How were civilians affected by World War 1?
Aim: To revise key details
about the British Home
Front during the First
World War
Total War
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What was the Total War?
– A war where the countries drafts all the
people and collects all resources that they
can.
When did this war take place?
– Around 1916
Where did it take place?
– Europe
Why did the Total War occur?
– The war turned into a Total War because
the countries expected the war to be short
so they weren’t prepared for long term war,
when their supplies ran out, total war was
their only option.
What was the significance of the war?
– WWI turned into a Total War which affected
the home front and government a lot.
– It affected women too because with the
absence of men they were expected to take
over more jobs and help out with the war
effort.
– They received the rights to new jobs, to
vote, and the right to apartments.
WWI on the Home Front
• WWI was a Total War – required populations on the home front to
mobilize their resources completely toward the war effort; civilian
population centers also became targets of the war effort – not
since the US Civil War & the Napoleonic Wars had the world seen
such complete mobilization for war
• Mass conscription was carried out by all nations – most European
nations had armies of 1-2 million – eventually over 70 million
would be drafted worldwide – many women would volunteer
services as nurses at home & the front
• Entire economies were geared toward war production – led to
rationing of all sorts of essentials as raw materials & agricultural
products were utilized to feed the war machine – led to increased
centralization & gov’t control of economies
• WWI saw an increase in restrictions of civil liberties – the press
was censored as was speech & mail; due process of law was
suspended for those suspected of treason; German books were
burned, speaking German was banned & lynchings of German-Brits
were interned in Britain and its colonies
• Women played an important role in the war effort – taking up
jobs as men were sent to the home front – over 35% of the
workforce was women in many European nations during the war
War on the Home Front
Government Actions
• Winning new type of war
required use of all society’s
resources
Government Control
• Sought to control public
opinion
• Censored newspaper reports
• Total war, governments took
about fighting to keep from
stronger control of citizens’
discouraging public
lives
• Created propaganda,
• New controls changes
information to influence
nations’ industries,
opinions, encourage
economies
volunteers
• Factories produced military
• Posters, pamphlets, articles
equipment, citizens
about enemy’s brutal actions
conserved food, other goods
DORA
• Newspapers and radio
broadcasts were
censored
• The government could
control what people
heard about the war
• This made sure the public
continued to support the
war effort by only hearing
good things
Propaganda
• What is this?
– These were ideas spread around
to influence public opinions or to
go against a cause. It is a method
that the government used to
create enthusiasm for the war
also.
• When did this occur?
– August 1914
• Where did this take place?
– In Europe
• Who used propaganda?
– The European government
• What is the significance of using
propaganda?
– They used it because before the
wars it stirred up national hatreds.
WW I Propaganda - The Poster War
• Propaganda - the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor
for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a
cause, or a person.
– A deliberate attempt to influence individuals by leading
one to behave “as though his response were his own
decision.”
• In war, it’s used as an instrument for maintaining
unity, good will and a common purpose:
–Maintaining and boosting the morale of soldiers.
–Unifying society at home in support of the war
effort.
• WWI was one of the 1st wars in which a
massive propaganda campaign was
unleashed – usually to gain support for the
war and/or demonize the enemy
• Germany faced an onslaught of negative
propaganda – stemming from their illegal
invasion of Belgium (and treatment of
civilians) – “savages” “barbarians” and
“Huns” were often-used phrases
• Propaganda was used to sell war bonds,
persuade volunteers/recruits and to
demonize the enemy (justify the war effort)
• Germany (and Adolf Hitler) would learn the
lessons of “winning the propaganda war” at
home and utilize it effectively in WWII
• The propaganda that “Germany started
WWI” would be critical in the post-war
agreements & shaping of the post-war world
Propaganda & WWI
• Propaganda was used to stimulate or
revive national morale and damage the
enemy
• Propaganda was used in the church, in
classrooms, in the cinema, in music halls,
in postcards, in cartoons, in porcelain
figures, in jigsaw puzzles, children’s toys,
and even in Christmas decorations
• Example: Christmas scene that had a
trench scene with a tank
The following posters are divided into
three parts:
• Propaganda symbols
• The use of the soldier on the battlefront as a
universal propaganda image.
