A Land Fit for Heroes?
In winter 1918 millions of soldiers returned home from hell on earth- but the UK was hardly a land fit for heroes
The end of the First World War was celebrated across the world. Mechanised warfare killed millions of soldiers and destroyed miles of countryside, leaving those left to pick up the pieces of a broken four years. The war was brought to an end with the signing of treaties and documents, but not before young men were sacrificed.
For the men who did return home, the horrors of the trenches would take some time to recover from. For many, the day of full recovery would never come. During the war, young men were rallied over the top and into oncoming enemy machine gun fire with the words ‘For King and Country’ ringing in their ears. Thousands died in needless slaughter but had gone to war joyfully on the promise of adventure and overseas travel.
Around 880,000 soldiers from the UK died during the First World War, which was roughly 7% of the adult male population at the time. Millions of others returned home and most were able, remarkably, to live relatively normal lives. However, there were many for whom life in the trenches would mean civilian life would never be the same.
Soldiers who were injured and maimed in the war returned to experience being shunned and mocked in the streets, and many were unable to find work due to their injuries. These were scars from the war that were visible, but the UK was also faced with an epidemic of soldiers returning with psychological wounds.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was not fully understood by 1918, and its symptoms were labelled as shellshock. Soldiers would come home and experience fits of anger, nightmares, and often uncontrollable shaking from the constant bombardments they were subjected to in the trenches. The UK had little in the way of dealing with these illnesses, and those with shellshock were left to lead usually lonely lives.
The world changed drastically between 1914 and 1918. Many returning soldiers felt that it had moved on without them, and reintegrating into a society far removed from the battlefields of the Western Front was hard. Millions of soldiers suddenly returned and needed work, but they flooded a job market that was already in an unstable economy.
Wars are not cheap, and as well as the cost of human life nations must also cope with a financial burden. The UK was heavily in debt and a worldwide depression hit in the 1920s, which the ordinary working person felt the brunt of through layoffs, redundancies, and pay cuts. Men went to fight for the monarchy and politicians and were left jobless and suffering when they returned home.
Politicians and royalty made a big deal about creating a land fit for heroes for the millions of soldiers who had been sent overseas to fight their war for them. Yet in reality, many of these men came home to a nation worse than the one they left. The working classes bore the brunt of the fighting and were greeted back in the UK to a nation without enough jobs for them and one teetering on the brink of economic collapse.
Historical site History Extra beautifully captures the views of the war from those who fought in it. The below is from Lieutenant John Nettleton, a soldier in the Rifle Brigade
“We were told that this was ‘the war to end war’ and some of us at least believed it. It may sound extraordinarily naïve, but I think one had to believe it. All the mud, blood, and bestiality only made sense on the assumption that it was the last time civilised man would ever have to suffer it.
“I could not believe that anyone who had been through it could ever allow it to happen again. I thought that the ordinary man on both sides would rise up as one and kick any politician in the teeth who even mentioned the possibility of war.”
Two decades after the guns fell silent in the First World War, the world was once again plunged into war. And once again, the next generation of young men were called upon to fight and die on battlefields far from home.
