Originally posted by lazybum
you mention home and war fronts. didn't the question read 'what was the different experiences of soldiers on the WESTERN front?'
I didn't actually mention the homefront in my answer.
Additionally, the Q had nothing to do with changing attitudes, that's a totally different question.
Yes it does - I only wrote a sentence on it, but saying that changing experiences affects attitudes is correct. Conversely, bad attitude = worsening of experience.
The question focused on EXPERIENCES. Thus, i contrasted the expereinces of the Allieds and Germans. ie the allieds had better food supplies because they were better prepared due to stuff like DORA. The Germans on the other hand were starving (later on ) due to Allied blockade. German trech structures were better planned because they were on the defensive. Officers in German and British armies were better off due to class division, etc etc.
Yeah, I did a bit of the same thing, but I also mentioned that over time,
everyone's experiences changed (deteriorated) as the realities of war set in. Like you said, the German's had better trenches at the beginning, but as time wore on, the German's experience deteriorated as they felt the effects of the Blockade.
I think I focused more of beginning v's end, however, because that's what the sources seemed to be implying - they had the two on the Xmas Truce where war was still romantic, and then one one the beginning of the stalemate which was the catalyst for the change in conditions (thus experiences) and then the last two on Passcendaele (?) and the Somme where soldiers experiences were awful.
The bit in the question where it said 'on the Western Front' threw me a bit, so I'm not sure if how I answered the question was correct. People at school seemed to write all kinds of stuff...focusing on beginning v's end, German v's Britain, or both.
