Home Fronts January - June 1916

Germany's preparation for war in the years leading up to July 1914 had been formidable and purposeful. By contrast most of Britain's early military reverses could be explained by a combination of unpreparedness, inexperience, and insufficiency. It took a long time to catch up. By early 1916, the British public morale was somewhat better than one year earlier – the opposite to Germany - which might seem strange given their relative performances in 1915. Although events in the middle east were setbacks, after Gallipoli little faith was placed in that theatre as the route to victory, and the performance of the French at Verdun lifted spirits. At home, approval of the government’s actions was increasing; there was better parliamentary debate about the realities faced, and the public could see that the great deficit in arms and weaponry vis à vis Germany was being rapidly closed. 

Overseas

Political changes took place in most combatant countries. In Russia, a new Prime Minister and War Minister were appointed to run the newly re-opened (though still toothless) parliament, the Duma. The Tsar and his senior advisers appointed men who would be more likely to toe the senior party line rather than press for reform. They were simply postponing the inevitable, and instead of reform they ended up with revolution.

General Joseph Gallieni.
French hero, and one of few
with the status and character
to stand up to Joffre.

In May, France was shocked by the death of General Gallieni, recently made War Minister and the hero of Paris in 1914. He had comparable status to Joffre, whose own prestige and unchallenged authority was waning. Gallieni was mourned deeply by the country.

In Germany continued a political struggle whose fulcrum was the wavering neutrality of the USA. Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg wished to stop unrestricted U Boat warfare to placate the USA and preserve the status quo. At the other extreme, the strident Tirpitz led the unrestricted warfare faction. Surprisingly, it was Tirpitz who had to resign, being replaced as Commander in Chief of Navy by his subordinate von Capelle. Bethmann was more hawkish in his public pronouncements, and the sinking of the civilian ship Sussex in March prompted another crisis with the USA. Many Americans were among the dead, and President Wilson responded with his strongest denunciation yet of German aggression, and what amounted to an ultimatum. Germany backed down, and the departure of Tirpitz was an inevitable part of this.

Britain

On February 10^th the Military Services Act came into law. It opened the way to full conscription, although this was several months in coming. Initially, regional tribunals sat in judgement on reserved occupation and conscientious objector claims - the latter a very emotional and controversial issue. There was also the legacy of promises made by Lord Derby in the 1915 National Registration campaign that no married men would be conscripted before all single men had enlisted. These complexities were eventually sorted out, and from 24^th June every British male between the ages of 18 and 41 was deemed enlisted in the regular army for the duration of the war. By this point, voluntary enlistment had reached over 5 million men (compared with the 1914 army of around 250,000) although more than half were still in Britain, and the great majority had not yet seen action.

On 4^th April, the Chancellor McKenna presented the 1916 budget to parliament. He revealed the unprecedented national debt of £1.2 billion created by the previous year’s war costs, against a turnover of around one third of that. The debt was covered by Government bonds and Anglo-French American loans, but he predicted an even greater debt for the year to come. The whole country really began to worry about the economic consequences of a long war, and it was little consolation that Germany was, if anything, in a worse position.

Roger Casement

The budget was shortly followed by the Easter Rebellion in Ireland. For a number of reasons, this rose acutely out of the long term controversy of home rule. The cause of Irish Nationalism, which had been growing stronger pre-war, was backed by Germany as a distraction to London, and a means of weakening the British army in the fields of Flanders. Sinn Fein, founded in 1905, was a political and academic movement promoting self government and Irish culture. It became persuaded to a more virulent anti-British stance. Most notable was the role of Sir Roger Casement. Casement was a patriotic Irishman who had served for years in the British colonial service – indeed had been knighted for his humanitarian efforts in Peru – and had fought in the Boer War. He became deeply disaffected with British imperialism, and aligned himself with the Irish nationalist cause. When war broke out he moved to Germany, and intrigued there to gain financial and military support for the cause. The Germans used him, unsuccessfully, to persuade Irish PoWs to the German cause. They then pushed him into an ill-fated gun running episode (one that Casement believed would fail, but which he was unable to stop) to arm the nationalists in Ireland. British Intelligence operating from Room 40 in the MoD had learnt of all this by intercepting German messages from Washington. On 21st April, Good Friday, a gun-laden disguised German vessel was intercepted off the Kerry coast, and Casement was arrested in the same area shortly afterwards - landing from a German U boat. He was transported to London, held in the Tower, and later tried for high treason. His arrest triggered desperate activity by the rebels, and on Easter Monday 24^th, armed groups seized several buildings in central Dublin, including the Post Office. The violence lasted for a week. Army reinforcements came from England, and the ruthless repression of the rising caused rancour that persists today. Casement was hung on 3^rd August, in a blaze of publicity.

As Buchan viewed it all at the time:

            “This tragic episode had small bearing on the war” (as the Germans had

            hoped it would)

but it had a large bearing on the post-war, right through to the end of the 20^th century.