Christmas 1914, in some areas along the Western Front there is an unofficial truce, the Christmas Truce, German and British troops go over the top to meet each other in the middle of no-mans land they talk to each other and exchange presents. This was because both sides were fed up with fighting due to the conditions they were in. This really changed the British opinion of the Germans, they started to view them as human beings, not the brutal merciless barbarian brought across by propaganda. But in many cases when soldiers tried to go over the top they were shot by either the enemy or their commanding officer this also lowered the view towards the war.
But soon after the feeling towards the Germans went down again as they were the first to use poisonous gas such as mustard and chlorine. Although it was not very effective as mass killer due to the rapid invention of the gas mask it successful as a terror weapon. This led to the British seeing the Germans as barbaric, as there was no way they could fight it and no way they could hide from it at first.
By 1914 British doctors working in military hospitals soon noticed patients suffering from "shell-shock" which was caused by the enemy's . At first men experienced tiredness, irritability, lack of concentration and headaches. Eventually they suffered mental breakdowns making it impossible for them to remain in the . Between 1914 and 1918 the identified 80,000 men (2% of those who saw active service) as suffering from shell-shock, some 300 were shot due to their commanding officer believing that they were just trying to get sent home. This would have really lowered peoples attitude to war as they saw their friends going insane and being shot.
In the lead up towards the Battle of the Somme in 1916 morale is growing as the army expect a glorious victory. But these were false hopes as on the first day 20,000 died and 37,000 wounded this brought the campaign to an all time low, all together 400,000 people died in the Battle for the Somme. Some soldiers tried to get out of the war by injuring themselves, this was commonly known as ‘copping a blighty’ and if they were lucky they got sent home, but if they were found out they were shot for cowardice.
In 1917 there is one of the worst Autumns ever and the conditions in the trenches are hell. Men cannot move for mud. Passchendaele in particular is a mud bath as 260,000 British dead and wounded, not all the deaths were due to gun fire in many incidences people would drown in the mud. In Russia there is a second revolution but this time they pull out of the war leaving the Germans to concentrate on the Western Front. Morale on the Western Front is so low that some French battalions rebel, but British discipline held due to the respect and loyalty the soldiers had for their commanding officers as well as the consequences they faces if they mutinied - shot. But after this the ‘…British army lost its spirit of optimism, and there was a sense of deadly depression…they saw no ending to the war, nothing except continuous slaughter…’ - Phillip Gibbs a war correspondent.
In 1918 the Germans launch a ‘Spring Offensive’ following speculation that America might join the war this proved very successful and led to the British troops retreating in a disorderly manner. This further lowered morale, but soon after the Americans entered the war and launched a counter-attack this led to morale slowly progressing as there seemed no stopping the advances made alongside the USA who had well trained troops as well as the supplies to back them.
Back at home in Britain things are not going so well either. German ships had bombarded Hartlepool, this was the first time the British people had felt the war being brought home to them, in the past century the wars had always been abroad and were fought between large armies and British soil had not been touched. During this houses were destroyed and were families broken up, this attack by the Germans was meant to terrorise people, but instead it brought the community together as they helped each other rebuild their homes and lives. Zeppelins too were very effective and incidents like Scarborough, in the South-East in disrupting factory production by attacking civilians. These events heightened hatred towards the Germans, not only were people brought together in rebuilding their community, they were also united in hatred of the Germans.
Films showed the reality of trench warfare. When word was sent home by the army that a son, father or husband had died the attitude towards the war went down, sometimes when ‘pals battalions’ went over the top the whole male population of a town or village got wiped out. These kind of things could prove devastating to the war effort as people lost their sense of direction in life, . People used to dread the arrival of a telegram as it normally brought word of a relative, which could be too much for a single working mother who is struggling to support her family - 1/8 of war widows died within a month of their partner.
Food too became a problem for the working classes as it became rarer due to a successful u-boat campaign by the Germans against the trade routes which carried 2/3 of the Britain’s food supplies, in one month they had sunk 371 ships. The reason why 2/3 of food had to be imported was because most of it had to be sent to the war front. Another reason why food production in Britain was low was because many farm workers enlisted in the army as well as the proclamation that farms had to give horses and mules to the army which were essential to daily work. The upper middle classes did not suffer as they could afford to buy food irrespective of the rising food prices. This lead to lower class children as young as 9 doing 12 hour shifts as they could not afford to by food. Because the British government failed to introduce rationing till January 1918 many people starved especially children. Queues stretched for on and on and shops that displayed food in the window often were the victims of hungry mobs who rioted in the streets when food was particularly low. This particularly brought spirits down as Britain came close to running out of food.
When conscription was introduced in 1917 soon skilled workers like engineers who were crucial to the industrial business. This led to strikes as people could not see why these people were being conscripted. As the war dragged on people could not see the point of the war which was costing millions of lives. When news reached home of the second Russian revolution and that they had withdrawn from the war the war seemed hopeless, but then the USA entered the war which meant that they could re-secure the trade routes for food and arms and victory seemed in sight. In one year attitudes towards the war went from the lowest point in the war with people rioting to the highest when the end of the war was near.
