Is there an implied nach missing from this sentence? That would seem to match better with the use of über instead of an and the more contemplative nature of the question.
Uhm, what do you mean? Where would you like to see nach?
This sentence is correct (I’m a German native speaker).
Was denkt ihr über den Krieg? <-> What do you think about the war?
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English Translation
What do you think of war?
The phrase is more actual now than ever before.
That is difficult to explain.
“Nachdenken” is something you do quietly, like the English “pondering”.
Let’s imagine a situation:
You are sitting in a chair. Somebody enters and asks: “What are you doing?” Ich denke über den Krieg nach."
In this case the “nach” is obligatory.
But if you ask somebody “Was denkt ihr über den Krieg?” you are asking for an answer, meaning “What is your opinion about …”
and you cannot say “nach”.
I hope that helps (and once again I feel lucky that I learnt German as a toddler 
)
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Finnish also distinguishes between the neutral “denken” (ajatella) and “nachdenken” (miettiä), and even has a third verb (luulla) that expresses assumption.
So there’s three sightly different meanings:
English: I’m thinking about the war.
German: Ich denke über den Krieg nach.
Finnish: Mietin sotaa.
English: I’m thinking of war.
German: Ich denke an den Krieg.
Finnish: Ajattelen sotaa.
English: I think/believe his name is Tom.
German: Ich denke/glaube, er heißt Tom.
Finnish: Luulen/Uskon että hänen nimensä on Tom.
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English Translation
What do you think of war?
Is there much of a difference between:
- über etwas denken
- von etwas halten
- zu etwas meinen
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The differences are small but you cannot use all in every context.
Similar (but not 100 % alike) to English:
What do you think about … = Was denkst Du über …
How do you feel about … = Was hälst Du von …
What is your opinion of … = Was meinst Du zu …
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English Translation
What do you think of war?
Wouldn’t be that “about THE war” is a more correct translation?
That depends on context.
You will rarely find “Was denkt ihr über Krieg?” without the article, although in recent times is has become popular to use some nouns as abstracta like in “Schule hat Probleme” instead of “Schulen haben Probleme”.
Personally, I think it is ugly.
Therefore, you cannot decide without context whether the English translation without or with the article is the better one.
It becomes clear if you say
“Was denkt ihr generell/prinzipiell über Krieg”? (What do you think about war in general / in principle?)
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