The Home Front
As the Great War wore on, it became a conflict of attrition in which the organization of material and human resources was of paramount importance, with sacrifice made on both sides. The nature of total war created a military front and home front. The term home front expressed the important reality that the outcome of the war hinged on how effectively each natio mobilized its economy and activated its noncombatant citizens to support the war effort.
Civilian Life During the War
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Civilian Targets
The war not only affected soldiers on the battlefield, but greatly impacted civilian life as well. On August 30, 1914, Parisians looked at the sky and saw a new weapon of war, a huge silent German zeppelin whose underbelly rained bombs, eventually killing one person.
This heralded a new kind of warfare - attacking the enemy's civilians. Civilians were bombared from the air and attacked by naval forces. The strategy of naval blockade was a less novel but more effective mean of targeting civilians. Military leaders on both sides used blockades to deny food to whole populations, hoping that starving masses would force their governments to capitualte. The British blockade of Germany during the war contributed to the deaths of an estimated half-million Germans.
Economics
Economics measures were foremost in the minds of government leaders because the war created unprecendented demands for raw materials and manufactured goods. These requirements compelled governments to abandon the laissez-faire capitalst market economy and to institute tight controls over economic life. Planning boards reorganized entire industries, set production quotas and priorities, and determined what would be produced and consumed. Governments established wage and price controls as well as extended work hours, and in some instances restricted the movement of workers.
The war not only affected soldiers on the battlefield, but greatly impacted civilian life as well. On August 30, 1914, Parisians looked at the sky and saw a new weapon of war, a huge silent German zeppelin whose underbelly rained bombs, eventually killing one person.
This heralded a new kind of warfare - attacking the enemy's civilians. Civilians were bombared from the air and attacked by naval forces. The strategy of naval blockade was a less novel but more effective mean of targeting civilians. Military leaders on both sides used blockades to deny food to whole populations, hoping that starving masses would force their governments to capitualte. The British blockade of Germany during the war contributed to the deaths of an estimated half-million Germans.
Economics
Economics measures were foremost in the minds of government leaders because the war created unprecendented demands for raw materials and manufactured goods. These requirements compelled governments to abandon the laissez-faire capitalst market economy and to institute tight controls over economic life. Planning boards reorganized entire industries, set production quotas and priorities, and determined what would be produced and consumed. Governments established wage and price controls as well as extended work hours, and in some instances restricted the movement of workers.
Women at War
A woman manufacturing shells
As men went to serve their duty in the war, they left behind their jobs. From a combination of patriotism and high wages, women were drawn into formerly "male jobs". They filled in jobs such as managing farms and bussinesses left by their husbands, and substituted in for postal workers and police officers. Behind battle lines, women were most visible as nurses, physicians, and communication clerks.
The most prominent of jobs performed by women during this time was also the most dangerous: the manufacturing of shells. Several million women, sometimes including children, dedicated long, hard hours in munition factories. Though the finished product was vital to the war, the work exposed women to very dangerous and severe conditions. They were highly vulnerable and were exposed to explosions, as keeping sparks away from highly volatie materials was quite frankly impossible. Many women died from these accidents, though to this day a certain number is unclear because of government censorship during the war.
The other danger that women were dealing with was the TNT explosives. Though employers claimed that workig with the explosives cause no harm at all, it exposure to TNT caused sever poisoning, depending on the length of exposure. Effects including turning skin yellow and hair orange.
A Sense of Independence
Despite the harsh working conditions, the employment of upper-class women spawned a degree of deliverance from parental control and gave women a sense of mission, and made them feel important to the war effort. However, the impact of the Great War on the lives of the working-class women was relatively minor. Women who were long accustomed to working and earning wages felt the war work less than liberating. Most of the belligerent governments promised equal pay for equal work, but in most instances that promise remained unfullfilled. Although the Great War only briefly suspended traditional patterns of work outside the home, women's roles during the war greatly justified their arguments for equality later on. The extension of voting rights to women in Britain, Germany and Austria was in part due to women's contribution to the war.
