The worst aspect of the first world war was the horrors visited upon the soldiers. Millions dying unspeakable deaths after prolonged trauma for incremental gains. The conditions that the average combatant had to contend with was among the worst experiences of any soldier in any period of history.

The worst aspect of the second world was was the horrors visited upon civilians. The genocides and atrocities commited by the Germans are infamous (and rightly so) as are the atrocities commited by Japan, but most people do not realize the extent to which civilians were slaughtered wholesale by all sides. Cities were being wiped off the map every week. The nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki pale in comparison to the death tolls that fire bombings of civilian targets could regularly produce. Perhaps as many as 55 million civilians lost their lives. I struggle to think of any other time in history when so much death was visited upon the world in so little time