Page 1 of 5

British Civilisation 13: World War One – 1914-1915 © A. SCHOOLING, Collège Vendôme, Lyon (2009)

1. How British people reacted to the outbreak of war

In Britain, the overwhelming1 reaction to the British government’s decision was total confidence

and support for this policy. Britain hadn’t really lost a war since the American colonies defeated

Britain in the eighteenth century. Also, as we have seen, there was a general confidence inspired

by Britain’s economic growth and consequent position in the world. Of course , the reality of 5

modern war was rather different, as the British people would soon find out. But in August 1914,

most men – particularly if they were middle class – had been brought up to believe that their

patriotic duty2 lay in defending the honour of their country, and hundreds of thousands of men

lined up outside recruiting stations to join the armed services. Indeed, very often men were

disappointed when they were told they could not be part of a certain famous regiment because 10

it was already full, and they thought that they would miss out on the fun of beating the ‘Hun’ by Christmas. In

addition to the peer pressure among men, an association called ‘The Order of the White Feather3’ was founded

aiming at4 coercing5 men to enlist6 by persuading women to present them with a white feather if they were not

wearing a uniform. The campaign proved very effective7 and spread throughout many other parts

of the Commonwealth. Anybody whose name sounded German, however, found life very difficult, 15

and even if they were loyal to Britain, they were often persecuted. Indeed, because of the popular

pressure, the royal family decided to change its family name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor!

Apart from this, the government actively encouraged recruitment by using the face of Field

Marshall Kitchener, the man who had been so successful in the Sudan, to promote a new army of

volunteers that would be trained8 and ready for action in 1915 or 1916. 20

2. A World Crisis

When people in France think of the First World War they usually

restrict their interest to the Western Front in northern France. This

was certainly the crucial front by the end of the war, but in fact the

‘Great War,’ as it was known then, included many other parts of 25

the world.

Firstly, some of the very first fighting in the war started in Africa

between British, French and German colonial forces. On August 7th,

French and British invaded German Togoland, and on August 10th, German

South-West African forces attacked British South Africa, and fierce9 fighting 30

continued in Africa throughout the war.

Secondly, the Serbian army began the Battle of Cer on August 12th

against the invading Austrians who were defeated after two weeks of

fighting. As a result, Austria had to keep a large army against the Serbian

border and couldn’t help Germany much against Russia. 35

Thirdly, there was conflict in Asia and the Pacific. New Zealand

occupied German Samoa, which later became Western Samoa, and

the Australians seized part of German New Guinea. Further north,

Japan took Germany’s Micronesian colonies and their Chinese

territories. In the space of just a few months, all the German 40

territories in the Pacific were in Allied hands.

Finally, the Germans put the Schlieffen plan into effect on August

14th. Britain had already sent the British Expeditionary Force (or

BEF) under the command of General Sir John French. The BEF was

Pressure from women for men to enlist

Lord Kitchener, in a series of famous

recruiting posters

Allied countries in green, Central Powers in orange, neutrals in grey

The Naval Brigade, part of the BEF, leave Antwerp, Belgium, in London buses!

West African soldiers prepare to fight

Page 2 of 5

only a small elite force, which Kaiser Wilhelm II famously considered a “contemptible little army”, and the veterans 45

of the war later called themselves ‘The Old Contemptibles’. The first encounter with the Germans was at Mons in

southern Belgium on August 23rd, after which the

British, Belgium and French armies began the Great

Retreat which didn’t stop until the outskirts10 of Paris.

The BEF then participated in the ‘Race to the Sea’, 50

where both the British and the Germans tried to get to

the Channel ports first. This series of battles, which saw

the British secure the continental Channel ports under

their control, was also known as the First Battle of Ypres

after the little town that would become famous for 55

many of the British offensives in the Flanders region on

the Franco-Beligum border11. In four months, the BEF

suffered nearly 90,000 casualties, an enormous

proportion of their best troops; on average, only one

officer and 30 other soldiers remained12 in each of the 60

batallions that orginally contained 1,000 men. Luckily13

more men were arriving all the time to replace those

who died, but it was a period of terrible slaughter14.

Overall15, the French and British forces were eventually

able to halt the German advance which also had 65

problems with its slow horse-drawn supply train16.

Thus, the Schlieffen Plan, which relied on18 speed,

failed17. The most mobile part of the war on the Western Front ended as the winter weather became treacherous19

and the opposing armies dug parallel trenches all the way from the Belgium coast through northern France to

Alsace. The war had become static and a stalemate20

, with two armies fighting a war of attrition21

. 70

Although Germany had great success in Belgium and France, they still had to fight the powerful Russian army.

Although Russia’s initial advance into Austrian Galicia was largely successful, they were driven back from East

Prussia by Hindenburg and Ludendorff at the First Battle of Tannenberg and the

Masurian Lakes in August and September 1914. Russia’s less developed industrial

base and ineffective military leadership was the reason for what happened next. 75

By the spring of 1915, the Russians had retreated, and in May the Central Powers

achieved22 a remarkable breakthrough23 on Poland’s southern borders. On

August 5th, 1915, they captured Warsaw and forced the Russians to withdraw

from24 Poland. This became known as the ‘Great Retreat’ in Russia and the ‘Great

Advance’ in Germany. 80

3. Conflict on the Western Front Although there was fighting here until December 24th, 1914, on Christmas Day there were

many places where opposing forces stopped shooting at each other for the day and

exchanged cigarettes, or even played a football match! Yet when the high commands of the

different armies heard about this, they insisted that this should never happen again... 85

The Western Front would show that with the recent advances in technology

favoured the defenders. Impressive reinforced underground25 bunkers could now

protect most troops from bombardment, and barbed wire26 and machine guns27 were

extremely effective in stopping attackers crossing28 open ground29. In April 1915, the

Germans introduced poison gas (chlorine) against the British and gained six kilometres 90

at what was called the Second Battle of Ypres. Although poison gas became a weapon

BEF movements, Sept.-Oct. 1914

German soldiers on the Eastern Front in winter

British and German soldiers fraternise, Christmas 1914

Trying to survive poison gas in a trench

Page 3 of 5

used by both sides, if the wind suddenly changed, it could often harm the army’s own30 troops! (However,

psychologically, because poison gas killed slowly and painfully31 it was often remembered as one of the worst

aspects of the war.) The British were continually requested to relieve32 the pressure on the French army which had

suffered terribly against the Germans, and in response the British agreed to mount regular offensives. Thus British 95

trenches in Flanders were only intended to33 be temporary until their forces broke through the German defences,

which explains why the British suffered such great

losses.

The technology available34 to the army

developed quickly. In 1914, there were cannons 100

which were positioned in the front line and fired

directly at their targets. However, over the course

of the next couple of years, the Germans

pioneered indirect firing guns that used aircraft or

observation balloons and field35 telephones for spotting36 and ranging37. There were also powerful railway guns, 105

nicknamed ‘Big Berthas’, that could fire shells38 from up to 100 km away! Apart from the big guns, individual

soldiers were equipped with improved rifles39, like the automatic Lewis gun and the Browning automatic rifle, and

some units also had flamethrowers40. This meant that the chance of being killed increased notably from previous41

wars where guns had been used.

The war also took to the air41. Although initially aircraft were mainly used for reconnoitring the enemy lines, 110

anti-aircraft guns and fighter aircraft42 were soon developed to stop this from happening. Airmen responded by

dropping43 grenades on the enemy trenches. However, the Germans used ‘Zeppelins’, big hydrogen- or helium-

filled aircraft that flew almost as fast as contemporary planes, carried many more guns and

bombs, and had a far greater range and endurance. However, their big weakness44 was their

vulnerability to gunfire45. Not only were Zeppelins used on the war fronts and in the North 115

Sea, but they even flew to England. As the boys will discover in April, Zeppelins flew over the

Southend-Westcliff area on several occasions and dropped bombs there, creating panic more

than anything else!

4. The Dardanelles failure The British government was determined to do something to break the 120

stalemate. The young minister in charge of the Navy (whose job was called the

First Lord of the Admiralty) was Winston Churchill. He devised46 a plan to defeat

the Central Powers’ new ally, the Ottoman Empire, (whose troops were being

reorganised by the German military). This plan was to force through the narrow

straits of the Dardanelles that linked the Mediterranean Sea with the Black Sea, 125

and thereby47 to help Russia with arms and other supplies.

In November 1914, Churchill ordered the shelling of Turkish forts by British

ships. At first things seemed quite good, but the Turks guessed what the British

were going to do and started to reinforce their defences and lay mines

throughout the Straits, making it virtually impossible for British ships to enter. 130

Despite two months of fighting hard and losing

many ships like the French battleship the

Bouvet in the process48, the Allied Navy was

unable to silence the Turkish defenders.

However, having sent troops, the British were 135

committed to49 the idea of a British-

Commonwealth force landing on the Gallipoli peninsula and smashing what was

considered to be a much weaker army. Thus, when in April 1915 the British-

Operations on the Gallipoli peninsula

The Bouchet sinks

A ‘Big Bertha’ firing

Turkish fortification of the Dardanelles: forts, minefields and anti-submarine nets

A Zeppelin in an aerial fight

Soldiers using Lewis guns

Page 4 of 5

Commonwealth forces (from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, or ANZAC)

landed on the beaches of the Crimea, the well-organised Turks were in place to 140

prevent them from50 getting to flat51 ground. The British soldiers were either shot on

the beaches or dug themselves into the cliffs52. Eventually, after ten months of

terrible conditions, the survivors were all evacuated and the whole episode was

considered a disaster never to be repeated.

