How were civilians affected by World War 1?

1
How were civilians affected by World War 1?

• Aim To revise key details about the British
  Home Front during the First World War

2
Total War

• What was the Total War?
• A war where the countries drafts all the people
  and collects all resources that they can.
• When did this war take place?
• Around 1916
• Where did it take place?
• Europe
• Why did the Total War occur?
• The war turned into a Total War because the
  countries expected the war to be short so they
  werent prepared for long term war, when their
  supplies ran out, total war was their only
  option.
• What was the significance of the war?
• WWI turned into a Total War which affected the
  home front and government a lot.
• It affected women too because with the absence of
  men they were expected to take over more jobs and
  help out with the war effort.
• They received the rights to new jobs, to vote,
  and the right to apartments.

3
WWI on the Home Front

• WWI was a Total War required populations on
  the home front to mobilize their resources
  completely toward the war effort civilian
  population centers also became targets of the war
  effort not since the US Civil War the
  Napoleonic Wars had the world seen such complete
  mobilization for war
• Mass conscription was carried out by all nations
  most European nations had armies of 1-2 million
  eventually over 70 million would be drafted
  worldwide many women would volunteer services
  as nurses at home the front
• Entire economies were geared toward war
  production led to rationing of all sorts of
  essentials as raw materials agricultural
  products were utilized to feed the war machine
  led to increased centralization govt control
  of economies
• WWI saw an increase in restrictions of civil
  liberties the press was censored as was speech
  mail due process of law was suspended for
  those suspected of treason German books were
  burned, speaking German was banned lynchings of
  German-Brits were interned in Britain and its
  colonies
• Women played an important role in the war effort
  taking up jobs as men were sent to the home
  front over 35 of the workforce was women in
  many European nations during the war

4
War on the Home Front
5
DORA

• Newspapers and radio broadcasts were censored
• The government could control what people heard
  about the war
• This made sure the public continued to support
  the war effort by only hearing good things

6
Propaganda

• What is this?
• These were ideas spread around to influence
  public opinions or to go against a cause. It is a
  method that the government used to create
  enthusiasm for the war also.
• When did this occur?
• August 1914
• Where did this take place?
• In Europe
• Who used propaganda?
• The European government
• What is the significance of using propaganda?
• They used it because before the wars it stirred
  up national hatreds.

7
WW I Propaganda - The Poster War

• Propaganda - the spreading of ideas, information,
  or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring
  an institution, a cause, or a person.
• A deliberate attempt to influence individuals by
  leading one to behave as though his response
  were his own decision.
• In war, its used as an instrument for
  maintaining unity, good will and a common
  purpose
• Maintaining and boosting the morale of soldiers.
• Unifying society at home in support of the war
  effort.

8
Propaganda WWI

• WWI was one of the 1st wars in which a massive
  propaganda campaign was unleashed usually to
  gain support for the war and/or demonize the
  enemy
• Germany faced an onslaught of negative
  propaganda stemming from their illegal invasion
  of Belgium (and treatment of civilians)
  savages barbarians and Huns were often-used
  phrases
• Propaganda was used to sell war bonds, persuade
  volunteers/recruits and to demonize the enemy
  (justify the war effort)
• Germany (and Adolf Hitler) would learn the
  lessons of winning the propaganda war at home
  and utilize it effectively in WWII
• The propaganda that Germany started WWI would
  be critical in the post-war agreements shaping
  of the post-war world

9

• Propaganda was used to stimulate or revive
  national morale and damage the enemy
• Propaganda was used in the church, in classrooms,
  in the cinema, in music halls, in postcards, in
  cartoons, in porcelain figures, in jigsaw
  puzzles, childrens toys, and even in Christmas
  decorations
• Example Christmas scene that had a trench scene
  with a tank

10
The following posters are divided into three
parts

• Propaganda symbols
• The use of the soldier on the battlefront as a
  universal propaganda image.
• The home-front, especially the evolution in the
  portrayal of women.

11
Propaganda Symbols

• Identify and vilify the enemy.
• Glorify the Allies
• Portrayal of Women as Victims.

