GLOBAL WAR BEGINS IN EUROPE
Germany crosses the Belgian frontier at Gemmenich, 30 miles from Liege. The first casualty of World War I, as a truly global war, Antoine-Adolphe Fonck, falls. When the last causualty of the war, American Henry Gunther, is killed 1 minute before the end of the war, an estimated 9 million soldiers and 7 million civilians would die. Months after the war, a silent killer in the form of Spanish Influenza, would claim millions more.
At 11 pm in England, Midnight in Germany, the lack of a response from Germany prompted the following declaration of war by Great Britain on Germany:
“Owing to the summary rejection by the German Government of the request made by His Majesty’s Government for assurances that the neutrality of Belgium would be respected, His Majesty’s Ambassador in Berlin has received his passport, and His Majesty’s Government has declared to the German Government that a state of war exists between Great Britain and Germany as from 11 pm on August 4th.”
Other countries such as Italy, Romania, and the Ottoman Empire, would make decisions later on which side to back. Nevertheless, the world wouls never be the same. Unfortunately as many errors would be committed in the peace after the war, as during the war, to ensure that this would not be the War to end all Wars.
