Context and Overview of the Great War: MUTINY

The year 1917 was full of contrasts. On the one hand, both civilians and soldiers wanted to escape the war; on the other hand, people continued to show strong support for the war. Even after three years of fighting, the loss of millions of lives, the stalemate on the front lines, and the disruption of nearly every aspect of daily life, most people insisted on continuing the war effort to the bitter end. In fact, all the peace initiatives that were begun in 1917 were rejected.

What motivated civilians, government leaders, generals and soldiers to continue fighting? The traditional values that had emerged with the growth of nationalism during the 1800s had a strong influence: national honor and patriotism, duty to one's country and a sense of camaraderie.These values-along with hatred, revenge and expectations of victory-led the people to consent to the war efforts, even though their leaders' strategies were grossly inadequate and inappropriate.

From the beginning of the war, however, people sought ways of coping with the effects of the war. Many on the front lines "escaped" by injury, disease or death. Others escaped psychologically and emotionally, while still others deserted or mutinied. New illnesses were identified, and a variety of treatments were investigated. The ultimate goal of every treatment of every injury, illness or madness was to help the person return to the war zone to resume fighting.

In 1917, the front-line soldiers in the Russian and French armies grew disillusioned and apathetic; they began refusing to obey orders, retreating when commanded to advance; they deserted their units and engaged in open rebellion and mutiny. In Russia, the mutiny was triggered when women in Petrograd demonstrated against the lack of food and the suffering, which they attributed to the incompetence of the tsarist regime. The governments of both France and Russia tried to cope with the mutinies; in Russia, the events ultimately led to revolution.

QUESTIONS

1. Why did civilians and soldiers continue to support the war? Give at least five reasons.

2. Why would the soldiers want to escape the battlefield? Give at least five reasons.

3. Imagine that you are a soldier on the front lines who wants to get away from that environment. What are five options for your escape? Which options are the most and least appealing to you?

4. Why would civilians who are miles away from the battlefront want to escape the war?

5. What would have to happen to motivate the majority of an army to mutiny?

6. What would have to happen to motivate a nation to rebel against its government?

Shell Shock

People escaped the Great War in a number of ways. One of the most destructive was a new form of disability among the soldiers, "shell shock." C.S. Myers introduced the term in 1915, possibly basing the name on the misconception that the illness resulted from a brain concussion caused by exploding shells. Other names for this condition were trench sickness, trench madness, traumatic neurosis, and combat or war neurosis. During World War II, it was called "battle fatigue"; the current clinical name for this conditions is "posttraumatic stress syndrome." War correspondent Philip Gibbs reported seeing a shell-shocked officer who "was convulsed with a dreadful rigor like a man in epilepsy, and clawed at his mouth, moaning horribly, with livid terror in his eyes. He had to be strapped to a stretcher before he could be carried away. He had been a tall and splendid man, this poor, terror-stricken lunatic."

A neurosis is a dysfunctional way of thinking, feeling and acting, generally characterized by behaviors that are rigid, repetitive and self defeating. Neurotic individuals vary in the degree to which they are careless, disassociated from their environment, disoriented, easily fatigued and ritualistic in their behaviors. Any one of these behaviors would be catastrophic on the battlefield. Early in the war, some physicians observed that the symptoms of shell shock were identical to certain hysterical disorders that resulted from such traumatic events as a mine collapse, train wreck or explosion at an industrial site.

Shell shock was brought about by the severe stress of prolonged exposure to the life-threatening conditions of combat and trench warfare. In reaction to the constant uncertainty and fear of a combat environment, men would suddenly snap in a nervous breakdown. Shell shock, or posttraumatic stress syndrome, essentially represented an escape from an intolerable, traumatic and destructive environment. It resulted from the individual's uncontrollable conscious or unconscious desire to escape the life-threatening environment. To be treated effectively, soldiers suffering from shell shock had to be removed from the battlefield, thus achieving their goal of escape.

The symptoms of shell shock varied from one individual to another in terms of severity and extent of physical disability, and there was no way to predict when a soldier would reach the breaking point or what would trigger it. Among soldiers, shell shock was eventually treated as a legitimate way of leaving the battlefield: These men were casualties of the war. Shell shock incapacitated tens of thousands of men of all ranks on both sides. Physicians on both sides reported that the number of shell-shocked soldiers decreased in 1918 as mobility on the battlefield increased.

Treatments for shell shock were experimental and included hypnosis, psychotherapy, electric shock therapy and drugs. The major objective of the treatments was to get the men back to the front as soon as possible.While many men partially recovered from the initial disabilities associated with this syndrome, very few ever attained full recovery and some committed suicide as the ultimate means of escape. Thousands of men did not show symptoms of shell shock until years after the war. In one veterans hospital in 1942, nearly 80 percent of the patients were diagnosed as having battle fatigue resulting from their experiences in the Great War.

