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 the trenches were like and to the effects they had on the soldiers from a female. In the poem she describes the trenches as muddy, this is in agreement with other sources I have studied, such as photographs and stories I have studied in this case study. The fact that this detail is correct makes the other information in the poem more believable, she describes that the mud is drowning the soldiers, obviously this is in a metaphorical sense, but I believe she means that it destroys their morale and health. As this is a poem it offers an insight into the authors thoughts and feelings and can be very descriptive, at the time of writing Borden is obviously disgusted at the state of the trenches and appears to be antiwar, which is not surprising considering she is treating the wounded soldiers.
The fact that she is opposed to war gives her a reason to exaggerate. The poem is one sided, it only talks about the most terrible experiences and trench conditions; it overlooks less traumatic occurrences to gain the readers attention. During this time poetry was a major form of entertainment, so she would have reason to make it as shocking as possible. A point I need to take into account is that Borden wrote this poem whilst at the front line; this could affect her mental state at the time of writing, so possibly causing her to exaggerate on certain points. As she ran a hospital, she only tended to see the worst effects of war, which I think is a very important point to consider. This means that she would only witness soldiers suffering from the worst conditions brought on by poor trenches, so she could only write about how bad the trenches were.
In conclusion I think that this source has its limitations, however it seems to agree with many other sources, even if it is slightly exaggerated.
The next source I will be studying is a painting by Austin Spare, entitled “Operating in a Regimental Aid Post”.
I have chosen to study this source as it shows an artist’s perception of conditions in the trenches. This picture does not seem to have the same focus as other sources I have studied in this case study, they all seem to be mainly concerned with the actual trenches, however this painting is more interested in showing us the condition of the soldiers within the trenches. Therefore this source is more effective than many other sources I have studied, as it gives us more information as to what the soldiers were experiencing. Even though this painting focuses on the soldiers health it gives us some clues as to the conditions in the trenches. For example the trench appears to be littered with rubbish.
This source is useful as it offers an insight into the affects that the poor conditions in the trenches had on the soldiers. Spare was so shocked by what he saw on the western front, that he abandoned his government mission and painted what he saw. The fact he did this tells us that what he saw must have been very shocking; therefore the terrible scene he has painted is more reliable. This is important when assessing the sources accuracy, because if he abandoned his mission, then what he had seen was certainly very shocking, so the picture must be reasonable accurate.
As this source is a painting, we are at the mercy of the artist; the artist can paint whatever they wanted to. Spare abandoned his government mission because he was so shocked at what he saw; this gives him a reason to exaggerate in his painting. Spare most probably saw the soldiers and made sketches or memorized what he saw, because of the shock of what he saw; he may have made the picture more shocking unintentionally. At this time the latest fashion in art was impressionism, I doubt the soldier on the right really was green and looked that ill. He appears to be sinking into the ground. Spare certainly did not see this, which means this picture is an impressionist piece. Instead of creating a picture of what he had seen, he was probably attempting to create an impression of what he experienced. This means that the reliability of the source has to be seriously questioned.
This painting provides some useful information, however it lacks detail, which would be interesting to an historian, as with photography it is limited to a freeze shot and is only a visual source.
Case Study One Conclusions:
In this case study I have studied a wide range of sources, which give a varied account of the conditions in the trenches on the front line. However most of my sources seem to agree on certain details, such as the trenches were muddy and in a poor condition. I found stories to be useful as they offer an account as to how the person is feeling and their personal opinions. They can also be affective as windows into the writers mind, and particularly reliable for blow-by-blow accounts. However I had to be careful when dealing with memory issues, and many stories can be fictitious. In this case study Official accounts tended to be very useful, and in a sense quite reliable, as they were censored, would not exaggerate how poor conditions were. However I found that censorship issues are a cause for concern with official accounts, as staged photos can spoil accuracy. For this case study poems were useful, they used descriptive language and conveyed an atmosphere clearly. However metaphors and other language tools can reduce their accuracy and reliability.
In this case study I have found that official accounts and stories seemed to give the best picture as to what conditions in the trenches were like, for the above reasons.
Case Study Two: Gas Attacks and the Effects of Gas Attacks.
