During the war, millions of the combatants experienced psychological issues commonly referred to as ‘shellshocked’, with symptoms ranging from anxiety, to nightmares and insomnia to phantom physical issues that were often connected to the combat experience. By the end of the war, the British army alone recognized 80,000 cases that resulted in the dismissal of nearly 1/7th of the discharged soldiers. The recognition of the disease was slow to develop as psychology as a science was still in its infancy, the disease was too often associated with combat itself and it went against notions of masculinity-the strong, independent male- that existed at the time and rarely experienced any sympathy or understanding for the general public. Furthermore, soldiers who broke down during battle were shamed by their fellow soldiers and officers. After the war, returning to civilian life proved difficult and sought after quick “cures” did little to improve the lives of affected soldiers. After three years of difficult fighting, the French general Robert Nivelle promised victory. However, after the particularly gruesome defeat at the Second Battle of the Aisne, in which the French alone took almost two hundred thousand casualties, French soldiers along the Western Front refused orders to attack the German positions. This crisis of morality spread to 49 of the 113 military divisions who were tired of what they considered pointless attacks. In response, the French commanders promised no more suicidal attacks, more home leave, and greater rest. However, to prevent future revolt from the junior officers, the commanders held 3,400 court martial and executed 26 of the leaders.’
Survivors’ by Siegfried Sassoon: No doubt they’ll soon get well; the shock and strain / Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk. / Of course they’re ‘longing to go out again’, – / These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk. / They’ll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed / Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died, – / Their dreams that drip with murder; and they’ll be proud / Of glorious war that shatter’d their pride… / Men who went out to battle, grim and glad; / Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.
Letter from 7 July 1916, Arthur Hubbard ‘We had strict orders not to take prisoners, no matter if wounded my first job was when I had finished cutting some of their wire away, to empty my magazine on 3 Germans that came out of one of their deep dugouts. bleeding badly, and put them out of misery. They cried for mercy, but I had my orders, they had no feeling whatever for us poor chaps… it makes my head jump to think about it.’ [Punctuation and syntax as originally written
