I have just finished watching The Great War, the 1964 BBC documentary series about the First World War. It was an important precursor to The World at War, the definitive television documentary series about the Second World War, and is still fascinating to watch more than sixty years later.

I watched a very condensed version of The Great War at school, very, very condensed, so it has been fascinating going back to it properly all these years later.

It is, of course, a flawed series. It only briefly touches on the Eastern and Ottoman fronts and almost entirely ignores Austria-Hungary. Even when it covers something like the Easter Rising, it is very much told from an English perspective.

Despite that, it still mostly stands up remarkably well.

In fact, it has made me want the guys behind The Great War YouTube channel to make their own documentary series in the style of this one. I think they could cover the conflict in a much more balanced way, particularly by giving some of the less-covered fronts and combatants the attention they deserve.

But why am I talking about this amazing piece of influential television history?

There is a theory that most boys pick a period of history to become obsessed with. One of the running jokes is that it will either be the Roman Empire or World War II.

For me, though, the period of history that has become my real special interest is the First World War and the period surrounding it.

In fact, I’d probably stretch it from the Franco-Prussian War through to around 1930.

Because if you only consider 1914–1918, you miss so much of the context.

The causes of the First World War are considerably more complicated than simply Gavrilo Princip shooting Archduke Franz Ferdinand. That assassination was incredibly important, but it was the match that lit the fuse rather than the thing that created the powder keg in the first place.

The build-up had been going on for decades.

The fall of Bismarck and the subsequent realignment of European alliances saw France and Russia become increasingly aligned, while Germany and Austria-Hungary were already closely allied. Britain then increasingly found itself aligned with France and Russia through the Entente system.

At the same time, the Ottoman Empire was continuing its long decline.

And then there was everything else: the Russo-Turkish War, the Russo-Japanese War, the Moroccan Crises, Britain’s emergence from Splendid Isolation, the Italo-Turkish War, the Anglo-German naval arms race, the Balkan Wars, and the various imperial rivalries across Africa and Asia.

Honestly, this list could go on and on and on.

To be fair, you could probably trace some of the roots right back to the French Revolution. But let’s be reasonable, pretty much all history contributes to future history.

What is undeniable, though, is that things such as the levée en masse fundamentally changed the character of warfare, creating the possibility of armies that eventually numbered in the millions.

And that is part of what fascinates me about the period.

Franz Ferdinand’s death wasn’t, by itself, enough to cause a world war.

What mattered was the political situation surrounding it. Austria-Hungary’s fears about Serbian nationalism, Russia’s relationship with Serbia, Germany’s support for Austria-Hungary, France’s alliance with Russia, Britain’s relationship with France and Russia, and decades of diplomatic crises and military planning all turned what could have been a regional crisis into something much, much bigger.

The assassination was the match.

Europe had spent decades building the powder keg.

And that is why my interest in the period extends so far beyond 1914–1918.

The period afterwards is just as important.

Because the war might have ended in 1918, but for many people, especially across Eastern and Central Europe, it didn’t!

The Russian Civil War, the Polish-Soviet War, the Turkish War of Independence, the Greco-Turkish War, the Irish Civil War, the rise of Mussolini, the conflicts surrounding the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and countless other conflicts and political movements all emerged from the chaos created by the First World War.

Even the May Fourth Movement in China was partly driven by the anger surrounding the post-war settlement and the decision to transfer Germany’s former concessions in Shandong to Japan rather than returning them to China.

The aftermath was absolute chaos.

In places such as Ukraine and Poland, you had armies fighting each other that were made up of veterans of the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian Empires, often wearing the uniforms and using the equipment they had been issued at the end of the war, all mixed together.

The First World War itself is, as many people have said, utterly pointless in many ways.

But it was also a genuine turning point in history, perhaps more so than almost any other conflict.

So many of the world’s later problems can be traced directly or indirectly back to it.

Four major empires disappeared. The map of Europe was completely redrawn. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire helped create the political landscape of the modern Middle East. The United States emerged from the war as the world’s dominant economic power. Communism became one of the defining political forces of the twentieth century. Nationalism and demands for self-determination transformed Europe and much of the wider world.

And you can even trace part of the story of the Vietnam War back to the aftermath of the conflict.

