WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.139 So picture a classic butterfly effect scenario. 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:06.700 I want you to imagine a really muddy... Very 00:00:06.700 --> 00:00:09.080 muddy. Right, a muddy chaotic battlefield in 00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:12.099 early 1915. The lines are drawn, the soldiers 00:00:12.099 --> 00:00:15.740 are dug in, and there's the sudden... terrifying 00:00:15.740 --> 00:00:18.239 realizations sweeping through the ranks. Critical 00:00:18.239 --> 00:00:20.219 shortage. Exactly. There's a critical shortage 00:00:20.219 --> 00:00:23.839 of metal tubes, high explosive artillery shells 00:00:23.839 --> 00:00:27.579 specifically. Now, how does a lack of ammunition 00:00:27.579 --> 00:00:30.280 on a distant front line directly lead to the 00:00:30.280 --> 00:00:32.619 permanent collapse of a political dynasty? And 00:00:32.619 --> 00:00:34.439 a total restructuring of a nation's workforce. 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:36.560 Right, and the complete transformation of the 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:39.039 media's power. It sounds like the plot of a political 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.420 thriller, honestly, but it is a perfect study 00:00:41.420 --> 00:00:44.200 of how one seemingly isolated logistical failure 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:47.679 in a complex system can trigger a domino effect 00:00:47.679 --> 00:00:51.000 that just reshapes an entire society. Welcome 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:53.500 to today's Deep Dive. We're looking at a heavily 00:00:53.500 --> 00:00:55.979 detailed historical text covering the Shell Crisis 00:00:55.979 --> 00:00:59.380 of 1915. Our mission today is to unpack exactly 00:00:59.380 --> 00:01:01.880 how a military supply failure during the First 00:01:01.880 --> 00:01:04.439 World War triggered a massive political earthquake 00:01:04.439 --> 00:01:07.000 in the United Kingdom. It is a massive shift. 00:01:07.140 --> 00:01:10.400 We're going to explore how this single crisis 00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:12.519 fundamentally altered the relationship between 00:01:12.519 --> 00:01:15.840 the government and the press. and forced an unprecedented 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:18.579 mobilization of the economy. Right. Permanently 00:01:18.579 --> 00:01:21.299 changing the lives of millions of everyday workers. 00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:24.260 OK, let's unpack this. To really understand the 00:01:24.260 --> 00:01:26.939 Shell crisis, we have to start with a massive 00:01:26.939 --> 00:01:30.340 disconnect between the old way of fighting and 00:01:30.340 --> 00:01:33.140 the grim new reality of trench warfare on the 00:01:33.140 --> 00:01:35.319 Western Front. Yeah. The tactical problem at 00:01:35.319 --> 00:01:38.819 the start of the war was rooted deeply in out 00:01:38.819 --> 00:01:41.430 of date military doctrine. Before the First World 00:01:41.430 --> 00:01:44.250 War, military planners relied heavily on a very 00:01:44.250 --> 00:01:47.560 specific type of ammunition. shrapnel, which 00:01:47.560 --> 00:01:49.599 was highly effective for the types of wars they 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:51.260 were used to fighting. Which mostly involved 00:01:51.260 --> 00:01:53.560 attacking infantry troops out in the open. Exactly. 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:57.159 If you imagine shrapnel as a giant shotgun blast 00:01:57.159 --> 00:01:59.340 going off above the ground. Devastating. Yeah, 00:01:59.340 --> 00:02:01.280 it is devastating if you're standing in an open 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:05.159 field. But the resort to trench warfare completely 00:02:05.159 --> 00:02:07.159 negated that tactic. I mean, it is completely 00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:09.199 useless if you are hiding six feet underground 00:02:09.199 --> 00:02:11.639 in a trench. Right. To destroy a trench, you 00:02:11.639 --> 00:02:13.840 need a high explosive shell that buries itself 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:16.259 in the mud and blows the earth apart. The military 00:02:16.259 --> 00:02:18.979 desperately needed those high -explosive shells. 