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World War 1 1914–1919A Source-based Study

Part 3Changing attitudes of soldiers and

civilians to the war

Part 3: Changing attitudes of soldiers and civilians to the war 1

Contents

Initial enthusiasm 3

Part 3 Exercise 1 13

Attitudes begin to change – 1914 17


Attitudes change further 1915–16 27

The Somme 32


Desire for peace grows – 1917 45

Papal attempts to mediate peace 51

The Stockholm Peace Conference 52

The end of 1917 52



Initial enthusiasm

One of the most significant of the long-term causes of the war was thenationalism that developed in most European countries during the latenineteenth century.

You may recall from previous study how nationalism is defined.

Read the following definitions and tick the correct one/s.

❒ a traditional patriotic love of one’s nation

❒ a general feeling of loyalty towards the country in which one lives

❒ a strong belief in the cultural mission of one’s nation emphasisedthrough a common race and common language

❒ a stressing of the unique identity (and often superiority) of one’snation

❒ a general pride in the nation’s history and culture

Did you answer?

a strong belief in the cultural mission of one’s nation emphasised through acommon race and common language

a stressing of the unique identity (and often superiority) of one’s nation

This sense of nationalism resulted in an increased feeling of tension betweenthe different countries of Europe. This was intensified by the economicrivalry which existed between those powers that had empires. This in turnled to the creation of military alliances and to increases in the size ofcountries’ armed forces in an attempt to protect themselves and theirempires. As a result countries were extremely confident that they wouldquickly win any war in which they might become involved.

This confidence was felt not only by governments but also by most of thegeneral populations of the major powers. Many people identifiedthemselves passionately with their country’s ‘national interest’. Loyalty toone’s country ‘right or wrong’ was regarded by many as the most importantthing of all – often having a greater influence on people’s attitudes towardsjustice, life and death, than religion did.

4 World War 1 1914–1919 A Source-based study

Most political leaders of the great European powers knew that they couldnot raise and finance an effective fighting force without the support of thepeople. Songs like Land of Hope and Glory, which was written for thecoronation of Edward VII in Britain, encouraged and demonstrated thissupport. Let’s read the words of Land of Hope and Glory.

Dear Land of Hope, thy hope is crowned.God make thee mightier yet!On Sov'ran brows, beloved, renowned,Once more thy crown is set.Thine equal laws, by Freedom gained,Have ruled thee well and long;By Freedom gained, by Truth maintained,Thine Empire shall be strong.

Land of Hope and Glory,Mother of the Free,How shall we extol thee,Who are born of thee?Wider still and widerShall thy bounds be set;God, who made thee mighty,Make thee mightier yet.

Thy fame is ancient as the days,As Ocean large and wide:A pride that dares, and heeds not praise,A stern and silent pride:Not that false joy that dreams contentWith what our sires have won;The blood a hero sire hath spentStill nerves a hero son.

Melody from Edward Elgar's ‘Coronation Ode’, 1902; words by A. C.Benson (1862-1925)

Source: < http://ingeb.org/songs/landofho.html > (accessed 18 April 2001).

1 Highlight the line/s that encourage the idea that God is on the sideof the British.

2 Underline the words/phrases that indicate that it is a good thing tofight for one’s country.


Did you answer?

1 God, who made thee mighty,Make thee mightier yet.

2 Not that false joy that dreams contentWith what our sires have won;The blood a hero sire hath spentStill nerves a hero son

Not only the British but indeed all European imperialist nations did notquestion their right to rule others or to defend that right. Each nation had itspopular patriotic songs, which encouraged the view that fighting for one’scountry was a ‘glorious’ thing to do and promoted the idea that fighting, andpossibly dying, for the nation and its ruler was the ‘stuff of heroes’.

This belief inevitably had an effect on people’s attitudes in July 1914 when itseemed likely that war was about to break out.

Let’s read a description of how many people in Berlin reacted at the time.

In Berlin, Horace Rumbold found himself on July 29 outside the CrownPrince’s Palace at the very moment when the Crown Prince arrived in hiscar. ‘The crowd cheered wildly. There was an indescribable feeling ofexcitement in the air. It was evident that some great event was about tohappen. The olive grey motorcars of the Great General Staff weredashing about in all directions’.

Source: Martin Gilbert, 1995, First World War, HarperCollins, p. 26.

1 Which of the following words best describe the feeling in Berlin atthe end of July 1914

❒ Fear

❒ Excitement

❒ Expectation

❒ Depression

❒ Joy

Look at Source 3 on the ‘Attitudes to War (1)’ Source sheet.

2 Does this photo taken on August 1914 support the eyewitness evidenceof Horace Rumbold in the source above about the attitude of people inBerlin as war was breaking out?

Yes/No


Did you answer?

1 excitementexpectationjoy

2 Yes

The individual in the circle in the photo in Source 3 is a young Adolf Hitlerwho twenty-five years later was to lead Germany into the Second WorldWar.

Below is a photo also taken in August 1914, but this time in London.

Is the attitude there different from what it was in Berlin?

Yes/No

Trafalgar Square on the day war was declared, 4 August 1914

Source: In G D Sheffield, 1987, The Pictorial History of World War I, BisonBooks, p. 17.

Did you answer?

No.


On 5 August, the day after Britain declared war, W T Colyer wrote:

Would they invade us, I wondered. By George! If they should they’dfind us a tougher nut to crack than they expected. My bosom swelled andI clenched my fist. I wished to goodness I were in the Army. I feltrestless, excited, eager to do something desperate for the cause ofEngland.

And then the impulse came, sending the blood tingling all over my body:why not join the Army now? A great and glorious suggestion. It mightnot be too late.

Source: In Malcolm Brown, 1978, Tommy Goes to War, J M Dent andSons, p. 16.

Tick which of the following statements best describe how Colyer feltthat day.

❒ Eager

❒ Enthusiastic

❒ Excited

❒ Proud

❒ Patriotic

Did you answer?

All of the above.

Later that day Colyer volunteered and was accepted in the British Armyafter which he wrote:

… I went home throbbing with a new vitality [energy] …


1 Look at Source 2 on the ‘Attitudes to War (1)’ Source sheet.Do you think that the men in this photo felt much like Colyer?

Yes / No

2 What evidence in the photo is there to support your conclusion?There may be more than one correct answer.

❒ The men are all smiling and look happy.

❒ The men look worried.

❒ There are only a handful of men enlisting.

❒ There are great numbers of men waiting to enlist.


Did you answer?

1 Yes

2 The men are all smiling and look happy.There are great numbers of men waiting to enlist.

On the 6th of August, Prime Minister Asquith made a speech to the BritishHouse of Commons that was reported in the following day’s paper.

I do not think any nation ever entered into a great conflict – and this is oneof the greatest that history will ever know – with a clearer conscience orstronger conviction that it is fighting not for aggression, not for themaintenance of its own selfish ends, but in defence of principles themaintenance of which is vital to the civilisation of the world. Cheers

We have got a great duty to perform; we have got a great truth to fulfil;and I am confident Parliament and the country will enable us to do it.Loud cheers.

Source: In Malcolm Brown, 1978, Tommy Goes to War, J M Dent and Sons,p. 17.

Do you think that both the writer of Land of Hope and Glory andW T Colyer would have agreed with the thoughts expressed in thisspeech?

Yes/No

Did you answer?

No

People in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and France felt similaremotions to those expressed by Asquith. In France, support for the war wasso strong even before it started that, on 31 July 1914, a socialist journalist,Jean Jaures, was assassinated when he publicly demanded that all warmeasures be stopped.

In fact the modern historian A J P Taylor has described the fervour forvolunteering as ‘the greatest surge of willing patriotism ever recorded’.(in Brown, 1978:17).

Do you think the evidence you have seen so far in this section supportsTaylor’s conclusion?

Yes/No

Did you answer?

Yes


All participating countries saw the war as an unambiguous struggle forjustice, a defence of everything that they believe in and valued. People feltthat their very existence was threatened.

When World War I broke out, there was general enthusiasm throughoutEurope. This led to large numbers of men quickly volunteering to fight.However, at that time, few people understood how much the nature ofwarfare had changed as a result of the ever-increasing range and lethalpower of artillery and the machine gun. Most people still thought that warwas an opportunity to demonstrate skill and bravery against otherindividuals, rather than the nightmare of death and destruction that gas andexplosive shells had produced in the trenches.

