"Poems and stories; official accounts. Which of these give a more accurate picture of soldiers' experiences on the Western Front?"

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        Pa11        Mr. Burton

Andrew Denty Pa11

Mr. Burton


History Coursework- “Poems and stories; official accounts. Which of these give a more accurate picture of soldiers’ experiences on the Western Front?”

World War 1 broke out in August 1914. There were numerous causes for war, the spirit of intense nationalism that existed in Europe throughout the 19th and into the 20th century, the political and economic rivalry among the largest nations such as France and Germany. Europe was split into two alliances; the Triple Entente, including Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and the United States, and the Triple Alliance; including Germany, Turkey, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. The immediate trigger of the war was the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand on June 28th, 1914, in Austria-Hungary.

This question asks me to evaluate sources, and so it is important to define its key terms.

The Western front was a line of trenches stretching from the Belgium coast in the north to Switzerland in the south. This is where the majority of conflict took place. Victories on the battlefield were soon being measured in yards and stalemate set in. Conditions in the trenches were very poor; they were muddy and full of rats. The German trenches were much better dug-in than the Allies trenches. The Allies believed the war wouldn’t last long, so there was no point in improving them. German trenches also had better vantage points than the Allies trenches.

World War One produced a mass of poetry. Some were written by soldiers, such as Siegfried Sassoon's “The General”. Other poems were written by people who had not fought in the war, and so are less likely to give an accurate portrayal of conditions on the front line. Poetry from World War One can be split up into to groups; poems from the early stages of war (1914, 1915), which tend to be optimistic and pro- war, and poems from later in the war which tend to be more negative of the war.

Official accounts include some poems, newspaper accounts, virtually all photos taken on the front line, as well as paintings. The government sent people out to the western front to write poems and paint pictures for propaganda use, however when they arrived the scenes were so disturbing, some recorded what they really saw, as opposed to what the government had instructed.

Stories include soldiers’ recollections of their experiences of war, oral accounts, memoirs, and works of fiction. These accounts offer a rare insight into soldiers’ opinions and feelings and can be effective at describing events as they happen.

        In this assignment I will complete three case studies; Trench life (living conditions etc), gas (the experience and effects of gas attacks) and soldiers attitudes to the war. I will use a wide range of sources including poems, official accounts, stories and soldiers’ accounts.

I expect to find that official accounts do not always give an entirely accurate picture, as they were produced by the government for propaganda purposes, with the intention of boosting people’s morale back home in Britain.  I think poems will be a reasonably reliable source, although soldier’s opinions and experiences will not always be delivered literally. Soldiers’ accounts should be relatively accurate; however I will have to take into account the views of the author, and their state of mind when writing.


Case Study One: Conditions in the trenches.

        

        In September, 1914, the German commander, General Erich von Falkenhayn ordered his men to dig trenches to provide protection from the advancing French and British troops. As the Allies soon realised that they could not break through this line, they also dug trenches. It has been widely documented that conditions in these trenches was very poor, they were full of rats mud, and disease. In this case study I will be examining the conditions British soldiers had to endure in the trenches along the Western Front and determine what is the most useful type of source.

The first source I am going to look at is an official account, a photograph of British infantry knee deep in mud.

This photo shows soldiers in a trench along the front line. As this is a photo it can be counted as an official account. During the war the government sent photographers to the front line on official missions. There were regulations on what could be photographed; no photographs showing dead British soldiers were allowed to be published for example. In order to assess the reliability of this photograph, I have to understand why it was taken; it was most probably taken for the audience at home, so could be staged, and certainly won’t show what conditions were like at their worst.

This photo, although subject to censorship gives me an idea as to what the conditions in the trenches were like. The floor of the trenches is covered in mud, which is up to the soldiers knees in some parts; this could lead to conditions illnesses such as trench foot. The trench is very narrow, so there is not much room for the soldiers to move around in the trench. Also, the trench is not very high, so soldiers are more likely to be shot at. As this is an official account, and it shows that the conditions in the trenches to be reasonably bad (the trench doesn’t even have duck boards) I am lead to think that this is actually quite accurate, as if the conditions on this picture were bad, then what were the rest of the trenches like, many must have been worse.

I must remember that this photo only shows a snapshot of a small area, at one time, there could have been much more horrific sights nearby.

None of the soldiers in the picture, appear to be seriously wounded and all seem to be getting on with the war reasonably well, this again leads me back to the point that this is an official photo, so the people in the photo could have been hand picked and told to stand there shooting.

The next source I will be studying is a soldier’s account, written by Private Pollard and published in 1932. This can be taken as a story as it is a soldier writing about his experiences.

This source is from a soldier looking back on his experiences of the war. This is both good and bad for an historian trying to find out what conditions in the trenches were like in WW1. The soldier will have had many years to look back on the events, and as this piece was written during 1932 was less likely to be suffering from any mental conditions brought on by the war. However because this piece was written in 1932 its accuracy is brought into question, memory often tends too exaggerate, also the incentive to get the memoirs published may have led him to exaggerate about the conditions. The more interesting the book is, the more likely it is to be published. Also by 1932 the soldier has had a lot of time to read other stories and sources of information about the war, which may have changed his opinion of the war, which would affect what he wrote. However I must remember that powerful memories are unlikely to be forgotten, so in a sense this makes the source more reliable.

Although there are reasons to believe this source is inaccurate in some respects, it seems to agree with other sources, such as the one above entitled “British infantry knee deep in mud”. Both of the sources show that the trenches were full of water. Because of this, I am more inclined to believe the information about the dead bodies in the trenches, as the photograph above was censored, so not allowed to contain dead bodies, and the fact that the trenches were cramped, so there was not much room to bury the many dead. I know from my field work in France and Belgium last year that many dead bodies were recovered from the trenches, many of them are unidentified.

The next source I will be studying is a story, by Captain Impey, who is writing about the conditions of the trenches.

This account was written in 1915, so before British conscription law came into effect. This means that the soldier signed up of his own accord. This account was written during the war, so the reliability of the writer’s memory is not really an issue. The writer does not seem to hold extreme anti-war views, as he says “some of them did not have duckboards or dug-outs,” this makes the source more reliable, because if he had extreme antiwar views, then he would be likely to exaggerate and probably say something like most of them…”. The other information this source gives seems to agree with other sources I have studied, for example the photo entitled “British infantry knee deep in mud.”  Shows soldiers knee deep in mud, with no duckboards or dug-outs. The author says the trenches were cold and wet, the trenches must certainly have been cold as France is reasonably cold during the winter, and the fact soldiers were constantly wet would add to the coldness they were feeling.  As this source was written in 1915, it is likely that it was written whilst the soldier was on the front line, so maybe because of the conditions he was experiencing he may have been tempted to exaggerate. We also have to consider the mental state of the soldier, as it was written in 1915, during the war. However as the soldier probably served on the front line, so will have a first hand experience of events. Something I must take into account is self censorship; he would tone down what he wrote during the war, so to stop his family at home from worrying about him too much.

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        The next source I am going to study is a poem by Mary Borden, The poem is entitled the song of the mud and is about the conditions in the trenches and the effects it had on the soldiers.

        

This poem was written in 1917 by Mary Borden who, unlike most female poets had a first hand experience of the Western Front as she ran a mobile hospital at the Western Front. This source is useful to the historian studying conditions in the trenches in world war one, as it gives a rare insight to what ...

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