Conscription

Conscription is where if you where between the ages 18-41 your name was put in a sort of raffle and random names where chosen.

If your name was picked you would receive a calling letter telling you that you have been chosen and that you have to go to your nearest recruitment point

        The role of Lord Kitchener

Kitchener was a British military leader, as he was secretary of state of war in the first years of World War One, he would organise armies, Kitchener was also responsible  for the  military strategies

He was also on the most famous British army recruitment poster ever produced.

            Munitions workers

Women started working in factories when men where away fighting .because their wasn’t enough men to work, women would make metal, aircraft wood work, bullet and shell making. The chemicals that the women where working with was very dangerous, in fact because of the sulphur in the gunpowder their skin would turn yellow giving them the name canaries

                           DORA

DORA means defence of the realm act

This is a law that the government presented in 1914, these where things that citizens where not aloud to do

For example

-No-one was aloud to ring church bells

-Beer was to be watered down

-The government could take over media

-The government could take over land

-No bonfires or fireworks

-No-one is aloud to buy binoculars

-No rumours about the war

-No-one was aloud to melt silver or gold

-customers in pubs where not aloud to buy a round of drinks

– opening hours in pubs where

White feather campaign.                       

The white feather campaign was introduced by Lord Kitchener (see page two) in 1914. This campaign was where women (of all ages) would patrol the streets/shopping centre humiliating men they thought should join the army. The women would hand out white feathers (a sign of cowardice) to men that were fit to join the army. For the men this would be very embarrassing so they would join up straight away. A few women would also hold up signs with writing on them.

Pals battalion.                                           

This was a method of increasing the amount of men joining up. Lord Kitchener introduced this method in 1914. Pals battalion was where a group of men e.g. football teams, cricket teams, choirs, etc would join the army/war as a group. The advantages of being part of pals battalion was that you were with people you knew/friends, the war was more enjoyable you would not need to make friends , the atmosphere would be a little more enjoyable. The disadvantages were… unfortunately if you were attacked you may see your friends die, get injured, get shell shocked, be in agony! Etc you may loose hope and there sprits would decrease rapidly, groups of people would die together , you may quarrel with a friend and not be able to sort things out…  Pals battalion was soon gone because less and less men were joining the army/war voluntarily this was because friends and relatives were seeing each other getting slaughtered.  (Lenham had quite a few pals battalions)

FOOTBALL TEAMS

The government encouraged women to take part in sports like football, so they would stay fit and healthy whilst at work. Football became the official sport of Munition Workers, nearly every factory across Britain had a women’s football team. Women played football to raise money for charities that help wounded soldiers. Women were encouraged to play football so that the country could act as if the war was not happening.

Women did not wear a football kit; many wore a loose fitting blouse and long shorts, as well as knee-high socks. Some teams that could not afford to buy long shorts or blouses, had to use what they had. Some wore knickers instead of shorts, which was frowned upon by the Football Association.

The Football Association tried to get rid of Women’s Football as they thought it would become more popular than men’s. However, when the war ended and the men returned, men’s football became popular again and women’s was overshadowed.

Dick Kerr factory in Preston was said to be the best football team in the country during the war. They played across the UK as well as going abroad to Holland and France. A more local team is Crabble Mill Dover, which was one of the best in Kent.

Competition during ww1

English club Harrogate town were due to play their first ever match on 5 September 1914, but the match was cancelled due to the outbreak of the war.

Between 1915 and 1919 pro football was called off in England. Many footballers signed up to fight in the war and as a result many teams were depleted, and played  guest players instead. Many teams joined the forces and made pals battalions there were a lot of sport team based battalions during  the war but these were split up after they stopped allowing pals battalions. The first of the footballers pals  battalions was formed  in Edinburgh in November 1914 by a man called Sir George McCrae. The 16th Royal Scots included players and supporters from Hearts, Hibernian, Falkirk and Raith Rovers, and recruitment of 1350 officers and men was completed in only six days.

