I’m not a flaired user but I used to be a flaired WW1 historian a while ago (my answers are in my comment history), so hopefully it’s okay that I answer this?

I’m basing my answer on the British Tommy on the western front because this is the area I have most experience in.

The answer is simply yes and no. It depended on the individual solider, their rank, their job and at what point they entered the war.

Your average soldier would probably be more likely to feel the war was pointless than a General. A General knew the potential consequences of losing and had more political/military knowledge. But for the most part, it was not made entirely clear what the average man in the trenches was fighting for, especially during 1916-1917, where hundreds of lives were lost for literally a few inches of ground. In 1914 and the earlier parts of 1915, there was an opinion that the war would be over quickly. Trench warfare did not truly set in until 1915, so for the first few months, larger areas of land were fought over, captured and retaken again by the enemy. The soldiers fighting at the beginning of the war (the British Expeditionary Force) were highly trained, fit, able men who most likely would have understood their role and the origins of the conflict.

By 1916, millions of men had been killed. 50,000 casualties were taken on the first day of the Somme alone. Conscription had been introduced and millions of men were forced onto the front line. Trench warfare was stagnant and some men would wait weeks, in blazing summers or freezing winters, for a chance to go ‘over the top’. It was at this time that the men were really beginning to wonder what the point of it all was. Especially as many of them had spoken to german soldiers (prisoners who were generally treated with respect) and realised that they weren’t actually that different from each other.

But there is little they could do about it. If they refused to fight, they would be ordered in front of a court martial and potentially put to death. They had no choice but to do their duty as soldiers, regardless of whether they considered it pointless or not.

By the end of 1917, the British were fighting against the german Hindenburg line, which was a massive defensive line, thought at the time to be impenetrable. Men were simply required to attack the line and break through. Millions of men were killed, and at this point, it still wasn’t clear that the war was coming to an end. Even in the early stages of 1918, it could not be said that the war was over. But the soldiers were being told that the Germans were ‘on the run’ so to speak, and that breaking through the Hindenburg line would secure victory for the allies. I’d say at this point, with victory in sight, there was more incentive to keep going.

From reading numerous soldiers’ diaries and testimony, it’s a bit of a mixed bag as to whether they considered the war pointless or not. I’ve decided that many considered the war to be necessary, but that killing millions of their brothers in arms in order to do so was the most pointless aspect.

I can go into more detail about anything I’ve said but this comment is already quite long and I don’t want to go on and on. There are so many more things that can be said - you could probably write a novel on it! But please do ask if I can elaborate on anything.