The First World War was really the first modern industrial war. It involved the world’s leading industrial nations. These nations harnessed the vast powers of modern industry to inflict the greatest destruction on their enemies. Machine guns, tanks, aircraft, chemical weapons were used on a massive scale. Millions of soldiers recruited, from around the world, were moved to the front lines on large ships and trains. The scale of death and destruction — 9 million dead, 20 million injured — was unthinkable before the industrial age, without the use of industrial arms.