In 1919, Ho Chi Minh went to Paris and submitted a petition to the Versailles peace conference calling for greater rights for the Vietnamese people, and was refused.

And, of course, in many ways the First World War helped create the conditions that eventually led to the Second World War, and all the horrors that came with it.

One thing that always strikes me is that, from my perspective, 1917 is probably the last point at which Russia was really on the same broad political page as the Western powers.

Russia was an ally of Britain and France during the First World War, but the Revolution changed everything.

And even the idea that Russia and the West were simply allies during the Second World War is more complicated than we sometimes remember.

The Soviet Union and the Western Allies ultimately fought on the same side because they had a common enemy, but Stalin’s USSR had already signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany in 1939. The agreement included secret provisions dividing Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence, and the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland shortly after Germany invaded from the west.

It was only after Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa in 1941 that the Soviet Union became an outright member of the Allied war effort against Nazi Germany.

So while they were certainly allies by the end of the war, it was very much a case of the enemy of my enemy being my ally.

And that, again, is why the period fascinates me.

It is all connected.

I think what originally triggered my interest in all of this was a photograph.

It was a photograph of a German cavalryman wearing a gas mask and carrying a lance.

I think I was about six or seven when I first saw it, and something about it just struck me as incredibly odd.

And I think that photograph represents something fundamental about the First World War.

The armies that entered the conflict were, in many ways, still preparing to fight the wars of the nineteenth century. They had cavalry with lances, brightly coloured uniforms and tactics influenced by the Napoleonic era.

Then they discovered what modern industrial warfare actually meant.

Machine guns, smokeless powder, rapid-firing rifles and increasingly powerful artillery destroyed that old way of thinking remarkably quickly.

The French started the war wearing their famous bright red trousers, while their cavalry still looked remarkably similar to the cavalry of the previous century.

Soldiers on all sides were still wearing soft caps that offered virtually no protection from artillery.

And then there is the famous German Pickelhaube.

People often assume it was made from metal.

It wasn’t.

The classic version was made primarily from pressed leather with metal fittings. It looked imposing, but it provided very little protection against modern artillery fragments. By 1916 it was being replaced by the much more practical Stahlhelm.

Technology was advancing incredibly rapidly, but sometimes the solutions looked backwards.

The Stahlhelm, with its distinctive coal-scuttle shape, has an almost medieval appearance. Yet the simple act of putting a practical steel helmet on a soldier represented a huge improvement in protection.

The French had a similar experience.

The first months of the war produced enormous numbers of head wounds, and the French responded by developing the Adrian helmet, one of the first modern steel helmets to be widely issued. It was introduced in 1915 and became an iconic piece of French military equipment.

Camouflage and concealment techniques also began to develop into something much closer to what we recognise today.

The French quickly abandoned their bright red trousers in favour of the much harder-to-spot Horizon Blue. The British and Germans were arguably a little ahead of the curve, having already adopted khaki and field grey respectively.

That combination of old and new is probably one of the things I find most fascinating about the First World War.

It was a conflict where cavalry charges with lances existed alongside tanks.

Men went into battle wearing uniforms designed in the nineteenth century and ended up fighting with machine guns, aircraft, chemical weapons and enormous artillery pieces.

It was essentially the world of the Napoleonic Wars colliding head-on with the industrial age. Never had warfare changed so rapidly in such a small period of time, the battlefield was utterly transformed into an industrial killing field with equipment that in many ways would have been science fiction to most peop in 1914.

So yeah, that’s my special-interest period of history.

And it is one that I want to start exploring more through wargaming.

I now have a rulebook for 1918: A First World War Miniatures Game from Warfulcrum Games, and I think that might be the game I really want to use to explore the First World War on the tabletop.

I think Ken might join me in that as well.

My only issue is that the current 1918: Spring Offensive rules are very specifically focused on , specifically the Kaiserschlacht and 100 days offensive

the final year of the war on the Western Front. The initial force lists cover Britain, France, Germany and the United States.

Which is a shame, because Austria-Hungary and Russia in particular would be great fun to play.

And that’s before we even get to the British fighting the Ottomans in the Middle East.

That said, the designers have said they intend to expand the game to other nations and fronts in future, so perhaps we’ll get there eventually.