Poisonous gases were developed long before World War One. However military officers were reluctant to use them as they considered it to be an uncivilized weapon. World War one saw the introduction of these gases into warfare for the first time, they proved deadly and very effective. In this case study I will look at Gas Attacks and the Effects of Gas Attacks on the soldiers.
I will start by looking at a well known poem, “Dulce et Decorum est” by Wilfred Owen.
This poem was written by Wilfred Owen, who by the end of the war was strongly opposed war, writing in his poetry anthology, “This book is not about heroes; English poetry is not yet fit to speak of them. Nor is it about deeds or lands nor anything about glory, honour, might, majesty, dominion or power except war. My subject is war and the pity of war- the poetry is in the pity.”
Owen enlisted voluntarily, so it appears that at the beginning of the war he was not a pacifist or against war. He fought bravely and even after being injured in 1917, went back to fight in 1918 and later awarded the Military Cross. This suggests that the experiences that Owen had on the front line were bad, so to change his opinion on war, this suggests that the source is more accurate than I initially thought.
Much of the information he gives in the poem appears to be correct; it seems to agree with other sources I have studied. Owen describes “Gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs”, this is true, one of the effects of being caught in a gas attack was that your lungs would produce a froth, in a desperate attempt to protect themselves; this froth would in turn suffocate the person. This poem was not published until 1919, after Owens death and the end of the war; this is significant when assessing the sources reliability, as it means that the poem was not censored in any way. This also provides an insight into Owens motivation as a poet. If he was writing poem in order to make money then he would most probably have published the poem quickly, as it was not published until a year after his death this suggests to me he was not writing for financial gain, this means that he probably would not have exaggerated with the intention of making the poem more interesting, and hence making more money. This is important as it means that the poem can be looked upon as more reliable.
By the end of the war Owen was strongly against war, writing in his poetry anthology, “This book is not about heroes; English poetry is not yet fit to speak of them. Nor is it about deeds or lands nor anything about glory, honour, might, majesty, dominion or power except war. My subject is war and the pity of war- the poetry is in the pity.” This shows that Wilfred Owen was firmly opposed to war; he says that he wants to expose the pity of war in his poetry, which gives him a reason to exaggerate the severity of Gas attacks. Another thing that tells me he aimed to warn people of war in his poetry is the last line in “Dulce et decorum est”, where he says “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria Mori,” this is a warning to young men who have not yet signed up for the war, and to the parents of these young men, saying that war is not glorious, and that it is not right and glorious to die for your country. This is the whole point of the poem; to warn people at home of the terrors of war. To make this warning as shocking and as effective as possible he has used descriptive language, which may well have been used to exaggerate the situation. Owen is just using the subject of gas as a vehicle to for fill his objective, to warn people about war; this seriously affects the reliability of this source. This poem is very one sided, only talking about the most terrible experiences; it overlooks less interesting occurrences to gain the readers attention.
A point I need to take into account is that Owen wrote this poem whilst in Hospital suffering from shell shock; this would affect his mental state at the time of writing, so possibly causing him to exaggerate on certain points. Owen spent a long time on the front line, so probably witnessed many gas attacks. After a while memories become less clear, especially for events that occur more than once, so Owen could have written the poem including the worst bits from each of the attacks he witnessed. Also he may have intentionally taken the most shocking parts from each gas attack he witnessed in order to achieve his goal, which was to warn people about the horrors of war. This seriously affects the reliability of this source.
In conclusion I think that this source has its limitations, however it seems to agree with many other sources, even if it is slightly exaggerated.
The next source I will be studying is an official account, a photograph of British soldiers blinded by mustard gas.
This Photograph shows blinded soldiers standing in a line. I am using this source as it appears to be very informative as to the affects of a gas attack. This photograph shows that an effect of gas attacks was blindness. Many of the soldiers appear to be in pain, (the third on the right is holding his head, and appears to be in great pain). This source tells me that gas was a very effective tool in warfare, as there are many injured soldiers here. This must have been terrible for soldier’s morale, seeing their fellow soldiers injured in this life altering way. This source is useful because it shows soldiers suffering, this is consistent with the next source (see below); “All their eyes were streaming, and hurting in a way that sin never hurts.” This makes this photograph more believable. This is also backed up by the painting on the next page, which shows soldiers lined up in a similar manner. This leads me to believe that this source is reasonably accurate. However in the painting the soldiers are walking through a pile of dead bodies; there are no dead bodies in this photograph, possible due to the fact if was censored. This impairs this sources reliability.