00:02:19.080 --> 00:02:21.819 They did. At the start of the war, there was 00:02:21.819 --> 00:02:25.400 a complete revolution in military doctrine. The 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:28.400 new thinking held that heavy guns alone would 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:31.020 control the battlefield. You couldn't just march 00:02:31.020 --> 00:02:33.479 troops forward anymore. You had to obliterate 00:02:33.479 --> 00:02:36.759 the defensive lines first. Exactly. Heavy artillery 00:02:36.759 --> 00:02:38.479 wasn't just supporting the infantry anymore. 00:02:38.659 --> 00:02:41.569 It was the primary weapon of advancement. And 00:02:41.569 --> 00:02:44.409 when you have an entire military pivoting to 00:02:44.409 --> 00:02:47.729 this new reliance on heavy guns, they need a 00:02:47.729 --> 00:02:49.990 staggering amount of ammunition. A completely 00:02:49.990 --> 00:02:52.530 unprecedented amount. Right. And the intuitive 00:02:52.530 --> 00:02:54.830 assumption is that the issue was getting the 00:02:54.830 --> 00:02:57.270 shells to the front line. But because the lines 00:02:57.270 --> 00:02:59.629 on the western front were so stable. Nobody was 00:02:59.629 --> 00:03:02.009 really moving for months at a time. Right. So 00:03:02.009 --> 00:03:04.610 it was actually quite easy to build railway lines 00:03:04.610 --> 00:03:06.729 right up to the front. They could deliver absolutely 00:03:06.729 --> 00:03:08.669 all the shells the factories could produce. So 00:03:08.669 --> 00:03:11.639 the bottleneck wasn't transport. The real bottleneck 00:03:11.639 --> 00:03:14.120 was happening in the planning rooms. They were 00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:17.819 fighting a 20th century war with a 19th century 00:03:17.819 --> 00:03:21.080 logistical mindset. Wow. Yeah, the high rate 00:03:21.080 --> 00:03:23.879 of artillery fire over a sustained long period 00:03:23.879 --> 00:03:26.620 simply wasn't anticipated by the military planners. 00:03:27.460 --> 00:03:29.639 Because they didn't foresee the sheer volume 00:03:29.639 --> 00:03:31.919 of high explosives required to maintain this 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:34.840 new doctrine, the stock of shells became severely 00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:36.879 depleted. And this all comes to a head in the 00:03:36.879 --> 00:03:39.969 spring of 1915. The inciting incident for this 00:03:39.969 --> 00:03:42.770 whole crisis is the Battle of Oppers on May 9th. 00:03:42.770 --> 00:03:44.990 It was a disastrous attack. A total disaster. 00:03:45.250 --> 00:03:47.909 The British forces were completely stymied and 00:03:47.909 --> 00:03:50.169 the internal reports specifically pointed to 00:03:50.169 --> 00:03:53.270 one glaring reason. A lack of high explosive 00:03:53.270 --> 00:03:55.430 shells to break the enemy lines. The troops on 00:03:55.430 --> 00:03:57.490 the ground paid the physical price for this logistical 00:03:57.490 --> 00:04:00.330 failure. They really did. But the shockwaves 00:04:00.330 --> 00:04:02.150 didn't stay on the battlefield. They traveled 00:04:02.150 --> 00:04:04.650 straight back to London and set off a massive 00:04:04.650 --> 00:04:07.340 media firestorm. Let's look at the timeline here 00:04:07.340 --> 00:04:09.280 because the maneuvering behind the scenes is 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:12.520 fascinating. It really is. By the spring of 1915, 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:15.139 the shortage of ammunition had been a serious 00:04:15.139 --> 00:04:17.899 problem for months. The British commander in 00:04:17.899 --> 00:04:20.860 chief, Field Marshal Sir John French, actually 00:04:20.860 --> 00:04:23.600 gave an interview to the Times on March 27th, 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:26.180 publicly calling for more ammunition. Meanwhile, 00:04:26.279 --> 00:04:28.860 on the political side, Lord Kitchener, the Secretary 00:04:28.860 --> 00:04:31.379 of State for War, was assuring Prime Minister 00:04:31.379 --> 00:04:34.480 H .H. Asquith that the Army had sufficient ammunition. 