Women At The Actual Front
During the war most women were found at the homefront. However, a few minorities took action into their own hands and got close to the actual front, if not even in combat. One such woman was Flora Sandes.
Flora Sandes
In 16 November 1916, a soldier of British nationality was seriously wounded while fighting for the Serbs, allies of the British, in some of the harshest conditions of the First World War. Two weeks later, this soldier was awarded the Karageorge Star, the equivalent of the Military Cross and, by the end of the war, would be twice Mentioned in Dispatches for exceptional bravery. But this record, impressive by any standard, was not that of one of the millions of young men who thronged to the ranks of allied armies. It belonged instead to Flora Sandes, a woman from Suffolk, the courageous daughter of a village rector. While other women fought in the Serbian army and elsewhere along the Eastern Front, Flora is the only Western woman known to have enlisted and fought as a member of a regular army in the First World War.
Flora Sandes managed the feat of passing herself off as a man and joined the war. In the early months, she worked in military hospitals. Her patients, wounded during the invasion of Serbia by Austria-Hungary, were among the war’s first victims. At first, most of the conversations she had with them were conducted through sign language. But by the time Serbia faced renewed invasion in October 1915, Flora’s Serbian was fluent enough to enable her to engineer her way into the army. She edged ever closer to the fighting by transferring to a military ‘ambulance’. Then, when Serbia’s defeat meant that no further nursing could be attempted, she picked up a rifle and enlisted as a private in the Serbian army. For Flora, this was to be the start of her rapid ascent through the ranks of the Serbian army.
She had been waiting all her life for excitement such as this. In the autumn of 1916, she fought in a succession of savage battles in the mountains of Macedonia to free a corner of their country from occupation. What happened on the bitterly cold, snowy morning of 16 November was widely reported in papers around the world. Flora was wounded by a grenade while helping to defend her position. Bleeding and unconscious, she was rescued by a lieutenant in her company who risked his life to crawl out under fire to drag her back to safety. For her exceptional bravery under fire, she was awarded the Karageorge Star.
She published her experiences as a soldier serving in the Serbian Army in 1916 in a book, with a view to raising money for her brothers in arms. She stayed on after the war with the Serbian army eventually becoming a major. Sandes was accepted by the Serbs as the personification of British war aid.
The most prominent of jobs performed by women during this time was also the most dangerous: the manufacturing of shells. Several million women, sometimes including children, dedicated long, hard hours in munition factories. Though the finished product was vital to the war, the work exposed women to very dangerous and severe conditions. They were highly vulnerable and were exposed to explosions, as keeping sparks away from highly volatie materials was quite frankly impossible. Many women died from these accidents, though to this day a certain number is unclear because of government censorship during the war.
The other danger that women were dealing with was the TNT explosives. Though employers claimed that workig with the explosives cause no harm at all, it exposure to TNT caused sever poisoning, depending on the length of exposure. Effects including turning skin yellow and hair orange.
A Sense of Independence
Despite the harsh working conditions, the employment of upper-class women spawned a degree of deliverance from parental control and gave women a sense of mission, and made them feel important to the war effort. However, the impact of the Great War on the lives of the working-class women was relatively minor. Women who were long accustomed to working and earning wages felt the war work less than liberating. Most of the belligerent governments promised equal pay for equal work, but in most instances that promise remained unfullfilled. Although the Great War only briefly suspended traditional patterns of work outside the home, women's roles during the war greatly justified their arguments for equality later on. The extension of voting rights to women in Britain, Germany and Austria was in part due to women's contribution to the war.
Women At The Actual Front
During the war most women were found at the homefront. However, a few minorities took action into their own hands and got close to the actual front, if not even in combat. One such woman was Flora Sandes.
