WW1

'Blighters'

BY SIEGFRIED SASSOON

The House is crammed: tier beyond tier they grin 

And cackle at the Show, while prancing ranks 

Of harlots shrill the chorus, drunk with din; 

“We’re sure the Kaiser loves the dear old Tanks!”

I’d like to see a Tank come down the stalls, 

Lurching to rag-time tunes, or “Home, sweet Home,” 

And there'd be no more jokes in Music-halls 

To mock the riddled corpses round Bapaume.

According to the official narrative, the most identifiable event in the formation of World War 1 was a high profile killing in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The Serbian Black Hand Serbian intelligence group facilitated several Serbian nationals in the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. While this provided a tangible narrative to justify waging war, there were many contributory  factors and events which lead to the largest instance of traditional and mechanised warfare witnessed until WW2. As with most warfare, WW1 was yet another application for the redistribution of wealth. 

The scale of atrocities lead to phenomena such as 'shell shock' (PTSD) becoming common terminology among citizens of European nations.  The total number of deaths is estimated to be in the region of forty million, most of whom were military personnel. It is also estimated that of these, between six and thirteen million were civilian deaths. This impacted the world population of approximately one and a half billion, in fundamental ways which were instrumental in the causality of WW2.