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ID: 153758

Done my bit: British soldiers, the 1918 Armistice, and understanding the First World War / Nordlund, Alexander

Nordlund, Alexander	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

British soldiers greeted the Armistice on 11 November 1918 with mixed reactions, according to their various personal testimonies from the First World War. By integrating studies of how soldiers understood the war in 1918 with their reactions to and later remembrances of the Armistice, this study argues that an explanation for such mixed attitudes can be traced to the experience of combat in 1918 rather than a general sense of disillusionment with the war itself. In the end, soldiers mixed triumph and tragedy into the idea of having “done my bit” to articulate a positive interpretation of the conflict.

Key Words

Britain ; Experience ; World War I ; British Soldiers

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ID: 192684

Uninteresting Mass of Correspondence: Censorship and the Mundane in the British Epistolary History of the First World War, / Nordlund, Alexander

Nordlund, Alexander	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

During the First World War, British soldiers and civilians wrote a sizeable number of letters to one another. The military mail censorship system of the British Army remains a major obstacle to understanding the epistolary practices of soldiers. Historians and literary critics claim soldiers concealed the true nature of their wartime experiences from civilians at home, resulting in the emotional isolation of soldiers and a rift in understanding the war between soldiers and civilians. This study argues that the British epistolary history of the conflict ought to be understood for the “mundane” communication it spawned between soldiers and civilians in wartime and asserts that the mundanity found within these letter-writing exchanges was a deliberate choice made by people at war. In essence, soldiers were far more invested in negotiating fragments of their nonmilitary identities through wartime than in sharing the horrors, trauma, and disillusion of their military lives.

Key Words

First World War ; British Epistolary History

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