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British Tommies live in the hellish trenches, where it's always raining and the muddy ground is covered in craters. There's always an artillery bombardment going on. Mud, barbed wire, and rotting human flesh is everywhere. Periodically, the out-of-touch, over-optimistic [[Upperclass Twit]] generals decide to mount another attack and the poor Tommies go "over the top" into a hail of enemy machine-gun fire and everyone gets killed (often staged similarly to a [[Bolivian Army Ending]] except there's no doubt about the tragic outcome really). Usually, one of the working-class Tommies will admit not to know why the war even started, to incredulity on the part of the officers -- until they try and explain, when it all sounds simply too lame to be true.
 
The Tommies are a mixture of salt-of-the-earth working-class rankers (enlisted men) and NCOs and upper-class officers. Officers are either absurdly naive [[Upperclass Twit]] types, straight from the playing-fields of Eton, looking forward to Giving the Hun a Damn Good Licking, or [[Officer and Aa Gentleman|decent, intellectual types who write poetry and ruminate on the meaning of sacrifice and duty, but provide a brave face for the men.]]
 
Only the [[Dead Baby Comedy|darkest]] [[Black Comedy|of comedies]] are set here, although there's plenty of scope for tragedy. A very few films substitute American "Doughboys" for the Tommies, though actually the Americans avoided trench warfare as a matter of policy (they already saw how bloody it was during [[American Civil War|their own Civil War]]), and were fortunate to arrive ''en masse'' just as things had started moving again.
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The short version of just what started the war is this: a centuries-long buildup of [[Binding Ancient Treaty|interlocking treaties]] (many of which required that Nation A automatically join in defense of Nation B, which required that Nation C join in, etc), betrayals, and long-simmering ethnic and national feuds (Germans and French hated one another, Austrians and Serbs hated one another, and on and on) put Europe in a position where the slightest spark would set off a global conflict that had become more or less inevitable. Everybody was expecting a war at some point, it's just August 1914's crisis wasn't expected to be the trigger.
 
The spark came in the form of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (yes, he later had a [[Franz Ferdinand|band]] [[A Good Name for Aa Rock Band|named after him]]), heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. The assassins were Serbian nationalists who had received backing from the Serbian Yugoslavist terror group "Unification Or Death," better known as the "Black Hand." You see, Franz Ferdinand had big plans to make Austria-Hungary into a far more democratic state. He was even planning to give political power to Serbian leaders. The ascendency of Franz Ferdinand to the throne might have placated the Serbian population of his country. A placated Serbian population and a stable Austria-Hungary would have been detrimental to the Serbian unification movement, therefore, Franz Ferdinand had to be eliminated. Austria then decided to teach Serbia a harsh lesson. Russia supported their fellow Slavs in Serbia, and [[Imperial Germany]] supported Austria.
 
[As an aside, after the assassination Austria made roughly a dozen separate demands of Serbia as a precondition to avoiding war, any one of which it would be humiliating for Serbia to concede to. Serbia conceded to all but ONE of them, that one being essentially ceding independent sovereignty to Austria. Strangely, Serbia was one of the ''last'' countries to be invaded during the course of the war.]
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Eventually, the German tactics of allowing their submarines to sink any ship they wanted, whoever it belonged to -- along with a botched plot to convince Mexico to invade the US<ref>a.k.a. the Zimmerman Telegram. History students may redeem this factoid for two (2) points extra credit on any WWI exam. Extra Special Bonus points for the Cuba Memorandum (German decision to attack American power in the Americas, signed in 1898) Manufacturer's coupon; no expiration date.</ref> -- annoyed the Americans so much that they got involved too (though volunteers had been joining the British, French, and Italian forces throughout). The Germans had one more big push in the Spring of 1918 to try and win before the Yanks arrived in numbers -- they broke through the lines into the open country beyond and it looked for a while as if they might actually do it. But in the end they ran out of steam and the French, newly-arrived Americans, British, Canadians and [[ANZA Cs]] (in order of size) pushed them right back across the lines and won the war. Just.
 
Pushing 1918 into the winner's circle for the title of Worst Year [[Tempting Fate|Ever]] (*cough*1945*cough*) was an influenza pandemic. The Spanish Flu (which actually originated in Fort Riley, Kansas) struck that fall, killing between ''fifty and a hundred million people'' (2.5-5% of the then global population) compared to the war's ten or fifteen million, but has largely been forgotten by history and fiction. The war actually helped its spread (troop transportation), and four years of malnutrition and stress probably hadn't strengthened anyone's immune system, but today it's thought that that flu strain killed by inciting a cytokine storm (basically, [[Explosive Overclocking|your immune system goes berserk]]). Certainly the 1918 flu was unusual in that it mostly killed healthy adults, as opposed to the more usual flu victims: the sick, the very young, and the very old. Also ''very'' unusual in that almost ''none'' of the stories or films set in the period even ''mention'' it--even contemporary fiction. ''[[Anne of Green Gables (Literature)|Rilla of Ingleside]]'', by [[LML. M. Montgomery]], chronicles the entire war without touching on it at all.
