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Violence on the battlefields in the years 1914-1918During the First World War, forms of war violence went through a quick and deep transformation which established modalities of war conflicts during the 20th century and entirely changed the western approach to warlike activity. This shows the relevance of violence on the battlefield and its evolution from 1914 to 1918, the perception of the violence being unchanged from the moment of occurrence to its later recollection after the Armistice of November 11, 1918. This article emphasizes this particular aspect of the “Great War times”.In 1914, one generally expected a short war, based on troop movement and thus a war on the offensive. The test of battle remained as well very much under the influence of the old ethos of war violence. The extensive clashes of August and September 1914 on the eastern and western fronts took place in the light of this outdated imagery of war and combat. During this first stage of the war, the underestimated effects of fire were particularly decisive.It was less the study of the new conflicts that was missing during the summer of 1914, but more the failure to internalize the received information which then was not translated into a coherent system of what would become the future war.