12
Britain 1917 Artist David Wilson
13
USA 1917
14
One last effort we will get them. Artist
Unknown France 1917
15
USA 1918
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Sottoscrivete al Prestito Subscribe for the
Loan Artist Giovanni Capranesi Italy 1917
17
Canada 1918
18
Liberation Loan France 1918
19
The use of the soldier on the battlefront

• Defender of Civilization
• Heroes
• One who always does his duty despite hardships.

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They Shall Not Pass France 1918
21
We Will Get Them France 1916
22
Zeichnet 7. Kriegsanleihe - Wiener
Kommerzialbank Translation Subscribe for the 7th
War Loan Alfred Offner 1917 - Germany
23
Canada 1917
24
Offering the Army and Navy Germany 1916
25
For The Supreme Effort France 1915
26
USA 1917
27
THE HOME-FRONT

• Evolution in the portrayal of women.
• Shifted from one of women as victims to a more
  positive image
• As care givers.
• Factory workers in jobs formerly held by men.

28
USA 1918
29
USA 1918
30
USA 1918
31
The Frenchwoman in War-Time. Artist G. Capon -
France 1917
32
Censorship

• British journalists were expelled from France in
  August 1914
• Official Press Bureau allowed only six war
  correspondents
• Persuaded writers, artists, and intellectuals to
  publish materials in support of the war Rudyard
  Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy,
  and HG Wells

33
Propaganda and Censorship

• News was tightly controlled-censorship
• Reports aimed to
• Maintain morale
• Encourage civilians to support the war effort
• Create hatred and suspicion of the enemy
• Newspapers, radio broadcasts, films and even
  board games were used

34
The Home Front and Censorship

• Censorship
• Not told about high death toll
• Romanticized the battlefields
• soldiers have died a beautiful death, in noble
  battle, we shall rediscover poetryepic and
  chivalrous

35
Censorship

• Censorship
• Newspapers described troops as itching to go
  over the top.
• Government reported to the press that life in
  the trenches promoted good health and clear air

36
Propaganda and Censorship

• The film, The Battle of the Somme, was filmed in
  1916
• The Battle was a disaster for the British Army
• Failed objectives
• Enormous causalities
• What can the film tell an historian about the use
  of propaganda in WW1?

37
BATTLE OF THE SOMME MOVIE

• For the first time the home front in Britain was
  exposed to the horrors of modern war with the
  release of the propaganda film, The Battle of the
  Somme which used actual footage from the first
  days of the battle.
• The film spanned five reels and lasted 63 minutes
  .
• It was first screened on 10 August, 1916, while
  the battle was still raging.
• On 21 August the film began showing
  simultaneously in 34 London cinemas.

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Battle of the Somme Video Clips
http//www.encyclomedia.com/video-battle_of_the_so
mme.htmlmoretext
39
Battle of the Somme Film

• Created by Malins and McDowell- who were sent to
  the British Fourth Army to do some general
  filming.
• Ended up turning into a documentary of the Somme
  offensive.
• On July 1, Malins filmed the famous scene of the
  explosion of a large British mine under the
  German Hawthorn Redoubt.

40
Battle of the Somme Film

• The film caused awareness- most notably from some
  faked scenes of men falling dead and wounded.
• Led to the establishment of the War Office Cinema
  Committee in November 1916.
• Eventually war films were replaced with
  newsreels.

41
SOMME MOVIE CONT

• The film was screened for British soldiers at
  rest in France where it provided new recruits
  with some idea of what they were about to face.
• Soldier's main complaint was failure of film to
  capture sounds of battle. However, as a silent
  film, the titles could be remarkably forthright,
  describing images of injury and death.
• The film was shown to British public as a morale
  booster and was favorably received.
• British public's response to film was enormous
  with an estimated 20 million tickets being sold
  in two months. On this basis, The Battle of the
  Somme remains one of the most successful British
  films ever.

