The United Kingdom in World War I

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**United Kingdom in World War I**
British propaganda poster, World War One 1914–1918
Preceded by	Edwardian Period
Followed by	Interwar period

1 Zeppelins
2 Recruitment and Conscription
3 Rationing
4 DORA (Defense of the Realm Act)
5 Notes

[edit] Zeppelins

German zeppelins bombed towns on the East Coast in January 1915. London was also hit later in the same year. Aircraft replaced the zeppelins during the later stages of the war. Propaganda supporting the British war effort often used these raids to their advantage: one recruitment poster claimed “These [bombs] only strengthens Britain’s resolve to crush the German Barbarians.”

[edit] Recruitment and Conscription

See: Recruitment to the British Army during World War I

In the early stages of the war, many men, fuelled by false promises of glory, decided to “join up” to the armed forces: in August 1914 alone, half a million signed up to fight. Recruitment remained fairly steady through 1914 and early 1915, but fell dramatically during the later years, especially after the failure of the Somme campaign, which resulted in 500,000 casualties. As a result, conscription was introduced in January 1916, for single men, and extended in May to all men aged 18-42.

[edit] Rationing

Rationing was introduced due to food shortage and undernutrition. There were severe penalties.It was only fully introduced in 1918 because voluntary rationing was not working. The reason rationing was needed was because their ships importing food were being sunk and also the government wanted more food to go to soldiers.