re: Could almost anyone born after 1940 fight in WWI

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And you don’t think that they did?

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No, I don't. The British and French entered into a war of choice with Germany. While Hitler declared war on the United States, it's important to remember that Britain and France declared war on Germany. They gambled that a war with Germany was worth the risk to prevent the emergence of Germany as the first rate power on the mainland continent. The war was fought over long-standing British foreign policy theory regarding the maintenance of a favorable power balance and the prevention of Germany from attaining enough geopolitical power to threaten their hegemonic rule over regional and global affairs. Neither Britain nor France expected the cataclysmic defeat in May/June 1940. Nor did the Germans for that matter.

Had Britain and France opted either to remain neutral in Germany's war with Poland or to have reached a settlement following the collapse of France, it's quite likely that order in Western Europe would have remained. The problem was that such an order would have established Germany as the preeminent continental power in Europe and this would have constituted a complete reversal of the post-WWI status quo and a colossal loss of face and prestige on the part of the British. This was seen as intolerable in foreign policy circles in both empires.