42
Effects of the Battle of the Somme

• The film, The Battle of the Somme, is seen by
  historians as a propaganda triumph
• People at home felt they could see how their
  efforts were helping the troops
• Although it showed some casualties, it also
  showed advancing troops, helping morale

43
Propaganda and Censorship

• The film, Britains Effort, was created in 1917
• What was its purpose?

44
Propaganda and Censorship

• It is hard to measure how effective propaganda
  was
• BUT
• Support for the war was reasonably constant
• Only really changed with the enormous causalities
  at the Battle of the Somme in 1916
• People read lots of newspapers, and watched the
  films, so they were being exposed to it

45
Effects of Propaganda

• The Parliamentary Recruiting Committee (PRC)
  eventually printed almost 6 million posters and
  over 14 million leaflets at a total cost of
  24,000.
• For every PRC leaflet produced in 1914-1915, at
  least ten had been produced by the three main
  political parties during the 1910 election
  campaigns.
• Propaganda was certainly not the most significant
  factor in Germanys defeat.

46
The Brown Familys Four War Christmas

• What is happening in each frame?
• Explain why these things are happening, based on
  what you know about life on the Home Front

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Womenand theWarEffort
50
Key points Before the war, the most common
employment for a woman was as a domestic
servant. However, women were also employed in
what were seen to be suitable occupations
e.g. teaching, nursing, office work.
51
Key points When war broke out in August
1914, thousands of women were sacked from jobs in
dressmaking, millinery and jewellery making.They
needed work and they wanted to help the war
effort.
52
Key points Suffragettes stopped all
militant action in order to support the
war effort.
53
Obstacles They Still Faced

• In 1914, Dr. Elsie Inglis offered to raise an
  ambulance unit to help the wounded soldiers.
  She was told by the Ministry of WarMy good
  lady, go home and sit still.
• But despite this view, women played a vital role
  in winning the war.

54
Key points At first, there was much trade
union opposition and the employment of women had
not increased significantly before the summer
of 1915. In July 1915, a Right to Work ,march
was organised by a leading suffragette,
Christabel Pankhurst.
55
Key points The introduction of conscription in
1916 led to an increase in the number of women
employed in all sectors of the economy.
56
War Girls by Jessie Pope

• Theres the girl who clips your ticket for the
  train,
• And the girl who speeds the lift from floor to
  floor,
• Theres the girl who does a milk-round in the
  rain,
• And the girl who calls for orders at your door.
• Strong, sensible, and fit,
• Theyre out to show their grit,
• And tackle jobs with energy and knack.
• No longer caged and penned up.
• Theyre going to keep their end up
• Till the khaki soldier boys come marking back.

57
War Girls continued

• Theres the motor girl who drives a heavy van,
• Theres the butcher girl who brings your joint of
  meat,
• Theres the girl who cries All fares, please!
  like a man,
• And the girl who whistles taxis up the street.
• Beneath each uniform
• Beats a heart thats soft and warm,
• Though of a canny mother-wit they show no lack
• But a solemn statement that is,
• Theyve no time for love and kisses
• Till the khaki boys come marching back.

58
War on the Home Front

• Women in War
• Millions of men at battle
• Work on home front done by women
• Some worked in factories, producing war supplies
• Others served as nurses to wounded
• Contributions of women
• Transformed public views of women
• Helped women win right to vote

59
Women on the Home Front

• Women took war factory jobs
• Received lower wages than males
• Food shortages made running a household difficult

60
Women and Jobs

• Women were asked to take over jobs that had not
  been available to them before
• Women were employed in jobs that had once been
  considered beyond their capacity.
• Jobs included
• Chimney Sweeps
• Truck Drivers
• Farm laborers
• Factory workers

61
Key points Many women were paid good wages,
especially in munitions factories, but in most
cases they were paid lower rates than
men. Improved wages did permit greater
independence for some women.
62
Key points Women became more visible in the
world of work. They were seen to be doing
important jobs.
63
Women and Work

• Theres the girl who clips your ticket for the
  train,
• And the girl who speeds the lift from floor to
  floor,
• Theres the girl who calls for orders at your
  door.
• Strong, sensible, and fit.
• Theyre out to show their frit.
• And tackle jobs with energy and knack.
• No longer caged and penned up, Theyre going to
  keep their end up
• Till the khaki soldier boys come marching back.