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:37.540 totally contradicting the commander on the ground. 00:04:37.879 --> 00:04:39.720 Yes. Relying on Kitchener's assurance, the prime 00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:41.560 minister gave a speech at Newcastle on April 00:04:41.560 --> 00:04:44.439 20th, confidently declaring to the nation that 00:04:44.439 --> 00:04:46.779 the army's ammunition supply was perfectly fine. 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:49.079 So you have the military commander saying one 00:04:49.079 --> 00:04:50.939 thing in the press and the prime minister saying 00:04:50.939 --> 00:04:54.040 another. Then the disastrous Battle of Auburs 00:04:54.040 --> 00:04:57.300 happens on May 9th. This is where Sir John French 00:04:57.300 --> 00:04:59.579 decides to bypass the chain of command entirely. 00:04:59.860 --> 00:05:03.459 This is a huge breach of protocol. Huge. Despite 00:05:03.459 --> 00:05:06.420 denying it at the time, French secretly supplied 00:05:06.420 --> 00:05:09.160 documents to the Times War correspondent, Colonel 00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:12.060 Charles Accourt -Reppington. He even sent representatives 00:05:12.060 --> 00:05:14.139 to London to show these same documents to the 00:05:14.139 --> 00:05:16.720 Chancellor, David Lloyd George, and to senior 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:18.980 conservatives like Bonar Law and Arthur Balfour. 00:05:19.259 --> 00:05:21.519 The commander in chief of the army was actively 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:24.660 leaking internal military documents to the press 00:05:24.660 --> 00:05:27.720 and to political rivals to force the government's 00:05:27.720 --> 00:05:30.199 hand. Unbelievable. Reppington, the correspondent, 00:05:30.740 --> 00:05:32.699 immediately sent a telegram to his newspaper, 00:05:32.800 --> 00:05:35.740 laying the blame for the Auburs failure squarely 00:05:35.740 --> 00:05:38.120 on the lack of high -exclusive shells. I actually 00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:39.839 have the exact headline here from the Times on 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:43.720 May 14, 1915. It read, Need for shells. British 00:05:43.720 --> 00:05:46.829 attacks checked. Limited supply the cause a lesson 00:05:46.829 --> 00:05:50.149 from France very direct. Yeah, the paper explicitly 00:05:50.149 --> 00:05:52.870 stated and I quote We had not sufficient high 00:05:52.870 --> 00:05:54.949 explosives to lower the enemy's parapets to the 00:05:54.949 --> 00:05:57.370 ground The want of an unlimited supply of high 00:05:57.370 --> 00:05:59.970 explosives was a fatal bar to our success And 00:05:59.970 --> 00:06:01.850 just to clarify for anyone unfamiliar with the 00:06:01.850 --> 00:06:04.470 terminology a parapet is the defensive mound 00:06:04.470 --> 00:06:07.290 of earth and sandbags Built at the top edge of 00:06:07.290 --> 00:06:09.629 a trench to protect the soldiers inside right 00:06:09.629 --> 00:06:12.470 and the press was directly blaming the government 00:06:12.470 --> 00:06:15.759 for failing to provide the tool to destroy those 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:18.819 specific defenses. What's fascinating here is 00:06:18.819 --> 00:06:21.160 the public's reaction to this media campaign. 00:06:22.100 --> 00:06:24.740 You would assume, reading those aggressive headlines, 00:06:25.259 --> 00:06:28.240 that the British public would demand Lord Kitchener's 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:30.720 resignation immediately. Right, because he was 00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:33.600 the Secretary of State for war. Exactly. But 00:06:33.600 --> 00:06:35.819 Kitchener had a massive, almost mythic reputation. 