The Volunteer Army

The British government quickly began a recruitment campaign once war had broken out in August 1914. Lord Kitchener, the Minister for War, launched an appeal for an extra 100,000 men between the ages of 19 and 30 to volunteer for the war that would be "over by Christmas". In the meantime, the bulk of Britain´s professional army - the British Expeditionary Force - was sent to Belgium: 125,000 men. (By Christmas 90% of them were casualties - either killed, wounded or missing.) The response to Kitchener´s appeal was staggering. By the end of September 736,000 had volunteered.

       "Stand up and take the war

       The Hun is at the gate!"

When war broke out the response of the public was much like the lines quoted above from a poem by Rudyard Kipling. (Kipling´s view of the war later changed from one of enthusiasm to one of bitter despair when, in September 1915, his only son [aged 17] was killed.) The feeling was overwhelmingly patriotic; it was every man´s duty to enlist and save Britain and civilisation from the "barbarous Huns" (as Germans were unflatteringly known). "There are only two divisions in the world", wrote Kipling, "human beings and Germans". British propaganda was very effective. Propaganda is the technique by which people are persuaded to behave in a certain way or believe certain ideas.

Propaganda campaigns are usually organised by governments and organisations. Quite often they involve the deliberate use of lies. British propaganda claimed that the Germans were raping Belgian nuns, crucifying priests and tossing babies in the air and catching them on the points of their bayonets! No evidence was ever found for these stories but it served its purpose of arousing hatred in Britain against the Germans and boosting recruitment into the army.

Neil Demarco: Britain and the Great War; Oxford University Press, 1992/2000, page 25