What were the challenges for the British military?

Britain – The First World War, 1914-18

In this course, Professor Jeremy Black (University of Exeter) explores Britain at war from 1914 to 1918. In the first lecture, we think about Britain’s military challenges during the First World War. In the second lecture, we think about the challenges of industry and manufacturing for Britain. In the third lecture, we think about the re-cultivation and other challenges relating to food production. Next, we think about how the First World War affected British political culture. In the fifth lecture, we think about how the First World War affected women’s suffrage. In the sixth and final lecture, we think about how morale was maintained during the First World War.

What were the challenges for the British military?

In this lecture, we think about Britain’s military challenge to its home front during the First World War, focusing in particular on: (i) the fact that, while Britain had been involved in long wars in the past, there were no living people in 1914 who had been involved in them; (ii) the unprecedented experience of airborne attacks on British soil first experienced in the First World War; (iii) the first instance of conscription to the army being present in the First World War; (iv) some of the ocean-going technological threats Britain faced from Germany; (v) Germany’s power at sea being enhanced by its dominion over many European ports; (vi) Arthur Conan Doyle’s writing that British defeat could come at the hand of submarines through the cutting off of food imports; (vii) the penetration of Scapa Flow by German U-18 in November 1914; (viii) German support for Irish separatism; (ix) anxiety caused by the communist revolution overthrowing the Russian government in 1917, leading to the end of the war between Russia and Germany.