Hellscape
No war is a “clean” war, but in many ways, I think the Great War really earned the nickname at the time of a “War to End All Wars” via sheer up-close brutality.
Original Caption, circa 1918: “The way by fire has proved to be a boomerang to the Germans. The Allies are beginning to pay back the Germans in their own coin on the Western Front, by means of certain devices to which, earlier in the war, the Germans trusted as a means of paralyzing resistance in battle. The use of gas both from projectors and in bombs were of German origin. They are now being turned against their originators. French soldiers advancing under cover of a flame and smoke attack.”
Photo 165-WW-100B-1, National Archives Identifier 26425078