Non-Fiction
Never again.
— Epitaph on a French War Memorialnote
"You will be home before the leaves have fallen from the trees."
— Kaiser Wilhelm II, watching German troops marching off to war in summer 1914. (As usual, not quite accurate.)
The fifteen years or so from 1899 to 1914 were a Belle Époque not only because they were prosperous and life was exceedingly attractive for those who had money and golden for those who were rich, but also because the rulers of most western countries were perhaps worried about the future, but not really frightened about the present...Yet there were considerable areas of the world in which this clearly was not the case. In these areas the years 1880 to 1914 were an era of constantly possible, of impending or even of actual revolution. Though some of these countries were to be plunged into world war, even in these 1914 is not the apparently sudden break...In some — e.g. the Ottoman Empire — the world war itself was merely one episode in a series of military conflicts which had already begun some years earlier. In others — possibly Russia and certainly the Habsburg Empire — the world war was itself largely the product of the insolubility of the problems of domestic politics...In short, for the vast area of the globe...the idea that somehow or other, but for the unforeseen and avoidable intervention of catastrophe in 1914, stability, prosperity and liberal progress would have continued, has not even the most superficial plausibility.
— Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Empire, Page 276-277
"Humanity is mad! It must be mad to do what it is doing. What a massacre! What scenes of horror and carnage! I cannot find words to translate my impressions. Hell cannot be so terrible. Men are mad!"
— Second Lieutenant Alfred Joubaire in his diary during the Battle of Verdun (May 23, 1916)
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
— Rudyard Kipling, Epitaphs of the War, "Common Form"
I could not dig, I dared not rob
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young?
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young?
— Rudyard Kipling, Epitaphs of the War, "A Dead Statesman"
What passing bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells,
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells,
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
—Wilfred Owen, Anthem for Doomed Youth
"The lights are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."
— Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary on the eve of the war.
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead, short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it High.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead, short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it High.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.
— "In Flanders Fields" by Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
Calm fell. From Heaven distilled a clemency;
There was peace on earth, and silence in the sky;
Some could, some could not, shake off misery:
The Sinister Spirit sneered: "It had to be!"
And again the Spirit of Pity whispered, "Why?"
There was peace on earth, and silence in the sky;
Some could, some could not, shake off misery:
The Sinister Spirit sneered: "It had to be!"
And again the Spirit of Pity whispered, "Why?"
— "And There Was a Great Calm" by Thomas Hardy (on the signing of the armistice)
We were all Orcs in the Great War.
— Attributed to J. R. R. Tolkien
Fiction
A knife that had traveled to France in 1917 with a boy, a boy who had been part of a boy-army ready and willing to stop the dirty hun from bayoneting babies and raping nuns, ready to show the Frenchies a thing or two in the bargain; and the boys had been machine-gunned, the boys had gotten dysentery and the killer flu, the boys had inhaled mustard gas and phosgene gas, the boys had come out of Belleau Wood looking like haunted scarecrows who had seen the face of Lord Satan himself. And it had all turned out to be for nothing; it turned out that it all had to be done over again.
"We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war."
— Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
I wanna tell a story / of world war no. 1...
— "The War" by Running Wild
Private Baldrick: I heard that [the war] started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich 'cause he was hungry.
Captain Blackadder: I think you mean it started when the Archduke of Austria-Hungary got shot.
Private Baldrick: Nah, there was definitely an ostrich involved, sir.
Captain Blackadder: Well, possibly. But the real reason for the whole thing was that it was just too much effort not to have a war.
Lt. George: By Gum, this is interesting! I always loved history. The Battle of Hastings, Henry VIII and his six knives and all that!
Captain Blackadder: You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent war in Europe, two super blocs developed: us, the French and the Russians on one side; and the Germans and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea was to have two vast, opposing armies, each acting as the other's deterrent. That way, there could never be a war.
Private Baldrick: But, this is sort of a war, isn't it, sir?
Captain Blackadder: Yes, that's right. There was a tiny flaw in the plan.
Lt. George: What was that, sir?
Captain Blackadder: It was bollocks.
[beat]
Private George: So that poor ostrich died for nothing!
Captain Blackadder: I think you mean it started when the Archduke of Austria-Hungary got shot.
Private Baldrick: Nah, there was definitely an ostrich involved, sir.
Captain Blackadder: Well, possibly. But the real reason for the whole thing was that it was just too much effort not to have a war.
Lt. George: By Gum, this is interesting! I always loved history. The Battle of Hastings, Henry VIII and his six knives and all that!
Captain Blackadder: You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent war in Europe, two super blocs developed: us, the French and the Russians on one side; and the Germans and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea was to have two vast, opposing armies, each acting as the other's deterrent. That way, there could never be a war.
