Turnip Winter

Germany's massive military recruitment played a direct role in this, as all areas of the economy suffered from lack of manpower, including agriculture.

The famine and hardship of the Turnip Winter severely affected the morale within Germany, revealing to the Germans just how hard-pressed the country had become under the duress of the war.

The Plan proposed that if German troops could invade France through Belgium and defeat the French, quickly removing one front, they would then be able to focus solely on Russia.

From October to late November, the armies clashed in a nearly month-long battle at Ypres in Flanders, near the North Sea, which incurred a devastating loss of life for both sides.

In order to wear down German forces, the Royal Navy, towards the end of 1914, blockaded "the northern approaches to the North Sea in an effort to cut off supplies to the soldiers and civilians of the Central Powers.

"[9] Locked into sustained fighting on the Western Front, which had already reduced supplies, the Germans now faced both the Russian threat in the east and the British blockade that "cut Germany off from sources of essential commodities.

Although the German economy was an international juggernaut that "managed to produce most of the industrial requirements of the war," the nation "failed to secure a sufficiency of food.

"[11] With continued fighting on two fronts and supplies restricted by the British blockade, German food shortages at home and for troops became increasingly troublesome issues.

At the rise of a potato famine in 1916, a German culinary staple, the government substituted the item with turnips hoping to make up the difference.

[citation needed] In turn, German soldiers, "increasingly relied, for sheer survival, on one of the least appealing vegetables known to man, the humble turnip.

Sailors claimed that they received rations shorted by two ounces for three consecutive weeks while officers ate and drank luxuriously.

The Kriegsbrot demonstrates how the Turnip Winter reached the front lines as well, as soldiers were greatly affected by the lack of food.

One woman recounts the experience by saying: We are all growing thinner every day, and the rounded contours of the German nation have become a legend of the past.

We are all gaunt and bony now, and have dark shadows round our eyes, and our thoughts are chiefly taken up with wondering what our next meal will be, and dreaming of the good things that once existed.