Selling a war. [with audio]

For Britain, in the beginning, it was like plunging into a black hole of uncertain depth and dimension.How long would the war last? Where would it be fought? How many men were needed? How would they be supplied?The answers to these questions remained elusive in 1916 even as the toll of British war dead climbed and major decisions loomed.While the First World War would eventually involve thirty nations, with military operations across Europe, in Africa and in the Middle East, the crisis point in 1916 lay in France, a nation in grave peril.The French army had suffered 650,000 casualties — dead and wounded — after seventeen months of fighting, and its morale was then nearing collapse. Germany’s forward troops were within a five-day march to Paris and the very survival of the French nation was at stake. If France fell, Germany’s expansionist capabilities would rise dramatically, jeopardizing Britain’s status as a global power.A major assault against entrenched German positions in France was needed and France pressed Britain to commit to a joint offensive; but, at the time, Britain’s stocks of war materials were limited and outdated, and the ranks of her army were thin. After an initial surge in volunteer enlistments during the first year of the war, by 1916, the numbers of British men stepping forward to serve could not keep pace with mounting British losses.Many more men were needed.So, the British government enacted compulsory conscription for the first time in its history, but the draft triggered large-scale protest demonstrations; and after six months, thirty percent of those who had been called up for military service had failed to appear.But the necessity of defending France was clear, so plans were made for a large-scale British offensive along both sides of the Somme River, in northern France, that would commence on July 1, 1916.The Somme offensive would be a massive undertaking, requiring hundreds of thousands of men and mountains of war materials.Such an effort would touch every corner of Britain.So, to garner public support, the War Office hired two filmmakers to prepare newsreels and authorized their entry into battlefield areas generally off-limits to news reporters. The newsreels were intended to show the public the British military’s extensive preparations for the Somme offensive and the initial days of the army’s assault on German lines.‘If the British people could see what is required in war and the brave cheerfulness of British troops fighting on their behalf,’ the officials claimed, ‘they would surely rally to their cause.’The filmmakers were dispatched to France in the last week of June, as battle preparations were well underway.They returned to London two weeks later with astonishing footage, and War Department officials were thrilled with what they saw.They scrapped the newsreel idea and directed the filmmakers to prepare a feature-length documentary using selected portions of the footage.The film would be war propaganda, to be sure, but grounded in reality.[You can see the film, entitled ‘Battle of the Somme,’ here.]The film begins in the rear of the British lines, with scenes of horse-drawn wagons carrying supplies, men stockpiling munitions, and artillery batteries conducting bombardments intended to ‘soften up’ distant German positions.Columns of British troops march along the road and file into the trenches, and a brief staged reenactment shows them climbing out in the ‘over-the-top’ assault and entering ‘no-man’s-land’ on the first day of battle.The film shows stretcher bearers recovering wounded British troops and images of German prisoners and captured German equipment; and it concludes with scenes of a devastated French village. Images of gore and brutality were filmed, but omitted, giving the film viewer the perspective of one in the rear of British lines who watches men go forward into battle and then return later, after the fight, while never seeing actual combat.And throughout most of the film, the British troops are shown in high spirits, marching in tidy formations gaily while smiling and twirling their caps in the air.Scenes of men at rest exude the camaraderie that comes from the sharing of meals, cigarettes, and jokes in close quarters. Images of death or exhaustion are fleeting, and throughout, the British army is depicted as having the advantage.The film opened in British theaters in August 1916 to tremendous acclaim as fighting along the Somme continued to rage two hundred miles away.More than twenty million people would see the Battle of the Somme during its first six weeks.Many had never been to a film theater before.Many of those who saw the pictures at the private view at the Scala Theatre to-day found them almost unbearable… What makes it possible for the armchair sightseer to go on watching is a simple thing. It is the realisation that what we have all read about the cheerfulness of the British soldier is true. They are cheerful in the worst of the hell with the everyday resignation of the workman busy at his job. — The Manchester Observer and Guardian, August 11, 1916But the film is not truthful.While it is considered an accurate record of what it shows, its intentional omissions create a gross distortion of the battle.On the first day of the battle, while the War Department’s cameramen were present on the front lines and filming, the British army suffered 57,420 casualties; but there is no hint of that in this film.Of these, 19,240 were fatalities; and for this sacrifice, the British army gained only three square miles of ground.July 1, 1916, would become the costliest day in British military history, but film scenes depicting this staggering loss were left on the cutting room floor. The British War Department wanted a public morale booster; so, despite having photographed this near futile effort, that is what the filmmakers produced.… [T]he War Office announces that the film was shown to the King and Queen at Windsor Castle Saturday. The King afterward expressed to the officials responsible for its presentation, his approval of the pictures. The Queen also expressed keen appreciation. — New York Times, September 5, 1916.The film was distributed throughout the British Empire as well as to allied nations, including the US, giving millions a distorted view of a catastrophe in the making.They saw a film of half-truths.The whole truth would have been unbearable.The British army would fight along the Somme River for nearly five months, until November 1916, and would suffer a total of 420,000 casualties; and towns and villages across the British Empire would lose an entire generation of young men.For this sacrifice, Britain gained a strip of land that was six miles deep and twenty miles wide.***There is nothing left to be said. <br/><br/>Get full access to Eight Things To Know at look.substack.com/subscribe