Source Analysis
Source 2.12
The perspective provided by source 2.12 which is a recollection by a German soldier, Lieutenant Johannes Niemen on an event during the trench warfare of world war one. This source is not very beneficial to a historian studying WW1 as it is a recount of a rare event that happened once throughout the whole war.
Source 2.12 is a primary source, as it is written from a soldier who was there at the time of the event and can recall all the information of when it happened. This impact on the reliability of the source as it could suggest that these events happened, and the lack of emotion makes it more factual but then it’s not necessarily reliable to someone studied the whole of WW1. The source has been produced by a German soldier the name of Lieutenant Johannes Niemen, this impacts on the reliability as it can be rather bias approach from the Germans point of view and can lead to exaggeration of the facts. The audience of the source would be anyone interested in reading about the rare events of WW1 this could affect its reliability as it is very limited and does not present you with the full picture of life on the front. The source was originally a few years after the event and which would impact on its reliability because it is relying on his memory but then also he would have other information gathered from the war to back up his recount. His recount may also be affect with the progress and mood of the war. This source was written because it was a very rare event and that there were elements of life on the front which showed that the regular soldiers did not hate their enemies but where just following orders. This impacts on the reliability as such a rare event may tend to be exaggerated to make it sounds even more extraordinary.
The overall usefulness of source 2.12 is that is not very useful is you were a historian studying World War One as it is a rare event and does not give you a overall picture of life on the front. It is a...