{"id":9970,"date":"2024-11-11T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/rbsc\/?p=9970"},"modified":"2024-11-11T09:26:34","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T14:26:34","slug":"war-games-playing-propaganda-in-world-war-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/rbsc\/war-games-playing-propaganda-in-world-war-one\/","title":{"rendered":"War Games: Playing Propaganda in World War One"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Greg Bond, Sports Archivist and Curator, Joyce Sports Research Collection <\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In honor of Veterans Day, Special Collections is pleased to highlight its recent acquisition of two British World War One-era patriotic board games. Marketed to the public to generate support for the war effort and to improve morale on the home front, the two manual dexterity marble-based maze games imagined the progress of battles in Europe and reflected British wartime propaganda against Germany. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two games, manufactured by British toy company R. Farmer & Sons, are encased in wood and under glass, and players must navigate a small metal ball around a recessed playing board and avoid holes distributed around the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first game which dates from about 1914 is titled \u201cThe Silver Bullet, or the Road to Berlin<\/a>,\u201d (MSSP 10091) and the playing board depicts the route of a military campaign through Germany with players winning by advancing to Berlin. Along the way, competitors must avoid their ball dropping in holes that depict obstacles like \u201centrenchments,\u201d \u201cbridge destroyed,\u201d and \u201croad mined,\u201d while also bypassing German cities including Cologne, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Dresden, Hanover, Hamburg, Spandau, and Potsdam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The reverse side of the board promotes this \u201cnew war game\u201d and includes the rules for players. \u201cAmateur Strategists,\u201d the manufacturers wrote, \u201cwill soon discover the methods whereby the danger zones may be successfully evaded, but the ever present difficulties tend to make the game of fascinating interest to players and onlookers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps as a warning to the public to be cautious about the progress of the war, the rules concluded that: \u201cBeginners will be encouraged to know that the proficiency generally begets over-confidence, and the expert often fails amidst the hearty laughter of the company when he least expects to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following up on the success of \u201cThe Silver Bullet, or the Road to Berlin,\u201d R. Farmer & Sons published its second game \u201cTrench Football<\/a>\u201d (MSSP 10092) in about 1915. Probably in reference to the informal Christmas Truces<\/a> of 1914 that saw German and Allied soldiers mingling and playing soccer, the \u201cTrench Football\u201d game simulates trench warfare in the guise of a soccer match. Players start at \u201ckickoff\u201d and must navigate their ball around trenches and holes manned by caricatures of German military and political leaders. Competitors win the game by completing the course, avoiding the oversized mouth of the Kaiser, and maneuvering their ball into the \u201cgoal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The reverse of the playing board calls \u201cTrench Football the great international game,\u201d and the instructions, labeled \u201cmode of attack,\u201d mock and parody the German leaders on the game board. The instructions, for example, describe the first two defenders that players have to bypass, German Crown Prince Kaiser Wilhelm and Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the head of the German Navy, who supported unrestricted submarine warfare:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You have a feeble opponent in \u201cLittle Willie\u201d at \u201cOutside Right.\u201d Loot Ball is his speciality and passing the outsider with the contempt he deserves, you negotiate the skulker Von Tirpitz (notorious for his foul play) on his first ever appearance in the open as \u201cCentre Forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Other German military figures came in for similar ridicule by the makers of the game:<\/p>\n\n\n\n