Originally Posted by
Telemaster Sales UK
Agreed, but you have to bear in mind that the British Empire, France, Russia, the United States and Germany, Austria and Turkey, not to mention many smaller countries, were at war. Conscription existed in all of those countries in 1914 except for the USA and Great Britain. It was introduced in Great Britain in 1916, except for Ireland. If you were in the infantry, as most soldiers were, life was very unpleasant compared with the Flying Corps. Rats, lice, mud, cold, heat,flooded trenches, trench foot, poor food, artillery, poison gas, machine guns and rifle fire.
A couple of sorties a day in a BE2, a good dinner and a clean bed were quite a good deal by comparison. If you survived that is.
Comparing ground forces to airforces was not On my mind, just the airmen. ground forces no matter what war we could speak of for the most part had a rough go and for longer periods of time. especially compared to our airmen.
I only considered the the mindset of the airmen then and now.
I considered this before I enlisted and decided the safest place for me was behind all fighting lines as a mechanic and succeeded in doing just that. But I will admit if the opportunity to fly had been offered me I probably would have taken it.