How can you explain the brutality of World War I? In your opinion, should we regard soldiers as victims or as perpetrators of violence?

Introduction

There are a lot of debates that have been done in regards to the role played by soldiers in World War I. While most view soldiers as perpetrators of violence, there is a lot of evidence that portray soldiers as victims of the war. The soldiers experienced the terror of mud, diseases, slime and constant threat of shellfire. Most of them armed with clubs and knives, new weapons and heavy artillery including poison gas, threatened their life during the grisly operation of trend raids. In case they were not fighting, soldiers were locked into a deadlock of trench exposing them to boredom, and some ended up committing suicides for a war most of them had no idea of its cause.

The soldiers who were mobilized to fight in World War I undergone training before being engaged in the battle. However, there was no single defined experience of training making different soldiers to have different experiences depending on the unit they joined, when they joined, who they were, where they were to be sent and how easily they could adapt to the conditions. While some had a good training time, most were deployed weeks after rudimentary training[1]. To those who were lucky to undergo basic training, the weapons given were not good enough to help them in the fight. Most ended up being killed as a result of poor training and lack of weapons.

The soldiers were exposed to trauma and psychological problem. The psychosocial wounds of World War I were often experienced by the soldiers with most being labelled ‘shell shock’. They were shellshock emerging from the war that soldiers routinely exposed to as they engaged in the battle. Most soldiers attempted to escape the war or frontline service through self-inflicted wounds. Self-inflicted wounds took the form of gunshots to the foot or hand with some rubbing chemically infected soil in their eyes to avoid the trauma in war[2]. While the first world war was planned with the great power having the anticipation of the war, the soldiers involved were never prepared for the war. There was no war since 1815, and most of the war witnessed were localized. The golden age viewed war to be pointless, and the soldiers who were engaged were not prepared psychologically on what awaited them.

The young men who were taken to support in World War I had little or no experience in dealing with trauma and stress. This showed most of them refusing to participate in the battle, and for that reason, they were mistaken to be coward. Those who were not able to participate in the war were either punished or imprisoned. The slogan was ‘kill or being killed’ forcing the majority of them to do what they were not willing to for the sake of their lives[3]. About 309 British soldiers were executed during the First World War because they were taken to have mental health conditions. Those who were left to fight experienced hunger and discrimination because the food was not adequate, and there was a wide gap between officers and foot soldiers. The living conditions experienced by soldiers while in the camps was not human and some developed sicknesses.

High level of dehumanization was experienced by those involved in the war. Soldiers were radicalized to see their enemy as an obstacle which has to be destroyed rather than seeing them as human beings. One of the French soldiers said, ‘The enemy is nothing but an obstacle which has to be destroyed’[4]. The radicalization made soldiers turn into animals, especially after national stereotyping of enemies. There was a lot of propaganda that was spread to make soldiers believe that Russians were uncultured and Asians were backwards and therefore should be eliminated. There was no single genuine reason given to the soldier on why they had to participate in the war. As drawn from British soldier song, “We’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here”[5]. World War I was radicalized by the big powers and soldiers were meant to believe in the art of war as a cleansing oneself. However, World War I was meant to promote the political agenda of the big forces.

After World War I, some of the soldiers fell to pieces as a result of the torment. Life was never the same again due to nightmares and constant flashback of the war. Some had long-life injuries with limb blown-off and other serious injuries. The gases soldiers were exposed to make them to suffer much later after the war[6]. All these made them incapable of future employment and different lifestyle adding financial difficulties and depression to their family situation. Women were involved in the military to help men who were in frontline support their family and take care of their children. The processing of mobilizing was done through a psychological approach. The children were used to coerce their parents to take part in the war as it was deemed to be for the sake of the country.

Bibliography

Crouthamel, Jason, and Peter Leese. Psychological Trauma and the Legacies of the First World War. Springer, 2016.

Martin, Tony. “Johnson, Henry (1891-1929), World War I soldier.” American National Biography Online, 2008. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.2001908.

Penslar, Derek J. “The Jewish Soldier of World War I: From Participant to Victim.” Jews and the Military, 2013. doi:10.23943/princeton/9780691138879.003.0006.

“Soldiers’ Letters.” Brill’s Digital Library of World War I (n.d.). doi:10.1163/2352-3786_dlws1_beww1_en_0551.

“A War Unimagined: Food and the Rank and File Soldier of the First World War.” Brill’s Digital Library of World War I (n.d.). doi:10.1163/2352-3786_dlws1_nij9789004166585_i_383_18.

[1] Tony Martin, “Johnson, Henry (1891-1929), World War I soldier,” American National Biography Online, 2008, 43, doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.2001908.

[2] Derek J. Penslar, “The Jewish Soldier of World War I: From Participant to Victim,” Jews and the Military, 2013, 21, doi:10.23943/princeton/9780691138879.003.0006.

[3] Jason Crouthamel and Peter Leese, Psychological Trauma and the Legacies of the First World War (Springer, 2016), xx.

[4] “Soldiers’ Letters,” Brill’s Digital Library of World War I(n.d), doi:10.1163/2352-3786_dlws1_beww1_en_0551.

[5] “Soldiers’ Letters,” Brill’s Digital Library of World War I(n.d.), doi:10.1163/2352-3786_dlws1_beww1_en_0551.

[6]  “A War Unimagined: Food and the Rank and File Soldier of the First World War,” Brill’s Digital Library of World War I (n.d.), doi:10.1163/2352-3786_dlws1_nij9789004166585_i_383_18.