“How did the soldiers’ mindsets transition over the course of the war and in what aspects do we see the war damaging their mental state? “
Observing the late months of 1914 and entering into 1915, the pre-war excitement, “esprit de corps” and the ubiquitous brimming anticipation were starting to slowly dissipate. The first months of the actual crossfire set the precedent for how the war was going to unfold and it crushed the established beliefs of the people, who thought that the war was going to be “over before Christmas”. People thought that because of the swift mobilisation of the armies and the rapid industrial progress that the countries undertook in the past century, the war would be a relatively quick conflict, which will result in victory for their country. The government took advantage of those views to propagandise patriotic morale and nationalistic views in order to gather more recruits. Even though optimism was rooted skin-deep into the consciousness of society, there were also people who realised that the conflict would remain in tact long after the expectation. The period of rapid industrialisation that the countries undertook during the past century allowed the respective armies to mobilise in record time, due to the developing railway paths across the countries and it also prompted a huge development and variety in warfare. Due to the modernised weapons and developed artillery used by both sides, soldiers were forced to take cover and dig themselves in to avoid being struck by the enemy. Thus, introducing trench warfare in the second half of 1914, which would play a pivotal role in the upcoming years, the ideals that the conflict would reach its culmination in the upcoming months and triumph will follow were properly crushed. More than that, the conflict, even though reaching a static point of “stalemate”, would gradually start deteriorating. One of the main factor, which caused the decline of the pre-mar morale was the unexpected violent approach thorough the war. The chivalry and sumptuousness, which romanticized the idea of war, were lost in the conflagration of grenades, shrapnel from mortars and above all, artillery projectile bombs or “shells. The soldiers’ exposure to the continuum of bombardments, shelling and loud explosions in the trenches had a devastating and irreversible effect not only on their physical state, but also on their mental health. “Shell shock” was the term used to describe this phenomenon, first appearing in the British medical journal “The Lancet” in February 1915. [Alexander, Caroline. "World War I 100 Year Later: The Shock of War."] Symptoms, that were observed by Charles Myers of the Royal Army Medical Corps, included reduced vision, loss of smell and taste, mild cases of amnesia, constant trembling state, tinnitus or continuous ringing, poor concentration, dizziness and severely disturbed sleep. [Alexander, Caroline. "World War I 100 Year Later: The Shock of War."] Shell shock was acknowledges only as a physical injury in the beginning, but then gradually medical opinion started to reflect advances in psychiatry and shell shock became thought of as an emotional collapse due to being a witness to the horrible carnage of war. Unfortunately, shell shock wasn’t treated properly and many of the soldiers, once the medical staff confirmed that they do not have any physical wounds, were expected to return to the front and resume their fighting, seeing as the army needed everyone to be in tact. [Alexander, Caroline. "World War I 100 Year Later: The Shock of War."] Another vicious weapon used during the war was poisonous gas, which caused many crucifying and utterly painful slow deaths, mainly by asphyxia. Those who survived were diagnosed with neurasthenia and disordered action of the heart, as well as visible skin injuries. ["Psychological Effects of Chemical Weapons: A Follow-up Study of First World War Veterans."] But poisonous gas also affected mentality – it caused psychological trauma for the soldiers, who had to watch their fellow comrades suffocate to death. Many of them developed intense cases of post-traumatic stress and anxiety disorders. [Veterans at Risk: The Health Effects of Mustard Gas and Lewisite.] Long-term effects in survivors from gas attacks appear to be predominantly psychological rather than physical. ["The Experience of Soldier Exposed to Gas."] A crucial factor, which also diminished the exuberant mood was the appalling conditions in the trenches, as well as the experiences, which the soldiers had to overcome there. It has been estimated that up to one third of Allied casualties on the Western Front actually happened in the trenches. [Duffy, Michael. "Life in the Trenches."] Seeing as the trenches and dug outs were being present in the battlefield, the enemy’s constant shelling caused enormous explosions that buried soldiers alive in their positions. [Duffy, Michael. "Life in the Trenches."]. The environment, in which the soldiers had to live, was overly unhygienic and a lot of diseases and animal infestations happened. Trench foot was a very common occurrence among soldiers. It’s associated with foot swelling, which caused immense pain for the soldiers, which were almost every time on their feet and sometimes the limb had to be amputated in order to not make the situation even worse. This medical condition was caused by the atrocious conditions in the trenches, seeing as they were always muddy and waterlogged and the continuous exposure to damp and cold, topped off with the tight boots the soldiers had to wear, caused many of them to experience the awful case of trench foot. [Torry, Harriet. "100 Year Legacies: The Lasting Impact of World War I – Trench Foot."] The soldiers also had to face lice and rats on a daily occurrence. The soldier’s clothes were infested with lice, seeing as the dirty and unhygienic conditions in the trenches created a suitable environment for them and as the soldiers couldn’t bathe and clean their clothes regularly, they infested the trenches entirely too quickly, causing irritable itching. Moreover, they infected the soldiers with trench fever, which was one of the main sanitary problems of The First World War. ["Body Louse."] On the other hand, rats were a common problem in the trenches, seeing as they favoured this environment. In some cases was reported that rats could reach the size of cats and it didn’t help that they reproduced really quickly. Other than the fact that they ate up all the food and rations, those animals fed up on the bodies of the wounded and deceased soldiers, which was an atrociously grim scene, which scarred mentally many of the soldiers who were unfortunate enough to witness it. ["Animals during the War."] “Pity on us who are always fighting on the frontiers Of limitlessness and the future Pity our mistakes pity our sins” - Guillaume Apollinaire [Winter, J. M. Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History.] Gradually and inevitably, the perception of war began to transform. The idealized version of it diminished with the weight of the horrors and inexplicable things happening to both soldiers and ordinary people. Soldiers were ready to inflict pain on themselves – from “malingering” and seeking venereal diseases to actual self-inflicted wounds such as using infected bandages and to shooting oneself in the hand or food. This shows the astonishing amount of pain some soldiers were ready to inflict on themselves in order to get away from the war. ["Neither Gove, Nor Baldrick, But Shirking and Skulking."] Other soldiers started to realize that somebody higher on the hierarchy pulls the strings and they are the one doing the “dirty work” or as Eric Maria Remarque said it – being “the wrong people doing the fighting”. [Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front.] Obedience wasn’t a choice or done consciously, it started being a primary reflex. “Obedience ceased largely to be a conscious choice and instead became a default option.” - Alexander Watson [Watson, Alexander. Enduring the Great War: Combat, Morale and Collapse in the German and British Armies, 1914-1918.] Thus, people started perceiving war differently and this reflected in different types of art. Poems were sharper and harsher, depicting the horror and trepidation on the battlefront; art works began to look somber and more realistic. Siegfried Sassoon, who was a war enthusiast before he actually experienced the constant terror, began openly criticizing those, who were naïve to still cling into the archaic depictions of war: “You worship decorations; you believe // That chivalry redeems the war's disgrace.” [Sassoon, Siegfried. "Glory of Women."] In his book “Site of Memory, Sites of Mourning”, Jay Winters describes how people’s perspective changed about the attitude towards war: “Current interpretations of the cultural history of the Great War focus on two basic components of that process of understanding. The first is encapsulated in the term ‘modern memory’. It describes the creation of a new language of truth-telling about war in poetry, prose and the visual arts.”… “As Samuel Hynes has argued, the war turned back the clock on cultural experimentation at home. But at the same time, soldier-writers brought the ‘aesthetics of direct experience’ to bear on imagining the war in a way far removed from the ‘lies’ or ‘Big Words’ of the older generation, which sent them to fight and die in France and Flanders.” …“The second way of understanding the war entails what many modernists rejected: patriotic certainties, ‘high diction’, incorporating euphemisms about battle, ‘glory’ and the ‘hallowed dead’, in sum, the sentimentality and lies of wartime propaganda.” [Winter, J. M. Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History.] Entering into the actual crossfire, people began to apprehend that this conflict is going to be bloody, terrorising and possibly leaving a huge mark on the development of history and the world. The obsolete perceptions about the glory of war and the sanctimony of victory were buried alive together with the soldiers, who laid down their lives for a thoughtless cause, prompted to believe they were doing the right thing. The exuberant morale, the high zest and uplifted spirits, which people brought into the war were crushed with the gradual realisation that no one is going to escape this strife unscarred. Many of the soldiers were left with physical injuries as well as mental health issues, which they had to live with for the rest of their lives. In conclusion, The First World War is one of the most inexplicable conflicts, which bought war carnage and psychological trauma to a whole new level, but which also integrated the epiphany that war is not something to be romanticized. Works cited: Alexander, Caroline. "World War I 100 Year Later: The Shock of War." Smithsonian Magazine. N.p., Sept. 2010. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-shock-of-war-55376701/#3hAmpZr6irj2sDOt.99 Jones, E., B. Everitt, S. Ironside, I. Palmer, and S. Wessely. "Psychological Effects of Chemical Weapons: A Follow-up Study of First World War Veterans." OVID. N.p., 2008. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. http://pt.wkhealth.com/pt/re/pgme/abstract.00006826-200810000-00006.htm;jsessionid=XKwcXZZqqRVWPBpjFC2PBjQ1kZ5SZqbLPT9pXlcfxjLTyZ8hTlqt!-396536289!181195628!8091!-1 Pechura, Constance M., and David P. Rall. Veterans at Risk: The Health Effects of Mustard Gas and Lewisite. Washington, D.C.: National Academy, 1993. Print. Jones, Edgar, and Neil Greenberg. "The Experience of Soldier Exposed to Gas." Long-term Psychological Consequences (n.d.): n. pag. Nov. 2007. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kcmhr/publications/assetfiles/historical/Jones2007-longtermpsychologicalww1.pdf Duffy, Michael. "Life in the Trenches." First World War. N.p., 22 Aug. 2009. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/trenchlife.htm Torry, Harriet. "100 Year Legacies: The Lasting Impact of World War I – Trench Foot." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. http://online.wsj.com/ww1/trench-foot "Body Louse." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. http://www.britannica.com/animal/body-louse "Animals during the War." BBC News. BBC, 10 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/0/ww1/25403863 Winter, J. M. Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995. Print. "Neither Gove, Nor Baldrick, But Shirking and Skulking." The Real WW1. N.p., 13 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. https://therealww1.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/neither-gove-nor-baldrick-but-shirking-and-skulking/ Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. London: Vintage, 2005. Print. Watson, Alexander. Enduring the Great War: Combat, Morale and Collapse in the German and British Armies, 1914-1918. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2008. 58. Print. Sassoon, Siegfried. "Glory of Women." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/57368 |