away.
Source:
George Coppard, 1986, With a Machine Gun to Cambrai,
Papermac, p. 1.
Overall the number of men who volunteered in Britain was enormous, even
though the historian Denis Winter suggests that ‘there was no great rush to
join the Kitchener armies and save the country. Men joined when they had
settled their domestic business and not before.’ (Winter, 1988: 27)
Nevertheless the official figures which he presents of enlistments in 1914
and 1915 are very impressive.
They are:
1914:
Source:
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August
300 000
September
1915:
January
156 000
450 000
February
88 000
October
137 000
March
114 000
November
170 000
April
119 000
December
117 000
May
135 000
June
114 000
July
95 000
August
96 000
September
71 000
October
113 000
November
122 000
December
55 000
In Denis Winter, 1988, Death’s Men Soldiers of the Great War,
Penguin Books, p. 27.
World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
1
According to these figures, how many British men enlisted in the
army in 1914 and 1915? __________________________________
2
You will notice from these figures that the number of volunteers varied
from month to month. Tick which of the following was the most likely
reason for this variation.
❒
Enlistments continued to decline as the war went on
because men learnt more about what trench warfare was
really like.
❒
Enlistments increased as the war went on because men
volunteered to replace the soldiers who were killed or
wounded.
❒
Enlistments varied according to what was happening in
the fighting, especially on the Western Front.
❒
Men preferred to volunteer in spring and summer.
Did you answer?
1
2
2 452 000
Enlistments varied according to what was happening in the fighting, especially
on the Western Front.
The campaigns to recruit women to join the workforce were very successful
in both Germany and Great Britain. You will learn more later about the
work that they did but the following figures show how much the
participation of women in the British workforce increased during the war.
The increase in Germany was similar.
Type of work
July 1914
July 1918
Metal industries
170 000
594 000
40 000
104 000
196 000
235 000
2 000
225 000
44 000
79 000
Chemical industry
Food, drink and tobacco
Government establishments
Wood industries
1
How many women were involved in these types of work in Britain in
July 1914 (the month before the war started)? ________________
2
How many women were involved in these types of work in July 1918
(about four months before the war ended)? ________________
3
How many more women were involved in these types of work in July
1918 than four years earlier? ________________
Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
69
Did you answer?
1 452 000
2 1 237 000
3 785 000
In this Part we have concentrated on ‘total war’ in Germany and Great
Britain. While the war had a major impact on all the combatant nations, in
particular leading to increased government power and changes in the
economy, many were not affected to the same extent as Germany and
Britain. In fact some such as Australia didn’t really experience total war at
all.
Now would be an appropriate time to do Exercise 5.
You will notice that there are only two questions in this
exercise. This is so that you can spend some additional time
planning and writing your response to the second question
which will require you to use information contained in the
whole of this Part.
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World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
Part 2.1 Exercise 5
Name:
Recruitment
1
Find the Source sheet on ‘Recruitment’.
Look at the German poster in Source 1.
What features of this poster are designed to put pressure on women to
join the workforce?
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2
Using the information in the whole of this Part, write an extended
response to the following question. Make sure you plan your answer
before you start writing it.
Describe and discuss the impact of World War I on the combatant
nations and their peoples.
Remember that ‘describe’ means ‘provide characteristics and features’
and, in this question, ‘discuss’ means ‘identify issues’. Note also that
‘the impact of World War I’ means the effects and changes caused by
the war.
In your answer, you should consider topics such as enemy attacks,
government control of the economy, and censorship.
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World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study
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Part 2: The home fronts in Britain and Germany
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