However this source is limited, because government censorship laws made it illegal to photograph dead British soldiers, so any fatalities would not be affected. This does though help me to see the scale of gas attacks, an extract from the Spartacus website says “most of the soldiers caught in a gas attack died as a result of the gas,” this shows me that if these are the survivors then many more people must have been killed. This links in with my first case study, if there were all of these soldiers killed by gas attacks, then they would have found it impossible to remove all of the bodies, therefore the trenches must have been full of rats, flies and disease. In this photo none of the soldiers appear to be seriously ill, they are all able to stand, however background information on the subject tells me that the majority of people caught in gas attacks were extremely ill before they died. This leads me to think that maybe this photograph was staged; maybe a group of relatively well blinded soldiers were lined up and photographed. As this is a photograph, it is limited as it is only possible to see a small area at one time, therefore it could easily be staged or there could be a pile of dead soldiers to the left. The photograph tells us nothing about the soldier’s thoughts.
The next source I will be studying is a painting by John Singer Sargent, entitled Gassed, painted in 1918. This source can be included as an official account as many artists were sent on official missions to the front line.
This painting shows a line of blinded soldiers holding on to each other so they don’t get lost. They are walking along a terrain littered in dead bodies. This source is useful as it offers an insight into what the affects of gas attacks were really like, as photography was censored, and was not allowed to show dead British bodies. This painting shows us what written accounts, and poems cannot easily- a visual account of the aftermath of a gas attack. This source clearly shows gas as a very effective and lethal method of warfare. In 1918 Sargent was commissioned to paint a large painting to symbolize the co-operation between British and American forces during the First World War. Sargent was sent to France. One day Sargent visited a casualty clearing station at Le Bac-de-Sud. While at the casualty station he witnessed an orderly leading a group of soldiers that had been blinded by mustard gas, which is consistent with the photo above. He was so shocked by what he saw that he abandoned his mission and painted what he saw. The fact he did this tells us that what he saw must have been very shocking; therefore the terrible scene he has painted is more believable. Because of this I can assume that the source is much more reliable than I first thought. The artist successfully showed the line of blinded people, which is confirmed by the photograph on the previous page, this leads me to believe that there were dead bodies scattered on the ground, (as photographs were censored).
As this source is a painting, we are at the mercy of the artist; the artist can paint whatever they wanted to. Sargent abandoned his government mission because he was so shocked at what he saw; this gives him a reason to exaggerate in his painting. The soldiers could not have stood there in that stance for hours, so Sargent must have seen them and made sketches and memorized what he saw, because of the shock of what he saw, he may have made the picture more shocking unintentionally. At this time the latest fashion in art was impressionism, I doubt the ground was littered with as many bodies as it is in the picture, Sargent was probably attempting to create an impression of what he experienced, I doubt he painted exactly what he saw. This painting provides some useful information, however it lacks detail, which would be interesting to an historian, as with photography it is limited to a freeze shot and is only a visual source.
The next source I will be studying is an official account, a photograph of British soldiers blinded by mustard gas.
This account was given by Kingsley Martin in 1918; Martin treated wounded soldiers on the front line. The source is an account of his experiences of dealing with mustard gas victims.
This source has many limitations; however it is useful as it describes the illness brought on from being caught in a gas attack. It states the symptoms with minimum descriptive language. This is useful for the historian as it is more likely that the author is telling the truth. I would imagine the author had a lot of further experience of gas attacks, so he knew quite a lot, making this source more accurate. However this source was written in 1918, when there were certain censorships on what could be published, this may have caused the author to tone down what they wrote. There is also the issue of self censorship, if Martin wasn’t opposed to the war, he may have wanted to limit what he wrote, in order to help keep up morale at home, reducing the accuracy of this source. The primary purpose of this piece appears to be to describe the effects of a gas attack on soldiers, so I don’t think it has been overlooked to focus on something else.
Case Study Two Conclusions:
In this case study I have studied a wide range of sources, which give a varied account of Gas attacks and the effects they had. The majority of my sources seem to agree on certain details, such as blindness caused by the gas.