• The home-front, especially the evolution in the
portrayal of women.
Propaganda Symbols
• Identify and vilify the enemy.
• Glorify the Allies
• Portrayal of Women as Victims.
Britain 1917
Artist: David Wilson
USA
1917
One last effort & we will get them.
Artist: Unknown
France 1917
USA
1918
Sottoscrivete al Prestito
Subscribe for the Loan
Artist: Giovanni
Capranesi
Italy 1917
Canada
1918
Liberation Loan France 1918
The use of the soldier on the
battlefront
• Defender of Civilization
• Heroes
• One who always does his duty despite
hardships.
They Shall Not
Pass
France
1918
We Will Get
Them
France 1916
Zeichnet 7. Kriegsanleihe - Wiener Kommerzialbank
Translation: Subscribe for the 7th War Loan
Alfred Offner 1917 - Germany
Canada
1917
Offering the Army
and Navy
Germany 1916
For The Supreme
Effort
France 1915
USA
1917
THE HOME-FRONT
• Evolution in the portrayal of women.
–Shifted from one of women as victims
to a more positive image:
• As care givers.
• Factory workers in jobs formerly held
by men.
USA
1918
USA
1918
USA 1918
The Frenchwoman in WarTime.
Artist: G. Capon - France
1917
Censorship
• British journalists were expelled from
France in August 1914
• Official Press Bureau allowed only six war
correspondents
• Persuaded writers, artists, and
intellectuals to publish materials in
support of the war: Rudyard Kipling, Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy, and
HG Wells
Propaganda and Censorship
• News was tightly controlled-censorship
• Reports aimed to:
–Maintain morale
–Encourage civilians to support the war
effort
–Create hatred and suspicion of the
enemy
• Newspapers, radio broadcasts, films and
even board games were used
The Home Front and Censorship
• Censorship
– Not told about high
death toll
– Romanticized the
battlefields
“soldiers have died a
beautiful death, in noble
battle, we shall
rediscover poetry…epic
and chivalrous”
Censorship
• Censorship
“Newspapers described
troops as itching to go
over the top.”
“Government reported to
the press that life in the
trenches promoted good
health and clear air”
Propaganda and Censorship
• The film, The Battle of the Somme, was
filmed in 1916
• The Battle was a disaster for the British
Army
–Failed objectives
–Enormous causalities
• What can the film tell an historian about
the use of propaganda in WW1?
BATTLE OF THE SOMME
MOVIE
• For the first time the home
front in Britain was exposed
to the horrors of modern war
with the release of the
propaganda film, The Battle of
the Somme which used actual
footage from the first days of
the battle.
• The film spanned five reels
and lasted 63 minutes .
• It was first screened on 10
August, 1916, while the battle
was still raging.
• On 21 August the film began
showing simultaneously in 34
London cinemas.
Battle of the Somme Video Clips:
http://www.encyclomedia.com/videobattle_of_the_somme.html#moretext
Battle of the Somme Film
• Created by Malins and
McDowell- who were sent to
the British Fourth Army to do
some general filming.
• Ended up turning into a
documentary of the Somme
offensive.
• On July 1, Malins filmed the
famous scene of the explosion
of a large British mine under the
German Hawthorn Redoubt.
Battle of the Somme Film
• The film caused awarenessmost notably from some
faked scenes of men falling
dead and wounded.
• Led to the establishment of
the War Office Cinema
Committee in November
1916.
• Eventually war films were
replaced with newsreels.
SOMME MOVIE CONT…
• The film was screened for British
soldiers at rest in France where it
provided new recruits with some idea
of what they were about to face.
•
Soldier's main complaint was failure
of film to capture sounds of battle.
However, as a silent film, the titles
could be remarkably forthright,
describing images of injury and death.
• The film was shown to British public as
a morale booster and was favorably
received.