• The place of women in the workforce was far from
  secure
• Both men and women expected that many of the new
  jobs were only temporary
• This was evident in the British poem War Girls
  written in 1916

64
Women and Work

• At the end of the war, governments would quickly
  remove women from the jobs they had encouraged
  them to take earlier
• The work benefits for women from World War One
  were short-lived
• By 1919, there would be 650,000 unemployed women
  in Great Britain
• Wages for women who were still employed were also
  then lowered

• In some countries, the role women played in
  wartime economies had a positive impact on the
  womens movement
• The most obvious effects was the right to vote
  given to women in Germany, Austria, and the USA
  immediately after the war
• In Britain, women over the age of 30 were given
  the right to vote and be elected to Parliament in
  1918
• Many upper and middle class women gained new
  freedoms as their young women took jobs, got
  their own apartments, and became independent

65
Upper and Middle Class Women

• Womens Police Service
• Womens Patrols Committee of the Nation Union of
  Women Workers
• Womens Emergency Corp
• Womens Volunteer Rescue
• Queen Alexandras Imperial Military Nursing
  Service
• Territorial Force Nursing Service
• Voluntary Aid Detachment (VADs)---74,000 women
• First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY)

66
Motor Ambulance Drivers in France 1917

• Poster from WWI calling on women to do their
  patriotic duty by fulfilling their 'role' in the
  home and industry.

67

Women's Police Volunteers compare notes with a police constable. Imperial War Museum Q31088
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Motor Ambulance Drivers in France 1917
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A Woman Ambulance Driver
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Red Cross Nurses
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Women in the Army Auxiliary
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• Womens Army Auxiliary Corp (WAAC) was for
  working and lower middle class women
• Formed in March 1917
• 41,000 women volunteered
• Womens Land Army (WLA)
• Opened to all classes
• Formed in March 1917
• 16,000 women
• Paid less than unskilled male agricultural
  workers
• Overall by end of the war, 260,000 women were
  farming and producing food for the soldiers and
  home front.

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Working in the Fields
78

• WLA Handbook reminded its members
• that they were doing a mans work, and so youre
  dressed rather like a man, but remember just
  because you wear smocks and breeches, you should
  take care to behave like a British girl who
  expects chivalry and respect from everyone she
  meets.
• The Times in July 1917 described the WLA women
  as
• the land women, bronzed, freckled, and
  splendidly healthy.

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Munitions Workers
81
Women in Munitions

• 947,000 women were employed in munitions work
• 300 lost their lives to TNT poisoning and from
  explosions in the factories

82

• Munitionettes
• Primarily for lower middle class and working
  class
• Women in worked in the munition factories
• Shift work and very long hours
• Horrible working conditions badly ventilated,
  poorly lit, and overrun by rats
• One women working in a munitions factory in
  Lanchashire walked three miles to and from work,
  worked 12 hour shifts, and shared a room with
  five other women
• Whereas in 1914 there were 212,000 women working
  in the munitions industry, by the end of the war
  it had increased to 950,000.
• Christopher Addison, who succeeded David Lloyd
  George as Minister of Munitions, estimated in
  June, 1917, that about 80 per cent of all weapons
  and shells were being produced by women.

83

• In World War I Britain, about 1 million mostly
  lower-class women worked in munitions jobs.
• They were called munitionettes or Tommys
  sister.
• Unlike nurses, the munitions workers could not
  profess pacifism since their work directly
  contributed to the fighting.
• In fact, in 1918, Scottish women working at a
  shell factory raised money and bought a warplane
  for the air force.
• However, the munitionettes main motivation was
  financial, contrary to the popular belief that it
  was patriotic.
• The women found the wages at first livable and
  later lucrative.
• Compared with domestic work, war work offered
  escape from jobs of badly paid drudgery.
• However, although they earned more than they
  would have doing womens work, the women received
  nowhere near the fortunes they had been led to
  expect when deciding to take war work.139

