Primary Sources: World War I
Introduction to this collection
This collection explores the different faces of World War I: the propaganda at home, the experience of air bombing, the recruitment of soldiers in the colonies and the imperial centers, how women, men, and children were affected, and the promises that were made and broken. These sources include poster art, photography, poetry, magazine articles, and even classroom assignments written by schoolchildren.
Guiding question to think about as you read the documents: How did governments mobilize their populations for war?
WHP Primary Source Punctuation Key
When you read through these primary source collections, you might notice some unusual punctuation like this: . . . and [ ] and ( ). Use the table below to help you understand what this punctuation means.
| Punctuation | What it means |
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ELLIPSES words … words |
Something has been removed from the quoted sentences by an editor. |
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BRACKETS [word] or word[s] |
Something has been added or changed by an editor. These edits are to clarify or help readers. |
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PARENTHESES (words) |
The original author of the primary source wanted to clarify, add more detail, or make an additional comment in parentheses. |
Contents
Source 1 – Army recruitment posters, 1914–1919 (0:50)
Source 2 – British propaganda postcard with colonial soldiers, 1914 (4:00)
Source 3 – Children’s accounts of air bombing, 1915 (5:15)
Source 4 – British War Pictorial, 1917 (10:15)
Source 5 – The Women Workers of Canada, 1918 (11:30)
Source 6 – Dulce et decorum est, 1920 (15:25)
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Timestamps are in the source title. To locate a specific source in the audio file:
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This document is also available as an audio file. Click Listen to audio button to access a reading of the article.
Source 1 – Army recruitment posters, 1914–1919 (0:50)
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Title Army recruitment posters |
Date and location Britain, Italy, United States, and Germany, 1914–1919 |
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Source type Primary source – posters |
Author Alfred Ambrose Chew Leete (1882–1933) Achille Lucien Mauzan (1883–1952) James Montgomery Flagg (1877–1960) Julius Engelhard (1883–1964) |
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Description Back before pop-up ads, TV, and even radio, the most aggressive way to advertise was to put up a lot of eye- catching posters. Below are four such posters from different countries participating in the war. Each shows someone pointing a finger at “you”, the reader, attempting to recruit new soldiers or to raise funds from citizens. Many similar posters from around the world emerged at this time, recruiting people to sign up, buy bonds or join militias. (A militia is a military force of civilians to support the regular military during an emergency, like a war.) Poster 1: This British poster was featured on a magazine cover. It features Lord Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War. Other versions feature the statement “wants you” instead of “needs you”. Poster 2: This Italian poster’s aim was to raise money from Italian citizens to cover the high cost of war. A soldier points at the viewer and demands: “Everyone do your duty! War loan subscriptions available at Credito Italiano”. Poster 3: This American poster mimicked the earlier British poster. It was used to recruit soldiers for both World War I and World War II. Flagg used his own face as inspiration for Uncle Sam, and based the body pose on American veteran Walter Botts. Poster 4: This German poster features a German soldier pointing at the viewer, with the text: “You, too, should join the Reichswehr. Therefore, sign up at the next enlistment post, Reichswehr-Gruppen-Kommando no. 4 (Bavarian), Möhl, Major General.” The Reichswehr was the army of the Weimar Republic from 1919 to 1935. |
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Guiding question
How did governments mobilize their populations for war?
Excerpt
Poster 1
Poster 2
Poster 3
Poster 4
Citation
“Your country needs you’ advertisement.” London Opinion XLII, no. 546 (5 September 1914). Accessed October 21, 2021. Public domain. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/your-country-needs-you
“Everyone do your duty!, an Italian propaganda poster.” The British Library, 1917. Accessed October 21, 2021. Public domain. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/everyone-do-your-duty
Flagg, James Montgomery. “I want you for U.S. Army: Nearest recruiting station.” Library of Congress, 1917. Public domain. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/96507165/
Engelhard, Julius Ussy. “Auch du sollst beitreten zur Reichswehr.” Munich: Oscar Consée Kunstanstalt, 1919. Public domain. https://www.loc.gov/item/2004665873/
Source 2 – British propaganda postcard with colonial soldiers, 1914 (4:00)
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Title We Don’t Want to Fight, but by Jingo If We Do, We’ve Got Men, and Coin and Ships, and Guns, to See It Through, and Through & Through |
Date and location United Kingdom or Australia, 1914 |
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Source type Primary source – postcard |
Author Unknown |
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Description This postcard features images of four soldiers from different countries: Australia, India, Canada, and Great Britain. The four corners of the post card show the coats of arms from their respective countries. The text is similar to the lyrics of the English folk song “We Don’t Want to Fight,” also called “MacDermott’s War Song” or the “Jingo Song”. |
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Key vocabulary correspondence respective |
jingo coin |
Guiding question
How did governments mobilize their populations for war?
