In addition to all the death and disease among soldiers and civilians, World War I was a horrifying excuse for global leaders to be on their worst behavior. Here's why the "Great War" was even worse than you thought.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00In addition to all the death and disease among soldiers and civilians, World War I was a
00:05horrifying excuse for global leaders to be on their worst behavior. Here's why the Great
00:09War was even worse than you thought.
00:12On the war's western front, soldiers on both sides of the conflict dug long, deep ditches
00:17to protect themselves from enemy gunfire. These trenches also served as their homes
00:21for weeks at a time. They were built with planks of wood, sandbags, sticks, and barbed
00:26wire. Or, when none of those elements were available, they simply used mud.
00:31The idea of fighting from trenches had been around for centuries. But by World War I,
00:35weaponry had advanced considerably, so trenches now protected men from machine guns and artillery
00:40attacks from the air. At the start of the war, both sides launched attacks from their
00:44respective trenches, while also climbing out and running toward the enemy through the space
00:48between them, which was known as No Man's Land.
00:51As you might expect, trench warfare was bloody and brutal, resulting in massive casualties
00:56on both sides. That was especially evident in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, when British
01:01forces experienced more than 57,000 casualties, including 19,000 deaths, on just the first
01:07day of the battle.
01:08Life in a trench, I'd like to explain in one word. Horrific.
01:14The specter of being killed by the enemy wasn't the only thing hanging over the heads of combatants
01:18in the trenches. In 1915, doctors working on the Western Front found themselves inundated
01:23with soldiers suffering from a mysterious illness. Symptoms including headaches, backaches,
01:28dizziness, and stiffness in the shins. Within months, it was so widespread that it became
01:32known as trench fever. Though rarely fatal, trench fever grew common enough that it was
01:37a logistical nightmare. Those who were afflicted were too ill for combat and were typically
01:42sent away from the front for up to three months.
01:45Doctors eventually determined the cause of the illness, the common louse, or more specifically,
01:50louse excrement that was transmitted into the bloodstream via skin abrasions. With no
01:55medical treatment available, the solution was to keep the soldiers as free from lice
01:58as possible. A variety of methods were attempted, including bathing regularly in addition to
02:04sterilizing uniforms with steam. The Brits finally got a handle on things by developing
02:08a paste that proved quite effective at eliminating the lice.
02:12World War I was also notorious for its large-scale use of chemical weapons. The French were the
02:17first to introduce chemical warfare when they lobbed grenades loaded with tear gas. The
02:22Germans then raised the bar by developing a method to disperse clouds of chlorine gas,
02:26which could be just as hazardous to those utilizing it if the wind happened to shift
02:29in the wrong direction. But chlorine gas didn't last long. Eventually, the most common chemical
02:34weapon used during World War I was mustard gas, which caused chemical burns and respiratory
02:39problems. While mortality rates from mustard gas were low, the psychological damage was
02:44significant. Numerous soldiers wound up experiencing gas fright, in which they acted defensively
02:49even when there was no threat of gas.
02:52An unexpected and deadly phenomenon swept the globe towards the end of World War I,
02:57a pandemic known as the Spanish Flu. It first emerged in the spring of 1918 with a seemingly
03:02harmless fever that lasted just a few days. But by the fall, it had mutated into a far
03:07deadlier version. Some people were dead within hours of first experiencing symptoms, while
03:12others survived mere days until fluid filled their lungs and caused them to suffocate.
03:17Despite the name, the first documented case of the Spanish Flu was in Kansas. Young men
03:21on their way to serve in the war unknowingly carried the virus, and it spread quickly among
03:25servicemen living in close quarters. Once it made it to the trenches in Europe, it swept
03:30across the continent, as mortality rates grew to a staggering 10 percent in some areas.
03:35It was a phantom, and we didn't know where it was.
03:39The Spanish Flu was ultimately responsible for the deaths of as many as 50 million people.
03:44By the time the pandemic ended, it had caused the deaths of 675,000 Americans, a greater
03:49number of U.S. casualties than World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam
03:54War combined.
03:56While post-traumatic stress disorder is now a widely acknowledged side effect of combat,
04:00combat was by no means the case during World War I. Nevertheless, it was widespread and
04:05known at the time as shell shock. That term was first coined by soldiers on the front
04:09lines who witnessed comrades who were so crushed by the horrors of war that they were simply
04:13unable to function.
04:14When British troops began experiencing PTSD on a widespread basis, military leaders decided
04:19to consult Dr. Charles S. Myers, an expert in psychology. While he could treat patients
04:24on an individual basis, he recommended that the British Army set up specialized units
04:28to treat the psychological casualties that resulted from massive battles.
04:32However, Myers faced an uphill battle in converting the hearts and minds of those who believed
04:36that soldiers suffering from shell shock were simply lazy or cowardly. Despite his efforts,
04:41the vast majority of British soldiers with PTSD remained untreated. That was also the
04:46case among the soldiers of all the other nations involved in the war.
04:50Some truly awful things often take place in the midst of combat, and World War I was no
04:55exception. Perhaps the worst of all was the Armenian Genocide, when the Turkish government,
04:59in charge of the Ottoman Empire, utilized the war as an opportunity to achieve its nationalist
05:04goals. In 1915, the Turks began the deportation and outright killing of Armenians. When the
05:10genocide finally concluded in 1922, an estimated 600,000 to 1.5 million Armenian people had
05:16been slaughtered, and many more were displaced.
05:19There were other incidents during this time that were just as ugly. For example, when
05:23the Germans invaded Belgium, there were widespread reports of atrocities committed against civilians,
05:28including rape, arson, pillaging, and murder. A commission was established to determine
05:32whether these reports were accurate. It concluded that they were, and that killing civilians
05:37and burning down entire villages had become widespread among German soldiers.
