Munitions workers played a crucial role in the First World War. They supplied the troops at the front with the armaments and equipment they needed to fight. They also freed up men from the workforce to join the armed forces. Following a shortage of shells in 1915, the Ministry of Munitions was founded to control Britain's output of war material. It oversaw all aspects of the production and supply of munitions, under the forceful and energetic Minister for Munitions, David Lloyd George. A number of new initiatives were soon introduced to improve production levels. One of these was an appeal to women to register for war service work. Thousands of women volunteered as a result, and many of these were soon employed in the growing number of munitions factories across the country. By the end of the war, over 700,000 – and possibly up to one million – women had become ‘munitionettes’. The munitionettes worked long hours in often hazardous conditions. Hear stories of some of the dangers and difficulties they faced by listening to these former munitions workers.
As Ethel Dean, who worked at Woolwich Arsenal, recalled, ‘Everything that that powder touches goes yellow. All the girls’ faces were yellow, all round their mouths. They had their own canteen, in which everything was yellow that they touched… Everything they touched went yellow – chairs, tables, everything.’ Audio object record
The exact number of fatalities is difficult to know: many of these cases were kept out of the press, due to the impact such news would have had on national morale and the war effort. Isabella Clarkeremembered that her friend died from the effects of gas poisoning, contracted while they were filling gas shells at the White Lund munitions factory in Lancashire. Henry Oxley remembered from his time at Woolwich Arsenal, ‘Prevalent in my particular job was filings coming off the machine into one’s eyes. There was no protection to shield your eyes from the filings coming up. And that was an occurrence which happened quite often.’
Journalist, lecturer, and author Adam Hochschild discusses the role African and Asian troops from European colonies played in World War I. In August 1914, both sides expected a quick victory. Neither leaders nor civilians from warring nations were prepared for the length and brutality of the war, which took the lives of millions by its end in 1918. The loss of life was greater than in any previous war in history, in part because militaries were using new technologies, including tanks, airplanes, submarines, machine guns, modern artillery, flamethrowers, and poison gas. The map below shows the farthest advances of Axis and Allied forces on the fronts to the west, east, and south of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Most of the war's major battles took place between those lines of farthest advance on each front. Germany’s initial goal was to knock the French out of the war by occupying Belgium and then quickly march into France and capture Paris, its capital. German troops could then concentrate on the war in the east. That plan failed, and by the end of 1914, the two sides were at a stalemate. Before long, they faced each other across a 175-mile-long line of trenches that ran from the English Channel to the Swiss border. These trenches came to symbolize a new kind of warfare. A young officer named Harold Macmillan (who later became prime minister of Britain) explained in a letter home:
The area between the opposing armies’ trenches was known as “No Man's Land” for good reason. Fifty years after the war, Richard Tobin, who served with Britain’s Royal Naval Division, recalled how he and his fellow soldiers entered No Man’s Land as they tried to break through the enemy’s line. “As soon as you got over the top,” he told an interviewer, “fear has left you and it is terror. You don’t look, you see. You don’t hear, you listen. Your nose is filled with fumes and death. You taste the top of your mouth. . . . You’re hunted back to the jungle. The veneer of civilization has dropped away.” Unlike the war on Germany’s western front, the war on the eastern front was a war of rapid movement. Armies repeatedly crisscrossed the same territories. Civilians were frequently caught in the crossfire, and millions were evacuated from their homes and expelled from territories as armies approached. On both sides of the conflict, many came to believe that what they were experiencing was not war but “mass slaughter.” A private in the British army explained, “If you go forward, you’ll likely be shot, if you go back you’ll be court-martialed and shot, so what the hell do you do? What can you do? You just go forward.” The carnage was incomprehensible to everyone, as millions of soldiers and civilians alike died. Historian Martin Gilbert details the loss of life:
The chart below provides estimates of the number of soldiers killed, wounded, and reported missing during World War I. Exact numbers are often disputed and are nearly impossible to determine for a variety of reasons. Different countries used different methods to count their dead and injured, and some methods were more reliable than others. Records of some countries were destroyed during the war and its aftermath. Also, some countries may have changed the number of casualties in their official records for political reasons. The numbers of civilians from each country killed during the war are even more difficult to estimate. The numbers in the chart reflect the estimates made by most historians today (see reading, Negotiating Peace in Chapter 3). World War I Casualties
Source: "WWI Casualty and Death Tables," originally published on PBS website. Statistics also available on Encyclopedia Britannica's website. * Includes deaths from all causes. ** Official figures.
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Using the strategies from Facing History is almost like an awakening. — Claudia Bautista, Santa Monica, Calif |
Which of the following was an important factor in the staggering number of casualties suffered by all sides in World War I?
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