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Description: | The mobilisation of new technologies for total war in Britain and Germany, 1917-1918.
By the start of 1918 the Western Front remained central to the war, and still deadlocked. Behind this front the war had become a "conflict of peoples", all held to the image of absolute victory by their governments, which distorted the news through censorship of the press, cinema, telegraphy and faked photographs. "Total hate sustained the demand for total victory." Starvation became a weapon of victory, 700,000 German men, women and children dying through the Allied blockade. Germany built the first cargo-carrying submarines, which crossed the Atlantic, to beat the blockade. In February 1917 Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare, and in April Allied losses reached 550,000 tons of shipping. The British adopted convoys, depth charges and hydrophones to beat the submarines. They armed their merchant ships, used ship-launched aircraft, and introduced Q ships. In Britain there was rationing, but no starvation. Women were employed as farm labourers. In every industry the individual became subordinate to the war machine. "Nations came to accept the breaking down of traditions." In France and Germany labour was stretched to the limit, and disabled men or women employed in farms or factories. The needs of the war industry often led to higher wages and better treatment of the workforce. The Germans launched an aerial bombing campaign with Zeppelin airships, and the first raid by Gotha bombers, which were more effective, om 13th June 1917. The British introduced an Air Raid Warning system. Night bombing started in autumn 1917, and Allied bombers hit back at the industrial Rhineland. The concept of non-combatants was fading. Women gained an importance the pre-war suffragettes could never give them, and in 1918 were given the vote in Britain. In 1917 the new mustard gas was introduced, and on 23rd March 1918 the Germans opened fire on Paris with three long range guns, each with a range of 75 miles - a supreme technological achievement. Modern war was a matter of innovation and improvement in technology. But still there was no victory for either side.
16mm | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | 31/3(43) 31/3(41) | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Shaw, Sebastian | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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