THE FIRST WORLD WAR: A DOCUMENTARY RECORD
Series One: European War 1914-1919, the War Reserve Collection
from Cambridge University Library

Part 6: The War at Sea and the War in the Air

The terms of engagement of military conflict were transformed between 1914 and 1918. The distinction between military and civilian targets were blurred and the rules which governed the legality and lethality of particular kinds of action in wartime were overturned. Before the war, the notion that blockade would occur was discussed at length, as was the legal action of adversaries in dealing with contraband, and with carriers both neutral and hostile. Whatever the words of lawyers and politicians, when war came, it made shipping of any kind a potential or real target of enemy action.

How this new kind of warfare, in which neutrality was virtually shot out of the water, developed is the subject of Part 6 of this reproduction of material from the Cambridge War Collection. It comes in two parts. The first is an extensive collection of very rare pamphlets and books on the war at sea from the point of view of both Allied and Central Powers. The second is a set of contemporary works on the air war, once again told from the angle of both sides of the war.

The great advantage of these materials is that they enable us to escape from an Anglo-centric discussion of the crucial issues surrounding the spread of the war on land to the sea and air. All three combined to create total war, which is a metaphor for a state of armed conflict in which the risks of violence were everywhere and their limits were dwindling fast.