The Death of a Soldier

World War I was a global war originating in Europe from July 1914 until November 1918. It is also known as The Great War and was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, mobilizing 70 million military personnel and more than 21 million deaths. The cause of the war traces back to the assassination of Austro-Hungarian heir, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by a Bosnian Serb Yugoslav nationalist. Following this event, instability on the European continent escalated until a month later on July 28, 1914, Austrian-Hungarian forces shelled the Serbian capital of Belgrade, initiating the official start of the war. In the end, the First World War split the continent of Europe into two major opposing groups, the Allied Powers, including the United States, the UK, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Greece, Serbia, and Montenegro. And the Central Powers, which included Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire that is now known as Turkey, and Bulgaria. This was the first war to really divide up the globe in such a monumental way, and the death toll was staggering with the advent of new technologies never previously used in war before—like the very first tank (known as Little Willie), the telephone, and the use of aircraft.

With the addition of all this technology, the pace of war was faster than the strategies and tactics, which still relied on a 19th-century understanding of warfare. The seasoned generals and commanders faced an unprecedented kind of war, and their inexperience with these new destructive technologies led to unimaginable violence. For World War I, many soldiers were left disfigured or wounded in ways previously unseen, like the burns and blindness resulting from the novel use of chemical warfare. World War I is also notorious for its trenches, a type of land warfare using a series of fighting lines composed of deep ravines dug into the ground. The trench method became necessary because the revolution in firepower was not matched by technological advances in mobility—they couldn’t get too close to each other. The destruction and violence on a global scale solidified this military conflict as one of the bloodiest in history, and those at home could only wait and pray that their loved ones were lucky enough to make it back home, even if it was in a casket. “The Death of Soldier” highlights the tragedy the loneliness of these forgotten deaths.