re: Was WWI more brutal than WWII?

WW1 > WW2

Battlefield comes out in late October. I'll let you know what WW1 was really like.

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Was WWI more brutal than WWII?

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It was on the Western Front. On the Eastern Front, WW2 was BY FAR the most brutal war in human history.

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WW2 Eastern Front winner

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I believe this is the correct answer. The average American has no idea just how horrible the eastern front was. It was so bad that the Nazi's had to get their soldiers hopped up on crystal meth just to be able to fight.

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I can't imagine what the troops in WW1 thought before they charged a oppositions trench.

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The shitty part is that many times they got all amped up then had to essentially walk towards the other line in order to save their energy.

Very well said. Not to mention slave labor and how it was used to benefit their war effort.

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I was reading this thread thinking "blah blah blah... when's Darth gonna come in and set this bitch straight?"

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Same.

The Somme is an extremely interesting battle. There were massive single day casualties but many people don't realize that it went on for 4 months.

I think the most interesting part of the Somme was the use of underground mines. Some single charges used up to almost 50 tons of explosives. There are reports of people feeling the explosions as far away as London.

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I remember hearing on a documentary that the average WWI allied soldier only spent about 15% of their time in the front line trench. The rest was spent in reserve trenches and the rear. The largest percentage of their time was spent traveling. Is that correct?

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Well it depends on which army and what part of the war we're talking about. Take France for example. Early on in the war units that were sent to the front usually stayed they're until they'd sufferered losses on a scale that rendered them combat ineffective. Only later on, following outright munity in fact, did the French finally start giving the troops more time of R&R.

Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to the trenches of WWI is that unless there happened to be a major offensive going on at your particular sector, most of your time was spent being bored out of your mind. Now that's not to say the frontline trenches were ever peaceful. Even in quiet sectors and during quiet times there were daily losses from things like snipers, trench raids, and artillery harassing fire. In fact I believe the British started calling these type of losses "wastage", meaning these men were lost for no discernible good towards achieving any objective. They were just "wasted".

And finally, speaking of trenches, they've kinda gotten a bad rap over the decades. The truth of the trenches is they saved lives. If you look at the casualties rates for both sides in WWI, you'll see that these were highest in the opening months of the war and the last few moths of the war. It was during these two periods where the fighting was not the static trench warfare WWI is known for, but instead one of maneuver out in the open.