QUESTIONS

1. Shell shock was not originally diagnosed as a mental illness, but as a reflection of the character and courage of a soldier. What were some of the nonmedical causes of shell shock?

2. What is a neurosis? Why do psychologists and psychiatrists view shell shock as a form of neurosis?

3. Given what you know about the conditions on the battlefields during the Great War, would you expect shell shock to be a common or uncommon condition for men at the front?

4. How could shell shock be considered an example of mutiny?

5. What were some of the specific observable symptoms of shell shock?

6. Why might battle fatigue be a better name for this condition than shell shock?

7. Name at least five methods that were used to treat and cure shell-shocked soldiers. What was the primary purpose of all of these forms of treatment?

8. Imagine that you are on the battlefield in the Great War, encountering the violence, terror and horror found there. How susceptible might you be to battle fatigue?

9. How does what you saw on the video affect your understanding of the psychological and emotional effects of the Vietnam War or the Persian Gulf War on soldiers who fought there?

An Act of Wilful Defiance

The statement below was written and published during the Great War by Siegfried Sassoon, a British poet who had been wounded in the war and had received a medal for his actions on the western front.

"I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this War, upon which I have entered as a war of defense and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow-soldiers entered upon this War should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible for them to be changed without our knowledge, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.

"I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolonging those sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust.

"I am not protesting against the military conduct of the War, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.

"On behalf of those who are suffering now, I make this protest against the deception which is being practiced on them. Also, I believe that it may help to destroy the callous complacence with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize."

(Source: Siegfried Sassoon Diaries, 1915-1918. Edited by Rupert Hart-Davis. London: Publisher needed, 1983. pp. 173-174.)

QUESTIONS

1. What was Sassoon's intent in publishing this statement?

2. Aside from his use of the word "protest," how do you know that this is a statement of protest?

3. Given what you know about the Great War, how accurate are Sassoon's claims and how justified is his protest?

4. Against what specific group of individuals is Sassoon protesting? Why did he target them?

5. Do you think that other soldiers in the Allied army agreed with his position? Would soldiers in the German army have agreed?

6. Sassoon was sent to a war hospital for psychiatric treatment for writing this statement. To what extent does this statement sound like the writings of a "madman"?

7. Why would the army have sent Sassoon to a psychiatric hospital, rather than before a military court?

8. If you had been the Prime Minister of Great Britain and had read this statement in the newspaper, what actions would you have taken in reaction to Sassoon's words of protest?

9. Imagine that you are a soldier on the front lines who has read this statement. Write Sassoon a letter in response.

10. How does this statement reflect Sassoon's desire to rebel against the British government for continuing the war effort? against the civilians of Britain for continuing to support the war effort?

STUDENT RESOURCE 5-E

The Best Kept Secret of the War

In April 1917, after the disastrous assaults at Aisne by the French army, members of the French army challenged their officers and refused to advance against the Germans. Within days the mutiny swept across France. Eventually, nearly half the army refused to participate in any further war activities. Soldiers rioted, threw down their weapons, walked away from the front, deserted or replaced their officers. Others moved to the rear and refused to take orders or assembled in so drunken a condition that they could not fight.

General Nivelle, the man who had ordered the offensive assaults, refused to take responsibility for the slaughter of his troops. His replacement, General Philip Petain, had to correct the extremely low morale and quell the mutiny as quickly as possible, without letting the Germans know there was a problem. He acted swiftly, with a series of courts-martial; however, there were only 49 executions and fewer than 1,000 men were imprisoned. Petain traveled to more than 30 military camps, making speeches at each and listening to the soldiers' grievances. He quickly improved the quality of food, length and frequency of leaves, and working conditions of his soldiers. He made every effort to boost the confidence and morale of the soldiers and promised that French troops would no longer be sent into battles that were sure to cost large numbers of lives. He kept his promises: French troops did not again go on the offensive until late in the summer of 1918. For their part, the soldiers defended France from any further German advances.

QUESTIONS

1. What is a mutiny? Why would an army resort to mutiny?

2. Given the information on this battle, how justified was the mutiny of the French army?

3. Why didn't the mutiny occur earlier in the war?

4. French factory workers went on strike at the same time as the army mutiny. Why might these workers have chosen to strike at the same time as the army?

5. How is mutiny a form of escape? a form of treason?

6. What is the usual punishment for mutiny? Given what you have studied, what might have been the worst action for Petain to have taken?

7. To what extent were General Petain's actions and decisions fair to the mutineers? How appropriate was his punishment of the mutineers?

8. If you had been a soldier in the French army in late April 1917, how would you describe what you saw on the battlefield? Would you have joined the mutiny? Give three reasons to justify your decision.

9. If you had been a soldier in the French army, how else could you have shown your dislike for what was occurring on the battlefield?