British Civilisation 15: World War One – 1916-1917
© A. SCHOOLING, Collège Vendôme, Lyon (2009)
1. Conscription and the political pressures of war
In January 1916, Britain introduced compulsory1 conscription for the first time in its history. As the initial
reaction in August 1914 had shown, many people were naturally patriotic and felt honour-bound2 to serve their
King and country. Lord Kitchener’s army had, by spring 1916, become a sizeable3, trained army formed from
5 volunteers, because this “volunteer ethic” was considered extremely important in a free, liberal society.
(Somewhat ironically, Kitchener died just days before his recruits in a ship in June 1916 on a diplomatic mission to
Russia.) However, by the end of 1915 Britain and France were clearly not winning the war and the fiasco of the
Dardanelles made the idea of conscription necessary. In fact, the political pressure at not having achieved success
became so great that the Liberal Government was split and a new Liberal-Conservative Coalition Government led
10 by the Welshman David Lloyd George was formed. In fact, this split was the end of the Liberal Party who, apart
from being in a Coalition government, have never held power since; after the war a new party, the Labour Party,
replaced them as a possible alternative to the Conservatives.
2. The Western Front
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A British tank stuck in the
mud at Ypres, 1917
As we have seen, there was deadlock4 on the Western Front. The opposing
armies were developing great defensive techniques (bunkers, machine guns,
barbed wire, etc.), but the offensive weapons had not followed at the same speed.
The tank and the fighter aircraft, which in the Second World War would prove to be
the missing solutions to this problem and created the ‘Blitzkrieg’ that defeated
France, were not available5 in World War One. The first tanks were introduced in
the Battle of the Somme, but they broke down6 quickly, moved very slowly and often got stuck in the mud.
Although they were greatly improved by the end of the war, there were not enough of them and they weren’t
reliable7 enough to prove decisive.
Between 1914 and 1918 the only way to win the war was having enough soldiers to grind down8 the enemy. The
Germans, whose Schlieffen Plan was based on defeating France first, decided to concentrate on breaking through
the French lines at Verdun. So in spring 1916, one of the most ferocious battles in French history was fought, and
although the French correctly consider it as a terrible event for the French who were nearly defeated, the Germans
actually9 lost far more soldiers as they were the ones attacking.
The British army was intending to attack the Germans when the British army was fully ready, but the plan was
revised and advanced when the French came under pressure at Verdun. The French correctly understood that if
the British attacked to the north of Verdun, in the Somme area, this would force the Germans to withdraw10 some
of their troops to protect their own lines there. So the British, just like the Germans in Verdun, opened their major
offensive of the Western Front on July 1st, 1916. The first day of the Somme saw nearly 60,000 casualties, the worst
day for the British army ever. Indeed, it was the worst day of the war for any army. A third of the soldiers, most of
whom were Kitchener’s young recruits, were identified as killed; the rest were wounded or ‘lost in action’. But as
natural as it was to complain11 at the stupidity of the generals (as Sassoon did), there was little real alternative. And
in the long run12, the Battle of the Somme was crucial in helping France survive and ‘bleeding’ Germany dry.
Far from being an individual battle, ‘the Somme’ was just part of one continual British offensive waged during
the springs and summers of 1916 and 1917. It is difficult sometimes to determine the end of a battle because there
were no ceasfires, and fighting and shelling just continued with more or less intensity. In summer 1917, the big
organised ‘push’ was in the Ypres Salient. This is sometimes known as the ‘Third Battle of Ypres’ or ‘Passchendaele,’
after a little village near Ypres. It was again extremely costly in British – and especially Canadian – lives, and
because the summer of 1917 was extremely wet the battle was fought in thick mud. The conditions were truly as
horrible as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon describe in their poetry.
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3. Unrestricted submarine warfare and the United States
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Since the beginning of the war, the United States had carefully stayed out of a predominantly European conflict.
