Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
Not to derail, but I've always hated that they called WW1 the great war. It was such a bloody waste, and all caused by the tensions created by the alliances at the time, colonialism and the assassination of a nobody.
"Home by Christmas" and "a good adventure for our boys" were common phrases used to drag young boys to a horrible war and face a terrible death.
One of the last wars where chemical warfare was used as part of a armies SOP.
Between living in rat infested water filled trenches for weeks at a time while your feet rotted off, to going over the wall into pre defined killing areas, to getting hit with horrifying choking and blistering agents, there was nothing great about this war.
There was an eventually to it.
I've always defined the period between WW1 and WW2 as the phony peace. There was only one World War and it started in 1914 and ended in 1945.
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I may be wrong but I think it was called the "great war" not because we won but because at the time it was the first global war, it had the largest death toll for a time period and in the end it also and paved the way for major political changes across the world.
The "Home by Christmas" and "a good adventure for our boys" was a normal type slogan from the U.S Civil War till the end WWII and probably longer, nothing shocking at all.
I do agree though that it didn't create peace but then again we still don't have global peace!