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Changing Attitudes towards the First World War.

At the start of the war the British public was very positive towards the war and thought that it was heroic. The government gave people false hopes and told the public false things like telling the public it would be a quick and easy war and “it will be over by Christmas” . People were dancing in the streets and thousands of  young men were enlisting to fight. This attitude to the war soon changed as people grew bored of it.

.After a few months and the war wasn’t going as people expected and loads of people had died less people were enlisting and in March 1916 people were forced to enlist. As the war went on people were only aloud rations of food because of the import ships being destroyed and food supplies were running low. As the soldiers got bored with the war some of them tried to injure themselves so that they could be sent home. People were missing their families and the soldiers were growing more sick of fighting and risking their lives every day. As the public were receiving letters from the soldiers telling them how bad the conditions were and how they missed them the more they wanted the war to be over and for their family to come home. The longer the war went on the more problems it caused like lack of food and power, so people were forced to have rations. 

The battle of the Somme was supposed to be the battle that won the war for Britain but it was the worst one of all with 400,000 deaths and only a few km gained. The people didn’t know how bad the Battle of the Somme really was until several months later when a film was released showing the true horrors of the battle with all of the dead soldiers and injured uncensored. Peoples attitudes changed immediately and war weariness had set in. The bad tactics of the generals made the battle of the Somme the worst battle for Britain because the German spies had seen the British preparing extra ammunition for the battle so they dug 12’ deep dug outs so that they were hardly affected by the shells. The British soldiers were told to walk across no-mans land without running and enter the German trenches , this shouldn’t have been a problem for the soldiers because the heavy shelling should have killed the Germans but when they got on no mans land the Germans were waiting for the British with machine guns , the generals kept sending more and more men over the top. The pubic learned of all of this and lost their faith in the generals and wasn’t as sure of victory as before. This was the battle that was supposed to win the war for Britain but it was the biggest disaster of the war, the British thought that if they couldn’t beat the Germans then, how could they ever beat them because that was Britains strongest and most expensive attack on the Germans.

2:Attitdudes in the first world war changed for several reasons. The length of the war made the public bored of the war because as the war went on the public started to suffer because of rations and missing their families and friends.

          The tactics of the general staff were very poor in some battles and resulted in many deaths, this made the soldiers and the public lose faith in the generals and weren’t as sure that they were going to win the war. People wanted the war to end and their families to return home before they had to fight and go over the top on to no-mans land where it was almost certain death in many battles.

          The soldiers were less fit and healthy due to the conditions of the trenches. Many soldiers caught diseases such as trench foot because of the poor conditions. Soldiers were  sending letters home to their families about the conditions and the friends they have seen been killed. As the soldiers saw more and more deaths in the trenches they became less willing to fight because they have seen their friends being killed.

          The Battle of the Somme changed many of the soldiers and the publics attitude because of the massive failure of the battle. A film was released showing the public the full horrors of the war for the first time. This made the men not wanting fight because they know what to expect and that they would probably die. This battle changed the attitudes more than any of the other battles because this was the battle that was supposed to win the war for Britain and it was the biggest disaster for the British in the war, the British started to feel if the couldn’t win them then with their strongest  attack how will they ever win them.

          The increasing hardships on the home front made the public feel the affects of the war because of rations and women forced to work to make up the men that are at war. People were missing there families that were fighting at war.

          I think that none of these reasons for the war are more important than each other because they all tie in with each other. The hardships on the home front increased because of the length of the war and food and money was running out, the length of the war was because of the bad tactics of the generals not winning enough battles and the Battle of the Somme was also lost because of the bad tactics of the generals wasting soldiers lives and the conditions in the trenches got worse the longer the soldiers were in them so that was because the length of the war.

3: When the public first head of the war they dancing in the streets and celebrating. The public felt relief that war had finally broken out after months of uncertainty. The attitudes at the start of the war were so positive because of government propaganda. The government made the public think that the war would be an easy victory for Britain without any major problems. The Government put posters up to make people think positive towards the war, they made the public grow to think that the Germans were evil and the right thing to do is stop them. They also made people think that it was heroic to fight for their country , this made thousands of young men enlist to fight the war. The poster made people think that Britain needed them and made them feel guilty if they didn’t help the war effort because they made them feel needed. The posters told people that God was on their side and that the right thing to do was to join the army. People started to feel patriotic and thought that what their country was fighting for was right. Before the posters had been put up most people had already made up their mind because of the heroic image of being a brave soldier with a smart uniform and the thought of attracting pretty girls. For most young men of that generation it would be a once in a life time chance to travel Europe because it was expensive to travel abroad. A lot of men that were fighting in the war had nothing to make them want to stay at home, they had boring jobs that would never get them no where , it seemed to many people that to join the army would be the best option to take. Many factories knew that the war would put big demands on them to make lots of goods for the army and a chance to make lots of money.

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