re: #155 Shiplord Kirel

The First World War looms much larger in the European consciousness than in the American, especially in the UK and France. They were in it from the beginning while the US only participated for the last 18 months of the war, with American troops engaged on a large scale for only the last five months.
French and British losses were horrific, nearly unbelievable to present day perceptions. France lost 1.4 million military dead and 260,000 civilians, more than 4% of the pre-war population. 75% of the young men between 18 and 24 were war casualties, with 30% killed and the rest wounded to one degree or another. British Empire fatalities were nearly a million with 75% of those from the UK itself.
During the Second World War, American officers like Patton were often exasperated at the caution displayed by their British counterparts. The British leaders, like Montgomery, had spent years in the trenches as junior officers and had seen the great slaughter first hand. British losses in the second war were half as great as in the first, despite having larger forces fighting all over the world

This is a good point that I don’t think many Americans think about when we look at why our European allies do foreign policy. You had literally in WWI whole towns of young men wiped out in some places. Just imagine that for a second.