Explain the changing attitudes of civilians and British soldiers towards the War.

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Explain the Changing Attitudes of Civilians and British Soldiers Towards the War

In 1914 many British people were very enthusiastic about the war. When Kitchener, the minister of war called for “a million men and more” there was an overwhelming response. Some people, however, did not share this enthusiasm and many people’s attitudes changed during the course of the war.

When Britain declared war on Germany in 1914, the vast majority of British people supported the war. Lots of propaganda posters were published around the country by the government. The purpose of this propaganda was to make sure people supported the war effort. The First World War can be said to be Britain’s first total war. Because it thoroughly affected people back home. Previous wars like the Crimean war did not involve/affect everyday life of ordinary people. Because they were fought far away by small professional armies. But this war affected the vast majority of people at home in one way or another.

This time, civilians were even being killed by enemy action. Early in the war, German warships shelled the east-coast towns. Later in the war air raids from German Zeppelins caused further death and damage.

        

In defence, barrage balloons, searchlights and early fighter aircraft were introduced to defend the skies above Britain. In 1918, the Royal Air Force was formed. 1500 British civilians were killed during the course of the war. The very idea of civilians being targeted shocked many people. Soon, many people were going to find that the war was going to affect every aspect of their lives.

        The Defence of the Realm Act came to be known as DORA. It gave the government new powers to make the contribution of the British public as efficient as possible; and to protect the country with whatever means necessary. These restrictions are likely to affect the attitudes of many civilians, although the changes took place gradually. Propaganda worked in conjunction with recruitment (until 1916 when conscription was introduced). This propaganda was intended to portray a particular message. Its purpose was to keep morale high.

        

        So the Defence of the Realm Act was introduced when war broke out. It enabled the government to control many aspects of people’s daily lives. It allowed them to seize any land or buildings they needed and to take over any industries which were important to the war effort. It allowed the government to control what the public found out about the war through censorship. Hence newspapers were censored. To stop rumours spreading, people were not allowed to talk about the war in public places. In order to boost munitions production, British Summer Time was introduced to take advantage of more daylight during the working day. Pub opening times were cut and alcoholic drinks were watered down. Railways were under government control and the coalmines were also to be run by the government.

        Under the DORA, the government converted land for farm production. The women’s land armies were used to recruit women workers for the farms and other places in short of workers. However in 1917, the nation was running low on food. German U-Boats were sinking one in every four British merchant ships. The price of food doubled and the richer people were buying and hoarding most of the food. The government then introduced voluntary rationing, led by the Royal Family. The government published many propaganda posters encouraging people to be more economical with bread.

However, none of these measures were effective. So the government introduced a big change in 1918: it introduced compulsory rationing of sugar, butter, meat and beer. Every person had a book of coupons which they had to hand over when they bought their ration. There were stiff penalties facing anyone who broke the rationing rules.

On the whole though, rationing was widely welcomed as a fairer system of sharing out the available food. By the end of the war, as a result of rationing, the diet and health of many poorer people had actually improved in comparison with pre-war days.

Censorship and propaganda also affected the lives of ordinary people and hence changed many people’s attitudes. There were three aims of the government’s propaganda and censorship policy: to keep up morale; to encourage people to support the war effort; and to create hatred and suspicion of the enemy.

DORA allowed the government to control mass media. During the first few months of the war, casualties were bad but none of this got through, even to Parliament. Newspapers ere full of British heroism and German atrocities.

But after the Battle of the Somme, the British propaganda machine made a staged short film before the offensive. This glorified the way people were dieing, and many hailed its realism. Millions of recruitment posters were set up.

The impact of enemy action on the civilian population is significant in explaining the changing attitudes. The British government produced lots of anti-German propaganda. Some of it was true but much of it wasn’t. Stories began to circulate e.g. that there was a German factory where human corpses gathered from the battlefield were melted down so that the fat could be made into soap. The government’s campaign of hatred against the Germans was very successful. German people living in Britain were attacked:

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“If by chance you should discover one day in a restaurant that you are being served by a German waiter, you will throw the soup in his foul face.”

                                                                 

False stories of German soldiers murdering children in Belgium often appeared in newspapers. Any German aged between 17-45 living in Britain were put in prison. The vast majority of the nation actually hated Germany.

Casualties in the First World War were appallingly high. Twenty millions soldiers were wounded, and over eight million were killed. In the British army, one in five of the soldiers never came home. The ...

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