Last known WWI veteran dies at 110

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    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13289607

    The world's last known combat veteran of WWI has died at age 110.

    BBC said:
    Born in Pershore, Worcestershire, in March 1901, Mr Choules tried to enlist in the Army at the outbreak of WWI to join his elder brothers who were fighting, but was told he was too young.
    He lied about his age to become a Royal Navy rating, joining the battleship HMS Revenge on which he saw action in the North Sea aged 17.
    He witnessed the surrender of the German fleet in the Firth of Forth in November 1918, then the scuttling of the fleet at Scapa Flow.
    Mr Choules remembered WWI as a "tough" life, marked by occasional moments of extreme danger.
    After the war he served as a peacekeeper in the Black Sea and in 1926 was posted as an instructor to Flinders Naval Depot, near Melbourne. It was on the passenger liner to Australia that he met his future wife.
    He transferred to the Royal Australian Navy and after a brief spell in the reserves rejoined as a Chief Petty Officer in 1932.
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    However,

    The last three WWI veterans living in Britain - Bill Stone, Henry Allingham and Harry Patch - all died in 2009.
    Another Briton, Florence Green - who turned 110 in February and was a waitress in the Women's Royal Air Force - is now thought to be the world's last known surviving service member of WWI. An American veteran, Frank Buckles, died earlier this year.
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    While not a combat veteran, there still exists a service member from WWI.
    Discuss.
     
    WWI was the most pointless war in modern history - well, apart from the Football War maybe, so let's say the most pointless major war - that's really all I can say. We all can be glad we don't have to live in these times of blind nationalism, trench attacks that were basically a non-religious form of human sacrifice, and the likes. By this I neither mean the world is even close to being somewhat flawless today nor that it's impossible to happen again, but I still think things are better nowadays then back then. Most, at least.
     
    mondays suck said:
    WWI was the most pointless war in modern history - well, apart from the Football War maybe, so let's say the most pointless major war - that's really all I can say. We all can be glad we don't have to live in these times of blind nationalism, trench attacks that were basically a non-religious form of human sacrifice, and the likes. By this I neither mean the world is even close to being somewhat flawless today nor that it's impossible to happen again, but I still think things are better nowadays then back then. Most, at least.
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    So true. But without it we wouldn't have had the break up of the European Empires and the rise of the US-USSR superpowers. :U

    Still may he rest in peace.
     
    Without World War I there is a great chance that Central Europe would still be dominated by autarkies. Despite costing millions of lives, it was the original catalyst that spread democracy; even though less than twenty-five years later it was shattered, the ideals that lingered were preserved later on and survived as the foundations of modern European democracies.
    Pax.
     
    Ah yeah, I heard about it. D: It's pretty sad. Wasn't WWI the more brutal of the World Wars? At least it seemed that way. Trench warfare doesn't sound much fun. Neither does war in general, but still.

    It always got forgotten for its more glamorous brother, WWII, as well. It's interesting how important it was in shaping Europe, though.
     
    Kea said:
    Ah yeah, I heard about it. D: It's pretty sad. Wasn't WWI the more brutal of the World Wars? At least it seemed that way. Trench warfare doesn't sound much fun. Neither does war in general, but still.

    It always got forgotten for its more glamorous brother, WWII, as well. It's interesting how important it was in shaping Europe, though.
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    WW1 was the more serious out of the two, and WW1 had trench warfare.
     
    While World War II invoked more casualties I believe and is tied to the Holocaust, World War I was responsible for far more changes to global politics than the later affair. While the Iron Curtain did descend on Eastern Europe after World War II, it was inevitable anyway; Stalin was expansionist, and World War II was only an excuse to invade and occupy those satellite nations.
     
    *Salute!*
    Although I do not know anything about WWI, this guy certainly deserves my respect.
     
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