It is hard to overstate this point. From our relatively comfortable vantage point, it can be hard to fully appreciate the deep psychological impact that the unprecedented loss of life must have had on so many for so long. Eveyone knew someone who had been killed, and even the tiniest villages have war memorials to those lost (there isn't a single "thankful village"[0] at all in Scotland for example). Arthur Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes and later "spiritualistic study" fame, even said in a 1930 filmed interview that "it was only in the time of war that all these splendid young fellows were disappearing from our view and the whole world was saying what has become of them... have they dissipated into nothing ... it was only at that time that I realised the overpowering importance to the human race of knowing more about this matter"[1].
Also war related, there's an interesting story about the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act of 1735. It was during the Second World War, in 1944. She was actually prosecuted under section 4 of the Act which covered fraudulent "spiritual" activity[2].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thankful_Villages