•
British public's response to film was
enormous with an estimated 20
million tickets being sold in two
months. On this basis, The Battle of
the Somme remains one of the most
successful British films ever.
Effects of the Battle of the Somme
• The film, The Battle of the Somme, is
seen by historians as a propaganda
triumph
• People at home felt they could see how
their efforts were helping the troops
• Although it showed some casualties, it
also showed advancing troops, helping
morale
Propaganda and Censorship
• The film, Britain’s Effort,
was created in 1917
• What was its purpose?
Propaganda and Censorship
• It is hard to measure how effective
propaganda was
• BUT
–Support for the war was reasonably
constant
• Only really changed with the enormous
causalities at the Battle of the Somme in
1916
–People read lots of newspapers, and
watched the films, so they were being
exposed to it
Effects of Propaganda
• The Parliamentary Recruiting Committee (PRC)
eventually printed almost 6 million posters and
over 14 million leaflets at a total cost of
£24,000.
• For every PRC leaflet produced in 1914-1915, at
least ten had been produced by the three main
political parties during the 1910 election
campaigns.
• Propaganda was certainly not the most
significant factor in Germany’s defeat.
The Brown Family’s Four War Christmas
• What is happening in each
frame?
• Explain why these things are
happening, based on what you
know about life on the Home
Front
Women
and the
War
Effort
Key points
Before the war, the most common
employment for a woman was as a
domestic servant.
However, women
were also employed in what were
seen to be suitable occupations e.g.
teaching, nursing, office work.
Key points
When war broke out in August 1914,
thousands of women were sacked
from jobs in dressmaking, millinery
and jewellery making.They needed
work – and they wanted to help the
war effort.
Key points
Suffragettes stopped all militant
action in order to support the war
effort.
Obstacles They Still Faced
• In 1914, Dr. Elsie Inglis offered to raise an
ambulance unit to help the wounded
soldiers. She was told by the Ministry of
War…”My good lady, go home and sit
still.”
• But despite this view, women played a
vital role in winning the war.
Key points
At first, there was much trade union
opposition and the employment of
women had not increased
significantly before the summer of
1915.
In July 1915, a ‘Right to
Work’ ,march was organised by a
leading suffragette, Christabel
Pankhurst.
Key points
The introduction of conscription in
1916 led to an increase in the
number of women employed in all
sectors of the economy.
“War Girls” by Jessie Pope
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There’s the girl who clips your ticket for the train,
And the girl who speeds the lift from floor to floor,
There’s the girl who does a milk-round in the rain,
And the girl who calls for orders at your door.
Strong, sensible, and fit,
They’re out to show their grit,
And tackle jobs with energy and knack.
No longer caged and penned up.
They’re going to keep their end up
Till the khaki soldier boys come marking back.
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“War Girls” continued
There’s the motor girl who drives a heavy van,
There’s the butcher girl who brings your joint of meat,
There’s the girl who cries ‘All fares, please!’ like a man,
And the girl who whistles taxis up the street.
Beneath each uniform
Beats a heart that’s soft and warm,
Though of a canny mother-wit they show no lack;
But a solemn statement that is,
They’ve no time for love and kisses
Till the khaki boys come marching back.
War on the Home Front
Women in War
• Millions of men at battle
• Work on home front done by women
– Some worked in factories, producing war supplies
– Others served as nurses to wounded
• Contributions of women
– Transformed public views of women
– Helped women win right to vote
Women on the Home Front
• Women took war
factory jobs
• Received lower
wages than males
• Food shortages
made running a
household difficult
Women and Jobs
• Women were asked to
take over jobs that had
not been available to
them before
• Women were employed
in jobs that had once
been considered beyond
their capacity.
• Jobs included:
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Chimney Sweeps
Truck Drivers
Farm laborers
Factory workers
Key points
Many women were paid good wages,
especially in munitions factories, but
in most cases they were paid lower
rates than men.
Improved wages did permit greater
independence for some women.
Key points
Women became more visible in the
world of work. They were seen to be
doing important jobs.