Private Baldrick: But, this is sort of a war, isn't it, sir?
Captain Blackadder: Yes, that's right. There was a tiny flaw in the plan.
Lt. George: What was that, sir?
Captain Blackadder: It was bollocks.
[beat]
Private George: So that poor ostrich died for nothing!
— Blackadder Goes Forth
Son of Mine: All your little tin soldiers. But tell me sir, will they thank you?
Headmaster: I don’t understand.
Son of Mine: What do you know of history, sir? What do you know of next year?
Headmaster: You’re not making sense.
Son of Mine: 1914, sir. Because the Family has travelled far and wide looking for Mr. Smith and oh, the things we have seen! War is coming. In foreign fields, war of the whole wide world, with all your boys falling down in the mud. Do you think they will thank the man who taught them it was glorious?!
"In June 1914, an Archduke of Austria was shot by a Serbian, and this then led, through nations having treaties with nations, like a line of dominoes falling, to some boys from England walking together in France on a terrible day."
Across the savage skies and through the fissures in the fields
The rumble of the engines and the trundle of the wheels
Through hell and horror trudge and yet our spirits never yield
Will they sing of these forsaken pawns of war?
Hoist the flags, hold the lines, lessons ever lost to time
Now we sing for you, departed pawns of war
The rumble of the engines and the trundle of the wheels
Through hell and horror trudge and yet our spirits never yield
Will they sing of these forsaken pawns of war?
Hoist the flags, hold the lines, lessons ever lost to time
Now we sing for you, departed pawns of war
— Pawns of War, by Miracle of Sound (made for Battlefield 1)
Battlefield 1 is based upon events that unfolded over one hundred years ago.
More than 60 million soldiers fought in 'The War to End All Wars'.
It ended nothing, yet it changed the world forever.
What follows is frontline combat.
You are not expected to survive.
More than 60 million soldiers fought in 'The War to End All Wars'.
It ended nothing, yet it changed the world forever.
What follows is frontline combat.
You are not expected to survive.
— Opening text crawl from Battlefield 1
''Great war
And I cannot take more
Great tour, I keep on marching on
I play the great score
There will be no encore
Great war, the war to end all wars!''
—Sabaton, Great War
Laying low in a blood-filled trench
Killing time 'til my very own death
On my face I can feel the falling rain
Never see my friends again
Killing time 'til my very own death
On my face I can feel the falling rain
Never see my friends again
In the smoke, in the mud and lead
Smell the fear and the feeling of dread
Soon be time to go over the wall
Rapid fire and end of us all
Smell the fear and the feeling of dread
Soon be time to go over the wall
Rapid fire and end of us all
—Iron Maiden, Paschendale
Human history is equal parts heroism, tragedy, and misunderstanding. Very rarely have we displayed all three to such a degree as in the first World War. This war is called the Seminal Catastrophe of the 20th Century. Because without it, there would be no Stalin, and no Hitler, no Fascism or World War II . Without it, we don't have a Cold War that leads us to the very brink of annihilation. Nor do we see the Middle East carved up by old men, still bitter from 4 years of self-inflicted, meaningless catastrophe. Without this war, we probably don't have 9/11 or the turmoil in the Middle East today.
This war ushered in the Modern Age, born in the crucible of gunpowder and toxic smoke, and the blood of 10 million men. Blood spilled in war from the fields of France, to the waters of America. From the Russian frontier, to the sands of the Middle East. From the Chinese mainland, to the deepest parts of the sea.
This war broke empires. It shattered the past and forced us to give up our last ties to our medieval understanding. When the smoke cleared and a stunned world climbed out of its trenches, we lived in a new age, with new powers, new ideas, and new terrors. It is the defining event of the 20th Century. It is The Great War.
This war ushered in the Modern Age, born in the crucible of gunpowder and toxic smoke, and the blood of 10 million men. Blood spilled in war from the fields of France, to the waters of America. From the Russian frontier, to the sands of the Middle East. From the Chinese mainland, to the deepest parts of the sea.
This war broke empires. It shattered the past and forced us to give up our last ties to our medieval understanding. When the smoke cleared and a stunned world climbed out of its trenches, we lived in a new age, with new powers, new ideas, and new terrors. It is the defining event of the 20th Century. It is The Great War.
Basically, Somebody shot somebody, and then Europe burned down for a while
Sherlock Holmes: There's an east wind coming, Watson.
Dr. Watson: I think not, Holmes. It is very warm.
Sherlock Holmes: Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it's God's own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared.
Dr. Watson: I think not, Holmes. It is very warm.
Sherlock Holmes: Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it's God's own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared.
—"His Last Bow" (set in August 1914, published 1917)
