World War I soldiers

Over 65 million soldiers from over 30 countries fought during World War I, the greatest mobilization the world had ever seen. Initially millions volunteered to fight a war that most believed would be over quickly and victoriously for their nation. By the end of the war Germany had mobilized an estimated 11 million men, Austria‐Hungary 7.8 million, Russia 12 million, France 8.4 million, and the USA over 4.3 million. Britain and the British Empire recruited some 9 million men, either as volunteers or later as conscripts, forced to fight for the national cause. Many were traumatized by life in the squalid conditions at the fronts, having experienced death and destruction on a previously unimaginable scale. By the end of the war in 1918, of the more than 65 million men who joined the armies of World War I, over 37.5 million had been killed or wounded in action.

Soldiers on both sides endured appalling conditions in the trenches of the Western Front or the vast open spaces of the Eastern Front. Thousands of Italian soldiers lived in vast cave complexes in the Alps surrounded by ice and snow. Soldiers of the Western Front endured months of boredom and inactivity, punctuated by huge offensives such as the Battle of the Somme (July–November 1916) and Battle of Passchendaele (October–November 1917) when tens of thousands of soldiers were killed. Although the hope and patriotism of 1914 had not totally died by 1918, battles such as the Somme and Gallipoli fed resentment and reduced the respect held for the army commanders. The scars of war lived on after 1918 in both the bodies and minds of the participants, and the return of millions of war‐broken men had a profound effect on their countries.

Initial recruitment and deployment
When war broke out in August 1914 the capital cities of Europe were filled with millions of excited and hopeful people. From London to St Petersburg, Berlin to Vienna, the crowds turned out to cheer their leaders and show their faith in a glorious victory.

Within a week Russia had some 4.5 million soldiers in the field ready to fight the Germans, with 2 million in reserve. Poorly‐trained aristocratic officers, given their commands because of birth rather than ability, led this vast peasant army. Shortage of weapons and uniforms persisted well into the war, even in 1916 some Russian divisions had only enough guns for 30% of their soldiers.

Also within a week, Germany had around 3.8 million men under arms. Unlike the volunteer armies of other nations, Germany already had conscription, and was able to call up fully‐trained reserve soldiers. These forces were equipped with the latest weapons, and proved more than capable of defeating the larger Russian armies on the Eastern Front.

German confrontation with the armies of Britain and France were to produce a different scenario in the west. During the first months of war the French army reached some 3.7 million men, almost all being placed on the Western Front where it ran through French territory. Britain had only a small army at the start of the war; the regular army numbered just under 250,000 men, 120,000 of whom formed British Expeditionary Force (BEF) deployed in Europe. Over the next 12 months, however, volunteers swelled this force by some 2 million men, and by the middle of 1915, the trenches of the Western Front and the millions of soldiers who would fight out a war of attrition until 1918 were in place.

British conscription
In March 1916 conscription was introduced in Britain in response to the rising losses on the Western Front. At the First Battle of Ypres (October–November 1914), Britain lost some 75,000 men. At the Battle of Loos in September–October 1915, British casualties reached nearly 60,000. While these losses could be sustained, they led to a reduction in the number of men volunteering for the British Army. The massive engagements of 1916 onwards would have destroyed the capability of the British Army to fight had conscription not been introduced. British forces suffered 420,000 casualties at the Battle of the Somme (July–November 1916). The Battle of Arras (April–May 1917) cost Britain some 170,000 casualties. While the Battle of Passchendaele (part of the third Ypres offensive July–November 1917) resulted in around 310,000 British casualties. Such losses would have been impossible to sustain with a volunteer army, and would have all but stopped the supply of fresh recruits in Britain. To keep the war going, the government had to use conscription. Initially all single men between 18 and 41 were required to join the army, married men were included two months later.

Military training
Once in the army the British volunteers of 1914 and 1915 found that the training camps were ill‐equipped to cope with such a vast numbers. There was a shortage of living accommodation, uniforms, and guns. The men had to sleep in tents, parade in civilian dress, and use broom handles while training. Old officers, many years past retirement age and trained in the arts of 19th‐century warfare, were brought in to train the new recruits. These officers had often served in India or Africa during Britain's colonial wars, when cavalry were a key part of an army's strength, and the destructive power of the artillery bombardment and the machine gun were unheard of. Training proved too short and inadequate for the needs of the new army, who faced the modern challenges of trenches, artillery, and machine‐gun fire that characterized the Western Front.

Formation of the trenches
In the first stage of the war Germany adopted the Schlieffen Plan, a military strategy involving a simultaneous attack on Russia and France, but with the aim to inflict rapid defeat on the French and then turn all resources on Russia. When this failed there was a race to the English Channel, with the Germans trying to get behind the British and French armies and continue their advance. As the two sides faced each other in a new static war, they began to dig trenches from the border of Switzerland to the English Channel coast. Early trenches were shallow and defended by sandbags and wooden barricades built above the ground. However, these soon proved vulnerable to attack by artillery shells, and the underground trench system developed. Hundreds of kilometres were dug into the flat plains of northern France. The trenches and bombing soon disrupted the natural and artificial drainage systems around rivers such as the Somme and the Marne. As the soils were mainly clay‐ or sand‐based, making for poor drainage, the land soon flooded and became waterlogged for most of the next four years.