Women and Work
• The place of
women in the
workforce was far
from secure
• Both men and
women expected
that many of the
new jobs were
only temporary
• This was evident
in the British
poem “War Girls”
written in 1916
• “There’s the girl who clips your ticket
for the train,
• And the girl who speeds the lift from
floor to floor,
• There’s the girl who calls for orders at
your door.
• Strong, sensible, and fit.
• They’re out to show their frit.
• And tackle jobs with energy and
knack.
• No longer caged and penned up,
They’re going to keep their end up
• Till the khaki soldier boys come
marching back.”
Women and Work
• At the end of the war,
governments would
quickly remove women
from the jobs they had
encouraged them to take
earlier
• The work benefits for
women from World War
One were short-lived
• By 1919, there would be
650,000 unemployed
women in Great Britain
• Wages for women who
were still employed were
also then lowered
• In some countries, the role
women played in wartime
economies had a positive impact
on the women’s movement
• The most obvious effects was the
right to vote given to women in
Germany, Austria, and the USA
immediately after the war
• In Britain, women over the age of
30 were given the right to vote
and be elected to Parliament in
1918
• Many upper and middle class
women gained new freedoms as
their young women took jobs, got
their own apartments, and
became independent
Upper and Middle Class Women
• Women’s Police Service
• Women’s Patrols Committee of
the Nation Union of Women
Workers
• Women’s Emergency Corp
• Women’s Volunteer Rescue
• Queen Alexandra’s Imperial
Military Nursing Service
• Territorial Force Nursing Service
• Voluntary Aid Detachment
(VADs)---74,000 women
• First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
(FANY)
Motor Ambulance Drivers in France 1917
Poster from WWI
calling on women
to do their patriotic
duty by fulfilling
their 'role' in the
home and industry.
Women's Police Volunteers compare
notes with a police constable.
© Imperial War Museum
Q31088
Motor Ambulance Drivers in France 1917
A Woman
Ambulance
Driver
Red
Cross
Nurses
Women in the Army Auxiliary
• Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp (WAAC) was for
working and lower middle class women
– Formed in March 1917
– 41,000 women volunteered
• Women’s Land Army (WLA)
– Opened to all classes
– Formed in March 1917
– 16,000 women
– Paid less than unskilled male agricultural workers
– Overall by end of the war, 260,000 women were farming
and producing food for the soldiers and home front.
Working in
the Fields
• WLA Handbook reminded its members:
• “that they were doing a man’s work, and so
you’re dressed rather like a man, but
remember just because you wear smocks and
breeches, you should take care to behave like a
British girl who expects chivalry and respect
from everyone she meets.”
• The Times in July 1917 described the WLA
women as:
• “the land women, bronzed, freckled, and
splendidly healthy.”
Munitions
Workers
Women in Munitions
• 947,000 women were
employed in munitions work
• 300 lost their lives to TNT
poisoning and from explosions
in the factories
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Munitionettes:
Primarily for lower middle class and working class
Women in worked in the munition factories
Shift work and very long hours
Horrible working conditions: badly ventilated, poorly lit, and
overrun by rats
• One women working in a munitions factory in Lanchashire walked
three miles to and from work, worked 12 hour shifts, and shared a
room with five other women
• Whereas in 1914 there were 212,000 women working in the
munitions industry, by the end of the war it had increased to
950,000.
• Christopher Addison, who succeeded David Lloyd George as
Minister of Munitions, estimated in June, 1917, that about 80 per
cent of all weapons and shells were being produced by women.
• In World War I Britain, about 1 million mostly lower-class
women worked in munitions jobs.
• They were called “munitionettes” or “Tommy’s sister.”
• Unlike nurses, the munitions workers could not profess pacifism
since their work directly contributed to the fighting.
• In fact, in 1918, Scottish women working at a shell factory
raised money and bought a warplane for the air force.
• However, the munitionettes’ main motivation was financial,
contrary to the popular belief that it was patriotic.
• The women found the wages “at first livable and later lucrative.”