Within five weeks of Asquith calling for volunteers to join the British army,200 000 men had responded to his call. On 1 September alone 30 000 menenlisted. All classes of men volunteered and ‘the wealthy cancelled ordersfor jewellery in a sudden patriotic desire to economise’ (Braybon andSummerfield 1987:32).

Recruits early in the war waiting for their pay in London


1 Tick how you can distinguish between different social classes inthis photo. There may be more than one correct answer.

❒ The type of hats they are wearing.

❒ The type of shirts and jackets they are wearing.


2 Does this photo support the conclusion that all levels of British societywere keen to enlist?

Yes/No

3 Does this photo support the conclusion that all levels of German societywere keen to enlist?

Yes/No

Did you answer?

1 Both of these indicate social status.

2 Yes

3 No, it is only a photo of British recruits.

In every country, young men went off adventurously, glad to change theirlives. They were answering the call of duty, and they were sure they wouldsoon be back as victors. If the war was to be over by Christmas, as manybelieved, or at the latest by Easter 1915, thousands of soldiers might bekilled or wounded before the guns fell silent. However every army believedthat it would crush its opponents.

The historian Marc Ferro, in his work The Great War: 1914-1918, hasdescribed attitudes at the start of hostilities. Let’s read what he says:

Far from being an ordeal, the war liberated men’s energies. It wasenthusiastically received by most men of military age: in England andlater in the United States, where there was no conscription, there were amillion volunteers. The behaviour of the reservists going to the front isevidence enough: French Germans, British – all on their mettle.The Russians, being older, were rather less spirited, the Italians wereslower off the mark; their dreams were different – hopes of revolution,visions of America. But even in Russia there were few absentees on callup; and in France where the military authorities counted on 5–13 percentrefusal to attend, there was only 1.5 percent. The international spirit issaid to have gone bankrupt, socialists to have failed to stop the war, tohave betrayed their oath. Contemporaries were struck by this. But menwere sure that this was false: in answering their country’s call, theycarried out a patriotic and revolutionary duty. They felt their country hadbeen wantonly attacked, that in going to war revolutionary-mindedsoldiers and their brothers-in-arms would be creating eternal peace. Theutopian ideal of fighting a ‘war to end all wars’ inspired French soldiers.Pacifism and internationalism were fused with individualism andpatriotism, a decidedly exceptional occurrence explained only by thepeculiar nature of the war which, for all combatants, was a just one, a warfor national defence – and in any case, one that was inevitable.

Source: Marc Ferro, 1987, The Great War: 1914–1918, Ark Paperbacks, p. 8.


1 Draw lines to connect the following words from the above sourcewith their meanings.

individualism opposition to war or violence ofany kind

internationalism a social theory advocating theliberty, rights or independentaction of the individual

pacifism devotion to one’s country

patriotism an ideal, in a state of perfection

utopian the principle of cooperationamong nations to promote theircommon good

2 Underline or highlight the reasons that Marc Ferro gives as to why therewere so many people who were prepared to answer ‘the call to arms’ ineach of the countries involved.

Did you answer?

1 individualism opposition to war or violence of any king

internationalism a social theory advocating the liberty,rights or independent action ofthe individual

pacifism devotion to one’s country

patriotism an ideal, in a state of perfection

utopian the principle of cooperation among nations to promote their common good

2 – they carried out a patriotic and revolutionary duty. They felt their countryhad been wantonly attacked, that in going to war revolutionary-mindedsoldiers and their brothers-in-arms would be creating eternal peace.

– fighting a ‘war to end all wars’

– the war which, for all combatants, was a just one, a war for national defenceand in any case, one that was inevitable.


While most people were in favour of the war in 1914, there was a variety ofattitudes to it. Some people opposed the war and did not think their countryshould be fighting in it. Some of these opponents were pacifists who did notbelieve that any war was justified, and thought that disputes betweencountries should be resolved by diplomatic discussions and negotiations.

Other opponents were against this war specifically. They believed that itwas really just a struggle for land and power between the monarchs ofEurope, but that the people who would suffer would be the ordinary menand women of all the countries. Many people thought that the only oneswho would benefit from the war would be the industrialists and financierswho would manufacture the weapons and provide the funds needed to fightthe war.

A few opponents of the war were like the Russian Bolshevik (Communist)V I Lenin who believed that the working class should not fight for their owncountries but should struggle alongside the workers in other countries tobring about a socialist revolution. Many more people would have agreedwith Albert Einstein who was living in Berlin at the time and wrote to afriend on 19 August 1914, ‘In such times one realises to what a sad speciesof animal one belongs. I quietly pursue my peaceful studies andcontemplations and feel only pity and disgust’ (in Gilbert, 1994: 40).

You will see that as the war continued, more and more people both soldiersand civilians, became disillusioned with the war and the number of peoplewho opposed it grew. In addition, you have already learned about womenwho were opposed to the war, including some who were against it from thevery beginning.

Now would be an appropriate time to do Exercise 1.


Part 3 Exercise 1

Name:

Initial enthusiasm

1 Using the cartoon below, circle the correct word in each of thesentences which follow.

The caption says, ‘It was a thrilling moment that day, at tea time, when our lotwere told off for the Overseas draft.’

Source: In Bruce Bairnsfather, 1914, The Bystander, in Malcolm Brown,1986, Tommy Goes to War, J M Dent and Sons p. 48.

a The cartoon is a primary / secondary source.

b Tommy Goes To War is a primary / secondary source.

c The soldiers in the cartoon are German / British.

d The cartoon indicates that the soldiers were positive / negativeabout the war.


2 What do the source below and Source 1 on the ‘Attitudes to War (2)’Source sheet reveal about attitudes to the war in 1914 on both sidesof the conflict?

On the day the British general, Lord Kitchener, publicly called for100 000 volunteers, The Times newspaper reported that:

… the crowd of applicants was so large and persistent that mounted policewere necessary to hold them in check and the gates were only opened [atone recruiting office] to admit six at a time … the disappointment of thosewho failed to pass one or other of the tests was obvious.

Source: In Martin Gilbert, 1995, First World War, HarperCollins, p. 37.

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3 How useful and reliable is the poem below, by a young British poetwho was killed in the first year of the war, for an historian studyingattitudes to war at the beginning of World War 1?

Before you start your answer, look again at the material on page 34 inPart 1.1 of this module about how to assess the usefulness andreliability of sources.

1914. Peace

Now, God be thanked

Who has matched us with His hour,

And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,

With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,

To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,

Glad from a world grown old and weary,

Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move.

And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary.

And all the little emptiness of love.

Source: By Rupert Brooke in Robert Paxton, 1975, Europe in the TwentiethCentury, p. 121.

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Attitudes begin to change – 1914

You have learned that conditions for the soldiers in the trenches were verydifferent from the conditions that soldiers had faced in previous types ofwarfare. However at the beginning of the war, the fighting on the WesternFront hadn’t yet turned into the total horror it later became. In fact, aGerman reserve officer, Walter Bloem, was able to write after his firstaction:

‘It was fabulous, surely a dream. Was the whole war just a game, a kindof sport? Was the Belgian Army just a pack of hares?’


Tick the reason/s why you think Walter Bloem might have concludedthat war was ‘a game’.

❒ Walter Bloem was sure this would be a short war and that theGermans would win.

❒ The Belgians surrendered without a fight.

❒ Trench warfare had not yet begun when Walter Bloem wrote this.

❒ Walter Bloem enjoyed killing.

Did you answer?

Walter Bloem was sure this would be a short war and that the Germanswould win

Trench warfare had not yet begun when Walter Bloem wrote this.

Even after the true nature of trench warfare became evident, many soldiersentered the fighting knowing little about the hell that awaited them. Thefollowing photo gives an indication of how most soldiers felt before theyexperienced the true realities of life at the front.


10th East Yorks, composed of Pals Battalions from the North of England, on their way tothe Somme.


List four words to describe how you think most of these soldiers in the10th East Yorks might have been feeling when this photo was taken.Hint: look carefully at the expressions on the soldiers’ faces.

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Did you answer?