Flora Sandes
In 16 November 1916, a soldier of British nationality was seriously wounded while fighting for the Serbs, allies of the British, in some of the harshest conditions of the First World War. Two weeks later, this soldier was awarded the Karageorge Star, the equivalent of the Military Cross and, by the end of the war, would be twice Mentioned in Dispatches for exceptional bravery. But this record, impressive by any standard, was not that of one of the millions of young men who thronged to the ranks of allied armies. It belonged instead to Flora Sandes, a woman from Suffolk, the courageous daughter of a village rector. While other women fought in the Serbian army and elsewhere along the Eastern Front, Flora is the only Western woman known to have enlisted and fought as a member of a regular army in the First World War.
Flora Sandes managed the feat of passing herself off as a man and joined the war. In the early months, she worked in military hospitals. Her patients, wounded during the invasion of Serbia by Austria-Hungary, were among the war’s first victims. At first, most of the conversations she had with them were conducted through sign language. But by the time Serbia faced renewed invasion in October 1915, Flora’s Serbian was fluent enough to enable her to engineer her way into the army. She edged ever closer to the fighting by transferring to a military ‘ambulance’. Then, when Serbia’s defeat meant that no further nursing could be attempted, she picked up a rifle and enlisted as a private in the Serbian army. For Flora, this was to be the start of her rapid ascent through the ranks of the Serbian army.
She had been waiting all her life for excitement such as this. In the autumn of 1916, she fought in a succession of savage battles in the mountains of Macedonia to free a corner of their country from occupation. What happened on the bitterly cold, snowy morning of 16 November was widely reported in papers around the world. Flora was wounded by a grenade while helping to defend her position. Bleeding and unconscious, she was rescued by a lieutenant in her company who risked his life to crawl out under fire to drag her back to safety. For her exceptional bravery under fire, she was awarded the Karageorge Star.
She published her experiences as a soldier serving in the Serbian Army in 1916 in a book, with a view to raising money for her brothers in arms. She stayed on after the war with the Serbian army eventually becoming a major. Sandes was accepted by the Serbs as the personification of British war aid.
The Truth Suffers: Propagandas
WWI Propaganda Poster
To maintain the spirit of the home front and to counter threats to national unity, governments restored to vilification of the enemy though propaganda campaigns. Propaganda ensured that the people only got to know what their governments wanted them to know. In World War One, the lengths to which governments would go to in an effort to blacken the enemy’s name reached a new level.
Media Involvment
Governments countered threats to national unity, and they resorted to the restriction of civil liberties and censorship of bad news. All forms of information were controlled to ensure the government's will to have everybody think the way they wanted them to think. Newspapers were expected to print what the government wanted the reader to read, and printed headlines were designed to stir up emotions regardless the accuracy of its claims. Many were quite infamous, including newspaper headlines such as "Belgian Child's Hands Cut Off By Germans".
The media was also used for other purposes. Newspapers published casualty figures that were acceptable to the government (reporting a number much smaller than the actual casualty count) , that was less than accurate. Success in battles were greaty emphasized as opposed to minimal progress gained.
Take a look at this example of propoganda from an extract of a British newspaper about the Germans.
“To the north of Ypres our progress has been continued, especially on our left. We have taken six quick-firers, two bomb-throwers, and much material; and made several hundred prisoners, including several officers.
The losses of the enemy were extremely high. At a single point on the front, in the proximity of the canal we counted more than six hundred German dead.
On the heights of the Meuse, on the front Les Eparges-St Remy-Calonne trench, we have continued to gain ground, about one kilometre, and have inflicted on the enemy very severe losses.”
This was written in April 1915. Nowhere does it describe the British casualties at Ypres or the problems that were encountered there by the British. No British newspaper described the scenes at Victoria Station when carriages of wounded soldiers arrived back in London - but very late at night or in the early hours of the morning in an effort to blot out the sheer numbers lost in battle.