• Compared with domestic work, war work “offered escape from
jobs of badly paid drudgery.”
• However, although they earned more than they would have
doing women’s work, the women received nowhere near the
fortunes they had been led to expect when deciding to take war
work.139
• Hazards:
• TNT poisoning
• The chemicals attack the red corpuscles in the
blood and the tissues of organs like the liver
• Their skin became jaundiced due to the toxin and
their skins turned yellow
• They became known as “Canaries”
• Health Effects: loss of memory, sight disorders,
convulsions, delirium, and death
• 109 women died from this
• Hazards Continued:
• The ‘dope’ varnish applied to aircraft
canvas caused many women to collapse
unconscious.
• An explosion at the National Filling
Factory near Leeds killed 35 women in
Dec 1916.
• Other explosions:
–Nottingham July 1918---35 dead
–East London in Jan 1917---69 dead
Edward Skinner, For King and Country (1916)
“Women At Munition Making” by Mary Gabrielle
Collins
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Their hands should minister unto the
flame of life,
Their fingers guide
The rosy teat, swelling with milk,
To the eager mouth of the suckling babe
Or smooth with tenderness
Softly and soothingly,
The heated brow of the ailing child.
Or stray among the curls
Of the boy or girl, thrilling to mother
love.
But now,
Their hands, their fingers
Are coarsened in munition factories.
Their thoughts, which should fly
Like bees among the sweetest mind
flowers,
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Gaining nourishment for the thoughts to be,
Are bruised against the law,
‘Kill, kill.’
They must take part in defacing and destroying
the natural body
Which, certainly during this dispensation
Is the shrine of the spirit.
O God!
Throughout the ages we have seen,
Again and again
Men by thee created
Cancelling each other.
And we have marvelled at the seeming
annihilation
Of Thy work.
But this goes further,
Taints the fountain head,
Mounts like a poison to the Creator’s very heart.
O God!
Must It anew be sacrificed on earth?
• The women working in factories began to play
football during lunch-breaks.
• Teams were formed and on Christmas Day in 1916,
a game took place between Ulverston Munitions
Girls and another group of local women.
• The munitionettes won 11-5.
• Soon afterwards, a game between munitions
factories in Swansea and Newport.
• The Hackney Marshes National Projectile Factory
formed a football team and played against other
factories in London.
•
Blyth Spartans Munition Girls - Munitionette Cup
Winners 1918
• Vaughan Ladies in 1918
Women and girls working at a
Scottish sugar refinery.
© Imperial War Museum
Q28345
“Munition Wages” by Madeline Ida Bedford
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Earning high wages? Yus,
Five quid a week,
A woman, too, mind you,
I calls it dim sweet.
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We’re all here today, mate,
Tomorrow---perhaps dead,
If Fate tumbles on us
And blows up our shed.
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Ye’are asking some questions--But bless yer, here goes:
I spends the whole racket
On good times and clothes.
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Afraid! Are yer kidding?
With money to spend!
Years back I wore tatters,
Now---silk stockings, mi friend!
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Me saving? Elijah!
Yer do think I’m mad.
I’m acting the lady,
But----I ain’t living bad.
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I’ve bracelets and jewellery.
Rings envied by friends;
A sergeant to swank with,
And something to lend.
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I’m having life’s good times.
See ‘ere, it’s like this:
The ‘oof come o’ danger,
A touch-and-go bizz.
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I drive out in taxis,
Do theatres in style.
And this is my verdict--It is jolly worth while.
“Munition Wages” continued
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Worth while for tomorrow
If I’m blown to the sky,
I’ll have repaid mi wages
In death----and pass by.
• What is the message of this poem?
• What does it tell us about the dangers of the
work women did during World War One?
French Women Factory Workers
Working conditions: unionism and pay
• Trade unionism proved to be the second legacy of the
war.
• Female workers had been less unionised than their
male counterparts.
• This was because they tended to do part-time work
and to work in smaller firms (which tended to be less
unionised).
