Somme Coursework

These three sources help us understand why the public at home supported the war. The three sources combined are very positive and are always very calm.

Firstly, Source D is an extract from a book. The extract was taken from “The first years of the great war”. It was published in London 1916 already becoming biased as it is all English.

The extract provides a very real clue as to why the general public, waiting at home would be behind the war. The author gives a bright description of the British soldiers. The author spends a picture to the public at home describing the soldiers “leaping from their trenches,”. The author describes the German soldiers by the use of the word “Hun”. The word “Hun” is a negative term used for the Germans. Again the author, is becoming biased as he is very negative towards the Germans whereas he describes the British as being invincible. By this source the public get a vivid description imaging that the war is in favour to Britain as it does not refer to the amounts of deaths for the British soldiers.

The writer says they didn’t “falter” as they reached the Germans. He describes them as brave and advancing through the war easily. He mentions they attack in “Line after line”. This makes the public at home feel secure as they think that not many British soldiers are dieing. They get this image from a few words, “didn’t falter as they advanced, and move steadily as if on parade before the King, Heroes all.” This creates an unreal image in the readers mind as this is not actually happening in the war.

Source E was a last letter written by Lieutenant John Raws on 19th August 1916. The person who wrote the letter shortly died during the Battle of the Somme. In his last letter he says, “Goldy” and the others officers were murdered.” For the murder of Goldy he blames “the incompetence callousness and personal vanity of those in high authority”. He suggests that the soldiers in high authority such as the seniors were not good at their jobs and cowardly. In this Source there is a lot of emotive words like “callousness”. He felt that the senior staff were all self centred and didn’t care about the soldiers and their lives. When Lieutenant John Raws refers to “Goldy” Goldy was his brother his full name was Robert Gold Thorpe Raws.

Source F, is an extract from a film. This was to show the public at home not to worry as everything was going in England’s favor. The reason why they did this was for propaganda. The film had many real pictures however some of the footage was edited and made less violent removing a lot of deaths of the British soldiers

Another vital aim for this film was to reassure the public at home the “reality” of the war. The film was made to make the public at home think that the British soldiers were on top and advancing through the war with ease.

Sources D and F were to boost the support from the public at home and back the war. All three sources left out the horrific description of the war which was really occurring.