The Western Front - Sources

Coursework 1: The Western Front – Sources

Source A is an extract from a textbook for use in British schools. This means that ideas conveyed in this extract may have been simplified for children to understand. It may also have an unconsciously biased interpretation because a British historian wrote it. During his upbringing and education he may have had views on the Somme inflicted on him which were biased and inaccurate causing his interpretation of sources to be biased. Despite this because it was written sixty years after the event it is talking about, the author should have been able to access all relevant information and from this produce an unbiased and accurate textbook. If the information he used for research was biased and inaccurate than this would affect the accuracy of the textbook. This extract contains the word ‘slaughter’ twice, which has connotations of soldiers being like animals being butchered. It also shows that the author of the source is writing emotively.

Source B is a photograph, this means that it is a picture of an event that actually happened. It was taken in September 1916, which was during the battle of the Somme. However photographs have limitations. What is around the area within the photograph is not known. It is also not known whether the scene in the photograph was a regular occurrence on the Western Front or of it only happened the time the photograph was taken.

Although source B was taken by someone who had seen the effect of artillery first hand, this does not necessarily mean that source B is more reliable than source A. one of the main reasons for this is that it is not known whether source B shows an ordinary or extraordinary event. I think that source A may be more reliable because it was written by a historian. It is their job to look at and consider a wide range of sources before reaching a conclusion. Source A is a researched piece of writing, which should consider many accounts of the events opposed to the one account we see in source B.

Source C is a poem written by the war poet Siegfried Sassoon. Because it is a poem this means that it was written primarily to entertain and stir emotions, not to inform the reader of the facts. To do this circumstances may have been exaggerated making the source inaccurate. Sassoon was not a pacifist but he believed that the war was being fought in the wrong way, which he blamed the officers and Generals for. In the poem he is generalising about commanders. He had not met all the commanders so he based the poem on the few ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Source C is a poem written by the war poet Siegfried Sassoon. Because it is a poem this means that it was written primarily to entertain and stir emotions, not to inform the reader of the facts. To do this circumstances may have been exaggerated making the source inaccurate. Sassoon was not a pacifist but he believed that the war was being fought in the wrong way, which he blamed the officers and Generals for. In the poem he is generalising about commanders. He had not met all the commanders so he based the poem on the few he had met. He criticises the General by suggesting that his bad planning leads to the death of his soldiers.

Source C does not give an accurate impression of how soldiers viewed their commanders. The source is only the view of one man, which means that the source has many limitations, as it is not known by reading the source if any other soldiers shared Sassoon’s views on the commanders. A poem is always a very limited source because the language is emotive and events have been exaggerated to entertain the reader.

Sources D and E were both written by historians, which means

that if they have done their jobs properly, they would have researched many different sources before writing these passages. Both sources were written over seventy years after the end of the war, therefore allowing the authors to have had access to a wide variety of information on Haig. This means that both of these extracts should be well informed, unbiased and accurate. Source E is taken from a book which is based solely on Haig. This would suggest that the author of source E would have researched Haig in much more detail than the author of source D. therefore giving source E a far more accurate description of Haig’s character. Despite the probable extensive research carried out by the author of source E, he still gives a balanced description of Haig and does not incorporate his on views on Haig.

“ The full horrors of the First World War make it difficult to reach a clear verdict on Haig.”

However the author of source D seems to make his personal views on Haig clear. At one point, his own description of Haig,

“…his belief that he had been chosen by God to serve his country.”

Makes Haig sound extremely arrogant and suggests that Haig likened himself to a king chosen by the divine right.

Sources D and E give very different views on Haig. This may be because Source E was researched with more detail. Another possible reason for the two different descriptions of Haig’s character may be that the author of source D was a pacifist, this means he objects to war of any kind and in his eyes Haig would be a butcher. Haig is also a character who provokes emotion. If relatives of either author were killed in the Somme then it would be likely that they had some hatred towards Haig. This would mean that the books they produced might well be biased, whether they were aware of this or not.

Source F is an advertisement from 1915. It is advertising

cigarettes. It is intended to appeal to young men, possibly soldiers. The advertisement is glamorising war and pals battalions, making war seem fun and exciting, a time to smoke with your friends. The picture on the advertisement is not what the front line was like. If a soldier was stood out of the trench, like the main figure in the picture is, the enemy would have shot him down within seconds. The slogan ‘time for one more’, implies that the war was very relaxed, there were no schedules to follow and in general there was a carefree attitude among soldiers. This is not at all correct. The advertisement is consciously biased. The company that produced this advertisement would have known that live on the Western Front was not how it was shown in the advertisement. Advertisements often tell us little fact and much opinion or propaganda. There is little to be learnt about combat on the Western Front from this advertisement. Scenes such as the one in the advertisement would not have happened and the mood it conveys would also been rare

Source H is set on the western front in 1917 and would have been researched in some detail. The main purpose of the programme is to entertain not to inform of facts. Much of the programme is opinion such as, the views on Haig and how the war started. However the programme is not a useless source, there are parts, which seem well researched and accurate. Examples of these are, the routine of ‘going over the top’, poems being written by soldiers and soldiers faking madness. Its usefulness as a source is affected greatly because it is a comedy. The mood within the trenches is not accurately shown and tragic events are made to seem funny.

Source I is a film made in 1916 during the Somme. It was filmed on the Western Front using real soldiers. The purpose of the film was to inform the British public what life on the Western Front was like, and to gain support for the British armed forces. The film shows the mundane as well as the spectacular. Every day tasks and attack preparations are shown giving us an excellent record of the uniform worn, weaponry used and routines that were followed. However there are some weaknesses of the source. The film could not show everything that happened on the Western Front. What parts were not shown because it may be distressing or encourage anti-war behaviour is not known. The scene in which the soldiers go over the top appears to have been staged, but this is probably because it could not have been filmed any other way. Most importantly it is not the level of conscious biased used when filming and editing the source. The film would have been no use if it discouraged support for the war. Despite this the source is very useful its strengths far out weighing its weaknesses.

There are a wide variety of sources; some are more useful to

than the others to help me understand why the war on the

Western Front lasted so long. The sources can contradict each

other making it difficult to know which source is accurate.

Source A seems to suggest that the British were disorganised, causing the death of many soldiers, a reason why the war lasted so long. It also seems suggest that the Germans were the stronger side. This source should be well researched as a historian wrote it. From my previous research I feel that the source is accurate when it is implying that the British were disorganised but I disagree that the Germans were stronger than the British.