• Also, existing unions were often hostile to female
workers. World War One forced unions to deal with
the issue of women's work.
• The scale of women's employment could no longer be
denied and rising levels of women left unmarried or
widowed by the war forced the hands of the
established unions.
• In addition, feminist pressure on established
unions and the formation of separate
women's unions threatened to destabilise
men-only unions.
• The increase in female trade union
membership from only 357,000 in 1914 to
over a million by 1918 represented an
increase in the number of unionised women
of 160 percent.
• This compares with an increase in the union
membership of men of only 44 percent.
• However, the war did not inflate women's wages.
• Employers circumvented wartime equal pay
regulations by employing several women to
replace one man, or by dividing skilled tasks into
several less skilled stages.
• In these ways, women could be employed at a
lower wage and not said to be 'replacing' a man
directly.
• By 1931, a working woman's weekly wage had
returned to the pre-war situation of being half
the male rate in more industries.
• Germany:
• In World War I, when the expected quick victory
turned to protracted war, German women
entered industrial jobs (about 700,000 in
munitions industries by the end of the war),
• and served as civilian employees in military jobs
in rear areas (medical, clerical, and manual labor;
women trained for jobs in the signal corps late in
the war but never deployed).
• German women won the vote after World War I,
and some kept their jobs in industry.28
German
Women
Factory
Workers
The wartime
employment of
women
became a
staple subject
for humour.
© Imperial War Museum
For
Recruitment
• Women played an important role in
persuading men to join the army.
• In August 1914, Admiral Charles
Fitzgerald founded the Order of the
White Feather.
• This organisation encouraged women
to give out white feathers to young
men who had not joined the army.
• The British Army began publishing posters urging men to
become soldiers.
• Some of these posters were aimed at women.
• One poster said: "Is your Best Boy wearing khaki? If not,
don't you think he should be?"
• Another poster read: "If you cannot persuade him to
answer his country's call and protect you now, discharge
him as unfit."
The Mothers' Union also published a poster.
• It urged its members to tell their sons: "My boy, I don't
want you to go, but if I were you I should go."
• The poster added: "On his return, hearts would beat
high with thankfulness and pride."
• Baroness Emma Orczy founded the Active Service
League, an organisation that urged women to sign
the following pledge: "At this hour of England's
grave peril and desperate need I do hereby pledge
myself most solemnly in the name of my King and
Country to persuade every man I know to offer his
services to the country, and I also pledge myself
never to be seen in public with any man who,
being in every way fit and free for service, has
refused to respond to his country's call."
Financing the War
• Russia:
• During World War I, some Russian women took
part in combat even during the Czarist period.
• These women, motivated by a combination of
patriotism and a desire to escape a drab existence,
mostly joined up dressed as men.
• A few, however, served openly as women. “The
[Czarist] government had no consistent policy on
female combatants.”
• Russia’s first woman aviator was turned down as a
military pilot, and settled for driving and nursing.
• Another pilot was assigned to active duty,
however.32
• The most famous women soldiers were the “Battalion of Death.”
• Its leader, Maria Botchkareva, a 25-year-old peasant girl (with a history of
abuse by men), began as an individual soldier in the Russian army.
• She managed (with the support of an amused local commander) to get
permission from the Czar to enlist as a regular soldier.
• After fighting off the frequent sexual advances and ridicule of her male
comrades, she eventually won their respect – especially after serving with
them in battle.
• Botchkareva’s autobiography describes several horrendous battle scenes in
which most of her fellow soldiers were killed running towards German
machine-gun positions, and one in which she bayoneted a German soldier to
death.
• After two different failed attacks, she spent many hours crawling under
German fire to drag her wounded comrades back to safety, evidently saving
hundreds of lives in the course of her service at the front
• . She was seriously wounded several times but always returned to her unit at
the front after recuperating.
• Clearly a strong bond of comradery existed between her and the male soldiers
of her unit.33
Russian Women Soldiers
• The battalion was formed in extraordinary circumstances, in response to a
breakdown of morale and discipline in the Russian army after three
horrible years of war and the fall of the Czarist government.