00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:38.800 He was the face of the recruitment posters, the 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:42.019 famous Your Country Needs You image. So instead 00:06:42.019 --> 00:06:43.819 of turning on Kitchener, the public fiercely 00:06:43.819 --> 00:06:46.319 defended him. Our source notes that newspapers 00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:48.560 actually saw a decline in their circulation for 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:50.920 attacking him. The public consensus was that 00:06:50.920 --> 00:06:52.819 the press meddling in political and military 00:06:52.819 --> 00:06:55.459 roles was entirely inappropriate. It backfired 00:06:55.459 --> 00:06:58.620 completely on the press. It did. But a week later, 00:06:58.740 --> 00:07:01.480 on May 21st, the popular Daily Mail ran an even 00:07:01.480 --> 00:07:03.759 more sensational version of the criticism with 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:07.920 the headline, The Shell Scandal, Lord Kitchener's 00:07:07.920 --> 00:07:11.459 Tragic Blunder. It got so intense that David 00:07:11.459 --> 00:07:14.040 Lloyd George actually warned Lord Northcliffe. 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:16.600 The powerful press baron. Right. He warned Northcliffe 00:07:16.600 --> 00:07:19.160 that this aggressive campaign was counterproductive 00:07:19.160 --> 00:07:21.779 and was only generating more sympathy for Kitchener. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:24.699 Kitchener himself just wanted to let the whole 00:07:24.699 --> 00:07:27.339 scandal drop to avoid further dividing the country. 00:07:28.279 --> 00:07:30.300 The master general of the ordinance, Stanley 00:07:30.300 --> 00:07:33.220 Von Donop, actually demanded an official inquiry 00:07:33.220 --> 00:07:35.800 to clear his own name regarding the shell supply. 00:07:35.980 --> 00:07:39.009 But Kitchener stopped him. He did. Kitchener 00:07:39.009 --> 00:07:41.410 persuaded him to withdraw the request, knowing 00:07:41.410 --> 00:07:44.050 that a full inquiry would expose Sir John French's 00:07:44.050 --> 00:07:46.290 leaks and force the government to dismiss the 00:07:46.290 --> 00:07:48.189 commander -in -chief during a critical phase 00:07:48.189 --> 00:07:51.110 of the war. So the military and the press are 00:07:51.110 --> 00:07:54.329 locked in this bizarre standoff, but the tension 00:07:54.329 --> 00:07:56.550 was already spilling over into the political 00:07:56.550 --> 00:07:59.250 arena. And that brings us to the political earthquake. 00:07:59.529 --> 00:08:02.189 While the shell shortage was the underlying fuel, 00:08:02.730 --> 00:08:05.689 the crisis reached its absolute boiling point 00:08:05.689 --> 00:08:09.269 due to a seemingly unrelated event right in the 00:08:09.269 --> 00:08:12.089 middle of all this media chaos. On May 15th, 00:08:12.269 --> 00:08:14.470 Admiral Fisher resigned. Right, and Admiral Fisher 00:08:14.470 --> 00:08:17.110 was the first Sea Lord, which is the professional 00:08:17.110 --> 00:08:19.970 head of the Royal Navy. He had severe disagreements 00:08:19.970 --> 00:08:21.910 with his ministerial chief, the first Lord of 00:08:21.910 --> 00:08:24.550 the Admiralty, Winston Churchill. They were clashing 00:08:24.550 --> 00:08:27.050 fiercely over the naval attack on the Dardanelles, 00:08:27.170 --> 00:08:29.370 which was the precursor to the stalemated landings 00:08:29.370 --> 00:08:32.009 at Gallipoli. So the obvious question here is 00:08:32.009 --> 00:08:34.490 how does a naval dispute over Gallipoli cause 00:08:34.490 --> 00:08:36.789 the entire British government to collapse over 00:08:36.789 --> 00:08:39.529 an artillery shell shortage? The government was 00:08:39.529 --> 00:08:42.210 already severely weakened by the shell crisis 00:08:42.210 --> 00:08:44.909 media firestorm. Public trust in the liberal 00:08:44.909 --> 00:08:47.629 government's ability to manage the war was fracturing. