Reading this I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness. The editor had been through all this before, producing a similar magazine during WWI. Even after experiencing a brutal war which killed 18 million and decimated an entire generation, how could he imagine what lay ahead? The bomb and rocket attacks, the slaughter both at home and abroad, the death camps, the carnage in the Pacific, the atomic bomb? With each new war we seem to forget those of the past. Again the sides proclaim their men, their spirit, their equipment will easily finish off the enemy, after which everything will be fine.
I wonder whether this magazine lasted through the war. It seems so old-fashioned, so Great War-ish. The editor does manage to get it an amusing dig at the Americans, though:
"Americans are supposed to be the star organizers, but I have always felt they take more care in talking about their methods than in achieving the organization."
Link to the book:
The War Illustrated v01 01