ABSTRACT
The catastrophe of the First World War hung over the succeedingdecades. The hope for peace was increasingly expressed as a forlorn lament that war had become too terrible to contemplate. Extrapolating from the experience of soldiers in the trenches of the western front during the First World War, and realizing that a new war would involve aerial bombardment and the involvement of civilians, many observers believed that a new conflict would lead to large-scale psychological and social disintegration. The leader of the British Labour Party, Clement Attlee, stated: “We believe another world war would mean the end of civilisation.” The British Home Office calculated that 20 million square feet of timber would be needed monthly for coffins, and the Ministry of Health thought that 2.8 million hospital beds would be required, and that air war would produce 4 million psychological casualties within six months.1