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:51.000 Fisher's sudden resignation was simply the final 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:53.120 straw that gave the conservative opposition the 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:55.519 leverage they needed. Especially since Churchill 00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:58.360 was deeply detested by the conservatives because 00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:00.399 he had defected from their party to join the 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:03.200 liberals over a decade earlier. Exactly. So you 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:06.740 have a military failure at Auburs, a media firestorm 00:09:06.740 --> 00:09:09.940 over shells exposing deep logistical flaws, and 00:09:09.940 --> 00:09:12.980 now a high -profile resignation at the Admiralty 00:09:12.980 --> 00:09:16.019 involving a deeply polarizing politician. The 00:09:16.019 --> 00:09:18.120 conservatives saw blood in the water. Let's look 00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:21.360 at May 17. David Lloyd George, who is the chancellor 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:24.039 of the Exchequer, and Bonar Law, the conservative 00:09:24.039 --> 00:09:26.659 leader who strongly dislikes Churchill. I put 00:09:26.659 --> 00:09:29.419 it mildly. Right. They go to visit Prime Minister 00:09:29.419 --> 00:09:31.940 Asquith. And following that very brief meeting, 00:09:32.240 --> 00:09:34.360 Asquith wrote to his ministers demanding their 00:09:34.360 --> 00:09:38.139 resignations. The sheer weight of these compounding 00:09:38.139 --> 00:09:41.039 crises forced Asquith to dissolve his government 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:43.919 and form an entirely new coalition government, 00:09:44.279 --> 00:09:46.309 bringing the conservatives into the fold. And 00:09:46.309 --> 00:09:48.789 as a crucial part of this new coalition, David 00:09:48.789 --> 00:09:50.850 Lloyd George is appointed as the minister of 00:09:50.850 --> 00:09:54.070 munitions, heading up a brand new cabinet level 00:09:54.070 --> 00:09:56.590 government department dedicated entirely to solving 00:09:56.590 --> 00:09:59.809 the supply chain issue. There is a massive historical 00:09:59.809 --> 00:10:02.629 milestone here that you should remember. The 00:10:02.629 --> 00:10:06.129 Shell crisis forced the Liberal Party to relinquish 00:10:06.129 --> 00:10:08.809 their full independent control of the government. 00:10:09.029 --> 00:10:13.250 And since that moment in 1915. No purely liberal 00:10:13.250 --> 00:10:15.789 government has ever held office in the UK again. 00:10:16.070 --> 00:10:18.509 They've been part of subsequent coalitions, but 00:10:18.509 --> 00:10:21.370 they never held soul power again. Lloyd George 00:10:21.370 --> 00:10:24.409 used this newly created Ministry of Munitions 00:10:24.409 --> 00:10:27.149 as a platform, paving the way for him to eventually 00:10:27.149 --> 00:10:29.789 replace Asquith as prime minister in December 00:10:29.789 --> 00:10:33.269 1916. Meanwhile, Sir John French was tarnished 00:10:33.269 --> 00:10:35.789 by his blatant political meddling and was forced 00:10:35.789 --> 00:10:39.129 to resign in December 1915. Kitchener remained 00:10:39.129 --> 00:10:41.289 in office, responsible for raising the volunteer 00:10:41.289 --> 00:10:44.029 new armies, but he lost control over munitions 00:10:44.029 --> 00:10:46.330 production and was increasingly sidelined from 00:10:46.330 --> 00:10:48.830 military strategy. Now, just to be clear, both 00:10:48.830 --> 00:10:51.289 of us are outlining these political machinations 00:10:51.289 --> 00:10:54.110 strictly as a chain of historical events. Right, 00:10:54.289 --> 00:10:56.090 without passing judgment on the liberals or the 00:10:56.090 --> 00:10:58.269 conservatives. Or individual politicians' power 00:10:58.269 --> 00:11:00.750 grabs. We're just looking at how a logistical 00:11:00.750 --> 00:11:03.529 crisis becomes an opportunity for power, regardless 00:11:03.529 --> 00:11:06.399 of which parties involved. Absolutely. But the 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:08.720 restructuring didn't stop at the cabinet level. 00:11:09.039 --> 00:11:11.320 The new government had to actually solve the 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:14.360 Shell crisis, and doing so required a total pivot 00:11:14.360 --> 00:11:16.559 of the nation's industry. And that brings us 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:19.759 to the Munitions of War Act of 1915. The government 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:22.340 essentially ended the Shell crisis by taking 00:11:22.340 --> 00:11:25.120 unprecedented control over the state economy. 