Home Front World War One

Recruitment

At the beginning of the war the British Army was a small army unlike the German, French and Russian Army. At first the Age was limited to 19 – 30 year olds but later the age was lifted to 35. Recruits were encouraged to sign up with their “pals” (friends form their town and workplace) By the middle of September 1914 over 500,000 men had volunteered their services.

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 organization 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."

Defense of the Realm Act (DORA) On 8th August 1914, the House of Commons passed the Defense of the Realm Act (DORA) without debate. The legislation gave the government executive powers to suppress published criticism, imprison without trial and to commandeer economic resources for the war effort.

During the war publishing information that was calculated to be indirectly or directly of use to the enemy became an offence and accordingly punishable in a court of law. This included any description of war and any news that was likely to cause any conflict between the public and military authorities. Letters written by members of the armed forces to their friends and families were also read and censored by the military authorities.

Alcohol Consumption

The government initially was more concerned about the amount of consumption of alcohol, not by the men, but by the women munitions workers.

In October 1915 the British government announced several measures they believed would reduce alcohol consumption. A No Treating Order laid down that people could not buy alcoholic drinks for other people. Public House opening times were also reduced to noon to 2.30 pm and 6.30 to 9.30 pm. Before the law was changed, public houses could open from 5 am in the morning to pm at night.

Food Rationing Soon after the outbreak of the First World War the German Navy attempted to halt the flow of imports to Britain by introducing unrestricted submarine warfare. By the end of 1916, U-German boats were on average destroying about 300,000 tons of shipping a month.

In February 1917, the German Navy sank 230 ships bringing food and other supplies to Britain. The following month a record 507,001 tons of shipping was lost as a result of the U-boat campaign. However, Britain was successful at increasing food production and the wheat harvest of 1917 was the best in our history.

Potatoes were often in short-supply and sugar was often difficult to get. Whereas the weekly consumption of sugar was 1.49 lb in 1914, it fell to 0.93 lb in The consumption of butchers' meat also dropped from an average of 2.36 to 1.53 lb a week during this period. At the end of 1917 people began to fear that the country was running out of food.

Panic buying led to shortages and so in January 1918, the Ministry of Food decided to introduce rationing. Sugar was the first to be rationed and this was later followed by butchers' meat. The idea of rationing food was to guarantee supplies, not to reduce consumption. This was successful and official figures show that the intake of calories almost kept up to the pre-war level.

One Person's Weekly Food Allowance 4oz (113g)lard or butter 12oz (340g)Sugar 4oz (113g)Bacon 2eggs 6oz (170g)Meat 2oz (57g)Tea

Women's Role

World War One was to give women the opportunity to show a male-dominated society that women could do more than simply bring up children and tend a home. In World War One, women played a vital role in keeping soldiers equipped with ammunition and in many senses they kept the nation moving through their help in manning the transport system.

With so many young men volunteering to join the army, and with so many casualties in Europe, a gap was created in employment and women were called on to fill these gaps. World War One was to prove a turning point for women. At the start in August 1914, those in political power had been left angered by the activities of the Suffragettes and women had no political power whatsoever.

By the end of the war, in November 1918, women had proved that they were just as important to the war effort as men had been and in 1918 women were given some form of political representation.

Women found employment in transport (the rail lines and driving buses and trams), nursing, factories making ammunition, the Women's Royal Air Force where they worked on planes as mechanics, on farms in the Women's Land Army, in shipyards etc. Before 1914, these jobs had been for men only (with the exception of nursing).

Evacuation When the war began in September 1939 the government knew that large cities would be the target for German bombs and that casualties would be high. Evacuation was introduced to move school children, teachers, mothers with children under the age of five and disabled people out of the cities to the countryside where there was little risk of bombing raids.

Evacuation was voluntary and the government expected more than 3 million people to take advantage of the scheme. However, by the end of September 1939 only 1.5 million people had been evacuated and most of those returned to their homes when there were no bombing raids. When the Battle of Britain and the Blitz began in 1940, evacuation was re- introduced.

The children to be evacuated assembled in the school playground. They all wore name tags and had to carry their gas mask as well as their belongings. After saying goodbye to their parents they traveled by train or by coach to their destination where they met the people who were to house them. Most of those evacuated had no idea what their life as an evacuee would be like nor when they would see their parents again.

Spanish Influenza At the start 1919 soldiers on the western front were becoming sick. The soldiers complained of a sore throat, headaches and a loss of appetite By the summer of 1918 it had spread to he German army. The virus created serious problems for the German military leadership as they found it impossible to replace their sick and dying soldiers. The infection had already reached Germany and over 400,000 civilians died of the disease in 1918.

It has been estimated that throughout the world over 70 million people died of the influenza pandemic. In India alone, more people died of influenza than were killed all over the world during the entire First World War.

Spraying

Sources n_in_world_war_one.htm ps.htm e_front.htm