Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
There must have been a lot of anger felt by those who had endured the horrors, especially at all the sanitising of the whole thing that went on afterwards. I have a medal which was in a box of coins that came from my father's family, but in fact this medal belonged to a great-uncle on my mother's side of the family. He was in the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada in WW1. In case you can't read the inscription, it says "The Great War for Civilisation 1914-1919". I suppose they could hardly admit what a ghastly mess it was, but still ...
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As I've heard it one thing that led it to ending when it did was the flu. Back then it was a far deadlier strain than we know now and it led to a shortage of troops well enough to fight. It's also why they had laws about spitting on the sidewalk as it could be transmitted so easily that way. Old newsreels show police and others wearing a mask when out in public in hopes of not catching it. My paternal grandfather was in WWI. He forgot to have his ear protection on during artillery training and his hearing ended up being affected as he got older. You could be several blocks away and tell when he was watching TV according to my Dad, his hearing got that bad due to damage from the sound of the artillery shells.