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:28.179 Trade union regulations were suspended, employers' 00:11:28.419 --> 00:11:30.700 profits were strictly limited, private factories 00:11:30.700 --> 00:11:33.659 passed under direct state control, and new national 00:11:33.659 --> 00:11:35.820 factories were ordered to be built. The rule 00:11:35.820 --> 00:11:38.419 was clear. Skilled men must fight in the trenches 00:11:38.419 --> 00:11:41.320 or they must work in the factories. Manpower 00:11:41.320 --> 00:11:44.279 had to be economized. But building massive new 00:11:44.279 --> 00:11:46.620 munitions factories takes time, and the army 00:11:46.620 --> 00:11:48.940 needed shells immediately. So here's where it 00:11:48.940 --> 00:11:51.779 gets really interesting. To bridge that gap and 00:11:51.779 --> 00:11:54.159 avoid any delay, the government turned to an 00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:57.230 existing industry. The railway companies. The 00:11:57.230 --> 00:11:59.190 railway companies already had massive locomotive 00:11:59.190 --> 00:12:01.570 and carriage works. They had the foundries, the 00:12:01.570 --> 00:12:03.990 heavy lifting cranes, and the precision engineering 00:12:03.990 --> 00:12:05.850 tools meant for building and repairing train 00:12:05.850 --> 00:12:08.289 engines. So the government realized that a company 00:12:08.289 --> 00:12:11.110 that usually casts iron wheels for passenger 00:12:11.110 --> 00:12:14.269 trains could be retooled to cast steel casings 00:12:14.269 --> 00:12:17.190 for 6 -inch shells. The same engineers who designed 00:12:17.190 --> 00:12:19.889 locomotive boilers could design mountings for 00:12:19.889 --> 00:12:23.129 massive artillery pieces. And by the end of 1915, 00:12:23.549 --> 00:12:26.200 these railway companies used their existing infrastructure 00:12:26.200 --> 00:12:29.399 were pumping out between 1 ,000 and 5 ,000 6 00:12:29.399 --> 00:12:31.879 -inch high explosive shells every single week. 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:34.000 Under the direction of the Railway Executive 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:36.419 Committee, these companies began manufacturing 00:12:36.419 --> 00:12:39.620 an astonishing array of war materials. They produced 00:12:39.620 --> 00:12:43.059 mountings for large artillery, water tank carts, 00:12:43.700 --> 00:12:47.019 miners trucks, heavy capacity wagons, machinery 00:12:47.019 --> 00:12:50.080 for howitzer carriages, armored trains, and ambulances. 00:12:50.340 --> 00:12:53.139 Even in 1916, when the new Ministry of Munitions 00:12:53.139 --> 00:12:55.580 factories finally came online and started producing 00:12:55.580 --> 00:12:58.279 large volumes of supplies, the work of the railway 00:12:58.279 --> 00:13:00.539 companies actually increased. They kept this 00:13:00.539 --> 00:13:02.700 high volume of production up throughout the entire 00:13:02.700 --> 00:13:04.919 war. That's incredible. An official government 00:13:04.919 --> 00:13:07.919 record from May 1920 detailing just the munitions 00:13:07.919 --> 00:13:11.059 work done by the railways was 121 pages long. 00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:14.259 Wow. And they did all this vital war work to 00:13:14.259 --> 00:13:16.419 the detriment of maintaining their own civilian 00:13:16.419 --> 00:13:19.620 trains. Their own locomotives and passenger carriages 00:13:19.620 --> 00:13:22.259 were falling into disrepair because every ounce 00:13:22.259 --> 00:13:25.480 of industrial energy was focused on the war effort. 00:13:25.639 --> 00:13:28.379 Transforming an entire economy overnight doesn't 00:13:28.379 --> 00:13:31.620 just involve machine and factories, it fundamentally 00:13:31.620 --> 00:13:34.019 changes the human element of mass production. 00:13:34.220 --> 00:13:37.000 The social shift was staggering. To meet these 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:39.580 massive labor demands, the workforce had to be 00:13:39.580 --> 00:13:42.759 completely transformed. This included the introduction 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:45.539 of an estimated one million women into the munitions 00:13:45.539 --> 00:13:48.019 industry, who became known as munitionettes. 