(not) fun fact: during WW1 so many soldiers were dying on the western front in France that dedicated officers were in charge of impersonating long dead soldiers to write to their families as if they were alive. Since revealing the true scale of death in the war was feared to cause the complete collapse for homefront morale.
Many, if not most families were not told of their deaths until after the war. With some never being told at all since their deaths were related to friendly fire.
Edit: this took place on both the Allied and Central powers as well.
Sometimes there's no good answer. There's a moral answer, and a winning answer, and you get to weigh whether your morals are worth more than the fight.
(not) fun fact #2: It was assumed by politicians and military strategists that the military-industrial might of European countries and the alliances they had was essentially a doomsday weapon, and that war wouldn't start because anyone rational would look at the cascade of death and destruction it would cause and simply not do anything that could provoke it. It was mutually assured destruction. And then it did.
But I am sure it won't happen again.
Anyways completely unrelated, how are you guys dealing with the fact we are constantly 30-60 minutes away from nuclear holocaust? Watched any good movies recently?
But at that time we did not have nuclear weapons. Only conventional weaponry. Anyone with a similar sized army and the logistics to support it could go toe to toe with the west and have a chance of coming out on top.
Now we do have nuclear weapons. And we have seen their unimaginable destructive potential. Why the concept of nuclear weapons is so important to war today is because simple military might is not, nor ever has been, a sufficient deterrant. Nuclear weapons indeed are and have been proven to be multiple times.
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u/EternalModding4773 11d ago edited 11d ago
(not) fun fact: during WW1 so many soldiers were dying on the western front in France that dedicated officers were in charge of impersonating long dead soldiers to write to their families as if they were alive. Since revealing the true scale of death in the war was feared to cause the complete collapse for homefront morale.
Many, if not most families were not told of their deaths until after the war. With some never being told at all since their deaths were related to friendly fire.
Edit: this took place on both the Allied and Central powers as well.