Q1 How do you know (Source A) Practice Questions: First World War

Study Source A below, then answer the question.

Source A: From the diary of a British infantry officer, written in July 1916, a week after the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

We were told that a week of shelling would leave nothing alive in the German lines and that we could walk across. So we walked, as ordered, in long lines. The wire in front of us was not cut; the shells had only thrown it into heaps. As soon as our guns lifted, the Germans came up out of their deep dugouts and their machine guns opened on us before we were halfway over. My company lost more than half its men in the first hour, and for a few hundred yards of ground. Those who planned this have never seen that wire.

Study Source A below, then answer the question.

Source A: From an editorial in an American newspaper, published in early April 1917 while Congress was debating whether the United States should declare war on Germany.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

For two and a half years this country has stood aside from Europe's quarrel. Germany has now ended our neutrality for us. Since February her submarines have sunk without warning any ship sailing to Britain, our own merchant vessels among them, and American lives have again been lost at sea. We have learned, too, that Berlin offered Mexico American territory in return for an alliance against us. A nation whose ships are sunk and whose neighbours are turned against it is no longer neutral in anything but name. Our ships, our factories and, if need be, our soldiers belong now beside the Allies.

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Source A: From an article in a Serbian newspaper published in Belgrade in April 1909, a few weeks after Russia, under pressure from Germany, had accepted Austria-Hungary's takeover of Bosnia. The newspaper was read by Serbian nationalists.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

Vienna has helped itself to Bosnia as a thief helps himself to another man's land. The Emperor's ministers never asked the people of Bosnia, who are our Slav brothers, whether they wished to be ruled from Vienna. They dared to act only because Berlin promised to stand behind them, and because the Turkish Empire is now too weak to defend anything. Russia, protector of the Slavs, has been insulted and can do nothing for us. Serbia is not strong enough today, but Serbia will not forget. The Great Powers must undo this theft.

Study Source A below, then answer the question.

Source A: From a letter printed in a British newspaper in March 1909, written by a member of a group campaigning for a stronger Royal Navy, while Parliament was debating how many new warships to order.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

Britain is an island, and her people are fed from the sea. For a century the fleet has been our defence, and we have needed no friends on the Continent to keep us safe. Now Germany lays down dreadnoughts in her own yards and her leaders demand a 'place in the sun' for their empire. Every one of these new German ships makes our older battleships worthless, for a dreadnought outguns anything built before her. Four new ships a year will not answer. The government must order eight this year, and the country will pay for them gladly.

Study Source A below, then answer the question.

Source A: From a report written in December 1917 by a British officer for his divisional headquarters, a few weeks after the attack at Cambrai in which large numbers of tanks were used together.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

These machines did in a single morning what our guns had failed to do in weeks of bombardment at Ypres. They crushed the wire flat so that the infantry walked across it instead of being caught in it, and they carried bundles of brushwood to drop into the enemy trenches and bridge them. The machine-gun posts that have cost this battalion so many men were silenced before they could fire. It is true that many tanks broke down or stuck fast, and the ground taken could not all be held. Even so, no other weapon has yet carried infantry through such defences so quickly.