In this case study I have found that official accounts and stories seemed to give the best picture as to what conditions in the trenches were like. The photo of the blind soldiers lining up and the painting by Sargent are eerily similar. This suggests to me that both of these sources are reasonable accurate. Poems are useful for describing a gas attack; the poem by Wilfred Owen is very emotive and interesting and gives us an idea as to what experiencing a gas attack was like. The Stories I have studied back up my official accounts and seem to be relatively reliable.
Case Study Three: Soldiers Attitudes to War.
Much has been written about soldiers’ attitudes to war. I will study a range of sources in order to assess the general attitude.
The first source I will be studying is a poem entitled “the general”, and was written by Siegfried Sassoon.
This poem is about a General, and Sassoon uses the poem to make the point, that, in his opinion many senior officers were incompetent. This poem is very satirical, as are many of Sassoon’s poems. It is clear from reading this poem that Sassoon believes that many of the senior officers were foolish and poor leaders. This shows that he has little or no respect for his generals; however I want to find out whether Sassoon’s views were widely shared throughout British soldiers.
Sassoon was certainly in a position to know about the war, as he served along the Western front for much of the war, this makes the source more accurate as he had a first hand experience of war. This source is similar to a lot of other war poems written around 1917, (such as “life in the trenches”, by Robert graves and “the deserter” by Gilbert Frankau), in that it is antiwar, so I think it represents common views reasonably well.
This poem is useful in some respects as it gives us an insight into Sassoon’s attitude to war, and to the way it was being fought. To discover how common Sassoon’s views were I need to look at his background; he was born in the South of England into a wealthy family, and had a good education. After leaving Cambridge without a degree he lead the life of a country gentleman, spending much of his time hunting, playing sports and writing poetry. On the outbreak of the First World War Sassoon enlisted as a cavalry trooper.
If Sassoon’s views about the competence of his superiors in the army were more widespread then there almost certainly would have been a rebellion, however there was no major British rebellion during World War One. Sassoon’s upbringing was not common, and he enjoyed past times such as writing poetry, so when faced with the realities of war he probably reacted very differently from other less well off soldiers. I think it is clear that Sassoon’s views on war were not entirely typical, so this makes the source less reliable when assessing the general attitude to war at the time. Perhaps it was the shock of finding himself in the terrible conditions of the trenches after a carefree and privileged life back home.
The poem was written in 1917, so towards the end of the war when soldiers’ opinion to war was generally less enthusiastic, this is reflected in his poem.
The Next source I will be studying is an oral account of Charles Young’s experiences of Blighty wounds given in 1984. This source can be counted as a story.
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 solders’ morale was like during World War One. The soldier has had many years to look back on the events, and as this piece was produced in 1984 and was less likely to be suffering from any mental conditions brought on by the war. However because this piece was written in 1984 its accuracy is brought into question, memory often tends too exaggerate and make things seem less or more clear, this is bad as it makes this source less reliable. However, the most vivid memories are rarely forgotten. Young mentions that the soldiers often went for days without sleep and food, as it is often said, “an army marches on it’s stomach,” being hungry and tired must have had an effect on soldiers performance, so slow progress, so depressing them and lowering their morale. Also hungry and tired soldiers are likely to get fed up and start regretting signing up. This poor morale can lead to an antiwar attitude. He says many of the soldiers injured themselves in order to go home and be with their family, this is understandable from what I have discovered about the conditions the soldiers had to endure and factors which could reduce their morale and in turn alter their attitude to war. Many of the points Young mentions appear to be correct, as they agree with other sources I have studied, (“a soldiers declaration” by Siegfried Sassoon, and “the dying soldier” by Isaac Rosenberg).
Young contradicts himself on a small detail; he says that on the front line they had no food for days at a time, however when describing how a soldier injures himself he mentions the use of a tin of beef. This affects the reliability of the source, and means that I must treat it with suspicion. This account was produced in 1984, so I can assume that at the time Young was at least in his eighties, there are some areas where he seems to be confident with small details in his account, for example “three of his fingers off” can he really remember after 80 years that three fingers were blown off? I doubt this, if he is wrong about this detail, and then there are most probably other details he is incorrect about. Also as he is at least 80, he is likely to be a grand father, so likely to want to entertain his grandchildren and family with a story which is as exciting as possible. Also as he is 80, then he has probably recalled the story many times throughout his life, so small details have probably changed, this affects the reliability and accuracy of this source.