There are a number of words you might have thought of. The following aresome possibilities: excited; eager; confident; optimistic; determined; nervous.

August 20 1914 was the day that the reality of the new developments inartillery firepower became clear. It was on this day that the first massiveGerman bombardment began along a wide front in France. It causedinnumerable fires which burnt fiercely and could be seen by the Alliedsoldiers, outlined against the horizon.

Below is a description of how two officers, one British and the other French,felt as they watched this scene. Most of this description comes from themen themselves.

‘A chill of horror came over us. War seemed suddenly to have assumed aruthless aspect that we had not realised until then. Hitherto it had been away as we had conceived it, hard blows, straight dealing, but now for thefirst time we felt as if some horrible Thing, utterly merciless, wasadvancing to grip us.’ As the two officers … watched the bombardmentcontinue and the fires spread, it became clear to them ‘that to survive itwould be necessary to go on beyond exhaustion, to march when the bodyclamoured to be allowed to drop and die, to shoot when the eyes are tootired to see, to remain awake when a man would have given his chance of


salvation to sleep. And we realised that to drive the body beyond itsphysical powers, to force the mind to act long after it had surrendered itspower of thought, only despair and the strength of despair could furnishthe motive force.’

Source: In Martin Gilbert, 1995, First World War, HarperCollins, pp. 51–2.

Underline or highlight the sentences in this source which show that theofficers’ attitudes to war underwent a sudden change as a result of whatthey saw on 20 August 1914.

Did you answer?

War seemed suddenly to have assumed a ruthless aspect that we had notrealised until then. Hitherto it had been a way as we had conceived it, hardblows, straight dealing, but now for the first time we felt as if some horribleThing, utterly merciless, was advancing to grip us.

Look at Source 4 on the ‘Attitudes to war (2)’ Source sheet.

This photo shows the Somme night sky lit up with incendiary shells.

Now tick which of the following sentences you agree with. There may bemore than one correct answer.

❒ The photo in Source 4 contradicts the information given by theBritish and French officers about the German bombardment on20 August 1914.

❒ The photo in Source 4 provides some information about thechanged nature of war.

❒ The photo in Source 4 helps you to understand why the officersfelt the way they did.

❒ The photo in Source 4 provides no information useful tounderstanding the changing nature of attitudes.

Did you answer?

The photo in Source 4 provides some information about the changed natureof war.

The photo in Source 4 helps you to understand why the officers felt the waythey did.

The artillery shelling made the soldiers’ lives ‘hell’. To make matters worse,decisions made by the high commands of the different armies often led tounnecessarily high numbers of casualties. On 18 December 1914, in the part ofthe line held by a battalion of Scots Guards, an attack was ordered on theGerman trenches. Their official historian, C T Atkinson, described it as ‘a notvery happily conceived enterprise’ which led to half the battalion being killedor wounded.


Atkinson also added that the orders showed:

an optimism which did not indicate any close acquaintance either with the stateof the ground or with the general conditions of the front line, or any accurateappreciation of the difficulties of attacking entrenched positions defended bymodern rifles and machine-guns and protected by belts of barbed wire.


Tick which of the following statements best describe/s what Atkinsonbelieved was the problem with the orders from the British highcommand.

❒ The high command was incompetent.

❒ The front line officers did not understand the orders given tothem by their superior officers.

❒ The generals had no idea what the terrain or conditions werereally like where the battle would be occurring.

❒ The high command did not understand how difficult it was tofight a war which involved modern weapons.

❒ The soldiers were not properly trained in how to use the newweapons.

Did you answer?

The generals had no idea what the terrain or conditions were really like wherethe battle would be occurring.

The high command did not understand how difficult it was to fight a warwhich involved modern weapons

You learned that on Christmas Day 1914 an unofficial truce occurred in anumber of places on the Western Front. This indicated that many Germanand Allied soldiers did not hate each other. Some may even have thought ofthemselves as ‘rats caught in the same trap’. The truce however did little toinfluence the overall course of the war. The fighting did not stop and thehigh commands of both sides were horrified that it had happened at all.Orders to shoot were soon issued and the soldiers were quickly firing ateach other across No Man’s Land.

It appears that the Christmas truce would not have ended the war even if ithad been extended to other places and had lasted for a longer period of time.One soldier, when asked in 1981 if the soldiers would have stopped fightingand gone home if the truce had continued, replied:


I’m quite sure that wouldn’t have been the case – I’m quite definite aboutthat. We all wanted to win the war and see the Germans beaten. It was allright just having the truce and meeting the Germans, but as for ending thewar, no, that was out of the question. In any case we all expected the warwould end next spring – we were quite certain that we would finish thewar off.

Source: In Malcolm Brown, 1986, Tommy Goes to War, J M Dent and Sons.

Underline or highlight which of the following statements best describesthis soldier’s attitude to the war at the end of 1914.

• He hated it and could see no end in sight.

• He knew the war would take a long time but thought it wasnecessary and they would win in the end.

• He thought the whole war would not achieve anything.

• He wanted to continue fighting because he was sure they wouldsoon win.

• It was still a great adventure for him.

Did you answer?

He wanted to continue fighting because he was sure they would soon win.

If you want to learn a little more about this truce, you might like to try thefollowing URL for the BBC’s web site, ‘World War I Remembered’http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/special_report/1998/10/98/world_war_i/newsid_197000/197627.stm

Not everyone agreed that the war would soon be over. Valentine Fleming,who was a Conservative Member of the British Parliament and who foughton the Western Front, wrote in a letter home early in 1915: ‘It’s going to bea long war in spite of the fact that on both sides every single man in it wantsit stopped at once.’ (in Gilbert, 1994: 112).

Tick which of the following statements you think might explain whyFleming’s attitude was different to the soldier’s in the previous source.There may be more than one correct answer.

❒ As a Member of Parliament, he knew more about what was goingon.

❒ Fleming was an officer and had more information available to him.

❒ The soldier believed the military propaganda that encouraged thebelief that the war would be won quickly.

❒ Fleming realised the implications of the type of war they werefighting.

❒ The soldier only really knew what was happening in his section ofthe front line.


Did you answer?

All of the above are possible reasons for the different attitudes

The realities of life in the trenches were not always portrayed accurately bynewspapers and magazines. The following drawing, which supposedly showedwhat life was like at the front, appeared in a popular Paris magazine.

An artist’s impression of life in French trenches

Source: In L’Illustration, 1915 in Ron Ringer, 1989, History Outlines: ModernHistory World War I, A S Wilson, p. 121.

Tick which of the following statements you think might explain whyFleming’s attitude was different to the soldier’s in the previous source.There may be more than one correct answer.

This source provides evidence about what life was like inboth sides’ trenches.

True / False

This source provides evidence about what life was like inthe French trenches.

True / False

This source provides evidence about what the artistwanted people to believe life was like in the Frenchtrenches.

True / False

This source provides evidence that Parisian civilians in1915 were given inaccurate information about whatconditions were like at the front.

True / False

Did you answer?

F, F, T, T.

Now would be an appropriate time to do Exercise 2


Part 3 Exercise 2

Name:

Attitudes begin to change – 1914

1 Read Source 4 on the ‘Attitudes to war (3)’ Source sheet. According tothis source, what three things happened to make this soldier’s attitude tothe war change?

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2 In what ways do the following two cartoons show that manysoldiers’ attitudes to the war were changing as the war continue?

The caption says, ‘Waiting for the barrage to lift. It makes you feel small and sortof lost!’

Source: Bruce Bairnsfather, 1914, The Bystander in Malcolm Brown, 1986,Tommy Goes to War, J M Dent and Sons, p. 49.


The caption says, ‘Well, if you knows of a better ’ole, go to it.’

Source: In Bruce Bairnsfather, 1914, The Bystander in Malcolm Brown, 1986,Tommy Goes to War, J M Dent and Sons, p. 127.

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3 Using the cartoons you used in Question 2 and your study of WorldWar I so far, why do think the soldier in Source 4 on the ‘Attitudes towar (3)’ Source sheet would constantly fear death when he was in thetrenches.

