100 Hundred years have now passed since the Great War, the War to End all Wars, came to an end. 15 to 19 millions people lost their lives in the First World War, four empires collapsed, numerous nations became independent, social and cultural revolutions that would forever change the world as we know it came about during or as a result of this appalling conflict.

I commissioned the ever amazing Hattonslayden https://www.furaffinity.net/user/hattonslayden/ for a commemorative piece to mark this occasion. His own ideas such as the mist and rusted helmet and rifle really helped to bring a sense of the ghosts of the past standing firm by the memory of their fellow comrades.

It depicts soldiers from the Entente or Allied powers; Imperial Russia, Great Britain, The Republic of France, The Kingdom of Italy and the United States of America. Playing Battlefield 1 has certainly being a major inspiration for this piece, but I still very much wanted this to be a tribute to the fallen of World War one and not to the game.



The Russian soldier stands on the far left, representing their involvement from the beginning of the conflict and it being the fear of Russian military might that partially motivated Imperial Germany's declaration of war against them. Tsarist Russia was comparatively less advanced than its European neighbors, this coupled with drastic setbacks like the Battle of Tannenburg have contributed to give the Russian army a bad reputation. But Imperial Russia's greatest achievement would be the Brusilov Offensive in 1916, the Entente's greatest victory of the war and would prove to be the worst crisis of the war for Austria-Hungary, very nearly knocking them out of the war. But it would ultimately be a Pyrrhic victory, the enormous losses sustained by the Russian army contributed the growing sense of disillusionment back home that would further ignite the fires of revolution that lead to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and Russia's withdrawal from the war in 1917.


The British solider stands second, representing not only Britain but all the forces of the British empire that fought during the war, answering the call after Germany invaded Belgium and violated its neutrality. The British Empire declared war on August 4th, 1914 and from all across the globe, men from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, South Africa, and many others came to fight in the British forces, their contributions helping them to distinguish their nations and people, aiding many in their quest for eventual independence. For many, their are singular battles that hold special significance; Gallipoli for the ANZACS, Vimy Ridge for the Canadians, Passachendaele and Pozieres. For Britain itself, the Battle of the Somme is particularly infamous, where on the first day they suffered 57,000 casualties, including 20,000 dead. The British army would be the first to use tanks in battle and this, coupled with improved combined arms doctrine would leave the British army one of the most capable forces to this day. Soldiers from the empire served on every major front, from Europe to the Middle East and Africa.


In the center stands a French soldier, placed so in reference to the Republic of France's central involvement in the war from the 3rd of August, 1914 as most of the fighting on the Western Front took place on French soil. The French Army in 1914 was still very much rooted in the past, where on a single day 27,000 French soldiers were killed by the power of machine guns and modern artillery. The soldier's stance is a homage to the famous "They Shall Not Pass" propaganda image that became a widespread battle cry adopted during the Battle of Verdun in 1916. The enormous fortitude and fighting spirit of the French soldiers would show it self repeatedly throughout the war, but shouldering the bulk of the fighting and after the disastrous Nivelle offence in 1917, many soldiers in the army mutinied, protesting the incompetence of their leaders and the conditions they were expected to fight. These soldiers did so not out of a lack of will to fight, but out of a desire to have their voices heard and new leadership appointed to attend the soldiers needs. From this they would emerge the premier of the Allied forces, pioneering advanced infantry tactics and the creeping barrage as well as the most advanced tank design of the war; the Renault FT-17 and the worlds first modern airforce.


The Italian soldier stands to the right of the Frenchman, representing The Kingdom of Italy's later joining of the war. Originally a member of the Central Powers, Italy would join the war in May 1915 on the side of the Allies, having no quarrel with the Entente and aiming to reclaim traditionally Italian land that was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The war on the Italian front was fought high in the mountains, where the splinters from rocks made by bullets and artillery led to higher rates of wounding compared to killed than on any other front. Half of all Italian losses during the whole war resulted from a series of twelve disastrous battles on the Isonzo river, where repeated clashes created more than 600,000 casualties. But the Italian army would also field one of the war's most elite fighting units; the Arditi (The Daring Ones). These shock troops were renowned for their ferocity and courage, earning respect and fear from friend and foe alike. Arditi units would play a key role in the last Italian offence of the war, where they would help secure the victory known as Vittorio Venito, bringing about the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire and the end of the war one week later, uniting Italy under one flag.


Lastly, standing to the far right is an American soldier. In 1914, the United States Army had only about 100,000 personnel, by 1918 it would have over two million. The United States was dominated by isolationist policy, although it supplied huge quantities of arms and raw materials to the Allies nations fighting the Central Powers. But this would gradually give way after the exposure of the Zimmerman telegram; a secret German ploy to lure Mexico into a war with America and the loss of U.S citizens aboard civllian and merchant ships sunk during the German Navy's campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare where any ship, enemy or neutral, would be sunk without warning. The United States offically joined the war on April 17th, 1917 but it was not until 1918 that they would make significant contributions. The influx of thousands of American troops, though inexperianced, helped to shore up the strength of the Allied forces after the withdrawal of Russia from the war and the German 1918 spring offensive. The U.S Marines would earn their nickname "Devils Dogs" in the Battle of Belleau Wood where Marine Sgt Dan Daly would famously shout to his men during an attack,
"Come on you sonsabitches! You want to live forever?"
America's main contribution during the war was during the Meuse Argonne offensive in 1918, which to this day remains the bloodiest battle in American history, a fact that is often forgotten among the many more well known battles that American forces have fought in such as D-Day and Iwo Jima in World War two.


These men, in fact everyone on both sides of the conflict who lived during those tumultuous years of 1914 to 1918, wanted to believe that this war, the world war, would be the war to end all wars. Such slaughter on a massive scale was unprecedented and no one could fathom that such a conflict could ever occur again. But it would just shy of thirty years later on September 1st, 1939. The scars that the First World War left on the lives of millions and on human civilization are perhaps less well known than those of the second world war which still remains in living memory while all those who fought or lived during the Great War have since passed on. But although we can now see that this conflict was not to be the last one, those who fought in it did their very best and hoped with every fiber of their beings that the war they fought in, the horrors they faced, the courage they exalted would never again be needed for future generations.


"Who shall mock or grudge the overpowering entrancements? Every Allied nation shared them. Every victorious capitol or city in the five continents reproduced in its own fashions the scenes and sounds of London. These hours were brief, their memory fleeting; they passed as suddenly as they had begun. Too much blood had been split. Too much life essence had been consumed. The gaps in every home were too wide and empty. The shock of an awakening and the sense of disillusion followed swiftly upon the poor rejoicings with which hundreds of millions saluted the achievement of their hearts desire.

"Their still remained the satisfaction of safety assured, of peace restored, of honor preserved, of the comforts of fruitful industry; of the homecoming of the soldiers; but these were in the background; and with them all there mingled the ache for those who would never come home."

-Winston Churchill, 1928.



Lest We Forget.