Germany:
Before:
-The war on two fronts resulted in the thinking of a purely defensive war were they’re defending their honor. thus boosted a lot of morale in german soliders.
After:
Soldiers:
- Lost of faith in leaders due to the battle of “Verdun and the Somme” as the same tactics particularly attrition were being used over and over, which just resulted more lots of casualties
- War weariness due to reality of war and trenches
Homefront
- Political unity, which Germany had, began to crack in 1917 for various reasons
- ‘Turnip winter’ and food shortages of 1916-1917, naval blockage created fury in the mass as much was affected. (Contributed to this split of political unity)
- Peace movements and strikes held in Berlin became more common
- Mass wanted political reform
- Socialist stop supporting war effort
- For this Led by social democrats, the parties of the left argued that if political reforms was not forthcoming, the government could not count on the continuing support of the working class for the war effort.
- Reichstag also demanded political reform
- 1918 Germany was close to a revolution and abdication of Kaiser seemed inevitable
- Britain:
Before:
- Met with enthusiasm and patriotic fervor
- Majority thought it be over by Christmas (Quick war to end all wars)
- Enthusiasm lasted for two yrs at there was massive enlistments in 1914/15
- Enlistments due to Lord Kitcheners great recruitment drives
After:
-Reality of war was different from image that was portrayed
-Pointlessness as they began to question the worth of war due to the causalities
-Wilson Owen wrote to his mother saying that he had to censor all his men’s letter because they wanted peace and were sick of war
- Back at the home front there was a Drop in voluntary recruitment after seeing the film of the Battle of the Somme. This also resulted in fainting, screaming and soldiers on leave crying.
- The members of the Union of Democratic Control which opposed war rose to 650 000 in 1917
- After the reality was exposed, civilians were horrified and were no longer enthusiastic
- Patience disappearing as they questioned simple matters especially in trenches.
- Addition of the war 3rd yr almost every family lost a love one which lead to war weariness.
if you get a question about the changing attitudes of the war talk about things such as the French Mutines, Britian, Germany, factors which contributed to changing attitudes such as the Battle of the Somme, life in trenches, economic hardships at the homefront etc.. i had all these ideas when i did my first source based assessment, got the question i wanted but totally forgot to mension most of the things listed above ><". variety of attitudes i THINK refers to the range of reactions to the war.
cant seem to find anything anywhere....