"British Army - Great Britain's first citizen army, roughly half were volunteers "

"Which means that the other half weren't. It seems that a greater proportion of British were persuaded that fighting in defence of the privileges of their ruling class was worthwhile, it doesn't mean it was true."

Nope GUEST Dave it does not mean that - Great Britain introduced a system of universal conscription and fell in line with what all the other combatant nations had had in place in order to prosecute the war.

Please provide some substantive evidence for your claim that the war was about "fighting in defence of the privileges of their ruling class" - I can certainly see nothing to support that point of view.

"What territory and ego are you talking about from Great Britain's perspective?"

"They certainly acquired German East Africa after the war, not that the views of the people who lived there had any bearing upon the matter. And quite a bit of territory from the Ottoman empire, which they then proceeded to make a total mess of ruling. But thats the British ruling class for you."

Could you show us where and when before the war that Great Britain viewed the prospect of taking over German colonies? Good luck with that as there is no evidence of it.

Now correct me if I am wrong here but neither Great Britain or France gained any territory from the Ottoman Empire, THEY DID HOWEVER take on administrative responsibility for territorial mandates handed them by the League of Nations and nothing could be done in those territories by the mandatory powers without the knowledge, consent and approval of the League of Nations. Those mandates were time limited from the outset, so to present that as either country "acquiring territory" is simply incorrect. As to who has made a complete and utter mess of the middle-east? My money would go on the people of the area who have had over 67 years to sort things out and yet haven't - they now falsely claim to be fighting to achieve the "Two State Solution" that they rejected 67 years ago - no wonder the Israelis are more than just slightly sceptical about that.