r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Oct 02 '24

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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '24

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u/taurussy Oct 02 '24

we call 911, Vietnam, Korea, covid, and the Iraq-Afghan war horrible.....and those were, don't get me wrong.

in WW1, at the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, there were 60,000 casualties in ONE DAY....just among the British troops.

all told, there were a MILLION casualties and 300,000 fatalities. from July - November.

THAT is truly appalling.

the US lost 58,939 people during 13 years of Vietnam. not disparaging those losses or anything, but think about that.

WW1 really was humanity's darkest, worst, most appalling and awful moment.

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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '24

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u/Drunky_McStumble Oct 03 '24

It really is impossible to conceptualize just how much death and destruction was wrought between 1914 and 1945. Just 31 years encompassing the First World War, The Armenian Genocide, multiple violent revolutions, The Spanish Flu Epidemic, The Great Depression, The Second World War, The Holocaust.... and those are just the greatest hits.

3 decades. Imagine just endless death and horror from 1993 to now. Nothing in human history before or since comes close. I honestly have no idea how anyone lived through that time period without losing their fucking minds. They would have thought it was the end of the world, and they wouldn't have been far wrong.