That's the feeling I got again & again when traveling off the beaten path in Britain. In the village centers and town centers everywhere, I saw old stone monuments with the names of all the local boys who had lost their lives in "The Great War". Same encounters in Germany as well. You could just feel the tears flowing from the inscriptions that parents wrote there and in graveyards.
Think of the horror that would have appeared in those faces during the dedication of these monuments, if you could have traveled back in time and corrected them by saying, "No, that's wrong. Sorry, but it's not "The Great War To End All Wars". It's just World War # 1 is all".
I have a story like yours. I was in St Raymond Cemetery, Bronx NY,where I saw inscribed on a huge oblisk beneath the name and dates of a soldier: “Who died in the World War”. “THE” world war...I was about 23 when I saw this. I stood there looking at the words for quite avwhile... The monument is visible from Tremont ave which rus along the top of the cemetery. It always compels my eye when I pass.
The Late, Great Lemmy wrote probably the most touching tribute to the WWI soldier
1916 - Motorhead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuRxjjcPgOo