The Main Cause Of Death In World War One

Imagine you are a soldier at war fighting for your country. You have no other thought in your head but the fact that you are destined to beat the filthy slobs on the other side. Little do you know how the chemicals used to destroy the enemy will effect him; let alone yourself. Little do you know how the enemy’s family on the other side will be affected once he’s dead. World War 1 and World War 2 both had many similarities and differences. Both Wars started from an imbalance of power, had incredibly high death tolls, and caused lasting effects on many countries.

Soldiers did not die only from warfare casualties,especially the war atmosphere in the trenches brought health issues and diseases which caused most of the death during WW1.Some of this diseases were caused because of weather change , lack of hygiene and the filthy environment.Many of this diseases were insignificant colds but others were deadly as Shell Shock or Trench Foot.

World War I was known for its very slow-paced battle and the stage of stalemate. After advancing from Germany on France, battle turned into trench warfare. Trench Warfare is a defensive strategy in a field where the army stays in rows of trenches that were placed along the Western Front during the war. The use of trenches during the Great War was a very significant tactic during battle, by making soldiers hidden but exposed just enough to be able to attack the enemy. On a daily basis, life in the trenches was very scary and filled with horror. Death was upon the soldiers even if there was nobody attacking them. There was a continuous shell fire that would randomly take the lives of many. Some men died on their first day in the trenches, and very few were lucky to make it out unharmed. Shell fire was not the only issue in the trenches. There were plenty of diseases and infections spreading around like a wildfire. Many soldiers got infections and diseases that could not be treated such as Trench Foot or Trench Fever. Although trench warfare acts as a great defensive and offensive measure, it became very dangerous because of the many different causes of death including shell fire, diseases, and infections.

World War I had affected the health of many soldiers coming back from the war. To begin with many soldiers came home with tuberculosis. The disease spread rapidly in 1920 due to the unsanitary, urbanized conditions of the cities which was similar to that of the trenches. “The close proximity of people in wartime conditions meant diseases such as tuberculosis could easily spread” (Science Museum). In addition, many soldiers that returned home had lost limbs in the war due to trench foot. “Some conditions such as trench foot, an infection of the feet caused by cold, wet, and unsanitary conditions” (Science Museum). Trench foot affected soldiers who wished to go back to work, because most jobs wouldn’t allow handicapped workers to work; however,

World War I was a ghastly experience for the soldiers due to what they experienced during the war. Many of the Soldiers that were drafted in the war were young and fresh out of high-school. These young soldiers left their home, away from family and friends, to fight a war not knowing if they were going to return home. These young soldiers hardly had any training before being forced to fight a war and many had lost their lives. These young soldiers were finding themselves losing their youth and innocence during the war. For those who returned from the war they came back a different person. While the outside world was living carefree lives; these soldiers were living in monstrous horror.

World War I, or “The Great War”, began in 1914 and ended in 1918. The devastation witnessed in those four years alone, caused nearly 9 million people to die and millions more crippled, grief stricken, maimed, or psychologically scarred. Considered by some to be the first man-made catastrophe of the twentieth century, many scholars still debate over the main underlying causes of World War I. Many things contributed to the war, changing the lives of many people, many of them still evident today. Beginning only as a European conflict, gradually it developed into a world war.

In World War One, about ten million soldiers lost their lives. Many of these men died in Trench Warfare, due to the constant enemy fire. Also rats, sometimes the size of cats, infested the trenches leading to the spread of infections. One sickness that spread throughout the Trenches was Trench Fever, caused by lice. The three causes of World War One were alliances, militarism, and imperialism.

World War 1 was a moment in American history that will forever leave its mark. There were positive and negative factors that came as a result of this brutal bloodshed. There were new types of technology formed that proved useful to our military, new tools, and leaps in medical advances that that helped push the medical fields to its limits and a greater acceptance of women. Despite the bloodshed of world war 1, it was the impetus of the medical advances that help shape the world we live in today.