• By her own account, Botchkareva conceived of the battalion as a way to
shame the men into fighting (since nothing else was getting them to
fight).
• She argued that “numbers were immaterial, that what was important was
to shame the men and that a few women at one place could serve as an
example to the entire front….[T]he purpose of the plan would be to
shame the men in the trenches by having the women go over the top
first.” The battalion was thus exceptional and was essentially a
propaganda tool.
• As such it was heavily publicized: “Before I had time to realize it I was
already in a photographer’s studio…. The following day this picture
topped big posters pasted all over the city.”
• Bryant wrote in 1918: “No other feature of the great war ever caught the
public fancy like the Death Battalion, composed of Russian women. I
heard so much about them before I left America….”35
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The battalion began with about 2,000 women volunteers and was given equipment,
a headquarters, and several dozen male officers as instructors. Botchkareva did not
emphasize fighting strength but discipline (the purpose of the women soldiers was
sacrificial).
Physical standards for enlistment were lower than for men.
She told the women, “We are physically weak, but if we be strong morally and
spiritually we will accomplish more than a large force.”
She was preoccupied with upholding the moral standards and upright behavior of
her “girls.”
Mostly, she emphasized that the soldiers in her battalion would have to follow
traditional military discipline, not elect committees to rule as the rest of the army
was doing.
“I did not organize this Battalion to be like the rest of the army. We were to serve as
an example, and not merely to add a few babas [women] to the ineffective millions
of soldiers now swarming over Russia.”
When most of the women rebelled against her harsh rule, Botchkareva stubbornly
rejected pleas from Kerensky and others – including direct orders from military
superiors – to allow formation of a committee.
Instead she reorganized the remaining 300 women who stayed loyal to her, and
brought them to the front, fighting off repeated attacks by Bolsheviks along the way.
The battalion had new uniforms, a full array of war equipment, and 18 men to serve
them (two instructors, eight cooks, six drivers, and two shoemakers).36
• Other women’s battalions were formed in several other cities – apparently less
than 1,000 women in all – but they suffered from a variety of problems, ranging
from poor discipline to a lack of shoes and uniforms.
• These other units never saw combat.
• There was not another offensive before the Bolsheviks took power in October
and sent most of the women soldiers home, telling them “to put on female
attire.”39
• The Battalion of Death, then, never tested an all-female unit’s effectiveness in
combat.
• Nonetheless, on one day in 1917, 300 women did go over the top side by side
with 400 male comrades, advanced, and overran German trenches.
• The women apparently were able to keep functioning in the heat of battle, and
were able to adhere to military discipline.
• These women were, of course, an elite sample of the most war-capable women
in all of Russia.
• Nonetheless, they did it – advanced under fire, retreated under fire, and helped
provide that crucial element of leadership by which other nearby units were
spurred into action, overcoming the inertia of fatigue and committee rule.
• The Battalion of Death did this not as scattered individual women but as a
coherent military unit of 300 women – instructed by Botchkareva that “they were
40
Spies
 “Mata Hari”
 Real Name:
Margareetha
Geertruide
Zelle
 German Spy!
After the War
1
Women were expected to give way to men returning from
the forces and return to pre-war ‘women’s work’.
2 The assumption that ‘a woman’s place is in the home’
returned.
3 The percentage of women at work returned to pre-war
levels.
4 More women than before worked in offices.
After the War
5 Shorter skirts and hair became fashionable.
6 Women went out with men without a chaperone.
7 Women smoked and wore make-up in public for
the first time.
8 In 1919: being female or married was no longer
allowed to disqualify someone from holding a job
in the professions or civil service.
Internment of Enemy Aliens
• On October 22, 1914, in response to press campaigns
calling for the round up of enemies at large on the home
front, the British Cabinet ordered the arrest of unnaturalized male Germans, Austrians, and Hungarians
between the ages of 17 and 45.
• Internment camps were set up all over the mainland and
on the Isle of Man.
