WWI or WWII

WWII, if only because I know more about it.

WWII but WWI is certainly interesting as well.

smartpatrol wrote: clarke2001 wrote: You're young and you're sitting in a trench. It's 1915. You're mildly upset, but not particularly afraid; you hope everything is going to end well, and you're thinking about your young pretty wife waiting for you in some corner of Europe. You have no clue about a warfare. You overheard rumours about some modern technology; but all you know are battles in classical sense, guns and muskets, cavalry, even swords. Then you hear sounds that humanity never heard before: a monstrous swarm of roars and explosions.  Airplanes and zeppelins are attacking from the air. There's nowhere to hide. Cannons are shooting cannonballs the size of a house, literally destroying the entire landscapes. You can't hide, you can just run aimlessly and hope for the best. Then a new pack of strange creatures arrived from the fog, squealing. What is this? It looks like a ship with caterpillars. And it's faster than a walking soldier, it has a cannon and a machine gun. Finally, they drop a nerve gas on you. You are lying in dirt, dying. While you're still spazzing, monsters from the nightmares are arriving through the fog and the smoke. They have no faces. They wear gas masks, and they're here to finish you. They are carrying something else you never saw before. The flame throwers. all I can say is thank you

Yes, a very good post. It must have been something like that. Lots of them having no clue of whatever was going to happen, what they were about to experience. Not even particularly afraid, no, probably not. Maybe seeing even some kind of adventure in it? At the start of it at least.

From an American perspective, World War II is taught much more vigorously in schools, and World War I seems mostly a European conflict, even more so than could be said of World War II. From a warfare perspective, WWII seems more interesting, if that's the right word. Sea battles, desert battles, resistance, in depth strategies. What irritates me about WWI is the ridiculous amount of mindless killing over a few hundred yards in the trenches. And rushing machine guns? I just don't get it. 

clarke2001 wrote: You're young and you're sitting in a trench. It's 1915. You're mildly upset, but not particularly afraid; you hope everything is going to end well, and you're thinking about your young pretty wife waiting for you in some corner of Europe. You have no clue about a warfare. You overheard rumours about some modern technology; but all you know are battles in classical sense, guns and muskets, cavalry, even swords. Then you hear sounds that humanity never heard before: a monstrous swarm of roars and explosions.  Airplanes and zeppelins are attacking from the air. There's nowhere to hide. Cannons are shooting cannonballs the size of a house, literally destroying the entire landscapes. You can't hide, you can just run aimlessly and hope for the best. Then a new pack of strange creatures arrived from the fog, squealing. What is this? It looks like a ship with caterpillars. And it's faster than a walking soldier, it has a cannon and a machine gun. Finally, they drop a nerve gas on you. You are lying in dirt, dying. While you're still spazzing, monsters from the nightmares are arriving through the fog and the smoke. They have no faces. They wear gas masks, and they're here to finish you. They are carrying something else you never saw before. The flame throwers.

all I can say is thank you

You're young and you're sitting in a trench. It's 1915. You're mildly upset, but not particularly afraid; you hope everything is going to end well, and you're thinking about your young pretty wife waiting for you in some corner of Europe.

You have no clue about a warfare. You overheard rumours about some modern technology; but all you know are battles in classical sense, guns and muskets, cavalry, even swords.

Then you hear sounds that humanity never heard before: a monstrous swarm of roars and explosions.  Airplanes and zeppelins are attacking from the air. There's nowhere to hide. Cannons are shooting cannonballs the size of a house, literally destroying the entire landscapes. You can't hide, you can just run aimlessly and hope for the best. Then a new pack of strange creatures arrived from the fog, squealing. What is this? It looks like a ship with caterpillars. And it's faster than a walking soldier, it has a cannon and a machine gun.

Finally, they drop a nerve gas on you. You are lying in dirt, dying. While you're still spazzing, monsters from the nightmares are arriving through the fog and the smoke. They have no faces. They wear gas masks, and they're here to finish you.

They are carrying something else you never saw before. The flame throwers.

Which of these two world wars is more interesting to you.

I picked the third option. I would've been WWII if not for my intense fascination with Trench Warfare.