5. The War at Sea 145

As we have already seen, the British fleet was by far the largest in the world and its

strategy was to blocade the German navy so that they would not be able to get out of

the Baltic. It was partly successful, preventing supplies entering Germany. This was

because in August 1914 the Germans had cruisers scattered across globe. Many of

these had some success, for example the Emden which seized or destroyed 15 150

merchant ships53 as well as sinking a Russian cruiser54 and a French destoyer55. The British Royal Navy

systematically hunted them down56 to prevent them from attacking Allied ships transporting the necessary supplies

of food, equipment and troops to and from places in the British Empire.

But the greatest German threat was from submarines. The British was forced to run57 convoys of merchant ships

surrounded by58 their navy. The problem for the British was the success of the 155

German submarines and being able to build enough new vessels59 to take the

increasing60 amount61 of supplies needed by a country at war. In a world without

helicopters, the fate62 of seamen63 whose ships were hit by torpedoes was never

good.

6. The Home Front and ‘total war’ 160

One of the first things the British government did was to pass the Defence of the Realm Act (or DORA – not the

explorer!). This Act gave the government wide-ranging64 powers to requisition buildings or land or to make new

criminal offences. For example, it became illegal to fly a kite65 or light a bonfire, buy binoculars66, feed wild67

animals bread, or discuss naval or military matters68. Censorship69 of the press and soldiers’ and sailors’ letters was

also introduced. Alcoholic drinks were watered down69 and pub opening times were restricted (12 noon to 3 pm 165

and 6.30 to 9.30 pm) which continued in a slightly modified form until 1988!

Another feature of the Home Front was the use of propaganda to divert attention away from70 the war and onto

what was being done to win the war in Britain. Posters were used to influence

people’s decisions about what to eat and what occupations they should be doing;

women were encouraged to work as nurses and in munitions factories71, for 170

example. Indeed, women often replaced men in all sorts of jobs as men joined up72

to fight in one of the armed services. But when General Sir John French blamed the

failure73 of British offensives on the Western Front on the lack74 and quality of shells

a major crisis was felt in Britain in the second half of 1915 and more women became

munitions workers. 175

‘Total war’ is the way the European Powers involved in fighting approached the

war. This means that, unlike traditional wars where there were ‘combatants’ and

‘non-combatants’, everyone was considered part of the war effort. The First World

War engaged every aspect of each country’s activity – human, financial, industrial,

agricultural, military and technological – in an attempt to75 win the war. 180

Encouraging women to help the war effort

An Atlantic convoy

The Emden

ANZAC troops on the rocky beaches

Page 5 of 5

World War One – 1914-1915: Vocabulary Help 1. overwhelming = dominante, écrasante 2. duty = devoir 3. feather = plume 4. to aim at = viser 5. to coerce = exercer des pressions sur 6. to enlist = s’enrôler, s’engager (dans l’armée) 7. effective = efficace 8. to be trained = être formé 9. fierce = violent, féroce 10. the outskirts = la périphérie 11. border = frontière 12. to remain = rester 13. luckily = heureusement 14. slaughter = tuerie 15. overall = en tout, dans l’ensemble 16. supply train = convoi de ravitaillement 17. to rely on = compter sur 18. to fail = échouer 19. treacherous = traître 20. stalemate = impasse 21. attrition = usure 22. to achieve = obtenir 23. breakthrough = percée 24. to withdraw from = se retirer de 25. underground = souterrains 26. barbed wire = des barbelés 27. machine guns = des mitrailleuses 28. to cross = traverser 29. open ground = un terrain à découvert 30. own = propre 31. painfully = douloureusement 32. to relieve = faire baisser, soulager 33. to be intended to = viser à, être prévu que 34. available = disponible 35. field = de campagne 36. spotting = la reconnaissance 37. ranging = repérer la distance 38. shells = des obus

39. rifles = des fusils 40. flamethrowers = des lance-flames 41. to take to the air = s’étendre au ciel 42. fighter aircraft = avions de chasse 43. to drop = lâcher, faire tomber 44. weakness = faiblesse 45. gunfire = les coups de feu, la fusillade 46. to devise = concevoir 47. thereby = ainsi 48. in the process = en même temps 49. to be committed to = s’engager à 50. to prevent sb. from = empêcher qqn. de 51. flat = plat 52. cliffs = falaises 53. merchant ships = navires marchands 54. cruiser = croiseur 55. destroyer = contretorpilleur, destroyer 56. to hunt down = traquer, dénicher 57. to run = organiser 58. surrounded by = entourés de 59. vessels = vaisseaux 60. increasing = de plus en plus 61. amount = quantité 62. fate = le sort, le destin 63. seamen = marins 64. wide-ranging = de grande envergure 65. a kite = un cerf-volant 66. binoculars = des jumelles 67. wild = sauvage 68. matters = des questions 69. to water down = couper qqch. d’eau 70. to divert away from = détourner de 71. munitions factories = des usines de munitions 72. to join up = s’engager (dans l’armée) 73. failure = échec 74. lack = manque 75. in an attempt to = pour tenter de