The government introduced a huge recruitment campaign. It was also the first time so much propaganda was used. Half a million joined the army in one month! The government tried as hard as possible to encourage men to sign up. There were posters, leaflets, exciting speeches from the politicians etc. The campaign was highly successful. By 1916 over two million men in Britain had volunteered to join the army. However as the war went on more terror was revealed about it. Seeing the truth fewer and fewer people wanted to sign up. The government had to introduce conscription. All the men between 18 and 40 had to register. It was the first time ever that conscription had been introduced in Britain. The volunteering system failed. It was the first time for everything.
In 1914 the British government introduced DORA- the Defense Of the Realm Act. “ It gave the government unprendented and wide-ranging powers to control many aspects of people’s daily lives. It allowed it to seize any land or building it needed, and to take over any industries which were important to the war effort.”
In the beginning of the war nobody expected that it would last for such a long time, more and more men were needed to replace the dead and injured. The loss of men damaged the industries a lot, as there was not enough workforce. All the industries were now working under the government and were producing what was needed for the war. To keep the production going WOMEN for the first time ever introduced to the men jobs. It was something like a revolution. There was a new style of propaganda asking women to work in industries and help to win the war. New groups were organized like: “the order of the white feather”, “mother’s union”, “women’s hospital corps”, “women’s police volunteers”, “woman’s land army” and many more. Women volunteered to work as nurses, to cook, farm workers etc. By the end of the war half a million women had replaced men in the office jobs, and almost 800,000 had taken up work in engineering industries. In fact very soon people realized that with very little training women were as skilled as men. So as we can see the role of women changed completely during the war years.
The loss of men damaged the industries a lot, as there was not enough workforce. All the industries were now working under the government and were producing what was needed for the war. To keep the production going WOMEN for the first time ever introduced to the men jobs. It was something like a revolution. There was a new style of propaganda asking women to work in industries and help to win the war. New groups were organized like: “the order of the white feather”, “mother’s union”, “women’s hospital corps”, “women’s police volunteers”, “woman’s land army” and many more. Women volunteered to work as nurses, to cook, farm workers etc. By the end of the war half a million women had replaced men in the office jobs, and almost 800,000 had taken up work in engineering industries. In fact very soon people realized that with very little training women were as skilled as men. The amount of food became a problem in the countries; there was not enough of it. As the supplies were running short, the prices kept rising. Poor people couldn’t afford to buy enough food, while the rich were buying too much. Soon there were laws made that controlled the prices of bread. In May 1917 volunteering rationing was introduced, but it didn’t help much, so in 1918 compulsory food rationing was introduced. If someone would break the rationing rules he would get penalties.
It was also the first time during the war that people were not told the whole truth, the government was controlling what the public knew. They were only telling the good news. There was propaganda against other countries, especially Germany. In cinemas people would be watching propaganda films. Journalists were not allowed to the front until 1916 (November). Everything was censored including the letters which soldiers sent to their relatives.
World War Two wasn’t much difference, except that it brought more horror and damage. In this war more civilians died than soldiers, they were “in the front line of attack”. Civilians were bombed, imprisoned, massacred, taken as slaves and starved to death. The most horrifying weapon of World War Two was the atomic bomb; it became typical at that time and brought horrific civilian casualties.
Before 1914 even though some wars involved lots of countries, they were mainly fought battle by battle. After 1914 World War Two put an end to this style of fighting. Now wars were fought on many fronts, all at the same time. In World War Two there was ground war as well as air war and sea war. The aim of most of the countries was to destroy the industries of the “enemy”; this was done by killing the workforce, bombing their houses for example.
In 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Harbour, so USA joined the war. Almost every country was participating: Far East, USA, Europe etc.
There was massive recruitment as more help was needed. The government introduced forced conscription. All the women were working in industries in order to keep the production going. In some countries even children were working, for example making grenades at 15 years old! Some countries used slaves to increase production, for example Germany used Russian refugees as slaves, and the same was taking place in China with Japanese refugees.
There was a shift in industries, they were adapting to the war production, for example an industry that was producing kettles or something of that kind was now making helmets. Some workers in the country had had to move from one part of the country to another to be able to work in an industry.
Every single thing in the country was being used. For transport there were mostly trains (“war by timetable”) and also new technology was used to get the food faster to the front. For example in Leningrad during the two years of resistance the food was delivered in the cars through the frozen lake, as there was no other way.
In World War Two the amount of food was even smaller than in World War One, therefore compulsory food rationing was introduced as well. In most of the countries, to be able to save more food, flour was mixed with sawdust to make bread and the soup was made with glue.
There was also a mass use of propaganda. Even famous people would take part in it, like actors, singers etc. (e.g. Marlene Dietrich- in Germany). Cinema was a popular event at that time, and was also used as propaganda. Just like in World War One, all the letters from the soldiers were censored and people were only told about good things. Some soldiers even used to write on bombs with which they would later on bomb their enemies!
Science developed even further and allowed a higher mass destruction. There was a mass use of tanks, which by now were highly developed. Fire was one of the most common weapons, as it was hard to put it down, ex. Spitfire – it fired even through a propeller! Even firebombs were made. By the end of the war Germany produced a V1 plane-, which didn’t even need a pilot to get to a destination! If Germany would make it in the beginning of the war, it is most certain that it would win the war. And as I mentioned previously the most horrific weapon ever was THE ATOMIC BOMB. It was used in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the effects were disastrous! In Hiroshima at least 75,000 people died instantly. Tens of thousands more died from radiation poisons in the years that followed.
This war mostly concentrated on the civilians because the government believed that this would lower people’s morale and they would stop supporting the government in their countries, which would make it much easier to win the war. The civilians became a target.
Those two wars saw casualties on an unprecedented scale. In World War One the best estimate in a global total of 8,500,000 killed and 57,470,000 injured. However the casualties of World War Two were much more horrific, altogether about 55 million died, abut 40 million were the Soviet and about 30 million Chinese. There were lots of refugees. Some cities and villages were totally destroyed, especially in Russia. Much much more civilians died than soldiers. This never happened before.
As we can see from all the above information on both of the wars, we can definitely say that World War One and World War Two were Total Wars. Each level of society and almost every country were affected. They were the first Total Wars as nothing of this kind ever happened before the effects were horrific and the memories of those wars will always stay in people’s hearts.
The end.
Done by Ioulia Samouilovskaia.
