Is world war 1 the most surreal war in history? >massive

>>2785100
>tanks appear on the battlefield for the first time in history in the form of huge unstoppable behemoths of steel slowly advancing towards you and firing death in all directions
Not really.

The British "Landships" frequently broke down in the cratered western front, and German Direct-Fire artillery suddenly had a new job (since German artillery focused more on howitzers that can fire indirectly rather than field guns).

It was only very, very late in WWI that Tanks were worth something.

>>2785100

I recently started reading a lot about WW1, and I honestly think it is a lot more interesting than WW2, and there is a simple reason for that. During WW2, people kind knew what to expect. For WW1, nobody had a fucking clue that the fuck they were getting into. Everybody believed that it would be a short war, like wars of the past, where a battle would be won by a quick decisive bayonet charge. In a weird way, it reminds of some sort of cosmic horror, which ordinary people being asked to confront unspeakable horrors that will shatter their minds forever.

You're kinda giving tanks too much credit

Go check out the ww1 episode of "greatest tank battles"

>>2785100
Tanks weren't even that unstoppable during WWI desu. They had a good shock value at the beginning but after a while they were easily countered because they were slow as fuck and big enough for being an easy target.

desu the Napoleonic Wars battles were worse in terms of sheer casualty ratios and rates

WWI is just fucking mind-boggling because it was large scale industrialized war and the Western Front is iconic because it was so static compared to other wars

Eastern Front WWII is a bit more surreal because the war itself moved among civilian populations and left death and destruction everywhere in its wake like a giant plague

Tanks were a very niche weapon in WW1. A normal tank unit could expect half their vehicles to break down on the very first day, and ranges were laughable. The most advanced design, the FT-17, could in theory drive 130km, at which point it was just scrap metal. Speed and armor were also very poor, although in fairness armor wasn't shifted into maximum overdrive until the T-34 and KV were designed. Many crews had to wear chainmail masks to protect themselves from the metal flying all over the place from every hit.

As a side note, this is why France did poorly in WW2. For a lot of the interwar period France depended on the aforementioned FT-17. This meant that armor officers trained on equipment that categorically sucked at any sort of mobile battle, leading to the assumption that mobility was a thing of the past. They stamped this biases into the tanks of the 30s. Germany had no real armor industry in WW1 so they were willing to wing it as new shit showed up.

it's was definitely a shock

Don't forget U-Boat warfare. Now, CIVILIANS could be killed by something they couldn't even see while travelling on their own behalf.

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>>2785522

It was the beginning of real total war, something that was previewed during the American civil war but hadn't reached Europe yet. The raids on Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby would be another example, and in my mind, these are more serious because they lack the economic justification that u-boats had. They were just completely senseless attacks against civilians.

>>2785100
>>2785144
>>2785145
>>2785147
>>2785150
>>2785159
>>2785218
>>2785507
>>2785522
>>2785533
t. didn't know what WWI was until after playing Battlefield 1

>>2785539

>I replied to everybody, what now?

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>>2785539
get the fuck out of here

>>2785541
>>2785544
>All these blue-pilled cucks
lmao, learn history before posting. I bet you're going to try and deny that the german revolution (which happened immediately after WWI) was completely instigated by jews.

notice me anonpai. I knew about ww1 before it was cool

>>2785579

This is bait. Do not reply to this person.

>>2785587

When did you first learn about WW1? For me, it was from the "Great War" youtube channel. Fascinating stuff. I highly recommend it.

>>2785599
Yeah, whatever you say shlomo ;)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k4Pd527GN48

enjoy

>>2785625
Get fucked.

>>2785539

tanks are great in bf1

>>2785625
>that deep mechanical industrial sound
>that muffled screaming and breathing
officially NOT comfy

WW1 happened at an odd time.
It was like the old and new clashed in the worst ways possible.

>>2785767
that's exactly what happened

>>2785100
someone has been playing too much Battlefield 1
The advantage of Zeppelins is that they could go higher than any plane at that time, they weerent ever used in mass and always flew as high as possible to avoid interception
>>2785218
tanks were awful and very few, plagued with constant mechanical problems

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oh, hey zeppelin

>>2786085

Zeppelins weren't really intended to cause lots of damage. It was hoped that aerial bombing would just be so scary that the citizenry would panic and that public outcry would be so severe that the British government would be forced to sue for peace. At least, that was the theory, anyway.

