The civilian front

What was new about the First World War was the way in which each nation had to use every available resource to fight it. Industrial resources - coal, steel, iron, textiles - and agriculture were stretched to the maximum. Human resources - people - were also used to the maximum to win the war. Women found themselves working in factories, driving buses and digging the land. Men, for the first time in Britain´s history, were forced to enlist in the army. This was called conscription. For the first time British civilians were also in danger from German bombers and Zeppelin raids. The war was no longer far away and remote. It could even be followed on film.

The First World War was the first war between advanced, industrial powers. This was the basic reason for the war lasting over four years. For most of the war the two sides were evenly matched and the war would be won by the side whose industrial resources lasted longest. It was not won by the side with the bravest soldiers or with the best strategy but by the side who could keep their troops well fed and supplied and the population at home still behind the men at the front.

Neil Demarco: Britain and the Great War; Oxford University Press, 1992/2000, page 20