Walter tull

Walter tull was an English professional footballer who played as an inside forward for Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town. He was the second person of mixed race to play in the top division of the Football League, the first mixed race outfield player in the top leauge of English football, and the first to be singed up as an infantry soldier in the British Army. His pro football career began after he was spotted whilst playing for his local club, Clapton FC. He started playing for Clapton in 1908 and within a few months he had won medals in the FA Amateur Cup,Walter Tull was brought up in an orphanage in

London, along with his brother, after the death of their parents. He joined Tottenham in 1909, and moved to Northampton Town in 1911, where he made 111 first-team appearances.

During the First World War walter  Tull served in both Footballers Battalions of the Middlesex Regiment, 17th and 23rd, and also in the 5th battalion, getting to the rank of sergeant and fighting in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. In may 1917 he became the first black combat officer in the British Army, despite his race and coulor.He was killed in action on 25 March during the Spring Offensive, near the village of Favreuil in the Pas-de-Calais.

Conscription

Conscription was introduced in 1916 due to the lack of men joining the front lin. The number of soldiers weren’t high enough, so the British government had to do something.

Conscription led to people becoming conscientious objectors (c.o’s or conshies). Some of these people would go to war as doctors or ambulance drivers, where as others completely refused to go any where near the war.

There was nearly 20,000 c.o’s in all, most had settled for non-fighting roles in the army but, about 1000 others refused to have anything to do with the war.

Conscription is a law which stated that any man aged between 18 and 41 could be forced to join the army if their name was randomly selected.

Before conscription was introduced the government used a national register of all men between the ages of 15-65 and the derby scheme, this was introduced to ask men to promise to sign when needed. This didn’t work because when the men where needed they just said that they’d changed their mind.

Christmas day truce The Christmas truce was an unofficial truce between the soldiers fighting on the front lines in the western front  during ww1 ,World War One had been on for several months but German and Allied soldiers got out of their trenches, and agreed a truce so the dead could be buried. The soldiers also used that truce to to eachther and it is believed even play a football match. Unofficial truces between opposing forces occurred at other times during World War One but never on the kind of levelof the first Christmas truce.

DORA stands for the Defence of the Realm Act. DORA allowed the government to control Britain whilst at war. DORA put restrictions on what went into the newspapers, only putting positive reports so Britain’s moral was kept high. If negative stories were shown the countries moral would be affected and it would prevent men from signing up.

The government controlled certain parts of British Citizens lives allowing them to take over any buildings, land or factories. As well, the government took over any businesses or industries affecting the war. DORA allowed the government to control the way people lived their lives in Britain as they were trying to keep the country clean and tidy whilst Britain was at war. DORA allowed pubs to water down beer so it wasn’t as strong. The government introduced British Summer Time allowing people to work longer hours.

Chapter two

Dora stands for The Defence of the Realm Act; it was introduced by the British Government in August 1914. This gave the Government a lot of power; they could choose what the public heard or read, imprison people without trial, take over the economic resources for the war effort and place numerous restrictions on a citizen’s life.

The Government wanted the people to think that the war was going well, they did not want anyone finding out about all the losses that had happened on the western front, so to make sure no one heard about it the government: could not talk about Navel or military matters in a public place, newspapers could only report good things about the British army and bad things about the Germans and free speech also became a victim of DORA.

When the men had to leave to join the army, the women had to take all the men’s jobs, to keep Britain going. Most of the women got jobs as: Nurses, teacher, drove ambulances and some even became policewomen. But most of them went to work at munitions factories, the reason for this is that some women wanted to help there: Husband, brothers or sons, there is another reason why women went to the munition factories is that the pay that you get was better than all the other jobs.

Munition factories made a lot of things for the men in the army: Clothes, food supplies and the most dangerous thing they made was ammo and bombs. The munition factories were not as good as they sounded the chemicals of the bombs were every harmful to your health.

In Britain the women decided that they wanted to help the men, so they decided to make a women’s land army, they decided to dothis as in Britain they only had 6 weeks of food left in Britain as the Germans were bombing the English food supplies. The women’s land army was were they worked on farms, to produce food for the shops and people in Britain, this is also why rationing was introduced.