Life at the front
The majority of British soldiers still had little idea of the problems that they would face when they arrived in France. Digging the trenches often proved to be the first experience of these volunteers who had expected a quick and glorious march to Berlin before Christmas 1914. Trench life formed the main experience of the war for British soldiers, and the three things that characterized this were boredom, dirt, and death. Most days in the trench consisted of routine tasks such as collecting food, standing guard, collecting ammunition, and trying to clean out the trench. Many hours were spent doing very little once these basic chores had been fulfilled. Huge swarms of rats lived in the trenches, devouring the corpses of dead soldiers, as well as trying to eat the soldiers' food. Trenches collapsed regularly under the weight of the wet soil or artillery bombardments, and when new lines were dug in the same area, the rotting corpses of dozens of soldiers were frequently unearthed. Some trenches were dug across what had been graveyards, and parts of coffins and skeletons would be discovered. Duckboards were fitted to the bottom of the trenches to stop the soldiers getting trench foot, a condition caused by prolonged standing in mud and water, but these often proved ineffective when it rained and the water level rose.

Once the soldiers had served for a few weeks in the trenches they would be moved to the rear of the lines for a rest. Here their uniforms would be cleaned and deloused in huge steamers, and they would have their first bath in weeks. Unfortunately the steamers were unable to get rid of the lice eggs, and these soon hatched with the soldiers' body heat on their return to the trenches. The soldiers spent many hours delousing themselves either by crushing the eggs by hand or using their cigarettes to burn them off.

Attack on the German lines
The long spells of waiting were broken by the great offensives, or pushes. These aimed to break through the German trenches with a massed attack at a short part of the line; the generals believed that the static nature of the war made all out attack along the whole front impossible. The most notorious pushes were the battles of the Somme in July 1916 and Passchendaele in autumn 1917, during the third Battle of Ypres. On the first day alone of the Battle of the Somme, July 1 1916, 19,240 soldiers were killed. The offensives moved the front lines just a few kilometres and no strategic gains were made.

Before the infantry advanced, millions of shells were fired by the allied gunners into the German lines; some 4.25 million shells were fired in the preliminary bombardment at Passchendaele alone, while the bombardment at the Somme could be heard across the English Channel in Kent. The aim was to destroy all resistance so that the troops could march unopposed into the German lines. For the ordinary soldier the experience was both exhilarating and terrifying. The soldiers knew that a push was coming because of the bombardments and the arrival of extra supplies. They would be ordered into full battle dress, with bayonets fixed, and heavy packs worn on their backs. Attacks usually occurred at dawn, and the bombardment would stop to allow the smoke to clear from the battlefield. The men would be lined up ready to climb the ladders out of the trench and advance across No Man's Land, the area between the opposing trenches. When the commanding officer of the regiment blew his whistle, the attack would start, and the men would ‘go over the top’. Those who refused to go were shot. The infantry were often ordered to walk at a slow pace as the commanding officers believed that there would be no threat from the Germans, and also that running would lead to confusion. This order reflected the limited respect given to the soldiers by many commanders, who believed that ordinary soldiers were incapable of anything other than the most basic tasks. Exposed in the open land, encumbered by large packs, and walking slowly, the soldiers were easy targets for the German machine gunners. Many were mown down as soon as they stepped out of the trenches. Those that managed to reach the German lines found that the barbed‐wire defences had not been destroyed as promised and that the Germans were capable of full resistance. During the artillery bombardments the Germans would retreat into a maze of underground bunkers, returning to the surface when the bombing stopped to allow the smoke to clear, signalling imminent attack. The machine‐gunners were then ready to go to work.

Despite heavy losses and little gains, generals such as Douglas Haig, supreme commander of the British forces, continued with this tactic. Even the loss of 57,470 men (dead and wounded) on the first day of the Battle of the Somme did not convince Haig that his plans were flawed. That so many thousands of British soldiers continued to go ‘over the top’ again and again, despite knowing the risks, is testament to their bravery and belief in their cause. It also showed that the threat of court martial and execution was effective.

Battle stress
Cases of shell shock, a mental disorder related to extreme stress and exposure to heavy explosions, were common during the periods of bombardment on the Western Front, and multiplied after the great offensives. Those who were traumatized were unable to carry on as soldiers. The symptoms included mental confusion, inability to follow orders, and hysterical terror. Soldiers who had previously shown bravery could experience shell shock after seeing friends blown to pieces beside them or being close to a shell on impact. The British Army's response to cases of shell shock at the front would be judged barbaric by modern standards. Many men suffering from shell shock were shot as cowards or deserters. Officers and some doctors were ignorant of the psychological condition known today as post‐traumatic stress disorder. They did not recognize the symptoms of shell shock as a mental illness caused simply by exposure to battle. On one occasion, a man sentenced to death for cowardice caused by shell shock had his appeal rejected by Field Marshal Haig himself. Haig wrote that to allow this appeal would create mutiny in the ranks as the men would believe that cowardice was acceptable. In the conditions of World War I the treatment of shell shock in ordinary soldiers was considered an unacceptable waste of time and resources. At the time the general attitude was that if others could cope under pressure, so could those who claimed to be suffering from shell shock.

Written records
To cope with the war, and to continue with something close to their normal existence, the soldiers wrote letters home to their friends and families. They also kept diaries and wrote poetry. Some regiments even had unofficial newspapers produced by the men to keep up morale. Soldiers' diaries and letters often reveal the increasing feelings of hopelessness felt as the war progressed. Soldiers, who wrote positively in 1914, were by 1918 writing about the perceived futility of the war and the ignorance of the commanding officers. This does not mean that the soldiers would refuse to go on fighting. Indeed many veterans today stress their continued loyalty and trust in Haig despite his responsibility for the deaths at the Somme and Passchendaele. Important poets of World War I include Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, and Siegfried Sassoon. These writers were deeply affected by the experience and horrors of the war, and sought to communicate this through poetry.