Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
It was generally expected, before the actualities of war arrived, that not the least effect of it would be a shattering of the mental health of the civil population. War on great cities was to be a particular application of what the war lords called the war of nerves. Propaganda, threats and their ultimate fulfilment with bombs and fire were to be the weapons of the future. With this in mind, arrangements were made to receive psychiatric casualties on the assumption that the civil population, untrained and unprofessional, would suffer in at least as large numbers as soldiers in the last war.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
R. E. Hemphill (1941) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 10 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: