Exercise II

Gary Sheffield (2002) subtitles his book ‘Myths and Realities’ and Todman uses ‘Myth and Memory’ implying that many of the stories surrounding the war are just untrue or mythological. For reasons noted above he argues that successive generations have cemented these so that they are now viewed as historical fact, whereas the truth about the war, and especially what people thought about it at the time, is very different.

Below are a series of statements about the War. You are asked to indicate whether you think these are true of false. Moreover, when considering your answer it might be interesting to reply based on your knowledge of what most people today ‘think’ is the correct answer.

  1. Britain lost more men, proportionately, than any other nation.
  2. Most men were in the front-line trenches for the majority of their active service.
  3. Field Marshal Earl Haig’s state funeral was probably attended by more people than Princess Diana’s.
  4. Gas was the major killer on the Western Front
  5. British Generals were kept safely away from the battlefields

Answers

FALSE: Casualties amongst British and Empire forces were relatively light in comparison with other combatant nations (though they exceeded British and Empire losses in the Second World War). Considering its population as a whole, Britain lost 16 men for every 1,000 citizens, against 30 in Germany, 34 in France, and 57 in Serbia (Todman, 2005, p. 45). Taken as a whole the Central Powers lost 22% of their military personnel, but at the same time suffered a 22% casualty rate amongst civilians. 80% of Britain’s male population (all ages) did not serve in the armed forces.

FALSE: Trench warfare was not ubiquitous and on other fronts (notably in Mesopotamia and Palestine) there was much more open fighting. Even on the Western Front a typical infantry soldier might only spend one third of their time in front-line trenches. Finally, by the end of the war, nearly a third of the British Expeditionary Force could be defined as non-combatant, i.e. providing the logistics supporting the war effort (pay roll, dock workers, etc), and they rarely saw action (if at all).

TRUE: It is, of course, very difficult to give exact numbers and make such general comparisons. What we can say is that Haig was awarded full state honours at his funeral in 1928. His body lay in state in London and Edinburgh and was attended by hundreds of thousands of mourners. His coffin was paraded through London and watched by thousands more, and across the country individual services were held. Haig was viewed as the General who brought victory by the vast bulk of the population, and after the War had acted as the head of the British Legion working hard to improve the lives of soldiers. Haig’s negative reputation really only began to develop much later.

FALSE: Gas was mainly used to incapacitate troops and official figures only point to 85,000 fatalities across all armies in all sectors. However it did inflict heavy casualties, or long-term illness with over 1m men suffering from its effects during and after the war. Most casualties on the Western Front resulted from artillery bombardments (large and small scale).

FALSE: Although General Head Quarters (GHQ) was removed from the frontline, Generals often did tours to find out the conditions on the ground. 224 British generals were killed or wounded in the War (compared with 21 in World War Two).

 

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