THE EMERGENCE OF “TOTAL” WAR
Many historians call the First World War the first “total
war” for these reasons:
1. Industrial warfare by huge conscript armies demanded
the reorganization of the whole economy.
2. Combat became utterly terrifying, with a killing zone
over 5 miles deep; “shell shock” became a major
source of casualties.
3. Massive propaganda campaigns demonized the enemy
in each country.
4. Hunger blockades, bombardments, and anti-partisan
actions broke down the distinction between
combatants & noncombatants.
The war’s outbreak caused strange rejoicing:
Citizens of Paris on 2 August 1914
Soldiers in Berlin march toward Paris, 2 August 1914
Munich’s Odeon Square, August 1, 1914: “I fell down on my
knees and thanked Heaven for granting me the good fortune
of being permitted to live at this time.” (Mein Kampf, p. 161)
THE GROWTH OF MILITARY FIREPOWER, 1815-1914
ARMIES AT WATERLOO,
1815:
70,000 men each under
Napoleon & Wellington,
fighting on a 1.5-mile front
Smooth-bore muskets
FIREARMS:
RANGE: 150 yards
RATE OF FIRE: 2 rounds
per minute
3 cannon per 1,000 men,
firing solid shot or canister
RANGE: ½ mile for shot,
ARTILLERY:
150 yards for canister
RATE OF FIRE: 1 round per
minute
ARMIES AT BATTLE OF THE
MARNE, 1914:
1 million men on each side,
fighting along a
90-mile front
High-powered rifles
RANGE: 1 mile
RATE OF FIRE: 12x per minute
PLUS 2 machine guns per
thousand men;
RATE OF FIRE: 400x per minute
6 cannon per thousand men,
firing high explosive shells
RANGE: 4-10 miles
RATE OF FIRE: 20 rounds per
minute
The German
advance was
halted in the
BATTLE OF
THE MARNE
(Sep. 6-9,
1914)
German war
dead,
Battle of the
Marne
(published in
the French
press)
A German trench on the Western Front, November 1914
Most of the soldier’s time involved trench maintenance
The Western Front: Aerial view of a German trench network
Tsar Nicholas II greets Russian soldiers
departing for the front in early August 1914
Russian troops invade East Prussia, August 1914
The Battle of Tannenberg, East Prussia, August 27-30, 1914:
30,000 Russians killed, 100,000 captured
Russians surrendering at Tannenberg,
August 30, 1914 (published in Germany)
General
Alexander
Samsonov
committed
suicide…
The situation in December 1915
Life in a German dugout in the Argonne Forest in 1915
(posed photograph to reassure the Home Front)
Otto Dix, “The Dugout” (1924)
“A Munitions Factory in Lyons: The Forge” (1917):
Victory demanded that most industrial capacity serve the
war effort, and that women take jobs as
miners, metalworkers, & munitions workers
A Frenchwoman
operates a lathe in a
metalworking factory
German women in a munitions
factory
The British blockade caused widespread hunger in Germany:
“A Warm Lunch for 35¢” (Berlin, 1917)
In February 1915 the U-Boots began to torpedo Allied
merchant vessels around the British Isles without warning;
they usually could not afford to assist the survivors….
The RMS Lusitania passenger liner, with ad
placed by the German embassy in
the New York Times on April 22, 1915.
One German torpedo sank it on May 15,
killing 1,195 of the 1,955 persons aboard.
Fred Spear,
“ENLIST”
(USA, 1915)
“This will make
room for our
colonists”
(1914):
Reports of
German
atrocities in
Belgium
motivated the
British people
to fight
“The Great
European War:
The Great Battle
of the Russian
Hero with the
German Serpent”
(Russia, ca. 1915)
“Destroy This Mad
Brute”
(USA, 1917):
The resumption of
unrestricted U-Boot
warfare brought
America into the war
in April 1917
Erich Maria Remarque
(1898-1970),
born in Osnabrück as
Erich Paul Remark;
he served at the front from
June 26 to July 31, 1917,
when he was severely
wounded by shrapnel.
Photographed here in Davos,
Switzerland, in 1929,
soon after the publication
of All Quiet.
Otto Dix, “War Triptych” (1929-32)