The War To End War: Why WWI Was Thought To Be The Last | Great War In Numbers | Timeline

Published 2022-06-11
The Great War was a conflict driven by quantity and numbers, fought by calculating generals for who no cost was too high. For the first time in history, everything was recorded in exacting detail and this documentary reveals the startling facts behind the staggering scale of the war to end all wars.

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All Comments (21)
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  • Iā€™m a 69yo disabled veteran and retired pilot. When I was about 8 yo my grandfather came to lives with us. I remember thinking,How old is he?, I had never seen a person that old before. I was mystified by him. Though I donā€™t remember having any long conversations with him but he would take me for walks around the neighborhood. During those walks I would babble constantly to him but not get much in the way of a response. I complained to my mother that Grandpa wonā€™t talk to me and I think he didnā€™t like me. My mom explained that it wasnā€™t me but he had been in a war which made him quiet and that I should never bring that up to grandpa. It was the first thing I asked him about during our next walk. He really started to talk to me then and we grew closer together. He told me about France and Germany and that he had a drinking problem. I thought he didnā€™t know how to swallow. My mother explained it to me a while later. I miss him to this day. He was a good man.
  • My great uncle a told me stories of fighting in ww1 in the mid 70s before he died. I was 7 - 8 yrs old there was no one yr tour you stayed until you were killed severely wounded. He was jumping over a trench and got a bayonete stuck up thru his bladder he was messed up physically his whole life. He would not speak of killing or gore. He did have several awards of bravery etc. Old uncle Gordon gave me a nickel to run & get his paper every day. Good Man, RIP Uncle.
  • Iā€™m 73 years old. My father was born in 1899. He fought in World War I and World War II. He was a loving and intelligent man. When we were very young, my mother told each of us that we must never ask father about any war except the American Civil War. We had Civil War battlefields for many vacations. He never spoke a word about the Wars he fought in. Being curious, I have read much History. I knew and lost people who went to Vietnam.
    The more I know about war, the more I understand my father, and Peace becomes more important to me every day.ā˜®ļø
  • @miketyson8933
    My Grandpa was in WWI and WWII he saw limited action in WWI and when the fighting calmed down he switched from a soldier into a medic, when WWII started he was ready to go back as a medic, he saved a LOT of lives, from seeing the damage from WWI he wanted to try and fix what he could, he was never the same after seeing the remnants of WWI he became VERY RELIGIOUS, and he said God was with him and dodged many of bombing runs in Europe. My grandpa came back from WWII and became a Ambulance driver and paramedic. Such a great man!
  • @rongumley7741
    I am 85 now and had 2 uncles who fought in France, both came home with injuries but lived a full long life. Henry McIntyre and Bernard Downs. They never spoke much about the war that I can remember. It was only after Bernard passed I found out he had won a Military Medal as a dispatch rider. The citation told of Bernard many times putting his hand up for the more dangerous runs. So lucky to have known such men.
  • @calibmatlock
    The sheer scale of the first world War really does get buried. The cost of human life so a couple of royal cousins could flex on each other is insane.
  • My uncle was also in ww2. Never spoke 1 word about his experience. He was a Navy man. He flew planes, could wire anything, could plumb anything. He was one of the most talented, soft-spoken, gentle people I have ever met. ā¤ļø
  • @trock6921
    Grandfather told me of a man dying on barbed wire for 2 days. Told that story to me as a young teen. Described it so vividly in my memories itā€™s like I was there with him.
    This documentary is well done. No other film Iā€™ve seen to this point talked about the horror of barbed wire.
  • @Jack-wi5qr
    Wifeā€™s great uncle served in this war,Canadian military. Before he passed in 1990,he gave me the great honour of seeing his medals from the Somme and other battles. Spoke very little about those days,but I saw the pride and regrets in his eyes when he showed his medals to me.
  • @1adan124
    In 1976 I was in 6th grade. It was our nations bicentennial, and I had the pleasure of meeting some of the last of the WW 1 veterans. I'll never forget it.
  • @Conn30Mtenor
    My paternal grandfather and maternal great-grandfather both fought in the CEF. My paternal grandfather, John Burnham, unhappy with his life with an abusive aunt in Vancouver ran away from that hellish situation with his little sister in tow and ended up in Winnipeg. He was 15 but tall for his age- "apparent age, 19" on his attestation papers. He was at every major battle of the CEF apart from 2nd Ypres, was wounded three times, caught VD (ended up in a VD hospital for three months), and received "Field Punishment #1" for coming back late from leave. Was wounded at Passchendaele and Courcelette. Loved soldiering, joined up again in WW2.
  • @Jack-wi5qr
    My wifeā€™s uncle fought at the Somme and Vimmy,wounded in both actions,but finished the war. Before he passed in 1989,he proudly showed me the medals he had earned. That made me feel proud,as many will not share the experience that they dealt with in war. Canadian soldier,Thomas Bennettā€™s from Manitoba. His medals are in Shilo where he served as a civilian employee for many years.
  • @cjaneAlaska
    My grandpa was infantry, a message runner to the front lines, survived battles, train wrecks and flu. Never really spoke of it. His uniform hung in the attic til he died in 1970.
  • I'm almost 68 and I can remember my Irish Grandma telling me that she lost 5 brothers "in Flanders Fields." Read the book about the Summer of 1919 to learn about how the French and British forced unreasonable terms upon their defeated German adversaries, which guaranteed a rematch 15 years later.
    Much of the strife in the world today is fallout from the World War(Parts 1 and 2). Plato said "Only the Dead have seen the end of War.
  • My paternal grandfather was in the US Army Infantry during WWI. He carried a 60lb radio and lost 3 inches in height. He was gassed near the end of the war and spent a year in a French hospital before he could come home. His stomach and lungs were ruined. Disabled at 21 years old. He was in horrible pain until the day he died in 1970 but he never said one word about the war except how he hated the Red Cross. My grandmother said he was a different man when he came home.
  • @FoardenotFord
    Iā€™ve thought a lot recently about the ā€œiron harvestā€ - the collection of tons of unexploded artillery shells from WWI that surface every year in France and Belgium. Sometimes, an unfortunate soul will be killed when one of these explodes unexpectedly. In a strange way, you could say those people died in the first World War, decades after it ended. Itā€™s like the Great War is a vengeful ghost that reaches out across time to remind us of the terrible cost of that conflict; it has to claim a life every now and then to ensure we know that we have not yet seen the last of its aftermath.
  • "In Flanders fields the poppies grow, to feed the bodies there below" Mans inhumanity towards it's own never ceases to amaze...
  • I have seen images of 17 year old boys in uniform in a muddy trench who were frozen in fear and trembling uncontrollably. They had seen their friends lose a face, an arm, a leg, a life. Bodies blown to bits. This is what war truly does to all soldiers.
  • My two great uncles fought at Gallipoli, the Somme, Passchendaele, and through 1918, and both survived. They said staying at home in New Zealand would have been better.