Attitudes started to change when the war had not finished months after Christmas of 1915. People became gradually more and more discouraged and less inclined to joining the army or believing the justice they had been shown in the propaganda. War was from then on seen as a lie and just for the benefit of the British government and forces. The conditions of the war that were being reported home made a large impact in peoples attitudes to war. The harsh conditions and realities of what the soldiers were facing caused the people back home to lose faith in the safety of their loved ones involved in such murderous conditions. The numbers of the thousands of men were not reported home to the discrepancy of the British government. Letters that the men of the army attempted to send home were brutally reinforced with lies and they would take pictures away that were attached with these letters. The tactics being used by the leaders were proven unsuccessful and outdated yet they were still used, this caused people to doubt the victory reported by propaganda. As the island was no-longer protected by its advantage of being an island, people expected the British army to have equipped themselves with air-rifles and such weaponry in order to keep the people of Britain safe that were a target for aeroplanes. There was propaganda that started to give away clues as to the truths to war such as “La Croix” a newspaper, on which is written “not to be shouted” meaning that the information in the newspaper should not be told to every one because the paper may have revealed bad news. The news may have discouraged people from believing in the war and they wanted the least amount of people to disagree. One of the articles in this paper is barely there; the information that was prohibited was so limited. There is a sculpture of a man and a woman in Vladslo cemetery, the man has a stern and strong upper lip whereas the woman or mother is crying and begging in sadness, it symbolises the grief yet pride that the people of the war may have been feeling, this sculpture is by Kathe Kollowitz. There is evidence that the prisoners awaiting death were angry and that their attitudes had changed because on the wall is written “fuck Haige” and “general Haige is a bastard”. There is a poem called ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ this poem contains the emotions that the writer feels people should be feeling for the soldiers that suffered the gas shells of world war one. It says the gas killed many innocent people. It tries to convey the feeling that this produces, they want you to feel the sympathy that and gratitude that the soldiers deserve. Attitudes had obviously changed by the point that soldiers were creating horrific and insightful poems of this standard.
World war one has become to be called Haig’s war of attrition. This name means that the whole war was set in stone as one of failure and gradual decay of British soldiers and British morale to the fault of Haige. As the four years gruesomely passed with solitary rare victory and constant tragedy and bombardment, the commanders and few soldiers that lived through the horrific experience had no reason to heighten spirits or act in a victorious happy fashion, all they had to do was to become less and less hopeful. Haige was a man to be hated; he was the one that caused the failure, he was the one that never had the sense to call the war off or formulate a useful tactic that was not outdated. Soldiers knew this and they did hate him, they despised themselves for making the foolish decision to join the war, their lives seemed futile as did the war. The attitudes of the soldiers were such that their whole state if mind and appreciation would be changed. The battle of Passchendaele or the “battle of mud” would only support and influence the change in attitudes that people were experiencing, the conditions and the defeation. The attrition that the war was composed of included the fact that by the end 1 in 10 Britons died. On the 22 April 1915 in the second battle of Ypres the Germans used gas for the first time, this may have discouraged attitudes to war because it showed that Britain was less advanced in comparison to the German tactics. On 1st February 1917 Germany declared unrestricted submarine war fare which raises a similar point to the one of the use of gas. Soldiers returning from the trenches would find a different Britain to the one of 1914, with high unemployment, a rising cost of living, strikes by new organised unions and a severe shortage of houses.
In 1914 there was an act passed on Briton called The Defence of the Realm Act, this act affected many factors of life. There were 18 new laws put in place to be taken into action as long as the war was active. These laws were as follows: no-one was allowed to talk about naval or military matters in public places, no-one was allowed to spread rumours about military matters, no-one was allowed to buy binoculars, no-one was allowed to trespass on railway lines or bridges, no-one was allowed to melt down gold or silver, no-one was allowed to light bonfires or fireworks, no-one was allowed to give bread to horses, horses or chickens, no-one was allowed to use invisible ink when writing abroad, no-one was allowed to buy brandy or whisky in a railway refreshment room, no-one was allowed to ring church bell, the government could take over any factory or workshop, the government could try any civilian breaking these laws, the government could take over any land it wanted to, the government could censor newspapers. There were further laws to be passed as time went on: the government introduced British Summer Time to give more daylight for extra work, opening hours in pubs were cut, beer was watered down, and customers in pubs were not allowed to buy a round of drinks. These laws affected people on the home front’s attitudes because if their lives were altered in any way then it is only human nature to question the reasoning. Newspapers could be censored by the government, this says that in order for there to be a need for this there must be a motive and this motive is that they either don’t want negativity to be spread about the war, or that the truth has not been told to the public. The need for rationing of food and beer is understandable due to the fact that food would be less accessible but the need to delve in to the matters about people speak defeats the human right of freedom of speech. People started to question these motives and this will have affected their attitudes to war.
Soldiers reluctantly continued to fight in the war when they did not want to because they were forced to do so. If they were to have said that they wanted to go home they would have been accused of cowardess and they would have been shot unfairly. Some soldiers tried desperately to escape the war by inuring themselves in order to be sent home. If a soldier suffered from shell shock they would not have been treated with the appropriate medication because it was unrecognised as an illness, they would have simply been shot as it was mistaken for cowardess. In order for someone to shoot themselves in the leg or cause themselves great injuries they must have had attitudes extremely far from that which they did when they first joined. The hierarchy of the army affected the reasons why men were forced to carry on fighting in the war when they did not want to. A higher social class or status would mean that your life is more important than those below you, the generals leading the war were more “important” than the soldiers fighting, so they did not consider whether it was fair or not to force the men to carry on fighting, all they believed was the more men we use the more likely it is that we will be victorious. Soldiers were told that they should be proud of what they were doing for it is glorious to fight for your country. A phrase that was often used was “for God, King and Country”, this was meant to create a sense of loyalty and worthiness. If you fought for god you would be sent to heaven, fighting for your king you were a worthy member of society and fighting for your country meant you were passionate about your country which at the time was something to measure yourself to others with.
Most of the country’s attitudes changed, those didn’t were naïve and blind or had been a pacifist since the beginning. The attitudes that did change went from pride, hope and joy in killing another man to anger, sadness, bewilderment and foolishness. The people of Britain had been lied to and the outcome of this was extraordinary amounts of death, this is the ultimate punishment for humanity.
