1914Marching to war

Many greeted the coming of war in 1914 as a great adventure.

“We are ready, and the sooner the better for us.”--German General

German Soldiers singing on the way to war, 1914

In this jubilant crowd in Munich, Germany was a young Austrian, Adolf Hitler, who quickly joined the German army

But, as seen in Marc Chagall’s Leave-taking Soldiers, not everyone welcomed the coming of war as a grand adventure.

In France, when church bells announced the coming of war, peasants rushed into the villages, the women weeping as if their husbands, fathers, and sons were already dead.

Max Beckman The Declaration of War, 1914.

Some, such as the artist Kubi in The Torch of War, even saw the coming of war as the prelude to a disaster of apocalyptic proportions.

Never had states been better armed for a war. Already, in 1914, there were some 6,000,000 men under arms including 2,000,000 Germans and 1.65 million French.

Below: French cavalry with lances.Right: French Cuirassiers, dressed almost identically to their predecessors a century before, tend to a wounded comrade

And yet never were nations more unprepared for what was to come.

A colorized photograph shows French soldiers in bright red and blue uniforms much like those worn by the French army in 1830, the colors of a perfect target.

Germany mobilized 715,000 horses for cavalry & draught animals in 1914. Russia mobilized over 1 million.

British (top) and German artillery (below) on their way to war.