 
Four empires were toppled (Russian, German, Austrian-Hungarian and Ottoman) and the winners took the opportunity in the Treaty of Versailles to redraw the map of Europe along what were supposed to be ethnic lines but in fact just stored up more problems for the future (Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Danzig, to name the biggest). The treaty terms were really harsh on the Germans (including the Austrians, who voted to join Germany and were told to stuff it... until 1938, anyway) and the Hungarians (who lost two thirds of their country) storing up lots of resentment that would come back to haunt the Allies later - though some modern historians now believe they were actually not hard ''enough'' and served the worst of both worlds in angering Germany but not substantially weakening her. Additionally, it's been argued that - if the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk negotiated by the Germans and the new Bolshevik government in Russia was any indicator - whatever treaty the victorious Germans might have come up with could have been even harsher.
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The war also ushered in modern espionage, to say nothing of modern spy fiction (although it had already had a leg up from Erskine Childer's ''The Riddle of the Sands'', which was actually semi-predicting the war at the beginning of the 20th century).
 
There were many future writers in the trenches: notably, [[JRRJ. TolkienR. (Creator)R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]] and [[AA Milne (Creator)|AA Milne]] served in the British infantry, while [[Ernest Hemingway (Creator)|Ernest Hemingway]] and [[Walt Disney (Creator)|Walt Disney]] volunteered to serve as Red Cross ambulance drivers; on the other side, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein served in the Austrian artillery. One who did not survive his service was [[William Hope Hodgson (Creator)|William Hope Hodgson]], author of ''[[The Night Land]]'' who was killed by a shell in 1918; the accomplished [[Dead Baby Comedy]] writer [[Saki (Creatorauthor)|Saki]] was also killed, shot by a German sniper after yelling at another soldier to put out his cigarette ([[Irony|he was discovered because of his yell]]). The famous German painter and founding member of "''The Blue Rider"'', [[Franz Marc]], was killed by a grenade at Verdun. And sadly, there was at least one one young, promising scientist in the trenches: the physicist Henry Moseley, who discovered the principle underlying atomic number, establishing the periodic law, was killed at Gallipoli, just as his career was getting off the ground. The French lost Andre Durkheim, a promising young linguist and the son and protegee of the notable sociologist Emile Durkheim. Sent to the Belgian front in late 1915 Andre Durkheim was declared missing in January, and declared dead in April of 1916. The elder Durkheim never quite recovered from the loss of his son, dying himself in 1917. The loss of many of his other protegees and friends in the trenches didn't exactly help. Fighting on the German side was another physicist, Karl Schwarzschild, who was the first to use [[Albert Einstein]]'s new General Theory of Relativity to predict black holes. He died on the Russian front.
 
Another [[Sarcasm Mode|semi-important character]] who fought in the trenches, [[Godwin's Law|some obscure painter]] [[From Nobody to Nightmare|named]] [[Adolf Hitler|Adolf something]], would eventually set off [[World War 2|the sequel]].
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** A cartoon from the time of the Versailles treaty shows Lloyd-George saying to his fellow leaders: "Listen. Do you hear a child crying?" Said child is unseen in a corner weeping over a torn copy of the treaty. Virtually any boy born in England or France in 1918-1919 would have been conscripted in 1939.
* [[Gambit Pileup]]: The entire war was a textbook example of this; in some cases the gears had been turning since the ''seventeenth century''.
* [[Go-Karting Withwith Bowser]]: On Christmas, 1914, forces in certain areas took a break from the war to go into No Man's Land and play soccer/football with each other and generally fraternize with the enemy. It was not universal, and ended up being stopped by the higher ups on both sides, but stands out as a bit of heartwarmingness in one of the bleakest periods of the Twentieth Century.