Chemical weapons are scary because of how they killed people. They weren't terribly effective which is why they weren't used on a large scale in wars afterwards. It's just terrible for morale to see your fellow soldier scream and gasp for air as blood fills his lungs.

>>2785100
Iran-Iraq War which is WWI in the eighties.

>>2785100

>be tank
>get bogged
>gas crew to death with exhaust
>flip over
>get destroyed by grenades and bullets

>>2786133

Helium is inert though

>>2785754

I swear they've been nerfed massively

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>>2785100

was this even real life?

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>>2788153
yes

>>2788136
I believe airships were filled with (cheaper) Hydrogen at that time. The switch to Helium only happened in the 20s.

>>2785625
I feel like I see this in every WWI thread. For good reason, of course, it is unsettling.

>>2785625
humbling

>>2785539
Tanks didn't break down in BF1 and moved really fast.

>>2785625
Great footage but the sounds are ridiculous. What are they even supposed to be?

>>2785100
Can you give more information about the headlights thing?I'm interested

>>2788136
Hydrogen isn't

>>2785100
Sauce on that German spy headlight thing? Sounds cool.

WW1 was fucked
>fighting a war for tiny strips of land
>no ideological differences between the sides
>Pyrrhic victory for all the winners except the USA
>gave rise to communism and fascism

>>2785100
Don't forget the utilising of trench warfare!!

>>2785533
>something that was previewed during the American civil war but hadn't reached Europe yet
The Napoleonic Wars were the introduction of total war.

>>2786133
Surprisingly, incendiary rounds alone didn't have much of an effect on zeppelins. In order for the hydrogen gas cells to catch fire, oxygen needed to be present, and the small holes left by the ammunition couldn't let enough air into the cells for them to start burning. The first zeppelin to have been shot down over Britain was taken down by a plane firing from a machine gun in which every second round loaded was incendiary, while the others were meant to leave as big of a hole in the outer skin of the zeppelin as possible.

How prolific were the zeppelin raids and how much of an impact did they have?

>>2785625
For some fucking reason I get a posting error when I try to greentext how absolutely fucktarded this video is, warhammer 40k shit, sinking of HMS Barham both within the first few seconds.

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The Russian advance into German territory during World War 2 was pretty fucked.
>Russians raping women by the millions, from children to grandmas
>the germans sending teenagers out to fight Soviet tanks
>germans civilains fleeing west in the millions
>death camps still operating
>Nazi command losing any sense of reality, planning strategy with non-existent divisions and armies
>suicide everywhere

Fucking crazy.
WW1 was pretty bad as well.

>>2789992

Zeppelins basically did nothing except kill a very small number of civilians. The total death toll was just 557 people, which is fucking nothing in the context of a war where thousands of people were dying every single day at the front. They were shit.

>>2785100
tanks were just ok. they were very prone to breaking down and getting stuck in the mud

>>2785620
wow your an epic troll you sure got those dorks mad xD

>>2786805

This OP. For as crazy WW1 is, the Iran-Iraq war takes it up a level because it's everything WW1 was with religious divisions as the main cause and with absolutely nothing good coming out the end.

Figure this: when WW1 ended in 1918, it would be another thirty years until the region saw some sort of normalcy. Since the Iran-Iraq war ended in 1988, things have only gotten crazier in the thirty years since resulting in an even bigger clusterfuck between all parties.

>>2791325
the iran-iraq war was really just the eastern front if both sides were the soviet union but lead by slapstick comedians

>>2785218
>As a side note, this is why France did poorly in WW2.

There are quite a few reasons France did poorly in WWII. All of them institutional. In addition to the military failing to predict how the initial German invasion would play out, there was a rivalry between the civilian and military intelligence services, and between military intelligence and the rest of the French military. Along with all leadership pooling at the rear of their defensive lines. So they lost Sedan and it just collapsed from there.

Troops were so used to being shelled they could call out the rounds by ear and know if they had to duck or not.