German POWs only began to be released from Allied camps at the end of For example, French troops who had begun compulsory military service in duly entered the war in and remained under military authority until It took from November until spring for France to demobilize its more than five million active troops.
Beyond that, 25,, French colonial soldiers stayed on, occupying the German Rhineland. The repatriation of prisoners of war was similarly protracted—German POWs only began to be released from Allied camps at the end of More than eight million men were permanently disabled after World War I, and the road to recovery was a long one.
The millions of men who left the war prematurely continued the battle by other means. More than 20 million men were wounded in the First World War; many multiple times. In the majority of cases, men were treated in field hospitals and returned to the lines.
However, more than eight million men were permanently disabled and the road to recovery was a long one. The belligerent powers were largely unprepared to deal with the needs presented by the war disabled.
They hastened, throughout the conflict—and with varying degrees of success—to set up centers for physical therapy, workshops for the manufacture and fitting of new prosthetic limbs, and schools for the vocational re-education of soldiers whose wounds prevented them from returning to their previous occupations. To give a sense of scope: from the beginning of the war until December 31, , Great Britain alone pensioned , men for disability; 28, limbless men passed through limb fitting hospitals; and 20, of them underwent vocational re-training.
There would be more to come. Critically, national security during the conflict and in the postwar period meant that the war disabled had to return to work. It was their duty to work, as it had been their duty to fight. Although you have returned from the front you have to fight new foes more worthy of your steel than the Germans: discouragement, loss of ambition, readiness to accept the easiest way, reluctance to play your part in the peace world.
We know you will conquer these enemies. Your country needs you yet to fight the battles of peace. Nevertheless, the process of mourning the dead—practiced by friends, family, and brothers-in-arms—continued the war indefinitely. Death tolls were extraordinary.
Around 10 million combatants were killed, including 2 million Germans, 1. The epidemic of Spanish Flu that raged from killed as many as 50 million soldiers and civilians.
Cardboard poppies staked into the ground at the Thiepval memorial, Thiepval, France, July Photo courtesy of author. Put plainly, everyone had been touched by death. Oftentimes, there was no grave to visit and no body upon which to perform funereal rights that might bring loved ones peace and closure.
Thirty percent of bodies were completely destroyed by artillery and could not be identified and the repatriation of bodies buried on the battlefield was largely prohibited either by law or practicality. Death on a massive scale and an inability to perform traditional rituals led to new practices of mourning—particularly in Europe where large portions of the population had been mobilized and casualties were staggering. Mourning became less private and more collective.
The original armistice was for a period of 36 days, after which it had to be renewed. This was done four times before the Treaty of Versailles was signed. The only problem is that the war did not completely stop at 11am on 11 November. Germany was the last of the Central Powers to sue for peace. The Armistice with Germany was agreed to come into effect at 11am to allow time for the news to reach combatants.
However, fighting continued in several places during and after that time, including on the Western Front. Consequently he gave no instructions to his commanders to suspend any new offensive action during the remaining hours until 11am.
This gave individual commanders latitude to determine their actions in the last few hours and in some quarters there was fierce fighting up to 11am which was difficult to stop. On 11 November alone were nearly 11, casualties, dead, missing and injured, exceeding those on D-Day in Over 3, of these were American.
Pershing had to face a Congressional hearing to explain why there were so many deaths when the hour of the armistice was known in advance. The message did not reach East Africa as easily as the Western Front. Although he had a much smaller army than the ones he was facing, his practice of targeting forts and railway lines meant he could not be ignored.
Throughout the war his force caused British and Indian troops to be diverted from other fronts. The weather, the lack of supply lines and various other conditions caused a high death rate amongst local people in East Africa, particularly from diseases, the numbers for which can only be estimated.
A telegram sent to East Africa from Europe could take between a couple of hours and a whole day to arrive. In anticipation of the armistice, on 10 November, the British General Staff sent a telegram to the force in East Africa asking them for the quickest way to get a message to von Lettow-Vorbeck. Wells first wrote the phrase in August and within weeks it had become a mantra.
But while in its sentiment was optimistic - positive, even - by it was desperate. Europe was in ruins, millions were dead. It had to be the last war because Europe could not have another. World War One was the end of a number of things: It led to the collapse of no less than four empires.
But the Europe that came next was certainly not the new social order that Wells had hoped to see - and it was not the end of war. Wells lived until and so witnessed the rise of fascism and WW2, and blamed the punitive settlement of the First World War for the onset of the second. He argued that Germans supported Hitler because they feared a repeat of the humiliation of Versailles.
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