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Attitudes change further 1915–16

During 1915, an increasing mood of resignation, an acceptance that the warwas going to be a long one, descended on the soldiers. Ian Hay, a Britishofficer and war writer, wrote:

We no longer regard War with the least enthusiasm. We have seen It, faceto face. Our sole purpose now is to screw our sturdy followers up to therequisite pitch of efficiency, and keep them remorselessly at that standarduntil the dawn of triumphant and abiding peace.

What phrase that you have already learnt about in Part 1.2 describes thekind of warfare that Ian Hay is talking about?

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Did you answer?

War of attrition

Anti-war sentiments began to be voiced more loudly on both sides and atboth the front line and the home front. One example of this was in Berlin on1 April 1915, when anti-war protests were led by the socialist RosaLuxemburg. Although she was quickly arrested and imprisoned, otherGerman anti-militarists travelled to neutral Holland for the ‘InternationalWomen’s Peace Congress’. More than a thousand delegates from twelvecountries on both sides of the conflict attended the conference. The Britishgovernment, however, prevented twenty-five British women from attendingby suspending the ferry service between Britain and Holland. You saw acartoon about this in Part 2.2.

Even at the government level, some people began to think about makingpeace. In May 1915, when Italy declared war on Austria, which meant thatAustria was fighting a war on two fronts against both Russia and Italy, theAustrian Foreign Minister, Count Czernin, reached the conclusion that thetime had come to seek peace with Russia on a ‘policy of renunciation’ of allAustrian and German conquests. Czernin believed that, in the long term,little could be gained by continuing to fight against two opponents.

In Berlin, however, the German government believed that they had begunthe total destruction of the Russian armies and that therefore peace talkswould be premature. Czernin’s ideas went no further.


Meanwhile in Britain, the true nature of the war was beginning to make itsway into the press. Not only had the horrendously long lists of the dead andwounded begun to appear in newspapers, but poems and songs from soldiersat the front line were also being published.

Read Source 1, the poem by Sgt Coulson, and Source 2, the Britishsong, on the ‘Attitudes to war (3)’ Source sheet.

Tick the sentence below that best describes the impression that thesemight have given the British public in 1916.

❒ War was more unpleasant than expected but worth the effort.

❒ Although death and destruction were everywhere the soldierscould still feel like heroes.

❒ The war was all about horrific death and destruction and mostsoldiers wanted to be anywhere but in the front lines.

❒ After experiencing war at the front, most soldiers expected tosurvive the war.

Did you answer?

The war was all about horrific death and destruction and most soldierswanted to be anywhere but in the front lines.

In Britain, the attitude of women to the war also changed as informationabout the reality of conditions began to appear. Some started to oppose thewar but others became even more determined to ‘do their bit’. By the end of1914, women had already begun to work in enormous numbers in munitionsfactories throughout Britain. They worked long hours among acrid fumesand for low pay but their patriotic fervour was as strong as the soldiers’.By the middle of 1915, there was a desperate shortage of shells for themassive artillery bombardments. In response to the government call formore workers, one of the banners held aloft during a march in London topromote ‘Women’s Right to Serve’ read, ‘The situation is serious.Women must save it.’


Tick which of the following statements you think best reflects theattitude of the women in Britain in 1915 who carried this banner.

❒ The death and destruction brought about by the war have been sogreat and have achieved so little that it should be stoppedimmediately.

❒ The death and destruction brought about by the war have been sogreat that women should do all they can to ensure victory.

❒ The men are all cowards who need women to give them courageto become heroes.

❒ Women have no idea what the real situation is but they want thewar to continue no matter what the cost is.

Did you answer?

The death and destruction brought about by the war have been so greatthat women should do all they can to ensure victory.

By the end of 1915 even the British House of Lords, which had previouslydescribed every piece of fighting, no matter how disastrous, as an Alliedsuccess, began to realise that the war was going to drag on probably for years.In fact it actually went so far as to describe the Battles of Neuve Chapelle andLoos, in which the Germans gained a little territory, as ‘defeats’. Both theBritish and German governments realised they could no longer plan for a warthat would be over in the next few months. Both sides now began to makepreparations to ensure that they would have enough munitions and soldiers fora conflict that could last years. As you learned, this included the introductionof conscription in Britain in 1916 and a call for all member nations of theBritish Empire to do the same.

However, not everyone in Britain was prepared to accept the governmentattitude that the fighting should continue until total victory was achieved, nomatter what the cost was. In London on 27 November 1915, pacifists fromall over Britain gathered to establish a No-Conscription Fellowship, with thedeclared aim of refusing to do any form of military service. Many of themwere Quakers, members of a Christian group that held strong views that thecommandment ‘you shall not kill’ should never be broken under anycircumstances . What united them, their President, Clifford Allen, declared,was ‘a belief in the sanctity of human life’. People like Quakers whorefused to undertake military service were called ‘conscientious objectors’because their consciences objected to killing.


Many people despised pacifists who they felt were letting down their fellowcountrymen during a time of desperate need. This attitude was encouragedby the propaganda you examined earlier. It was common despite the factthat many conscientious objectors actually served in the front lines asambulance drivers and medics rescuing the wounded – often at the cost oftheir own lives. Only a handful refused any form of service and went toprison for their beliefs.

On December 4 1915, the American automobile tycoon, Henry Ford, paid fora ‘Peace Ship’ to travel across the Atlantic to Britain carrying leadingAmerican women and journalists. Their goal was to,‘Get the boys out of thetrenches and back to their homes by Christmas.’ Their efforts met with nosuccess.

In Berlin in the same month, a prominent German banker told the AmericanAmbassador James W Gerard that:

… the Germans were sick of war; that the Krupp’s and other bigindustries were making great sums of money, and were prolonging thewar by insisting on the annexation of Belgium. [He told him that Prussianlandowners were also in favour of continuing the war] because of the factthat they were getting four or five times the money for their products,while their work was being done by prisoners.


1 Whom did the German banker blame for the fact that Germanywould not consider discussing peace at the end of 1915?

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2 How useful do you think this source is when investigating the attitudesof the Germans to the war? Underline or highlight one of the following.

– Extremely useful because that is clearly what all Germans werethinking.

– Useful because some Germans had this attitude but it is likely thatothers thought differently.

– Not useful at all because this is only one person’s viewpoint.

Did you answer?

1 the Krupp’s and other big industries, and Prussian landowners.

2 Useful because some Germans had this attitude but it is likely that others thoughtdifferently.


Although the Germans achieved some successes against the Russians in theeast in 1915, the year ended much the same way it started – with noresolution of the war in sight. A German described how the soldiers werefeeling at the end of the year:

Enthusiasm is dying bit by bit … That is what distinguished this war – onall fronts … the feeling of insufficiency. No one has strength enough.

Source: In Vincent Crinnion, 1988, The Great War, Macmillan Education,p. 36.

Now read the words of a song sung by British soldiers at Victoria Station inLondon who were returning to the Western Front from their 1915 Christmasleave:

I don’t want to die,I want to go home.I don’t want to go to the trenches no more,Where the whizz-bangs and shells do whistle and roar.

I don’t want to go over the sea,To where the alleymen will shoot at me,I want to go homeI don’t want to die.


Using these sources, circle the correct words in the following sentences.

The British soldiers felt the same way as / differently from the Germansoldiers. In other words, these sources contradict / reinforce each other

Did you answer?

The British soldiers felt the same way as the German soldiers. Inother words, these sources reinforce each other.

The historian Marc Ferro has described the situation at the end of 1915 thisway:

On both sides, losses had been high, particularly in 1915. On both sides,these were simply written down as costs of victory … By the end of1915 doubt gripped the French, eternally meeting German wire andGerman guns or gas; they were assured that the next offensive would bedecisive, since French armaments would be, this time, ‘more powerfulthan the Germans’. In the rear, uncertainty, anxiety and despair werebeginning to gain over the former happy certainty and everywhere thatwas increasing disappointment, irritation and quarrelling. Governmentsno longer hoped for a short war, or even one with a foreseeable end, andtalked of ‘attrition’ instead. Peoples displayed signs of weariness, andthere was already some grumbling for peace.

Source: In Marc Ferro, 1987, The Great War 1914–1918, ArkPaperbacks, p. 75.


1 Highlight or underline the words that Ferro uses to describe thefeelings of people on both sides, especially the French, at the end of1915.

