As is my wont, I study various periods in history. On my drive back from Missouri this week I was listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast. He mentioned a fact that blew me away. I have not done the verification research, but Carlin is usually pretty good. Ponder this; in the first 3-1/2 years of WWI, the French had more casualties than the combined American losses in all of our wars.
According to Wikipedia, France lost about 1.35 million out of a population of 39.6 million. If you add civilian casualties that total increases to more than 4% of the population. If those numbers were applied to America's population today that would be losses of more than 10 million in four years.
Man is capable of creating true horror.
And their horrific losses in WWI had a lot to do with their poor showing in the next world war. They dithered and blathered trying to avoid conflict at all costs with the Third Reich, and once war was inevitable they sent the bulk of their forces into Belgium in the hopes of containing the conflict there, thus leaving their backdoor open (the Ardennes) for the real German thrust to come through.
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