ABSTRACT
Two days after the German army penetrated French territory, on 2 August 1914, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and South Africa answered the call to arms. For these Allies, it would be no short war, nor would it be without great cost of human life. The slaughter on both sides still staggers the imagination: at the battle of Somme in 1916, the British lost over 400,000 men, at Verdun the Germans lost 281,000 while 315,000 French were killed at this same location. In total, some 13 million men died in the First World War.