2 Were the feelings of the French soldiers any different from the feelingsof the British or German soldiers?

Yes/No

Did you answer?

1 doubt; uncertainty, anxiety and despair; disappointment, irritation andquarrelling; weariness

2 No

The SommeBefore the Battle of Verdun, which began in February 1916, the British andFrench attempted a joint attack along a 100-kilometre front to crush theGerman defenders and finally break the deadlock in Europe. However, theexpected breakthrough did not happen and the fierce and lengthy battle todefend Verdun weakened the French. The British and the French planned anattack at the Somme to relieve some of the pressure on the French army atVerdun and to achieve the breakthrough that the Allies were looking for.You have already learnt about the Battles of Verdun and the Somme.

Because of their heavy losses at Verdun, the French could only provide 11 of the39 divisions they had promised would fight alongside the 18 British divisions atthe Somme. The plan was that the French were to begin a surprise attack along afront of 20 kilometres and the British front was to be 30 kilometres long. Behindthe lines, the Allies assembled a massive collection of 2000 guns, with oneheavy gun every 50 metres on the British front, and one every 20 metres on theFrench front. Unfortunately for the Allies, these preparations alerted theGermans to the fact that a new offensive was going to occur and they thereforeto prepare themselves to meet the Allied challenge.

Every day for a week, a bombardment of nearly 200 000 heavy shells raineddown on German lines. The terrible noise of the guns could be heard as faraway as England! The shelling was supposed to obliterate the Germantrenches and destroy the German forces. However this did not happen.

The bombardment certainly destroyed the surface trenches of the Germansbut the German defenders hid themselves in their deep underground dugoutswhile the barrage rained down above them. The bombardment also failed tocut a vital pathway for the Allied soldiers through the German barbed wire.

At 7.30 am on 1 July 1916, the British launched their attack. 100 000British infantry left the safety of their trenches and walked headlong intoappalling slaughter.


Philip Gibbs, a journalist, later described the events before and at thebeginning of the Battle of the Somme.

Before dawn, in the darkness, I stood with a mass of cavalry oppositeFricourt. Haig as a cavalryman was obsessed with the idea that he wouldbreak the German line and send the cavalry through. It was a fantastichope, ridiculed by the German High Command in their report on the Battleof the Somme which afterwards we captured.

In front of us was not a line but a fortress position, twenty miles [36 kms]deep, entrenched and fortified, defended by masses of machine-gun postsand thousands of guns in a wide arc. No chance for cavalry! But on thatnight they were massed behind the infantry. Among them were the Indiancavalry, whose dark faces were illuminated now and then for a moment,when someone struck a match to light a cigarette.

Before dawn there was a great silence. We spoke to each other in whispers,if we spoke. Then suddenly our guns opened out in a barrage of fire ofcolossal intensity. Never before, and I think never since, even in theSecond World War, had so many guns been massed behind any battle front.It was a rolling thunder of shellfire, and the earth vomited flame, and thesky was alight with bursting shells. It seemed as though nothing could live,not an ant, under that stupendous artillery storm. But Germans in their deepdugouts lived, and when our waves of men went over they were met bydeadly machine-gun and mortar fire.

Our men got nowhere on the first day. They had been mown down likegrass by German machine-gunners who, after our barrage had lifted, rushedout to meet our men in the open. Many of the best battalions were almostannihilated, and our casualties were terrible.

A German doctor taken prisoner near La Boiselle stayed behind to lookafter our wounded in a dugout instead of going down to safety. I met himcoming back across the battlefield next morning. One of our men wascarrying his bag and I had a talk with him. He was a tall, heavy, man with ablack beard, and he spoke good English. "This war!" he said. "We go onkilling each other to no purpose. It is a war against religion and againstcivilisation and I see no end to it."

Source: At< http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWsomme.htm >from P Gibbs, 1946, The Pageant of Years, pp.182–83 used with thekind permission of Martin Gibbs. (accessed 6 April 2001).

Look at the photo in Source 3 on the ‘Attitudes to war (2)’ Source sheet.

Tick how far you think some of the soldiers would have got before theystarted dying.

❒ to the German trenches

❒ to the German side of no-man’s land

❒ to the barbed wire

❒ to the top of their own trenches


Did you answer?

to the top of their own trenches.

By the end of the day, 20 000 British soldiers had been killed and another40 000 had been wounded. The following description of conditions on theSomme was written by one of the British soldiers.

As far as you could see there were bodies lying out there – literally thousandsof them, just where they had been caught on the First of July. Some werewithout legs, some were without bodies, arms without bodies. A terriblesight. They’d been churned up by shells even after they were killed. Wewere just dumping them into the crater – just filling them over. It didn’tseem possible. It didn’t get inside me or scare me, but just made me wonderthat these could have been men. It made me wonder what it was all about.And far away in the distance we could see nothing but a line of burstingshells. It was continuous. You wouldn’t have thought that anybody couldhave existed in it, it was so terrific. And yet we knew we were going up intoit with not an earthly chance.

Source: In Corporal R Weeber, in Susan Johnston, 1984, Experiences of theGreat War 1914–1918, Longman Cheshire, pp. 146–7.

Look at the photo in Source 2 ‘Attitudes to war (2) Source sheet.Does this source support Corporal Weeber’s description?

Yes/No

Did you answer?

Yes.

The impact of the Somme

More than any other battle, the Somme had a profound impact on attitudesto the war. One of its effects can be seen in the following description givenby a British mechanic who was sent to retrieve ambulances that had brokendown on their way back from the front lines.

One particular night it was a real horror … what a bombardmentthere was! There were ever so many ambulances knocked out …We made six runs that night towing in ambulances and taking thesepoor wounded chaps out of the ones we couldn’t shift. When I gotback from the last run, my mates in the advanced workshop said,‘What’s the matter with you? You look like a ghost!’

I simply couldn’t speak. It was a long time before I could speak,I was so terrified. I just crawled into the lorry and lay on the floorand went to sleep. The following morning my uniform was soaked


in blood, sodden with it. They had to give me a new one. I lookedat it and remember thinking, ‘If the British people could see whatI’ve seen and experience what I experienced last night, this warwould stop. They wouldn’t have it!’

Source: In Corporal O S Flowers in Susan Johnston, 1984, Experiencesof the Great War 1914–1918, Longman Cheshire, p. 148.

Not only the British soldiers felt this way. For the German soldiers too, thebattle of the Somme was a major turning point in attitudes. By the end of1916, the feelings of many can be summed up in the following words:

Hans is dead, Fritz is dead, Whilelm is dead. There are manyothers. I am now alone in the company ... This is almostunendurable. If only peace would come!

Source: In Susan Johnston, 1984, Experiences of the Great War1914–1918, Longman Cheshire, p. 148.

The above two sources describe the same situation but from differentsides of the conflict. However both sources express the same opinion.Tick which of the following might explain why they have a similarperspective.

❒ Both sources are from the perspective of civilians who had beentold of the horror of the Battle of the Somme.

❒ Both sources are from the perspective of common soldiers whohad experienced the horror of the Battle of the Somme.

❒ Both sources are from the perspective of officers who hadexperienced the horror of the Battle of the Somme.

❒ Both sources are from the perspective of the generals whocommanded the Battle of the Somme.

Did you answer?

Both sources are from the perspective of common soldiers who hadexperienced the horror of the Battle of the Somme.

Another perspective on the war at this time comes from the Australian EthelCooper who was living in Germany during the war. In a letter to her sisterdated 06/08/1916 she wrote:

On Monday, little Herr Zalisz appeared – he has ten days’leave, and looks a mental and physical wreck. He has been inthe trenches for nine months without a pause, before Rheims,Verdun and on the Somme – he had been wounded 4 times,but it was never considered serious enough for hospital. Hestill has bandages on an arm and a leg. He says he has not one


officer left with whom he went out 9 months ago, and onlyhalf a dozen comrades – all are dead or wounded. If he can berelied upon, neither officers nor men have any hope of victorynow, only a dogged feeling that they must hold on to the end.

Source: In Decie Denholm (ed), 1982, Behind the Lines One Woman’sWar 1914–18, Collins, p. 153.

1 Highlight or underline the part of this source that indicates thatsome Germans in 1916 no longer thought Germany would win thewar.

