671. The First World War: Blood in the Trenches (Part 1)

The First World War was not the static, mud-filled stalemate often imagined, but a year of dramatic turning points and human extremes in 1915. This episode of *The Rest Is History* begins with the haunting poem 'In Flanders Fields'—written by Canadian doctor John McCrae after witnessing the death of a friend during the Second Battle of Ypres—and reveals how it captured the paradox of wartime sentiment: mourning the dead while urging the living to 'take up the torch.' Contrary to the anti-war poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, McCrae’s work reflects the prevailing belief among ordinary soldiers that they were fighting for justice and national survival. The episode immerses listeners in the visceral reality of trench life through the memoirs of Robert Graves and Ernst Jünger, revealing a world of mud, rats, lice, and constant danger—but also of camaraderie, routine, and even moments of unexpected beauty. Graves, a young officer from Charterhouse, arrives at the front with a platoon of working-class men, some as old as 63 and others as young as 15. Jünger, a German idealist, describes the surreal horror of seeing dead French soldiers frozen in trench mummies, yet finds exhilaration in battle, calling it a 'great adventure' that makes him feel truly alive. The episode then turns to the war’s most terrifying innovation: poison gas. The Germans unleash chlorine gas at Ypres in April 1915, causing panic and mass casualties among French Algerian troops.