Although their president, Woodrow Wilson, was very sympathetic13 to Britain, allowing14 the British to buy up
surplus ships for their convoys and granting15 Britain credit to buy vital supplies16 to wage war, the United States
were largely content to profit from the conflict which enabled the US to expand its industrial base to meet Allied
needs of weapons, food and all sorts of other products. Indeed, the foundation of Wall Street as the centre of
world finance began during this period, as great sums of money passed from London and Paris to New York.
The Germans were unhappy with this Anglo-American cooperation and decided to target17 ships carrying
supplies and people near the British Isles irrespective of where the ship was from. Thus when the British ship, the
Lusitania, was sunk by a German submarine and 128 American civilians died,
pressure mounted18in the US for America to join the Allied cause. Other ships
carrying Americans were also sunk in unrestricted submarine attacks. Then, in
January 1917 a diplomatic telegram (the Zimmermann telegram) was intercepted by
the British: it was found that Germany intended to incite the Mexicans into declaring
war on the US, and this proved too much for the American public. On April 6th, 1917,
The Lusitania sinks near Ireland
the United States joined the Allied side against the Central Powers.
For the Germans, this was a calculated risk that eventually backfired19. They figured20 that the Allies would be
defeated long before the American war machine could make any real difference to the outcome21. (They figured
wrong!) It is true that it would not be until 1918 that trained American troops could really be brought to France in
any great numbers, but by 1919 America, Britain, France and Italy would have had sufficient numbers to defeat the
Central Powers. But in 1917, Germany saw that Russia was being defeated. It seemed it was the Schlieffen Plan in
reverse...
4. The Russian Revolution
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Vladmir Lenin addresses Russian workers
When the Russians began the ‘Great Retreat’ in 1915 this was not well received in
Russia. Although they had enormous numbers of troops, they were predominantly
peasants22, often poorly trained and led, and the army quickly suffered from mass
desertions and very low morale. In Russia, their late industrial revolution had been creating
lots of uncertainty and the government, which was badly organised and often corrupt, had
not provided23 the necessary strong leadership.
Some Russian political exiles led by Vladimir Lenin were living in Switzerland during the
war and the Germans let him and his friends travel back to Russia in time to exploit the
situation. There were great economic difficulties and in many places the population was
starving. Lenin and his Bolshevik revolutionaries promised an end to the war they said was
killing Russians for no purpose24. Indeed, as communists, they claimed25 that they would
return the power and riches of the country to the people. The revolution took place in
two stages26: in February 1917 the Tsar lost control of his capital and was deposed and
after many months of ineffective27 leadership the Bolsheviks seized power in October
1917. For people in fear of their lives, the Bolsheviks’ promises often proved too
tempting and in the civil war that followed between ‘Red’ Bolsheviks and loyal subjects
of ‘White’ Russia the former won. As for Tsar Nicolas II and his Romanov family, they
were all executed in July 1918.
In early 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was negotiated and this released28 virtually29
all the German troops from the Eastern Front to stage30 the final assault against the Allies
in France in the spring of 1918. It nearly succeeded31...
Nicolas II in March 1917
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World War One – 1916-1917: Vocabulary Help
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
compulsory = obligatoire
honour-bound = tenus par l’honneur
sizeable = non négligable, assez grande
deadlock = l’impasse
available = disponibles
to break down = tomber en panne
reliable = fiables
to grind down = user et écraser
actually = en fait
to withdraw = se retirer
to complain = se plaindre
in the long run = à la longue
sympathetic = (ici) bien disposé
to allow = permettre
to grant = accorder
supplies = le ravitaillement, le matériel, les
fournitures
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17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
to target = cibler
to mount = monter, augmenter
to backfire = avoir l’effet inverse
to figure = calculer, penser
outcome = résultat
peasants = paysans
to provide = fournir
purpose = but
to claim = prétendre
stage = étape
ineffective = incapable
to release = dégager, libérer
virtually = presque, pratiquement
to stage = (ici) organiser
to succeed = réussir