Jim,
'Gallant little Belgium'was a recruiting ploy

No. It was the reason we entered the war.
Otherwise we were intending to stay out.
along with your lurid description of Germans raping and massacring their way across Europe -

"Lurid" but true. That is what happened and there was a very reasonable fear that we would be next.

If there where not enough left to volunteer where did the conscription come from - out of thin air?

People who would have volunteered anyway. To increase enlistment they had to relax physical requirements and accept older men.

All accounts from the history books and especially from the on-lin soldiers diaries explain it exactly and being like that

No they do not. I have read them. You have not.