00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:50.080 We really need to spend some time looking at 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:52.539 what this meant for these women in 1915. Yeah. 00:13:52.539 --> 00:13:54.519 This wasn't just a shift into light assembly. 00:13:54.940 --> 00:13:57.279 You had women leaving domestic service or textile 00:13:57.279 --> 00:14:00.340 jobs and suddenly operating massive industrial 00:14:00.340 --> 00:14:03.100 lathe. They were handling heavy machinery and 00:14:03.100 --> 00:14:05.799 incredibly toxic chemicals. This massive shift 00:14:05.799 --> 00:14:07.899 in the workforce laid the groundwork for future 00:14:07.899 --> 00:14:10.620 social movements and the push for women's suffrage 00:14:10.620 --> 00:14:12.559 because they were proving they could keep the 00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:14.500 nation's heavy industry running under the most 00:14:14.500 --> 00:14:17.259 intense pressure imaginable. And the conditions 00:14:17.259 --> 00:14:19.960 they were working under were governed by incredibly 00:14:19.960 --> 00:14:23.299 drastic labor laws. The Munitions of War Act 00:14:23.299 --> 00:14:26.500 of 1915 actually prevented munitions workers 00:14:26.500 --> 00:14:29.259 from resigning from their jobs without their 00:14:29.259 --> 00:14:31.440 employers explicit consent. You couldn't just 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:34.179 quit if you felt unsafe or overworked? No. It 00:14:34.179 --> 00:14:37.019 was a stark recognition that the whole economy 00:14:37.019 --> 00:14:39.720 had to be forcefully mobilized if the Allies 00:14:39.720 --> 00:14:42.820 were to survive on the Western Front. This mobilization 00:14:42.820 --> 00:14:44.980 extended across British Commonwealth countries 00:14:44.980 --> 00:14:47.740 too, particularly in Canada, where supplies and 00:14:47.740 --> 00:14:50.080 factories were entirely reorganized under the 00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:52.600 Imperial Munitions Board. But pushing an industrial 00:14:52.600 --> 00:14:55.360 machine that hard, that fast, comes with a truly 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:58.879 horrific lethal cost. The government did recognize 00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:01.360 the physical toll. They set up the Health Munitions 00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:04.299 Workers Committee in 1915, which was actually 00:15:04.299 --> 00:15:06.940 one of the very first formal investigations into 00:15:06.940 --> 00:15:08.879 occupational safety and health. But they were 00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:12.139 mass producing highly volatile explosives on 00:15:12.139 --> 00:15:15.360 an unprecedented scale. Right. A massive factory 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:18.879 called HM Factory, Gretna, was built on the English 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:21.379 -Scottish border just to produce cordite. For 00:15:21.379 --> 00:15:23.419 those who might not know, cordite is the smokeless 00:15:23.419 --> 00:15:25.259 propellant used to actually launch the shells 00:15:25.259 --> 00:15:28.159 out of the artillery guns, and it is highly volatile. 00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:31.580 Handling it, along with PNT, required meticulous 00:15:31.580 --> 00:15:34.820 care. The TNT actually caused toxic jaundice, 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:36.860 turning the workers' skin yellow, which earned 00:15:36.860 --> 00:15:39.559 them the nickname canaries. Despite the safety 00:15:39.559 --> 00:15:42.000 committees, major tragedies were inevitable given 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:44.240 the scale and speed of production. The source 00:15:44.240 --> 00:15:47.179 notes at least three major devastating explosions 00:15:47.179 --> 00:15:50.320 at these facilities. In 1916, an explosion at 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:54.500 Faversham involving 200 tons of TNT killed 105 00:15:54.500 --> 00:15:58.080 people. In January 1917, the Silver Town explosion 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:00.899 in Greater London killed 73 people and injured 00:16:00.899 --> 00:16:03.940 400 more. And the National Shell Filling Factory 00:16:03.940 --> 00:16:06.639 in Chilwell exploded in 1918, taking the lives 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:09.899 of 137 workers. The front line extended right 00:16:09.899 --> 00:16:12.240 into the factories at home. The everyday reality 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:14.659 for these workers was defined by constant danger. 