* [[Gray and Gray Morality]]: Unlike [[World War Two|the sequel]], the good-versus-evil battle was far less obvious; as almost all the countries initially involved were motivated by a combination of greed, racism and nationalistic fervor. While the Central Powers did things like [[Fascists' Bed Time|impose extremely nasty measures in the areas they occupied]] and [[Obligatory War Crime Scene|violated several agreements regarding the rules of war that they were party to]], as well as [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|giving the Bolsheviks the leg up they needed to seize power]], and the use of genocide to "Germanify" or "Turkify" several regions under their control, [[Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat|all of which ironically probably led to their defeat.]] The Allies were better, but they still were willing to launch air attacks against civilian targets (though not on the scale of the sequel), blockade Germany and its allies even AFTER the war on the justification that the war was not over until Berlin signed the peace treaty and recalled its holdouts in some of the still-occupied regions, used poison gas, smuggled war materials in neutrally-flagged ships, and (in the case of the Russian government) indulged in anti-semetic paranoia. Nobody descended to QUITE the level [[Those Wacky Nazis]] did, [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|but the failure to prosecute war criminals after the war doubtless didn't discourage them.]]
* [[Harsher in Hindsight]]: Immediately after the war ended, many people were so disgusted by the scale of death and destruction that they declared that they had finally seen the worst humanity was capable of. [[World War Two|They]] [[Adolf Hitler|were]] [[Nazi Germany|wrong.]]
* [[Historical Hero Upgrade]]: Very rare in today's media, but in the immediate aftermath Hindenburg (who didn't do much) and Ludendorff (who lost) both made out that they were True German Heroes who had been betrayed by defeatists at home.
** [[Woodrow Wilson]], the President of the US and overseer of the Treaty of Versailles, was a fairly good-hearted man who genuinely tried to avert another such conflict and seriously attempted to make things better for countries... [[Values Dissonance|provided their populations were white]]. His racism and his purposeful creation of an imperfect schooling system (intended to create primarily staff for factories) are generally glossed over.
** Sir Douglas Haig, in one of his wiser moments, realised that the only way it could end well was if the same [[Imperial Germany]] which had started the war signed the armistice to end it; this proved not to be the case, and the job (and the blame) fell on the civilians.
* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]: Many people who later became famous in a variety of fields were anonymous soldiers in [[World War One]] - whether it be political leaders like [[Adolf Hitler]] or writers like [[JRRJ. TolkienR. (Creator)R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]] and [[Ernest Hemingway]]. A common, poignant [[Alternate History]] speculation centres around considering, given how many gifted people came out of the trenches, how many more would that generation have produced if so many of their comrades hadn't died there. It may also work the other way, given how so many of these notables were spurred onto their future actions in one way or another by their experiences in the trenches and how they may have lacked similar impetus without the war.
* [[Historical Villain Upgrade]]: German Emperor Wilhelm II, in most portrayals from Allied countries.
** By extension, Germany as a whole, and to a lesser extent Austria and Russia, seem to get this treatment. For example referring to Germany's policy of creating dependent nations from the peoples of what had been the Russian empire as [[Those Wacky Nazis|"Lebensraum"]].
*** Though that one case was largely justified, as [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|those nations were largely viewed as placeholders under German colonization could take place.]]
** The Japanese got hit with this as well, mostly thanks to American views on the [[Yellow Peril|subject]], and the perception at the time by some Royal Navy Officers, most notably Admiral John Jellicoe, the commander of the British Grand Fleet, that the Japanese weren't contributing that much to the war effort, despite heavy involvement in secondary theaters (Tsingtao, anyone?) and in tasks like escorting troopships and convoys headed for Europe. The whole bit about [[Only in It For Thethe Money|just being in it for the German Pacific colonies]] is a pretty hefty exaggeration, but not entirely a fabrication. They did also end up with pretty hefty rewards for relatively limited pain (about 415 dead and 907 wounded.)
* [[Hollywood Tactics]]: Heavily exaggerated by, ironically enough, Hollywood, but some pretty stupid things were done.
** Sadly enough, this was justified. Technology had far outstripped an understanding of tactics by then. The last big wars were fought against Napoleon, using formations and muzzle-loading muskets - or at the very least, artillery that was short-ranged and slow to load. Of the nations fighting ''this'' one, only one had had any prior experience with the levels of Dakka flying around: the latecoming Yanks, from [[The American Civil War]]. (And even then we would have been out of our depths with the aircraft and tanks.)
*** It's hardly true that the American Civil War was the most recent or relevant war by WWI. Later and more relevant military experience came from the British during the Boer War (1899-1902), and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Both wars involved much of the same technology that lead to the stalemate in the Great War-barbed wire and long-ranged, rapid fire infantry weapons that could drive artillery from the field. The first made defenses incredibly difficult for infantry to breach, while the second ensured that artillery fire was indirect and therefore imprecise, mandating the long bombardments as seen at the Somme. In the Boer War, the British found that their forces could be pinned down by very small numbers of Boers armed with modern rifles, and that shock attacks were essentially useless (see especially the early days of the war). By the end of the war, the British were using barbed wire to parcel in the remaining Boers, denying mobility. The Russo-Japanese war involved several engagements that closely resembled WWI-style trench warfare, especially the Battle of Mukden. Both sides were well entrenched, with barbed wire, machine-guns and trenches. The minor gains and ~165 000 casualties were certainly similar to a WWI battle. Both wars (and the American Civil War) were well observed by the major powers of WWI, and it's pretty clear that everyone knew what they were getting into. It took until ~1917, however, for them to figure out what to do about it.
