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World War I was a major conflict fought over four years from 1914 to 1918[source needed], mainly in continental Europe. It was often referred to as "the War to End All Wars." (TV: To the Last Man, PROSE: The Way Through the Woods)
Foreseeing
In 1903, after receiving a wealth of information from the future, Grigori Rasputin foresaw the Great War. (AUDIO: The Wanderer) The time travelling Family of Blood, while in 1913, warned some people there would be a war the next year. (TV: The Family of Blood)
Origin
It was caused in part by the influence of the Nemesis statue passing by Earth in 1913. (TV: Silver Nemesis) However, the ostensible reason was that a Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. (TV: The Family of Blood, COMIC: The Dalek Project) At one point, the Eleventh Doctor grew fearful as he began to suspect that the Daleks had conditioned Princip to commit the assassination so humanity would be plunged into war but he never found any conclusive evidence to confirm his suspicions. (COMIC: The Dalek Project)
The war
Some of the battlegrounds were Passchendaele, the Somme and Gallipoli. (TV: The Sea Devils, TV: To the Last Man) A million British soldiers died during the war. (TV: To the Last Man)
On 7 May 1915, the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by the German U-boat and sank, precipitating the entry of the United States of America into the war two years later. (AUDIO: The Sirens of Time)
The immortal Jack Harkness fought in the war in the British Army, (TV: Utopia, COMIC: The Forgotten) as did Tim Latimer, Hutchinson (TV: The Family of Blood) and Major Burton (TV: Delta and the Bannermen). Tommy Brockless also served, and was eventually executed in 1918 when, suffering from shell shock, he refused to return to the front lines. (TV: To the Last Man) Solomon and the older members of his Hooverville fought in the American army during the war (TV: Evolution of the Daleks) as did Diagoras. (TV: Daleks in Manhattan) By 1917, most young men in England had been drafted. (PROSE: The Way Through the Woods)
The Forge ran at least two experiments for the war effort: trying to create vampire soldiers in 1915 (AUDIO: Project: Twilight) and trying to brainwash soldiers into being more aggressive in 1917. (AUDIO: No Man's Land)
An unknown number of British and German soldiers were kidnapped by the War Lords for their War Games, fighting in a replica of the Western Front. The Second Doctor, believing the "First World War Zone" was the real conflict, called it "one of the worst wars in human history". The soldiers were eventually returned home by the Time Lords. (TV: The War Games)
Armistice Day marked the end of the war. (AUDIO: The White Room)
After the war, an influenza pandemic raged across the world. The Ice Warriors had released the virus to weaken humanity and allow them to invade. The virus killed the Ice Warriors instead. (PROSE: Cold)
The Doctor and the War
The First Doctor, along with his granddaughter, Susan Foreman, survived a Zeppelin air raid. (TV: Planet of Giants)
In 1914, the Third Doctor, Tobias Philby and Thomas ended up in a No Man's Land in France, where they learned of a German artillery build-up and warned the British Army of it. (COMIC: The Amateur) The Third Doctor also claimed to have been wounded at Gallipoli. (TV: The Sea Devils)
The Seventh Doctor, travelling with Ace and Hex, was drawn to the Forge's experiments at Charnage Hospital in 1917 and thwarted them. (AUDIO: No Man's Land) On another occasion, he offered one private the opportunity to travel with him but the man declined. (PROSE: Front Line)
The Ninth Doctor visited at Christmas, 1914 with Rose Tyler. He started the football game between the opposing troops taking part in the Christmas truce. (COMIC: The Forgotten)
The Tenth Doctor and Rose visited the war again and put a stop to the Warfreekz' observation of the battles. (COMIC: Warfreekz!)
The Eleventh Doctor arrived at Hellcombe Hall in 1917 where, with help from Corporal Edward Anderson and Lord Hellcombe, he learned about the Dalek Project. He managed to help the Allied and German armies defeat the Daleks before all witnesses to the Dalek plan could be exterminated. (COMIC: The Dalek Project)
Aftermath
In the aftermath of the war, certain women over thirty in the United Kingdom gained the right to vote. (AUDIO: The Suffering)
The war was followed by a Second World War which began in 1939. (TV: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, Victory of the Daleks et al)
In the aftermath, the "Kingdom of Iraq" was formed. (COMIC: A Wing and a Prayer)
Tommy Brockless was saddened about the Iraq War, since he had been told that this one was "The War to End All Wars." (TV: To the Last Man)
In 2017, some archaeologists came across the crashed Dalek saucer Survey Ship Sigma in France one hundred years after it had crashed and accidentally revived the surviving Daleks inside. The Eleventh Doctor arrived just in time to prevent a disaster and connected the saucer to a power line, overloading the Daleks. He saw this as him dealing with "unfinished business". (COMIC: The Dalek Project)
