July 28, 2014 7:00am by David Farrar

World War I

World War 1 started 100 years ago on 28 July 1914. Some stats from that terrible conflict:

70 million soldiers mobilised
9 million combatants killed and 7 million civilians
20 million wounded
Four empires destroyed – Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian
NZ occupied German Samoa
Germany tried to get Mexico to attack the US and reclaim Texas, New Mexico and Arizona from them – this led to the US entering WWI
Germany initiated the use of poison gas in the war, and eventually all sides used it resulting in 1.3 million causalities
8 million men held in POW camps
11,000 soldiers were killed or wounded between the signing of the Armistice and it coming into force six hours later.
NZ lost 1.5% of its population, Australia 1.3%, UK 2.0% France 4.3%, Ottoman Empire 15%