** The 1870 Franco-Prussian War was the main reason for France to declare war to Germany in 1914. Some of the tactics (and clothing, with red "shoot-me" pants) were still in use in the French army more than forty years later, much to disatrous effects, which lead to trenches warfare and blue outfits.
* [[Home Byby Christmas]]: The countries involved were confident that their soldiers would come home victoriously within months, a popular belief too; the soldiers on their way to the front were cheerfully saluted and joined by the citizens for a few miles. The scenario of an industrialized meat grinder war of attrition had not been experienced in Europe yet.
* [[Idiot Plot]]: The [[Idiot Ball]] gets passed back and forth between everyone. France and Britain going to war with Germany, which produced 90% of their high explosives, without the ready ability to manufacture elsewhere. The Belgians claiming their forts were still holding out weeks after the Germans had captured them, the allies believing that Victorian tactics could work and finally the Germans for trying to get Mexico to invade the US and alienating most of the world.
** [[Fridge Logic]] was introduced by the Mexican General Staff, which was forwarded the Zimmerman Note for analysis by President Carranza. They concluded that Germany was trying to incite Mexico to attack the United States [[Let's You and Him Fight|with no risk or sacrifice to Germany]]. Assurances of German financial support were meaningless, as the only country capable of selling Mexico enough arms to defeat the United States ''was the United States itself!'' And Germany's own wartime demands (to say nothing of the British blockade) ensured that the Germans could not provide Mexico with additional troops, weapons, or technical support. The Mexican army also concluded that the occupation would not be worth the trouble even if Mexico did manage to win, and that provoking the United States would alienate the rest of Latin America (or possibly bring them into the war on the side of the Allies). Carranza, subsequently, told the Germans what they could do with their note.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* The backstory of ''[[Porco Rosso]]''.
* Also mentioned in ''[[Chrono Crusade (Manga)|Chrono Crusade]]'', the main bulk of which is set in [[The Roaring Twenties]].
* Several episodes of ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia (Manga)|Axis Powers Hetalia]]'', specifically detailing [[Only Sane Man|Germany]] and [[The Ditz|Italy]] first meeting.
* Inn ''[[Code Geass (Anime)|Code Geass]]'', a picture of C.C. can be seen running around a WWI battlefield.
* The shoujo ''[[Candy Candy (Manga)|Candy Candy]]'' is set before and during this time period.
 
 
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== Film ==
* ''[[The Big Parade]]''. 1925 silent; wonderful story about a callow rich boy who joins the Army, falls in love with a French girl, then sees the hell of combat...
* ''[[The Red Baron (Filmfilm)|The Red Baron]]'' (known as ''Von Richthofen and Brown'' outside the US)
* ''Black and White In Color'' is a French movie set somewhere in West Africa, on the border between a French colony and a German colony. When the French get news that they're at war with Germany, then they (well, the Africans under their control) go to war. It ends with the English arriving to announce that the Germans' superiors have already surrendered.
* The A&E cable network made a movie about "[[The Lost Battalion]]", a US Army unit that during an attack was cut-off behind German lines. Fighting off attack after attack and in spite on mounting casualties and dwindling supplies they rejected every surrender demand that was made. They were rescued and returned back to US lines.
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** Explained in-film as a result of the Turkish expectation that the Australians (who were mounted infantry, NOT cavalry) would dismount and advance on foot since they lacked sabres, and had set the sights on their rifles and MG's to the range corresponding to the dismount point. When they charge in on horseback instead, the Turks are so surprised and frightened that they simply blaze away and ''forget to re-set their sights'' to account for the decreasing range.
*** Much of the footage from the movie was used again by the director Simon Wincer in an episode of ''[[The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles]]'' he directed about the same historical incident but with young Indy inserted in as an Allied spy. The episode also featured then-unknown actors Daniel Craig and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
* The 2002 British [[Surreal Horror]] film ''[[Deathwatch (2002 (Filmfilm)|Deathwatch]]'', starring [[Serkis Folk|Andy Serkis]] and [[Billy Elliot Plot|Jamie Bell]], features a squad of Tommies getting lost in a German entrenchment. They are tormented by uncertainty of their whereabouts, mounting distrust of their lone German prisoner and each other, and increasingly supernatural phenomena. They are slowly picked off [[Kill'Em All|one by one]]. And the ending features a [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]] [[Mind Screw]].
