What is the impact of war on non-combatants, particularly women and children?  In this innovative analysis of nutritional deprivation among ordinary German citizens during the first World War, Mary Cox finds that the allied interdiction of food supplies- which came known in Germany as "the Hungerblockade" resulted in stunted growth and diminished height of children far from the battlefield. 

 

Germany defiantly proclaimed that their country could not be starved out. Yet modern analysis of height and weight records for hundreds of thousands of school children reveals a grim truth: while the naval blockade produced an undeniable military advantage for the Allies, it resulted in hunger for millions of German infants. Desperately struggling to feed their families under the growing spectre of starvation, many mothers chose to sacrifice their own well-being for the benefit of their families.

 

National and local policies within Germany sometimes helped but often exasperated food insecurity. Modern analysis of anthropometric data now brings into question long held assumptions about the divide between rural and urban health, and legal and moral arguments of the blockade. Combined with contemporary letters, diaries, and news reports, these data provide an expanded picture of levels of health and nutritional deprivation across society.

 

This story of one of the most viscious wars is not devoid of compassion. Following the eventual lift of the British blockade,  the victorious powers  and nations throughout the world sent  millions of pounds of food into Germany, relief which is mirrored in drawings and letters of gratitude from hundreds of German school children.