84

• Hazards
• TNT poisoning
• The chemicals attack the red corpuscles in the
  blood and the tissues of organs like the liver
• Their skin became jaundiced due to the toxin and
  their skins turned yellow
• They became known as Canaries
• Health Effects loss of memory, sight disorders,
  convulsions, delirium, and death
• 109 women died from this

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• Hazards Continued
• The dope varnish applied to aircraft canvas
  caused many women to collapse unconscious.
• An explosion at the National Filling Factory near
  Leeds killed 35 women in Dec 1916.
• Other explosions
• Nottingham July 1918---35 dead
• East London in Jan 1917---69 dead

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Edward Skinner, For King and Country (1916)
88
Women At Munition Making by Mary Gabrielle
Collins

• Gaining nourishment for the thoughts to be,
• Are bruised against the law,
• Kill, kill.
• They must take part in defacing and destroying
  the natural body
• Which, certainly during this dispensation
• Is the shrine of the spirit.
• O God!
• Throughout the ages we have seen,
• Again and again
• Men by thee created
• Cancelling each other.
• And we have marvelled at the seeming annihilation
• Of Thy work.
• But this goes further,
• Taints the fountain head,
• Mounts like a poison to the Creators very heart.
• O God!
• Must It anew be sacrificed on earth?

• Their hands should minister unto the flame of
  life,
• Their fingers guide
• The rosy teat, swelling with milk,
• To the eager mouth of the suckling babe
• Or smooth with tenderness
• Softly and soothingly,
• The heated brow of the ailing child.
• Or stray among the curls
• Of the boy or girl, thrilling to mother love.
• But now,
• Their hands, their fingers
• Are coarsened in munition factories.
• Their thoughts, which should fly
• Like bees among the sweetest mind flowers,

89

• The women working in factories began to play
  football during lunch-breaks.
• Teams were formed and on Christmas Day in 1916, a
  game took place between Ulverston Munitions Girls
  and another group of local women.
• The munitionettes won 11-5.
• Soon afterwards, a game between munitions
  factories in Swansea and Newport.
• The Hackney Marshes National Projectile Factory
  formed a football team and played against other
  factories in London.
•  

90

• Blyth Spartans Munition Girls - Munitionette Cup
  Winners 1918

91

• Vaughan Ladies in 1918

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Women and girls working at a Scottish sugar refinery. Imperial War Museum Q28345
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Munition Wages by Madeline Ida Bedford

• Were all here today, mate,
• Tomorrow---perhaps dead,
• If Fate tumbles on us
• And blows up our shed.
• Afraid! Are yer kidding?
• With money to spend!
• Years back I wore tatters,
• Now---silk stockings, mi friend!
• Ive bracelets and jewellery.
• Rings envied by friends
• A sergeant to swank with,
• And something to lend.
• I drive out in taxis,
• Do theatres in style.
• And this is my verdict---
• It is jolly worth while.

• Earning high wages? Yus,
• Five quid a week,
• A woman, too, mind you,
• I calls it dim sweet.
• Yeare asking some questions---
• But bless yer, here goes
• I spends the whole racket
• On good times and clothes.
• Me saving? Elijah!
• Yer do think Im mad.
• Im acting the lady,
• But----I aint living bad.
• Im having lifes good times.
• See ere, its like this
• The oof come o danger,
• A touch-and-go bizz.

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Munition Wages continued

• Worth while for tomorrow
• If Im blown to the sky,
• Ill have repaid mi wages
• In death----and pass by.
• What is the message of this poem?
• What does it tell us about the dangers of the
  work women did during World War One?

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French Women Factory Workers
99
Working conditions unionism and pay

• Trade unionism proved to be the second legacy of
  the war.
• Female workers had been less unionised than
  their male counterparts.
• This was because they tended to do part-time work
  and to work in smaller firms (which tended to be
  less unionised).
• Also, existing unions were often hostile to
  female workers. World War One forced unions to
  deal with the issue of women's work.
• The scale of women's employment could no longer
  be denied and rising levels of women left
  unmarried or widowed by the war forced the hands
  of the established unions.