• But this was not enough, and after the sinking of the
Lusitania, the press called for more.
• Propagandists like Horatio Bottomley lashed out at the
local Germans.
• The press campaigns incited riots and looting of German
shops and property in Britain.
Horatio Bottomley wrote:
• “I call for a vendetta---a vendetta against every German in Britain---whether
naturalized or not…You cannot naturalize an unnatural abortion, a hellish freak.
But you can exterminate him.
• We have been very patient---patient with the Government, patient with the
enemy…thousands and thousands of German savages are roaming at large in our
midst---and all the time our brave and honourable soldiers are being asphyxiated
in the trenches; our wounded are tortured; prisoners are being starved and
insulted; unfortified towns are being bombarded; peaceful civilians---old men,
women, and children---are being murdered; trawlers and merchant vessels are
being sunk; and now comes the crowning infamy of the Lusitania…
• I should welcome the formation of a National Council of Righteous Retribution---a
National Vendetta, pledged to exterminate every German-born man (God, forgive
the term!) in Britain---and to deport every German-born woman and child…
• As regards, naturalized Germans they should be registered, made to report
themselves every day, and compelled to wear a distinctive badge.”
• In John Bull on May 15, 1915
The Alien Presence
• Many precautions were taken against aliens--resident foreigners even though they posed
little threat to national security
• There were 35,000 Germans in Britain---the
third largest immigrant group after the Irish
and the Jews
• The German immigrants became the object of
public suspicion and attack due to the
imperial struggles in South Africa and the
more recent naval arms race and spies scare
“The Half-Man” by William Watson
•
•
•
•
Sparing not age, sparing not youth,
They tore their way with wolfish tooth
Through human homes, through human hopes:
Not men, not men, but lycanthropes!
•
•
•
•
Thus do not the fabled monsters rear
Their heads anew; thus reappear
Old Shapes that free us and appal;
And the Half-Man is worst of all.
Internment
• Distinguished men with German connections
were hounded by the press---even Lord
Haldane, simply because he had been partly
educated in Germany.
• He had been Minister for War until 1912, remodelled the army and founded the
Territorials.
• Yet he was victimized by the press until a
formation of a coalition government in May
1915, when he was removed from office.
The Alien Presence
• The spy scare continued until 1915 with many
people caught up in wild rumors and false
accusations
• The Daily Mail advised its readers that if a waiter
serving them appeared German, but claimed Swiss,
they should demand to see his passport
• Because of the fear of spies using carrier pigeons,
the DORA required owners to have a permit for
homing pigeons
• In reality, some 22 known German spies were
rounded up in 1914, and 11 were executed
The Alien Presence
• However, the public increasingly demanded the
internment of aliens
• This led to 30,000 interned mostly on the Isle of
Man under the Alien Restrictions Act of August
1914
• Fueled by many stories of German atrocities in
Belgium and elsewhere, actual or supposed
Germans were subjected to harassment
• There were at least 7 deaths in the East End riots in
May 1915 following the torpedoing of the Lusitania
• Even dachshunds, the Germanically named dogs,
The Alien Presence
• Air raid by the zeppelins also increased anti-German
feelings
• They even went after people with German
surnames who had lived in the area for generations
and had Cockney accents
• There were large scale demonstrations against
enemy aliens in a number of cities in 1918
• And a petition was signed with 1.2 million
signatures
• Orchestras began to avoid German composers
• The German measles became known as the Belgian
The Isle of Man
• The Isle of Man was used by the British Government for the
internment of enemy aliens during both World War One
and World War Two and there is still a great deal of
interest, primarily from family historians who had relatives
or friends detained in the camps.
• During 1914-1919 there were two large camps on the
Island at Douglas and Knockaloe near Peel.
• The first was a requisitioned holiday camp whilst the
second was purpose built using prefabricated huts and
even had its own railway link.
• Large numbers of internees were held for up to five years
until the camps finally closed in 1919.
The Alien Presence---Jews
•Jews also came under
physical attack in East
London in 1917 in the
belief that they were
dodging conscription