For thousands of years, men have dragged animals onto the battlefield. The Great War was no exception to the rule. Even if, at the beginning of the twentieth century, modernity was on the move - trucks, airplanes, tanks - it was unable to free itself from the animal world. Animals of all kinds each participated in their own way in the war effort. Some accomplished their mission close to the fighters and shared with them fear, suffering and death. Others comforted and supported them. There are also those who fed them, and parasites who harassed them. The story of the millions of animals sacrificed in the war is indeed revealing of the reality of the conflict: its harshness, its brutality, but also its absurdity, dramatically illustrated by the ten million animals that lost their lives.
