03.08.2011, 04:43
Interesting, although I notice the mix of british and american dialects don't mix easily.
One poem tells us that the poet doesn't want to kill because the Hun hadn't done anything. My grandfather gave me some histories of WW1 written back in the twenties. The opening chapters are full of German atrocities. The wicked Hun bayoneting pregnant french women in the intial advance, and such things.
How true that was is impossible for me to say. The point is that the Germans were seen very much as the enemy. You do hear anecdotes of different opinions, such as that football match played between both sides one christmas day.
It isn't just a matter of propaganda either. Whilst I'm sure the generals were only too keen to stress the wickedness of their enemy (as indeed was a staple of the home front as well as the trenches), there must have been a psychological need to see the enemy that way.
My reasoning is partly because of the dire conditions the men suffered to conduct the war, but also patriotism, a very strong factor in that era. Also, to see the enemy as essentially as human as yourselves opens the writer to doubts about his purpose (which understandably the poem underlines) which raises the not-to-be-discussed subjects of mutinies and concientious objectors, elements of which were subjected to summary military punishment throughout the war in order to preserve discipline.
From a personal persepective, it wasn't until my grandfather stuck bayonets into turkish defenders at gallipoli that he realised his enemy were as human as he was. There must have been a certain naivety involved. For some, it raised questions about how much humanity they retained. Once the war had progressed it wasn't unusual to see photographs of men smiling whilst standing among the bodies of the fallen.
One poem tells us that the poet doesn't want to kill because the Hun hadn't done anything. My grandfather gave me some histories of WW1 written back in the twenties. The opening chapters are full of German atrocities. The wicked Hun bayoneting pregnant french women in the intial advance, and such things.
How true that was is impossible for me to say. The point is that the Germans were seen very much as the enemy. You do hear anecdotes of different opinions, such as that football match played between both sides one christmas day.
It isn't just a matter of propaganda either. Whilst I'm sure the generals were only too keen to stress the wickedness of their enemy (as indeed was a staple of the home front as well as the trenches), there must have been a psychological need to see the enemy that way.
My reasoning is partly because of the dire conditions the men suffered to conduct the war, but also patriotism, a very strong factor in that era. Also, to see the enemy as essentially as human as yourselves opens the writer to doubts about his purpose (which understandably the poem underlines) which raises the not-to-be-discussed subjects of mutinies and concientious objectors, elements of which were subjected to summary military punishment throughout the war in order to preserve discipline.
From a personal persepective, it wasn't until my grandfather stuck bayonets into turkish defenders at gallipoli that he realised his enemy were as human as he was. There must have been a certain naivety involved. For some, it raised questions about how much humanity they retained. Once the war had progressed it wasn't unusual to see photographs of men smiling whilst standing among the bodies of the fallen.