05:42At the beginning of World War I in 1914, the Canadian government enacted the War Measures
05:46Act, which provided vast powers to suspend civil liberties during wartime. So the government
05:51rounded up thousands of so-called enemy aliens, meaning immigrants from nations that Canada
05:56was now at war with. Many of those imprisoned were of German descent, although the vast
06:01majority of them came from Ukraine. They were sent to remote rural internment camps, while
06:05their possessions and money were confiscated.
06:08There were 24 such camps scattered throughout the country. Those imprisoned were put to
06:12work on massive projects and paid so little that it was essentially slave labor. In addition
06:17to those placed in the camps, more than 80,000 immigrants from various Eastern European nations
06:22were forced to regularly report to authorities and carry identity cards denoting their status.
06:27These were white, European nationals.
06:29Right, but they were the other at that time.
06:32It wasn't until 2005 that the Canadian government finally acknowledged its shameful actions,
06:37with the House of Commons passing a bill known as the Ukrainian-Canadian Restitution Act.
06:43There's no question that World War I was one of the largest in human history. With more
06:47than 30 nations involved, a staggering 60 million men were estimated to have fought
06:51over the course of the conflict, though it shouldn't come as a surprise that the volume
06:55of casualties was also higher than any previous conflict. Historians are uncertain about the
07:00precise number of casualties, though the total is estimated at somewhere between 6 million
07:05and 13 million.
07:07The reason for that wide range is that some casualty estimates include those who died
07:11from war-adjacent causes like the Spanish Flu and the Armenian Genocide, while others
07:16don't. However, a 2011 report by the Robert Schuman European Center determined that about
07:219.7 million military personnel lost their lives due to the war itself, while an additional
07:266.8 million civilians died during the same period. That adds up to a total of approximately
07:3216.5 million people dying as a result of World War I.
07:36The winning side actually experienced far greater losses, as Allied forces suffered
07:41casualties of 5.4 million personnel, while that number for the Central Powers was 4 million.
07:47As brutal as conditions were for the soldiers who fought in the trenches, they were even
07:51worse for those who were conscripted by Britain from its colonies. For example, the British
07:55Indian Army was a massive force of 1.5 million troops, and its backstory represents colonialism
08:01at its worst, with a massive recruitment effort promising Indians substantial monetary rewards
08:06for joining. But once they signed on, they discovered that they were being paid just
08:09a fraction of their British counterparts. Meanwhile, they were also subjected to racism
08:14and issued inferior equipment. Their provisions, barracks, and medical care were also substandard.
08:20A similar situation played out with the British West Indies Regiment. While Indian soldiers
08:24fought alongside British soldiers, the Black members of the West Indies were initially
08:28relegated to supporting roles, such as digging trenches, loading equipment, and removing
08:33injured soldiers from the battlefield on stretchers. That work was particularly dangerous
08:37as it put them within the range of German artillery fire. The West Indies' recruits
08:42were also the victims of racism, including the denial of a pay increase given to British
08:46soldiers. Frustrations over this discrimination eventually boiled over in Taranto, Italy,
08:51in December 1918, when West Indies recruits launched a four-day mutiny against their officers.
08:57It's fair to say that America's skill at wartime propaganda really came of age during World
09:01War I. President Woodrow Wilson was elected largely on his promise to keep the country
09:05out of the war, and there was initially little desire among the citizens to enter the conflict.
09:10So some serious finesse was required to persuade this reluctant nation otherwise.
09:14"...more than any single person. It was in his power to determine whether we fought or
09:19not."
09:20So Wilson put PR professional George Creel in charge of both propaganda and censorship
09:25throughout the country. In order to whip up a pro-war frenzy and convince young men to
09:29enlist, Creel commissioned a series of posters and pamphlets that depicted German soldiers
09:33as vicious guerrillas clutching bare-breasted maidens in one hand while holding a bloodied
09:38club in the other. Creel's strategy worked, though his demonization of the Germans also
09:44yielded unintended consequences when mobs began forming to harass and terrorize innocent
09:48German immigrants.
09:49Meanwhile, churches that expressed pacifist views were set on fire, while anyone who appeared
09:54to be unpatriotic was at the risk of being tarred and feathered. Whenever any of these
09:58vigilantes were captured and placed on trial, juries were reluctant to convict them, fearing
10:02that they themselves could become victims of similar outrage.
10:06"...World War I is this moment where propaganda is used in a very heavy-handed way, but George
10:13Creel did it brilliantly."
10:16For those who fought in World War I, death was everywhere around them, whether in the
10:19form of battlefield injuries, poison gas, or a flu pandemic. For some soldiers who became
10:24psychologically incapable of coping with these daily horrors, one option that loomed
10:29was desertion. Within the ranks of British Armed Forces, approximately 10 of every 1,000
10:34soldiers attempted to desert. But those who were caught and found guilty faced a grisly
10:38fate — execution by firing squad. Overall, Britain executed 266 deserters during World
10:45War I.
10:46A Scottish soldier named Private John McCulley witnessed and wrote about one such execution.
10:51He recognized the deserter as someone he'd trained with, while some members of the firing
10:55squad were from the condemned man's hometown. As McCulley observed,
10:59"...I still say that fear of facing a firing squad had little effect on the man whose nerves
11:03were shattered beyond repair and who eventually became panic-stricken at the horror surrounding
11:07him."
11:08The United States, meanwhile, was far more lenient with its deserters. All told, 5,584
11:14American servicemen were charged with desertion, and 2,657 were convicted. Of those found guilty,
11:2124 were sentenced to death, though none were executed, with President Woodrow Wilson commuting
11:26all of their sentences to prison terms.