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Changing Attitudes towards the First World War.

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Changing Attitudes towards the First World War. At the start of the war the British public was very positive towards the war and thought that it was heroic. The government gave people false hopes and told the public false things like telling the public it would be a quick and easy war and "it will be over by Christmas". People were dancing in the streets and thousands of young men were enlisting to fight. This attitude to the war soon changed as people grew bored of it. .After a few months and the war wasn't going as people expected and loads of people had died less people were enlisting and in March 1916 people were forced to enlist. As the war went on people were only aloud rations of food because of the import ships being destroyed and food supplies were running low. As the soldiers got bored with the war some of them tried to injure themselves so that they could be sent home. People were missing their families and the soldiers were growing sick of fighting and risking their lives every day. As the public were receiving letters from the soldiers telling them how bad the conditions were and how they missed them the more they wanted the war to be over and for their family to come home. ...read more.


The length of the war made the public bored of the war because as the war went on the public started to suffer because of rations and missing their families and friends. The tactics of the general staff were very poor in some battles and resulted in many deaths, this made the soldiers and the public lose faith in the generals and weren't as sure that they were going to win the war. People wanted the war to end and their families to return home before they had to fight and go over the top on to no-mans land where it was almost certain death in many battles. The soldiers were less fit and healthy due to the conditions of the trenches. Many soldiers caught diseases such as trench foot because of the poor conditions. Soldiers were sending letters home to their families about the conditions and the friends they have seen been killed. As the soldiers saw more and more deaths in the trenches they became less willing to fight because they have seen their friends being killed. The Battle of the Somme changed many of the soldiers and the publics attitude because of the massive failure of the battle. ...read more.


They also made people think that it was heroic to fight for their country , this made thousands of young men enlist to fight the war. The poster made people think that Britain needed them and made them feel guilty if they didn't help the war effort because they made them feel needed. The posters told people that God was on their side and that the right thing to do was to join the army. People started to feel patriotic and thought that what their country was fighting for was right. Before the posters had been put up most people had already made up their mind because of the heroic image of being a brave soldier with a smart uniform and the thought of attracting pretty girls. For most young men of that generation it would be a once in a life time chance to travel Europe because it was expensive to travel abroad. A lot of men that were fighting in the war had nothing to make them want to stay at home, they had boring jobs that would never get them no where , it seemed to many people that to join the army would be the best option to take. Many factories knew that the war would put big demands on them to make lots of goods for the army and a chance to make lots of money. ...read more.

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