World War 1 has been a famous war throughout history. Many films have been made surrounding it, sometimes realistic and sometimes not so much. Paths of Glory and All Quiet on the Western Front were two such movies that depicted the Great War. Each movie is unique in their own sense and although no movie will completely convey the harsh reality of the war some movies are better than others. Depending on when and what year the war would have looked vastly different to different soldiers. Some would only know the reality of the trench while others would recognize “tanks” rolling over the ground which were impenetrable to normal gun fire. Which side of the war one was on would have also lead to different views, as in when one side is winning the other is losing, and when morale is up on one side normally morale is down on the other.

It has been said by many scholars that the true victor of the First World War was disease and illness. Statistics show that over one third of military related deaths were caused by a disease/illness of some sort. To put that in more of a numerical visual, there were about ten million casualties in the span of World War I, this is excluding civilians, only military personnel. Of that ten million, about two million deaths were caused by disease/illness (Nadège Mougel, 2009). This number could me more, but about six million soldiers were reported as missing, or presumed dead.

Knowing that the Germans were to sink any and all ship that were caught in their waters. Because the sinking of the lusitania and many other ships the U.S became involved and help to end the war between the Allies. world war one was a time of great change, the weapons changed, and governments changed, even the geography of Europe changed.At the end of World War I the treaty of Versailles was signed, shifting the blame of World War I totally on Germany, and forced Germany to pay heavy economic reparations.But World War I was horrible for anyone who fought in it, muddy trenches being stormed by rats and disease, as well as enemies. The dead were everywhere, thousands of makeshift tombstones littered all over Belgium and France. Also people started dying in England, England suffered its first air raids, and England was no longer a safe haven from World War I.Over 16.5 million people died in world war I. they said it was the war to end all

In World War One diseases were one of the biggest problem for the solders due to lack of hygiene, medical assistance and little medicine. The most common diseases that the soldiers faced in the war were influenza, typhoid, trench foot, trench fever, malaria, dysentery and diabetes. These disease were caused by soldiers being exposed to cold, wet, windy and damp conditions.

The human cost of World War I was enormous. The war was the worst war in the history of the world. It certainly was the worst for the fighting men, the men existed for four years in unthinkable conditions. Millions of troupes lived in trenches and holes in the ground only as wide as their wingspan. Millions of men died horrible deaths and many millions more were wounded physically, mentally and spiritually to which it was almost impossible to recover. Casualties in a single day of fighting often rose to tens of thousands. In France, where the worst of the war was fought, they never have fully recovered from the conflict. The French lost half a generation of young men, and memories of the conflict, along with WW2, are still deeply rooted

Deadly effects caused people suffering with serious physical and psychological wounds long after the war had come to an end. Many of the Survivors had, and still do to this day, difficulty coping with the effects of the bomb. In an instant, thousands of people were dead, and thousands more were left with wounds that would last a lifetime. The utterly inhumane actions and statistics from the damage inflicted on the enemy is far too excessive in a country that claims to value life above all else. Many leaders would protest the extermination of a fertilized egg in the womb, but wiping out entire families, neighborhoods, and cities of civilians is deemed just.

The Imperial War Museum exhibit on World War I was extremely detailed and really depicted how the war was. Walking through the exhibit, the people pass different sections of themes. For example, there was a section on why the war began, women in the war, on families, on camouflage and the battles, and lastly, the fallen soldiers. The fallen soldier section included different events that occurred during the war where lots of soldiers lost their lives. An example is the trench warfare, which is described as a deadly game of hide and seek against an almost invisible enemy. Soldiers were attacked above ground by snipers and below ground with massive explosive mines. The chances of survival were extremely low and these soldiers were in an extremely dangerous situation. To protect themselves from the enemy, soldiers created a new art of camouflage, a way to not be seen, including body armor and helmets for extra protection. But this new invention only could help so much. Death often came unseen and unheard. If a soldier was in the wrong place at the wrong time nothing and no one