Excerpt
Citation
We Don’t Want to Fight, but by Jingo If We Do, We’ve Got Men, and Coin and Ships, and Guns, to See It Through, and Through & Through. London: Inter-Art Co, 1914. Accessed 22 October 2021. http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-153093095
Source 3 – Children’s accounts of air bombing, 1915 (5:15)
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Title Impressions of the airship raids over London, as recorded by boys in London |
Date and location 1915, England |
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Source type Primary source – personal narrative |
Author English schoolchildren |
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Description Shortly after the busy city of London was raided by Germain airships—for the second time in two months—a teacher asked students to write about what they had witnessed. This source is comprised of four personal narratives from different students, describing what they saw on either the September 8, 1915 raid, or the one that occurred five weeks later on October 13. |
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Key vocabulary smote dispersed |
zeppelin |
Guiding question
How did governments mobilize their populations for war?
Excerpt
The experiences of boys as related by themselves. Class Master A.N. Field
Head Master J. Bate
HOLBORN:
PRINCETON STREET (B.) SCHOOL.
BEDFORD ROW, W.C.
[LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM]
J. Marriage
The air raid of Sep 8th
On Wednesday night at quarter to eleven I was woke up by my mother who said “Dont be frighten the germans are here”. I jumped out of bed (and my brother fell out) and ran into the front room where my mother was dressing. She said to me go and get your clothes on, but as I was a big light like lighting rose before my eyes and before I knew where I was a mighty explosion and a huge flame lept in front of me. As I expected this I ran into the street and saw many people pointing towards the sky. I ran to see what was the matter and in the sky there was a silvery coloured thing in the shape of a cigar Two powerful searchlights shone on it from end to end. It stood there for about five minutes dropping bombs and going in a circle for about two times and suddenly disapeared into the air. The searchlights looked for it but in vain it couldnot be found.
J. Littenstein
The Air Raid of September 8th 1915
It was our Jewish New Year and I was sitting in my aunt’s house reading the “Boy’s Friends”. … Suddenly Bang! Crash! Tinkle! Tinkle! The was a splintering of wood and a crash of falling glass. … “Bomb’s and zeppelins” said my aunt. She was cool but the other women were panic-stricken. They gave vent to shrieks and screams that would have done credit to a hyena. … My aunt had snatched the baby from the bed in a blanket and had put all the lights but one. “The basement” she said putting out the last light, and we all ran downstairs. Boom! Boom! Boom! The short sharp bark of anti-aircraft guns smote upon our ears. “Those are our guns” said Edgar. “Coming up to have a look” said I. “Righto” said Edgar. … The “National Penny Bank” was blazing like a bonfire. “Look! Look!” said Edgar “The Bank is afire.” … There was a hum of engines, and looking up we saw the Zeppelin. It was the shape of a huge cigar. The searchlights focussed itself on the monster. Boom! Whiz! a shell went screaming by on its errand of death. … Although it was midnight it was as light as day. There were a great many searchlights flitting about now. Another hose was trained on the blaze, and the firemen made a superhuman effort to quell the fire. … The firemen now made another effort and got the fire under hand. The crowd soon dispersed and all was dark and silent as the tomb. “Nice beginning for our new year” I remarked. Next morning I learnt that the casualties were 106.
T. Allen
Second London Air-raid Oct 13th
Last night, London’s darkness was intense, when I returned home from Goudhurst, Kent at 7.50 o’clock. I went indoors and ate something then, as I was sitting at my ease in an armchair at 9.25 o’clock, I heard a loud bang and, as we all sprang to our feet, my brother Charlie said excitedly “They’re here again”. In my excitement I forgot any possible danger, and ran out into the street; and happening to glance upwards I caught a glimpse of, what looked like to me, a silver cigar. This, in reality was a zeppelin with a searchlight focussed on it. Soon after the banging had ceased, I went to Chancery Lane and there saw a sight that fill me with horror. In the Strand and Aldwych a large amount of damage was done and people say that lumps of flesh were found sticking to the walls and posts. The reported casualties are forty-two.
Citation
Allen, T., F. Baleh, Alfred Banks, James Bate, A.E. Bazley, Joe Bullock, E.G. Cracknell, et al. “Holborn Schoolboys’ Impressions of Zeppelin Raids over London Vol. I.” The British Library, 1915. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/impressions-airship-raids-over-london-schoolchildren
Allen, T., Alfred Banks, James Bate, A.E. Bazley, R. Beasley, E. Brown, Edwin Cato, et al. “Holborn Schoolboys’ Impressions of Zeppelin Raids over London Vol. II.” The British Library, 1915. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/impressions-airship-raids-over-london-schoolchildren
Notes or additional materials
Students can view the handwritten accounts and others like them here: https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/impressions-airship-raids-over-london-schoolchildren.
