“Months of boredom punctuated by moments of terror”: Boredom and the British Military Experience in Macedonia during the First World War

Boredom was and remains the dominant experience of warfare. Yet, while the truism ‘months of boredom punctuated by moments of terror’ has come to define the experience of soldiers throughout history, scholars have focused overwhelmingly on the emotional dimensions of combat. However, centring the spells of excitement and fear, the endurance of which dramatically shaped the course of battles, campaigns, and even wars, rather than the prolonged mundanity and tedium of military life, has created a skewed understanding of the psychological landscape of past conflicts. Boredom has remained asserted rather than explored as the predominant but nevertheless trivial experience of active service. This paper moves beyond the superficial treatment of boredom by much of the existing literature through situating it at the centre of the British military experience in Macedonia during the First World War. Based on an interdisciplinary methodological framework informed by psychology, sociology, and philosophy, this paper seeks to rescue boredom from its undeserved neglect by advancing two arguments. Firstly, instead of a monolithic phenomenon, boredom was far more complex than hitherto appreciated, with distinct ‘simple’ and ‘existential’ forms, both of which shaped military life in different ways. Secondly, boredom constituted more than an unpleasant experience, presenting a significant threat to military effectiveness on an institutional and individual level. Soldiers’ motivation to work and fight dissipated, the foundations of morale fractured, and some men became prone to mental breakdown and even suicide. In all, it is clear that if we do not consider boredom, we cannot truly understand the adversity of war.

Dr Gasson received his doctorate from Oxford University in 2024, on the subject, ‘The ‘deadliest enemy’: Experiencing and Enduring Boredom in the British Salonika Force, 1915–1918’. He is currently a postdoctoral research assistant on the ‘Forces Record Project’ based in the Defence Studies Department, King’s College London

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