I have also bought myself a German army STL pack from W3s Retreat Hell Part 2 and plan to start printing as soon as my Saturn 4 Ultra is repaired.

I think the Z-axis motor has failed, so I am absolutely dreading the repair bill.

Once it’s back up and running, I plan to print up some Germans—especially an A7V—and see if I can get some games on the table.

I wonder what other periods of history fascinate you guys?

And is anyone else here similarly fascinated by the Great War?

As an aside, I keep meaning to revisit the Heugh Battery here in Hartlepool.

I haven’t been since I was a nipper, and frankly, it’s a crime given that I’ve lived in Hartlepool for four years and still haven’t visited the UK’s only First World War battlefield!

The Heugh Battery was the site of the bombardment of Hartlepool on 16 December 1914, when German warships engaged the coastal batteries and shelled the town. It is recognised as the UK’s only First World War battlefield.

So yeah.

I’ve lived here for four years.

I’ve been fascinated by the First World War for most of my life.

And I’ve still never been since I moved here!

I really need to rectify that.

What I Am Modelling

I started out with a Kübelwagen, to give my officers a transport

After that I painted the Flak 36 for the early war Germans to add that dreaded Acht-acht gun to my forces

Alongside a leFH 18 105mm medium howitzer

To tow the artillery, I painted an Sd. Kfz. 7

Followed by some Heer on Bicycles

And a sFH 18 150mm heavy howitzer

After that I painted up a Bannernob for the Orks

Plus a Bigboss

Then a Weirdboy

And finally a Warboss

What’s coming up next

  1. Blood Angels Land Speeders
  2. Neophyte Hybrids & Primus
  3. Grundstock Thunderers x 5 & Torrk Lennsen
  4. Ultramarines Saturnine Command Squad
  5. Einhyr Hearthkyn x 5
  6. Skywardens x 3
  7. Rogal Dorn Tank
  8. Wraith Guard x 5
  9. Aberrants x 10
  10. Atillan Rough Riders x 5

What I Am Reading

Still making my way through Traitor General by Dan Abnett

I finished Renaissance of the Daleks by Christopher H. Bidmead which was pretty good

After that I listed to Ghosts of Cadia by Rob Young, which was a really good book, nice follow up to the previous book

Then I listened to The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers, a book I first read as a child and I enjoy this one a lot, lots of foreshadowing about World War I a good 12 years prior.

And finally I listened to I.D. by Eddie Robson, and well, the first story is very poor, but the second one is very good

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

Not much, but we did have a game of Forbidden Desert which we won!

What Video Games I Am Playing

What Achievements I Have Unlocked

Easy Red 2

Flatline

Die for no reason by killing yourself		19/08/2026
Emmetropia

Kill an enemy from a very far distance		19/08/2026
Battlefield’s Conquest

Destroy 10 enemy tanks using the artillery		24/08/2026

What I Am Backing

All the files for Over There Part 2 have been delivered, as was Broadside: Dawn of Steel and QuesTable as well

The Guild: Ren Faire’d was successfully funded, we went in for the movie and the card game

Artillery of WW2 + Gunners, The English Civil War, Modular Hobby Plate and Napoleonic French Imperial Old Guard Part 1 all funded successfully

I am currently backing The Battle Kiwi S.T.A.CK System cause it looks pretty interesting, as well as Beyond the Brush Miniature Painting Volume 1 and 3D Printable Adventure Wear.

For models I am backing Division Mécanisée for some Cold War French tanks, Fields of War and US Wheeled Vehicles + Soldiers of WW2

What I Am Spending

Cause servicing the printers is a pain with Allen Keys, I bought a cheap metric hex screw set, I will eventually grab the very good quality on from LTT Store, but for now I am using this

Also topped up my superglue supply, I really like these small tubes, it feels wasteful, but the big bottle just always go bad quickly and I spend more money on them

I also bought the Bolt Action 3rd Edition rulebook

As much as I prefer a PDF for most things, I find flicking through a rulebook during gaming to quickly find a rule much quicker

At the Middlesbrough Warhammer stores birthday, I picked up a Hippogriff AFV

And the Path of Command Autach

I also bought second hand, The Riddle of the Sands on DVD, just cause I read the book so fancied watching the film