00:16:14.940 --> 00:16:17.220 If we connect this to the bigger picture, the 00:16:17.220 --> 00:16:21.039 Shell Crisis of 1915 is a profound study in cause 00:16:21.039 --> 00:16:24.240 and effect. A tactical failure on a muddy ridge 00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:27.799 in France forced an entire nation to completely 00:16:27.799 --> 00:16:30.080 redefine itself. It redefined the relationship 00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:31.960 between the military and the press, blurring 00:16:31.960 --> 00:16:34.259 the lines of who controls the narrative of a 00:16:34.259 --> 00:16:36.679 war. It redefined the power dynamics within the 00:16:36.679 --> 00:16:39.220 government, ending an era of liberal political 00:16:39.220 --> 00:16:41.659 dominance. And it redefined the daily lives, 00:16:41.980 --> 00:16:43.879 the labor rights, and the social standing of 00:16:43.879 --> 00:16:46.320 the working class, particularly women. It proves 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:49.620 that in complex, interconnected systems, a single 00:16:49.620 --> 00:16:52.519 weak link In this case, an insufficient stockpile 00:16:52.519 --> 00:16:55.000 of the right kind of artillery shell can force 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:57.879 an entire society to evolve out of sheer necessity. 00:16:58.279 --> 00:17:00.000 So what does this all mean for you? Next time 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:01.980 you hear about a modern supply chain breakdown 00:17:01.980 --> 00:17:04.799 or a sudden unexpected political shakeup at the 00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:07.119 highest levels, look a little deeper. Ask yourself, 00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:09.920 what is the underlying shell crisis here? What 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:13.359 is the seemingly small logistical failure that 00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:15.460 is actually driving the massive headlines you 00:17:15.460 --> 00:17:17.720 see on the news? The logistical constraints of 00:17:17.720 --> 00:17:20.089 today. often dictate the political realities 00:17:20.089 --> 00:17:22.049 of tomorrow. We want to leave you with a final 00:17:22.049 --> 00:17:24.630 thought to mull over, something that builds on 00:17:24.630 --> 00:17:27.690 everything we've explored today. In 1915, the 00:17:27.690 --> 00:17:30.170 British government was finally forced to recognize 00:17:30.170 --> 00:17:33.349 that high explosive shells were absolutely required 00:17:33.349 --> 00:17:35.930 to lower the enemy's physical parapets on the 00:17:35.930 --> 00:17:38.329 battlefield. You couldn't advance without destroying 00:17:38.329 --> 00:17:41.750 those defenses. But the great lingering irony 00:17:41.750 --> 00:17:44.549 of this entire event is that it was the press. 00:17:44.779 --> 00:17:47.940 along with ambitious politicians who use that 00:17:47.940 --> 00:17:51.599 very same crisis as an explosive to lower the 00:17:51.599 --> 00:17:53.440 political parapets of the British government 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:55.900 itself. In doing so, they blurred the line forever 00:17:55.900 --> 00:17:58.359 between merely reporting on a war and actively 00:17:58.359 --> 00:18:00.700 orchestrating its leadership. Thank you for joining 00:18:00.700 --> 00:18:03.279 us as we unpack this deep dive. Keep questioning 00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:05.380 the headlines, keep looking for the missing shells, 00:18:05.500 --> 00:18:07.440 and we'll catch you on the next deep dive.