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http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee 273 Manuel García Ruiz The cartoon, the new weapon of the First World militarism and the privileges enjoyed by the higher German officials, offered their unconditional support to the war effort once hostilities began. Heine, as a result of the disagreement expressed by some of his colleagues at the magazine, argued that “the motherland needed a magazine of international prestige to support the war effort”24. The infrequent use of the cartoon or caricature as propaganda would remain a constant for Germany over the course of the 20th Century, as this situation repeated itself during World War II, a circumstance that is more than anecdotal given the abundant use of propaganda in the Third Reich25. Despite this, Germany published several posters to garner support for its submarine forces (here a film poster) or to publicise the successful offensives of March and April 1918 (although these did not achieve their objectives). UTILISATION OF THE CARTOON BY THE ALLIES Unlike what happened on the other side of the North Sea, during wartime in the United Kingdom, the most widely circulated British paper The Daily Mirror published a series of daily cartoon strips of a political and propaganda nature illustrated by William Kerridge Haselden. Some of them strike a patriotic chord, such as in the issue of 30 August 1914 where a wife appears not long after the declaration of war against Germany and urges her husband to enlist in the army: “If I were a man, I’d be ashamed to stay at home”. “I suppose you think that it’s enough to sit and read about the war”. “If I were married to another man, he would have enlisted”. When she manages to get him to enlist, she exclaims: “My brave husband! I knew you’d enlist.” It is worth pointing out that in Great Britain, unlike the other European powers, obligatory military service did not exist and that the Military Service Act26 was not enacted until 1916. . The Military Service Act allowed for the conscription, with certain exceptions, of all men aged between 18 and 41 years old, this subsequently being extended to those aged between 17 and 51 years because “the demand for human war material was apparently insatiable”27. In order to alleviate this need for soldiers there was a proliferation of posters calling for people to enlist: “Daddy, what did you do in the Great War?” and “The women of Britain say - “Go!” were two of the most popular. Despite popular pressure, there were around 16,500 conscientious objectors (permitted by a clause in the law itself ). 24  Simkin, John, First World War Encyclopedia, Spartacus Educational, 2012. 25  Hitler himself appreciated the need to control news and information at an unprecedented level during the Third Reich, recognising the valuable role that propaganda had played in the allied victory during the Great War. 26  This law remained in force until 1919 and it was not until World War II that obligatory military service was reintroduced. It disappeared in 1963. 27  http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/ukconscription.htm.

REVISTA IEEE 9
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