Q2 How useful are the sources Practice Questions: First World War

Study Sources B and C below, then answer the question.

Source B: From a report in a British weekly newspaper, published in May 1915, describing the landings on the Gallipoli peninsula for readers at home.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

Our men went ashore from open boats under a storm of fire from the cliffs, and nothing in this war has been finer. A footing has been won at Helles and at the Anzac beaches, and it is held. The Turk fights stubbornly, but he cannot long resist the guns of the fleet. Once the peninsula is ours the way to Constantinople is open, Germany loses an ally, and supplies may at last reach our Russian friends. Readers may look forward with confidence to news of a further advance.

Source C: From a letter written by an Australian soldier at Anzac Cove to his brother in Australia, September 1915.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

We have been clinging to these ridges since April and our line has hardly moved a hundred yards. The Turks sit above us and look down into our trenches. The August push towards the heights cost us dearly and gained nothing, and the new landing further up the coast at Suvla has stuck fast as well. Water comes in tins from the ships and is rationed. Half the battalion has dysentery, the flies are on everything, and men are being taken off sick faster than they are being hit.

Study Sources B and C below, then answer the question.

Source B: From an editorial in a British daily newspaper, published in August 1914, written for British readers shortly after Britain declared war on Germany.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

Germany's armies crossed the Belgian frontier on 4 August, after Belgium refused to let them pass. By treaty Britain is bound to defend Belgian neutrality, and this nation does not break its word. The Belgian army, small though it is, has held the forts of Liège far longer than the Kaiser's generals can have expected, and every hour of delay is an hour gained for France. Let no reader doubt the justice of our cause: we fight for the rights of a small nation trampled by a great one.

Source C: From the memoirs of a German infantry officer who served in the advance of 1914, published in Germany in 1924.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

We crossed into Belgium full of confidence; the timetable allowed us no rest. The forts at Liège held us up, and behind them the roads were choked and the railways broken. At Mons the British regulars fired so fast that we believed every man had a machine gun. Day after day we marched in the heat, outrunning our supply wagons. When the order came in September to fall back from the Marne, we understood at last that France would not be beaten in six weeks, and we began to dig.

Study Sources B and C below, then answer the question.

Source B: From a letter written by a British infantry officer serving with the Fourth Army in France, sent to his family a few days after the attack at Amiens, August 1918.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

We went forward at dawn behind a creeping barrage, with the tanks ahead of us in the mist. In four hours we were further forward than in four months on the Somme. The Germans we took were tired men who gave themselves up readily, and some told us their units had no reserves behind them. Our aeroplanes were over their batteries all morning. After three years of trenches it is strange to march across open country. The men believe that this time we shall not be pushed back.

Source C: From a report sent to headquarters by a German battalion commander on the Western Front, October 1918, explaining the condition of his unit.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

Since the enemy broke our positions on the Hindenburg Line my battalion has fallen back twice. I have fewer than two hundred men fit to fight, and the drafts sent to me are boys or men returned from hospital. There are no reserves. The American divisions opposite us are fresh and seem to have no end of guns and ammunition. Letters from home speak of nothing but hunger, and this is doing more harm to discipline than the enemy's shells. I cannot promise that the next position will be held.

Study Sources B and C below, then answer the question.

Source B: From a letter written in February 1918 by a woman living in Hamburg to her son, who was serving in the German army on the Western Front.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

My dear boy, do not worry about us, but I will tell you the truth. There has been no fat in the shops for three weeks and the bread is grey and heavy. We queue from before dawn and often come away with nothing but turnips, which we have eaten in every form since the turnip winter of 1916–17. There is no coal, so the whole family sits in one room. People in the queue say openly that the English ships are starving us and that the war must be brought to an end.

Source C: From a report prepared in October 1918 by an official of the British Ministry of Blockade, for ministers considering the terms to be offered to Germany.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

The effects of the blockade are now decisive. Imports of fertiliser, fats and fodder have been cut off for four years; the German harvest has fallen year on year and the civilian ration cannot be met. Our agents report strikes in Berlin and Hamburg, open complaints against the government, and unrest among the crews of the High Seas Fleet, which has not fought a fleet action since Jutland. The enemy's armies are short of rubber, oil and motor fuel. The blockade should on no account be relaxed until Germany has accepted the terms of the Allies.