They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
~ Lawrence Binyon (wiki), For The Fallen
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in the First World War, then known as “the Great War.” Commemorated as Armistice Day beginning the following year, November 11th became a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1938.
In the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became Veterans Day in the U.S. (and Remembrance Day in British Commonwealth nations), a holiday dedicated to veterans of all wars.
In the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became Veterans Day in the U.S. (and Remembrance Day in British Commonwealth nations), a holiday dedicated to veterans of all wars.
So, the First World War was what Veteran's Day was once really about...
When every autumn people said it could not last through the winter, and when every spring there was still no end in sight, only the hope that out of it all some good would accrue to mankind kept men and nations fighting. When at last it was over, the war had many diverse results and one dominant one transcending all others: disillusion.
~ Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989) (of World War I, The Guns of August, "Afterward")
Are these weeks... months... years going by? No, really only days. We see time passing us by in the colorless faces of the dead; we shovel in our food, we run, we throw, we shoot, we kill, we lie around. We are weak and apathetic, and we only endure because there are those who are weaker, more apathetic, and even more helpless, who look wide-eyed on us as Gods, because we have outrun death so many times.
Here dead we lie
Because we did not choose
To live and shame the land
From which we sprung.
Life, to be sure,
Is nothing much to lose,
But young men think it is,
And we were young.
~ A.E. Housman (1859-1936) ("Here Dead We Lie")
As a lover of truth, the national propaganda of all the belligerent nations sickened me. As a lover of civilization, the return to barbarism appalled me.
~ Bertrand Russell (wiki) (1872-1970) (of World War I, Autobiography, Vol. 2, Ch. 1)
The resulting economic collapse, the draconian terms of the Treaty of Versailles (wiki), and the conviction of many Germans that they had been "stabbed in the back" led to an even more destructive rematch only two decades later. One could argue - and I do - that World War I was the greatest misfortune that ever befell Western civilization.
It destroyed the West's belief in inevitable human progress. It brought down the Austro-Hungarian, German, Russian, and Ottoman empires, bankrupted France and England, and put the British Empire on the skids. It was the proximate cause of the triumph of Communism in Russia and the formation of the Soviet Union, drove the United States into two decades of international isolation, and instilled in Germany a thirst for revenge that led directly to the rise of the Nazis and World War II.
Moreover, in the Middle East, Britain's and France's cack-handed and self-serving division of the remains of the Ottoman Empire was largely responsible for all the turmoil we suffer there today. On hearing the terms of the Versailles Treaty, Germany's much-maligned Kaiser Wilhelm II noted from exile that,
"The war to end war has resulted in a peace to end peace."Here's a casualty chart for World War 1:
Country/Region Mobilized Killed Wounded Total K and W Casualties Africa 55,000 10,000 unknown unknown - Australia 330,000 59,000 152,000 211,000 64% Austria-Hungary 6,500,000 1,200,000 3,620,000 4,820,000 74% Belgium 207,000 13,000 44,000 57,000 28% Bulgaria 400,000 101,000 153,000 254,000 64% Canada 620,000 67,000 173,000 241,000 39% The Caribbean 21,000 1,000 3,000 4,000 19% French Empire 7,500,000 1,385,000 4,266,000 5,651,000 75% Germany 11,000,000 1,718,000 4,234,000 5,952,000 54% Great Britain 5,397,000 703,000 1,663,000 2,367,000 44% Greece 230,000 5,000 21,000 26,000 11% India 1,500,000 43,000 65,000 108,000 7% Italy 5,500,000 460,000 947,000 1,407,000 26% Japan 800,000 250 1,000 1,250 0.2% Montenegro 50,000 3,000 10,000 13,000 26% New Zealand 110,000 18,000 55,000 73,000 66% Portugal 100,000 7,000 15,000 22,000 22% Romania 750,000 200,000 120,000 320,000 43% Russia 12,000,000 1,700,000 4,950,000 6,650,000 55% Serbia 707,000 128,000 133,000 261,000 37% South Africa 149,000 7,000 12,000 19,000 13% Turkey 1,600,000 336,000 400,000 736,000 46% USA 4,272,500 117,000 204,000 321,000 8%
Here's a 6 minute overview of World War I:
A 3 minute time-lapse video of the changing front lines:
An 8 minute video on The Treaty of Versailles and its consequences:
And, on a broader scale, 1000 years of war in 5 minutes:
Related posts:
April 25th is ANZAC Day - the Battle of Gallipoli was 100 years ago.
100 years ago today Austria declared war on Serbia, the first declaration of World War 1.
Gorgeous set of WW1 posters.
June 6 is D-Day: quotes (Shakespeare, Eisenhower, Churchill), videos (footage, FDR's and Reagan's speeches), lots of links.
It's V.E. Day: 70 years ago today, World War 2 ended in Europe.
The assault on Iwo Jima started 70 years ago today: quotes, history, and a documentary.
If you're interested in further information on the subject on the First World War, there are hundreds of books and films - the best books I know of (although I'm no expert) are Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August (which won a Pulitzer back when they meant something) and John Keegan's The First World War.
Parts of the text above are adapted from my late, great partner's Quotation of the Day, available before his passing only via email. Ed is the author of Hunters and Killers: Volume 1: Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1776 to 1943 and Hunters and Killers: Volume 2: Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1943.