When the men went off to the war, the women decided that they wanted to play football. They took to the pitch to keep football fans’ spirits high while Britain’s men were off at war. There was one women team that was very successful, the Blyth Spartans Munitionettes from Northumberland played more beautifully than all the others.

Their star centre-forward was Bella Raey, the daughter of a local coal miner, who scored 133 goals in one season, and even went on to play for England.

The highlight of the female football calendar was a knock-out tournament called the Munitionettes Cup, held in 1918, which attracted 30 teams.

The Blyth Spartans were the eventual winners, beating Bolckow-Vaughan of Middleborough at Acrosome Park in front of a crowd of 22,000. Bella Reay scored a hat-trick.

Taught to play by naval ratings on a local beach, the Blyth Spartans remained unbeaten throughout their two-year existence.

But despite the women being almost as popular on the pitch as the men had been before the war, when the boys returned home, the munition factories closed and the teams disbanded.

Several women tried to continue to play, but in 1921, the FA banned women’s football at their grounds – bringing to an end a colorful chapter in women’s sport which has long been overlooked.

During World War 1 Britain declared a Blockade of  Germany responded with its own U-boat Campaign (World War I) to sink ships carrying military equipment or food to Britain. Food becoming more important as the war continued, especially after the declaration of unlimited U-boat warfare. In about two years, the United Kingdom had just six weeks’ food left and, therefore, had to ration its food supplies. Rationing started at the end of 1917 with sugar and butter remaining on ration until 1920.

The United Kingdom imported 20 million long tons (20 Mt) of food per year (70%), including more than 50% of its meat, 70% of its cheese and sugar, nearly 80% of fruits and about 70% of cereals and fats. The civilian population was about 50 million It was one of the principal strategies of the Germans to attack shipping bound for Britain, restricting British industry and potentially starving the nation into submission.

Chapter three

                        The Christmas day truces was legible a series of unofficial event that ended the conflicts that occurred along the Western Front during Christmas 1914 where the Germans and the British had  a game of football on no mans land  and then shared their presents they got from home and sang Christmas carols. The soldiers would share what they received from home. The British received a tin with cigarettes/bullet pen and a letter from their love ones. The Germans received cheese from Germany.

A letter was sent from the front line to Britain. The letter was sent by Private H Scrutton from Essex. The letter said “ As I told you before our trenches are only 30 or 40 yards away from the Germans. This led to an exciting incident the other day. Our fellows have been in the habit of shouting across to the enemy and we used to get answers from them. We were told to get into conversation with them and this is what happened:-

From out trenches: “Good morning Fritz.” (No answer).

 “Good morning Fritz.” (Still no answer).

 “GOOD MORNING FRITZ.”

 From German trenches: “Good morning.”

From our trench: “How are you?”

 “All right.”

 “Come over here, Fritz.”

 “No. If I come I get shot.”

 “No you won’t. Come on.”

 “No fear.”

 “Come and get some fags, Fritz.”

 “No. You come half way and I meet you.”

 “All right.”

 One of our fellows thereupon stuffed his pocket with fags and got over the trench… The German got over his trench, and right enough they met half way and shook hands, Fitz taking the fags and giving cheese in exchange.” The letter was published in the Norfolk Chronicle on January 1, 1915.

Chapter 1: The recruitment drive to get volunteers.

How did recruitment/propaganda posters get men to join up?

                        Propaganda posters were created to encourage men into joining the army. Many had quotes or pictures of men going out to fight or of how evil the enemy is. The men would see these posters and would feel like a coward for not joining up. Some men would then go sign up, but others would just stay at home. Luckily the posters worked and by December 1914 over 1 million men had signed up!

But some posters over exaggerated. Like the ‘red cross or iron cross’ poster which showed a German nurse pouring water in front of a dying, thirsty British soldier. The Red Cross helped wounded soldiers on both sides whilst the iron cross was a German medal for bravery. Also two fat Germans laugh at the dying soldier in the background. Obviously this made the nation very angry.