100

• In addition, feminist pressure on established
  unions and the formation of separate women's
  unions threatened to destabilise men-only unions.
  
• The increase in female trade union membership
  from only 357,000 in 1914 to over a million by
  1918 represented an increase in the number of
  unionised women of 160 percent.
• This compares with an increase in the union
  membership of men of only 44 percent.

101

• However, the war did not inflate women's wages.
• Employers circumvented wartime equal pay
  regulations by employing several women to replace
  one man, or by dividing skilled tasks into
  several less skilled stages.
• In these ways, women could be employed at a lower
  wage and not said to be 'replacing' a man
  directly.
• By 1931, a working woman's weekly wage had
  returned to the pre-war situation of being half
  the male rate in more industries.

102

• Germany
• In World War I, when the expected quick victory
  turned to protracted war, German women entered
  industrial jobs (about 700,000 in munitions
  industries by the end of the war),
• and served as civilian employees in military jobs
  in rear areas (medical, clerical, and manual
  labor women trained for jobs in the signal corps
  late in the war but never deployed).
• German women won the vote after World War I, and
  some kept their jobs in industry.28

103
German Women Factory Workers
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The wartime employment of women became a staple subject for humour. Imperial War Museum
106
For Recruitment
107

• 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 organisation encouraged women to give out
  white feathers to young men who had not joined
  the army.

108

• 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."The Mothers' Union also
  published a poster.
• It urged its members to tell their sons "My
  boy, I don't want you to go, but if I were you I
  should go."
• The poster added "On his return, hearts would
  beat high with thankfulness and pride."

109

• Baroness Emma Orczy founded the Active Service
  League, an organisation that urged women to sign
  the following pledge "At this hour of England's
  grave peril and desperate need I do hereby pledge
  myself most solemnly in the name of my King and
  Country to persuade every man I know to offer his
  services to the country, and I also pledge myself
  never to be seen in public with any man who,
  being in every way fit and free for service, has
  refused to respond to his country's call."

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Financing the War
111

• Russia
• During World War I, some Russian women took part
  in combat even during the Czarist period.
• These women, motivated by a combination of
  patriotism and a desire to escape a drab
  existence, mostly joined up dressed as men.
• A few, however, served openly as women. The
  Czarist government had no consistent policy on
  female combatants.
• Russias first woman aviator was turned down as a
  military pilot, and settled for driving and
  nursing.
• Another pilot was assigned to active duty,
  however.32

112

• The most famous women soldiers were the
  Battalion of Death.
• Its leader, Maria Botchkareva, a 25-year-old
  peasant girl (with a history of abuse by men),
  began as an individual soldier in the Russian
  army.
• She managed (with the support of an amused local
  commander) to get permission from the Czar to
  enlist as a regular soldier.
• After fighting off the frequent sexual advances
  and ridicule of her male comrades, she eventually
  won their respect especially after serving with
  them in battle.
• Botchkarevas autobiography describes several
  horrendous battle scenes in which most of her
  fellow soldiers were killed running towards
  German machine-gun positions, and one in which
  she bayoneted a German soldier to death.
• After two different failed attacks, she spent
  many hours crawling under German fire to drag her
  wounded comrades back to safety, evidently saving
  hundreds of lives in the course of her service at
  the front
• . She was seriously wounded several times but
  always returned to her unit at the front after
  recuperating.
• Clearly a strong bond of comradery existed
  between her and the male soldiers of her unit.33

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Russian Women Soldiers
114

• The battalion was formed in extraordinary
  circumstances, in response to a breakdown of
  morale and discipline in the Russian army after
  three horrible years of war and the fall of the
  Czarist government.
• By her own account, Botchkareva conceived of the
  battalion as a way to shame the men into fighting
  (since nothing else was getting them to fight).
• She argued that numbers were immaterial, that
  what was important was to shame the men and that
  a few women at one place could serve as an
  example to the entire front.The purpose of the
  plan would be to shame the men in the trenches by
  having the women go over the top first. The
  battalion was thus exceptional and was
  essentially a propaganda tool.
• As such it was heavily publicized Before I had
  time to realize it I was already in a
  photographers studio. The following day this
  picture topped big posters pasted all over the
  city.
• Bryant wrote in 1918 No other feature of the
  great war ever caught the public fancy like the
  Death Battalion, composed of Russian women. I
  heard so much about them before I left
  America.35