* ''[[Flyboys]]'' is a 2006 film about the [[Eagle Squadron|Lafayette Escadrille]], a French fighter squadron composed entirely of American volunteers.
* ''[[Lawrence of Arabia]]'' dealt with the Arab Revolt and Middle Eastern theatre.
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* The 1965 film ''The Blue Max'' is the story of a German infantryman, Lt. Bruno Stachel, who transfers to the German Air Service towards the end of the war. His ruthless kill-or-be-killed attitude clashes with the squadron's old fashioned notions of chivalry. Most well known for its excellent aerial stunts and flying scenes.
* 1970s British drama ''Aces High'', a very down-to-earth and touching portrayal of the lives (and deaths) of a regular squadron of fighter pilots.
* The two film adaptations of ''[[All Quiet On the Western Front (Literature)|All Quiet Onon the Western Front]]''. The [[Academy Award]]-winning 1930s version directed by Lewis Milestone is more famous than the 1970s TV movie.
** The older version is considered one of the greatest and most important movies on WWI created, as per the Library of Congress. Also listed as the 7th Most Epic Film (well, 7th in the "Epic" genre of films, whatever that means) in the American Film Institute's list of the Top Ten of the 10 Classic American Film Genres. It's also probably the [[Trope Maker]] / [[Trope Codifier]] of the modern war movie.
* 1940s war movie ''The Fighting 69th'' starring James Cagney.
* The [[Time Travel]] plot of Terry Gilliam's ''[[Twelve12 Monkeys]]'' has several short scenes set on the Western front, and the war is also referenced by the [[Present Day Past]] characters in the movie {{spoiler|because [[Fish Out of Temporal Water|one of the time travellers apparently got stuck there and was acting suspiciously for that era.]] }}
* There's a little known 2004 independent film about American soldiers on the western front in 1918, called ''[http://www.companykthefilm.com/ Company K]''. It's based on a semi-autobiographic novel by William March, one of the American veterans of the war.
* ''Oh! What A Lovely War''.
* ''A Bear Named Winnie'', chronicling the life of the original Winnipeg/Winnie the black bear, the bear that eventually inspired A. A. Milne to create [[Winnie the Pooh]].
* ''[[Passchendaele]]'', written, directed, and starring Canadian Paul Gross, based on his grandfather's war diary.
* ''[[Goodbye, Mr. Chips]]'' It starts when Mr. Chipping("Chips") is a young teacher in 1870 and through his fifty year career. During WWI and he reads aloud "Roll of Honour", the names of those killed in battle which include many of Chip's former students and fellow teachers. One of them is an old friend of Chips, a German who fought on his country's side.
* ''The officer's ward'' in 2001, about the ''"gueules cassées"'' ("broken faces" in French: war invalids and horribly defigured men).
* ''Capitaine Conan'' by François Tavernier, about the French corps in the Balkans.
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== Literature ==
* The poem ''My Boy Jack'' (1915), about the death of [[Rudyard Kipling (Creator)|Rudyard Kipling]]'s only son in the war.
* John Buchan's Richard Hannay stories, seminal spy thrillers that were both written and set in WWI. ''[[The Thirty-Nine Steps]]'' (1915) has been adapted multiple times, although the [[Alfred Hitchcock]] version is a very loose adaptation, set in the 1930s. Buchan portrays Wilhelm II fairly sympathetically.
* The ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' story, ''His Last Bow'' (1917), takes place in England during the run up to the war, with Holmes attempting to deal with German spy network in England. {{spoiler|He succeeds}}.
* ''My Reminiscences of East Africa'' (1920) is General Paul Von Lettow-Vorbek's diary from his service in East Africa at this time.
* ''[[The Mysterious Affair Atat Styles]]'' (1920) was actually written in 1916 and set during the war. Lieteunant Arthur Hastings returns from the War due to an injury, while herculePoirot is a war refugee.
* As mentioned in the above, the L.M. Montgomery book ''[[Anne of Green Gables (Literature)|Rilla of Ingleside]]'' (1921) chronicles the eponymous character's experiences throughout the entire war, in quite a bit of detail that could only come from first-hand experience. Given that level of detail, it's supremely odd she made no mention at all of the 1918 influenza pandemic, not even in passing. It devastated Canada as thoroughly as it did the rest of the world, having a profound effect on many of the events she relates, yet the word 'flu' or 'influenza' is never once mentioned.
