The Forgotten Heroes of a Forgotten War

As some of you know out there, I've been working on an independent study on the First World War in Africa and Asia. Besides the fact that I may or may not be insane, you might be wondering why I would pursue such an seemingly esoteric topic.

The answer is simply that someone needs to do so. When you picture the First World War, the first thought that pops into your mind are the trenches at Verdun or the Somme and the flights of the Red Baron (and Snoopy, of course). Yet it is called World War I and not "The War Fought in Europe and Europe Only." (There was also fighting in Eastern Europe, by the way.) My goal is to make sure that people understand that there were equally large sacrifices made by people worldwide in conditions equally or even more insufferable than those in the trenches of France.

If you want to get a sense of my motivations, listen to one of the incarnations of "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda." My preference is for the version the Pogues did on their album Rum, Sodomy, and The Lash for its raw power. While there's the regular "war is a tragedy" message that comes with it, there's also the message of "honor your veterans and never forget their sacrifice." The people that I have researched as a part of the independent study do not deserve to be relegated to a sentence in a dusty tome for their sacrifices.