It would be simple to say World War I and let it go at that.  But to really understand how and why it began, there is much more that needs to be said.  Content for this area was compiled from the following online sources.  For those interested in this subject, these make for fascinating and possibly surprising reading. 

​

            Investopedia.com   EBSCO.com   Wikipedia.org    jstor.org    AI (via yahoo.org)    time.org

​

One thing needs to be mentioned before going on.  This writer has an interest in this area as it touches some of the personal areas of his life.

 

My father and his two brothers fought during World War I in the Canadian Armed Forces.  His older brother was an Infantry Lieutenant and was killed in France during what turned out to be the very first tank against tank battle.  Dad served in the Medical Corp doctoring those wounded in the trenches.  His younger brother served in an artillery unit, survived the war and during WW2 served in the United States Army as an advisor on petrolium policies.

​

Dad didn't talk much about his experiences in that war.  But he did mention a couple of things.  First, that one day he was walking between trenches on a "duckboard" when a shell landed in the mud nearby.  The concussion knocked him down and if the shell hadn't hit mud that "You wouldn't be here now".  The second thing was that ambulance convoys weren't always used just to move wounded.  Both sides would (occasionally?) shell them and if a hit resulted in an explosion, turn loose a full barrage.  So, was this a "common knowledge" thing (as with our current political conversations) or did it actually happen? Unknown. 

 

It wasn't until well into my adult life that I came to understand why Dad hated the Germans so strongly.  In his view the "Huns" (as he called them) started a war and never paid the price.  It was never fought on their land.  Not a single shell or bullet crossed their border.  When it became obvious to the German high command that they would loose that war, they simply said "Okay, we'll stop fighting now" (my words).  This was a hatred almost universally shared by all of Britain and France.  But oh, there were many shades of that hatred, as I was surprised to learn.  So let's go there for a look.      

​

​

​