* Quite a lot of [[H.P. Lovecraft (Creator)|HP Lovecraft]] stories feature WWI in the background somewhere (eg. Herbert West, Reanimator-1922) - not surprising given that he did a lot of his writing in the 1920s.
* ''The Good Soldier Švejk'' (1923), a classic ([[Rule of Funny|and hilarious]]) satirical novel by Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek. Some say Švejk is an [[Author Avatar]] version of him, but with some cunning [[Obfuscating Stupidity]] (possibly) added to the mix.
** This has some truth in it, only the [[Author Avatar]] was a different character entirely. Hašek never tried to hide the fact that the novel was largely autobiographical. His avatar, however, was not Švejk, but his friend, a bumbling former journalist, volunteer Marek.
* In ''[[John Carter of Mars|The Master Mind of Mars]]'' (1928) by [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s, Ulysses Paxton starts out fighting in this War.
* ''[[All Quiet On the Western Front (Literature)|All Quiet Onon the Western Front]]'' (1929) by German writer Erich Maria Remarque, another WWI staple of the western literary canon. The story follows a young German soldier from his idealistic enlistment through the horrors of war as his compatriots die one by one. Ironically, the story was written in German, by a German war veteran, depicting the German side of the war, but it has become the most popular depiction of the war for English speaking audiences.
* The early (and best) ''[[Biggles]]'' stories are set in the War, though the character debuted in 1932.
* The first part of the novel ''Journey to the End of the Night'' (1932), by the famous French author Céline, takes place during World War One. The main character, who sees the war as a lot of frightening and senseless violence, does his best to avoid risking his life. After being wounded, he manages not to be sent back to the western front until the war is over.
* The novel - and later film - ''[[Johnny Got His Gun (Literature)|Johnny Got His Gun]]'' (1938) by Dalton Trumbo: A horrifying story of a young American soldier, who has his arms, legs and ''face'' blown off, leaving him blind, deaf, dumb and immobile, a living torso in a hospital bed, with no way of communicating until {{spoiler|he figures out how to tap the Morse code with the back of his head}}.
** Related, [[Metallica (Music)|Metallica]]'s song ''One'' retells the same story. The band bought the rights for the movie to use it in the video for that song.
* ''Pale Horse, Pale Rider'' (1939), a collection of three short stories by Katherine Anne Potter, is apparently the only major work on the Spanish flu epidemic.
* ''The Razor's Edge'' (1944) by William Somerset Maugham features Larry Darrell, a World War I pilot who is wounded and traumatized in the War. He spends the rest of the novel searching for ways to adjust to the post-war life.
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* The [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] novel "Casualties of War"(2000) is set in England during the closing months of the war.
* ''Phoenix and Ashes'' (2004), one of the '[[Elemental Masters]]' books by [[Mercedes Lackey]] (this one a [[Recycled in Space|Cinderella retelling]]), centers on the stepdaughter of a war profiteer and a Shell-Shocked pilot sent home to recover.
* Kate Cary's unofficial sequel to ''[[Dracula (Literaturenovel)|Dracula]]'', ''Bloodline'' (2006), starts off in Northern France during the war. The main characters, John Shaw, Quincey Harker, and Mary Seward, are a lieutenant, captain, and nurse, respectively, for the British.
* ''The Blindness of the Heart (Die Mittagsfrau, 2007)'' by Julia Franck spans both world wars; Martha and Helene's father {{spoiler|loses his leg and eventually dies from the complications}} in the war, and it affects their lives in all manner of other ways.
* The French half of ''Divisadero'' (2007), a novel by Michael Ondaatje.
* ''[[Leviathan (Literaturenovel)|Leviathan]]'' (2009) by [[Scott Westerfeld]] is a [[Young Adult]] [[Alternate History]] adventure novel set in [[WW 1]], where the armies of the Entente Powers are aided by their [[Bio Punk]] creations (like [[Space Whale|flying sky whales]]) and where the Central Powers fight with [[Steampunk]] [[Humongous Mecha]]. [[Rule of Cool|And it's awesome]].
* Ken Follett's [[Doorstopper]] novel ''Fall of Giants'' (2010) tells the story of the war (and other important events, like the Russian Revolution) through the eyes of several different individuals: British, Russians, Germans, Americans, some being aristocrats, others being working class people.
* [[Lord Dunsany]] wrote ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5713 Tales of War]'' based on his experiences in the trenches, focusing on the desolation of the Western Front mixed with a stiff measure of anti-Kaiser propagandizing.
* Hemingway's [[A Farewell to Arms]] is a classic fictional depiction of the war.
* [[Robert E. Howard]]'s Francis X. Gordon (aka [[El Borak]]), an American gunslinger in the Middle East, saw action against the Turks during the War.