115

• The battalion began with about 2,000 women
  volunteers and was given equipment, a
  headquarters, and several dozen male officers as
  instructors. Botchkareva did not emphasize
  fighting strength but discipline (the purpose of
  the women soldiers was sacrificial).
• Physical standards for enlistment were lower
  than for men.
• She told the women, We are physically weak, but
  if we be strong morally and spiritually we will
  accomplish more than a large force.
• She was preoccupied with upholding the moral
  standards and upright behavior of her girls.
• Mostly, she emphasized that the soldiers in her
  battalion would have to follow traditional
  military discipline, not elect committees to rule
  as the rest of the army was doing.
• I did not organize this Battalion to be like
  the rest of the army. We were to serve as an
  example, and not merely to add a few babas
  women to the ineffective millions of soldiers
  now swarming over Russia.
• When most of the women rebelled against her harsh
  rule, Botchkareva stubbornly rejected pleas from
  Kerensky and others including direct orders
  from military superiors to allow formation of a
  committee.
• Instead she reorganized the remaining 300 women
  who stayed loyal to her, and brought them to the
  front, fighting off repeated attacks by
  Bolsheviks along the way.
• The battalion had new uniforms, a full array of
  war equipment, and 18 men to serve them (two
  instructors, eight cooks, six drivers, and two
  shoemakers).36

116

• Other womens battalions were formed in several
  other cities apparently less than 1,000 women
  in all but they suffered from a variety of
  problems, ranging from poor discipline to a lack
  of shoes and uniforms.
• These other units never saw combat.
• There was not another offensive before the
  Bolsheviks took power in October and sent most of
  the women soldiers home, telling them to put on
  female attire.39
• The Battalion of Death, then, never tested an
  all-female units effectiveness in combat.
• Nonetheless, on one day in 1917, 300 women did go
  over the top side by side with 400 male comrades,
  advanced, and overran German trenches.
• The women apparently were able to keep
  functioning in the heat of battle, and were able
  to adhere to military discipline.
• These women were, of course, an elite sample of
  the most war-capable women in all of Russia.
• Nonetheless, they did it advanced under fire,
  retreated under fire, and helped provide that
  crucial element of leadership by which other
  nearby units were spurred into action, overcoming
  the inertia of fatigue and committee rule.
• The Battalion of Death did this not as scattered
  individual women but as a coherent military unit
  of 300 women instructed by Botchkareva that
  they were no longer women, but soldiers.40

117
Spies

• Mata Hari
• Real Name Margareetha Geertruide
  Zelle
• German Spy!

118

• After the War
• 1 Women were expected to give way to men
  returning from the forces and return to pre-war
  womens work.
• 2 The assumption that a womans place is in the
  home returned.
• 3 The percentage of women at work returned to
  pre-war levels.
• 4 More women than before worked in offices.

119

• After the War
• 5 Shorter skirts and hair became fashionable.
• 6 Women went out with men without a chaperone.
• 7 Women smoked and wore make-up in public for the
  first time.
• 8 In 1919 being female or married was no longer
  allowed to disqualify someone from holding a job
  in the professions or civil service.

120
Internment of Enemy Aliens

• On October 22, 1914, in response to press
  campaigns calling for the round up of enemies at
  large on the home front, the British Cabinet
  ordered the arrest of un-naturalized male
  Germans, Austrians, and Hungarians between the
  ages of 17 and 45.
• Internment camps were set up all over the
  mainland and on the Isle of Man.
• But this was not enough, and after the sinking of
  the Lusitania, the press called for more.
• Propagandists like Horatio Bottomley lashed out
  at the local Germans.
• The press campaigns incited riots and looting of
  German shops and property in Britain.

