The historians’ view: the Home Front in WWI

Why was the Home Front so crucial in World War I? Historians Annette Becker of Paris-Ouest Nanterre University, John Horne of Trinity College, Dublin and Gerd Krumeich of Duesseldorf University offer their explanations.

ANNETTE BECKER: “The Home Front played the same vital role for all the belligerent nations: without it, waging war was impossible. In every country people had to work harder: in the countryside to feed fighters and the civilian population, in munitions factories to supply the front, but also in countless other areas like producing and transporting the thousands of tonnes of wood needed to build and maintain the trenches. There was an absolutely unbelievable logistical effort to support the fighters. The figures are dizzying.

Economic support went hand in hand with moral support. When the rear stops supporting the men on the front, war becomes impossible. That is what happened in Russia with the 1917 revolution: everything collapsed at once, and no one wanted to be fighting any more. That is what happened too in Germany and Austria-Hungary towards the war’s end, when the Allied blockade made it impossible to feed their people.”

JOHN HORNE: “The only way to win this defensive siege war, which turned into a war of attrition, was to bring ever more massive resources to bear on the front in the hope of finally breaking through. For that to occur, it was necessary to mobilise society economically, culturally, politically and psychologically.

This mobilisation of what the British would come to call the Home Front became vital for victory. It resulted in a paradox: the more the fighting front was locked in stalemate, the more civil society became active in supplying the material superiority that would enable the military eventually to triumph.

Hence the profound changes wrought by the war which in four years would bring industrial and technological developments of a kind undreamed of by those who had launched the war.”

GERD KRUMEICH: “There was a constant two-way movement of supplies and emotions between the frontline and the rear. Neither could do without the other. An industrialised war requires constant support from the rear to keep frontline fighters supplied with weapons, munitions and food.

But the Great War was also fought by millions of civilians who had been put in uniform. These conscripts, who had no military experience unlike the professional armies of the 19th century, continued to think and feel like civilians. To keep going, they needed to be in constant contact with their loved ones left behind, which is why mail became so vitally important.”