All Quiet On The Western Front

I was thinking about World War I this morning when I woke up, which is a bit odd as it is not usually the first thing you think about when you wake up but I have always been a bit odd like that.

I suppose it is because that recently I have either been reading or hearing a lot about how things actually were when men returned from battle after the end of the First World War.

When I was little in the 1960s, war was still considered to be something noble, you fought and died for your country and you were thought to be a bit of a wimp if you didn't. But over time pacifism has become a kind of a norm and you are not thought of as a coward if you don't want to fight.

Personally I think that anyone eager to sign up and run off to battle, as they did in 1914, wants their head examined, but maybe that's just because I'm too cowardly to stand in a trench for 4 years with the worst possible quality of life and spending my time taking potshots at the enemy. As well as on occasion being instructed to basically commit suicide by so-called officers sitting in civilized accommodation far away with the unbelievably crazy strategy of "going over the top" and taking potshots at the enemy in the dark.

So-called "deserters" were shot. Well there's a logic for you! Like there wasn't enough shooting going on as it was! If you ask me, too many guns were in the hands of too many nuts.

The term "shell-shocked" was used to describe men returning from World War I, and back in the 1960's when I was little I used to think it was something to do with soldiers having problems with their ears from hearing too many bombs going off too close.

Now, you hear more about the mental effect on those soldiers, and the fact that there actually were very few eligible men left to marry during the 1920s - those that hadn't been killed were usually suffering from pyschological problems that were never properly addressed. In fact their discussion seemed to be kind of a taboo.

To boot, the wave of influenza that hit Europe in 1918 killed off even more people, so it must have been very tough times.

In World War I, around 10 million soliders were either killed, maimed or lost (I guess the lost applies to those who they couldn't identify as they were blown to bits).

The Battle of the Somme alone had over 1 million casualties, with 60,000 men lost on the very first day. At the end of the battle, Allied Forces had penetrated a total of 6 miles into occupied German territory.

You would think that after that first day it would have been enough for people to have seen how utterly crazy this war was.

If I had been in charge, I would have said, OK, that's it, folks! This is just too stupid.

They didn't though. And you know what? Just 19 years after the "first lot", as they called it, they went and had World War II.

And they're still at it.