2 Tick which of the following you think the soldiers meant by ‘theymust hold on to the end’. There may be more than one correctanswer.

❒ until they are killed.

❒ until the German army is completely defeated.

❒ until Germany surrenders.

❒ until they are ordered to stop fighting.

Did you answer?

1 If he can be relied upon, neither officers nor men have any hope ofvictory now, only a dogged feeling that they must hold on to the end.

2 All of these are possible.

The high number of casualties suffered by both sides on the Somme causedthe countries’ leaders and the generals of the high commands to reconsiderthe conduct of the war. They had reached the conclusion that the war coulddrag on for years before a military resolution was found. It had been goingon for almost two and a half years and over seventeen million men weredead, wounded or prisoners.

Late in August, Falkenhayn was replaced by Hindenburg as the Germancommander-in-chief, and there was also an attempt by the High Commandto change the army’s defence tactics. The ‘Hindenburg Line’ was created incase the British and French should do the unthinkable and break through theGerman lines.

Within Germany itself during 1916, anti-war feeling grew steadily, evenbefore the horror of the Somme became known. Deaths from starvation, asa result of the Allied blockade, were becoming a daily occurrence. In 1915,some 88 232 deaths resulted from the blockade. In 1916, the number rose to121 114 and food riots occurred in more than thirty German cities.


In Britain David Lloyd George replaced Asquith as Prime Minister onDecember 6. According to Winston Churchill (a Member of Parliament anda battalion commander on the Western Front in 1916, and British PrimeMinister in World War II), Lloyd George was the only person in theGovernment who possessed ‘any aptitude for war or knowledge of it’.Churchill warned him that the difficulties which he faced were enormous‘and only disasters lie ahead for many months’ (In Gilbert 1994: 303).

General Haig and his fellow generals were especially wary of Lloyd George,who was very critical of the huge losses of British soldiers. The PrimeMinister realised that the war of attrition wasn’t working and argued withHaig and the military that the waste of lives should be stopped or at leastreduced.

In 1916 the British Government passed a new law making military servicecompulsory for all-able bodied men. The first conscripts for the Sommearrived in the autumn to fill the gaps left by the enormous number of dead.Britain’s empire also responded to the call for more men. Most countriesnot only provided more volunteers but also introduced conscription.Australia was one of the few which did not introduce compulsory militaryservice although the government tried to do so twice but was defeated inreferendums.

After the battles at Verdun and the Somme where the combined death tollhad been almost a million men, a British writer, Israel Zangwill, wrote:

The world bloodily-mindedThe Church dead or polluted,The blind leading the blinded,And the deaf dragging the muted.


Tick which of the following best describes Zangwill’s view of the war atthe end of 1916.

❒ The Church is doing everything it can to bring the war to an end.

❒ The politicians and generals of both sides have no clue as to whatthey are doing and are leading their people from one disaster toanother.

❒ The politicians and generals of both sides know what they aredoing and everything will work out in the long run.

❒ The politicians and generals of both sides were deaf and blind.


Did you answer?

The politicians and generals of both sides have no clue as to what they aredoing and are leading their people from one disaster to another.



Part 3 Exercise 3

Name:

Attitudes begin to change 1915–16

1

The caption says: AD 1950 – ‘I see the War Babies’ Battalion is coming out’.

Source: In Bruce Bairnsfather, 1916, The Bystander in Malcolm Brown,1986, Tommy Goes to War, J M Dent and Sons, p. 126.

a Explain in your own words what message this cartoon is trying toconvey.

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b Use the written source and the two photos below as well as yourown knowledge to answer the question which follows. The threesources are about the Bradford Pals, a battalion of British soldiersfrom the town of Bradford.

Describe the impact of the Battle of the Somme on British attitudestowards the war.

The companionship was marvellous, absolutely marvellous.Everyone seemed to help one another and agree with one another.It was lovely. We were all pals, we were happy, very happytogether; and they were such good people. They were fine youngme, the cream of the country. That spirit lasted until July 1916.We had so many casualties that we were all strangers after that.The new men who came were fed up, they were conscripts andthey didn’t want to come, they didn’t want to fight. Things werenever the same any more.

Source: Private George Morgan in Malcolm Brown, 1986, Tommy Goes toWar, J M Dent and Sons, p. 194.

The Bradford Pals



The cemetery in which many of the Bradford Pals lie buried in France


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2 a Read all the sources on the ‘Attitudes to War (3)’ Source sheet.Most of these sources were written in 1916. Then complete thefollowing table. We have done some sections for you.

SourceNo.

Nationality Soldier orcivilian

Point of view expressed by the writer

1 British

2 Soldier

3a

3b German

4

5 The war is horrible and is not achievinganything

6

7a

7b

7c

b Explain why you think Private WT Colyer was still enthusiastic aboutthe war.

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3 1916 was a significant year for both sides in World War I. Read thefollowing three written sources and then look at the photo on the nextpage.

In the minds of the men of my generation the year 1916 stands for onlyone thing: the battles that were waged on the Somme during the summerand the autumn. In those battles there died the last shreds of that blithespirit with which we set off to war nearly two years before, and in itsplace came the disillusionment that was to enter into the hearts and mindsof so many of my generation. The war had become a bitter test ofendurance. The Battles that were waged no longer lasted just a few days:they stretched out, in some cases over a period of weeks, and they were allfought in highly congested areas and under the most gruesome conditions… It was in that year of 1916 that the world which we had been broughtup to believe in finally seemed to fly to pieces, and the bare mention ofthe Somme will never fail to give us cause to ponder for a moment and torecall, each in his own way, what it meant to us.

Source: Lord Douglas of Kirtleside, a young pilot in the Royal Flying Corps inSusan Johnston, 1984, Experiences of the Great War 1914–1918,Longman Cheshire, pp. 143–4.

The Prime Minister, David Lloyd George called the Somme ‘a disastrousloss of the finest manhood in the United Kingdom’. In his novel,Covenant with Death, which is about a battalion in Kitchener’s NewArmy, John Harris sums up the experiences of 1 July as ‘the graveyard ofKitchener’s Army … Two years in the making, ten minutes in thedestroying’.

Source: In Susan Johnston, 1984, Experiences of the Great War 1914–1918,Longman Cheshire, p. 145.

On July 31 [1916], at his desk in Berlin, Walther Rathenau wrote in hisdiary that the ‘delirious exultation’ he had witnessed in the streets twoyears earlier had seemed to him even then ‘a dance of death’; an overtureto a doom that would be ‘dark and dreadful’.



British and German wounded on the Somme, July 1916.


Using these sources only, list three reasons why the year 1916 wassignificant for both sides in World War I.

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Desire for peace grows – 1917

On 12 December 1916, the German Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg, in aspeech to the German parliament, the Reichstag, offered to opennegotiations with the Allies in a neutral country. His offer horrified theGerman High Command who still felt that Germany could win the war.In an effort to encourage the peace process, President Wilson of the UnitedStates asked France, Britain and Russia to each draw up their ownconditions for peace on 20 December. This was before the Allies had evenreplied to Bethmann-Hollweg. The British Prime Minister Lloyd Georgerejected the idea of peace saying, ‘We shall put our trust in an unbrokenarmy rather than in broken faith.’

Which country do you think Lloyd George was referring to when hespoke about ‘broken faith’?

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Did you answer?

Germany.

On the day after the German Chancellor’s speech, and in direct response to it,General Ludendorff urged the Kaiser to authorise the immediate start ofunrestricted submarine warfare in the North Atlantic Ocean. Although thiswould probably bring the neutral United States into the war on the side of theBritish, Ludendorff was convinced that by stopping supplies from reachingBritain and France from America, the Germans could force the Allies tosurrender before American entry had much impact on the course of the war.In January 1917 the Kaiser granted permission for submarines to fire on anyvessel, including those belonging to neutral countries, and in April the USfinally declared war on Germany.

By this stage of the war, governments and military leaders no longerinspired the same confidence and unquestioning attitude in their peoples.Also, on both sides of the conflict, each nation had begun to distrust itsallies and this caused some leaders to consider the idea of peacenegotiations. However, the financial debt that every fighting nation hadincurred during the war was immense and most of those in power believedthat their nation’s economy could only revive if they won the war. As aresult there was little serious diplomatic effort to end the conflict during1917.


Even though most political and military leaders, on both sides, still thoughtthat victory was not only necessary but also possible, many civilians hadbegun to adopt quite a different viewpoint. In January 1917 theGerman commanding officer in charge of the city of Koblenz wrote:

Among these [poorer] sections of the population one can hardly find anywho still believe that the old standard of living can be re-established in theforeseeable future after the War … The word ‘peace’ in the understandingof the masses has become dissociated from ideas of victory.

Source: In Jürgen Kocka, 1984, Facing Total War, Berg Publishers, p. 51.

Circle the correct words in the following sentence.

This source is useful for an historian who is researching the attitudesof French / German civilians / army officers towards the war in1917 / 1984.

Did you answer?

This source is useful for an historian who is researching the attitudes of Germancivilians towards the war in 1917.

Descriptions by those on leave from the front about the horrors of war, andthe unequal provision for, and treatment of, officers and men at the frontencouraged an anti-war movement in Germany. However, the occasionalmilitary success – or even events that promised success such as theintroduction of unrestricted submarine warfare – temporarily drove out thewar-weariness.

By the end of 1916 on both sides there had begun a revival of the workers’and socialist movements, which had been virtually inactive since 1914.This revival was a result of the changing attitudes towards the war. Therevolutionary ideal began to come alive again. Lower-class discontent wasopenly expressed but the less vocal middle-class were also suffering, andboth groups greatly resented the people who were making big profits out ofthe war.

Anti-war feeling increased in 1917 in several countries: in Russia arevolution overthrew the tsarist government in France there was a growingnumber of army desertions; and, on 22 May, the British Cabinet felt theneed to approve a scheme to control the pacifist movement in Britain.Increasing numbers of conscientious objectors were prepared to face longprison sentences rather than serve in the trenches. Another sign of theincreasing dissatisfaction with the war was the fact that poets in the trenchesbegan to write with unprecedented bitterness.


Indeed, as the war dragged on, the soldiers’ cartoons, poems and lettersshow that many had begun to suspect that they had been tricked intofighting. They felt that they were suffering dreadfully, while the men in therear, whether soldiers with safe jobs or civilians, lived their lives as ifnothing was happening – only complaining that victory was taking so long.

Italy was the only country whose parliament had opposed the war, althoughthis had little effect because those in favour of the war had the support of themass of the people. By 1917, however, the Italian workers’ discontent hadincreased, provoked by scarcities and the ever-increasing cost of everything.Like elsewhere in Europe there was little coal for heating and bread was inshort supply in many major Italian towns. On 1 May, there were strikes anddemonstrations in favour of ending the war. In Turin, a general strike wascalled which resulted in the government ordering that it be stopped, by forceif necessary. This resulted in fifty people being killed, 800 wounded and1000 arrested.

Tick which of the following can be used as evidence that there was anincreasing desire for the war to end among the soldiers of both sides.There may be more than one correct answer.

❒ Growing numbers of army desertions.

❒ Strikes and demonstrations over shortages of essentials like coaland bread.

❒ Increasing numbers of conscientious objectors refusing militaryservice.

❒ The bitterness in the poems of men who had been, or were still,at the front line.

Did you answer?

Growing numbers of army desertions.

The bitterness in the poems of men who had been, or were still, at the frontline.

The American entry into the war in April 1917 gave the Allies a muchneeded boost in morale. However, it was not until the beginning of Junethat the first American troops arrived in France, and even when they didarrive, their commander-in chief, General Pershing, would not allow themto take part in the fighting immediately. In addition, Pershing did not wantto divide his troops among the already existing French and British units.Instead he wanted the Americans to fight in their own separate units.

The arrival of the Americans meant a fresh and almost unlimited supplyof soldiers for the Allies. Despite this, the French and British governmentswere making preparations on the assumption that the war would go on for atleast another two years.


The American entry into the war in April 1917 gave the Allies a much neededboost in morale. However, it was not until the beginning of June that the firstAmerican troops arrived in France, and even when they did arrive, theircommander-in-chief, General Pershing, would not allow them to take part inthe fighting immediately. Pershing, would not allow them to take part in thefighting immediately. Pershing did not want to divide his troops among thealready existing French and British units. Instead be wanted the Americans tofight in their own separate units.

The Americans’ arrival coincided with severe problems in the French sectorof the Western Front, where there was a growing number of desertions.Indeed a full-scale mutiny broke out on 27 May. Tough measures by theFrench High Command, along with actions to resolve some of the troops’grievances, quelled the rebellion quickly. This combined with the Americanpresence to give renewed hope to the British and French troops at the frontlines.

Meanwhile, in June and July 1917 there was massive discontent inGermany. The War Office branch in the city of Danzig reported to Berlin inJuly:

Last season’s potatoes are no longer available since last month and substitutedeliveries of bread and flour are in no way sufficient, especially not for theworking population. Demand for new potatoes and vegetables is thereforeunusually strong. The very small supply which comes on the market isseized by excited housewives. If the police protection in hand is insufficient,the wares are brutally snatched from the farmers’ and retailers’s stalls. Inorder not to expose themselves to such treatment in the future, the farmersstay away from the market and sell their products on their farms. Thetownspeople flock to the country in their hundreds in order to stock up withpotatoes and vegetables. Apart from the fact that considerable damage tocultivated areas occurs as a result of these mass wanderings through thepotato and vegetable fields, and that farmers are distracted from theirsometimes very urgent work, these potato and vegetable pilgrims are also notdeterred from thieving from the fields. This leads to very ugly scenes here aswell as in the markets. The agitated women return home in an embitteredmood and pass this on in an inciting manner to the members of their familyon their return home from work, who in turn carry it back to their factories.

Source: In Jürgen Kocka, 1984, Facing Total War, Berg Publishers,pp. 49–50.


1 Tick which of the following the War Office considered to be the maincause of the disturbances in Danzig.

❒ a desire for the soldiers to be sent home

❒ the horrors that were occurring at the battlefront

❒ food shortages

❒ socialist agitators

2 What four products were there particular shortages of in Danzig?

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Did you answer?

1 food shortages

2 bread, flour, potatoes and vegetables

Some peace efforts continued to be made during the summer of 1917, withas little success as the previous attempts. In Berlin, the Reichstag wasrecalled in order to vote more money to continue the war. It demanded thatwhen peace came, it should be peace without any territorial annexations byGermany. A ‘Peace Resolution’, was passed by the Reichstag on 19 July by212 votes to 126. It urged the German Government to work for ‘a peace byagreement and a permanent reconciliation’.

You can read a translation of this resolution at the web site with thefollowing URL:

http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1917/reichpeace.html

Despite this action by the Reichstag, the German General Staff insisted thatGermany would not seek peace. They were still convinced that the GermanArmy had the capacity to win the war. The July offensive, known as theThird Battle of Ypres, had seen some comparatively significant Germangains in territory and heavy British losses. The new Chancellor,Dr Michaelis, who was known to speak in Parliament for the generals, said:

I do not consider that a body like the German Reichstag is a fit oneto decide about peace and war on its own initiative ...


The Kaiser also dismissed all thoughts of a negotiated peace when, for thefirst time in twenty years, he met representatives of all the German politicalparties, apart from the Independent Socialists, on 20 July. ‘In anuncompromising speech, he told them of his plans for a [war] againstEngland, in which the whole of Europe, under German leadership, woulddestroy Britain’s world domination’ (In Gilbert 1994: 348).


In the table below, write ‘For’ next to those arguments which could beused by the Kaiser to support his plans for a war to ‘destroy Britain’sworld domination’. Write ‘Against’ next to those arguments whichcould be used by opponents of his plans.

Large numbers of American troops were beginning toarrive in Europe.

Many countries in Europe did not want to be ‘underGerman leadership’.

The German General Staff were still confident thatGermany could win the war and they should know.

The Germans had recently had some successes on thebattlefield.

The war had already gone on for three years with noresolution in sight, so the chances of Germany winninga war against Britain seemed fairly slight.

There was opposition to the war within Germany andeven among some soldiers which would make it harderto fight a war against Britain.

Did you answer?

Against Large numbers of American troops were beginning toarrive in Europe.

