THE EMERGENCE OF “TOTAL” WAR

Many historians call the First World War the first “total war” for these reasons:1.Industrial warfare by huge conscript armies demanded the reorganization of the whole economy.2.Combat became utterly terrifying, with a killing zone over 5 miles deep; “shell shock” became a major source of casualties.3.Massive propaganda campaigns demonized the enemy in each country. 4.Hunger blockades, bombardments, and anti-partisan actions broke down the distinction between combatants & noncombatants.

The war’s outbreak caused strange rejoicing:Citizens of Paris on 2 August 1914

Soldiers in Berlin march toward Paris, 2 August 1914

Munich’s Odeon Square, August 1, 1914: “I fell down on my knees and thanked Heaven for granting me the good fortune of being permitted to live at this time.” (Mein Kampf, p. 161)

THE GROWTH OF MILITARY FIREPOWER, 1815-1914

ARMIES AT WATERLOO, 1815:

70,000 men each under Napoleon & Wellington, fighting on a 1.5-mile

front

ARMIES AT BATTLE OF THE MARNE, 1914:

1 million men on each side, fighting along a

90-mile front

FIREARMS:

Smooth-bore muskets

RANGE: 150 yardsRATE OF FIRE: 2 rounds per minute

High-powered riflesRANGE: 1 mileRATE OF FIRE: 12x per minutePLUS 2 machine guns per thousand men; RATE OF FIRE: 400x per minute

ARTILLERY:

3 cannon per 1,000 men, firing solid shot or canisterRANGE: ½ mile for shot, 150 yards for canisterRATE OF FIRE: 1 round per minute

6 cannon per thousand men, firing high explosive shellsRANGE: 4-10 miles

RATE OF FIRE: 20 rounds per minute

The German advance was halted in the BATTLE OF THE MARNE

(Sep. 6-9, 1914)

German war dead,

Battle of the Marne

(published in the French

press)

A German trench on the Western Front, November 1914

Most of the soldier’s time involved trench maintenance

The Western Front: Aerial view of a German trench network

Tsar Nicholas II greets Russian soldiersdeparting for the front in early August 1914

Russian troops invade East Prussia, August 1914

The Battle of Tannenberg, East Prussia, August 27-30, 1914:

30,000 Russians killed, 100,000 captured

Russians surrendering at Tannenberg, August 30, 1914 (published in Germany)

General Alexander Samsonov committe

d suicide…

The situation in December 1915

Life in a German dugout in the Argonne Forest in 1915

(posed photograph to reassure the Home Front)

Otto Dix, “The Dugout” (1924)

“A Munitions Factory in Lyons: The Forge” (1917):Victory demanded that most industrial capacity serve the

war effort, and that women take jobs asminers, metalworkers, & munitions workers

A Frenchwoman operates a lathe in a metalworking factory

German women in a munitions factory

The British blockade caused widespread hunger in Germany:

“A Warm Lunch for 35¢” (Berlin, 1917)

In February 1915 the U-Boots began to torpedo Allied merchant vessels around the British Isles

without warning; they usually could not afford to assist the

survivors….

The RMS Lusitania passenger liner, with ad placed by the German embassy in the New York Times on April 22, 1915.

One German torpedo sank it on May 15, killing 1,195 of the 1,955 persons

aboard.

Fred Spear, “ENLIST”

(USA, 1915)

“This will make room for our

colonists”(1914):

Reports of German

atrocities in Belgium

motivated the British people

to fight

“The Great European War:

The Great Battle of the Russian Hero

with the German Serpent”

(Russia, ca. 1915)

“Destroy This Mad Brute”

(USA, 1917):The resumption of

unrestricted U-Boot warfare brought

America into the warin April 1917

Erich Maria Remarque(1898-1970),

born in Osnabrück asErich Paul Remark;

he served at the front from June 26 to July 31,

1917, when he was severely wounded by

shrapnel.Photographed here in Davos, Switzerland, in

1929, soon after the publication

of All Quiet.

Otto Dix, “War Triptych” (1929-32)