121
Horatio Bottomley wrote

• I call for a vendetta---a vendetta against every
  German in Britain---whether naturalized or
  notYou cannot naturalize an unnatural abortion,
  a hellish freak. But you can exterminate him.
• We have been very patient---patient with the
  Government, patient with the enemythousands and
  thousands of German savages are roaming at large
  in our midst---and all the time our brave and
  honourable soldiers are being asphyxiated in the
  trenches our wounded are tortured prisoners are
  being starved and insulted unfortified towns are
  being bombarded peaceful civilians---old men,
  women, and children---are being murdered
  trawlers and merchant vessels are being sunk and
  now comes the crowning infamy of the Lusitania
• I should welcome the formation of a National
  Council of Righteous Retribution---a National
  Vendetta, pledged to exterminate every
  German-born man (God, forgive the term!) in
  Britain---and to deport every German-born woman
  and child
• As regards, naturalized Germans they should be
  registered, made to report themselves every day,
  and compelled to wear a distinctive badge.
• In John Bull on May 15, 1915

122
The Alien Presence

• Many precautions were taken against
  aliens---resident foreigners even though they
  posed little threat to national security
• There were 35,000 Germans in Britain---the third
  largest immigrant group after the Irish and the
  Jews
• The German immigrants became the object of public
  suspicion and attack due to the imperial
  struggles in South Africa and the more recent
  naval arms race and spies scare

123
The Half-Man by William Watson

• Sparing not age, sparing not youth,
• They tore their way with wolfish tooth
• Through human homes, through human hopes
• Not men, not men, but lycanthropes!
• Thus do not the fabled monsters rear
• Their heads anew thus reappear
• Old Shapes that free us and appal
• And the Half-Man is worst of all.

124
Internment

• Distinguished men with German connections were
  hounded by the press---even Lord Haldane, simply
  because he had been partly educated in Germany.
• He had been Minister for War until 1912,
  re-modelled the army and founded the
  Territorials.
• Yet he was victimized by the press until a
  formation of a coalition government in May 1915,
  when he was removed from office.

125
The Alien Presence

• The spy scare continued until 1915 with many
  people caught up in wild rumors and false
  accusations
• The Daily Mail advised its readers that if a
  waiter serving them appeared German, but claimed
  Swiss, they should demand to see his passport
• Because of the fear of spies using carrier
  pigeons, the DORA required owners to have a
  permit for homing pigeons
• In reality, some 22 known German spies were
  rounded up in 1914, and 11 were executed

126
The Alien Presence

• However, the public increasingly demanded the
  internment of aliens
• This led to 30,000 interned mostly on the Isle of
  Man under the Alien Restrictions Act of August
  1914
• Fueled by many stories of German atrocities in
  Belgium and elsewhere, actual or supposed Germans
  were subjected to harassment
• There were at least 7 deaths in the East End
  riots in May 1915 following the torpedoing of the
  Lusitania
• Even dachshunds, the Germanically named dogs,
  were stoned on the streets sometimes

127
The Alien Presence

• Air raid by the zeppelins also increased
  anti-German feelings
• They even went after people with German surnames
  who had lived in the area for generations and had
  Cockney accents
• There were large scale demonstrations against
  enemy aliens in a number of cities in 1918
• And a petition was signed with 1.2 million
  signatures
• Orchestras began to avoid German composers
• The German measles became known as the Belgian
  Flush

128
The Isle of Man

• The Isle of Man was used by the British
  Government for the internment of enemy aliens
  during both World War One and World War Two and
  there is still a great deal of interest,
  primarily from family historians who had
  relatives or friends detained in the camps.
• During 1914-1919 there were two large camps on
  the Island at Douglas and Knockaloe near Peel.
• The first was a requisitioned holiday camp whilst
  the second was purpose built using prefabricated
  huts and even had its own railway link.
• Large numbers of internees were held for up to
  five years until the camps finally closed in
  1919.

129
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130
The Alien Presence---Jews

• Jews also came under physical attack in East
  London in 1917 in the belief that they were
  dodging conscription