* In TARZAN THE TERRIBLE, [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]' Tarzan went up against the Germans in Africa.
* Although set after the war, [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]]'s TENDER IS THE NIGHT features a memorable scene where the characters visit a cemetery on the Somme and discuss the meaning of the war.
* [[William Faulkner]] wrote stories depicting American pilots fighting on the Western Front.
 
 
== Live Action TV ==
* Fighting in the Great War made ''[[Young Indiana Jones (TV)|Young Indiana Jones]]'' the jaded and cynical man that he came to be by the 1930's.
** A series of arcs in the [[Young Indiana Jones (TV)|Young Indiana Jones]] Chronicles T.V. series is set during The Great War and Indy even attends the signing of the Treaty Of Versailles with appearances by T.E. Lawrence, Adolf Hitler and {{spoiler|the future Chairman Mao!}}
* ''[[Blackadder (TV)|Blackadder]] Goes Forth'': A rare comedy set here, although it was far darker than earlier series. Well-known for an [[Tear Jerker|extremely touching]] and [[Downer Ending|sad finale]].
* Season four of ''[[Upstairs, Downstairs]]''. If [[Black AdderBlackadder|Blackadder's Lt. George]] is the ''comedy'' version of what happens when an [[Upperclass Twit]] turns Tommie, [[Upstairs, Downstairs|James Bellamy]] is the ''drama'' version. It is not easy for him.
* An episode of ''[[Fantasy Island]]'' featured [[Don Adams]] (in complete Maxwell Smart mode) as a bumbling school teacher who wants to visit WWI and ends up fighting the [[Red Barron]].
* A large portion of the immediate [[Backstory]] to ''[[Carnivale]]'' is set in the trenches, and it's [[Aborted Arc|heavily implied]] that the [[Balance Between Good and Evil|machinations]] of the [[Family Feud|two Avatara]] were major factors in causing this and other conflicts.
* While most of the episode is set a year before, the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Family of Blood" (based on the [[Virgin New Adventures]] novel ''Human Nature'') features two of the students from the episode's school fighting and surviving in the trenches of the war.
* The ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'' episode "To the Last Man" has a World War I veteran snatched away by Torchwood in order to fix two timelines colliding with one another. At the end of the episode after returning to the war, [[Downer Ending|he gets shot for cowardice and shell-shock in the war]].
* Colonel Potter on ''[[M*A*S*H (TV)|Mash]]'' fought in World War One after lying about his age at 16 in order to get in the Army.
* On ''[[Boardwalk Empire]]'', both Jimmy Darmody and Richard Harrow fought in the war, and are both [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|not coping well]], which leads to their involvement in organized crime. Harrow in particular suffered [[Facial Horror|horrific injuries]].
* The second season of ''[[Downton Abbey]]'' is set during the war.
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== Music ==
* Swedish band [[Sabaton]] has several songs that deal with the horrors of the Great War, some of the best known being ''The Price Of A Mile'' and ''Cliffs of Gallipoli''.
* ''1916'' by [[Motorhead (Music)|Motorhead]] is a ballad from the perspective of a soldier fighting in it.
* [[The Zombies (Music)|The Zombies]]' song "Butcher's Tale (Western Front, 1914)" gives gruesome detail to the trench warfare, commenting on both shell shock and the strange dichotomy between "God and Country." "And the preacher in his pulpit / Sermons 'Go and fight, do what is right!' / But he don't have to hear these guns / And I bet he sleeps at night."
* ''The War'' by [[Running Wild (Musicband)|Running Wild]] is based on World War One.
* Metallica's song ''One'', as already mentioned in the Film section.
* ''Paschendale'', a song about the horrors of the Third Battle of Ypres by [[Iron Maiden (Music)|Iron Maiden]].
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llIQUqfljr0 This video] to "A Small Victory" by Faith No More.
* ''And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda'' by Eric Bogle is about a young Australian soldier who is maimed at the Battle of Gallipoli.
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== Theater ==
* The originator of many of the tropes seen in World War One fiction is the stage play ''[[Journeys End|Journey's End]]'', written a few years after the war by a British officer. It's actually a lot funnier than most of its imitators.
* Queensland tourist attraction ''Australian Outback Adventure'' (a dinner-and-a-show kind of deal), originally just a mish-mash of different stereotypes and Australian bush lore, has started recently performing a show called "Heroes of the Light Horse", based on the aforementioned battle in Palestine.