Source 4 – British War Pictorial, 1917 (10:15)
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Title The War Pictorial, Great British Victories in the West and East |
Date and location 1917, United Kingdom |
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Source type Primary source – photographs from a periodical |
Author Unknown |
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Description This publication from 1917 features photographs taken during World War I from all over the globe. |
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Key vocabulary pictorial steed gallant reconnaissance staunch squadron poison-gas |
dirigible aeroplane Cossacks rout cavalry musketry |
Guiding question
How did governments mobilize their populations for war?
Excerpt
Citation
The War Pictorial, Great British Victories in West and East. London: Illustrated London News and Sketch, Ltd., May 1917. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100111569
Source 5 – The Women Workers of Canada, 1918 (11:30)
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Title The Women Workers of Canada |
Date and location 1918, United States and Canada |
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Source type Primary source – periodical (photos and text) |
Author Mary J. Huestis (1887–1951) |
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Description This article from the magazine Scientific American describes how some Canadian women participated in the war effort by manufacturing weapons. In it, the author explains how women became involved, what they manufactured, and how they became accustomed to their new roles in the labor force. |
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Key vocabulary impress upon subordinates supplement levelled bayonet |
lathes rifling costume regularity |
Guiding question
How did governments mobilize their populations for war?
Excerpt
SHORTLY after war was declared, the Daughters of the Empire of Quebec, Canada, a patriotic and educational organization, volunteered their services as munition workers.
The women of England were our inspiration. We read of their sacrifice to do men’s work, thus releasing the men for war duty, while they kept the wheels of national industry in motion. We believed that what the women of England could do for their country, for the world’s liberty, we, the women of Canada, could do. And so we volunteered for war service to the Ross Rifle Company, at Quebec, makers of the National Canadian Service Arm, and our offer to assist as machine operators was accepted by the President, Sir Charles Ross, with the understanding that we would receive the same rate of pay as the men.
Some of us believed we were not fitted for factory work, but we did not want to discourage this great wave of patriotic enthusiasm that swept over our women who wanted to do their bit—hands-across-the-sea with their English sisters, in unity of purpose. …
I shall never forget my first lessons as a machine operator—war work that made you actually feel you were in sight of the firing line. We started work in the Machine Barrel Straightening Department. … Barrel straightening by machine was a new departure in rifle manufacture. …
The psychology of the six months period of training comes in disciplining women to accustom themselves to the routine and discipline of factory life, which, in turn, they have to impress upon their subordinates. …
As emergency required, we drafted women to supplement the work in other departments, where they learned to operate lathes, screw machines, cutters, grinders, etc. Women were also introduced into the inspection and assembly departments.
Machine barrel straightening was our pioneer department and from here you can trace in the factory records, expert operators in nearly every department. Three of our best barrel straighteners were instructed in rifling, and proved expert operators. These are the first and only women riflers on the continent of America. …
… All distinction as to class, race, language were levelled and not recognized. We had as operators women of all classes from the daughters of the General Manager down.
Citation
Huestis, Mary J. “The Women Workers of Canada.” Scientific American, January 12, 1918.
Source 6 – Dulce et decorum est, 1920 (15:25)
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Title Dulce et decorum est |
Date and location October 1917, Craiglockhart War Hospital, United Kingdom |
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Source type Primary source – poem |
Author Wilfred Edward Salter Owen (1893–1918) |
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Description “Dulce et Decorum est” is a poem written by Wilfred Owen during World War I, when he was recuperating at a hospital from physical injuries as well as “shell shock”, known now as post-traumatic stress disorder. He went back into battle a second time and was killed in November 4, 1918, at the age of 25, less than a year after he wrote this poem. It was published posthumously in 1920. The Latin title is taken from Ode 3.2 of the Roman poet Horace and means “it is sweet and fitting”. It is followed by pro patria mori, which means “to die for one’s country”. |
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Key vocabulary floundering zest ardent posthumously |
lime guttering cud |
Guiding question
How did governments mobilize their populations for war?
Excerpt
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime .1—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering,2 choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud3
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest4
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.5
Citation
Owen, Wilfred. Poems. London: Chatto & Windus, 1921.
Notes or additional materials
Students can listen to the poem being read at this link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/play/75862.
1 lime: a corrosive substance made of calcium oxide
2 guttering: flickering, like a candle’s flame
3 cud: the partly digested food that ruminants (cows, goats, etc) regurgitate from their first stomach—they have four—back up to their mouth for more chewing
4 zest: enthusiasm
5 The italicized lines at the end are a Latin phrase from the Roman poet Horace meaning: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”
Eman M. Elshaikh
Eman M. Elshaikh is a writer, researcher, and teacher who has taught K-12 and undergraduates in the United States and in the Middle East and written for many different audiences. She teaches writing at the University of Chicago, where she also completed her master’s in social sciences and is currently pursuing her PhD. She was previously a World History Fellow at Khan Academy, where she worked closely with the College Board to develop curriculum for AP World History.
Image credits
This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0 except for the following:
Cover: Grave of unknown German soldier near Merville, Jan 1915. © Robert Hunt/Windmill Books/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
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