Don't You Believe It tests you on propaganda.
World War One saw the first mass use of propaganda by both sides. Governments made sure that the people only heard what the government wanted them to. The aim was to make people think that they were on the side of justice, to encourage people to volunteer for military service and, most of all, to portray the enemy as being evil. Defeats went unreported, half-truths were exaggerated and lies were spread as news. The facts differed greatly from what people actually got to hear.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Many crimes were reported, including gouging out people's eyes and crucifying soldiers, but cannibalism was not reported. Perhaps it was thought too barbaric to be believed. An investigation concluded that, "...none of the rumours of wanton killings and torture could be verified."
|
The report mentions German artillery weapons which have been captured (2), German soldiers who have been killed (600) or taken prisoner (several hundred) and ground won from the Germans (1km). It does not mention any British casualties, which, by the end of the Battle one month later, had reached almost 60,000
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
The losses during the battles of Ypres and the Somme were so great in number that trains, their carriages filled with injured men, were used to bring them home. They arrived at Victoria Station late at night and early in the morning. No newspapers reported on their arrivals
|
The Defence of the Realm Act stated that, "No person shall by word of mouth or in writing spread reports likely to cause disaffection or alarm among any of His Majesty's forces or among the civilian population." It listed what could be reported, but also what could not, such as the movement of ships, the number of British troops and any future plans
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
This story was based on a (probably deliberate) mistranslation of the German word "Kadaververwertungsanstalt." In reality the bodies of fallen horses were being rendered into glue, a practice which was common at the time
|
Of the 1,198 people killed in the sinking, 128 were American. This prompted British attempts to get America into the war. The attempts failed and America did not join the war until two years later
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
The denizens of Germanic myth, such as valkyries, dragons and sword-wielding heroes, appeared on many posters. They also named parts of their defensive structure, The Hindenburg Line, after mythological heroes such as Siegfried and Wotan
|
The report was widely distributed, especially in America, where it was popularly received and helped to turn public opinion against Germany. Despite this, the report itself contained no actual proof and is considered by most historians to be untrue
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
American sociologist, Dr. Harold Lasswell said, "...every war must appear to be a war of defence against a menacing, murderous aggressor. There must be no ambiguity about who the public is to hate." He believed that demonising the enemy was a necessary act of war
|
This demonisation of the enemy worried some people. American professor, Vernon Kellogg, said "...after the war, the people of the world, when they recognise any human being as a German, will shrink aside so that they may not touch him as he passes, or stoop for stones to drive him from their path"
|