The Next source I will be studying is an official account; a photograph showing British troops marching to the front in June 1916.
This photograph shows British troops marching to the front in June 1916. 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. As it is a photo, I cal assume that it is an official account, so therefore taken by or for the government. As it was taken for the government it was most probably taken for propaganda purposes- to keep up peoples spirits back in Britain.
The troops in this picture are “on their way to the front”, so therefore have probably not experienced conditions on the front line. During the First World War, many young men at home were eager to sign up to fight as they thought the war would be an adventure, and sought glory. These young men were probably excited about what they would experience on the front. Also when people see a camera, they generally smile.
Case Study Three Conclusions:
In case study one I studied a range of sources showing what conditions in the trenches were like, I must take into account what I found in my first case study, and to an extent my second, when assessing soldiers Attitudes to war. Poor conditions and events such as gas attacks and shellings must have lead to poor morale resulting in antiwar attitudes. I have seen clearly in this case study that there was a strong underlying antiwar sentiment within many soldiers, however there were no mass revolts against army leadership. I think this is partly due to many soldiers thinking they could do nothing to stop the war, so might as well continue to fight and get it over with as soon as possible.
I have studied a wide range of sources, which give a varied account of the Attitudes. However for this case study I feel the most useful, (and to an extent accurate) sources are poems and stories. Poems and stories give us an insight into the soldier’s opinions and feelings in way which official accounts do not.
Conclusion:
When considering a conclusion I need to refer back to my original question; “Poems and stories; official accounts. Which of these give a more accurate picture of soldiers’ experiences on the Western Front?” I have successfully chosen a range of each source type and evaluated each source.
I have found that each kind of source has its own general strengths and weaknesses. Poems tend to be best for giving an accurate picture into solder’s experiences as they effectively convey the poet’s innermost thoughts and feelings. Poems also tend to give an the reader an experience of what the actual event was like, as opposed to stories which give more detailed information but are not as moving. In case study two I found Wilfred Owens “Dulce et Decorum est” to be particularly useful for describing the experience of a gas attack. This poem, unlike many others is a blow-by-blow account, which is very useful. Another very useful aspect of poems is that they are not censored, unlike official accounts and some stories.
However one has to be careful when evaluating poems as many poets were not typical soldiers, (i.e. their opinions and views differed from many soldiers). When evaluating poems I found that many poets had super objectives for writing their poems, for example Wilfred Owen set out to expose and warn people of the pity of war, and consequently I found these poems to be less reliable and accurate. As poems use literary devices such as metaphors and similes we cannot always read them literally, hence they are less reliable.
In my hypotheses I expected to find poems to be a reasonably reliable source, which I found them to be, however they must be treated on a very individual basis as some are very accurate and some are less accurate.
Official accounts are perhaps in some cases the least reliable of the sources I have studied due to censorship and the use as propaganda, however in my opinion they are the most useful source I have studied. This is because official accounts include a wide range of sources which can be looked at and compared with poems and stories, which often tend to be exaggerated. Not all official accounts I have looked at are censored, for example John Singer Sargent’s “Gassed” (1918) which is a shocking painting of soldiers killed and injured by a gas attack. This source is very useful and in my opinion very accurate, as it is similar to a photograph. My hypothesis was not entirely accurate as far as official accounts were concerned. I started studying them with a preconception that they would be completely unreliable and of little use.
Stories are particularly useful for giving running descriptions and conveying what a soldier is going though. Stories are not censored
However many stories were written after World War One, so there were issues of memory, also the incentive of getting a piece published can affect the way in which the author writes. Many stories and letters written during the war are censored, to protect the author’s family. A story I found particularly useful was Charles Young’s interviewed about his war experiences in 1984, although it has its disadvantages, it contains a lot of useful information about why morale was low during the war, and clues to soldiers attitudes.
I am unsure as to whether I can select one type of source as being the most accurate; however I can say that each type has its own strengths. As a result of my work I have found that Stories and poems tend to be the most accurate source types, however the most useful tend to be Official accounts and stories. I have found that in order to come to an accurate conclusion a wide range of sources is needed, as each source and source type has it’s of strengths and weaknesses.
Bibliography:
Spartacus Educational - http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/
BBCi - www.bbc.co.uk/history/