World War One Sources Essay, Research Paper

How far do sources A and B agree about conditions on no

man?s land?? Explain your answer.? (6)??????????? Both sources show no man?s land in one way or

another.? Obviously both show extensive

use of barbed wire on the Western Front.?

Each source lacks any human life at all and makes no man?s land look

extremely grim and desolate.? I think

this is shown very well in source A because it shows a large stretch of no

man?s land and I think this picture was taken not as propaganda but to show

what war was really like.? It gives a

good judgement because you can see lots of craters, mud, ammunition boxes etc?? Source B shows the barbed wire to be impenetrable

but in source A you can see gaps and tracks of tanks, which suggests that a

tank has broken through barbed wire with some ease. ?Source A might not be a typical picture of no man?s land.? It might just be that that battle was

particularly long so the battleground would be a very grim one.? Source B might well be set up as well for

use as propaganda to lift morale at home and make the German defences look

extremely strong.? People might take the

view that if a British tank can?t get through the German defences then troops

will definitely not be able to. It also makes British tanks look weak etc? ?But we now know in hindsight that generally a

tank didn?t get stuck but many just broke down.? Another possibility is that the tank is not stuck but is breaking

through the German defences.? Source B

is a close up and selects detail, whereas A is a panoramic vision.? Source A is a bleak image without any human

life at all and shows neither side winning or losing.? Source B however, could suggest some achievement (trapping a

tank). ??????????? If a

soldier had tried to cross no mans land then they would have made very slow

progress cutting themselves through the wire.?

If a German gunman had seen them then they would have been sitting

targets and very easy to shoot. ??????????? The dangers

the Royal Engineers who laid the wire must have gone through were immense.? Also they had to maintain it.? This must have been a very precarious job.? When it was time to go ?over the top? the

engineers had to go out and cut the wire nearest them to allow their army to

get through and attack the enemy.? This

was also dangerous but if the enemy spotted you then they would be expecting

the attack. ??????????? Compared

to other sources such as H, I would say that sources A and B are very reliable

but there is a possibility that both are not typical of no-mans land. Question 2 Study Source C Use your knowledge of the

Western Front to explain why the government encouraged advertisements like

Source C to be published in Britain in 1915.?

(7)??????????? In 1915 smoking

was encouraged.? At that time it was

seen to be sophisticated and ?The thing to do? so much so that the government

actually handed out tobacco and cigarettes to people fighting in the Great War.? It is ironic that war and smoking were both seen

to be good but both however, killed many.?

In the picture the trenches are clean and there is no barbed wire.? The man standing up with his hand above his

eyes looks very smart and clean and looks like a real gentleman. Even the name

?Golden Dawn? gives a picture of a new beginning for the future.? The soldiers are smiling and one of them is

laughing. This all glamorised the war and made it look sociable.? In reality there would be sand bags, dead

bodies, barbed wire, heavy guns, churned up mud etc?However, this is all

missing and instead they have sparkling uniforms and clean trenches.? They would certainly not be talking about going

over the top so light-heartedly.? People

would be very attracted to this advertisement, especially young men.? This advertisement makes it look as though

the men are actually enjoying themselves, as we know this was far from the truth.? This advertisement would have been designed

to encourage people to sign up.? Also if

relatives of soldiers had been worrying about their loved ones then this advertisement

would have put their minds at rest (thinking it was really like this).? The government would have been very pleased

with this because it was 1915 and the war was supposed to have been ?over by

Christmas?.? People were beginning to

feel that it was dragging on.?

Conscription hadn?t begun yet in Britain so the government needed fresh

troops and this would have been ideal to encourage people to sign up. ??????????? Compared

to other sources such as H or even G you can see how far this advertisement is

from the truth.

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