Meanwhile newspapers show stories about victories, whilst defeats and deaths were rarely mentioned.

The promise it would be over by Christmas.

When war was declared on Germany in August 1914, the government stated ‘It will be over by christmas’ Men happily and freely signed up to what they thought would be a short war. By December thousands had joined up ‘to do their bit for king and country’. Army leaders, however weren’t so optimistic. Some thought the war would last at least a year or more.

Chapter 1: The recruitment drive to get volunteers.

Recruitment posters:

Recruitment posters where put up LL OVER Britain in the first world war as a way of getting men to join the army, they where encouraged by a sectary of war named Lord Kitchener, one of the most popular posters being of him pointing at the viewer with the caption “Britons, join your country’s army , god save the king”. It was coloured with nothing but red, white and black on an orange background. Some propaganda posters had very deep meanings and made the people think about how joining the army may benefit them in the future while others had no hidden meaning and simply stated what they where put up to say being ‘join the British army today and help protect those who need you’. The propaganda posters where very successful at first but after a while men stopped signing up for the front line thus the government introduced black and white propaganda;

~Black propaganda was designed to make the Germans look bad and to create a stronger hatred towards them amongst the British civilians and to hopefully encourage men to sign up for the army again and to get people that weren’t allowed to join the army such as women to encourage their husbands, brothers, sons etc. to sign up for them.

~White propaganda was mostly innocent, the posters that where categorised as white propaganda didn’t say or present anything that would make the Germans look bad- they simply said something along the lines of ‘sign up for the British army, your comrades need your help’ or anything else that didn’t imply that either country was evil, although this wasn’t as effective as Black propaganda it still worked and helped to recruit men for the front line and trenches.

Palls battalions:

Palls battalions where also introduced by Lord Kitchener as a way of getting men to sign up to the British army. Palls battalions where made up of a group of men that where all acquainted with one another and where perhaps too scared to go to war alone so they where given the ability to sign up in groups of friends with the promise that they would be kept together in the trenches, They where mainly developed from men that where in the same sports teams such as football, rugby, cricket and tennis while others where just groups of friends, neighbours and possibly even work colleagues. Although this seemed like a good idea at the time few men from each group survived leaving one or two members to return to their family’s in a mental state that couldn’t be helped by therapy, more than often the whole of the battalions where wiped out leaving no identification as to who they where or were they had come from. Those who did survive the palls battalions would be recruited again for world war two even if they hadn’t recovered from their earlier traumas.

After reports of many men returning home in a physically and mentally unstable state from watching as their friends died around them palls battalions where banned and weren’t introduced again until late in world war two where the exact same problems occurred and once again they where banned, only this time the ban was permanent.

White feather campaign:

The white feather campaign was formed by women who wanted to help recruit men for the British army, they would carry around a basket of white feathers and give one to every man they saw walking around the streets of Britain that looked fit to join the army but wasn’t wearing an army uniform as a way of shaming them into signing up. This worked very well for a majority of the first world war but once word broke out about what was really taking place on the front lines the women themselves where shamed by their actions and soon stopped handing out feathers with the realisation that they had latterly been sending thousands of young men to their deaths. In a sense this could be taken as a form of bullying since practically everyone at the time knew what the white feather represented and to have it place on your clothing where everyone could see it must have been humiliating witch is why not every woman in Britain agreed with this method and decided to stay well clear of it.

The promise that it would be ‘over by Christmas’:

The government made a false promise to the civilians of Britain by giving their word that the war would be over in time for Christmas and that the men that where currently on the front lines would be allowed to return to their family’s and the children that where evacuated would be brought back so that they could all spend Christmas normally. Even though this was a promise it didn’t hold, by the time Christmas had come around the troops where still out on the front lines fighting for their country and the evacuees where still scattered around the countryside with their foster families, this came as a shock to many people as they thought that they could trust the governments every word thus they spent Christmas and new year with an incomplete family.