 
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== [[Video Games]] ==
'''Special note :''' One weird thing about the representation of WWI in games is that... well, [[The Greatest History Never Told|there aren't many WWI titles in general]], which is particularly strange when compared with the more numerous representations in other media. Some gamers and game critics blame this on the somewhat more static nature of the war or the ignorance of developers and most gamers, [[Did Not Do the Research|who often assume]] that "[[Hollywood History|WWI = only muddy and unmoving western front]]". Though [[First-Person Shooter|First Person Shooters]] in a WWI setting wouldn't probably prove popular, there still is room for things like [[Stealth Based Game|Stealth Based Games]]. But even these are conspicuously absent...
* ''[[Eternal Darkness (Video Game)|Eternal Darkness]]'' has a chapter that takes place in a church-turned-hospital in 1916 France. The premise of the chapter is that the Ancients and Pious Augustus instigated the war so the amount of people who died in the war would inevitably speed up the unleashing of the respective ancient (and keep the artifact guardian in check, apparently consuming far more than can be provided).
* [[RTS]] [[wikipedia:Historyline|History line: 1914-1918]] is one of the few dedicated [[World War One]] games.
* ''Snoopy Vs the Red Baron'' takes place here, although the technology is... not quite the same.
* In fact, combat flight sims are likely the most common type of game based on this war. You can find several examples on the [[Simulation Game]] page.
** The most famous WWI flight sim games are probably Sierra's older ''[[Red Baron (Videovideo Gamegame)|Red Baron]]'' series.
** There is also an upcoming World War One [[Game Mod]] for ''[[Il-2 Sturmovik]]'', known under the charming working title ''Canvas Knights''.
*** Sadly, this one has been recently moved to another game engine.
** Origin's ''Wings of Glory'', using the same engine as their earlier ''Strike Commander'', is set in a British aerodrome in France during WWI with an American volunteer pilot as the [[Player Character]].
* ''[[Castlevania]]: Bloodlines'' is set in 1917. Elizabeth <s>Bathory</s> [[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"|Bartley]] uses the souls of war casualties as part of her plan to revive Dracula.
* ''[[The Darkness]]'' [[FPS]] has WWI as the backdrop for its [[Bonus Level of Hell]].
* ''Necrovision'' is a horror [[FPS]] set in 1917 on the most war-torn parts of the Western front. The game starts off fairly normal, but the protagonist soon discovers a [[Masquerade]] [[Dark World]] hidden (literally) under the surface of the war...
* ''[[Iron Storm]]'' sort of counts, being a dystopian [[Alternate History]] [[FPS]] in which history diverged from ours during the late stages of WWI and the beginning of the Russian Civil War. It's the 1960s, [[Forever War|the Great War has been dragging on for half a century]], Earth is a [[Crapsack World]] and [[War for Fun Andand Profit|war has become an accepted way of everyday life]]. Oh, and the game's [[Big Bad]] is none other than a [[Captain Ersatz]] of the infamous baron Roman [[Ungern-Sternberg]].
* The events of the [[Adventure Game]] ''[[The Last Express]]'' take place on the threshold of the war, are heavily undertoned by and, arguably and implicitly, cause it.
* ''[[Victoria an Empire Under The Sun]]'' features World War One technology in its later stages and the possibility to spark the war, [[Alternate History|create an alternate version of it... or avert it altogether]].
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* The ''[[Iron Grip]]'' series, true to its [[Schizo-Tech]] [[Punk Punk]] feel, borrows a lot of inspiration from this era as well. The games can be seen as a [[Low Fantasy]] [[Recycled in Space|retelling]] of some aspects of the war, coating the industrial war-torn grimness of the frontlines with a [[Darker and Edgier]] [[Steampunk]] and [[Diesel Punk]] aesthetic.
* The chapter "The War to End All Wars..." in ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' is set in Amiens, France during this conflict.
* ''[[Clive BarkersBarker's Undying]]'' is set immediately after the war. The protagonist, Patrick Galloway, is a veteran from one of the Irish regiments on the western front.
* The ''[[Half Life]] 2'' mod ''[http://www.ww1-source.net/ W W I Source]''.
* The upcoming ''[[Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45]]'' mod ''[http://www.ironeuropegame.com/news.php Iron Europe]''.
* [[Wings (Videovideo Gamegame)|Wings]]
* In the ''[[Command&Conquer Tiberium]]'' series, [[Biblical Bad Guy|Kane]]'s [[State Sec|Black Hand]] is suggested to be the very same organization that assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
 
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Dastardly and Muttley Inin Their Flying Machines]]''.
* The final episode of ''[[The Flintstones]]'' centered around a flashback telling an adventure that [[Identical Grandson|Fred's grandfather]] had in "Stone World War One."
* One of the final classic-era ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' shorts, 1964's "Dumb Patrol," features Bugs as a flying ace fighting German pilot Yosemite Sam.
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[[Category:World War One]]
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