World War I was a testing ground for anti-heroes. A whole generation of villains sucked on the bloody teat of Verdun and the Somme, getting ready to spring forth upon a new and all together far more frightening century. Here is a sprinkling of the bad boys of WWI, a group of people whose infamy would set the tone for wars to come.

1) Winston Churchill - Before he rid Europe of the Nazi threat and delivered it to the Communist yoke, in one day, Winston Churchill became the founding father of no less than three nations. During the War To End War, Winston was First Lord of the Admiralty and the planner behind the Gallipoli landings. Although this battle and its planner were widely reviled between the wars as a huge defeat and needless waste of life, few could predict their long-term impact. It was on that gentle slope leading into the maws of the Turkish Artillery that the nascent republics of Australia and New Zealand experienced their first crushing defeat, which they celebrate every year on Anzac Day. And at the top of the hill, commanding those artillery, a young Turkish officer Mustafa “Ataturk” Kemal would gain the fame that would enable him to do what European military officers had been trying to do for a thousand years: topple the Ottoman Empire.

2) Mata Hari - This exotic dancer and courtesan was so famous that she attracted thousands of members of high society to her shows. Strictly for artistic purposes you understand. And she counted so many military officers amongst her admirers that she was recruited by the secret intelligence agencies of Britain, France and Germany. It’s not quite clear who she was working for, but it probably wasn’t the French, since they executed her by firing squad in 1917. To this day, this Dutch prostitute is widely admired as a woman of surpassing independence.

3) The Red Baron - As a boy Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen or “Albie” was mocked even by his classmates. Even Hans and Fritz laughed at the youth. But Manfred took all the punishment in stride and swore to himself that some day he would bear the greatest name of them all. The Red Baron shot down eighty allied fighters before eventually being downed by a Canadian with the equally humorous name Wilfrid “Wop” May. In doing so he became the first of the fighter jocks, a man whose fame passed the boundaries of victory and defeat and gave hope to short, socially inept little boys around the world.

4) Eugene V. Debs - Until WWI, America had been doing a pretty good job of suppressing those “peace-loving” radicals. A pinko commie by the name of Debs started mouthin’ off about the war, saying stuff like “Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free”. President Wilson took that a bit too literally and tossed him jail for the duration of the war. Years later, during the depression, he would get a million votes for the Presidency, the highest total a communist has ever recorded. After that defeat the commies spurned the ballot box and took to the streets with their “civil-rights marches” and “sit-ins” and “immolating themselves in the Pentagon parking lot”.

5) Henri Petain - This Frenchman had a troubled relationship with the Germans. He grew famous at the Battle of Verdun for saying “they shall not pass”. One hundred twenty thousand corpses later, he was proven right. Henri became a hero, eventually becoming commander of all the French armies during WWI. But during the next war, he became the head of the Vichy government, a Nazi puppet regime. After the war, he was tried for treason and shot. In France, he is still widely regarded as a traitor.