Conscripts - Lost Legions of the Great War

This is a book about the men who were conscripted to fight in the Great War. They did not volunteer, they were compelled to go and took part and won the decisive battles, despite the popular image of the willing volunteer. The book is quite controversial and mainly exposes what the author describes as "The Myth of Participation".

Over 50% of the men who fought in the Great War were conscripts according to the authors figures, and most of these fought and died after the Battle of the Somme, during the Great battles of 1917 and 1918. Yet the image of the British in the Great War is one of cheerful volunteer Tommies, standing up for King and Country and putting the Hun in his place. This says the author, is the myth of participation woven around the country's need to give reason to the war. Controversially, it is claimed the Imperial War Museum and the 1964 TV series, The Great War have perpetrated this image. The programme makers sent out requests for surviving men who enlisted Before December 1915 to take part in the show or write letters about their experiences. Most of the material on conscription centres around the Conscientious Objectors and their battles to stay out of the war.

Given the fact that only 5 known memoirs from conscipted men could be found, as opposed the the shelves and shelves of volunteer diaries, memoirs and literature, the author freely admits it is the old historians nightmare of "building bricks without straw". It appears the conscipts did not feel as free to write of their experiences (being conscripted due to circumstance).

and this and the rash of officer memoirs in the 20's and 30's has shaped how the country percieves the British soldier in the Great War. The conscripts did suffer and struggle and bore their lot with the same strength and endurance as the volunteers and they bore the burden of actually fighting the more mobile war, that most of the volunteers had probably signed up to fight- in retreat and in attack.

It is a book to get you thinking, a side to the Great War not often discussed. I would add my own observations, that in my opinion the British resistance to conscription until two years had nearly passed and the early tide of volunteers, perhaps made our army more resistant to the mutinies that occurred in the French Army after the disappointments of 1917. Perhaps we had enough of a core of the volunteers to uphold morale and the newer conscripts had not time to be disillusioned yet. I also think it is a bit harsh on those who were conscripted through coming of age near the end of the War to parcel them up as unwilling.