Now, take a look at the Germans' perspective on the same battle.
"In Flanders the British yesterday again attempted to regain the ground they had lost. In the afternoon they attacked from both sides but the attack completely broke down. An evening attack further east failed, with severe British losses."
All nations involved in the war, not only the British and Germans, were guilty of propaganda.
Taking It A Step Farther
While some government officials busily censored or manipulated war news, peope who had the temerity to criticize their nations' war effort were prosecuted as traitors. Propaganda offices of the belligerent nations tried to convince the public that military defeat would mean the destruction of everything worth living, and to that end they did their utmost to discredit and dehumanize the enemy. Posters, pamphlets, and "scientfic studies" depicted the enemy as subhuman savages who engaged in vile atrocities. German propaganda depicted Russians as semi-Asiatic barbarians. The British published a story claiming that Germans converted human corpses into fertilizer and food.
The falsehood of the imagination of propaganda officers eventually engendered public skepticism and cynicism. Ironically, public disbelief or wartime propaganda led to an inabilty to believe in the abominations perpertrated during subsequent wars.
Media Involvment
Governments countered threats to national unity, and they resorted to the restriction of civil liberties and censorship of bad news. All forms of information were controlled to ensure the government's will to have everybody think the way they wanted them to think. Newspapers were expected to print what the government wanted the reader to read, and printed headlines were designed to stir up emotions regardless the accuracy of its claims. Many were quite infamous, including newspaper headlines such as "Belgian Child's Hands Cut Off By Germans".
The media was also used for other purposes. Newspapers published casualty figures that were acceptable to the government (reporting a number much smaller than the actual casualty count) , that was less than accurate. Success in battles were greaty emphasized as opposed to minimal progress gained.
Take a look at this example of propoganda from an extract of a British newspaper about the Germans.
“To the north of Ypres our progress has been continued, especially on our left. We have taken six quick-firers, two bomb-throwers, and much material; and made several hundred prisoners, including several officers.
The losses of the enemy were extremely high. At a single point on the front, in the proximity of the canal we counted more than six hundred German dead.
On the heights of the Meuse, on the front Les Eparges-St Remy-Calonne trench, we have continued to gain ground, about one kilometre, and have inflicted on the enemy very severe losses.”
This was written in April 1915. Nowhere does it describe the British casualties at Ypres or the problems that were encountered there by the British. No British newspaper described the scenes at Victoria Station when carriages of wounded soldiers arrived back in London - but very late at night or in the early hours of the morning in an effort to blot out the sheer numbers lost in battle.
Now, take a look at the Germans' perspective on the same battle.
"In Flanders the British yesterday again attempted to regain the ground they had lost. In the afternoon they attacked from both sides but the attack completely broke down. An evening attack further east failed, with severe British losses."
All nations involved in the war, not only the British and Germans, were guilty of propaganda.
Taking It A Step Farther
While some government officials busily censored or manipulated war news, peope who had the temerity to criticize their nations' war effort were prosecuted as traitors. Propaganda offices of the belligerent nations tried to convince the public that military defeat would mean the destruction of everything worth living, and to that end they did their utmost to discredit and dehumanize the enemy. Posters, pamphlets, and "scientfic studies" depicted the enemy as subhuman savages who engaged in vile atrocities. German propaganda depicted Russians as semi-Asiatic barbarians. The British published a story claiming that Germans converted human corpses into fertilizer and food.
The falsehood of the imagination of propaganda officers eventually engendered public skepticism and cynicism. Ironically, public disbelief or wartime propaganda led to an inabilty to believe in the abominations perpertrated during subsequent wars.
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Another Example of Propoganda
A French propaganda poster from 1915. The poster expresses outrage at the German invasion of Belgium and the protection that Belgium has from the French and the British in 1915.
A French propaganda poster from 1915. The poster expresses outrage at the German invasion of Belgium and the protection that Belgium has from the French and the British in 1915.