Against Many countries in Europe did not want to be ‘underGerman leadership’.

For The German General Staff were still confident thatGermany could win the war and they should know.

For The Germans had recently had some successes on thebattlefield.

Against The war had already gone on for three years with noresolution in sight, so the chances of Germany winning awar against Britain seemed fairly slight.

Against There was opposition to the war within Germany and evenamong some soldiers which would make it harder to fight awar against Britain.

The changing attitudes to the war can also be seen in the beginning ofattempts by people not involved in the war to arrange a peace settlement.The first serious attempt was made by Pope Benedict XV the head of theRoman Catholic Church.


Papal attempts to mediate peaceEarly in 1917, the Pope had publicly described the war as a ‘useless massacre’.Although he was well known for his pro-Austrian sympathies, he offered tomediate an end to the conflict. His offer, which is known as the Papal PeaceNote, was made public on 15 August and it alarmed all governments on bothsides. The reaction was a lot of diplomatic activity between the countries,including a demand by Lloyd George that Germany withdraw totally fromBelgium, as a non-negotiable condition of peace. This merely confirmed to theGermans that Britain remained their chief enemy.

If you wish to read the Papal Peace Note in its entirety, it can be found at thefollowing URL:

http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1917/popeace.html

The Pope believed that peace had to be based, ‘not on violence but onreason’. The historian, Pierre Renouvin, has described the Pope’s motivesthis way:

His own inclination certainly pushed him to try to end the massacre, butthe interests of the Church were still more urgent – the war had broken hisflock’s solidarity, and weakened the Catholic Church as an internationalorganisation … If it went on, things could become more serious … TheChurch could not take second place to the Stockholm socialists [theRussian communists].

Source: In Marc Ferro, 1987, The Great War 1914–1918, ArkPaperbacks, p. 202.

Tick which of the following best describes why Renouvin thinks thePope tried to mediate a peace settlement.

❒ He was tired of the killing.

❒ The war was weakening the power and influence of the CatholicChurch.

❒ He was worried about the socialists.

❒ Too many Catholics were being killed.

Did you answer?

The war was weakening the power and influence of the Catholic Church.

Note that the third answer is also correct but the question asks you to choosethe ‘best’ answer. The Pope’s concern about the communists was just one ofseveral ways in which he thought the war was weakening the power andinfluence of the Catholic Church. Therefore the second answer is a betterone.


The Stockholm Peace ConferenceIn the view of the communist leaders who took power in Russia in the 1917October Revolution, their policy of revolutionary peace could only succeedthrough an international conference at Stockholm. This policy involvedbringing an end to the war so that the working class of all countries couldunite and carry out a worldwide revolution to seize power.

The plan of the Russian communists was for delegates from all warringcountries to assemble and reach an agreement that they could then force theirgovernments to accept. Any peace proposed by these Internationalists wouldcertainly have been very different from that suggested by the Pope. MarcFerro has described the difference in the following way: ‘it would have beenimposed on governments, whereas the Pope’s would have saved them fromrevolution’ (In Ferro, 1987: 202).

However, the various elements of the international socialist movement couldnot even agree on the procedure for the conference so it never took place,although a couple of delegates did make it to Stockholm. The socialists inthe Allied countries feared the negative reaction of their own public, whomight see them as traitors, so they didn’t attend.

The end of 1917The desire for compromise grew steadily in Germany, during 1917.Deteriorating conditions, rising public discontent and increasing strikes alsocaused a revival of political quarrels.

In England on 29 November 1917, the British Daily Telegraph published aletter from Lord Lansdowne, a former British Foreign Secretary, in whichhe wrote:

We are not going to lose this War, but its prolongation will spell ruin tothe civilised world, and an infinite addition to the load of human sufferingwhich already weighs upon it.


The British press condemned any attempt to sit and talk with the Germans,but Lansdowne was surprised at the number of letters written to him byofficers at the battlefront to say that they welcomed his letter.


Tick which of the following statements best explains why you think theofficers at the front ‘welcomed his letter’.

❒ The officers were glad that someone as important as Lansdownewas calling for an end to the war.

❒ The officers were tired of ordering their men to go out to die.

❒ The officers thought that they were going to win.

Did you answer?

The officers were glad that someone as important as Lansdownewas calling for an end to the war.

On the day that Lansdowne’s letter was published, Count Heterling, the newGerman Chancellor, gave his public support to a Bolshevik (Russiancommunist) appeal for an armistice. In addition the Kaiser suggested to hisnew Foreign Minister, Richard von Kuhlmann, that Germany should seek analliance with Russia. The Austrians also welcomed the Bolshevik proposalsto end the fighting, even though in Italy the Austrians were within strikingdistance of Venice.

Following the cease-fire on the Eastern Front after the 1917 OctoberRevolution in Russia, twenty-two German divisions, or more than half amillion troops, were moved from Russia to the Western Front. The Italianarmy was defending the Po Valley with the help of British and Frenchtroops, and Venice was vulnerable to an Austrian attack. Because of this,British leaders responded positively to talk of a separate peace with Austria,and even with Turkey. However when an attempt was made to raise theissue during late December 1917, neither Austria nor Turkey was preparedto consider a peace that did not include Germany.

As the fourth winter of war began in late 1917, the disillusionment inGermany was more extreme than at any time during the war. The desire forpeace without annexation, increasingly even peace ‘at any price’, tirednessand despair were now the dominant mood in the towns, especially in theworking class and among large sections of the middle class.



Part 3 Exercise 4

Name:

Desire for peace grows – 1917

1 In a letter which was published in the British newspapers in 1917, theEnglish poet Siegfried Sassoon wrote that it was his belief that:

… this war, which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has nowbecome a war of aggression and conquest … I have seen and endured thesuffering of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong thesesufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am notprotesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errorsand insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed. Onbehalf of those who are suffering now, I make this protest against thedeception being practised on them; also I believe that I may help todestroy the callous complacence with which the majority of those at homeregard the continuance of agonies which they do not share, and whichthey have not sufficient imagination to realise.

Source: In Martin Gilbert, 1995, First World War, HarperCollins, pp. 351–2.Copyright Siegfried Sassoon by kind permission George Sassoon.

List three things that Sassoon is protesting about with regard to the war.

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2 Look at Source 1 on the ‘Attitudes to war (4)’ Source sheet.Using this source and the information in this section, explain whyGeneral Pershing’s arrival in 1917 was significant for the British andFrench.

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3 Which of the following sources is more useful for historians studyingchanging attitudes to the war? Note that you can take the viewpointthat they are equally useful.

In your answer, consider the perspectives (viewpoints) provided by thetwo sources and the reliability of each.

The first source is a poem written by Wilfred Owen who died fightingfor Britain in World War I, just a week before the Armistice in 1918.

The second is an extract from a book by an historian.

Dulce Et Decorum EstBent double, like old beggars under sacks,Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,And towards our distant rest began to trudgeMen marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hootsOf gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!- An ecstasy of fumbling,Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,But someone still was yelling out and stumblingAnd flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,As under a green sea, I saw him drowning,

In all my dreams before my helpless sightHe plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.If in some smothering dreams, you too could paceBehind the wagon we flung him in,And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin,If you could hear, at every jolt, the bloodCome gargling from the froth-corrupted lungsBitter as the cudOf vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,My friend, you would not tell with such high zestTo children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old lie: Dulce et decorum estPro patria mori(It is sweet and becoming to die for one’s country)

At http://www.illyria.com/owenpro.html (accessed 11 September 2001)


[At] the beginning of the Third Battle of Ypres, launched thirteen monthsafter the Somme … a Guards Lieutenant could still talk of battle as‘splendid fun’. And it is worth adding that this same officer could write,in a letter written only five days before the Armistice, that a battle inwhich he fought was ‘the best I have ever had, and I would not havemissed it for anything’.

Source: Malcolm Brown, 1986, Tommy Goes to War, J M Dent and Sons,p. 174.

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Documents

Part 3 - lrrpublic.cli.det.nsw.edu.aulrrpublic.cli.det.nsw.edu.au/lrrSecure/Sites/Web/7853/documents/... · Part 3: Changing attitudes of soldiers and civilians to the war 3 Initial